Tom O'Brien
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I grew up on a dairy farm in the northern King Country (Te Rohe Pōtae) region of Aotearoa New Zealand. I was inspired to study politics at the University of Waikato by a charismatic lecturer on a polytechnic course, who pushed us in new directions. I followed this with an Honours year at Victoria University Wellington and a Masters at the University of Auckland.

After two years working in the Ministry of Health I started at the University of Melbourne on a PhD project exploring the impact of democratisation on environmental outcomes in South and Southeastern Europe. The extensive fieldwork this entailed generated a range of interesting and enriching experiences that encouraged and fed my curiosity.

Research

Overview

My main areas of current research interest are centered on environmental politics, democratisation, social movements, and civil society. I have conducted research previously on political leadership, organisational development, human security, and trust. This research has had a broad geographical spread but Eastern Europe and Aotearoa New Zealand have been key areas of focus. 

Work that I have completed recently or currently have ongoing focuses on environmental activism in Australia, disaster management in Southeast Asia, opposition to AI, practices of social repair in Doncaster, and the character of rural activism in Aotearoa.

Publications

Selected publications

• O’Brien, T. (2026) ‘No Beer on a Dead Planet’: Mapping Environmental Activism in Australia (1995-2025)’, Journal of Sociology. 
• Southgate, L. and O’Brien, T. (2026) ‘“A culmination of many factors”: Opportunities, Arenas, and Challenges to Malaysia’s Dominant Regime’, Democracy and Security, 22(3): 397-415. 
• O’Brien, T. (2025) ‘A Study of Patterns of Environmental Protest in Sydney, Australia’, Journal of Australian Studies, 49(3): 297-312.
• O’Brien, T. (2024) ‘“We want bread and work”: Patterns of Labour Protest and Union Involvement in Bulgaria’, Labour and Industry, 34(3): 322-38. 
• O’Brien, T. and Huntington, N. (2024) ‘“Vaccine Mandates Equal Apartheid”: Covid-19 and Parliamentary Occupation in Aotearoa New Zealand’, Social Movement Studies, 23(6): 849-55.
• Gardner, P., O’Brien, T., Carvalho, T. and Adekola, O. (2024) ‘Profile: Extinction Rebellion in The Gambia’, Social Movement Studies, 23(1): 122-28.
• Crețan, R., O’Brien, T., Văran Ţenche, C. and Timofte, F. (2023) ‘Legacies of Displacement from the Iron Gates Hydroelectric Project, Romania’, Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning, 14(2): 67-77.
• Gardner, P., Adekola, O., Carvalho, T. and O’Brien, T. (2023) ‘Confronting the Climate Crisis in Africa: Just Transition and Extinction Rebellion in Nigeria and South Africa’, Review of African Political Economy, 50(177-178): 475-90. 
• O’Brien, T. (2023) ‘“We are Shepherds, But Not Sheep”: Farmer Protest and Rural Identity in Bulgaria’, Rural Society, 32(3): 185-200.
• O’Brien, T., Crețan, R., Jucu, I. and Covaci, R. (2023) ‘Internal Migration and Stigmatisation in the Rural Banat Region of Romania’, Identities, 30(5): 704-24.
• O’Brien, T. and de Jong, S. (2023) ‘“A Little Kind of Island”: Community Engagement with Intersecting Crises in Doncaster’. In K. Heidemann (ed.) Combating Crises from Below: Social Responses to Polycrisis in Europe and the United Kingdom. Maastricht: Maastricht University Press.
• Rîşteiu, N., Creţan, R. and O’Brien, T. (2022) ‘Contesting Post-Communist Economic Development: Gold Extraction, Local Community and Rural Decline in Romania’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 63(4): 491-513.
• Filippidou, A. and O’Brien, T. (2022) ‘Trust and Distrust in the Resolution of Protracted Social Conflicts: The Case of Colombia’, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, (14)1: 1-21.

Teaching

Overview

My current teaching is concentrated in the broad area of political sociology, encompassing topics such as civil society, the state, bureaucracy. I am also involved in teaching on issues around the role of the state and other institutions in addressing climate change and its impacts, climate justice, and urban sociology.

Supervision

Current PhD Students

• Aasim Sheikh – Fair Trade in Global Production Through EU Institutions: An Analysis of Social Movement Strategy
• Jennifer Brunner – Constructing Biographies of Colonially Looted Objects and Artefacts in their Repatriation: New Meanings for New Futures – A case
• study of the 2021 repatriation of looted Dahomey objects from France to Benin
• Churong Geng – Exploring the reasons for the popularity of animal culture in China against the backdrop of Chinese social media.
• Haddy Nije - The empirical examination of courage, its role and application on social movements and collective action to challenge injustices.

Completed supervision

• Hanan Alsuraihi - The Impact of Social Media on Women’s Civic Engagement in Saudi Arabia: An Empirical and Critical Study of Saudi Women Councillors.
• Yumeng Jing - Dynamics of Information Dissemination and Civic Engagement within social media political communication. Take the United States, Philippines and Brazil as examples.
• Andrew MacDonald - “I never wanted to go into climate activism…”: examining the actions, futures and politics of Youth climate activists.
• Adam Dinsmore - Who’s in Charge Here? How Partisan Publics Conceptualise ‘The Elite’ in Red Wall England.
• Anastasia Shaw – “We need the basics done well, and it needs to be childproof": Teacher and architect experiences of school buildings in the UK.

Tom is open to supervising topics in the areas of political sociology that broadly align with his research interests.