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Simon Batterbury

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Simon Batterbury (born 1963) is a British-Australian geographer, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne,[1] Australia and Visiting Professor, Lancaster University, UK.

Background

Born and raised in Eltham, South East London, he attended Eltham College, Reading University (Human and Physical Geography, 1985) and Clark University (MA 1990, PhD 1997).[2] He worked at Property Market analysis in the 1980s doing real estate research before further study and academic appointments at Brunel University (1993–1999), the London School of Economics [1999-2001), the University of Arizona (2001–2004) and the University of Melbourne (2004-2016, 2019-).[3] From 2017-2019 he was the inaugural Professor and Chair of Political Ecology in the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, and has remained affiliated since 2019.[4]

At University of Melbourne, he formerly directed the Office for Environmental Programs[5] and the interdisciplinary Master of Environment degree with 370 students, and from 2024, the Melbourne Climate Futures Academy for PhD students and early career researchers.[6]

Contributions

Batterbury conducted applied PhD research and research programs in the francophone drylands of West Africa (1992–2001), working in Burkina Faso on soil conservation and rural development, and latterly in an interdisciplinary investigation of land use change and livelihoods in South West Niger funded by the British ESRC. The work showed the adaptability of peasant farmers to drought, poverty, and gender inequality in access to resources through 'productive bricolage' and diversification of livelihoods. Their role in desertification in the Sahel was found to be small in these locations, as was their use of western agricultural advice, inputs, and seed varieties.[7]

He was an early adopter of political ecology as a research approach, showing how local environmental changes resulted more from the national and international political economy than crises of farmer knowledge and resources. He has edited the Journal of Political Ecology since 2003.[8]

This work led to several contributions supporting Diamond Open Access non-commercial scholarly publishing including the Open Access Manifesto.[9][10]

Since 2010 he has worked in the disputed settler economy of New Caledonia on the political ecology of mining on Indigenous Kanak societies and cultures, producing a major volume in English in 2024.[11] The work demonstrates how Indigenous people have reluctantly embraced mining on their territories, but use it to to their gepolitical advantage and control one major nickel project, the Koniambo mine.[12] The [[Critical Raw Materials Act ]] in Europe has a peripheral influence on mining on the islands[13]

Research on Community Bike Workshops and their contributions of low carbon mobility, social justice, and active travel is also ongoing, funded by the British Academy.[14]

Awards

Publications

  • Kowasch M. and Batterbury, S.P.J. (eds.). 2024. Geographies of New Caledonia-Kanaky: environments, politics and cultures. Springer. (19 chapters) http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49140
  • Reynolds J.F., D.M. Stafford-Smith, E. Lambin, B.L. Turner II, M.J/ Mortimore, S.P.J Batterbury, T.E. Downing, H. Dowlatabadi, R.J. Fernandez, J.E. Herrick, E. Huber-Sannwald, H. Jiang, R. Leemans, T. Lynam, F. Maestre, B. Walker, and M. Ayarza. 2007. Global desertification: building a science for dryland development. Science. 316 (May 11): 847-851
  • Batterbury, S.P.J. (ed.) 2006. Rescaling governance and the impacts of political and environmental decentralization. World Development 34(11): 1851-1995. (8 articles)
  • Batterbury, S.P.J & A. Warren (eds.) 2001. The African Sahel 25 years after the Great Drought.

Global Environmental Change 11(1): 1-96. (8 articles).

References

  1. ^ https://sgeas.unimelb.edu.au/about/people/academic-staff
  2. ^ https://simonbatterbury.net/
  3. ^ https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/28896-simon-batterbury
  4. ^ https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/people-profiles/simon-batterbury
  5. ^ https://environment.unimelb.edu.au/
  6. ^ https://www.unimelb.edu.au/climate/collaboration/mcf-academy
  7. ^ Batterbury, S.P.J. 1996. Planners or performers? Reflections on indigenous dryland farming in Northern Burkina Faso. Agriculture & Human Values 13(3):12-22
  8. ^ https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/
  9. ^ Batterbury SPJ, A. E. Pia, G. Wielander & N. Loubere. 2024. Against Book Enclosures: moving towards more diverse, humane, and accessible book publishing. Area. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12916
  10. ^ Pia, A.E., S.P.J. Batterbury, A. Joniak-Lüthi, M. LaFlamme, G. Wielander, F.M. Zerilli, M. Nolas, J. Schubert, N. Loubere, I. Franceschini, C. Walsh, A. Mora and C. Varvantakis. 2020. Labour of Love: an Open Access Manifesto for freedom, integrity, and creativity in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. The Commonplace https://doi.org/10.21428/6ffd8432.a7503356
  11. ^ https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Geographies_of_New_Caledonia_Kanaky.html?id=9IU-0AEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
  12. ^ Batterbury SPJ, M. Kowasch and S. Bouard. 2020. The geopolitical ecology of New Caledonia: territorial re-ordering, mining, and Indigenous economic development. Journal of Political Ecology 27: 594-611. https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23812
  13. ^ https://miningbeyondhotair.org/
  14. ^ Batterbury SPJ, Uxo, C., Nurse, S. & M. Abord de Chatillon. 2023. On Mutual Bicycle Aid: Community bike workshops in Australia. Green Agenda Journal 1. 25th March, 2023. https://greenagenda.org.au/2023/03/on-mutual-bicycle-aid/
  15. ^ https://science.unimelb.edu.au/about/news/faculty-of-science-staff-celebrated-with-2019-melbourne-excellence-awards
  16. ^ https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/projects/dr-simon-batterbury/

Category:British geographers Category:Australian geographers

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