John Scanlan

John Scanlan works with the In Certain Places project at the University of Central Lancashire, undertaking research and partnership development in West Cumbria. His work in the region is focused broadly on themes of place and culture, and more particularly on cultural infrastructures and ecologies. He has an interdisciplinary academic background and has worked as a lecturer and researcher in sociology, cultural history and philosophy of social sciences. He is the author of eight books, including 'On Garbage' (2005), 'Memory: Encounters with the Strange and the Familiar' (2013) and 'The Idea of Waste: On the Limits of Human Life' (2025).