Dr Jack Reed

About me

Jack Reed is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the ESRC-funded Nature Recovery and Regional Development (NaRReD) project. He is affiliated with the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) in Penryn and also works in the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) in Exeter. Jack works at the forefront of interdisciplinary research exploring how nature recovery intersects with rural economies, technologies and public policy.

In the NaRReD project, Jack's research is collaboratively engaging with councils in Britain's Leading Edge (BLE). This includes designing new ways to track and scale the social and economic impacts of nature recovery, particularly in relation to health, wellbeing, education and other areas of regional development. Through this work, he is also engaging with nature markets, such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), and their implications for policy, investment and local outcomes. 

Jack is also engaged in research on how artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies can support more equitable, effective and transparent models of nature recovery. This is especially so where digital tools mediate or shape connections between people and the environment.

His PhD work (2020-2023) focused on how young people engage with and interpret nature through networked digital spaces, including TikTok, Minecraft and Netflix. Jack completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh with a thesis titled "From virtual worlds to the Outward Bound Trust: A study of contemporary residential outdoor adventurous education in postdigital space". Jack's full PhD thesis may be accessed here.

Selected publications

Reed, J., Wills, J., Willett, J., Treloar, G., Bateman, I., & Osborne, J. (2025). Rural regions and sustainable development in England: An overview of the local authorities in Britain’s Leading Edge. https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/140872

Reed, J., Beames, S. K., & Macleod, G. (2025). Young people's networked constructions of nature: Evidence from a qualitative multiple case study in the United Kingdom. People and Nature, 1- 12. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10781. 

Reed, J., & Dunn, C. (2024). Postdigital young people’s rights: A critical perspective on the UK Government’s guidance to ban phones in England’s schools. Postdigital Science and Education, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-024-00464-6.

A fill list of Jack's publications may be found through his ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6701-6531