ZOU
ZOU
Twitter Facebook Youtube
information@zou.ac.zw
+263 242 793 002/7/8
E-mail
Tenders
Vacancies

Dr. T. Tom

  1. Home
  2. Dr. T. Tom
Dr. T. Tom
March 11, 2024

Dr. T. Tom

Contact details

tomt@zou.ac.zw

National Centre

Tel: +263 242 764595 Ext. 410

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Literature & Philosophy in Sociology (UNISA, SARChI Chair in Social Policy), 2020
  • Master of Science in Sociology & Social Anthropology (University of Zimbabwe), 2006
  • Bachelor of Science Honours in Sociology (University of Zimbabwe), 2004

 

Areas of interests in research

Sociology of Development, Social Policy, Agrarian Studies

Selected Publications

  1. Tom, T. (2022). Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform at 20: Exploring disability inclusion and the attendant policy implications. Disability & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2022.2072708. [Taylor & Francis]
  2. Tom, T. (2021). Covid-19, lockdown and peasants in Zimbabwe. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 48(5), 939-954.  https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2021.1933455. [Taylor & Francis]
  3. Tom, T. (2021). Youth and citizenship rights after Zimbabwe’s land reform. Journal of Applied Youth Studies, 4(1), 51-66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43151-021-00041-9. [Springer]
  4. Chipenda, C., & Tom, T. (2021). Zimbabwe political manoeuvrings and authoritarian consolidation during the COVID-19 pandemic: Reflections on the year 2020. Quarterly Journal of the Afrifuture Research and Development Trust, 1(1), 101-129. [Afrifuture]
  5. Tom, T., & Chipenda, C. (2020). Covid-19, lockdown and the family in Zimbabwe. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 51(3-4), 288-300. https://doi.org/10.3138/jcfs.51.3-4.005. [University of Toronto Press].
  6. Chipenda, C., & Tom, T. (2019). The generational questions after land reform in Zimbabwe: A social reproduction perspective. African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, 11(3), 403-425. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJEMS-02-2019-0072. [Emerald Publishing]

 

Book Chapters

  1. Tom, T. (2022). Agrarian futures matter: A1 farmers’ investment in land and agriculture post Zimbabwe’s land reform. In, G. Mkodzongi (Ed.), The Future of Zimbabwe’s Agrarian Sector: Land Issues in the Time of Transition. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003158196.
  2. Chipenda, C., & Tom, T. (2022). The youth and land access challenges: Critical reflections from post-fast track land reform Zimbabwe. In C. Greiner., S. Van Wolputte and M. Bollig (Eds.), African Futures (pp. 185-196). Leiden/Boston: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004471641_016.
  3. Chipenda, C., & Tom, T. (2022). Local politics of inclusion and exclusion: Exploring the situation of migrant labourers and their descendants after land reform in rural Zimbabwe. In, K. Forester & J. Jarman (Eds.), The Right to be Rural: Citizenship outside the City. Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press. https://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/1019-9781772125832-right-to-be-rural.
  4. Tom, T., & Chipenda, C. (2021). Karl Marx is long dead, long live Karl Marx: Zimbabwe’s Fast-Track Land Reform Viewed through Marxist Lenses. In S. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and M. Ndlovu (Eds.), Marxism and Decolonization in the 21st Century Living Theories and True Ideas (Chapter 18). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003148302.
  5. Tom, T. (2020). Zimbabwe’s land reform as alternative social policy and decoloniality in action. In M. Khan and G. Mkodzongi (Eds.), Africa, History and Culture (Chapter 8). Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
  6. Tom, T. (2020). Alternative approaches to Africa’s development: Zimbabwe’s land reform interrogated through gender lenses. In: J. Kurebwa (Ed.), Gender in an African Setting (pp. 168-191). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
  7. Tom, T. (2020). Reclaiming Africa’s development through indigenous knowledge systems: A focus on Zimbabwe. In E. Benyera (Ed.), Breaking the Colonial ‘Contract’: From Oppression towards Autonomous Decolonial Futures (pp.129-150). London: Rowman & Littlefield Group Incorporated.
  8. Tom, T., & Tomy, K. (2020). Contract farming as covert perpetuation of colonial capitalist hegemony? The Zimbabwe context. In E. Benyera (Ed.), Breaking the Colonial ‘Contract’: From Oppression towards Autonomous Decolonial Futures (pp.71-92). London: Rowman & Littlefield Group Incorporated.
  9.  Tom, T. (2019). A youth perspective to participation and local governance in Zimbabwe’s post-fast track land reform farms. In J. Kurebwa, & O. Dodo (Eds.), Participation of Young People in Governance Processes in Africa (pp. 220-246). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. (eBook). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9388-1.ch011.
  10. Tom, T., & Chipenda, C. (2019).  Local grassroots mechanisms for justice, peace-building and social cohesion in Zimbabwe’s ‘new’ farm communities. In E. Benyera (Ed.), Indigenous, traditional and non-state transitional justice in Southern Africa: Namibia and Zimbabwe. London: Rowman & Littlefield Group Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-4985-9282-6
  11. Tom, T., & Chipenda, C. (2019). Decolonising Our Land, Space and Livelihood Sources: Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Viewed from the Wider Vision of Social Policy. In A. Nhemachena & M. Mawere (Eds.), Who Owns the Weather and Climate? Empire, Climate Engineering and Environmental Discourses on Climate Change in Africa. Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG.
  12. Tom, T. & Chipenda, C. (2019). Moving beyond neo-colonial lamentations over decolonising African land and environments: The model of Zimbabwe as the future. In A. Nhemachena & M. Mawere (Eds.), Who Owns the Weather and Climate? Empire, Climate Engineering and Environmental Discourses on Climate Change in Africa. Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG. ISBN 10:9956-550-46-9.
  13. Chipenda, C., & Tom, T. (2018). The vacuity of the responsibility to protect? Insecurities and social protection. In M. Mawere & A. Nhemachena (Eds.), Rethinking securities in an emergent technoscientific new world order: Retracing the contours for Africa’s hi-jacked future (pp. 135-170). Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh9vv68. ISBN 10-9956-764-11-6.

 

Country Reports

  1. Chipenda, C., & Tom, T. (2021). Zimbabwe’s Social Policy Response to Covid-19: Temporary Food Relief and Cash Transfers. [CRC 1342 / No. 23, Covid-19 Social Policy Response Series]. University of Bremen, Germany: CRC 1342. https://www.socialpolicydynamics.de/crc-publications/crc-1342-covid-19-social-policy-response-series/en

 

Conference, Workshop and Seminar Presentations

 

  1. Tom, T. (2022). Disability, Inequality and Social Policy in a Covid-19 Context in Zimbabwe. A paper presented at the 27th South African Sociological Association, SASA Conference – Reimagining the Present and the Future. [Sociology of Poverty, Inequality and Social Policy 3 – Social Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic 1 Panel], 12 July 2022
  2. Tom, T. (2022). Social Policy Questions Yet to be Effectively Answered: Accessibility and Security of People with Disabilities in Zimbabwe’s Urban Areas. A paper presented at the DSI/NRF SARChI Chair in Social Policy, UNISA, College of Graduate Studies Webinar, 7 July 2022
  3. Tom, T. (2021). Land Reform and then What? Farmers’ Investment in Agriculture as a Transformative Pathway after Zimbabwe’s fast-tracked Land Reform. A paper presented at the 15th International Conference of Africanists – ‘Destinies of Africa in The Modern World’ [Perspectives of Young African Agrarian Scholars on Achieving Socioeconomic Transformation in Africa Panel], Moscow, Russia [Online], 24-26 May 2021.
  4. Tom, T. (2021). The Right to be Rural: Social Services in Zimbabwe’s Resettlement Areas Two Decades after the Fast Track Land Reform. A paper presented at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) 2021 General Conference, (Globalisation and Social Questions in the Countryside Panel) [Online], 30 August – 3 September 2021.
  5. Tom, T., & Chipenda, C. (2021). Social Policy by Other Means: Contemporary Perspectives on Land reform as an Alternative Social Policy Instrument. A paper presented at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) 2021 General Conference, (Welfare in the Global South: Between Popular Contention, Statebuilding and Internationalisation Panel) [Online], 30 August – 3 September 2021.
  6. Chipenda, C., & Tom, T. (2021). Rethinking the Transformative Role of Social Policy: Critical Insights on Zimbabwe’s Responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. A paper presented at the Development Studies Association (DSA) 2021 Annual Conference: Unsettling Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom [Online], 28 June – 2 July 2021.
  7. Tom, T. (2019). Social Policy Pathways: Investment in Agriculture as an Alternative Social Policy ‘Instrument’ in Zimbabwe. A paper presented at the Social Policy in Africa International Conference. [Land and Agrarian Reform: the social policy perspectives Panel], 25-27 November 2019, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.
  8. Tom, T. (2019). Responsible investment in agriculture and food systems in Zimbabwe: Successes, challenges and lessons for other African countries. A paper presented at the Round Table Discussion on Land Reform, Food Sovereignty and Accumulation In Africa 6-7 May 2019. UNISA Main Campus, Pretoria South Africa.
  9. Tom, T. and Ngombe, F. (2019). ‘New’ farmers, ‘new’ land: Capital accumulation and food security in Zimbabwe’s post Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) era. A paper presented at the Round Table Discussion on Land Reform, Food Sovereignty and Accumulation in Africa 6-7 May 2019. UNISA Main Campus, Pretoria South Africa.

 

Membership of Research Bodies & Professional Associations

  • South African Research Chair in Social Policy (SARChI-SP)
  • South African Sociological Association (SASA)
  • International Sociological Association – Junior Sociologists Network (ISA-JSN)
  • Young African Researchers in Agriculture Network (YARA)
  • Development Studies Association (UK)
  • AfriFuture Research and Development Trust (Zimbabwe)
  • Development Practitioners Network (DPN) (Zimbabwe)
  • Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe (IPMZ)

 

Awards, Appointments, Invitations & Grants

  • 2022: Awarded a Travel Grant to participate in the Spring School in Political Economy and Political Ecology [hosted by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), at the University of the Western Cape, in collaboration with the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) at the University of Cologne and Future Rural Africa, a collaborative research center (CRC) funded by the German Research Council (DFG)] – 12-16 September 2022.
  • Awarded a Research Grant (with Dr. Clement Chipenda) for the Group Inclusion and Social Policies over Time (GIST) Project (Collaborative Research Centre 1342 ‘Global Dynamics of Social Policy’, University of Bremen, Germany; B01 Mechanisms of Social Policy Diffusion: Ideational Dynamics of Inclusion and the Political Legitimation of Beneficiary Groups).
  • 2022: Appointed Panelist/Subject Expert, National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), Namibia – August 2022.
  • 2022: Invited to participate in the Regional UNICEF Evaluation Mission to Zimbabwe – June 2022.
  • 2022: Invited to participate in the Zimbabwe National Workshop on Agricultural Commercialisation and Rural Welfare: Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) – January 2022.
  • 2021: Awarded a Research Grant (with Dr. Clement Chipenda) to produce a Country Report on Social Policy Responses to Covid-19 (Collaborative Research Centre 1342 ‘Global Dynamics of Social Policy’, University of Bremen, Germany).
  • 2019 – Awarded a Travel Grant to participate in the Social Policy in Africa (SPiA) Conference, UNISA, South Africa – 25-27 November 2019.
  • 2019 – Awarded a Travel Grant to participate in the Round Table Discussion on Land Reform, Food Sovereignty and Accumulation in Africa, Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI), UNISA, South Africa – 6-7 May 2019.
  • 2014 – Awarded a Doctoral Research Fellowship with the DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Social Policy at the University of South Africa under the ‘Social Policy Dimensions of Land and Agrarian Reform Project’ – 2014-2020.