Tom Carter-Brookes

Biography

I completed my first degree in Music and Sonic Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University and following that had a successful career both as a session musician and as a music educator.

In more recent years I became an environmental activist and this interest led me to complete an MSc in Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology at Keele 2023-24. My dissertation was an evaluation of the 2024 Welsh Farmers’ Protests.

Following on from this, my PhD as part of the Sustainable Rural Futures (SURF) programme at Keele, will look at the ongoing UK farmer protests and explore their relationships to net-zero transitions.

Research and scholarship

Working Title: Rural activism for sustainability and just transitions.

In recent years farmers protests have spread throughout much of Europe. Concerns over the cost of net-zero transitions and changes to subsidies have led to widespread protest. My research will look at how in 2024, these protests spread to the UK, challenging the often-repeated notion of the apolitical rural. The rural is a key locus for net-zero transition; ensuring it is a just transition is at the forefront of any notion of sustainability. My research will engage closely with the protesting farmers to understand how rural activism can help to bridge the gap between competing interpretations of sustainable futures.

Supervision

Professor Clare Holdsworth, Dr Pawas Bisht

Digital artefacts

Protesting farmers are having to fight off the radical right, conspiracy theorists and climate sceptics