Research

My interests lie in urban studies, geography, planning and critical theory. My research explores how urban spaces are socially produced, imagined, performed and contested, and it is concerned in particular with the possibilities of urban society and life, and with how these can be reimagined and reconstituted within and against processes of capitalist urbanisation.

One of my key aims has been to rethink and revitalise the concept of utopia for studies of urbanism and urban futures, especially through addressing twentieth-century modernist and avant-garde movements (including through my book Visions of the City). That has involved engaging with the ideas and practices of the situationists among others, and with exploring the significance of their legacies today. I have been developing this through addressing relations between utopia, critical urban theory and related fields that include urban planning, art and literature.

Other current research projects are on art, performance and spatial politics, and on artistic practices as means of exploring and intervening in cities. That includes through developing my long-standing interests in psychogeography, walking, radical cartographies, and sound art. Among my publications in this area are a guest edited issue of Cultural Geographies on 'Arts of urban exploration', and more recently a co-edited special issue of Performance Research 'On drifting' (2018). I am currently writing a book on the politics and poetics of urban walking.

I have further worked on ephemeral and nomadic urbanism, in relation to which I have written on the politics of mobile and temporary architectures with reference to Archigram, Yona Friedman and others. In addition I am part of a Velux-funded project headed by Mikkel Bille on Living with Nordic Lighting, which includes theoretical and methodological exploration of urban atmospheres; and a Formas-funded project headed by Karin Grundström at Malmö University on spatial justice, commons and pathways. I am currently starting up a new NordForsk-funded network that is critically exploring Nordic conceptions of 'liveability' and the 'liveable city'.

I am on the editorial boards of the journals Cultural Geographies, Performance Matters and Nuart. See also my profile at: https://ruc-dk.academia.edu/DavidPinder

Academic positions

Before joining RUC, I taught at Queen Mary University of London for sixteen years. My BA and PhD were both in Geography from the University of Cambridge, after which I taught at the University of Southampton for four years. I have been a research fellow at Princeton University (at the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies), and at CUNY Graduate Centre in New York (at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics). I was previously a Velux Visiting Professor at Roskilde University in 2011. More recently I was a visiting fellow for an interdisciplinary project on 'Urban creativity' at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University, in 2018.

Teaching

My current teaching is in urban studies, planning, geography and interdisciplinary social science.  I have co-directed and taught on our international master's programme in Nordic Urban Planning Studies since it was launched in collaboration with Malmö University and UiT The Arctic University of Norway in 2019.  I also teach on masters programmes in Geography; Planning Studies (Plan, By og Proces), and Spatial Designs and Society. I further contribute to the International Bachelor Study Programme in Social Sciences, especially through courses on 'Philosophy of social science' and 'Planning, space and resources'.

I am interested in supervising projects on urban and cultural questions relating to my interests outlined above. To date I have supervised 20 PhD students to successful completion as primary or secondary supervisor. I welcome interest from prospective or visiting doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in areas of the social sciences and humanities relating to my own.