Dr Janine Hunter

Recent and ongoing projects

Post Doctoral Research Fellow, CoastMan

This ESRC-funded project (an International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation): Co-developing a Decision Support System for Coastal Mangrove-based Socio-ecological Systems in Eastern and Western Africa (CoastMan), explores coastal mangrove restoration in Eastern and Western Africa, focusing on climate change, ecosystems and socio-economic dynamics, especially youth future livelihood trajectories, in Ghana and Tanzania. Joining scholars from Canada, Ghana, Norway, and Tanzania with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, my role focuses on data collection, analysis, project dissemination and knowledge exchange, helping to respond to the challenges facing coastal mangrove ecosystems (April 2026 – May 2027).

Co-Investigator and Researcher for 2REST: Responsibilities for Resilience Embedded in Street Temporalities: mapping street youth lived resiliences through analysis of secondary data
2REST adopts a multisystemic resilience approach that analyses secondary data from Growing up on the Streets, identifying the risks street children and youth face and resources they engage, demonstrating that beyond individual resilience, multiple systems – healthcare, shelter, and WASH facilities; social and security services and NGOs – play vital roles in helping young people achieve the lives of value they seek. 2REST has an international multidisciplinary team including academics and early career researchers in Uganda and South Africa, with an International Academic and Policy Advisory Board, including and street youth, from around the world. My responsibilities are leading data management and ethical review processes, the creation of targeted policy and advocacy tools, and NVivo coding and analysis: my training for developing an analysis framework and collaborative NVivo coding is published open access as 2REST’s Teamwork Toolkit. 

A two-year project funded by the ESRC (Oct 2023 – Mar 2026), 2REST’s global engagement strategy (funded by the SFC’s International Science Partnership Fund; March – July 2026) works with NGO, academic and government partners in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa to impact international, national and regional policies and implementation on street children and youth through online and in-person meetings and collaborations.

Research Assistant, International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership: Intergenerational Partnerships While Growing up on the Streets. 
This case study for the ICCRP explores intergenerational trust relationships among street children and youth and adults, using secondary data analysis of data from Growing up on the Streets. (Sep 2022–Dec 2026).

Researcher for Growing up on the Streets. Growing up on the Streets was a longitudinal, ethnographic participatory research project taking place in three African cities, co-produced with street children and youth, the research design employed a capability (rather than vulnerability) approach to their lives (Jan 2013 – Dec 2022). I developed NVivo coding frameworks, managed data sets and undertook descriptive analysis of the data and coding in NVivo over six years, and anonymised this vast data set of 2,478 weekly reports created by 18 street youth researchers and their networks of 229 young people, plus narratives of over 500 street children and youth aged 15-24 living in street settings across 198 focus groups, and four annual surveys (694 total), analysed in SPSS and Excel.

Collaborating with UK and international colleagues on writing and production of policy outputs, including briefing papers, story maps and training materials including the award-winning Knowledge Exchange Training Pack, used globally in development of national and UN policies, and now incorporated into Consortium for Street Children’s Resource Pack for Participatory Advocacy - CSC.

Related Projects:

• Co-Investigator and Researcher, Youth Engagement in Analysis Programme
  Devised with Professor Lorraine van Blerk, the Youth Engagement in Analysis Programme undertook a novel approach to involve Dundee school children in participatory analysis of secondary data around trusting relationships between street youth and adults such as street social workers. (Mar–June 2023).
• Researcher and Co-Investigator, Growing up on the Streets Fellowship Programme: Building Capacity and Creating Influence. Three ECR academic Fellows from Ghana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe engaged in capacity building, data analysis and co-production of academic articles at University of Dundee (Jan-Mar 2020). I led NVivo qualitative analysis training and co-writing academic papers. Project Extension for continuing collaboration on publications (Aug 2020–Jul 2021).
• Growing up on the Streets (legacy). Story map developed with street youth and street social workers in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Street Life in the City on the Edge: Street youth recount their daily lives in Bukavu, DRC and a version of the story map in French: Vie de rue dans la ville à la frontière: Des jeunes de la rue racontent leurs vies quotidiennes à Bukavu, RDC (Jan–Mar 2022).
• Growing up on the Streets (legacy) – Story map developed with street youth and street workers in Harare, Zimbabwe: In the Shadow of a Pandemic: Harare's Street Youth Experience COVID-19 (https://arcg.is/1q4WvH) (Jun–Jul 2020).
• Growing up on the Streets / University of Dundee Stephen Fry Award: Working with Growing up on the Streets street youth participants co-created: Growing up on the Streets: A Story Map by Accra’s Street Youth

Research Assistant, Displaced Communities, Environmental Degradation and Sustainable Livelihoods in Uganda. This project employed an innovative methodology combining qualitative and participatory methods with natural science remote sensing techniques to examine the relationships between forced migration and environmental change. (Aug 2020–Jul 2021).

Research Assistant, Antislavery using Satellite Technology for Uganda’s Sustainability, an exploratory project into the use of new satellite image technology and how it may be used to aid efforts in anti-trafficking of people in Uganda. (Aug 2020–Mar 2021)

Research Assistant, Youth Transitions in Protracted Crises, exploring experiences of long-term displacement for young refugees in Uganda and Jordan. Funded by DFID, I developed an online survey using ArcGIS Survey123 delivered via tablets and completed on site in refugee settlements with youth participants and local partners, and analysis in SPSS and Excel. I also created outputs including project reports and briefing papers. 

• In March 2026, I recreated the project story map (due to a platform change): Young refugees in Jordan and Uganda: A story map

Selected recent publications 

van Blerk, L., Hunter, J., Bamutaze, Y., Bukenya, B., Hewitson, L., Kibrigie, J., Kintu, I., Cutler, M. (2026). Exploring a Scalar Nexus Approach to Understanding Environmental Change Around Refugee Settlements in Uganda. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2026.2617553 (OPEN ACCESS)

Theron, L., Gama, N., Ramabulana, F., Ssenfuuma, J. T., Bukenya, B., Hunter, J., Jamieson, L., van Blerk, L. (2026). Mapping multisystemic protective resources supporting resilience among street youth: a systematic scoping review of qualitative studies. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2025.2611154

Sargent, K., Hunter, J., Dumitriu, R. & Blerk, L. (2026). Political Practices in African Cities: The Future for Street-Living Youth. In C. Erdal & J. Kennelly (Ed.), De Gruyter Handbook of Youth Activism (pp. 345-356). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111215105-034                   

Dankyi, E., van Blerk L., Hunter, J., McFadden, A. (2024). Considering an agency–vulnerability nexus in the lives of street children and youth. In: Imoh, A.T.-D., de Castro, L.R., & Naftali, O. (Eds.). Studies of Childhoods in the Global South: Towards an Epistemic Turn in Transnational Childhood Research? (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003470205

Dankyi, E., van Blerk L., Hunter, J., McFadden, A. (2024). Considering an agency–vulnerability nexus in the lives of street children and youth. In: Imoh, A.T.-D., de Castro, L.R., & Naftali, O. (Eds.). Studies of Childhoods in the Global South: Towards an Epistemic Turn in Transnational Childhood Research? (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003470205

Hunter, J., van Blerk, L., Shand, W. & Lamptey, R. O. (2024). Street youth as human billboards – a paradox of performed street citizenship: Novel political participation by street youth in Ghana. In: Pincock, K., Jones, N., Van Blerk, L. & Gumbonzvanda, N. (eds.). Young People in the Global South: Voice, Agency and Citizenship. Taylor and Francis Group, p. 213-224. DOI: 10.4324/9781003341666-22 (OPEN ACCESS)

van Blerk, L., Hunter, J. & Shand, W. (2024) Crisis temporalities and ongoing capabilities in the lives of young people growing up on the streets of African cities: An ethnographic longitudinal perspective. Area, 56(1), March 2024: e12892. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12892. DOI: 10.1111/area.12892 (OPEN ACCESS)

van Blerk, L., Hunter, J., Shand, W., and Prazeres, L. (2022). Creating stories for impact: co-producing knowledge with young people through story mapping. Area, 55, 99–107.  https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12816 (OPEN ACCESS)

van Blerk, L., Shand, W., Prazeres, L., Bukenya, B., Essaid, A. A., Hunter, J., Ibrahim, R. W. & Kasirye, R. (2022). Youth transitions in protracted crises: conceptualising the ‘rupture’ of refugees’ pathways to adulthood in Uganda and Jordan. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 47, 315–330.  https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12500

Hunter, J., van Blerk, L. Shand, W. (2021). The influence of peer relationships on young people’s sexual health in Sub-Saharan African street contexts. Social Science & Medicine. 288: 113285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113285 and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32829967/ (OPEN ACCESS)

van Blerk, L. Shand, W., Hunter, J. (2020). ‘Street citizenship’: informal processes of engaging youth as citizens through research and knowledge exchange in three African cities. Space and Polity. 24(3): 330-345. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2020.1747937

Awards

• January 2017 – Growing up on the Streets won the University’s Stephen Fry Public Engagement Project of the Year Award.
• December 2015 – Growing up on the Streets was awarded the 2016 Market Research Society’s President’s Medal in recognition of its extraordinary contribution to impact.
• October 2014 – my Masters dissertation, ‘The Implementation of a Single Scottish Police Force: The View from the Beats’ was Highly Commended by the Howard League for Penal Reform’s John Sunley Prize.
• March 2014 – Distinction, Masters in Research (Applied Social Research, University of Stirling).