John McCarthy is a professor of rural development and the anthropology of policy. He has an abiding interest in the rapid socio-environmental change taking place in the Global South. His work focuses on environmental change, rural development, food and livelihood security and the impacts of climate change on the global south.

As a scholar of rural development, environmental sociology, and the anthropology of policy, he has concentrated his work on critical issues related to this transition with a focus on the case of Indonesia, converging on three specific themes: Vulnerability and Food Security; Smallholder Development and Rural Change; and Forest and Land Governance.