Résumé
Paul Chatterton is Professor of Urban Futures at the University of Leeds and one of the UK's leading voices on post-carbon cities, community-led housing, and grassroots climate action. Over more than three decades he has worked at the boundary between academic research and real-world change, producing knowledge through action and returning it to the communities who need it most.
His books Unlocking Sustainable Cities (Pluto Press, 2019) and How to Save the City (Agenda, 2023) offer accessible guides for the transformations we urgently need, and have been widely adopted by practitioners, activists, and policymakers across the UK and beyond.
Paul has worked with communities, local authorities, national governments, and international organisations to develop actionable pathways towards zero-carbon, socially just urban futures. He believes that another world is not only possible; it is necessary.
Research
Paul's research centres on post-carbon urban transitions, community-led housing, co-production, and the political economy of sustainable cities. He has led major funded projects through the ESRC, AHRC, the Leverhulme Trust and the European Union, as well as programmes including Climate Action Leeds, a city-wide climate mobilisation project funded by the National Lottery, and the Leeds Co-Production Lab, which developed alternatives to neoliberal urban governance. His earlier work pioneered the concept of autonomous geographies and post-capitalist urban commons. His publications span Nature Sustainability, Progress in Human Geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Antipode, and many others. He has supervised over 20 PhD students.
Career Timeline
Research Career Begins
Began doctoral research in Bristol exploring urban politics, social movements and the possibilities of post-capitalist city-making — laying the foundation for three decades of activist scholarship.
Urban and Regional Development
First job at the University of Newcastle in the centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, exploring critical approaches to cities, regions and sustainability.
Volunteer work in Mexico
spends time in the Chiapas state of Mexico, volunteering with the Zapatista base communities of the EZLN building water systems in rural farming communities.
University of Leeds
Joined the School of Geography at the University of Leeds as a lecturer, where he is now Professor of Urban Futures and one of the UK's leading critical urban researchers.
Autonomous activism
Helps set up the Common Place social centre, one of several cutting edge radical autonomous social centres around the UK that organised for a transformative local and global change.
Autonomous Geographies
Pioneered the concept of autonomous geographies and post-capitalist urban commons, influencing a generation of radical geographers and urban scholars worldwide.
Anti-coal activism
Led the trial of the Drax 29, who stopped a coal train going to Drax power station - the UK's largest source of greenhouse gases. Ultimately, this action slows down and eventually stops coal burning for electricity in the UK.
LILAC Co-Housing Opens
Co-founded LILAC (Low Impact Living Affordable Community) in Leeds: the UK's first affordable ecological co-housing project, using innovative straw-bale construction and a Mutual Home Ownership Society model.
Leeds City Lab
Directed the Leeds Co-Production Lab, developing alternatives to neoliberal urban governance through deep community partnership and participatory action research.
Leeds Community Homes
Co-founded Leeds Community Homes, a community land trust working to create permanently affordable housing and challenge the extractive housing market.
Unlocking Sustainable Cities
Published with Pluto Press — a manifesto for real change that became widely adopted by practitioners, activists, and policymakers across the UK and beyond.
Climate Action Leeds
Strategy Lead for the National Lottery funded Climate Action Leeds city-wide mobilisation, engaging 8,700+ people around a shared zero-carbon goal and producing the Leeds Doughnut Economics Portrait, and supporting the Imagine Leeds climate action hub.
How to Save the City
Published with Agenda — a guide for action on the triple climate, social and ecological emergencies bringing three decades of research into a handbook for communities, campaigners and local governments.
Degrowth and Decoloniality
Current research explores doughnut economics, degrowth and decoloniality, published in Local Environment and leading international journals. Continuing to supervise the next generation of activist-scholars. Developing international links in Indonesia and Ghana on decolonisation and planet repairs
Civic Engagement
Appointed as a Civic Exchange Fellow by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds in recognition of his civic role in the city and region.
Community & Activism
Paul is as committed to activism as to scholarship. He co-founded LILAC (Low Impact Living Affordable Community), the UK's first affordable ecological co-housing project in Leeds, which pioneered the Mutual Home Ownership Society model. He co-founded Leeds Community Homes, a community land trust, as well as the Antipode charitable Foundation and Leeds Love it Share It Community Interest Company. As strategy lead for Climate Action Leeds he helped mobilise over 8,700 people around a shared goal of zero carbon by the 2030s and produced the Leeds Doughnut Economics Portrait. He is also a co-founder of the Remaking Places Interdisciplinary Research Network, and is currently Chair of Kirkstall Valley Park, Director of Clean Energy Leeds and People Powered Homes. In 2026 he was appointed as an Inaugural Civic Exchange Fellow of the University of Leeds.
Academic Profiles
Let's Work Together
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