I’m an academic by profession and work at the University of Bath in the UK. My research looks at the ways in which policy-making institutions tend to act on, rather than with, the people they (cl)aim to help and argues that we need to move away from charity and towards more politicised forms of solidarity. Currently this involves leading two large pilot projects in India and Bangladesh which combine the provision of unconditional basic income and support for collective action to slum-dwelling communities who make their livelihoods in waste picking and garment manufacture.
Outside the university I am heavily involved in a variety of activist initiatives, in particular through the radical publication openDemocracy (where I’m an editor) and the social movement, Extinction Rebellion. I use Convergent Facilitation in all of these spaces. I have been on my Nonviolent Communication journey since late 2013 and I’m a Certification Candidate with the Center for Nonviolent Communication.
