Samuel joined Loughborough University in 2019. He is researching the ways in which crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic, have transformed grassroots political organisations. The research maps the issues and social contexts which gave rise to organisations’ previous practices and draws a thread through to their reconfiguration in the face of crisis.
By exploring questions around collective care, identity, communication, resilience and trust, Samuel aims to draw broader lessons which might inform the response to future crises and the durability of collectives. The project utilises qualitative case studies and post-humanist methodologies, alongside literature from fields such as community resilience studies and anti-authoritarian political theory.
Samuel is a member of the Anarchist Research Group [link: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/] and has been involved in organising the Anarchist Studies Network conference between 2016 and 2020 [link: https://anarchiststudiesnetwork.org/asn-conferences/].