Luke Owen is a Research Fellow based in the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience. He is a social scientist with a background in human geography, and specialises in a range of qualitative research methodologies and data analysis techniques.

Luke’s research interests include Alternative Food Networks and Short Food Chains and how they contribute to rural development and the livelihoods of small-scale food producers. Since 2011, he has presented and published extensively on these subjects, and was awarded his PhD in 2015. 

I am inspired by the need to find answers to the shortfalls of our contemporary food and agricultural systems. In all sorts of places and at a variety of scales, we need to better understand how to achieve more just, resilient and sustainable systems if the future of people and planet are to be secured. Through an interdisciplinary approach to research, I aim to explore and understand the relationships that food producers, citizens and consumers have with food, and the ways they are (dis)connected to the broader governance structures in which they are situated. I aim to work with a range of communities, professions and organisations to (re)connect different knowledge systems and areas of expertise. In doing so, solutions to the fundamental questions about our food production can be realised and routes to a more equitable and resilient future explored. If you share my vision, please get in touch.