I am an interdisciplinary teacher and researcher working at the intersection of human geography and development studies. My research focuses on the spatial, ideological, and insurrectional dimensions of the political ecology of development in the urban Anthropocene. I address these themes through critical investigations of extractivist, infrastructural, and urbanizing megaprojects, and ethnographic explorations of the radical political possibilities that can emerge amidst the violence, failure, and contestation of such projects. I have conducted field research in Mexico, Uganda, Ghana, Ecuador, and Peru. My theoretical and methodological influences include historical geographical materialism, the psychoanalytic critique of ideology, gonzo journalism, surrealism, and psychogeography.  

Email: japhy.wilson@bangor.ac.uk

Office: F21 Thoday Building, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG

I am module organizer for:

DXX-2007: People, Space, and Identity

DXX-3013: Critical Human Geographies

I also teach on:

DXX-2001: Sustainable Development

DXX-3004: Sustainable Communities

I have supervised five students to completion, on topics including the spatiality of labour struggles in China; resettlement schemes in Mozambique; the politics of face-to-face development fundraising in the UK; and the political ecology of wind farms and ecosystem services in Mexico.

I am interested in supervising research students in the following areas: political ecologies of extractivism, infrastructural megaprojects, planetary urbanization, subaltern urbanism, ideology critique, utopias, uprisings, insurrectional movements, political economy of Latin America.   

• Utopian infrastructural and urbanizing megaprojects
• Political ecologies of extractivist development
• Ideological legitimations of inequality and unsustainability
• Planetary urbanization under conditions of socioecological breakdown
• Subaltern utopias, spontaneous uprisings, urban revolutions
• Critical theory, experimental methods, creative writing

Current and Past Research Projects

• 2019-2023: The City at the End of the World (active)
• 2017-2019: Insurgent Universality on the Extractive Frontier (The University of Manchester - completed)
• 2014-2016: Post-Neoliberal Utopias in the Ecuadorian Amazon (The University of Manchester - completed)
• 2011-2014: The Global Governance of Everyday Life in sub-Saharan Africa (The University of Manchester - completed)
• 2006-2009: Contested Regional Developments in Southern Mexico (The University of Manchester - completed)

Publications

Single authored monographs

(2023) Extractivism and Universality: Inside an Uprising in the Amazon Abingdon: Routledge (Critiques and Alternatives to Capitalism series).

(2021) Reality of Dreams: Post-Neoliberal Utopias in the Ecuadorian Amazon New Haven: Yale University Press (Yale Agrarian Studies Series).

(2014) Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr Shock and Mr Aid London and New York: Verso (Counterblasts series).

Co-authored monograph

(2017) La selva de los elefantes blancos: megaproyectos y extractivismos en la Amazonia ecuatoriana Quito: Abya Yala (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

Co-edited volume

(2014) The Post-Political and Its Discontents: Spaces of Depoliticization, Spectres of Radical Politics Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (co-edited with Erik Swyngedouw).

Articles in peer reviewed journals

(2023) “Apocalypse and Utopia in the Salvagepunk Metropolis” City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 27:1-2, 39-55.

(2023) ‘Apocalyptic Urban Surrealism in the City at the End of the World’ Urban Studies 60:4, 718-733.

(2023) ‘The Rotting City: Surrealist Arts of Noticing the Urban Anthropocene’ Space and Culture (Early View).  

(2022) ‘Space Out of Joint: Absurdist Geographies of the Anthropocene’ cultural geographies (Early View). 

(2022) ‘“We Are All Indigenous!”: Insurgent Universality on the Extractive Frontier’ Capitalism Nature Socialism 33:3, 120-137.

(2022) ‘The Insurgent Universal: Between Eurocentric Universalism and the Pluriverse’ Nordia Geographical Publications 51:2, 153-162.

(2018) ‘Potemkin Revolution: Utopian Jungle Cities of 21^st Century Socialism’ Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography 50:1, 233-254 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

(2018) ‘The Eco-City that Didn’t Exist’ Harvard Design Magazine 45, 132-140.

(2018) ‘Sabotage of Development: Subverting the Censorship of Renegade Research’ Journal of Extreme Anthropology 2:1, 1-23.

(2017) ‘Fantastical Materializations: Interoceanic Infrastructures in the Ecuadorian Amazon’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 35:5, 775-796 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

(2017) ‘The Nature of Post-Neoliberalism: Building Bio-Socialism in the Ecuadorian Amazon’ Geoforum 81, 55-65 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

(2017) ‘Perplexing Entanglements with a Post-Neoliberal State’ Journal of Latin American Geography 16:1, 177-184.

(2017) ‘Paradoxical Utopia: The Millennium Villages Project in Theory and Practice’ Journal of Agrarian Change 17:1, 122-143.  

(2016) ‘Black Hole Capitalism: Utopian Dimensions of Planetary Urbanization’ City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 20:3, 250-267 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

(2016) ‘The Village that Turned to Gold: A Parable of Philanthrocapitalism’ Development and Change 47:1, 3-28.

(2016) ‘Fantasías interoceánicas y lo real del capital: El corredor Manta-Manaos en Ecuador’ Ecología Política 51 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

(2016) ‘Posneoliberalismo y urbanización planetaria en la Amazonia ecuatoriana’, Revista Economía 67: 109, 29-59 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón and Henar Diez).

(2015) ‘Concrete Jungle: The Planetary Urbanization of the Ecuadorian Amazon’ Human Geography 8:3, 1-23.

(2015) ‘The Joy of Inequality: The Libidinal Economy of Compassionate Consumerism’ International Journal of Zizek Studies 9:2, 1-26.  

(2015) ‘A Strange Kind of Science: Making Sense of the Millennium Villages Project’ Globalizations 12:4, 645-659.

(2015) ‘Neoliberal Nightmares’ Spectrum: Journal of International Studies 7:1, 78-90.

(2014) ‘Fantasy Machine: Philanthrocapitalism as an Ideological Formation’ Third World Quarterly 35:7, 1144-1161.

(2014) ‘The Shock of the Real: The Neoliberal Neurosis in the Life and Times of Jeffrey Sachs’, Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography 46:1, 301-321.

(2014) ‘Model Villages in the Neoliberal Era: The Millennium Development Goals and the Colonization of Everyday Life’ Journal of Peasant Studies, 41:1, 107-125.

(2014) ‘The Violence of Abstract Space: Contested Regional Developments in Southern Mexico’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 31:2, 516-538.

(2013) ‘The Urbanization of the Countryside: Depoliticization and the Production of Space in Chiapas” Latin American Perspectives, 40:2, 218-236.

(2013) ‘“The Devastating Conquest of the Lived by the Conceived”: The Concept of Abstract Space in the Work of Henri Lefebvre’ Space and Culture 16:3, 364-380.

(2011) ‘Notes on the Rural City: Henri Lefebvre and the Transformation of Everyday Life in Chiapas, Mexico’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 29, 993-1009.

(2011) ‘Colonising Space: The New Economic Geography in Theory and Practice’, New Political Economy 16:3, 373-397.

Edited book chapters

(2023) ‘Chronicle of an Insurgent Utopia’ in Julia Urabayen and Jorge León Casero, Rethinking Democracy for Post-Utopian Worlds. Alternative Political Projects After the Sovereign State London: Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming).

(2023) ‘Enjoying Inequality’ in Amin Samman and Earl Gammon eds. Clickbait Capitalism Manchester: Manchester University Press (forthcoming).  

(2023) ‘Prólogo’ in Percy Vílchez, Ensayos reunidos Iquitos: Tierra Nueva (forthcoming).

(2021) ‘The Distance Between Two Dreams: Post-Neoliberalism and the Politics of Awakening” in Adam Fishwick and Nicholas Kiersley (eds.) Post-Capitalist Futures: Political Economy Beyond Crisis and Hope London: Pluto Press.

(2020) ‘The Joy of Inequality: The Libidinal Economy of Compassionate Consumerism’ in David J Gunkel and Paul A Taylor (eds) Zizek Studies: The Greatest Hits (So Far) New York: Peter Lang.

(2018) ‘Neoliberal Neverland: The Millennium Villages Project in Uganda’ in Elisa Greco et al eds. Neoliberal Uganda London: Zed.

(2018) ‘Anamorphosis of Capital: Black Holes, Gothic Monsters, and the Will of God’ in Ilan Kapoor ed. Psychoanalysis and the Global University of Georgia Press.

(2018) ‘Amazon Unbound: Utopia and Emancipation under Conditions of Planetary Urbanization’ in Sabine Knierbein and Tihomir Viderman eds. Public Space Unbound. Urban Emancipation and the Post-Political Condition London: Routledge.

(2017) ‘Neurotic Neoliberalism and the Economics of Anxiety’ in Emmy Eklund, Emmanuel Pierre-Guitett and Andreja Zhevnik eds. Politics in Times of Anxiety New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

(2017) ‘Anamorfosis del capital: agujeros negros, monstruos góticos, y la voluntad de dios’, López Andrade et al. eds. Desafíos del pensamiento crítico: memorias del décimo congreso ecuatoriano de sociología y política Quito: Universidad Central de Ecuador.

(2016) ‘Naturaleza: Ikiam’ in Alberto Acosta and Esperanza Martínez eds. Biopirateria Quito: Abya Yala.

(2016) ‘Neoliberal Gothic’ in The Handbook of Neoliberalism, Simon Springer, Kean Birch, and Julie MacLeavy eds. London: Routledge.   

(2014) ‘The Jouissance of Philanthrocapitalism’, in Japhy Wilson and Erik Swyngedouw eds. The Post-Political and Its Discontents: Spaces of Depoliticization, Spectres of Radical Politics Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

(2014) ‘Seeds of Dystopia: Post-Politics and the Return of the Political’ – co-authored with Erik Swyngedouw, in Japhy Wilson and Erik Swyngedouw eds. The Post-Political and Its Discontents: Spaces of Depoliticization, Spectres of Radical Politics Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

(2014) ‘There Is No Alternative’ – co-authored with Erik Swyngedouw, in Japhy Wilson and Erik Swyngedouw eds. The Post-Political and Its Discontents: Spaces of Depoliticization, Spectres of Radical Politics Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

(2014) ‘Insurgent Architects and the Spectral Return of the Urban Political’ in Jonathan Metzger, Philip Allmendinger and Stijn Oosterlynck eds. Displacing the Political: Democratic Deficits in Contemporary European Territorial Governance London: Routledge.  

(2014) ‘Plan Puebla Panama: The Violence of Abstract Space’, in Ákos Moravánszky, Christian Schmid and Lukasz Stanek eds. Urban Revolution Now: Henri Lefebvre in Urban Research and Architecture London: Routledge.

(2013) ‘¿Cómo pensar el espacio capitalista? Henri Lefebvre, el Plan Puebla Panamá, y las Ciudades Rurales’ in Mariflor Aguilar Rivero, Olinca Valeria Avilés Hernández, and Carlos Andrés Aguirre Álvarez eds., Depredación: Ciudades Rurales, Comunidades Intervenidas y Espacios en Conflicto Mexico City: UNAM.

(2012) ‘Ciudades Rurales’, in Carolina Sánchez, ed. Estado del Desarrollo Económico y Social de los Pueblos Indígenas de Chiapas, Mexico City: UNAM.

(2011) ‘Contesting the Plan Puebla Panama: Henri Lefebvre and the Politics of Space in Southern Mexico’ in Juan Manuel Sandoval Palacios ed. Planes Geoestratégicos, Desplazamientos Y Migraciones Forzadas En El Área Del Proyecto De Desarrollo e Integración de Mesoamérica Colombia: Universidad de Antioquia.

Working papers

(2016) “Ikiam: The Nature of Biosocialism” CENEDET Working Paper #8 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

(2016) “Millennium Cities: Staging the Origins of Twenty-First Century Socialism” CENEDET Working Paper #7 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

(2015) “Manta-Manaus: Interoceanic Fantasies and the Real of Planetary Urbanization” CENEDET Working Paper #4 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón).

(2015) “Post-Neoliberalism and Planetary Urbanization in the Ecuadorian Amazon” CENEDET Working Paper #1 (co-authored with Manuel Bayón and Henar Diez).

Book reviews

(2021) “Review: Thea Riofrancos, Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador” Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography.

(2016) “Review: Mustafa Dikec, Space, Politics and Aesthetics” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

(2015) “Extended Review: Jeffrey Sachs, The Age of Sustainable Development” Human Geography.

(2014) “Review: Henri Lefebvre, Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment” Antipode: A Radical Journal