Mr Johnston is a research assistant in the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences. His research focuses on the intersection of environmental governance policy and socio-technical change. Currently, the purpose of his work is to enhance the social and environmental outcomes of developments in data science and artificial intelligence with evidence-based policymaking advocacy.

Alongside his work with the University of Glasgow, he works on financial and economic policy in the Scottish Parliament. Prior to this, he was the Head of Research, Policy & Parliamentary Engagement for a third sector organisation in South Africa, where he focused on government accountability to taxpayers with impact-oriented research, policy advocacy, and data-driven campaigning.

He earned a BSc in Environmental Science with Philosophy from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and a Masters in Environment & Society at the same institution. He is about to complete a PhD in Social Studies of Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience at Coventry University in England. His thesis includes the application of social network analysis, qualitative analysis, and agent based modelling to the governance of waste in different cities in Europe and Africa. The theoretical framing of his doctoral research includes environmental governance and critical institutionalism. He is broadly interested in how traditional qualitative methods can be integrated with computer based social science methods - and how this can be applied to environmental governance challenges in practice.

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The South African National Research Foundation (2016-2018) 

Understanding environmental injustice: the case of Imizamo Yethu at the poverty-population-environment nexus

The European Union's Belmont Forum (2020 - 2022)

Critiquing commodification in environmental governance: examples of urban waste governance in Cape Town, Rotterdam, and Bristol