Imogen’s research focuses on food systems and human-environment interactions and she has worked extensively in West African urban and rural agricultural settings. Her current research interests include sustainable and low-input agricultural practices, city region food systems and rural-urban linkages, informal urban and rural food markets, and the application of circular economy ideas to food systems.
Her recent work has addressed agricultural commercialisation and water resource use, urban agriculture, agroecology, the African Green Revolution, and knowledge construction between farmers, researchers and extension agents. Imogen’s interdisciplinary research approach draws on environmental geography, with influences from agroecology, socioecological systems thinking, science and technology studies, political ecology and practice theory. As an interdisciplinary researcher, she uses qualitative as well as quantitative and participatory methods.
Throughout her work, Imogen has been dedicated to dissemination and stakeholder engagement, for example by facilitating policy dialogue processes on agriculture in West African cities. With local partners, she has made several Ghanaian-language training, documentary and feature films on agricultural themes, exploring the crossover between dissemination and popular culture. Her more recent research explores the role of the arts in environmental policy communication.