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Research Title
Active Publics: Everyday sports and fitness practices in the urban environment, their spaces and their politics
- More about Jack
Academic Background
- 2015-2016: MSc Urban Studies, University College London, distinction: Dissertation: ‘Southbank Centre and the Long Live Southbank Campaign: a study of public spaces, and democratic practices’
- 2011-2014: BA Geography, University of Cambridge, first class with distinction: Dissertation: ‘Running: Urban life and the ‘active’ use of public space’
Employment
- 2014 - 2015: Social Researcher, UK Government, Department of Communities and Local Government
- Teaching
I teach on the following modules:
- Public Space and the City (GEOG0139)
- Urban Geography (GEOG0028)
- The Practice of Geography (GEOG0016)
Global Geographies (GEOG1007)
Additionally, I have been a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant from 2016 - 2018
- Publications
Writing
- Layton, J. (forthcoming) Review of: Borden, I. (2019) Skateboarding and the city: A complete history. Urban Studies.
- Latham, A. and Layton, J. (forthcoming) Kinaesthetic cities: Studying worlds of amateur sports and fitness in contemporary urban environments. Progress in Human Geography.
- Latham, A. and Layton, J. (forthcoming) Social infrastructure and the public life of cities: Studying urban sociality and public spaces. Geography Compass.
- Latham, A. and Layton, J. (forthcoming) Publics and their problems: Notes on the remaking of the South Bank, London. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
- Latham, A. and Layton, J. (2018) Editors' Introduction: The City — Post-Modernity. In: Latham, A. (ed.) The City: Post-Modernity. London: Sage.
Presentations
- Social infrastructures and public facilities: Notes on Finsbury Park London, AAG 2019
- Social infrastructures and the public life of cities: Materialities, institutions, and practices. Co-organised set of sessions, AAG 2019
- Publics and their Problems - redeveloping the Southbank Centre in times of austerity, RGS-IBG 2018
- Kinaesthetic Cities: making sense of exercise, sport and physical fitness in contemporary urban life, RGS-IBG 2018
- Author meets critics panel discussion, Clive Barnett's (2017) The Priority of Injustice, RGS-IBG 2018
- Researching urban public space through everyday sports and fitness practices, UCL Human Geography Seminar Series
Non-Academic Work
- Layton, J. (2017) The Skate Escape. The Journal of The London Society, no. 471: 44-49.
- Layton, J. (2017) My Achilles Heel. Like The Wind, no. 12: 66-67.
- Layton, J. (2014) Living For The City. Like The Wind, no. 2: 88-89.
- Research Interests
My research focus is everyday urban public spaces. My aim is to understand how public spaces are assembled, the kinds of social life that are facilitated by them, and their broader impact on the urban environment. My current project is on sports and fitness practices.
It focuses on three well-used public spaces in London, and explores how they are assembled and maintained, the ways of being together they facilitate, and the kinds of civic organisation that coalesce around them. This will mean thinking sports and fitness practices as public, and thinking public spaces as prosaic. The aim is to broaden the conceptual vocabulary for understanding what public spaces are, what happens in them, and what they can do.
- Research Grants, Prizes and Awards
- 2016: Runner up in the UCL Research Images as Art competition
- 2015: Economic and Social Research Council 1+3 funded PhD studentship at UCL
- 2014: Downham Yeomans Scholarship, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge
- 2014: Dick Chorley Award, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge
- 2014: Nomination for the Royal Geographical Society and Transnational Institute of British Geographers Dissertation Prize