My current research investigates local and global tensions regarding labour, land use and commodification of natural resources.  I have a particular interest in Scottish land reform, mineral prospecting in Ireland and the territorial demarcations and resistance by agrarian, traditional and indigenous communities in the Global South.  I currently work closely with academics and civil society organisations in Scotland, Europe, Africa, Brazil and Latin America and share an ambition to challenge Eurocentric and colonial paradigms in our collective research. I am co-founder of the Centre for the Political Economy of Labour, which seeks to reflect this ambition in its praxis. 

At the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation, I teach on several undergraduate and MSc courses and focus on labour, migration, organisational strategies and collective resistance linked to globalised commodity chains and extractive industries. I have supervised PhD and post doctoral studies on south-south migration, pesticide harm, forestry and land reform, labour organisation and gender, and community repsonses to dispoessession and deindustrialisation.  I welcome interest from potential PhD candidates on any of the broad themes of my research.

I favour and am experienced in participative and action research methodologies. I have consistently worked across disciplines, including sociology, environmental studies, geography, engineering and law, to place changes to work and labour in the context of new technologies, new sites of production and emerging commodity chains.  I am regularly involved in creative group facilitation and worker representation beyond traditional academic practices.