Julian Agyeman

Background

Julian Agyeman Ph.D. FRSA FRGS is a Professor in the Department Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, a Secondary Professor at The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and is Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate, an endowed professorship at Tufts University.

In the early 2000s, with colleagues, he developed the increasingly influential concept of just sustainabilities, which explores the intersecting goals of social justice, equity and environmental sustainability, defined as:

"the need to ensure a better quality of life for all, now, and into the future, in a just and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting ecosystems."

Born and trained in the UK, he holds a B.Sc. in Geography and Botany, with a minor in Anthropology (University of Durham, 1980), a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in Geography and Environmental Studies (University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1982), an MA in Conservation Policy (Middlesex University, 1987) and a Ph.D. in Urban Studies (University of London, 1996).

His combined science and social science background, together with extensive experience in local government, consulting, working for, and board-level advising of NGOs and community-based organizations in the UK and US, helps frame his perspectives, research and writing. This enables him to thrive at the borders and intersections of a wide range of disciplines, knowledges and methodologies which he uses in creative and original ways.

Research

He identifies himself as a critical urban planning and environmental social science scholar. He centers his research on critical explorations of the complex and embodied relations between humans and the urban environment, whether mediated by governments or social movement organizations, and their effects on public policy and planning processes and outcomes, particularly in relation to notions of justice and equity.

He believes that what our cities can become (sustainable, smart, sharing and resilient) and who is allowed to belong in them (recognition of difference, diversity, and a right to the city) are fundamentally and inextricably interlinked. We must therefore act on both belonging and becoming, together, using just sustainabilities as the anchor, or face deepening spatial and social inequities and inequalities.

His key research contributions are in:

Just sustainabilities in policy, planning and practice;

Environmental and food justice;

Antiracist panning in, and for intercultural cities;

Planning in, and for co-produced and sharing cities.

Writing

With over 175 publications, he is the author, co-author or co-editor of 14 books, including:

Sole authored

Agyeman, J (2013) Introducing Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning and Practice. (Zed Books).

Agyeman, J (2005) Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice (NYU Press).

Co-authored

Fitzgerald, J and Agyeman, J (manuscript in preparation) Cities and the Struggle for Climate Justice (Under contract, Oxford University Press)

McLaren D and Agyeman, J (2015) Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities (MIT Press)

Co-edited

Alkon, A and Agyeman, J (eds) (2026) Nurturing Food Justice: Expansive and Intersectional Visions. (MIT Press)

Engle, J, Agyeman J and Chung-Tiam-Fook, T (eds) (2022) Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities (Routledge).

Agyeman, J and Giacalone, S (eds) (2020) The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America (MIT Press)

Agyeman, J, Matthews, C and Sobel H (eds) (2017) Food Trucks, Cultural Identity and Social Justice: From Loncheras to Lobsta Love (MIT Press)

Zavestoski, S and Agyeman, J (eds) (2014) Incomplete Streets: Processes, Practices and Possibilities (Routledge)

Alkon, A and Agyeman, J (eds) (2011) Cultivating Food Justice : Race, Class and Sustainability (MIT Press).

Carmin, J and Agyeman, J (eds) (2011) Environmental Inequalities Beyond Borders: Local Perspectives on Glob …