John Francis Lagman is an educator and social development worker from the Philippines. He's been a visiting researcher of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), pursuing a Master in Anthropology through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) Labour project with the European Commission.

He started documenting the lives of Manila's urban poor in 2006 while working as a media advocacy officer of the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), a non-government organization that advocates housing rights. That year he also started working as a correspondent for the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCANews), writing mostly about Church and social issues. In 2012 he dedicated a year as a street educator of the International Children’s Action Network (ICAN) Foundation, teaching and caring for children on the street.

At the same time he got connected with the Institute on Social Theory and Dynamics (ISTD), a non-profit academic organization in Hiroshima, Japan that performs theoretical and empirical studies on the structure and dynamics of change in modern societies. He was involved in two collaborative research work: International Comparative Study of Labor and Living of the Homeless in 4 Global Cities (Manila, Tokyo, Osaka and Miami); Structure and Transformation of Metro Manila from Over-urbanized City to Global City. He went to Japan in 2013 and 2016 to present the output of his research work. He contributed research in the Chapter 18 of a book entitled Comparative Study on Urban Poverty in Global Cities which was edited by Keiko Yamaguchi and Hideo Aoki and published in Tokyo, Japan by Minerva Shobo in 2020. Since 2013 he’s been working with PAKISAMA, a national confederation of family farmer organizations in the Philippines that advocates land rights and sustainable organic agriculture. He has managed projects related to participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E), participatory geographic information system (PGIS), research and participatory video production.

Contacter John Francis Lagman

T: +63 9183328865 (Philippines)