Professor Alex Loftus

Alex is a political ecologist with a keen interest in the political economy of water. Having carried out research on struggles over water in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Durban (South Africa) in the early 2000s, he has more recently focused on the financialization of water infrastructure in London (UK) and the right to water globally. Alex joined King’s in 2012 after spending 7 years at Royal Holloway, University of London. Prior to that, he studied at the University of Edinburgh, Queen’s University (Ontario) and the University of Oxford.

Over the last 18 years, he has had the privilege of supervising and co-supervising over 20 PhD students from whom he has learned about many different political ecological questions. The author of Everyday Environmentalism, Alex is also co-author, with Gustav Cederlöf, of Discovering Political Ecology. Along with his wonderful colleagues Katie Meehan, Naho Mirumachi, and Majed Akhter, he is a co-author of Water: A Critical Introduction. Alex has also co-edited two books on the right to water with Farhana Sultana and co-edited a collection on Gramsci’s spatial and political thought with Mike Ekers, Gillian Hart, and Stefan Kipfer. He is currently the editor of Antipode.

Research

• Political Ecology
• Infrastructural Politics
• Financialisation
• Historical geographical materialism
• Gramsci

Alex’s research seeks to better understand the processes and relations that give rise to a profoundly unequal distribution of resources. Water has provided one lens through which he has sought to pursue such an understanding, and historical-geographical materialism has provided a framework through which to make sense of these processes.

Throughout, Alex has been inspired by what Antonio Gramsci referred to as a philosophy of praxis and an attempt to better understand – and elevate – the situated perspectives of those engaged in struggles to access resources.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• 5SSG2052 Political Ecology

Postgraduate

• 7SSGN147 Environmental Justice and Governance

PhD supervision

Alex has supervised or co-supervised over 20 students to successful completion of their PhDs. Details of current and past students can be found on his PURE profile.

Further details

See Alex's research profile