Adam Green

Research Database

Dr Green is a Lecturer in Sustainability, and is undertaking research that challenges old thinking about inequality and sustainability using new data and insights from the deep past. He holds a dual appointment in the Department of Archaeology and Department of Environment & Geography. He is particularly interested in investigating the dynamics of inequality in the social ecologies of the deep past to help find ways to reduce inequality in the future. He works in South Asia, where he uses a range of methods, including archaeological excavation and survey, historical cartography and digital/computational methods to gather data on past agro-pastoral social ecologies. Many of these, like the Indus civilisation (ca. 2600-1900 BC), were among the earliest urban societies, and developed prosperous urban economies in the Bronze Age, long before the use of fossil fuels. How can we use data from surprisingly egalitarian societies like the Indus to help address global challenges today? 

He has co-directed collaborative archaeological fieldwork in India for more than a decade, and has developed strong collaborations with economists and agronomists who are interested in designing new sustainability initiatives informed by data from the past. He is also developing new models of sustainable resource governance that are informed by insights from the past. For example, he has worked closely with collaborators at Cambridge University, Punjab Agricultural University, Center for International Projects Trust and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics to shape water management and crop diversity studies informed by data from the past. He is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, and is particularly interested in SDG1, No Poverty, and SDG10, Reduced Inequalities. His work on agricultural, urbanism and growth intersects with SDG2, SDG5, SDG8, SDG11 and SDG12.