As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, nearly 100 articles on climate change, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
Laudatio to Robert Chambers
'Laudatio to Robert Chambers' in H-U Thimm and H. Hahn (eds), Regional Food Security and Rural Infrastructure (Vol 1), Schriften 50, Zentrum fur Regionale Entwicklungsforschung der Justus-Liebig-Universitat, Giessen, Germany, June 1993
Regional food security depends on a complex of influencing factors. Rural infrastructure is one of them. There are no studies rejecting a hypothesis that infrastructure generally contributes positively to food security, and there is no major dispute that rural infrastructure works mainly through the process of opening up regions for increases in production and output marketing. Supply of goods and services created through improved economic and social activities follows. The basic food security problems are found in low productivity of production factors, changing land-man ratios, environmental degradation, as well as political instability, economic underdevelopment and lack of non-agricultural employment and purchasing power. While global attempts are apparently not effective, it seems necessary to return to regional analysis as the starting point for food security solutions. According to recent UN reports the number of developing countries with permanent food deficits has decreased, but subnational (regional) incidences of food security problems remain at an intolerable high level.