Rate My Professor Alec Thornton

Thornton's research specializations include development geography, urban agriculture, food systems governance, urban governance, climate change and human mobility, and participatory methods for sustainable livelihoods and food security monitoring and evaluation. He conducted empirical case studies in Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zambia, Australia, Germany, and the USA. In Sierra Leone's rural North-Western Province, Thornton collaborated with the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute and Fourah Bay College on a peer-based interview model using videos to identify post-harvest handling, processing technology, and training needs for farmers. Key publications encompass his authored monograph Space and Food in the City: Cultivating Social Justice and Urban Governance through Urban Agriculture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), which examines urban agriculture's potential to empower marginalized communities and reshape urban food governance in developed and developing contexts. He also edited Urban Food Democracy and Governance in North and South (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Prominent articles include “The Lucky Country”? A Critical Exploration of Community Gardens in Australian Cities (2017), Hard Times in Apia? Urban Landlessness and the Church in Samoa (2013), Garden of Eden? The Impact of Resettlement on Squatters' Agriculture in Fiji (2009), and Cultivating Kaunda's Plan for Self-Sufficiency: Is Urban Agriculture the Answer? (2010). Thornton's scholarship has informed discussions on integrating urban food systems into smart city policymaking and stakeholder collaboration for resilient development.