Dr Tom O'Brien
Senior Lecturer in Political Sociology

Profile

Biography

I grew up on a farm in New Zealand’s King Country region. I was inspired to complete a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree at the University of Waikato by a charismatic lecturer on a polytechnic course, who pushed us in new directions. I followed this with an Honours year at Victoria University Wellington and a Masters at the University of Auckland. After two years working in the New Zealand Ministry of Health, I moved to Melbourne to pursue a PhD, exploring whether democratisation leads to improved environmental standards and factors that may influence such outcomes. I travelled to Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Romania for extended fieldwork, speaking to officials, civil society representatives and experts about democratisation and the environment.

I joined the Department of Sociology in August 2018, as lecturer in political sociology.

Career

I have previously held academic posts in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, most recently at Cranfield University at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.

External roles

Associate Editor of Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online.

Research

Overview

My research interests have expanded over time, encompassing environmental sociology, democratisation, social movements and political leadership. I am currently working with colleagues in New Zealand, Romania and the UK examining topics such as forest protests in Australia, governance of hybrid or weakly democratic regimes in Southeast Asia, political entrepreneurship in New Zealand, and anti-government protest in Romania.

Publications

Selected publications

O’Brien, T. and de Jong, S. (2023) ‘“A Little Kind of Island”: Community Engagement with Intersecting Crises in Doncaster’. In K. Heidemann (ed.) Combating Crises from Below: Social Responses to Polycrisis in Europe and the United Kingdom. Maastricht: Maastricht University Press.

Gardner, P., O’Brien, T., Carvalho, T. and Adekola, O. (2023) ‘Profile: Extinction Rebellion in The Gambia’, Social Movement Studies. (Profile) [doi: 10.1080/14742837.2023.2204428]

O’Brien, T. and Huntington, N. (2022) ‘“Vaccine Mandates Equal Apartheid”: Covid-19 and Parliamentary Occupation in Aotearoa New Zealand’, Social Movement Studies. (Profile) [doi: 10.1080/14742837.2022.2123316]

O’Brien, T., Crețan, R., Jucu, I. and Covaci, R. (2022) ‘Internal Rural Migration and Stigmatisation in the Banat Region of Romania’, Identities, ifirst [doi:10.1080/1070289X.2022.2109276]

O’Brien, T. (2021) ‘“We stand in the Luddite legacy”: Tracking Patterns of Anti-GM Protest and Crop-Trashing in the United Kingdom’, Journal of Cultural Geography, 38(3): 313-35. [doi:10.1080/08873631.2021.1928828]

Rîşteiu, N., Creţan, R. and O’Brien, T. (2022) ‘Contesting Post-Communist Economic Development: Gold Extraction, Local Community and Rural Decline in Romania’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 63(4): 491-513. [doi:10.1080/15387216.2021.1913205]

Huntington, N. and O’Brien, T. (2021) ‘Tied to a Star: The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and the 2020 Election’, Environmental Politics, 30(4): 669-76. (Profile) [doi: 10.1080/09644016.2021.1877477]

Filippidou, A. and O’Brien, T. (2022) ‘Trust and Distrust in the Resolution of Protracted Social Conflicts: The Case of Colombia’, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, (14)1: 1-21. [doi:10.1080/19434472.2020.1785524]

Creţan, R. and O’Brien, T. (2020) ‘Corruption and Conflagration: (In)Justice and Protest in Bucharest after the Collective Fire’, Urban Geography, 41(3): 368-388. [doi:10.1080/02723638.2019.1664252]

O’Brien, T. (2019) ‘“Our Patience Has Run Out”: Tracking the Anti-Government Protest Cycle in Bulgaria’, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 27(4): 515-528. [doi:10.1080/14782804.2019.1656603]

O’Brien, T. (2019) ‘Political Entrepreneurship in the Field of Māori Sovereignty in Aotearoa New Zealand,’ British Journal of Sociology, 70(4): 1179-1197. [doi:10.1111/BJOS.12611]

Creţan, R. and O’Brien, T. (2019) ‘“Get out of Traian Square!”: Roma Stigmatisation as a Mobilising Tool for the Far Right in Timişoara, Romania,’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43(5): 833-47. [doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12775]

O’Brien, T. (2019) ‘“Let This Forest Forever Rest”: Tracking Protest and Identity in Australia’s Forests’, Australian Geographer, 50(3): 365-80. [doi:10.1080/00049182.2018.1555745]

O’Brien, T. and Creţan, R. (2019) ‘The Role of Identity in the 2015 Romanian Shepherd Protests’, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 26(4): 470-88. [doi:10.1080/1070289X.2017.1400322]

O’Brien, T. and Huntington, N. (2018) ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold: The Green Party and the 2017 New Zealand Election’, Environmental Politics, 27(2): 373-78. (Profile) [doi: 10.1080/09644016.2018.1414745]

O’Brien, T. (2017) ‘“Cut Pollution, Create Jobs? Yeah, Nah”: Partisan Effects on Environmental Protest in Aotearoa New Zealand’, Political Science, 69(3): 264-81. [doi:10.1080/00323187.2017.1387032]

O’Brien, T. (2017) ‘Unbuilding from the Inside: Leadership and Democratization in South Africa and South Korea’, Government and Opposition, 52(4): 614-39. [doi:10.1017/gov.2015.41]

O’Brien, T. (2017) ‘Shifting Patterns of Governance in Authoritarian Regimes’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 52(2): 303-16. (Review Essay) [doi: 10.1080/10361146.2017.1300872]

Full publications list

For a complete list of publications see ORCID.