Dr John Clayton

I am a critical social geographer, interested in the connections between space, identities and inequalities. In my work I draw on a range of approaches and methods that explore the ways in which unequal socio-spatial relations are contested, navigated and negotiated. My inter-disciplinary and collaborative work is widely published through a diversity of outputs including international geography, sociology and social science journals.

I have researched several inter-related topics including the emotions of austerity and digital exclusion, but my work mainly centres around geographies of ‘race’, ethnicity and multiculture, particularly in the British context. My interests in this area were established through my ESRC/ODPM PhD exploring everyday geographies of multiculture amongst young people living in the city of Leicester. I was able to extend these interests (and intersections with classed identities) working as a Research Associate on an ESRC project exploring the cultural and learning experiences of working-class students in Higher Education.

More recently I have examined the experience of work for ‘new migrants’ in North East England (British Academy/Leverhulme), the experiences of the Zimbabwean diaspora in a post-Mugabe era and the reporting of intersectional hate crime/incidents. Through ongoing research with academic colleagues and practice-based partners, we propose the concept of ‘hate relationships’ to capture forms of ‘low level’, enduring and home-concentrated hate incidents and the forces which re-produce them. Relatedly, other current interests are around processes and experiences of home takeovers or ‘cuckooing’ and the diversity of ways in which homes might become colonised as well as pedagogical research exploring the value of self-reflection in teaching and learning our undergraduate modules including ‘Geographies of ‘race’, ethnicity and multiculture’.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• A rationale for social work interventions into hate relationships, Donovan, C., Clayton, J., Macdonald, S. 23 Jun 2026, Handbook on Intersectionality and Social Work, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, Edward Elgar
• Making connections through intimacy writing: writing as method in social and cultural geography, Griffin, P., Clayton, J., Camm, T., MacKinlay, C., Robinson, L. 14 Sep 2026, In: Social and Cultural Geography
• Racialised Violence: Riots, Space and Temporality, Griffin, P., Clayton, J., Adamson, E. 1 Mar 2026, In: The Geographical Journal
• Dis/ableist Criminology and Domestic Colonisation: conceptualising disabled people’s experience of hate and home-based violence, Macdonald, S., Clayton, J., Donovan, C. 2 Dec 2025, In: Disability and Society
• Disablist hate relationships: The impact of 'low-level' forms of community violence on disabled people's quality of life, Macdonald, S., Donovan, C., Clayton, J., Long, C. 22 May 2025, The Routledge Handbook of Disability, Crime, and Justice, London, Routledge
• Familiar faces: hate relationships and the everyday-ness of hate perpetration, Clayton, J., Macdonald, S., Donovan, C. 2 Oct 2025, Hate Crime Perpetrators: New Perspectives from Theory, Research and Practice, Volume I, Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan
• From Isolation to Invasion: Disability and Loneliness as Catalysts for Cuckooing, MacDonald, S., Donovan, C., Clayton, J. 17 Nov 2025, Understanding and Preventing 'Cuckooing' Victimisation, London, United Kingdom, Routledge
• Hate beyond the incident: Exploring the presence/absence dynamics of ‘hate relationships’ through geotrauma and haunting, Clayton, J., Donovan, C., Macdonald, S. 1 Jun 2025, In: Geoforum
• ‘He Made Us a Bit Suicidal to be Honest’: Disability Studies, Hate and Victimisation, Macdonald, S., Donovan, C., Clayton, J. 15 Mar 2025, Mental Health, Crime and Justice , Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan
• Applied (im)mobilities in turbulent times: transdisplinarity, creativity and mobility justice, Clayton, J., Wilson, S. 2 Jul 2024, In: Applied Mobilities

• Tadhg Camm Investigating the potential for street food as a grassroots economy in China Start Date: 15/05/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025
• Marie Gardiner ‘Where do we Belong?’ - Using innovative methods to explore working-class identities throughSunderland’s past, present, and future Start Date: 01/10/2025
• Marie Gardiner ‘Where do we Belong?’ - Using innovative methods to explore working-class identities through Sunderland’s past, present, and future Start Date: 01/10/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025

• Geography PhD October 01 2002
• Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2016