Tom Tom

Tom Tom, PhD is a Research Fellow with the DSI/NRF SARChI Chair in Social Policy, University of South Africa; and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Development Studies, Zimbabwe Open University. In 2020, he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, with the University of South Africa under the ‘Social Policy Dimensions of Land and Agrarian Reform Project’ led by Professor Jimi Adesina. Since 2016, he has worked closely with the farmers in the new resettlement areas (NRAs) created by Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP), old resettlement areas (ORAs), and communal areas (CAs) focusing on agrarian reform and the concomitant social policy outcomes (redistributive, productive, protective, reproductive and social compact), and rural development. Currently, he is participating in a tri-continental project on the social policy dimensions of agrarian reform (covering Africa, Asia and Latin America) within the remit of the SARChI Chair in Social Policy. He is a member of the Young African Researchers in Agriculture Network (YARA), International Sociological Association – Junior Sociologists Network (ISA-JSN), and Development Studies Association (DSA). His research, publication and teaching centre on critical agrarian studies, social policy and rural development in Africa. He has published with The Journal of Peasant Studies (Taylor & Francis), Disability & Society (Taylor & Francis), Journal of Applied Youth Studies (Springer), African Journal of Economic and Management Studies (Emerald) and Routledge. He is committed to interdisciplinary and collaborative research on the future of rural Africa in and related to agrarian studies, rural development and social policy, primarily informed by political economy and political ecology lens.