Prof Hazel Johnson

Professional biography

Hazel Johnson has a background in Sociology, Social Administration and Development Studies. Prior to coming to the OU, she worked for a non-governmental organisation and for social services in London. She was one of the original members of the team producing undergraduate curriculum in development at the OU, and one of the founders of the MSc in Development Management. For many years, she was joint managing editor of the Journal of International Development, a Council Member of the Development Studies Association (DSA), a Trustee of the UK Co-operative College and a member of the Grand Union ESRC doctoral training partnership. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Research interests

Hazel Johnson’s research interests focused on aspects of the social and solidarity economy, particularly the role of co-operatives in promoting learning, livelihoods and resilience. In the past she has researched knowledge and social learning for institutional change, including projects on: the impacts of educational programmes in development policy and management on course participants and their organizations in Southern Africa and the UK (with Alan Thomas); active learning and social inclusion in environment and development in Zimbabwe (with Gordon Wilson); and learning and knowledge transfer in North-South municipal partnerships (also with Gordon Wilson). She has supervised doctoral students in the institutionalization of educational change; ethnicity and development; NGO gender policies; knowledge processes engaged in by development consultants and advisers; collective action and innovation; gender and use of mobile phones; women teachers’ lives in rural sub-Saharan Africa; young people's engagement with co-operatives; climate change and forest-based communities; peace education in Uganda; United Nations Integrated Missions; the role of host country offices of volunteer-sending organisations; and learning in peacebuilding organisations. She is a member of the Innovation, Knowledge and Development Centre, the Development Studies Association and the UK Society for Co-operative Studies.

Teaching interests

Hazel Johnson was a leader and member of teams creating undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum in Development Studies and Development Management and also contributed to doctoral training. Her contributions to undergraduate curriculum focused primarily on poverty, inequality and livelihoods, including forms of individual and collective action. Her writing for postgraduate curriculum included contributions to capacities for managing development, institutional development and education for development. More recently she has written about conflict, justice and development at postgraduate level and on making a living at undergraduate level. She was one of the first directors of the OU’s MSc in Development Management and established its global programme.