OpenLearn Profile

Oliver Zanetti

Oliver Zanetti

Department of Geography

Professional biography
Oliver is a human geographer and Research Associate on the Smart Cities in the Making project, based at The Open University. I am a Human Geographer and my specialisms lie in at the interface of the social and the material. I am currently a Research Associate on the ESRC funded projectSmart Cities in the Making: Learning From Milton Keynes(2017-2018). I work with Prof. Sophie Watson on a work package exploring the practices of smart citizenship, with Prof. Parvati Raghuram on the work and employment relations in smart, and with the PI, Prof. Gillian Rose, on the project's impact activities. Prior to this,I was a Research Associate on the interdisciplinary Making Meaningful Metrics project led by Prof. Simon Bell which examined user engagement in smart transport solutions, and before that, with Prof. Sophie Watson in theCentre for Research on Socio-Cultural Changeinvestigating Buddhism in contemporary London. I also worked for a year as the Research Associate for theOpenSpace Research Centresupporting the development of external grant funding bids and managing profiling and dissemination activities.I have a PhD from the Department of Geography at the Open University(2009-2014).My doctoral research examined the role of plant genetic resources in a time of food security. In theDepartment of Geographyat Queen Mary, University of London, I am a Co-Lecturer on the Geography module on QMUL'sInternational Foundation Programme in Humanities and Social Sciences.