Email address: chloethompson2@connect.glos.ac.uk
Through her PhD, Chloe aims to understand Welsh farmer attitudes and decision making around climate resilience, and to explore the utility of serious games as a research tool in an agri-environmental policy context.
The Welsh Government is legally bound to improving the environmental well-being of Wales (Welsh Government, 2015). This means moving towards climate resilience. Climate resilience means having the ability to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from impacts of the changing climate (C2ES, 2019).
This can be used as a discursive strategy to encompass mitigation and adaptation, as well as measures to limit risk – such as the push for net zero. Around 90% of land in Wales is used for agriculture (Devenish, 2022) which means that farmers and land owners have the potential to play a significant role in this. This PhD aims to use a combination of interviews and serious game play to investigate current Welsh farmer attitudes and decision making around both national and on farm climate resilience.
Serious games are an increasingly popular research tool in the environmental social sciences and may offer a suitable method for creatively, efficiently, and flexibly investigating farmer attitudes and decision making around agri-environmental policy. The game will be designed through conversation with farmers and subject experts, before being used as a group discussion facilitation tool.
The combination of climate resilience goals and implementation of post-Brexit policy, such as the ongoing Sustainable Farming Scheme, means Wales is moving through a period of land use policy change, making research investigating farmer decision making and the methods that can be used to more effectively investigate this particularly timely.
Before joining the CCRI Chloe completed a BSc in Psychology at the University of Leeds, and worked as a Research Assistant James Hutton Institute’s Social, Economic, and Geographic Sciences Department in Aberdeen. In her free time she enjoys helping her parents on their farm in Mid-Wales.
Bibliography
Welsh Government. Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 [Internet]. Statute Law Database; 2015. Available from: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2015/2/contents
C2ES. Center for climate and energy solutions. 2019. What is climate resilience and why does it matter? Available from: https://www.c2es.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/what-is-climate-resilience.pdf
Devenish, K. (2022). The Farming Sector in Wales Research Briefing (Issue July). www.senedd.wales
Publications
Waylen, K. A., Kuhfuss, L., Thompson, C. et al. 2026 ‘Nature Markets and English Farmer Groups: Ready to Go or Reluctant to Engage?’ Journal of Rural Studies 124
Nicholson, H., Roberts, M., Thompson, C., Li, K. H., & Irvine, K. N. 2025. Examining indicators of quality green and blue space: A mixed method study investigating multifunctionality. Environmental Science & Policy, 170, 104100.
Thompson, C., Pownall, M., Harris, R., Blundell-Birtill, P., 2023. Is the Grass always Greener? Access to Campus Green Spaces Can Boost Students’ Sense of Belonging. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Pownall, M., Thompson, C., Blundell-Birtill, P., Newell, S.J. and Harris, R., 2022. Does “psychological literacy” feature in non-psychology degrees? A cross-discipline study of student perceptions. Teaching of Psychology
Harris, R., Pownall, M., Thompson, C., Newell, S.J. and Blundell-Birtill, P., 2021. Students’ Understanding of Psychological Literacy in the UK Undergraduate Curriculum. Psychology Teaching Review, 27(1), pp.56-68.
Reports
Kuhfuss, L., Thompson, C., Waylen, K., Zuta, A., Capstick, L., McHugh, N., 2024. Exploring the potential of Farmer Groups in England to stimulate Nature Markets. Report, Natural England.
Nicholson, H., Roberts, M., Thompson, C., Irvine, K., 2024. Validated index of green and blue space quality. Report, RESAS.
Blackstock, K., Flanigan, S., Thompson, C., 2023. D4.6: Upgrading Strategies for the Value Chains. Project deliverable, European Commission.
Thompson, C. A.; Blackstock, K.; Creaney, R.; Miller, D., 2023. Vulnerability and Resilience of the Speyside Whisky, food, and drink tourism value chain assemblage. Report to stakeholders, The James Hutton Institute.
Blackstock, K., Flanigan, S., Creaney, R., Matthews, K., Hopkins, J., Miller, D., Ahmed, A., Chabdu, A., Bacigalupo, A., & Thompson, C., 2022. D4.3: Participatory value chain analysis. Project deliverable, European Commission.