Dr Thomas Aneurin Smith

Research Interests

Environmental knowledges; Human-nature interactions; Local participation and environmental management; Environmental change in rural and urban communities in the Global South; Geographies of young people; Learning, space and time; Qualitative and participatory methods.

Current research

Tom’s current research is focused on these key areas:

Knowing the global South, knowing the global North:
This research aims to explore the interface between Development Geographies and the Geographies of Young People by examining how knowledges of development, and knowledges of the global North and the global South, are produced and reproduced. I am interested in how young people from both the global North and the global South have agency in the production and reproduction of knowledges of development, particularly how ‘other’ young people experience development. I aim to develop a critical understanding of how young people’s agency can be enacted across space, both at a distance and through proximate encounters, and to explore how geographies of responsibility (as well as geographies of learning and ‘knowing’) towards and about ‘distant others’ are learnt through particular spatial practices. I am interested in how young people come to learn and know of ‘distant others’, how they interpret and understand their lives, and how young people (from both the global South and North) may have agency in producing knowledges of development and the lives of others.

Knowing the environment:
This research seeks to examine how individuals and communities (particularly in the global South) come to ‘know’, value, and understand environmental resources, and how these knowledges change over time and space. Specifically, I am interested in exploring how individuals, communities and groups in the global South respond to the values placed on environment, nature, and particular resources by ecosystem services projects (as well as other environmental projects associated with climate change mitigation), and how these values come to interact with other forms of value and knowledge. This research will seek to examine the interface of different forms of environmental knowledge, with a particular focus on the role of both formal and informal forms of education and how knowledges can be produced and reproduced spatially. I am further interested in how environmental resources can be understood in both abstract and material ways, and how both local understandings and those from ‘outside’ may represent and reinterpret values of the environment through abstraction.

Previous research

Tom’s doctoral research sought to explore the impacts of non-governmental organisation and state projects aimed at educating young people about environmental issues in Tanzania.

As such, the project examined the interface between local environmental knowledges (particularly those of young people), scientific/western knowledges (often associated with environmental conservation) and environmental change in urban and rural communities in Tanzania. Working with government actors, non-governmental organisations, teachers, young people, and adults in both urban and rural communities, this research sought to develop an understanding of how environmental education projects may affect the dynamics of environmental knowledge and management practices within Tanzanian communities. The project explored how different environmental knowledges, for example, those associated with environmental conservation, local spiritual practices, and local traditional methods of environmental management, are learnt and enacted through and in particular spaces. I argue that these processes of spatial learning are important for understanding local environmental governance, as well as the sustainability of certain environmental management practices.

Tom’s doctoral project was further concerned with issues of local participation and local empowerment towards environmental resource management and environmental action associated with projects run by non-governmental organisations. He investigated the role of young people as environmental actors in both urban and rural communities, and explored some of the theoretical and practical debates around the interface of education, learning and empowerment.

Teaching and supervision

Undergraduate Teaching
Tom teaches on a number of undergraduate modules which reflect his interests in the Geographies of Development as well as research design and methods. Tom uses a range of teaching and learning techniques including lectures, seminars, questioning and small group work, and is always interested in exploring innovative pedagogical techniques. He uses examples of his own research throughout his courses, and supports important critical and theoretical debates with empirical examples. Tom aims with all of his teaching to support students in becoming independent, critical and self-reflective in their learning whilst also engaging with contemporary theoretical and practical debates. He teaches on the following modules at undergraduate level:
GEO103 Region, Nation, World
GEO221 Geographies of Development (Course Coordinator)
GEO336 Development and Global change

Tom also acts as a supervisor and personal tutor on the following modules:
GEO163 Information and Communication Skills for Geographers
GEO264 Research Design in Human Geography
GEO356 Geographical Research Project

Masters Teaching
At Masters level Tom teaches on the Masters in International Development Course, and engages students through a range of sessions including structured seminars, student-led sessions, discussion groups, and lectures. In these courses he also uses a range of assessment techniques, including student presentations and policy briefs, alongside essay-format assessment. Tom draws from his own research in environmental management, participatory development and participatory research, and his work on education with young people in Tanzania. He teaches on the following modules:
GEO6801 Ideas and Practice in International Development
GEO6802 Research Design and Methods for Development
GEO6803 Professional Skills
GEO6806 Key Issues in Environment and Development (Course Coordinator)
GEO6808 HIV/AIDS and International Development

Supervision
Tom currently supervises both Masters and Undergraduate research projects

Key Publications

• Smith, T.A. (2013). The dominant/marginal lives of young Tanzanians: Spaces of knowing at the intersection of Children's Geographies and Development Geographies. Geoforum, 48, 10-23.
• Smith, T.A. (2014, in press). Unsettling the ethical interviewer: emotions, personality, ethics and the interview. In: Lunn, J. (Ed) Fieldwork in the Global South: Ethical Challenges and Dilemmas. Routledge, London.
• Smith, T.A. (2011). Local knowledge in development (geography). Geography Compass, 5(8), 595-609.