Gemma John

Anthropologist

After ten years in academic research, I've spent the last five years working for engineering, planning, and architecture firms. I was a consultant at AECOM before joining Foster + Partners. Since establishing Human City in 2017, I've advised on a range of residential, retail and workplace projects in the private and public sector. Historically, I have contributed to anthropological debates about knowledge, expertise, and personhood in relation my Ph.D. on access to information law in Scotland. Today, I focus on applying my anthropological knowledge to real estate investment and asset management, and help to create places that deliver social value. I am currently designing a research project that illuminates the way in which approaches to ‘the social’ shape practices of inclusivity in urban development projects. I am a public speaker.