Current research.
Research Projects
The Future of Hill Farming in the Lake District
I am really excited to be working with the Federation of Cumbria Commoners and hill farmers of the Lake District on the development of the 2025 Lakeland Shepherd's Guide.
During this project, I will develop a collaborative piece of research with families of hill farmers across Lakeland, to discuss the changes they have seen to their farms, flocks and fells over the last 40 years, and those changes they anticipate are yet to come.
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Innovative agri-environment scheme approaches
Digital Ecologies
Following participation in their inaugural workshop in 2021, I am delighted to have become a team member in the Digital Ecologies Research Group. This collective of early-career researchers aims to explore the connections between more-than-human geographies, political ecology and the digital humanities.
Find out more about our work at digicologies.com
Co-design & Environmental Land Management
As a part of my research for the University of Oxford, I work with Defra on elements of co-design in the development of the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) Schemes.
We work closely with farmers in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) Pilot, and support the policy teams in Defra through our participatory work with farmers to explore how key elements of the scheme can work in practice. This year, we are also working with upland farmers on improvements to the ELMS offer for farmers in the highest areas of England.
Locating Communities in Digital Natures
My PhD studies focus on fell farming families of the Lake District National Park, whose Herdwick sheep are often the subject of intense debate regarding the Lake District's management. The thesis studies the extent to which dominant representations and mediations of the Lake District National Park as a romanticised rural landscape have been continued through contemporary digital mechanisms of communication, such as social media and how those powerful representations may be contested by local rural communities.
Visual Data Analysis: Quantitative & Qualitative
Following the development of my PhD's digital methods, I have developed a variety of innovative methodologies, including for other researchers. These methods of analysis for social media images vary from the study of large-scale, automated visualisations containing tens of thousands of images, through to 'zoomed in' intimate analyses of different locale, hashtags and individual image grids.
Some Recent Publications
Book Chapters
Dodsworth, J., Lasko, R., Little, R. (2024). 'Stick your wellies on: messy development and co-design processes with England’s new Environmental Land Management (ELM) policy' in Nick C. H. Reid and Rhiannon Smith (eds). Managing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: Conservation, restoration and rewilding. Cambridge: Burleigh Dodds.
Academic Journal Articles
Turnbull, J., Searle, A., Hartman Davies, O., Dodsworth, J., Chasseray-Peraldi, P., Von Essen, E. and Anderson-Elliott, H. (2022). Digital ecologies: Materialities, encounters, governance. Progress in Environmental Geography.
Cusworth, G., Dodsworth, J. (2021). Using the ‘good farmer’ concept to explore agricultural attitudes to the provision of public goods. A case study of participants in an English agri-environment scheme. Agriculture and Human Values.
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Van Patter, L., Turnbull, J., Dodsworth, J. (Forthcoming 2021). “More-than-human Collaborations” for Hacking the Anthropocene. Feral Feminisms 10.
Reports
Dodsworth, J., Prager, K. (2021). Farmers’ Experiences of RBAPS in Wensleydale: Changing Management Practices and Perceptions of Environmental Public Goods. Contracts2.0.
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Dodsworth, J., Dutilly, C., Guédé, S., K. Prager, K. (2020). Complexities in Collective Approaches: Traditional Management and Agri-Environmental Contracting in the Pyrenees (France) and Northwest England (UK). Contracts2.0.