Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Andrew Walton

Senior Lecturer in Political Philosophy

  • Address: Politics
    Henry Daysh Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle Upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Dr Andrew Walton is a Senior Lecturer in Political Philosophy at Newcastle University.

Google scholar: Click here.

Media

Affiliations

  • Associate Member, Centre for Ethics, Law, and Public Affairs, University of Warwick
  • Research Fellow, Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (Genève)

Previous positions

  • Visiting Associate Professor, University of Warwick
  • Research Fellow, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona
  • Visiting Scholar, Lund University
  • Assistant Professor in Political Theory, University of St. Gallen
  • Teaching Fellow, University College London

Qualifications

  • BA History & Politics, University of Warwick
  • MA Globalisation & Development, University of Warwick
  • PhD Political Theory, University of Warwick
Research

Research Interests

  • Moral analysis in public policy
  • Housing supply and regulation
  • Residential and community integration
  • Cultural representation and public spaces
  • Animal rights and plant-based diets
  • Trade justice and economic ethics
  • Liberal-egalitarian and socialist thought


Current Work


The current focus of my research is the use of methods and ideas drawn from moral and political philosophy to inform debate on a range of contemporary policy issues, particularly around housing and communities and the promotion of plant-based diets. I have two ongoing projects in this area and a monograph that introduces the general approach:


Inequalities and Urban Spaces - In this research, I explore questions of justice that arise in cities and greater urban areas. At the project's centre is an account of inequality that emphasises (1) improving the prospects of the least-advantaged and (2) enhancing the role of under-represented groups in the evolving cultural environment. This framework permeates thinking in three areas of policy and practice. The first is housing, where it has implications for the types and geographical spread of accommodation, how to ensure adequate and affordable shelter for all, and what kinds of building regulation are suitable for high-density environments. The second is neighbourhoods and communities, where it has implications for advancing residential integration through processes that avoid burdening the disadvantaged with transitional costs or stifling their cultural context. The third is public spaces, where it provides a basis for affirmative action in roles connected to urban design and local politics. Recent and ongoing outputs in this area:

  • 'Neighbourhood Demographic Quotas and Limits of the Right to Sort' (with Hwa Young Kim), Political Philosophy (2026)
  • 'Residential Integration on Fair Terms for the Disadvantaged' (with Hwa Young Kim), British Journal of Political Science, 53:2 (2023) 
  • Justice in the City (monograph under preparation)


Justice and Plant-Based Diets - In this research, I explore arguments for public institutions promoting plant-based diets, with a particular emphasis on the climate change and animal welfare arguments for doing so. One branch of this research looks broadly at public institutions, considering their capacity to affect change and as branches of the state and whether the promotion of plant-based diets is compatible with demands of liberal neutrality and equal treamtment. Another branch focuses specifically on the role of schools educating students about plant-based diets and their role intervening to help develop citizens with a sense of justice. Recent work in this area:


Moral Analysis in Public Policy - The approach to these research projects rests on a framework for using the tools of moral and political philosophy in assessing public policy that I developed with co-authors Will Abel, Elizabeth Kahn, and Tom Parr:


Recent work


Justice and trade - In this research, I explore how we should conceptualise the idea of 'trade justice'. I argue that we that we should reason about 'trade justice' in a holistic sense, understanding and applying moral principles to the domain of trade as part of an 'institutional package', both in the regulation of international trade and individual ethics. Recent publications include:


Postgraduate supervision


I would be interested in supervising postgraduate research in any of the areas listed under my research interests and more generally across the terrain of domestic or global political philosophy 

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching 

POL2090: Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion: Social Issues in Contemporary Political Philosophy


Postgraduate Teaching

POL8068: The Moral Limits of the Market: Public Policy Projects

Publications