Lopa holds a PhD in Environmental Economics and Environmental Management from the University of York, UK. She has an MPhil in Applied Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India. Prior to joining Coventry University, she worked as an independent researcher in various capacities on team projects led by academics at a number of Universities in the UK. She was also engaged as a research consultant and was an honorary Non-Resident Fellow of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), a regional think-tank in South Asia. In addition she has worked in a voluntary capacity with community organisations in Coventry. Her research experience and interests span a wide range of areas including: wetland conservation; agricultural sustainability; food security, gender and technology transfer in the context of climate change adaptation; reflective practices in natural disaster risk reduction; women and entrepreneurship. Her research is informed by mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies with data collection undertaken at various sites in India and the UK. Her current research work looks at community-led initiatives organised around establishing and managing resilient food systems -- their potential & limitations. In particular, initiatives centred on food justice and food sovereignty; food waste and food poverty; social supermarkets; community food growing and gardening; and, local and agroecological enterprises. She has a keen interest in gender, health and wellbeing as a cross-cutting issue across sustainable development and environmental management. 

Area of Expertise:

Community self-organisation for resilience; social supermarkets and austerity Britain; food poverty and food justice; food and nutrition security; food waste management; community food growing and gardening; sustainability of agro-ecological enterprises; climate change and resilience; gender, environment and development; women entrepreneurship; participatory action-research; mixed research methods; South Asia

Environment and Development; Social Enterprises; Social Supermarkets; Sustainable Food Systems; Community Self-organisation for Resilience; Gender and Development; Social/Women entrepreneurship; Participatory action-research

As an environmental economist with a background in development studies, my research is driven by a primary interest in exploring the nature and impact of human interactions on the natural environment/ecosystems. Notably this includes understanding the outcomes of such interactions on food systems, livelihoods, and on human health and well-being. Key questions which guide my research are: how do the complex realities of socio-political-economic structures within which communities/groups are embedded (such as class, ethnicity, race, age and gender) mediate the experiences, vulnerabilities and capacities of women and men? What are the socially innovative ways in which state and non-state actors can create an enabling environment for vulnerable/marginalised groups, so as to promote a just and sustainable future for all? These are the questions which continue to inspire me to pursue research and support positive change at different levels.