Staff profile

I am an urban and political geographer interested in the politics and ethics of migration and its relationship with the urban. I joined the Department of Geography in 2018 following a Senior Lectureship at the University of Manchester. Prior to this, I worked at the University of St Andrews as a Teaching Fellow in Geography following a BA, MA and PhD in Geography from Durham University. During my time at Durham, I have undertaken a range of administrative roles, including Deputy Director of Education and currently Director of the BA Programme. I occasionally tweet at: @Jonny_Darling

I have a broad range of research interests, primarily orientated around the politics of asylum and refuge. My work has been funded by the AHRC, British Academy, ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, and the European Commission. My current work seeks to explore:

1. The urbanisation of asylum. My work has been underpinned by a desire to understand how cities respond to forced migration. My work has theorised the urban as both a means to police, manage, and regulate the lives of refugees, and simultaneously as a complex social formation through which political acts, claims, and subjectivities are forged. In this field, I have also examined the emergence, development, and tactics of urban sanctuary movements, culminating in the co-edited collection Sanctuary Cities and Urban Struggles.

2. Asylum accommodation and support. I am interested in the structures of accommodation, support, dispersal and resettlement that surround asylum policy in the UK and across Europe. My work has explored the forms of distributed violence that surround asylum accommodation, leading to the book Systems of Suffering: Dispersal and the Denial of Asylum, and alongside colleagues in Australia and Switzerland I am currently examining the use of hotels as forms of contingent and carceral accommodation.

3. Intimate practices of care, hospitality, and solidarity. My past work has explored spaces of care such as drop-in centres and asylum support services, in order to examine the political potentials of radical caring practices. My current work, funded by a BA/Leverhulme Small Grant, focuses on forms of intimate solidarity and hospitality in refugee hosting programmes across the UK.

Beyond these research interests, I have a longstanding interest in pedagogy and geographical education. I am a co-editor of Research Ethics for Human Geography: A Handbook for Students, the first textbook within the discipline to offer a detailed account of research ethics within geography. I have also co-produced a range of open access teaching resources on precarious housing in Europe as part of an Erasmus + partnership, culminating in the open access book Precarious Housing in Europe: A Critical Guide.

Authored book

• Darling, J. (2022). Systems of Suffering: Dispersal and the Denial of Asylum. Pluto Press

Book review

• Darling, J. (2017). Global Migration: patterns, processes, and politics. Geography, 102, 164-165
• Darling, J. (2016). Book review: Movement and the Ordering of Freedom: On Liberal Governances of Mobility, Borderities and the Politics of Contemporary Mobile Borders. Kotef Hagar, Movement and the Ordering of Freedom: On Liberal Governances of Mobility. Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2015; 248 pp.: 9780822358558, £16.99 (pbk).Szary Anne-Laure Amilhat Giraut Frédéric (eds) Borderities and the Politics of Contemporary Mobile Borders. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; 328 pp.: 9781137468840, £65.00 (hbk). Progress in Human Geography, 40(5), 708-712. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132515609018
• Darling, J. (2009). Book review: Talbot, D. 2007: Regulating the night: race, culture and exclusion in the making of the nighttime economy. Aldershot: Ashgate. 164 pp. £50 cloth. ISBN: 978 0 7546 4752 2. Progress in Human Geography, 33(4), https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132509339261
• Darling, J. (2009). ‘Sleepwalking to segregation’? challenging myths about race and migration by N. Finney and L. Simpson. Policy Press, Bristol, 2009. No. of pages: x + 218, ISBN 978 1 84742 007 7 (paperback), 978 1 84742 008 4 (hardback). Population, Space and Place, 15(6), https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.571

Chapter in book

• Darling, J. (in press). Vulnerable Subjects. In H. Wilson, & J. Darling (Eds.), Research Ethics for Human Geography: A Handbook for Students (159-169). SAGE Publications
• Bolt, G., & Darling, J. (in press). Precariousness and the Right to Housing. In S. Munch, & A. Siede (Eds.), Precarious Housing in Europe: A Critical Guide (11-35). Donatau Press
• Darling, J. (in press). Hosting the displaced: from sanctuary cities to hospitable homes. In P. Adey, J. Bowstead, K. Brickell, V. Desai, M. Dolton, A. Pinkerton, & A. Siddiqi (Eds.), The Handbook of Displacement. Palgrave Macmillan
• Darling, J., & Wilson, H. (in press). Geography and Ethics. In H. Wilson, & J. Darling (Eds.), Research Ethics for Human Geography: A Handbook for Students (6-22). SAGE Publications
• Darling, J. (in press). Expectations. In H. Wilson, & J. Darling (Eds.), Research Ethics for Human Geography: A Handbook for Students (73-81). SAGE Publications
• Darling, J. (2020). Out-sourcing refuge: distance, deferral, and immunity in the urban governance of refugees. In S. Pasquetti, & R. Sanyal (Eds.), Displacement: global conversations on refuge. Manchester University Press
• Darling, J. (2020). ‘Another politics of the city’: Urban practices of refuge, advocacy and activism. In E. Cox, S. Durrant, D. Farrier, L. Stonebridge, & A. Wooley (Eds.), Refugee Imaginaries: Research Across the Humanities (554-570). University of Edinburgh Press
• Darling, J. (2019). Sanctuary, presence, and the politics of urbanism. In J. Darling, & H. Bauder (Eds.), Sanctuary Cities and Urban Struggles: Rescaling Migration, Citizenship, and Rights. Manchester University Press
• Darling, J., & Bauder, H. (2019). Introduction: rescaling migration, citizenship, and rights. In J. Darling, & H. Bauder (Eds.), Sanctuary Cities and Urban Struggles: Rescaling Migration, Citizenship, and Rights. University of Manchester Press
• Darling, J. (2017). Refugees. In International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0059
• Darling, J. (2016). Defying the demand to 'go home': from human rights cities to the urbanisation of human rights. In B. Oomen, M. Davis, & M. Grigolo (Eds.), Global Urban Justice: The Rise of Human Rights Cities (121-138). Cambridge University Press
• Wilson, H. F., & Darling, J. (2016). The possibilities of encounter. In H. F. Wilson, & J. Darling (Eds.), Encountering the City: Urban Encounters from Accra to New York (1-24). Routledge
• Darling, J. (2015). What role might cities play in UK asylum policy?. In A. Waddington (Ed.), On Devo (16-18). Manchester University Press
• Darling, J. (2014). Welcome to Sheffield: the less-than-violent geographies of urban asylum. In F. McConnell, N. Megoran, & P. Williams (Eds.), Geographies of Peace (229-249). I.B. Tauris
• Darling, J., & Squire, V. (2013). Everyday enactments of sanctuary: the UK City of Sanctuary movement. In R. Lippert, & S. Rehaag (Eds.), Sanctuary Practices in International Perspectives (191-204). Routledge
• Darling, J. (2010). Just being there...: Ethics, experimentation, and the cultivation of care. In B. Anderson, & P. Harrison (Eds.), Taking-Place: Non-representational theories and geography (241-260). Ashgate Publishing

Edited book

• Wilson, H. F., & Darling, J. (Eds.). (2020). Research Ethics for Human Geography: A Handbook for Students. SAGE Publications
• Darling, J., & Bauder, H. (Eds.). (2019). Sanctuary Cities and Urban Struggles: Rescaling Migration, Citizenship, and Rights. University of Manchester Press
• Darling, J., & Wilson, H. F. (Eds.). (2016). Encountering the City: Urban Encounters from Accra to New York. Routledge

Journal Article

• Darling, J., Barnett, C., & Eldridge, S. (online). City of Sanctuary - a UK initiative for hospitality. Forced migration review, 46-47
• Darling, J., & Burridge, A. (online). Hotels, refuge, and the rise of carceral hospitality. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Article e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.70001
• Darling, J., & Hughes, S. M. (2024). Interview with Jonathan Darling, author of Systems of Suffering: Dispersal and the Denial of Asylum (2022). Migration and Society, 7(1), 206-213. https://doi.org/10.3167/arms.2024.070117
• Darling, J. (2024). Governing through partnership: Strategic migration partnerships and the politics of enrolment and ambivalence. Political Geography, 108, Article 103041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2023.103041
• Roegiers (Mayeux), C., Saharso, S., Tonkens, E., & Darling, J. (2023). Institutional Solidarity in The Netherlands: Examining the Role of Dutch Policies in Women with Migration Backgrounds’ Decisions to Leave a Violent Relationship. Societies, 13(11), Article 243. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13110243
• Darling, J. (2022). The politics of discretion: authority and influence in asylum dispersal. Political Geography, 94, Article 102560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102560
• Till, K. E., Gill, N., Jacobsen, M. H., Darling, J., & O’Reilly, Z. (2022). The In-Between Spaces of Asylum and Migration: A Participatory Visual Approach. The AAG Review of Books, 10(2), 41-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/2325548x.2022.2036549
• Darling, J. (2021). Refugee urbanism: seeing asylum ‘like a city’. Urban Geography, 42(7), 894-914. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1763611
• Darling, J. (2021). The Cautious Politics of “Humanizing” Refugee Research. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 37(2), 56-62. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40798
• Rishbeth, C., Blachnicka-Ciacek, D., & Darling, J. (2019). Participation and wellbeing in urban greenspace: ‘curating sociability’ for refugees and asylum seekers. Geoforum, 106, 125-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.07.014
• Darling, J. (2018). The fragility of welcome – commentary to Gill. Fennia, 196(2), 220-224. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.75756
• Darling, J. (2017). Acts, ambiguities, and the labour of contesting citizenship. Citizenship Studies, 21(6), 727-736. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2017.1341658
• Darling, J. (2016). Asylum in Austere Times: Instability, Privatization and Experimentation within the UK Asylum Dispersal System. Journal of Refugee Studies, 29(4), 483-505. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/few038
• Darling, J. (2016). Privatising asylum: neoliberalisation, depoliticisation and the governance of forced migration. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 41(3), 230-243. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12118
• Darling, J. (2016). Forced migration and the city: irregularity, informality, and the politics of presence. Progress in Human Geography, 41(2), 178-198. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132516629004
• Darling, J. (2016). Forced migrants in the UK
• Darling, J. (2014). Emotions, Encounters and Expectations: The Uncertain Ethics of ‘The Field’. Journal of Human Rights Practice, 6(2), 201-212. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huu011
• Darling, J. (2014). Another Letter from the Home Office: Reading the Material Politics of Asylum. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 32(3), 484-500. https://doi.org/10.1068/d13067p
• Antonsich, M., Fortier, A.-M., Darling, J., Wood, N., & Closs Stephens, A. (2014). Reading Angharad Closs Stephens's The Persistence of Nationalism. From imagined communities to urban encounters. Political Geography, 40, 56-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2014.02.005
• Darling, J. (2014). From Hospitality to Presence. Peace Review, 26(2), 162-169. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2014.906872
• Darling, J. (2014). Asylum and the Post-Political: Domopolitics, Depoliticisation and Acts of Citizenship. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 46(1), 72-91. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12026
• Darling, J. (2013). Moral Urbanism, Asylum, and the Politics of Critique. Environment and Planning A, 45(8), 1785-1801. https://doi.org/10.1068/a45441
• Squire, V., & Darling, J. (2013). The “Minor” Politics of Rightful Presence: Justice and Relationality inCity of Sanctuary. International Political Sociology, 7(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/ips.12009
• Darling, J., Healey, R., & Healey, L. (2012). Seeing the city anew: asylum seeker perspectives on belonging in Greater Manchester
• Darling, J. (2011). Giving space: Care, generosity and belonging in a UK asylum drop-in centre. Geoforum, 42(4), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.02.004
• Darling, J. (2011). Domopolitics, governmentality and the regulation of asylum accommodation. Political Geography, 30(5), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2011.04.011
• Darling, J. (2010). A city of sanctuary: the relational re-imagining of Sheffield’s asylum politics. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00371.x
• Darling, J. (2010). Teaching and Learning Guide for: Thinking Beyond Place: The Responsibilities of a Relational Spatial Politics. Geography Compass, 4(6), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00316.x
• Darling, J. (2009). Thinking Beyond Place: The Responsibilities of a Relational Spatial Politics. Geography Compass, 3(5), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00262.x
• Darling, J. (2009). Becoming Bare Life: Asylum, Hospitality, and the Politics of Encampment. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 27(4), 649-665. https://doi.org/10.1068/d10307