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University of Oxford
School of Geography and the Environment

 School of Geography and the Environment

Dr Andrew Newsham

Academic Profile

Andrew is a Visiting Research Associate at the School of Geography and the Environment. Prior to this he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, based at the School of Geography and the Environment and also affiliated to the Environmental Change Institute. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Leeds. Following that, he acquired an MSc in African Studies at the University of Edinburgh's Centre of African Studies, and went on to study his PhD at the same institution, graduating in November 2007.

Andrew's broad research interests lie at the intersection between environment and development, in both African and Latin American contexts. His doctoral thesis explored how having - or not having - knowledge about sustainability affects who participates and on what basis in combined conservation and development initiatives in places as distinct as Namibia and Argentina. The thesis demonstrated how both Namibia's Conservancy Programme and Argentina's Alto Bermejo Project are essentially exercises in knowledge transfer related to and justified by the global discourse of sustainability. Understanding participation in these initiatives starts with an analysis of how knowledge about sustainability becomes privileged, who has such knowledge, who does not and how outcomes are subsequently affected.

Andy's other research interests include:

  • Combined conservation and development initiatives in Southern Africa and South America;
  • Participatory development in relation to processes of knowledge transfer;
  • Effective development and climate change;
  • Global narratives of sustainability in local context; and
  • The relationship between development policy and practice.

Current Research

Andrew's work at Oxford has focussed on climate change adaptation in Southern Africa. One strand looks at climate change adaptation in the context of smallholder farming in North-Central Namibia. One under-researched issue for adaptation policy in North-Central Namibia is the extent to which the agro-ecological knowledge that farmers have developed over centuries constitutes adaptive capacity. This knowledge system has fostered resilience in the face of considerable climate variability. It is a way to respond to uncertainty, an alternative basis for decision making. This is especially pertinent, given that current projections of future climate trends in Namibia are too uncertain to serve as a robust basis for policy decisions. This knowledge is not always drawn upon by the agricultural extensionists charged with implementing adaptation policy. Yet where it is incorporated, there can be a useful co-production of knowledge, which is more locally relevant and more legitimate as a form of knowledge transfer, because the transfer operates in both directions.

The other significant strand in research conducted whilst at Oxford relates to the challenges of mainstreaming adaptation into development policy and practice in Southern Africa. This element of the research is comparative, and has sought to gauge, in Namibia and Mozambique, the extent to which climate change considerations are being incorporated into the business of government. Amongst the factors identified which affect the process are: uncertainty around what to adapt to; levels of and conditions determining the level political buy-in; funding availability; capacity; and donor presence.

Further information on Andrew's current research commitments is available on the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research website.

Publications

  • Newsham, A.J. and Thomas, D.S.G. (2009) Agricultural adaptation, local knowledge and livelihoods diversification in North-Central Namibia. Tyndall Centre Working Paper, 140.
  • Newsham, A.J. and Goulden, M. (2009) Changing the climate of African development. Report on proceedings of Tyndall Centre workshop, 26-27th March 2009. Tyndall Oxford and UEA. 26pp.
  • Newsham, A. (2008) African development and African Studies. African Affairs, 107: 641-650.
  • Newsham, A. (2007) Knowing and deciding: Participation in conservation and development initiatives in Namibia and Argentina. PhD Thesis, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • Hammett, D. and Newsham, A. (2007) Intervention: Widening the ethical debate - Academia, activism, and the arms trade. Political Geography, 26(1): 10-12.
  • Newsham, A. (2005) Parques y personas: El caso de Lipeo, un pueblo dentro del Parque Nacional Baritú, Salta, Argentina. (Parks and people: the case of Lipeo, a village within Baritú National Park, Salta, Argentina.) Report for the Administration of National Parks, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005).