Dr Ed Brown

B.A.(C.N.A.A.), Ph.D.(Edinburgh)
Associate Director, Sustainability Research School

Senior Lecturer in Human Geography

email: E.D.Brown@lboro.ac.uk
Tel : +44(0) 1509 222738
Fax: +44 (0) 1509 223930

Room JJ.0.15, Ann Packer building, East Park

Research Interests

My research interests connect strongly with colleagues across both of the human geography research groups here at Loughborough, although I am generally listed as a member of the Globalization and World Cities group. Put simply, my research interests revolve around broad questions about the impacts of globalization upon North-South relations and the prospects for sustainable development (however defined) and I continue to consider myself as working within a traditional ‘development’ geography context. I am also, however, interested in taking Loughborough research into the world city network in new directions (both in simple geographical terms by focussing on regions seemingly at the margins of that network and via analyses of the dynamics of less researched global flows, such as illicit finance). Finally, regionally, I continue to focus upon the political and social geographies of Central America.

1. Critical Geographies of Corruption
Over the last few years my colleague Jon Cloke and I have been attempting to foment interest in the development of a new critical geography of corruption. Our interest in this theme originally emerged out of our concerns over the anti-corruption components of ‘good governance’ programmes being implemented across the global South and in particular the inadequacies of the underlying assumptions about the nature and causes of corruption apparent within many of those programmes. Since then, our interests have broadened to embrace questions of the different meanings of corruption in different cultural and historical settings, the often overlooked geography of illicit finance within the networks of global capital and the conceptualization of corruption as a form of anti-social capital. We have run sessions on Corruption-related themes at a Development Studies Association annual conference and organized an RGS-IBG session in 2006 which is currently being developed for a special edition of the journal Critical Perspectives in International Business. We greatly welcome contact from any researchers/prospective doctoral students interested in collaborating with us on this theme or other aspects of the ‘Good Governance’ agenda.

Publications on this theme:

Brown, E. and Cloke, J. (2007) ''Shadow Europe: Alternative European Financial Geographies'', Growth and Change, 382, pp 304-327.

Brown, E. and Cloke, J. (2006) ''The Critical Business of Corruption'', Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2(4), 1st October 2006, pp 275-298.

Brown, E. and Cloke, J. (2006) ''La cruzada internacional contra la corrupcion: una respuesta critica (The International Anti-Coruption Crusade: A Critical Response)'', Indaga: International Review of Social and Human Sciences, 4, pp 25-51.

Brown, E. and Cloke, J. (2005) ''Neoliberal reform, governance and corruption in Central America: Exploring the Nicaraguan case'', Political Geography, 245, 601-630.

Brown, E. and Cloke, J. (2004) ''Neoliberal Reform, Governance and Corruption in the South: Assessing the International Anti-Corruption Crusade'', Antipode, 36(2),  272-294.

Doctoral students:

Benjamin Iremiren (B.A.Iremiren@lboro.ac.uk) began working with Peter Taylor and myself in July 2006, he is exploring Corruption and Governance issues in Nigeria.

2. Central American Political Economy
My connections with Central America go back to the mid to late 1980s. I spent the best part of a year living in Managua during 1989 and 1990 carrying out doctoral research into agro-export policy under the FSLN in Nicaragua. In 1991, following three years as a postgraduate student at Edinburgh, I moved to Loughborough where, following the completion of my PhD, I have continued to base much of my research activity around the Central American region. I am particularly interested in the impacts of globalization upon the economic prospects for the region and the effects of the current dominance of the Neoliberal policy agenda. Within that context, I am interested in the articulation of regional alternatives to the Neoliberal model and the relationships between political parties and social movements and their articulation with the state. I also remain fascinated by the legacy of the experiences of the Nicaraguan revolution. Recent work, some as yet unpublished, has focused on the potential impacts of the Central American Free Trade Agreement on the region, Central American anti-corruption and good governance initiatives and, most recently, energy policy.

Publications on this theme:

Brown, E. and Cloke, J. (2005) ''Neoliberal reform, governance and corruption in Central America: Exploring the Nicaraguan case'', Political Geography, 245, 601-630.

Brown, E., Catalano, G. and  Taylor, P.J (2002) ''Beyond world cities: Central America in a global space of flows'', Area, 342, 139-148.

Brown, E. (2000) "Still their Backyard? The US and post-Mitch development strategies in Nicaragua", in Political Geography 19, 2000, pp. 543-572.

Brown, E. (1996) "Nicaragua: Sandinistas, Social Transformation and the Continuing Search for a Popular Economic Programme"; in Geoforum 27 (3), 1996, pp. 275-295.

Current Research Projects:

See discussion of the EnergyCentral project in the next section.

Peter Taylor, Jon Cloke and I have also recently conducted some research into financial markets and poverty in major Latin American cities for a large global finance corporation.

Doctoral students:

Jon Cloke (J.M.P.Cloke@lboro.ac.uk) received his doctorate in 2002 for his thesis on the political economy of micro-finance in Nicaragua.

Chloe Hill (chloejhill@hotmail.com) received her doctorate in 2007 for her thesis on the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Alberto Cortes Ramos (A.Cortes-ramos@lboro.ac.uk) succesfully defended his thesis exploring the dynamics of migration between Nicaragua and Costa Rica in 2008.

Tom Mais is currently writing up his thesis on the Millenium Challenge Account programme in Nicaragua.

3. Sustainability
I have long had an interest in sustainability issues and have been a keen advocate of research that crosses the divide between human and physical geography. As a result, I have played a keen and active role in the new Loughborough University Sustainability Research School which brings together expertise from across the university. I have also played a role in the establishment of the first United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise (UNRCE) in Education for Sustainable Development to be established in the UK which has recently been initiated in the East Midlands. I sit on the management committee of the UNRCE (East Midlands) and am also Co-Chair of its Higher Education Working Group. Amongst the first fruits of the collaboration in the UNRCE is a proposal to explore the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies of all regional Higher Education Institutions. In fact, CSR is an emerging research interest and I am currently working on several papers and grant applications on the issue and would welcome collaboration with others interested in pursuing critical research in this field.

Current Projects:

I am involved in EnergyCentral, a large project on the role of local government in alternative energy promotion in Central America, funded through the EU’s COOPENER programme and the UK Government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office Global Opportunities Fund.

Doctoral Students:

Chloe Hill (chloejhill@hotmail.com) received her doctorate in 2007 for her thesis on the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

John Studley (John_Studley@compuserve.com) received his doctorate in 2005 for his thesis on Sustainable knowledge systems and resource stewardship: in search of ethno-forestry paradigms for the indigenous peoples of Eastern Kham.

4. Globalization and Development
I continue to indulge my long-term interests in the theorization of development, most fruitfully recently through considerations of how we might more usefully bring the literature on the world city network to bear on ‘development’ themes. My research in this area combines work explicitly connected to the world city network literature with more traditional ‘development’ geography such as my work on structural adjustment and GATS or my work with doctoral students on questions of governance and local government reform and other topics in this broad field.

Publications on this theme:

Brown, E, Cloke, J. and Ali, M. (2008) "Editorial: GATS and Development: The case of the Water Sector." Progress in Development Studies, 8 (1): 1-5.

Brown, E, Cloke, J. and Ali, M. (2008) “The long road to GATS: how we got here,” Progress in Development Studies, 8 (1): 7-22.

Brown, E. Derudder, B. Parnreiter, C. Pelupessy, W. Taylor, P. and Witlox, F. (2007) “World City Networks and Global Commodity Chains: Towards a World-Systems’ Integration” GAWC Research Bulletin 236.

Brown, E. (2005) ''Unravelling the web of theory: Changing geographical perspectives on development'', in Contested Worlds: An Introduction to Human Geography, M. Phillips, Ashgate, pp 89 – 126.

Commodity Chains

Brown, E., Catalano, G. and  Taylor, P.J (2002) ''Beyond world cities: Central America in a global space of flows'', Area, 342, 139-148.

Mohan, G., Brown, E., Milward, B. and Zack-Williams, A. (2000) Structural Adjustment: Theory, Practice and Impacts, 2000, Routledge, London.

Brown, E.D., ''Articulating Opposition in Latin America: The Consolidation of Neoliberalism and the Search for Radical Alternatives'', Political Geography, 15(2), 1996, pp 169-192, ISSN 0962 6298.

Brown, E.D., ''Deconstructing Development: Alternative Perspectives on the History of an Idea'', Journal of Historial Geography, 22(3), 1996, pp 333-339, ISSN 0305 7488.

Doctoral Students:

Norah Penawou (N.I.Penawou@lboro.ac.uk) is currently working on her thesis on the environmental and socio-economic Impacts of oil exploration activities on children in the Niger delta.

Valeria Pecorelli (V.Pecorelli@lboro.ac.uk) is currently working on a thesis on the European Zapatista Coffee Network with a particular focus on Milan.

Xiomara Araujo (X.Araujo@lboro.ac.uk) is currently working on her thesis on decentralization and local government reforms in Venezuela.

Yubiri Aragort Solórzano (yas03nam@hotmail.com) received her doctorate in 2003 for her thesis on Democracy and decentralization in Venezuela.

5. International Twinning and North-South Relations
This is not so much an area of current research activity but one where I am interested in developing new research. I have been involved in North-South twinning for around fifteen years through my involvement in the Leicester Masaya Link Group (the link connecting Leicester in the UK with Masaya in Nicaragua) and have noticed a complete lack of detailed academic analysis of the practice of North-South city-to-city twinning. I have worked closely with Leicester City Council’s Overseas Links Working Party and delivered a workshop on North-South twinning at the Local Government Alliance for International Development annual Conference in 2006.


Teaching and Administrative Responsabilities:

Co-ordinator First Year Tutorial programme

Co-ordinator First year Geographies of Global Economic Change module

Second Year Globalization module

Third Year Central America: Dependency and Development module

Member of Loughborough University Senate

Co-ordinator of Departmental Study Abroad Programme