Kiah joined UNRISD in February 2011 to work with Peter Utting on the Markets, Business and Regulation Programme. She researches social economy, rural development, collective action in business and market regulation, the social implications of climate change and helps prepare various UNRISD conferences and events.
Prior to joining UNRISD, Kiah completed her doctorate in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her PhD in Sociology examines women smallholder farmers` experiences of Ethical Trade food networks in Kenya, particularly the connections between local (and gendered) sustainable livelihoods, power relations, agency, knowledge and the structures of ethical trade. She also holds a first class Honours degree in Sociology, a Bachelors of Social Science in Development and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Environmental studies from the same university.
Kiah worked as a research assistant on an Australian Research Council funded project on Globally Engaged Farmers in Australia and is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Agri-food Network. She received an Australian Federation of University Women fellowship in 2010.
Her research interests include alternative food networks, civil society responses to globalisation, sustainable development, feminist political economy, agri-food studies, and participatory research methodology. Kiah was an intern at UNRISD in early 2010.
Recent Publications:
- Smith, K. and Lyons, K. (forthcoming 2011). ‘Negotiating organic, fair and ethical trade: Lessons from smallholders in Uganda and Kenya’. In Rosin, C. and H. Campbell (eds). Food System Failure: The global food crisis and the future of agriculture, Earthscan, London, forthcoming 2011.
- Smith, K., Lawrence, G. & Richards, C. (2010). Supermarkets’ governance of the agri-food supply chain: Is the ‘corporate-environmental’ food regime evident in Australia? International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 17(2): 140-161.
- Buchler, S., Smith, K. and Lawrence, G. (2010). ‘Demographic characteristics and perceptions of food additives, regulation and contamination in Australia’. Journal of Sociology 46(4): 1-22.
- Campbell, H., Lawrence, G. and Smith, K. (2008). ‘Audit Cultures and the Antipodes: The implications of EUREP-GAP for New Zealand and Australian Agri-food Industries’, in Marsden, T. and J. Murdoch (eds.) Between the Local and the Global: Confrontingcomplexity in the contemporary agri-food sector, Research in Rural Sociology and Development Vol 12, Elsevier, Oxford.