I, Justin Beaumont (1973), studied Human Geography at the Department of Geography, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) and European Urban and Regional Studies at the Department of Geography, Durham University (also UK).
As a geographer interested in the intersection of urban-social, political, philosophical and theological realms of analysis, within the broader context of critiques of secularization and the rise of the postsecular age, I defy neat categorization into conceptual labels.
My PhD thesis was completed at the Department of Geography, Durham University (2000) and since then have published in international journals and contributed to edited volumes on questions of urban governance and politics, reconfiguring questions of social justice and most recently faith-based organizations in struggles against urban injustices within postsecular urban contexts.
The chief architect of the EU-7th Framework Programme project (FACIT 2008-2010) investigating faith-based organizations and exclusion in European cities, I have pioneered the application of the concept of the postsecular in the analysis of urban areas.
I am co-editor of Spaces of Contention: spatialities of social movements (Aldershot: Ashgate, with Walter Nicholls and Byron Miller), Exploring the Postsecular: the religious, the political and the urban (Leiden/ Boston: Brill, with Arie Molendijk and Christoph Jedan), Postsecular Cities: space, theory and practice (London: Continuum, with Chris Baker), Faith, Welfare and Exclusion in European Cities: the FBO phenomenon (Bristol: The Policy Press, with Paul Cloke and Jan Vranken) and Faith That Works: faith-based organizations and urban social justice (Milton Keynes/ Carlisle: The Paternoster Press, with Paul Cloke).
I’ve always been driven by intriguing and unconventional relations between ideas and can foresee research trends and forge innovative ways to address these developments in a multidisciplinary fashion.
To summarize my research and publication orientation, my interests focus on urban governance and politics in relation to social and spatial justice in cities. In particular: (1) European urbanism with a glance at the US and the global south; and (2) internationally comparative research at the interface between political economy, humanist and culturally sensitive theoretical positions.
I approach the concept of justice both in a broader sense concerning political and institutional legitimization and in the more specific sense of the politics of social equity, quality of life, well-being and fairness for all members of society and the places where they live.
In terms of vision for the future, I’d be delighted in developing a new Master level course on Faith, social justice and the city and also to advance in the mid to longer term a research centre on Faith, welfare and critical studies of the postsecular at a critical moment in the politics of welfare and public services more generally in the UK and further afield.
Alongside a profound passion for jazz and classical music (Miles Davis; Jaco Pastorius; Weather Report; Mahler; Rachmaninov; etc.), I enjoy cooking for friends and family, literature (Gogol; Dostoyevsky; Tolstoy; Borges; Nabokov; etc.), as well many other interests and pursuits outside the academy such creative writing and my two cats!
