Simon’s research primarily focuses on how people create, share, and use knowledge within the day-to-day practice of ecosystem management and governance. He studies this mainly in the context of biodiversity conservation in South Africa and Australia.
In South Africa, Simon studies how values, politics, and science come together to shape knowledge and management of biodiversity, and understandings of successful conservation interventions. In Australia, he studies how scientists create knowledge about ecosystems within adaptive management projects.
Simon is particularly interested in developing social science theories and methods to study social-ecological complexity. He has co-designed a PhD course together with Wijnand Boonstra, ‘Why bother with Durkheim? Using (classical) social science to understand the social dynamics of social-ecological systems.’ He has also co-run the SRC’s MSc programme course module ‘Adaptive Governance’ together with Lisen Schultz.
Simon has a BA in American and English Literature from the University of East Anglia and a MA in Environmental Law and Sustainable Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (London). Simon has extensive experience volunteering in practical conservation projects in the UK.
Research news | 2018-04-19
New study of UNESCO biosphere reserves sheds light on how people learn to live with social-ecological complexity
Research news | 2016-07-13
New study explores new ways of describing the connection between people and planet
Research news | 2015-12-28
'Invasive aliens' is catchy but fails to convey the complexity of environmental systems and change
Research news | 2015-05-18
Practices of the European Court of Human Rights support adaptive governance