Jonathan K. London, PhD is an expert in participatory research, rural community development and community-engaged planning. He connects researchers to California’s rural communities by focusing on environmental justice issues.

Dr. London tackles a range of problems from collaboration around forest management in the Sierra Nevada to pollution of drinking water in the state’s agricultural heartland.

He uses engaged scholarship to help both the university and its community partners learn and benefit from working together. Dr. London’s research explores: How social movements use their grassroots, legal and scientific resources to mobilize for environmental justice; the complexities of conflict and collaboration between leaders in advocacy, policy and research; and how environmental hazards are related to race and socio-economic factors in certain populations and places.

Dr. London has conducted groundbreaking research on access to safe drinking water and the health risks of disadvantaged communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley. His research showed that access to safe water wasn’t equal but could be, which influenced the state’s water policies and funding initiatives.

Dr. London also developed the innovative Cumulative Environmental Vulnerability Assessment (CEVA), a socio-spatial methodology that analyzes and maps environmental hazards and social vulnerabilities to help communities develop in sustainable and healthy ways. CEVA was such a success that the State of California created one like it.

As director of the UC Davis Center for Regional Change and co-director of the Community Engagement Core of the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center, Dr. London is a well-known catalyst for policies and research that can build healthy, prosperous, equitable and sustainable regions in California and beyond.

Social Media

Twitter

Positions at UC Davis

Associate Professor, Department of Human Ecology

Director, Center for Regional Change

Areas of Expertise

• Community-engaged research
• Environmental justice policy
• Health disparities
• Rural community development
• Regional equity
• Social movements
• Socio-spatial methodology

Major Reserch Papers

Nabiyeva GN, Wheeler SM, London JK, Brazil N. Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): Initial Good Practices Data. Sustainability. 2023; 15(20):14810. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152014810

Haapanen KA, London JK, Andrade K. Creating the Current and Riding the Wave: Persistence and Change in Community-Engaged Health Sciences Research. Social Sciences. 2023; 12(5):312. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12050312

N Erbstein, JK London, S Katwal, B Poudel. Authentic Collaboration and Active Commitment to Equity: An Evolving Case of Centering Marginalized Voices in Education Abroad. Frontiers The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad; 34(3):73-93. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v34i3.676

Choueiri Y, Lund J, London JK, Spang ES. (Un)Affordability of Informal Water Systems: Disparities in a Comparative Case Study in Beirut, Lebanon. Water. 2022; 14(17):2713. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14172713

Jonathan K. London (2022) Defying gravity: environmental justice rises in California’s capital city, Local Environment, 27:5, 554-569, https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2022.2048254