Reader in Environmental Geography

Contact Details

• Tel: 0116 252 3836
• Email: j.pickerill@le.ac.uk
• Fax: 0116 252 3854
• Office: Bennett Building F49
• Personal Homepage

Research Interests

My research focuses on how we understand, value and (ab)use the environment. I am particularly interested in inspiring grassroots solutions to environmental problems and in hopeful and positive ways in which we can change social practices. This work includes a concern for justice; recognising that the broader context of environmental problems is often inequality, colonialism, racism and neo-liberalism. As a geographer I am interested in how these different issues connect, relate and entangle at different scales and in diverse places.

I have conducted research in Britain, Australia, USA, Spain, Thailand and Argentina. I am experienced in a range of empirical research methods – in-depth interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, photography and ethnography – used in a range of fieldwork situations from businesses in London to forest blockades in Australia. I seek to work with others through participatory methodologies in research design, practice, and production of knowledge. For example I have completed an open-access collaborative book on Low Impact Development with environmental activists in Britain.

I have previously focused upon the role of internet technologies in social justice and environmental campaigns, in particular their use in radical environmental activism and anti-war movements in Britain, and for Indymedia in Australia.

My different research projects are outlined on the Research Projects page.

I currently write regularly on my Green Building Blog.

I have a new report out on the findings from the Affordable eco-homes project (.pdf) (April 2011).

I am currently working on an ESRC Seminar Series (starting early in 2011) on the theme of “ Sustainability transitions: rethinking everyday practices, identities and livelihoods”. Through a series of five linked events over the next two years, this seminar series aims to explore sustainability transitions from explicitly social, political and economic perspectives. The series will:

• explore and critique theories of transition from the specific perspective of the social; aiming to build links/bridges to relevant social theory and social science disciplines;
• explore the interrelationships between theory and practice and how they inform and shape one another.

External Activities

• Co-editor of Social Movement Studies (Taylor and Francis) Journal (2009-present)
• Member of Antipode: Journal of Radical Geography (Blackwell) Journal Editorial Board (2007-present)
• Member of Resistance Studies Magazine Editorial Board (2007-present)

PhD Supervision

Current

• Trevor Ballance – ‘The attitudes, behaviour and degree of ‘engagement of Japanese university students with sustainable living and adaptations to climate change’ (with Dr Peter Kraftl).
• Adam Barker - Who We Are: Understanding the dynamics of settler populations and moving towards a shared philosophy of peaceful co-existence for settler states (with Dr Gavin Brown)
• Laura Graham - 'Restoration from Within - Developing Restoration Action Plans Through Ecological and Community Knowledge in Kalimantan, Indonesia' (with Dr Sue Page ).
• Fariba Sotoudehnia – ‘Perceptions of greenspace accessibility and greenspace quality amongst different socio-economic groups’ (with Dr A Comber)
• Cathie Traynor - People, Palaces and Wheels - Is this Multicultural Utopia? A study of ''Bakfietsing'' (cargo-biking) in a neighbourhood of The Hague (with Dr Peter Kraftl)

Completed

• Sophie Hadfield-Hill - 'Middle class perceptions of sustainability and the environment' (with Professor Michael Bradshaw). 

Research Areas for PhD Supervision

Environmental geographies; grassroot environmental solutions; Indigenous geographies; eco-building; geographies of sustainability transitions; environmental justice; collective action; participatory methodologies.

• Human Geography Research Themes

Enquiries: If you are interested in studying for a PhD in one of these research areas, please make informal enquiries via geogPhD@le.ac.uk

Most Recent Publications

Brown, G, Kraftl, P, Pickerill, J. and Upton, C. (forthcoming) Holding the Future Together: towards a theorisation of the diverse spaces and times of transition. Environment and Planning A

Gillan, K and Pickerill, J. (2012) The difficult and hopeful ethics of research on and with social movements. Social Movement Studies

Chatterton, P and Pickerill, J. (2010) In, against and beyond capitalism. The messy spaces, practices and identities of everyday activism in the UK. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Volume 35, Issue 4, pages 475-490

The Autonomous Geographies Collective. (2010) Beyond Scholar activism: Making Strategic Interventions Inside and Outside the Neoliberal University. ACME, 9, 2.

Full listing of publications