Human Geography and Urban Studies
Lead Research Organisation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: Geography and Environment
Abstract
This programme is aimed at students who, having successfully completed an undergraduate degree in Geography or a similar social science subject, now require a more focused introduction to human geographical research; primarily as a way of preparing for study at PhD level.
The course aims to provide an understanding of the key themes of contemporary geographical thought and to develop an appreciation of the methodological implications of such theoretical developments. Students are able to develop a substantive field of research interest.
The course aims to provide an understanding of the key themes of contemporary geographical thought and to develop an appreciation of the methodological implications of such theoretical developments. Students are able to develop a substantive field of research interest.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Gareth Jones (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Dalia Gebrial (Student) |
| Description | I have published a number of widely read and engaged with articles, as well as completed several media appearances, intervening in highly contested debates around race, immigration and the gig economy. This has led to the production of collaborative events with third sector organizations, as well as academic and non-academic publications. These engagements have also led to numerous future opportunities for engagement, including having produced a policy recommendations paper on workers rights, immigrant rights and the gig economy for the Fabians Society, and a short introductory book on racial capitalism and the gig economy for the Zed Books' series on AI, Automation and work. I have situated myself as an informed, public academic on the question of inequality in the gig economy, as well as race, gender and urban infrastructural reproduction. |
| Exploitation Route | My work, introducing a race and gender analysis into work on the gig economy, can have an impact on how trade unions and work-related policymakers work to create a fairer and more equitable 'future of work', especially when it comes to the gig economy and the digitisation of work. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | My work is concerned with how race and gender make the modern city. Primarily, I have looked at this question through engaging with a racial and gender analysis of workers rights and the gig economy, looking at the role played by the racialisation and gendering of work in the production of the city (with a specific focus on work). However, the grant has also support me in bringing these questions to other areas of interest, including looking at London's history as a multiracial city, and the role of race, gender and sexuality in constructing ideas of 'Britain' and the nation. This stems from a broader interest I have in decolonising education and public knowledge, which involves highlighting the coloniality and racialisation of the contemporary world and its historical making. I have brought all these angles to public debate through a range of media, academic and third-sector organizations and platforms. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Not Equal: ESPRC Network + (Social Justice through the Digital Economy) |
| Amount | £6,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | Contributed an online article to Vice on the impacts of TfL's 'War on Uber' on gig economy workers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In the wake of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan's decision to impose an Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) charge as part of his 'War on Uber', I contributed an article to Vice, an online magazine with an average circulation of 900,000 readers internationally (and 80,000 UK readers). The article argued that whilst the Mayor should be assessing how to reduce pollution and climate impact in London, steps should be taken to ensure this does not infringe on workers rights. The article was tweeted by Vice UK's twitter account, which has 435k followers at the time of writing (https://twitter.com/VICEUK/status/1113050337051521027?s=20). It received 17 engagements in the form of comments, retweets and likes. I also tweeted the article from my personal account, where it received 425 engagements and and 12,893 impressions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/pannqg/sadiq-khan-ulez-congestion-charge-minicabs-london |
| Description | Delivered a speech at the International Social Forum on gig economy, workers rights and immigration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | I delivered a speech on the impact of immigration controls on workers rights, and how this relates to the expanding gig economy for the 'International Social Forum' plenary on 'The Movement of People'. Sponsored by the UK Labour Party, the International Social Forum brought together activists, campaigners, politicians and academics from around the world to discuss what international institutions of the future must look like in order to ensure social, climate and economic justice. Other speakers on my plenary included academics Rafeef Ziadah and Maya Goodfellow, current Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy and director of MigrationWork, Music in Detention and the Strategic Legal Fund for Refugee Children, Sue Lukes. Other talks at the event included Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell MP, former President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jayati Ghosh, Economic Freedom Fighters representative in the South African National Assembly Naledia Chirwa, Professor of Economics at SOAS Costas Lapavitsas, UN Conference on Trade and Development representative Richard Kozul-Wright, Executive Director of War on Want Asad Rehman, co-founder of DiEM25 Yanis Varoufakis and Economist Ann Pettifor. The intended purpose of my talk was to provide a framework of talking about workers rights that held freedom of movement at its core. This is particularly essential at this global moment, where immigrant and workers rights are frequently pitted against one another. I used my research on how restrictive immigration controls create an exploitable migrant working class, using the example of the gig economy, which are the case studies of my PhD. As my audience was a combination of policymakers, third sector organizations and politicians, I talked about how we can use our influence to change the story of globalisation to one that works for everyday people - through policy, activism and public engagement. The talk was followed by a lively question and answer session, in which audience members asked me a range of questions, including about how my analysis relates to the climate crisis/climate migration and the role played by arts and culture. The plenary was then followed by an afternoon of workshops, in which audience members used the topics introduced by the plenary in order to devise action plans for their organizations and sectors. During these workshops, which I helped to facilitate several members of the audience, including representatives from global NGOs and think tanks, used arguments and examples I had made during my talk (and discussed them with me during the workshops) to inform the strategy plans they were taking back to their organizations. The talk was recorded and shared on YouTube, where it has 219 views at the time of writing. The talk also sparked media coverage, including the following articles, (https://medium.com/@Devutopia/international-social-forum-2019-highlights-5e2f222051ae; https://newsocialist.org.uk/new-internationalism-possible/; https://labour.org.uk/press/mcdonnell-calls-radical-reform-global-institutions-ahead-international-social-forum/), and generated a range of tweets, including: https://twitter.com/nonplasticmaori/status/1150344485512945664?s=20; https://twitter.com/D_Raval/status/1150345469886894080. It is anticipated that the event will run again this year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VbaXfJ5mWY&t=3117s |
| Description | Did an interview on Sky News 'Divided' show where I talked about workers rights and feminism. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to do a solo interview on Sky News 'Divided' show in order to discuss my work on feminism and its relationship to workers rights. Here, I drew on my study of intersectional approaches to the gig economy, including how the gendering and racialising of low-wage labour contributes to women making up a disproportionate amount of the world's precarious workers. Here, I drew on my PhD studies of domestic work and the global gendered divisions of labour that sustain our economy. My intention was to intervene in common understandings of feminism that focus on individual, upper class metrics of success. Instead, I wanted to propose a model of feminism that engaged within the rise of precarity amongst, particularly migrant, women workers across the world, especially as more and more women make up the workforce of the highly precarious gig economy. I was invited due to my public work on workers rights. The video was shared widely on Snapchat, and on the channels YouTube page. The YouTube video received 33,991 views at the time of writing, and over 1.7k engagements in the form of likes, dislikes and comments. The comment section of the video shows a lively debate and discussion of the ideas I presented, and was widely shared on social media by those who agreed, disagreed and had their minds changed by the arguments I made in the video. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONB1NP46LE0&t=449s |
| Description | Featured on BBC's Daily Politics to discuss decolonising the University curriculum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The request for me to appear was related to the publication of my chapter in the 'Decolonising Higher Education' edited volume, and I drew on my work conducted during my ESRC-funded Human Geography and Urban Studies MSc degree on statues, space and decolonisation (which culminated in a paper on 'Decolonial Geography'). A clip of my appearance was shared by the BBC Politics Twitter account (https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1095319960136499202) which has 666.5k followers at the time of writing. The shared clip has been viewed 27k times at the time of writing, and has had more than 300 post 'engagements'. Another clip was shared by media outlet Novara Media's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asUR-sPD7qI), where it received 21.5k views at the time of writing, and has had 1.1k 'impressions'/'engagements' in the form of likes, dislikes and comments. These comments under the tweeted clips and YouTube videos constituted of a lively discussion and increased interest in the topic at hand. The show itself is a flagship politics talkshow on the BBC, where high profile politicians and academics frequently appear. My intended purpose was to use my research on how statues produce public space in the context of post-colonial cities to bring nuance to a discussion about removing statues from University campuses. This is a widely discussed and often sensationalised topic. By drawing on the history of statue removal and public space reconfiguration, as well as the relationship between space and public education, I posited that statue reconfiguration can itself be a form of public education. This was a direct finding and analysis drawn from a paper I wrote as part of my ESRC-funded MSc, which itself followed on from my publication in the 'Decolonising Higher Education'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asUR-sPD7qI |
| Description | Gave a talk on immigration, the gig economy and workers' rights as part of an education, art and music event run by NGO Global Justice Now. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | As part of NGO Global Justice Now's youth education project 'Demand the Possible', I delivered a solo talk to 250 young people on the topic of immigration, the gig economy and workers rights. The event, entitled 'Freedom of Movement 2.0', was a day of events, workshops, discussions, live music and poetry, on the topic of immigrant rights in Britain. Others who spoke on the day included academics (such as Bridget Anderson and Maya Goodfellow), activist/campaign groups (such as Patients not Passports) and NGOs (Global Justice Now and People & Planet). The event was attended by 250 young people (age 16-25) who had travelled from Leeds, London and Bristol to attend the event. The talk I delivered sparked wide discussion in the question and answer session, in which I answered a range of questions about how the gig economy is changing work, and how these changes are disproportionately impact immigrants. Following my talk, several individuals came to me and asked me to email them the text of my talk so they could show it to their friends and family, which I did after the event. The talk was also recorded and shared on social media (via Snapchat and Instagram). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/freedom-of-movement-20-tickets-88824860549 |
| Description | Organized and contributed to the 'Work and Unions' event stream at 'The World Transformed' festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The World Transformed is an annual festival of politics, art and culture. As part of the festival, I helped to organize a stream on 'work and unions', which brought together members of the public, third sector organizations, policyworkers, politicians, gig economy workers and trade unions in a series of 5 sessions over the course of 4 days on the rise of gig economy work, immigrant worker rights, and technology and work. I was part of the working group designing and producing the 5 sessions, as part of which I worked alongside representatives from the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB - a union representing gig economy workers), the think tank Autonomy (which looks at building worker-centric policies on work), the Communication Workers Union. The festival overall was attended by 5000 people. As a result of the workshops, not only did attendees express that they had learned from the sessions through the interactive parts of the workshops, but I was invited to work on further policy projects with Autonomy, including a short book on race and the gig economy as part of their 'Automation, AI and Work' book series with Zed Books. Through the workshops, workers from a range of gig industries, were able to share and develop unionising strategies as a result of the discussions that took place, and within the participatory exercises that we designed for the sessions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Participated in a radio debate with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and BBC Energy and Environment analyst Roger Harrabin on 8 April 2019. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I participated in a radio debate with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and BBC Energy and Environment correspondent Roger Harrabin on the Jeremy Vine show. The debate took place on 8 April 2019, and followed the introduction of an Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) charge for Uber drivers in London. The Jeremy Vine show is one of the UK's most widely listened to radio shows, with an average of 7.23 million listeners per day. I was invited to the show as an academic expert on workers rights and the gig economy. I offered an alternative perspective to that offered by Khan and Harribin, who both were in favour of applying ULEZ charge to Uber drivers as a way of tackling climate change. I argued that the impact of this charge on workers vastly outweighs the negligible reduction in emissions the charge is predicted to produce, and that the burden of tackling climate change should be focussed on systemic shifts rather than individual behaviours of workers. I also interrogated the racial and class inequity of the Mayor's decision to apply the charge to Uber drivers, and not the Black Cab industry. My intended purpose was to highlight how regulatory changes that place the burden of social, financial and environmental costs on workers is not only ineffective in tackling issues like climate change, but promotes inequality amongst gig economy workers. I used my research on how the gig economy remains profitable by placing such burdens on workers, and the role played by state regulators in facilitating these dynamics in order to make this argument. Indeed, as part of my research, I had interviewed Uber drivers in London specifically about the impact of Transport for London (TfL) regulatory frameworks on their ability to work. I brought these findings into the conversation in order to contextualise the discussion within a broader trend of workers rights and the gig economy. Whilst it is difficult to assess impact from a radio show discussion which took place between myself, Jeremy Vine, the Mayor and Harribin, the scale of listeners of the show, and the uniqueness of the perspective I was offering brought a new angle into this public discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004121 |
| Description | Participated in written debate for City A.M newspaper on whether the gig economy is bad news for workers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to contribute a short article as part of a debate in City A.M on the topic of 'With Uber drivers striking over pay and conditions, is the gig economy bad news for workers?'. I was invited as a researcher at LSE studying workers rights and the gig economy. City A.M is a free daily newspaper circulated on London public transport, with a daily circulation of 86,084 readers - alongside being published online. I drew directly on my PhD research to inform the article, which reached a wide audience and provided an alternative perspective to a widely discussed topic. Whilst it is difficult to gauge direct impact from a paper newspaper, I tweeted the article from my personal Twitter account (https://twitter.com/daliagebrial/status/1126428841210204160). The tweet received 19,348 impressions at the time of writing, and 478 total engagements. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.cityam.com/debate-uber-drivers-striking-over-pay-and-conditions-gig/ |
| Description | Published an article in the Washington Post on London's history as a multiracial city |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I published an article in the Washington Post online on London's history as a multiracial city. This was following a news item on English actor John Cleese commenting that London 'was no longer an English city' as a result of immigration. I used the news hook in order to communicate my research on London's history as a city that has always relied on immigrant labour, which is the crux of my PhD research on immigration and the gig economy in London. My intention was to cut through what was a highly sensationalised topic, to introduce a history of London's racialised composition and labour history. The Washington Post online has international reach, and a global circulation of 1 million readers daily. My article received 1.7k comments on the Washington Post website. I also tweeted the article from my personal Twitter account (https://twitter.com/daliagebrial/status/1135605398650724353?s=20), where it received 134 total engagements, and 8,256 total impressions. The article was also tweeted from the Washington Post twitter account (https://twitter.com/PostOpinions/status/1135601447641464838) which has 57.1k followers at the time of writing. The comments under the article show a lively discussion in which commenters expressed their responses, including some changed opinions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/03/john-cleeses-tweets-werent-just-racist-they-were-... |
| Description | Published an article on race and nationalism in the 'grooming gangs' crisis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I published an article on how the far-right has exploited the 'grooming gangs' crisis to create racialised ideas of who does and does not belong in Britain. This drew on my study of media representations of child sexual exploitation as part of my ESRC-funded MSc programme. This was completed as part of the Gender and Development module, in which I conducted a thematic analysis on 70 media articles covering the 'grooming gangs' scandal. The intended purpose of the intervention was to explore how the media coverage, and far-right activism, surrounding the crisis diverted attention away from the survivors of sexual abuse, and the systemic measures needed to protect children from large-scale abuse, and instead bolstered racialised ideas of nationhood. This draws on my work looking at how race and gender are key processes in the construction of the 'nation' as a category. The intervention led to a video interview for The Guardian, in which I was asked to comment on the increase in far-right marches surrounding the CSE crisis. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://novaramedia.com/2018/12/01/the-far-right-dont-care-about-sexual-violence-theyre-just-trying-... |
| Description | Published an article on workers rights, racism and climate change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I wrote an article for The Guardian on how responses to climate change must be attentive towards preserving and extending worker and immigrant rights. My intended purpose was to use my work on race, economics and work to intervene in the increasingly popular 'Green New Deal' policy framework. I intended to use the perspective developed through my research on racism, immigration and workers' rights in the gig economy to advise against an inward-looking, nationalistic approach to climate change, and in which workers rights are pitted against increasing freedom of movement. I also used my work at transport workers and the response to climate change to inform the article. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/08/left-climate-injustice-green-new-deal. The piece was then cited by Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell MP in a piece outlining the Labour Party's vision for a Green New Deal for the UK: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/05/john-mcdonnell-labour-green-industrial-revolution. This also then led to an invitation to participate in the Labour Party-sponsored 'International Social Forum' on the 'Movement of People' plenary, and to work with Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Rebecca Long-Bailey MP on a 'Green Industrial Revolution' policy framework. This participation included co-hosting a conference call with Rebecca Long-Bailey MP with more than 1000 young people on what a Green Industrial Revolution for the UK that protects workers rights and immigrant rights could look like. GIR |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/08/left-climate-injustice-green-new-deal |