91福利

Profile

I am a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow. I joined 91福利 in 2022 after completing my PhD in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. My PhD dissertation focused on the relationship between utopia, temporality and social theory, and my Leverhulme-funded project is concerned with climate apocalyptic narratives. I have published in a range of academic journals, including American Political Science Review, Sociology, The Sociological Review, Theory, Culture & Society, European Journal of Social Theory, Environmental Politics, and Feminist Theory. I am also an editorial board member of The Sociological Review and a co-convenor of the British Sociological Association鈥檚 .

Research

My work is focused on developing a social theory of the future. My PhD research focused on the relationship between utopia and temporality. It utilised a range of utopian texts to develop the notion of the post-futural utopia, or a utopian vision that responds to the fall of the modern time regime by bringing together the realms of the future, present and past in new ways. This might be by exploring the of Black utopian visions, examining the of time proposed by dub reggae artists in the 1970s, or the of contemporary feminist science fiction. More generally, I have also examined the of social theory produced by utopian fiction, as well as discussing the utopianism of thinkers like,, and. These concerns are also reflected by my writings for popular audiences, including a on the continuing relevance of the utopian ideas of the interwar period for politics today.

At 91福利, I will be working on a new project focused on climate apocalyptic narratives. Whether it is movements like Extinction Rebellion or popular nonfiction books such as David Wallace-Wells鈥檚 The Uninhabitable Earth (2019), the sense that climate change will bring mass devastation and corrode social structures suffuses the cultural consciousness. However, the positive value of climate apocalyptic narratives, despite their prevalence, has been largely overlooked by environmental theorists, both in sociology and beyond. This is a shame, not least because the apocalypse has long offered a means by which marginalised groups have conceptualised the world. From the millenarian peasant movements of early modern Europe to the rise of Rastafarianism in the postcolonial Caribbean, visions of the end of the world critique the injustice of actually existing society and posit an emancipated society in the future. My aim is to consider whether climate apocalyptic narratives function in a similar manner. To what extent do images of a future Earth ravaged by climate change augment critical theory? Does the figure of climate apocalypse reveal what is wrong with the social world by imagining its collapse? Can the end of this world inform thinking about the beginning of another, more liberated one?

To address these questions, I have written an article titled "" that defends the value of apocalyptic thinking in political movements, as well as with Filipe Carreira da Silva focused on the role of the climate apocalypse in the African American theoretical and cultural tradition, an with Luke Kemp on different forms of climate catastrophe, on the idea of collapse in the contemporary environmental movement, of existential risk studies, and of the feeling of eco-anxiety.

I am also working on a research project focused on how key figures in the anticolonial movement of the mid-twentieth century theorised agrarian relations. While there has been a revival of interest in anticolonial theory in recent years, the critiques of colonial agriculture and appraisals of peasant life that circulated in this period remain largely unstudied. This is a shame because they seem to be a promising resource for deepening decolonial accounts of the climate crisis and could offer possible models for green transitions, especially given the attention given to the colonial degradation of the soil in this moment. Concretely, I am studying a range of anticolonial thinkers, particularly those working in areas in the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia colonised by the British Empire and writing between the 1930s and the 1970s, focusing on their reflections on the agrarian question.

This is an issue I have begun to explore in my article 鈥溾��, which examines how anticolonial thinkers approached the problem of soil erosion in the Caribbean and Africa.

Teaching

In 2024/25, I am convening the module .

Publications

Journal articles

Davidson, J. P. L. (2024). "." European Journal of Political Theory. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1177/14748851241305028.

Davidson, J. P. L. and Gavris, M. (2024). "." New Political Economy. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2024.2389506.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2024). 鈥溾�� American Political Science Review. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1017/S0003055424000479.

Davidson, J. P. L. and da Silva, F. C. (2024). 鈥�.鈥� Theory, Culture & Society. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1177/02632764241242380.

Davidson, J. P. L., and Kemp, L. (2024). 鈥�.鈥� WIREs Climate Change, 15(2), e871.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2023). "." The Anthropocene Review. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1177/20530196231211854.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2023). "." New Formations, 107/108, 48-65.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2023) "" Environmental Politics, 32(6), 969-987.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2023). 鈥�.鈥� Sociology, 57(4), 827-842.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2023). 鈥溾�� Memory Studies, 16(2), 421-434.

Davidson, J. P. L. and da Silva, F. C. (2022). 鈥�.鈥� European Journal of Social Theory, 25(4), 521-538.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2022). 鈥�.鈥� Theory, Culture & Society, 39(1): 3-22.

Davidson, J. P. L (2022). 鈥�.鈥� European Journal of Cultural Studies, 25(3), 863-879.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥�.鈥� Current Sociology, 69(7), 1069-1084.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥�.鈥� The Sociological Review, 69(1), 382-395.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥�.鈥� Critical Horizons, 22(4), 420-437.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥�.鈥� Feminist Theory. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1177/1464700121994076.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥�.鈥� Review essay (with a response from Assmann). International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s10767-021-09412-9.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥�.鈥� Alluvium, 9(3). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7766/alluvium.v9.3.06.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2020). 鈥�.鈥� Television and New Media, 21(5), 475-492.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2019). 鈥�.鈥� Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 33(6), 729-743.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2019). 鈥�.鈥� Thesis Eleven, 152(1), 87-101.

Public scholarship

Davidson, J. P. L and Gavris, M. (2024). "." Anti*Capitalist Resistance, 29 November. Translated into Dutch by the Grenzeloos website, available .

Davidson, J. P. L. (2024). 鈥�.鈥� Cambridge Humanities Review, Issue 18.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2024). 鈥�.鈥� Ancillary Review of Books, 6 May.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2024). 鈥�.鈥� Ancillary Review of Books, 13 March.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2024). 鈥�.鈥� Ancillary Review of Books, 15 February.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥溾�� Ancillary Review of Books, 15 September.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥溾�� Tribune, 26 July.

Davidson, J. P. L. (2021). 鈥溾�� Strange Horizons, 22 February.