Society and Environment Research Group
The Society and Environment Research Group (SERG) comprises researchers from the School of Environment and Development and the School of Social Sciences at Manchester University . The SERG is one of the largest groupings of environmental social scientists in the UK and internationally. It contains internationally distinguished researchers and early career scholars who are fast gaining recognition for their work. Group members share a common interest in the causes and consequences of environmental change. More substantively, we have a commitment to analysing
- the political economic drivers of such change
- its uneven socio-spatial consequences
- the way these consequences are negotiated by a variety of actors.
Normatively our work focuses on the needs and wants of the poor and marginalised, recognising that social and environmental justice go hand-in-hand. In sum, our research focuses on the intersection of and engagement between the social and biophysical sciences, and is critical in tenor.
The expertise of SERG members can be characterised in terms of theoretical commitments, topical foci and field experience. Several SERG members utilise Marxist and post-Marxist approaches to understanding the dynamics of environmental change (Bridge, Castree and Swyngedouw), while others draw on critical concepts of valuation (O'Neill and Rigby) to demonstrate the socio-ecological limits of markets and capitalism more widely. Still other members of SERG apply power-sensitive notions of livelihoods to make sense of rural, indigenous and peasant communities in the global South. Topically, the group has great expertise in wildlife and biodiversity conservation (Brockington and Duffy), in ecotourism (Duffy), in water management (Swyngedouw and Budds), in international mining (Bridge and Hilson), in environmental NGOs (Bebbington), and in property rights to land (Chimhowu and Woodhouse).
Finally, SERG members have wide field experience, including Tanzania (Brockington) South Africa (Duffy, Brockington, Chimhowu, Woodhouse), Senegal, Mali, Brazil (Woodhouse), Ecuador and Spain (Swyngedouw) Madagascar, Belize, Ethiopia (Duffy, Woodhouse), Zimbabwe (Duffy, Chimhowu, Woodhouse), Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia (Chimhowu), Sierra Leone (Maconachie), Ghana and Guyana (Hilson), Swaziland, UK and Romania (Stringer) Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Bolivia (Bebbington), French Guyana (Bridge) and Costa Rica (Castree). The breadth of expertise within the SERG provides for interesting and challenging comparative and cross cutting research centred on environment-society interactions in a diverse range of places and at a variety of scales.
Some recent books by SERG members include the following: John O Neill (2007) Markets Deliberation and the Environment (Routledge); Mick Smith and Rosaleen Duffy (2003) Tourism and Ethics (Routledge); Noel Castree (2005) Nature (Routledge); Erik Swyngedouw (2004) Social Power and the Urbanization of Water: Flows of Power (Oxford University Press) and (2006) In the Nature of Cities (Routledge); Dan Brockington (2002) Fortress Conservation (James Currey); Woodhouse, Bernstein and Hulme (2000) African Enclosures? The Social Dynamics of Wetlands in Drylands (James Currey). Our research is published in top ranking discipline-specific and interdisciplinary journals, such as Political Geography, Environment and Planning A,B,C and D, Development and Change, Progress in Human Geography, Africa, Third World Quarterly, Economic Geography, Journal of development Studies, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Ecology and Society, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Oryx, Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Values, Area, New Political Economy and Professional Geographer.
SERG members have made important contributions to the development of a critical social science of the environment. These contributions include refining and rendering more sophisticated the concept of 'livelihoods'; specifying the role of spatial and temporal scale in the creation of uneven environmental impacts; clarifying the role that the 'materiality' of nature plays in the dynamics of political economic change; developing the counter-intuitive idea of 'the production of nature'; identifying the limits of market valuation in relation to the environment.
Group members have excellent international networks in the academic and policy domains. We are happy to discuss possible links and initiatives with colleagues outside Manchester . Members of SERG already have links with other organisations, the Smithsonian Institution Elephants and Ethics Group (Duffy), the Wilson Centre Environmental Change and Security Project (Duffy)
Formed in late 2005, the initial aim of SERG members is to undertake two major group activities per annum as part of a longer-term project to conduct joint research, publishing and teaching. To this end, the SERG has a new masters in Environmental Governance that will run from September 2007. This degree will be directed by a new member of SERG (Dr. James Evans, currently on Birmingham University ), funded through investment money awarded by the University. Our ultimate aspiration is further the intellectual and political cause of a progressive environmentalism that is able to connect issues of social inequity with those of environmental degradation.
SERG is currently convened by Erik Swyngedouw . Please email him if you would like further information about the group.