Dr Simon Dickinson

Lecturer in Geohazards within the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (SoGEES) at the University of Plymouth. I teach into the Geography, Environmental Science, Environmental Management & Sustainability, and Geosciences programmes within SoGEES. I am also the South-West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) Geography Pathway Lead
Research interests (see 'Research' tab for further details): the live-streaming of extreme environmental events; citizen-generated media in disaster contexts; virtual disaster hubs/information spaces; social change in the disaster landscape (either DRR or recovery); community engagement and participation in disaster recovery; new  community/non-government organisations.

 

Most Recent Publication: Dickinson, S. (2024). Watching the disaster unfold: geographies of engagement with live-streamed extreme weather. Environmental Hazards, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2024.2324058 

PhD (2018, University of Exeter, UK): 'Geographies of fidelity: emergent spaces of third sector activity after the Canterbury earthquakes' (supervised by Prof Paul Cloke and Prof Clive Barnett)MSc (2014, Canterbury, NZ: 1st Class) 
BSc Hons (2012, Canterbury, NZ) 

I currently teach on the following modules:Module Convenor
ENVS2004 Environmental Issues and Communication
ENVS/M2002 Environmental Management/Sustainability in Practice (leader of the Sweden fieldtrip)
GEOL3014 Geohazards and Risk
Module Contributor
ENVM1001 Environment and Society
ENVS1010 Global Environmental Challenges
ENVM3001 Systems Thinking and Change Leadership in Sustainability
ENVM3002 Systems Thinking in Sustainability: Independent Investigation
ENVS3011 Climate Change: Adaptation and Mitigation
ENVS3012 The Environmental Professional
GEES519 Environmental Knowledge: From Field to Stakeholder 
GEES506 Climate Change: Science and Policy 

My research is centered around a core question of how people make sense of disasters and their impacts. Most commonly, I try to answer this question by focusing on one of the following two areas/practices:
1. One element of my research examines how people produce and engage with video/visual streams of extreme environment events. A growth in devices with streaming capabilities means that is now possible to watch footage of events being streamed from a number of sources: individuals streaming their own personal experience son their phones, (often) tens of thousands of people searching for webcams online depicting extreme weather affecting airports or popular beach areas, or even local authorities using streams/webcams on hazard warning websites in order to communicate potential risk. My research explores how and why people produce and engage with these streams - including how watching such imagery shapes hazard knowledge, risk-taking behaviors, or whether video technology enables people to engage with changing places in novel ways.
2. A second element of my research examines the new and radical forms of community organisation and practice that emerge after disasters. I'm interested in how newly created groups learn (i.e. how knowledge is passed between groups and movements), gain legitimacy (i.e. are recognised as being able to speak for particular groups/issues), and engage with government (i.e. participate in decision-making) in the post-disaster landscape.
In these times of recovery, typical modes of democratic practice are not regarded as suitable, and are often instead temporarily replaced by new forms of engagement. These can include, for example, community 'hubs' (generating new forms of accessibility to state agencies), or creative 'Share an Idea' forms of public engagement (that seek to crowd-source public needs or desires during recovery). In doing so, my research has sought to understand how different groups seek to utilise these exceptional forms of engagement in order to 'improve' democratic practice in the longer term.
Additionally, I am interested in the politics of localisation. I write about the relationships between local-scale NGOs and International NGOs (INGOs)
I am also interested in researching pedagogical practice, particularly related to innovations in the teaching of qualitative methods. A recently published paper (Journal of Geography in Higher Education) explored the dynamics of using story-mapping with students in order to capture the messy and embodied nature of qualitative research.
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