Graeme Smith, Bsc (Hons), PhD (Sydney); BA (UNSW), PhD (ANU)
Visiting Fellow, State Society and Governance in Melanesia Program

Email: graeme.smith@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

My main research interest is Chinese resource projects in the Pacific. I am working on an ADRA research grant, The Impacts of Chinese Aid and Development Projects on Governance in Papua New Guinea with Dr Sinclair Dinnen and Dr Paul D'Arcy, examining the Ramu nickel/cobalt mine in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. I have previously researched the dynamics of state–society interactions in rural China, worked on understanding the rising demand for organic produce in urban areas, and examined the political economy of China's agricultural extension system and the redistribution of land among Chinese farmers. I also hold a PhD in inorganic chemistry and am a postdoctoral research fellow at the China Research Centre at University of Technology, Sydney.

Research Interests

Contemporary Chinese policy-making, state–society interactions, rural politics, bureaucratic contestation, resource projects, supply chains, and agribusiness.

Key Publications

• 'Franchising the State: Farmers, Agricultural Technicians and the Marketisation of Agricultural Services' in Bjoern Alpermann (ed.), Politics and Markets in Rural China. (London: Routledge, Forthcoming 2009).
• 'Political Machinations in a Rural County', The China Journal. No. 62, July 2009, pp. 29-59.
• The Political Economy of Agricultural Extension in Rural Anhui, China. ANU PhD dissertation (2008).
• Co-editor(with Andrew Kipnis), a special journal issue on Rural Governance in the Midst of Underfunding, Deception, and Mistrust, a translation of Zhao Shukai's research in Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Winter 2006/2007).
• 'Structural Limits on the Delivery of Agricultural Extension Services in Rural China', Village Self-Governance in China: Past, Present and Future. Beijing: EU-China Training Programme on Village Governance (2006).
• A Matter of Trust: The Organic Food Market in China. (Sydney: UNSW, 2002).

Career Highlights

Appointment as a research associate at the ANU (2007), lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of NSW (1999-2004), visiting scholar at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University (2001), research tutor in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Sydney (1991-1996); various academic awards, including (with Prof. Jonathan Unger) ARC Discovery Grant (2007), WJ Liu Esq Memorial Prize (2001), UNSW-Tsinghua Scholarship (2001), Chinese Government Scholarship (1998-1999); founding president, China Research and Postgraduate Club, ANU (2003-2004).