Joshua Davis: PhD student

Email address: joshuadavis@connect.glos.ac.uk
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9499-4285

Josh’s PhD research focuses on addressing shifts in knowledge and skills required in delivering landscape-scale nature-based recovery

This PhD is an interdisciplinary project and utilises mixed methods to explore: (1) the key environmental, collaborative, digital, and entrepreneurial skills required by key stakeholders (inclusive of farmers, land managers, delivery partners, bridging organisations, and extension/advisory services) for landscape-scale, nature-based recovery: alongside (2) investigating how skills acquisition and development occurs in practice, with the scope required to facilitate ecosystem restoration.

Specifically, this research aims to:

  • Analyse drivers of change (barriers, opportunities, incentives, pathways, and broader discourse) surrounding skills acquisition and development for nature recovery.
  • Identify key skills required to promote and participate in landscape-scale, nature-based recovery projects, and b) explore optimal learning pathways for skills acquisition and development (given the diverse range of motivations, learning styles, and capacities) – noting how those involved best learn and implement the skills identified.
  •  Assess current institutional capacities, and identify the extent to which they can enable and support this transition.
  • Highlight if the formation of agri-environmental capital can occur with the scale and pace required to meet national- and international- nature recovery targets.

Josh’s PhD is funded by the Education and Evolution Trust (as part of a broader collaborative studentship with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT), Sapperton Wilder, and the Royal Agricultural University (RAU). He is supervised by Associate Professor Chris Short (CCRI), Professor Julie Ingram (CCRI), and Professor Tom MacMillan (RAU).

His wider research interests include the social, economic, legislative, and regulatory obstacles to sustainable land and marine management practices, rewilding, and nature recovery.

Qualifications

  • MSci (University of Bristol)
  • PGCert – Research Methods (University of Gloucestershire)

Publications

  • Hafferty, C., Reed, M.S., Brockett, B,F,T., Orford, S., Berry, R., Short, C., & Davis, J. (2024). Engagement in the digital age: Navigating the technical and ethical debates around participatory technologies in environmental decision-making. Journal of Environmental Management. 365, 121365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121365

Reports

  • Davis, J., Hafferty, C., Ingram, J., & Short, C. (2024). Nattergal’s Best Practice Engagement Report for Landscape-scale Nature Recovery Projects. Carried out by the Countryside and Community Research Institute at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. https://lnkd.in/eCxTV2zC
  • Pound, D., Short, C., Bavin, S., Davis, J., Pound, J., and George, I. (2024). Enabling Positive Landscape Change to Deliver Landscape Resilience: the role of Landscape Governance and Landscape Justice.  Natural England Commissioned Report.

Additional activities

As an honorary research associate of the University of Bristol, Josh is continuing his research into consumer and stakeholder knowledge, perceptions, and resulting willingness to pay for integrated agri-aquacultural products across the UK; working alongside Dr Rose Murray (UoB), Dr Rosemary Crichton (UoB), and Mr Christopher Cammies (UoB). Stay tuned for publications and broader outputs in due course.