Dr Geoff Goodwin

Profile

Before joining POLIS in January 2022, I taught at the London School of Economics, University of Oxford, and University College London, and I have also been a Research Associate at FLACSO, Quito.

I draw on various academic disciplines to study and teach political economy, including politics, economics, anthropology, geography, sociology and history, and I use a range of qualitative methods, especially interviews, observation, and archives.

Responsibilities

• Co-Director - Centre for Global Development
• Deputy Director - Internationalisation

Research interests

My research centres on land and water in Ecuador and, more recently, Colombia, and I have a wider interest in the history and political economy of Latin America.  I’ve also recently started investigating water history and politics in London. Longer-term, I plan to build this into a comparative research project with other British and Latin American cities.

You can read a blog about my research on water politics in Ecuador here (English/Spanish): What can Latin America's new generation of left governments learn from the pink tide? | LSE Latin America and Caribbean

Infrastructure has emerged as another key theme in my research and I’ve recently co-edited a book – The Social and Political Life of Latin American Infrastructures (University of London Press) – which explores multiple infrastructures from diverse disciplinary and methodological perspectives. 

You can read a blog about the book here: The social and political life of Latin American infrastructures (lagukinfo.wixsite.com) 

And download the book here (open access): The Social and Political Life of Latin American Infrastructures | School of Advanced Study (sas.ac.uk)

All of this feeds into my wider interest in the past, present, and future (s) of capitalism. I’ve primarily contributed to critical debates about capitalism by extending the work of Karl Polanyi and connecting his concepts and ideas to other critical scholars from the North and South.  

You can download my latest article in this vein here (open access): Double Movements and Disembedded Economies: A Response to Richard Sandbrook - Goodwin - 2022 - Development and Change - Wiley Online Library

I’m currently working on a book that will bring together my writing on Polanyi and elaborate a new Polanyian framework to analyse (post) capitalism. 

I’m a Research Associate at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford, and Associate Editor of Oxford Development Studies.

I’m also one of the founding members of Radical Americas and the Asociación Latinoamericana de Historia Rural.

Qualifications

• PhD - Political Economy (University College London)
• MA - Economics (University of Leeds)

Student education

I’m committed to interdisciplinary teaching and learning and critical pedagogy. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

I’m particularly interested in supervising PhD students in the following broad areas:

- Land/agriculture/food

- Water/rivers

- Infrastructure

- Activism/social movements

- (Post) capitalism 

Current postgraduate researchers

• Mel Fatric Rhai Yan
• Elizabeth McGowan