Dr Sally Brooks

Profile

Areas of expertise

• Global development 
• Technology and agrarian change
• Philanthropic foundations
• Environment and development
• Rural politics

Academic biography

I joined the academic staff at York in 2012 from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex where I was a researcher with the STEPS Centre. Prior to that I had worked as an international development practitioner and consultant for many years. I was Programme Director of the online MPA International Development between 2014 and 2017 and Senior Research Fellow on the Social Transformative Research Informing Processes of Environmental Science (STRIPES) project between 2018 and 2020. I am a member of the York Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre (IGDC).

I am a member of the Council of Global Justice Now and the Academic Advisory Group of Another Europe is Possible.

Research

My research interests fall into two main areas: 

• Political economy of global development: I have a long-term interest in development techno-politics; in the ongoing marketisation and financialisation of development; and in the role of philanthropic foundations in these processes; with a particular focus on smallholder agriculture and rural development. This work has been published in Economy and Society, New Political Economy, Business and Society, Sociologia Ruralis, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Third World Quarterly, Climatic Change, various edited collections, and the monograph Rice Biofortification: Lessons for Global Science and Development (Earthscan/Routledge).

• Rural sociology and politics: My research in this area contributes to debates about the rise of authoritarian populism in rural Europe. It includes analysis of the influence of rural politics on the Brexit vote, and a co-authored paper drawing out themes from examples of ‘actually existing’ right-wing populism. More recently, I completed a co-authored study of gendered impacts of ‘rural emptiness’ in Northern Albania. These articles have been published in Sociologia Ruralis and The Journal of
  Peasant Studies, and in an edited collection: Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World (Routledge).

Recent publications

Selected publications

Brooks, S. (2024). "The platformisation of global development". In R. Paul, E. Carmel and J. Cobbe (Eds.), Handbook on Public Policy and Artificial Intelligence, Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham. Pre-print available here.

Brooks, S. and Kumar, A. (2023) Why the Super-Rich Will Not Be Saving the World: Philanthropy and “Privatization Creep” in Global Development, Business and Society, 62(2), 223-228

Brooks, S. & Meçe, M.H. (2023)  The impact of rural emptiness on gender relations in postsocialist Albania , Sociologia Ruralis, 63(2), 63,  268–286

Brown, E., Kirshner, J., Dunlop, L., Friend, R., Brooks, S., Redeker, K., Zimmermann, A., H Walton, P., Cairo, J., & Veneu, F. (2023). Learning through interdisciplinary dialogue: Methodological approaches for bridging epistemological divides. Methodological Innovations, 16(3), 329-340.

Kirshner, J., Brown, E., Dunlop, L., Franco Cairo, J.P., Redeker, K., Veneu, F. Brooks, S., Kirshner, S., Walton, P.H. (2022) “A future beyond sugar”: Examining second- generation biofuel pathways in Alagoas, northeast Brazil, Environmental Development, 4, 2022, 100739 

Brooks, S. (2021) Configuring the digital farmer: A nudge world in the making?, Economy and Society, 50(3), 374-396

Kumar, A. and Brooks, S. (2021) The power of private philanthropy in international development. Developing Economics, 10 May 2021

Kumar, A. and Brooks, S. (2021) Bridges, platforms and satellites: theorizing the power of global philanthropy in international development, Economy and Society, 50(2), 322-345

Mamonova, N., Franquesa, J, & Brooks, S. (2020) ‘Actually Existing’ Right-Wing Populism in Rural Europe: Insights from Eastern Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, Journal of Peasant Studies, 47(7) 1497-1525. Also in Scoones, I., Edelman, M., Borras Jr., S. M., Forero, L.F., Hall, R., Wolford, W., White, B. (Eds)  Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World (Routledge 2022, pp. 420-447)

Brooks, S. (2020) Brexit and the politics of the rural, Sociologia Ruralis, 60(4) 790-809

Brooks, S. (2018) Behavioural Nudges: Mildly Paternalistic or a Threat to Economic Justice for the Poor? Next Billion (18 May 2018)

Gabor, D. and Brooks, S. (2017) The digital revolution in financial inclusion: international development in the fintech era, New Political Economy, 22(4) 423-436

Brooks, S. (2016) Inducing food insecurity: financialisation and development in the post-2015 era. Third World Quarterly, 37(5) 768-780

Brooks, S. (2016) Private finance and the post-2015 development agenda, Development Finance Agenda, 1(3) 24-27 (January 2016)

Brooks, S. and Roberts, E. (2016) ‘Simultaneous Immersion’: How online postgraduate study contributes to the development of reflective practice among public service practitioners, Interactive Learning Environments, 24(7) 1692-1705

Brooks, S. (2015) GM crops and the developing world: opposing sides miss the bigger picture, The Conversation (12 November 2015)

Brooks, S. (2014) Enabling Adaptation? Lessons from the new ‘Green Revolution’ in Malawi and Kenya, Climatic Change, 122(1-2) 15-26

Brooks, S. (2013) Biofortification: lessons from the Golden Rice project, Food Chain, 3(1-2) 77-88

Brooks, S. (2015) Philanthrocapitalism,  ‘pro-poor’ agricultural biotechnology and development, in B. Morvaridi (Ed.) New Philanthropy and Social Justice: Debating the conceptual and policy discourse Policy Press: Bristol

Brooks, S., D. Burges Watson, A. Draper, M. Goodman, H. Kvalvaag and W. Wills (2013) Chewing on Choice, in Abbots, E-J & Lavis, A (Eds.) Why We Eat, How We Eat: Contemporary Encounters Between Foods and Bodies, Farnham: Ashgate

Krätli, S., Huelsebusch, C., Brooks, S. and Kaufmann, B. (2013) Pastoralism: a critical asset for food security under global climate change, Animal Frontiers, 3(1) 42-50

Brooks, S. (2013) Investing in Food Security? Philanthrocapitalism, Biotechnology and Development (November 1, 2013). SPRU Working Paper Series (SWPS) 2013-12

Brooks, S. and Johnson-Beebout, S.E. (2012) Contestation as continuity? Biofortification research and the CGIAR. In In Sumberg, J. and Thompson, J. (Eds.) Contested Agronomy: Agricultural Research in a Changing World. Abingdon: Routledge (pp. 86-101). Free to download from Scoones, I. (2017, Ed.) FreeBook: Pathways to Sustainable Agriculture, Abingdon: Routledge (pp. 83-101)

Brooks, S. and Loevinsohn, M.E. (2011) Shaping Agricultural Innovation Systems Responsive to Food Insecurity and Climate Change, Natural Resources Forum, 5(3) 185-200

Brooks, S. (2011) ‘Is International Agricultural Research a Global Public Good? The Case of Rice Biofortification’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(1) 67-80

Brooks, S. (2011) ‘Living with Materiality or Confronting Asian Diversity? The Case of Iron-Biofortified Rice Research in the Philippines’, East Asian Science, Technology and Society (EASTS), 5(2) 173–188

Brooks, S. (2010) Rice Biofortification: Lessons for Global Science and Development. London: Earthscan/Routledge

Brooks, S., Thompson J., Odame H., Kibaara B., Nderitu S., Karin F. and Millstone, E. (2009) Environmental Change and Maize Innovation in Kenya: Exploring Pathways in and out of Maize, STEPS Working Paper 36, Brighton: STEPS Centre

Brooks, S., Leach M., Lucas, H. and Millstone, E. (2009) Silver Bullets, Grand Challenges and the New Philanthropy, STEPS Working Paper 24, Brighton: STEPS Centre

Brooks, S. (2008) Global Science, Public Goods? Tracing International Science Policy Processes in Rice Biofortification, PhD Thesis, Brighton: University of Sussex

Brooks, S. (2005) ‘Biotechnology and the Politics of Truth: From the Green Revolution to an Evergreen Revolution’, Sociologia Ruralis, 45(4) 360-379

Brooks, S. (1996) Small Business Development in Papua New Guinea: Lessons, Department of Environment and Conservation/United Nations Development Programme, OPS-PNG/93/G31