Andrew is a Reader in Uneven Development and Deputy Head of the Geography Department at King’s College London. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in southern Africa his early publications examined the geographies of combined and uneven development. While retaining a deep interest in Africa, his work pivoted to focus back on the UK as well as Portugal. His attention has turned to questions of global comparisons and his paper on relational comparison in Sierra Leone won the Progress in Development Studies article of the year.

Andrew's forthcoming book: Bullsh*t Comparisons: A field guide to thinking critically in a world of difference (2024) is published by Footnote Press. He was an Editor of the Journal of Southern African Studies for four years. Andrew’s work is rigorous, engaging, and accessible and he has written two editions of the popular Smithsonian Children’s Illustrated Atlas and Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-hand Clothes, which was long-listed for the Bread and Roses prize. His third book was The End of Development: A Global History of Poverty and Prosperity.

His work on global development and fashion has reached international media including Al Jazeera, BBC News, CNN, The Economist, The Guardian, Le Monde, The New York Times, and Newsweek. Field teaching is an integral part of his professional practice, and he has led trips to Hong Kong, Southern India, Lisbon, and the UK.

Research

• Relational Comparisons
• Economic and Social Change in Southern Africa
• Environments and Urban Development 

Andrew researches a wide range of topics and seeks to understand the uneven growth of the world economy. He is interested in comparing how different patterns of consumption shape lives around the world.

A focus of his research has been political and economic change in Africa, yet ultimately his work is guided by intellectual curiosity rather than trying to fit in to a particular niche. His research in Africa has included extensive investigations of markets and politics in Malawi and Mozambique, Chinese investment in Zambia and Healthcare in Sierra Leone.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• 4SSG0141 Geographical Foundations: The Making of the Modern World
• 5SSG2047 Field Research in Human Geography – field trip to Lisbon
• 5SSG2044 Development Geography: Livelihoods and Policy Contexts
• 6SSG3087 Geographies of Financialisation & Value-Making

PhD supervision

Andrew is interested in supervising students working in the following areas:

• Consumption and urban environments
• Political and economic change in Southern Africa
• Relational Comparison
• Critical Development Studies
• Postcolonial Geographies of Portugal or the UK

Further details

See Andrew's research profile