Research Interests

Sophie is a human geographer working on rural landscape change and governance. This includes research on:

1) Human-nature relations and environmental governance: ambitions for rewilding, innovative governance mechanisms - e.g payments for ecosystem services, community-led and participatory management - and the implications these approaches have.

2) Farming and agricultural change: farmer decision-making, learning and practise; impacts of policy transitions (e.g. Brexit); adoption of environmental management; co-operative behaviours.

3) Knowledge controversies: understanding different knowledge systems, and how stakeholders interact and negotiate strategies for rural and landscape futures.

Current/Recent Projects

Human-Nature Relations

Working with rewilding practitioners and stakeholders in Wales to evaluate current projects, assessing values, wellbeing, and processes of change.

https://www.cambrianwildwood.org/

http://www.summit2sea.wales/

Rewilding in a Changing Europe: Opportunities, Threats and Shifting Geographies of Land-Use https://rewildinglandscapes.wordpress.com/

Audio of me discussing a social-science perspective on rewilding, as part of the Zoological Society of London's podcast of rewilidng in a changing climate https://www.zsl.org/zsl-wild-science-podcast

 

Farming and Agricultural Change

Breaking-STEP - Breaking the Barriers to Soil Testing on Pastures, SARIC funded.

Fferm Ifan & Conwy Catchment North Wales funded through Defra SIP2 project http://www.siplatform.org.uk/farming-collaboration

Pontbren Project in Mid Wales, funded through Welsh Government http://gov.wales/funding/eu-funds/previous/programme-evaluation/pontbren-project/?lang=en

Food Values exploring innovate approaches to food education and communications https://foodvaluesblog.wordpress.com/ funded through Wales Rural Development Programme Supply Chain Efficiencies & ESRC Impact Accelerator Award

New directions in agri-environmental governance - Wales advisor on https://agrienvironmentalgovernance.wordpress.com/ 

Previous evaluations of agri-environmental development in Wales funded through:

Wales Nature Fund

Transatlantic Rural Research Network & Imperial College London http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/lifesciences/grandchallengesinecosystemsandtheenvironment/eventssummary/event_9-4-2015-14-45-14

Wales Rural Observatory http://www.walesruralobservatory.org.uk

 

Qualifications

2015 PGCTHE. Aberystwyth University

2011 PhD Geography: 'Negotiating Neoliberalism: Engaging Ecosystem Services'; University of Wales Aberystwyth, ESRC 1+3 funded.

2006 Practising Human Geography MA, University of Wales Aberystwyth, ESRC 1+3 funded.

2005 Geography BA, University of Wales Aberystwyth, UWA full scholarship.

s.wynne-jones@bangor.ac.uk

01248 382639

Room F24 Thoday Building

http://bangoruniversity.academia.edu/SophieWynneJones

twitter @SWynneJ

1) Human-nature relations and environmental governance: e.g. rewilding, payments for ecosystem services, community-led and participatory management. 2) Farming and agricultural change: farmer decision-making, learning and practise; impacts of policy transitions (e.g. Brexit); adoption of environmental management; co-operative behaviours. 3) Knowledge controversies: understanding different knowledge systems and how stakeholders interact.

2023

• PublishedSocial Return on Investment of Nature-Based Activities for Adults with Mental Wellbeing Challenges
  Hartfiel, N., Gittins, H., Morrison, V., Wynne-Jones, S., Edwards, R. T. & Dandy, N., 2 Aug 2023, In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 20, 15, 13 p., 6500.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• Published“It's opened my eyes to what's out there”: How do nature-based interventions influence access to and perceptions of the natural environment?
  Gittins, H., Dandy, N., Wynne-Jones, S. & Morrison, V., 2023, In: Wellbeing, Space & Society. 4, 100125.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• E-pub ahead of print“You don't have to perform for the trees”: The longer-term effects of nature-based interventions on wellbeing
  Gittins, H., Dandy, N., Wynne-Jones, S. & Morrison, V., 1 Dec 2023, In: Wellbeing, Space & Society. 5, 100160.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2022

• PublishedGoverning like a forest: achieving diachronic integrity or emergency carbon sequestration through post-Brexit forest policy?
  Wynne-Jones, S., Dandy, N., Bodner, T. & Healey, J., 3 Nov 2022, Rural Governance in the UK: Towards a Sustainable and Equitable Society. Attrop, A., McAreavey, R. & Heron, S. (eds.). Routledge, (Routledge Studies in Sustainability).
  Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
• E-pub ahead of printRewilding: An emotional nature
  Wynne-Jones, S., 16 Jun 2022, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Area.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedRewilding—The farmers’ perspective. Perceptions and attitudinal support for rewilding among the English farming community.
  Mikołajczak, K., Jones, N., Sandom, C., Wynne-Jones, S., Beardsall, A., Burgelman, S., Ellam, L. & Wheeler, H., 1 Dec 2022, In: People and Nature. 4, 6, p. 1435-1449
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedThe politics of the rural and relational values: Contested discourses of rural change and landscape futures in west wales
  Holmes, G., Clemoes, J., Wynne-Jones, S. & Marriot, K., 3 Jul 2022, In: Geoforum. 133, p. 153-164
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2021

• PublishedGuiding principles for rewilding
  Carver, S., Convery, I., Hawkins, S., Beyers, R., Eagle, A., Kun, Z., Van Maanen, E., Cao, Y., Fisher, M., Edwards, S. R., Nelson, C., Gann, G. D., Shurter, S., Aguilar, K., Andrade, A., Ripple, W. J., Davis, J., Sinclair, A., Berkoff, M., Noss, R., Foreman, D., Pettersson, H., Root-Bernstein, M., Svenning, J-C., Taylor, P., Wynne-Jones, S., Featherstone, A. W., Flojgaard, C., Stanley-Price, M., Navarro, L. M., Aykroyd, T., Parfitt, A. & Soule, M., Dec 2021, In: Conservation Biology. 35, 6, p. 1882-1893
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedIdentifying barriers to routine soil testing within beef and sheep farming systems
  Rhymes, J., Wynne-Jones, S., Williams, P., Harris, I., Rose, D., Chadwick, D. & Jones, D. L., 15 Dec 2021, In: Geoderma. 404, 115298.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedImportance of building bridging and linking social capital in adapting to changes in UK agricultural policy
  Arnott, D., Chadwick, D., Wynne-Jones, S., Dandy, N. & Jones, D. L., 1 Apr 2021, In: Journal of Rural Studies. 83, p. 1-10
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedVulnerability of British farms to post-Brexit subsidy removal, and implications for intensification, extensification and land sparing.
  Arnott, D., Chadwick, D., Wynne-Jones, S. & Jones, D. L., Aug 2021, In: Land Use Policy. 107, 104154.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2020

• PublishedAre policies for decentralised forest governance designed to achieve full devolution? Evidence from Eastern Africa
  Hockley, N., Magessa, K. & Wynne-Jones, S., 1 Mar 2020, In: International Forestry Review. 22, 1, p. 83-100
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedCollaboration for Sustainable Intensification: The Underpinning Role of Social Sustainability
  Wynne-Jones, S., Hyland, J., Williams, P. & Chadwick, D., Jan 2020, In: Sociologia Ruralis. 60, 1, p. 58-82 25 p.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedDoes Tanzanian participatory forest management policy achieve its governance objectives?
  Magessa, K., Wynne-Jones, S. & Hockley, N., Feb 2020, In: Forest Policy and Economics. 111, February 2020, 102077.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedExploring perceptions of marine biosecurity interventions: insights from the commercial marina sector.
  Vye, S., Wynne-Jones, S., Masterson Algar, P. & Jenkins, S., Aug 2020, In: Marine Policy. 118, 104027.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedRewilding – Departures in Conservation Policy and Practice? An Evaluation of Developments in Britain
  Wynne-Jones, S., Strouts, G., O'Neil, C. & Sandom, C., Apr 2020, In: Conservation & Society. 18, 2, p. 89-102 14 p.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedWhat is rewilding, how should it be done, and why? A Q-method study of the views held by European rewilding advocates
  Holmes, G., Marriott, K., Briggs, C. & Wynne-Jones, S., Jun 2020, In: Conservation & Society. 18, 2, p. 77-88
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2019

• PublishedRewilding Forestry
  Dandy, N. & Wynne-Jones, S., Dec 2019, In: Forest Policy and Economics. 109, 101996.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedRewilding a country: Britain as a study case
  Sandom, C. & Wynne-Jones, S., 28 Feb 2019, Rewilding. Pettorelli, N., Durant, S. & DuToit, J. T. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, (Ecological Reviews).
  Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

2018

• PublishedAbandoning or Reimagining a Cultural Heartland? Understanding and Responding to Rewilding Conflicts in Wales - the case of the Cambrian Wildwood.
  Wynne-Jones, S., Holmes, G. & Strouts, G., 1 Aug 2018, In: Environmental Values. 27, 4
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedAsian Indigeneity, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Challenges of the 2030 Agenda
  Buenavista, D. P., Wynne-Jones, S. & McDonald, M., 31 Dec 2018, In: East Asian Community Review. 1, 3-4, p. 221-240
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedAssembling Payments for Ecosystem Services in Wales
  Wynne-Jones, S. & Vetter, T., 2018, Agri-Environmental Governance as an Assemblage. Forney, J., Rosin, C. & Campbell, H. (eds.). Routledge, p. 19-37 (Earthscan Food and Agriculture).
  Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

2017

• PublishedThe more-than-economic dimensions of cooperation in food production
  Emery, S., Wynne-Jones, S. & Forney, J., Jul 2017, In: Journal of Rural Studies. 53, p. 229-238
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial
• PublishedUnderstanding Farmer Co-operation: Exploring practices of social relatedness and emergent affects.
  Wynne-Jones, S., Jul 2017, In: Journal of Rural Studies. 53, p. 259-268
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2016

• PublishedBeekeepers’ knowledges and participation in pollinator conservation policy
  Maderson, S. & Wynne-Jones, S., 25 Mar 2016, In: Journal of Rural Studies. 45, June 2016, p. 88-98
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
• PublishedFlooding and media storms - controversies over farming and upland land-use in the UK.
  Wynne-Jones, S., 15 Dec 2016, In: Land Use Policy. 58, December, p. 533–536 3 p., 58.
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review

2014

• PublishedReading for difference’ with Payments for Ecosystem Services in Wales
  Wynne-Jones, S., 10 Mar 2014, In: Critical Policy Studies. 8, 2, p. 148-164
  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Welsh Government Environment and Rural Affairs ESRC Policy Fellowship

  01/01/2022 – 30/09/2023 (Active)

• Summit to Sea / O’r Mynydd i’r Môr Project

  01/08/2019 – 31/01/2021 (Finished)

• Rewilding in a changing Europe: opportunities, threats and shifting geographies of land-use

  01/05/2017 – 01/08/2018 (Finished)

  Description

  Rewilding has become a hot topic in recent years, sparking passionate debate across society. For many rewilding presents an exciting possibility to restore our environment and reconnect with the natural world. For others, it is more threatening – in terms of the potential impacts on agriculture and rural heritage. The conference provided an opportunity for academics and practitioners across Europe to come together to set a research agenda to evaluate the opportunities and threats that rewilding poses. These were connected to NRN LCEE priority themes by exploring how rewilding intersects with questions of sustainable land-use transition, food security, rural development and community resilience.

  Links:

  • https://rewildinglandscapes.wordpress.com/

• KESS II PhD project with Woodland Trust BUK292

  01/10/2016 – 01/08/2022 (Finished)

  Links:

  • https://www.bangor.ac.uk/natural-sciences/research/environment-natural-resources-and-geography/students/gittins_heli.php.en