Research Interests

Julie has over 1,700 citations for her research, the second highest in Politics at Lancaster University. She joined the department in 2005, having taught previously at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London; the London School of Economics (LSE) and the University of Sussex. Within critical development studies, her research interests include the international politics of aid, civil society, social movements and migrant workers within the historic and contemporary context of South-North relations. Her research trajectory has evolved in five directions: the global political economy of civil society in African countries; the labour movement in Argentina; trade union mobilization among low paid Latin American migrant workers in London; Ecuador's postneoliberal development model 2007-2017; and the NGO-isation of the Syrian Revolution.

Aid, Civil Society and the Global Political Economy of Africa

Julie has been studying Northern aid policy towards African civil societies, within the broader context of the region's global political economy, for the past twenty-five years. This has included ESRC-funded doctoral research in Kenya, a collaborative research project between the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex and research institutes in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa as well as a number of consultancies for the Department for International Development (DfID) in Uganda and the UK. Her research has been published in academic and non-academic fora. Her article in Development and Change draws on the concept of the comprador, developed in earlier theories of imperialism, to examine the extent to which African NGOs have become key intermediaries for Northern development policy. She has participated in the editorial working group of the Review of African Political Economy.

Self-Organisation and the Labour Movement in Argentina

Having been a member of the Argentina Solidarity Campaign in London, initiated in response to the economic crisis, she spent ten months in Buenos Aires in 2002-2003 undertaking participant observation in the piqueteros and fabricas ocupadas - unemployed workers and occupied factories - movements. She has presented her findings, placed within the historical context of Argentina's labour movement, at a number of international conferences. In 2007 she taught at a postgraduate summer-school at the University of Buenos Aires, organized by the Euro-Latin American university network, REDESFRO.

Low Paid Latin American Migrant Workers in London

Research, undertaken with Monica Bergos and funded by a 2008 British Academy Small Grant, explores trade union mobilization among Latin American cleaners in London. A brief article, 'Pregnant and Deported: Universities and the UK Immigration Regime' was published by the University and College Union in November 2009. The full research is available in 'Learning from the Cleaners? Trade Union Activism among Low Paid Latin American Migrant Workers at the University of London', Working Paper No. 7, Identity, Citizenship and Migration Centre, University of Nottingham (2010) and as a journal article in Race and Class (2011). In 2017 she presented her findings in the ESRC seminar series (2016-18), 'Migrants, Workplace and Community': Learning from Innovation in Civil Society.'

Ecuador's Postneoliberal Development Model

Between 2007 and 2017, under the Citizens' Revolution and the presidency of Rafael Correa, Ecuador pursued an alternative development path to that of neoliberalism. My research explores the government's unpredecented public investment in higher education in order to transform the structure of the economy away from primary commodity production and export to a transnational-indigenous 'knowledge economy'. A 2014/15 ESRC grant, 'Radical Futures in Social Science' with Dr John Childs of the Lancaster Environment Centre, resulted in a joint article, Childs, J. & Hearn, J. (2017) '"New" Nations: Resource-based Development Imaginaries in Ghana and Ecuador', Third World Quarterly, 38(4): 844-61.

The NGO-isation of the Syrian Revolution

This joint work with Abdulsalam Dallal builds on twenty-five years of researching NGOs and applies it to the Syrian Revolution. It is published as 'The "NGO-isation" of the Syrian Revolution' in International Socialism, (autumn) 2019.

Additional Information

Publications

Academic Articles

'The "NGO-isation" of the Syrian Revolution' International Socialism 164 (autumn) (2019) with Abdulsalam Dallal.

'"New" Nations: Resource-based Development Imaginaries in Ghana and Ecuador' Third World Quarterly, 38(4): 844-61 (2017) with John Chids.

'Latin American Cleaners Fight for Survival at the University of London: Lessons for Migrant Trade Union Activism' Race and Class 53(1) (2011) with Monica Bergos.

'African NGOs: The New Compradors?' Development and Change 38(6): 1095-1110 (2007).

'The "Invisible NGO": US Evangelical Missions in Kenya', Journal of Religion in Africa 32(1): 32-60 (2002).

'The "Uses and Abuses" of Civil Society in Africa', Review of African Political Economy (28)87: 43-53 (2001).

'Aiding Democracy? Donors and Civil Society in South Africa', Third World Quarterly 21(5): 815-30 (2000). Republished in Moseley, W. (ed) Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial African Issues, McGraw Hill (3rd edn 2009).

'The "NGO-isation" of Kenyan Society: USAID and the Restructuring of Health Care', Review of African Political Economy (25)75: 89-100 (1998).

Book Chapters

'The US Democratic Experiment in Ghana' in Zack-Williams, T., Frost, D., Thomson, A. (eds.) Africa in Crisis: New Challenges and Possibilities, London: Pluto Press, pp. 97-108, (2002).

'Civil Society and Democracy Assistance in Africa' (with Mark Robinson) in Burnell, P. (ed.) Democracy Assistance, London: Frank Cass, pp. 241-62, (2000).

Articles and Published Papers

'Learning from the Cleaners? Trade Union Activism among Low Paid Latin American Migrant Workers at the University of London', Identity, Citizenship and Migration Centre, University of Nottingham, Working Paper 7, 2010.

'Pregnant and Deported: Universities and the UK Immigration Regime', UCU Magazine, the University and College Union, November 2009.

'Kenya and the Myth of 'African barbarism', Spiked, 10 January 2008.

'Aiding Civil Society? Some Critical Questions', Africa World Review, February - July: 7-11 2000.

'Foreign Political Aid, Democratization, and Civil Society in Ghana in the 1990s' (No. 5) Center for Democracy & Development, Ghana, 2000.

'Foreign Political Aid, Democratisation and Civil Society in Uganda in the 1990s', Centre for Basic Research Working Paper 53, August 1999.

'Foreign Political Aid, Democratisation, and Civil Society in Africa: A Study of South Africa, Ghana and Uganda', IDS Discussion Paper 368, March 1999.

Book Reviews

Igoe, J. & Kelsall, T. (eds) (2005) 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place: African NGOs, Donors and the State', Journal of Modern African Studies 44(4) (2006).

Other Activities

Elected four times to the University University and College Union (UCU) National Executive Committee. Former President, VP, Equality Officer and Membership Officer of Lancaster UCU.

As UCU Equality Officer, I have co-founded the Lancaster University Race Equality Network (LUREN), organising Black History Month events, supporting student-led campaigns to decolonise the curriculum and for an asylum-seeker and refugee university Sanctuary scholarship programme.

I enjoy reading Kenyan and South African autobiography and fiction, particularly by women writers, and watching French, Spanish and Argentinian cinema. I am also a mother.

Research Overview

Julie has over 1,700 citations for her work, the second highest in Politics at Lancaster University. Her research trajectory has evolved in five directions: the global political economy of civil society in African countries; self-organisation and the labour movement in Argentina; trade union mobilization among low paid Latin American migrant workers in London; Ecuador's postneoliberal development model; and the 'NGOization' of the Syrian Revolution.

PhD Supervision Interests

The politics of social movements, civil society, NGOs, trade unions in the UK, Syria, Argentina, Ecuador, Kenya and South Africa.