After teaching  in further education for many years, I decided to return to university study. As a part-time student at the University of Bristol, I studied for an MSc and then a PhD. My thesis focused Michel Foucault’s use of space as an analytical tool, covering philosophy, human geography and history. Since retiring from full-time employment in 2018, I have worked as an independent scholar, studying researching and writing about  Michel Serres’ reflections on the planetary emergency. I have published articles about Serres’ ecological philosophy in several academic journals, including Environmental Humanities (2021) Cultural Geography (2022), Theory, Culture and Society (2023) and Angelaki (2024). The research for these articles has taken me to consider a range of different perspectives on the climate emergency from journalists, climate activists, novelists, Indigenous writers and scientists. A series of books, under the title Philosophy for a Time of Crisis, were published in 2026

The idea for a website is a way of reaching a wider audience beyond the rather insular confines of the academic world. 

 ‘The Inclusive Philosophy of Michel Serres’ (2021) is published online for free by Duke University Press in the journal Environmental Humanities. 

‘Michel Serres and the reinvention of ecological thought’ is published freely by MOTH, New York University.

Published work: 

Johnson, Peter. (2026) Michel Serres and the reinvention of ecological thought. MOTH: New York University.

Johnson, Peter. (2026) Michel Serres- a Global Response to a Multiple Crisis (Philosophy for a Time of Crisis 2). Arran: EcologyPress. My Books

Johnson, Peter. (2026) Michel Serres and Climate Crisis (Philosophy for a Time of Crisis 1). Arran: EcologyPress. My Books

Johnson, Peter (2026) Michel Serres and the Planetary Emergency (Ebook). Arran: EcologyPress. My Books

Johnson, Peter. (2024) ‘Stories of the Parasite and Symbiosis at a Time of Crisis’. Angelaki, 29 (4): 78–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2024.2382600 

Johnson, Peter. (2023), ‘Michel Serres’ Neglected Political Ecology in Dialogue with Bruno Latour’s Figure of Gaia’. Theory, Culture & Society, 40 (6): 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764231175815 

Johnson, Peter. (2021), ‘More-than-human geographies: an encounter with Serres’ universality’. Cultural Geographies, 29 (3): 405-418. https://doi.org/10.1177/14744740211055209 

Johnson, Peter. (2021) ‘The Inclusive Philosophy of Michel Serres for Our Time of Crisis’. Environmental Humanities, 13 (2): 459–469.  https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-9320244 

Johnson, Peter. (2020), ‘Thinking With, Through and For Nature – Michel Serres, Branches’. Anthropocenes – Human, Inhuman, Posthuman 1(1): 15.  https://doi.org/10.16997/ahip.34 

Johnson, Peter. (2020), ‘New Communication Technologies and the Transformation of Space: Lessons from Michel Serres’ Thumbelina’ in F. Simon, I. Souch and D. Wesselman (eds.) Heterotopia and Globalisation in the Twenty-First Century. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pages 147-161.

Johnson, Peter. (2019), ‘The ambiguity of Gardens’ in S. Rosenthal (ed) Garten der irdischen Freuden (Garden of Earthly Delights), Gropius Bau: Berlin. 

Johnson, Peter. (2013), ‘The Geographies of Heterotopia’. Geography Compass, 7: 790-803. 
https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12079 

Johnson, Peter. (2008), ‘Foucault’s Spatial Combat’. Environment and Planning D, 26 (4): 611-626. https://doi.org/10.1068/d3007 

Johnson, Peter. (2006), ‘Unravelling Foucault’s “Different Spaces”’. History of the Human Sciences, 19 (4): 75-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695106069669