Staff Profile:Dr Andrew Ainslie
- Name:
- Dr Andrew Ainslie
- Job Title:
- Lecturer in International Rural Development
- Responsibilities:
-
- Programme Director: MSc Environment and Development
- Teaching: Module Convenor for
IDM092: Global Environmental Change and Development (MSc level, 20 credits)
AP2ID2: Approaches to Development (Part 2, 20 credits)
And contribute to teaching on
IDM001: Perspectives on Development
RRDP: Graduate School Reading Researcher Development Programme- MSc Dissertation supervision
2014/15: seven MSc students
2013/14: eight MSc students.
2012/13: four MSc students.
- Co-developer of the free, open online course 'Our Hungry Planet'
Research Interests:
- System-wide drivers of agrarian change and ecosystem resilience;
- Governance, including the role of 'traditional' institutions in managing land, livestock and environmental resources;
- Scientific/agricultural/local knowledge systems and interfaces, modes of learning and innovation;
- Food in/security, livelihood analysis and research into inequality and global poverty eradication;
- The global food system and agricultural commodity/value chains, particularly related to the global beef value chain.
- Economic anthropology and contested (inter)cultural interpretations of value
- Critical perspectives on international development theory and practice;
- Global migration flows and rural-urban mobilities;
- Qualitative research methods and interdisciplinarity;
- Technology-enhanced methods of teaching and learning.
Postgraduate supervision:
I am keen to discuss proposals from students for doctoral research in any of the areas mentioned above, particularly but not exclusively in relation to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Current PhD supervision:
- Sam Poskitt, 'Examining the Role of Scenario-Planning Processes for Promoting Sustainable Resource Management' (ESRC-funded, first supervisor, co-supervision with Kerry Waylen at the James Hutton Institute)
- Jeremiah Obegi, 'The role of rural organisations and innovations in enhancing rural farmer's livelihoods: A case of the Kenyan dairy industry' (second supervisor, co-supervision with Peter Dorward)
Recently completed/submitted PhD students:
- Joana vaz da Sousa, 'People-wildlife interactions in Guinea-Bissau.' (second supervisor, co-supervision with Prof. Kate Hill at Oxford Brookes University). Joana graduated in March 2015.
- David Enibe, 'Breadfruit and development in south eastern Nigeria' (second supervisor, co-supervision with Peter Dorward). David submitted his thesis in September 2015.
- Areas of Interest:
- Research groups / Centres:
- International Development Research Group
- Graduate Institute of International Development and Applied Economics
- Centre for Food Security
Key facts:
I trained as a social anthropologist. My specialism is in understanding change in agrarian environments and specifically in livestock systems. I conduct research that is most often at the interface between different knowledge systems. I read for a BSocSc (Honours) and an MSocSc (Rhodes University) both with distinction, and I hold a PhD in Social Anthropology (University College London). In 2012, I completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PCTHE) with distinction from Oxford Brookes University.
I first worked as a Researcher at Rhodes University's Institute of Social and Economic Research (1994-1997), and subsequently for the Agricultural Research Council (in South Africa, during 1997-2007). I was then employed as a Researcher by an NGO, Khanya-aicdd, in 2007-08. In 2009, I conducted fieldwork research into indigenous veterinary practices in South Africa, taking up an Oppenheimer Visiting Fellowship at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University, to write up this material. In early 2010, I was employed at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, where I worked in the Scenarios Development Team of the CGIAR programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). In 2011, I secured an early career fellowship in 'Environment, Conservation and Development' at Oxford Brookes University (2011-2012). I was appointed as Lecturer in International Rural Development at the University of Reading in January 2013.
I am an Associate Editor (since Sep 2013) of the African Journal of Range and Forage Science. I am a Committee Member of the Biosocial Society and of the �Anthropology and the Environment� Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London. I review papers for a number of journals and have served on Assessment Panels for the DFID/NERC/ESRC Ecosystems Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme and for the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa.
- Publications:
-
YNumber of items: 12.
2016
- Ainslie, A. and Kepe, T. (2016) Understanding the resurgence of traditional authorities in post-apartheid South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 42 (1). pp. 19-33. ISSN 0305-7070 doi: 10.1080/03057070.2016.1121714
2014
- Ainslie, A. (2014) Harnessing the ancestors: mutuality, uncertainty and ritual practice in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Africa, 84 (4). pp. 530-552. ISSN 0001-9720 doi: 10.1017/S0001972014000448
2013
- Brown, K., Ainslie, A. and Beinart, W. (2013) Animal disease and the limits of local knowledge: dealing with ticks and tick-borne diseases in South Africa. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 19 (2). pp. 319-337. ISSN 1359-0987 doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.12035
- Chaudhury, M., Vervoort, J., Kristjanson, P., Ericksen, P. and Ainslie, A. (2013) Participatory scenarios as a tool to link science and policy on food security under climate change in East Africa. Regional Environmental Change, 13 (2). pp. 389-398. ISSN 1436-378X doi: 10.1007/s10113-012-0350-1
- Bennett, J., Ainslie, A. and Davis, J. (2013) Contested institutions? Traditional leaders and land access and control in communal areas of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Land Use Policy, 32. pp. 27-38. ISSN 0264-8377 doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2012.10.011
- Ainslie, A. (2013) The sociocultural contexts and meanings associated with livestock keeping in rural South Africa. African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 30 (1&2). pp. 35-38. ISSN 1727-9380 doi: 10.2989/10220119.2013.770066 (special Issue 'Aligning policy with the socio-ecological dynamics of rangeland commons)
2012
- Vermeulen, S. J., Aggarwal, P. K., Ainslie, A., Angelone, C., Campbell, B.M., Challinor, A.J., Hansen, J.W., Ingram, J.S.I., Jarvis, A., Kristjanson, P., Lau, C., Nelson, G.C., Thornton, P.K. and Wollenberg, E. (2012) Options for support to agriculture and food security under climate change. Environmental Science and Policy, 15 (1). pp. 136-144. ISSN 1873-6416 doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2011.09.003
2010
- Bennett, J., Ainslie, A. and Davis, J. (2010) Fenced in: Common property struggles in the management of communal rangelands in central Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Land Use Policy, 27 (2). pp. 340-350. ISSN 0264-8377 doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.04.006
- Shackleton, C., Shackleton , S. E., Gambiza, J., Nel, E., Rowntree, K., Urquhart, P., Fabricius, C. and Ainslie, A. (2010) Livelihoods and Vulnerability in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands of Southern Africa: Exploring the links between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. Hunger and Poverty Causes, Impacts and Eradication. Nova Publishers, New York, pp267. ISBN 9781608769407
2008
- Davis, J. K. , Ainslie, A. and Finca, A. (2008) Coming to grips with 'abandoned arable' land in efforts to enhance communal grazing systems in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 25 (2). pp. 55-61. ISSN 1727-9380
2007
- Palmer, A.R. and Ainslie, A. (2007) Using rain-use efficiency to explore livestock production trends in rangelands in the Transkei, South Africa. African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 24 (1). pp. 43-50. ISSN 1727-9380
2006
- Palmer, A.R. and Ainslie, A. (2006) Arid rangeland production systems of Southern Africa. Secheresse, 17 (1&2). pp. 98-104. ISSN 1777-5922
