Overview
Background
Kiah Smith is a Sociologist with expertise in environment, development and critical food studies. With a strong record of international publications on food justice, food security, resilience, financialisation, ethical trade, green economy, sustainable livelihoods, gender empowerment and food system governance, Kiah’s work contributes new understandings of the social dimensions of food system transformation at the intersection of multiple crises. Using mostly qualitative, participatory methodologies (such as action research and future scenario planning), her research emphasises the role that civil society plays in transformative policy making that is systems-focused and inclusive of social-ecological perspectives. For example, her ARC DECRA study - Fair Food, Civil Society and the Sustainable Development Goals - examined how civic stakeholders are able to resist, reshape or redefine what a just and sustainable food system might look like, based on co-design and collaboration with civil society, local government, advocacy groups and grassroots food actors (food hubs, community gardens, and food charities) in Australia. This interdisciplinary research agenda can best be summarised as one where ‘food futures’ are closely connected with ‘deep’ sustainability, rights, justice and empowerment, within the growing field of ‘sustainability transitions’. Other past and present studies include: Multifunctional horticulture - land, labour and environments; Ethical consumption and COVID; Responsible innovation in digital agriculture; Employment policy and indigenous food sovereignty in remote Australia; Financialisation of food and farmland in Australia; Resilience and governance of Australian food systems during crisis; and Mapping civil society, human rights and the SDGs. Kiah has conducted research in Australia and internationally, she has worked with local NGOs (in Africa and Australia), with the United Nations Research Institute in Geneva, and in multidisciplinary research teams spanning the social and natural sciences both here and abroad. Kiah is also a Future Earth Fellow, treasurer of the Australasian Agrifood Research Network, and executive member of the RC40 on Food and Agriculture in the International Sociological Association. Her work at the nexus of academia and policy/advocacy contributes to the growing movement for the right to food in Australia and globally.
Availability
- Dr Kiah Smith is:
- Not available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
Research interests
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Food Justice
Civic/ alternative food networks; Fair Food organising; Community food policy making; Food citizenship; Social solidarity economy; Environmental justice; Right to food
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Agrifood Political Economy
'Financialisation of Food and Farming' in Australia, with a focus on agribusiness investment in the the North Queensland sugar industry; Supermarket power and industry 'greening'; Food crisis, multiple crises (food, climate, economic); Horticulture and regional development
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Sustainable Development
SDGs; Social dimensions of green economy; UN policy processes; Research translation
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Food systems governance
Resilience of long and short food chains; Adaptive, reflexive governance; Food systems in 'crisis', e.g. flooding, climate change; Food systems transformation; Multi-stakeholder participation and power; climate change
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Gender and Ethical Trade
Fair and ethical trade, e.g. 'ethical consumption and production' networks; Ecofeminism; Smallholder food production/trade in the Global South; Sustainable livelihoods Gender empowerment; Conventions, standards, multistakeholder regulation
Research impacts
Over the past decade, Kiah has collaborated with FIAN International on the right to food, UN Women on their ‘Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice’, UNRISD programmes on ‘A new eco-social contract’ and ‘Localising the SDGs’, and Future Earth through her ‘Fair Food Futures’ podcast and animation. She has provided expertise to global food security policy making through participation in the UN High Level Panel on the Sustainable Development Goals (2018), UN Food Systems Summit Civic Dialogues (2021), 2022 People’s Summit , and the UN SDG Summit in 2023. Kiah's research has informed submissions to the Australian government, including to the Senate inquiry on resilience and flooding (2013), Australia's progress on the SDGs (2018), Financial Investment (2020), Food Pricing and Food Security in Remote Indigenous Communities (2020), and Food Security (2022), as well as to civic initiatives such as the AFSA People’s Food Plan (2023) and CSIRO's discussion paper on ‘Transforming Australian Food Systems’ (2022). At the Centre for Policy Futures, Kiah’s expertise in justice, rights and empowerment will contribute across the focal areas, and help to build the Centre’s capacity for research as social action, non-traditional research translation and impact, and policy engagement with the SDGs.
Works
Search Professor Kiah Smith’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2023
Journal Article
Social science as social action to address inequalities
Staines, Zoe, Smith, Kiah, Plage, Stefanie, Nahar Lata, Lutfun, Fay, Suzanna, Zheng, Zhaoxi, Simpson Reeves, Laura, Beazley, Helen, Kuskoff, Ella, Clarke, Andrew, McGowan, Glenys, Shevellar, Lynda and Prangnell, Jonathan (2023). Social science as social action to address inequalities. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 59 (1), 108-127. doi: 10.1002/ajs4.272
Featured
2022
Journal Article
Tracking farmland investment in Australia: Institutional finance and the politics of data mapping
Smith, Kiah, Langford, Alexandra and Lawrence, Geoffrey (2022). Tracking farmland investment in Australia: Institutional finance and the politics of data mapping. Journal of Agrarian Change, 23 (3), 518-546. doi: 10.1111/joac.12531
Featured
2022
Journal Article
Scaling up civic food utopias in Australia: The challenges of justice and representation
Smith, Kiah (2022). Scaling up civic food utopias in Australia: The challenges of justice and representation. Sociologia Ruralis, 63 (1), 140-159. doi: 10.1111/soru.12368
Featured
2022
Journal Article
Introduction to the special issue – imagining rural futures in times of uncertainty and possibility: progressing a transformative research agenda for rural sociology
Malatzky, Christina and Smith, Kiah (2022). Introduction to the special issue – imagining rural futures in times of uncertainty and possibility: progressing a transformative research agenda for rural sociology. Journal of Sociology, 58 (2), 144078332110711-143. doi: 10.1177/14407833211071126
Featured
2021
Journal Article
Finance's social license? Sugar, farmland and health
Smith, K. and Lawrence, G. (2021). Finance's social license? Sugar, farmland and health. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 10 (12), 1-11. doi: 10.34172/IJHPM.2021.11
Featured
2021
Journal Article
Workfare and food in remote Australia: 'I haven't eaten... I'm really at the end...'
Staines, Zoe and Smith, Kiah (2021). Workfare and food in remote Australia: 'I haven't eaten... I'm really at the end...'. Critical Policy Studies, 16 (1), 36-59. doi: 10.1080/19460171.2021.1893198
Featured
2020
Book Chapter
Neoliberal Globalization and Beyond: Food, Farming, and the Environment
Lawrence, Geoffrey and Smith, Kiah (2020). Neoliberal Globalization and Beyond: Food, Farming, and the Environment. The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology. (pp. 411-428) edited by Katherine Legun, Michael Bell and J. Keller. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108554558.026
Featured
2019
Journal Article
Localizing SDG2 Zero Hunger through “Fair Food” in Australia
Smith, Kiah (2019). Localizing SDG2 Zero Hunger through “Fair Food” in Australia. Asian Development Perspectives, 10 (2), 135-148. doi: 10.22681/ADP.2019.10.2.135
Featured
2018
Book Chapter
Zero Hunger discourse: neoliberal, progressive, reformist or radical?
Smith, Kiah (2018). Zero Hunger discourse: neoliberal, progressive, reformist or radical?. Contested sustainability discourses in the agrifood system. (pp. 89-110) edited by Douglas H. Constance, Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781315161297
Featured
2016
Journal Article
The resilience of long and short food chains: a case study of flooding in Queensland, Australia
Smith, Kiah, Lawrence, Geoffrey, MacMahon, Amy, Muller, Jane and Brady, Michelle (2016). The resilience of long and short food chains: a case study of flooding in Queensland, Australia. Agriculture and Human Values, 33 (1), 45-60. doi: 10.1007/s10460-015-9603-1
Featured
2016
Book Chapter
Food Systems Failure: Can we Avert Future Crises?
Smith, Kiah (2016). Food Systems Failure: Can we Avert Future Crises?. Routledge International Handbook of Rural Studies. (pp. 250-262) edited by Mark Shucksmith and David L. Brown. London: Routledge.
Featured
2015
Journal Article
Connecting resilience, food security and climate change: lessons from flooding in Queensland, Australia
MacMahon, Amy, Smith, Kiah and Lawrence, Geoffrey (2015). Connecting resilience, food security and climate change: lessons from flooding in Queensland, Australia. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 5 (3), 378-391. doi: 10.1007/s13412-015-0278-0
Featured
2014
Book
Ethical trade, gender and sustainable livelihoods: women smallholders and ethicality in Kenya
Smith, Kiah (2014). Ethical trade, gender and sustainable livelihoods: women smallholders and ethicality in Kenya. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203383940
Featured
2012
Journal Article
Gender and food security in a fair, green economy?
Smith, Kiah (2012). Gender and food security in a fair, green economy?. Development, 55 (1), 81-89. doi: 10.1057/dev.2011.118
2024
Other Outputs
Fair Food Futures: transforming food systems through food justice
Smith, Kiah (2024). Fair Food Futures: transforming food systems through food justice. F St Lucia, QLD, Australia: The University of Queensland.
2024
Other Outputs
Coastal horticulture in Northeastern Australia: global networks and regional development
Smith, Kiah, Azeredo, Rafael, Coe, Neil, Cross, Rebecca, Heyman-Griffiths, Seren, Neilson, Jeff, Pritchard, Bill and Wang, Zoe (2024). Coastal horticulture in Northeastern Australia: global networks and regional development. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: The University of Queensland.
2024
Journal Article
From coalitions to social movements: Lessons from civic food coalition formation in Australia
Freeman, Camille and Smith, Kiah (2024). From coalitions to social movements: Lessons from civic food coalition formation in Australia. The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 30 (1), 1-17. doi: 10.48416/ijsaf.v30i1.528
2023
Book Chapter
Sustainable livelihoods
Smith, Kiah (2023). Sustainable livelihoods. Elgar encyclopedia of development. (pp. 582-586) edited by Matthew Clarke and Andy Zhao. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar. doi: 10.4337/9781800372122
2023
Book Chapter
Land grabs
Smith, Kiah (2023). Land grabs. Elgar encyclopedia of development. (pp. 403-407) edited by Matthew Clarke and Andy Zhao. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar. doi: 10.4337/9781800372122
2023
Conference Publication
Fair Food Futures: 4 scenarios for translating civic food politics into food system transitions in Australia
Smith, Kiah (2023). Fair Food Futures: 4 scenarios for translating civic food politics into food system transitions in Australia. XX International Sociological Association Congress, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 25 June -1 July 2023.
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Kiah Smith is:
- Not available for supervision
Supervision history
Current supervision
-
Doctor Philosophy
Australian Civic Food Networks in Food Systems Governance: Experiences, Challenges, and Opportunities
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Walters
-
Doctor Philosophy
COVID-19 impacts on alternative and local food systems: Unpacking the potential for sustainable food production and consumption
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Katherine Cullerton
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Doctor Philosophy
Civil society participation and reflexive governance in Australia's food system
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Walters
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Doctor Philosophy
Women's Empowerment Through Contract Farming: Vegetable Seed Value Chains in Bangladesh
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Rajendra Adhikari
-
Doctor Philosophy
Digital and Agricultural Innovation, and Alternative Agriculture Practices in Australian
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Kristen Lyons
Completed supervision
-
2024
Doctor Philosophy
Evaluating hydrogen attitudes and citizen transformation through deliberation
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Alastair Stark
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Agri-food transformations in Northern Australia: The work of local actors in mediating financial investments
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence
Media
Enquiries
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