Dr Joanne Tomkinson

Joanne is a political economist whose research interests are located at the crossroads of global capitalism and state policymaking. 

Her latest research project is funded by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (awarded in 2024 and running from 2025-2029) and is entitled 'From oil to autism: The global political economy of infrastructure’s new investment frontiers'. It examines surging global capital inflows into children’s social care services in England, focusing on the private equity firms, infrastructure funds and sovereign wealth funds who are now major investors in children’s homes, fostering agencies and special educational needs establishments across England. It explores how some of society’s most vulnerable children are becoming incorporated into new transnational investment frontiers, and what is driving and enabling these shifts. 

Prior to this research she worked with Professor Julia Gallagher on the ERC-funded African State Architecture project. In this role she looked at the impact of transnational investment flows on airport construction and design in Africa, with a particular focus on statebuilding efforts in Ethiopia and Ghana.

Her PhD thesis (funded by an ESRC studentship) was undertaken at the Department of Development Studies at SOAS and was entitled 'Late development in the age of neoliberalism: The political economy of state-led development in Ethiopia and Vietnam'. Joanne holds an MSc in Development Studies from SOAS and a BA in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of York. Prior to her PhD she worked in international development policy and media, including for Oxfam, Reuters and at the University of Oxford.

Her work has been published in Third World Quarterly, Development and Change and Journal of Eastern African Studies.

Joanne’s research is located broadly in the field of global political economy. She is particularly interested in the impact of patterns of global capital accumulation on state policymaking across varied geographic contexts, especially as these relate to:

• political economy of development
• outsourcing and privatisation
• crises of care under capitalism
• political economy of infrastructure