Professor Philip Hubbard
Professor of Urban Studies
Research interests
- Community
- Geography
- Sociology
Contact details
Biography
Phil Hubbard has a Geography BA (1990) and PhD (1994) from the University of Birmingham, and has worked in the Departments of Geography at Gloucestershire University, Coventry University and Loughborough University.
From 2010 until 2017, he was in the inter-disciplinary School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Work at the University of Kent, serving as Head of School and Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences. He has been editor of Urban Studies, Social & Cultural Geography and other journals, and is former head of the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group of the RGS.
Research
- Urban geography
- Legal geography
- Psychogeography
Phil's research examines questions of urban land use, conflict and change in the context of an increasingly financialised city. His ongoing work on regeneration, housing, and gentrification also engages with debates in socio-legal studies on regulation, theorising the significance of municipal law in the making of space and place.
hilst well known for his urban research - summarised in books including 'The City' (Routledge, 2016) and 'The Battle for The High Street' (Palgrave, 2017) - his recent work also investigates the role of place and landscape in the making of national identities through a critical engagement with psychogeography (in 'Borderland', MUP, 2022) and hauntology ('Listening to Landscape', Bloomsbury, 2025).
Teaching
Undergraduate
- 5SSG2056 Urban and Cultural Geography: Space, Society and Culture
- 6SSG3072 Right to the City: Everyday Global Perspectives
Postgraduate
- 7SSGN209 – Urban Futures and Social Justice
PhD supervision
Phil has over 25 PhD completions and examined PhD students in a wide range of international contexts. He is willing to supervise students pursuing a wide variety of urban topics, using either qualitative or quantitative methods.
Further details
Research
No space like home? Small domestic properties, compensatory urbanism and housing futures in English cities
Studying micro-apartments and their impact on affordable homes and people's living spaces in London.
Project status: Ongoing
Urban Futures research group
Examining urban futures through a conceptual, analytical and methodological lens that questions what cities are and how they work.
Geopolitics and Contested Development research group
Exploring geopolitics and contested development as locally contingent and globally interconnected processes shaped by the politics of colonialism.
News
Report highlights creative role of cultural policy in 'post-COVID' city recovery
A new report from King’s in collaboration with the World Cities Culture Forum analyses how city policymakers around the world supported culture through the...
Urban Futures Group Explores Increasing Use of 'Micro-Apartments'.
Researchers from the King’s College London looked at how homes in London having been shrinking and why the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the use of...
Reimagining our post-pandemic cities
Has the pandemic presented an opportunity to reset our cities for the better?
The 2016 Rio Olympics made sex work more dangerous
The crackdown on sex work leading up to and during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro resulted in prostitutes being put in higher levels of danger, finds...
Risky business: new study shows the impact of Rio 2012 on the oldest profession
The crackdown on sex work leading to and during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro was counterproductive says new study led by King's College London, the...
Events
Identity and belonging at the frayed edge of England
Part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, Phil Hubbard (author of Borderland: identity and belonging at the edge of England) and Patrick Wright (author of...
Please note: this event has passed.
Who governs the City? Privatised London in the 21st century
Professor Mike Raco (UCL) will discuss his recently published book (with Frances Brill), London: the privatised city (Agenda publishing).
Please note: this event has passed.
Pushed to the Margins: Roundtable Discussion on Gentrification in London
Chaired by Dr Phil Hubbard of the Urban Futures Group, this event will examine findings from a new report published by the Runnymede Trust and CLASS into...
Please note: this event has passed.
The battle for a beach: Blue legalities, wet ontologies and coastal conflict
Join Professor Phil Hubbard (King's College London) for this talk.
Please note: this event has passed.
Features
The fight between Tate Modern and its wealthy neighbours reveals the gentrification of the skies
In the 1950s and 1960s, tower blocks were reserved for social housing tenants. Such “streets in the sky” were subsequently vilified as sites of social...
'We shall fight on the beaches': invasion rhetoric and the anti-asylum discourse in Boris's Britain
Professor Phil Hubbard reflects on the discourse in the media and politics around the images of refugees arriving on Kent's beaches.
Suella Braverman's talk of a refugee 'invasion' is a dangerous political gambit gone wrong
Phil Hubbard, Professor of Urban Studies, discusses the language used by Home Secretary about refugees coming to the UK.
Coronavirus could turn cities into doughnuts: empty centres but vibrant suburbs
Most COVID-19 lockdowns were accompanied by sobering news from the UK’s high streets.
How COVID-19 might change the way we live and work for good
Professor Phil Hubbard looks at whether the COVID-19 pandemic will reverse the recent trend of creating smaller homes and change the way we design urban...
Research
No space like home? Small domestic properties, compensatory urbanism and housing futures in English cities
Studying micro-apartments and their impact on affordable homes and people's living spaces in London.
Project status: Ongoing
Urban Futures research group
Examining urban futures through a conceptual, analytical and methodological lens that questions what cities are and how they work.
Geopolitics and Contested Development research group
Exploring geopolitics and contested development as locally contingent and globally interconnected processes shaped by the politics of colonialism.
News
Report highlights creative role of cultural policy in 'post-COVID' city recovery
A new report from King’s in collaboration with the World Cities Culture Forum analyses how city policymakers around the world supported culture through the...
Urban Futures Group Explores Increasing Use of 'Micro-Apartments'.
Researchers from the King’s College London looked at how homes in London having been shrinking and why the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the use of...
Reimagining our post-pandemic cities
Has the pandemic presented an opportunity to reset our cities for the better?
The 2016 Rio Olympics made sex work more dangerous
The crackdown on sex work leading up to and during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro resulted in prostitutes being put in higher levels of danger, finds...
Risky business: new study shows the impact of Rio 2012 on the oldest profession
The crackdown on sex work leading to and during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro was counterproductive says new study led by King's College London, the...
Events
Identity and belonging at the frayed edge of England
Part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, Phil Hubbard (author of Borderland: identity and belonging at the edge of England) and Patrick Wright (author of...
Please note: this event has passed.
Who governs the City? Privatised London in the 21st century
Professor Mike Raco (UCL) will discuss his recently published book (with Frances Brill), London: the privatised city (Agenda publishing).
Please note: this event has passed.
Pushed to the Margins: Roundtable Discussion on Gentrification in London
Chaired by Dr Phil Hubbard of the Urban Futures Group, this event will examine findings from a new report published by the Runnymede Trust and CLASS into...
Please note: this event has passed.
The battle for a beach: Blue legalities, wet ontologies and coastal conflict
Join Professor Phil Hubbard (King's College London) for this talk.
Please note: this event has passed.
Features
The fight between Tate Modern and its wealthy neighbours reveals the gentrification of the skies
In the 1950s and 1960s, tower blocks were reserved for social housing tenants. Such “streets in the sky” were subsequently vilified as sites of social...
'We shall fight on the beaches': invasion rhetoric and the anti-asylum discourse in Boris's Britain
Professor Phil Hubbard reflects on the discourse in the media and politics around the images of refugees arriving on Kent's beaches.
Suella Braverman's talk of a refugee 'invasion' is a dangerous political gambit gone wrong
Phil Hubbard, Professor of Urban Studies, discusses the language used by Home Secretary about refugees coming to the UK.
Coronavirus could turn cities into doughnuts: empty centres but vibrant suburbs
Most COVID-19 lockdowns were accompanied by sobering news from the UK’s high streets.
How COVID-19 might change the way we live and work for good
Professor Phil Hubbard looks at whether the COVID-19 pandemic will reverse the recent trend of creating smaller homes and change the way we design urban...