Research in this area explores the activities, relationships and institutions through which people make a living and remake the economy in particular contexts in the global South while maintaining connections to places much further afield. Our research is animated by questions of equity, value and care. We draw upon a diverse range of methods with a focus on participatory and ethnographic approaches. Current research partners and collaborators include the Urban Action Lab (UAL) in Kampala, the Runnymede Trust, London International Development Centre, as well as the Centre for the Study of Migration at Queen Mary University of London.
Research interests include retheorising work based on the experiences of workers in the informal (or popular) economy in Uganda (William Monteith), the waste sector in China (Carlo Inverardi-Ferri), and the new service and on-demand economy in India (Philippa Williams). We also research the historical geographies of asset accumulation and transmission, and the role of state polities and familial practices in reproducing social and economic inequality (Alastair Owens), alongside interests in the challenges and opportunities of urban commoning (Elsa Noterman), and the effects of the knowledge economy on regional inequalities in the UK (Konstantinos Melachroinos).