Jennifer Robinson

I did my undergraduate, Hons and MA studies in Geography at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, followed by a PhD in Geography at the University of Cambridge. I worked for some years in the first of half of the 1990s at University of KwaZulu-Natal, before some time at the LSE and then a good long stint at The Open University, with a supergroup of colleagues working collectively on what it might mean to think spatially. I have been at UCL since October 2009. Here I am active in the Urban Laboratory, a cross-University network for Urban Studies.

Teaching

I teach on the following modules:  

• Thinking Geographically II (GEOG0012) 
• Methods in Human Geography (GEOG0018)    
• Cities, Space and Power (GEOG0136)  
• Global Urbanism (GEOG0064)  
• Urban Geography (GEOG0028)    
   

Publications

To view Professor Robinson's publications, please visit UCL Profiles:

Publications

Research Interests

My current research interests focus on developing comparative urbanism and specific tactics for comparative urban analysis as part of a wider postcolonial critique of urban studies. My book, Ordinary Cities (2006) looked at how the interplay between urban modernity and development frames a conceptual and practical divide between "Western" and "Third World" cities. The book develops the claim that urban theory needs to be more cosmopolitan in the resources it draws on, and argues that urban development policies need to move beyond developmentalism and draw on the wider cultural and economic resources of urbanism in poorer cities. More recent writing extends this argument to develop appropriate methods and tactics for the international theorisation of 21st-century cities, organised around the conceptualisation of comparative urbanism, and a book on this topic is in press.

Current research is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (Making Africa Urban), and looks at transnational processes (sovereign, developmental and private sector) shaping large-scale developments in urban areas across Africa, with cases in Accra (led by George Owusu), in Lilongwe (led by Evance Mwathunga), and Dar es Salaam (led by Phil Harrison, with support from Prof Wilbard Kombe). Please find more information about the Making Africa Urban Project on the ERC website.

Funded ESRC Research (2015-18) on "Governing the Future City", looking at large-scale urban developments in London, Johannesburg (with Phil Harrison) and Shanghai (With Fulong Wu) is now complete and a number of papers are in progress and in press. I led the London case study research in Old Oak Park Royal, in close collaboration with Sharon Hayward of the London Tenants' Federation, Robin Brown of Just Space, and the Grand Union Alliance network (see grandunionalliance.wixsite.com). We made numerous contributions through our research to support community engagements in planning policy development in Old Oak Park Royal (OPDC local plan) and in relation to the London Plan through Just Space.

Other recent empirical research explored questions of the geopolitics of policy mobility; international theorisation of global city regions; and activist research on London’s city strategies. All of these projects have sought to take forward methodological experiments for global urban theory. Earlier research centred on South African urban history and politics. For example, I have written about the 1936 Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg to explore spaces of racial interaction in South African cities. I have also written on issues in feminist politics, including questions of difference and methodology, and more recently on the implications of Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic writing for feminist theorizations of space. More broadly, I have explored ways of postcolonialising the theoretical and empirical practices of Geography.

Impact

Critiques of global and world cities: A seminal critique of the dominant global and world cities analysis with respect to its implications for wider urban studies and for the politics of development in poorer cities has been drawn on in the background and published policy documents which have informed the conceptualisation of urban development in South African cities, e.g. the background review document for the 2006-2011 Growth and Development Strategy which scoped international experience in city strategies and established an approach to Johannesburg’s strategic policy. Robinson was invited to speak to city councillors and officials in Johannesburg on various occasions (2004; 2011) and on their study tour to London (2006) informing ongoing strategic policy development in this period. The research is planned to be taken forward in collaboration with the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) on conceptualising global city regions.

City Strategies: Studies of the politics of Johannesburg’s City Strategy led to Robinson being invited to review and comment on the draft revised GDS2040 at the Johannesburg City Council’s international conference as part of the consultation process in October 2011, including speaking to a mass public gathering and on the main morning news television. These contributions encouraged the strategy’s commitment to a broadly balanced and locally resonant range of policy commitments.

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Examples of Impact

• Desktop review of international experiences with city strategies to which Robinson inputs were noted as helpful – document available from Robinson.
• SACN State of South African Cities Report (2006) – setting guidance 2006-2011 for city strategy development across 9 metros. Robinson (2006) is cited and also in the formulation of the Good Practice Guide to State of Cities Reporting (2010).
• Publicity pages on the consultation process and international conference on GDS2040
• Planned collaboration: Gauteng City Region Observatory
• Robinson’s comparative and global urbanism is influencing practitioner training in a developmental partnership between South African, African and Brazilian planning networks
• Participation in African Centre for Cities (ACC), Central City Urban Laboratory (a joint initiative in knowledge co-production between the ACC, provincial and local governments, NGOs and community groups) which Robinson co-ordinated from January to July 2009
• Participation in the generation of a programme of state of the city reports across African countries, funded by the World Bank and the Cities Alliance. Robinson wrote a preparatory background document for the conceptualisation of this project
• Building links with community groups involved in the London Plan processes, as co-organiser of a joint Urban Salon and Just Space network conference, June 2011. Ongoing collaborations through community-based teaching (URBNG007) and collaborative research activities, including comparative work on the London Plan and the Johannesburg GDS with links to supporting community participation through Planact explored in collaborative work with Barbara Lipietz at the DPU

Research Students

Current Students

• Gumec Karamuk (2014): Legal challenges in the planning system (Istanbul and London)
• Ana McMillin (2016): 3-D Printing and economic transition in London
• Lubaina Mirza (2019): Small sites housing development and policy in London
• Varvara Karipidou (2021): Urban development politics in Bucharest
• Armine Bagiyan (2019, Dept of Geography, OSLO): Urban politics and critical political junctures in Armenia and Ukraine

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Recent PhD graduates

• Astrid Wood (2010) Policy mobilisers in South African cities
• Tauri Tuvikene (2010) Automobility and material governmentality in Tallin Estonia
• Aidan Mosselson (2011) Residential renewal in Hillbrow, Johannesburg
• Myfanwy Taylor (2011) Alternative economic policies for London
• Susana Neves (2011) Politics of governance and water delivery, Bafata, Guinea Bissau
• Jens Kandt (2011) Comparative study of Health care provision and space in London and Hong Kong.
• Alvaro Sanchez-Jiminez (2012) A comparative study of local government responses to fiscal crisis in Spain and Argentina
• ThienVinh Nguyenn (2012): Urban development politics in Sekondi-Takoradi
• Rita Lambert (2013): Comparative study of community mapping in Lima and Addis Ababa.
• Frances Brill (2014): Developers in Johannesburg and London
• Shaun Teo (2015): Community-based politics in Shenzhen and London
• Hui-CHun Liu (2016): The geopolitics of urban development, Taiwanese-Chinese links in SEZs in Fuzhou, Pingtan and Xiamen.

I welcome applications from students eager to take forward international and comparative approaches in urban studies, the politics of urban development in London, and also in South African studies.