Phil Hubbard King's College London, UK

Phil is a Professor of Urban Studies at King’s College London, specialising in cities and social charge, sexuality and space, urban consumption and legal geography. He is particularly interested in the city as a site of social conflict. His work draws on theories of the city developed in urban geography and urban sociology, and also engages with debates in socio-legal studies given his particular interests in the way urban disorder is regulated.

He has contributed leading studies exploring how community opposition to particular ‘unwanted’ land uses shapes governmental and regulatory responses. He is particularly known for setting international agendas in the study of the relationship between gender, sexuality and the city via research on the spatial governance of sex work, summarised in his 'Cities and Sexualities.’

A major theme running through much of his work has been a focus on questions of displacement and spatial justice, something that is particularly relevant in the context of London's housing crises and the ongoing gentrification of much of the capital. This is evident in his Economic and Social Research Council-sponsored research on the impacts of estate renewal in London, as well as studies of the impacts of retail gentrification on working-class communities (the latter summarised in his monograph 'The Battle for the High Street').