Norman is an environmental social scientist with interests in land-centred governance and management practice, primarily with regard to forest landscapes.

His work focuses on a number of core sustainable land use challenges, including responses to biosecurity threats, achieving species conservation, the agency of land and other species, and collaborative approaches to management in diverse ‘patchwork’ landscapes.

Using mainly qualitative methods he explores the everyday social, political, ethical, and cultural relationships with land and other species that construct our practices and approaches to management.