Sherilyn MacGregor | The University of Manchester (original) (raw)

News by Sherilyn MacGregor

Contemporary Political Theory, 2024

Ecofeminism as scholarship and practice continues to polarize, draw criticism, and inspire schola... more Ecofeminism as scholarship and practice continues to polarize, draw criticism, and inspire scholarly works and politics that account for the structures of domination that perpetuate sexism and ecological exploitation. Ecofeminist scholarship grew in volume and prominence in the 1970s and 1980s but began to falter under the weight of critiques that the approach upheld gender essentialism and a white western feminism

Oxfam Research Brief , 2022

The global care crisis is being exacerbated by the global climate emergency, with interlocking im... more The global care crisis is being exacerbated by the global climate emergency, with interlocking impacts that threaten lives and livelihoods in all parts of the world. These impacts are particularly severe among rural livelihoods in low-income countries. Climate change intensifies the work involved in caring for people, animals, plants, and places. It reduces the availability and quality of public services in marginalized communities and directly compounds the unfair distribution of unpaid care work that sustains gender inequality.

Yet the intersections of climate change and care work have been overlooked in the development literature. Strategies for climate mitigation and adaptation have paid relatively little attention to how care work is affected by climate impacts, nor have they considered whether interventions improve or intensify the situation of carers. Instead, when designing “gender-sensitive” climate actions, the focus has been largely on women’s economic empowerment as opposed to alleviating or transforming existing distributions of care work.

The aim of this report is to fill a knowledge gap by examining the points of interaction between climate change impacts and the amount, distribution, and conditions of unpaid care work. We focus on care workers rather than those who are cared for, while stressing the relational nature of care and acknowledging that carers too require care.

Department of Politics & Government, Ben Gurion University

NB: I was pleased to accept a personal invitation from Dr Nir Barak, a respected colleague in the... more NB: I was pleased to accept a personal invitation from Dr Nir Barak, a respected colleague in the field of environmental politics, to have an exchange of ideas (via Zoom) about ecofeminism, care and climate justice with individual colleagues and students in his department. It is not an institutional exchange and does not mean that I support BGU or any other Israeli state institutions.

ABSTRACT
This talk provides an introduction to ecofeminist research and action on climate change, with a focus on ecofeminist contributions to the concept of, and global movements for, climate justice. I will begin with an account of the signature insights of ecofeminist theory and how they have been applied to develop critical perspectives on the politics of climate change. Then, drawing on my own work in this field over the past decade, I will explain what an ecofeminist perspective on climate justice entails and argue that such a perspective is needed because i) mainstream (i.e., non-feminist) approaches fail sufficiently to challenge the entrenched an institutionalised norms that sustain the root causes of the problem; and ii) ecofeminism is the only movement that has concrete ideas for tackling the twin crises of climate and care in an integrated way. In the final part of the talk, I will discuss these concrete ideas with reference to two recent reports that I have co-authored -- on a feminist green new deal and centering care work in climate action -- which demonstrate the policy relevance of ecofeminist perspectives on climate justice in minority and majority world contexts.

Environmental Politics, 2021

The idea that sustainability requires changing individuals’ routines and choices has for decades ... more The idea that sustainability requires changing individuals’ routines and choices has for decades been regarded as tantamount to the depoliticization of environmentalism. But the 21st century has seen a shift toward considering ‘everydaymaterial practices’ as driving a new wave in environmental politics. Claims about the radical potential of material practices have led some scholars down new theoretical paths and reaffirmed old critiques for others. Viewing this development through an ecofeminist lens uncovers problematic oversights.
Starting from the position that ecofeminist theory has never not been grounded in materiality, I offer two arguments. First, it is wrong to accept claims of newness in an ‘everyday turn’ that ignore the past and overlook their specificity. Second, if this turn represents a new scholarly agenda, then old ecofeminist insights about the politics of everyday living should be incorporated. Both my arguments call for reflection on the politics of publishing in environmental politics.

Environmental Justice: Key Issues, edited by Brendan Coolsaet, 2020

Abstract: This chapter presents a though-provoking examination of why gender is central to contem... more Abstract: This chapter presents a though-provoking examination of why gender is central to contemporary environmental justice struggles and scholarship. It introduces the concept of gender and how it is used to understand differences, inequalities and power relations between men and women. Organized into three main sections, the chapter first looks at the connections between gender (in)equality and environmental (in)justice, before demonstrating how and why gender shapes environmental justice struggles through selected examples from around the world. The focus is on women’s involvement in movements for bodily wellbeing, the protection of land and livelihood, and global climate justice. The chapter concludes by setting out the main features of an ecofeminist concept of environmental justice and the ways in which ecofeminist scholarship demands the continual sharpening of EJ’s critical edges.

What does it mean to pay attention to inequalities of gender, race, disability and class when we ... more What does it mean to pay attention to inequalities of gender, race, disability and class when we think about transitioning to a green economy? This briefing sets out recommendations for a Green New Deal which puts inter sectional gender equality front and centre.

Though popular and crucial, Green New Deal frameworks do not typically foreground inequalities of gender, race and class. A new paper from the UK Women’s Budget Group and the WEN (Women’s Environmental Network) seeks to begin filling this gap by asking, what would a Feminist Green New Deal look like?

This briefing is a summary of a paper authored by Sherilyn MacGregor and Maeve Cohen for the UK Women’s Budget Group’s Commission on a Gender-Equal Economy. The Women’s Budget Group and the Women’s Environmental Network are planning more detailed work in this area.

At this webinar, Sara Reis from the UK Women’s Budget Group and Chair of the Women’s Environmenta... more At this webinar, Sara Reis from the UK Women’s Budget Group and Chair of the Women’s Environmental Network, Halima Begum, interview authors of an exciting new policy paper to discuss: ‘What would a Feminist Green New Deal look like?’

Covid-19 has exposed serious inequalities and lack of resilience in our economy with women bearing the brunt of exposure and economic downturn. Rebuilding from the health and economic crises will require dramatic socio-economic transformation which prioritises people and planet. We need to increase our readiness for future climate crises and take extraordinary action to mitigate the worst of the climate emergency, especially for women who are ‘last consulted first affected.’

The set of ideas broadly known as a ‘Green New Deal’ has a lot to say about the changes needed to tackle global inequality and climate catastrophe but, it hasn’t always considered how gender, or other forms of discrimination like race or class, interact with the climate emergency in the UK. In this interview, Sherilyn MacGregor and Maeve Cohen from The University of Manchester explore what applying a feminist lens to the Green New Deal ideas can tell us about creating a gender-equal, carbon-neutral future for the UK.

This project will investigate how Global South to North migration and the drive for urban sustain... more This project will investigate how Global South to North migration and the drive for urban sustainability intersect at household level. The location is Manchester, where increasing immigration and ethnic diversity combine with an agenda to become a leading green city in Europe. Through mixed-methods, co-produced research we will examine how immigrants from Pakistan and Somalia, two of the largest and fastest-growing groups in Manchester, perceive the green agenda and engage in 'environmentally significant' practices in daily life. We will also investigate ways that immigrants’ engagement in sustainability practices can contribute to building social cohesion and community resilience.
The project will start in autumn 2020 (start date to be confirmed and depends on C-19 situation), is for 39 months, and was awareded £331,000. Principal investigator: Sherilyn MacGregor. Co-investigators: Tally Katz-Gerro (University of Haifa) and Catherine L. Walker (University of Manchester).

Climate Futures: Re imagining Global Climate Justice, 2019

In Climate Futures: Re imagining Global Climate Justice. Edited by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran... more In Climate Futures: Re imagining Global Climate Justice.
Edited by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran, Priya Kurian, and Debashish Munshi. Published by Zed Books, October 2019.

European Journal of Women's Studies, 2019

Book review by Lisa Deutsch, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) is an international, interdisciplinary... more The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) is an international, interdisciplinary center for research and education in the environmental humanities and social sciences. A nonprofit institution, the RCC was founded in 2009 as a joint initiative of Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and the Deutsches Museum, with the generous support of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Its namesake is the American biologist, nature writer, and environmentalist Rachel Carson, whose writing raised awareness worldwide about threats to the environment and human health.

I will be teaching an intensive MA course on environmental justice at Sciences Po Lille, 9-15 Apr... more I will be teaching an intensive MA course on environmental justice at Sciences Po Lille, 9-15 April, 2015.

Conference papers - forthcoming and past by Sherilyn MacGregor

British Sociological Association annual conference paper, 2019

Research on the intersection between environmental change and international migration has tended ... more Research on the intersection between environmental change and international migration has tended to focus on climate change as a driver of migration from the developing South to the industrialised North. Significantly less attention has been given to the cultural dimensions of adapting to climate change and environmental degradation at a time when many ‘first world’ cities are becoming more heterogeneous. This means that little is known about how culturally-specific notions of sustainability, premised on reducing the impacts of Western over-consumption, are understood by immigrants to global North cities. In this paper, we discuss the findings of mixed-methods research that explored the environmentally significant household practices of 60 Somali immigrants living in Moss Side, Manchester, Discussions of practices focused on food acquisition and preparation, use of water and energy and following council-regulated recycling systems. Set against ambitious local government plans for cleaning and greening the city, we discuss the way participants understand sustainability, how ideas around sustainability correspond to their past and present experiences of household resource use in Somalia and the UK, how culture and religious norms shape household practices, and gendered and generational differences in participants’ responses to policy messages about household sustainability. Our conclusions make a timely contribution to academic and policy discussions of household sustainability. We contend that the perspectives and practices of immigrants - a population traditionally overlooked in household sustainability research - can make important contributions to more inclusive sustainability governance.

Nordic Geographers Meeting, Trondhiem, Norway, 2019

We present findings from mixed-methods research conducted in summer 2018 into the environmentally... more We present findings from mixed-methods research conducted in summer 2018 into the environmentally-significant household practices of Somali immigrants in Moss Side, an ethnically ‘super-diverse’ (Vertovec 2007) ward in Manchester. Like other Global North cities, Manchester is juggling the pressures of inward migration and urban austerity while trying to become a ‘world leader in inclusive and sustainable growth’. An identified challenge to this ambition is the lack of informed understandings of the environmental concerns and knowledges of ‘hard to reach’ groups such as immigrants from the Global South (cf. Head et al. 2018). Our research was framed by a theoretical critique of the dominance of Western imaginaries in conceptualising and governing sustainability and by an intersectional approach to considering the composite effects of gender, socioeconomic background, ethnicity, and religion on the dynamics of sustainability practices. Drawing on analysis of survey and interview data, we present three key contributions to this emerging area of study: first, we theorise the cultural, economic and structural factors that may determine the continuation or discontinuation of practices as people migrate. Second, we identify a number of motivations (cultural, economic, governmental and environmental) underpinning the performance of practices such as food acquisition and preparation, use of water and energy and recycling. Third, and building on these observations, we argue that these findings allow us to trouble dominant understandings of sustainability and have potential to contribute to more inclusive strategies for addressing the intersecting challenges of international migration and urban environmental change in Manchester and beyond.

Thinkpiece for a workshop at the Univeristy of Reading, 2018

Can "populism" or popular revolt against an "elite" (variously identified with liberal democracy,... more Can "populism" or popular revolt against an "elite" (variously identified with liberal democracy, cosmopolitanism, neoliberal capitalism, or political party establishment) be mobilized for action on climate change and sustainability? Understood as a rejection of pluralism, expertise, and an exclusionary anti-immigrant and white nationalist politics, the answer must be "No." But there are and have been other populisms that, in Laura Grattan's words, have mobilized the "aspirations of ordinary people to exercise power over their everyday lives and their collective fate." Could a populism rooted in everyday concerns find its wellspring elsewhere-in materially grounded forms of social and environmental action? Can the quest for "just transitions" and "just sustainabilities" rooted in everyday experience and practices help us theorize new constituencies and broader possibilities for climate action? This workshop invites reflections on the promises and perils of such a vision and of its populist resonances. The inspiration for the workshop likely comes from suggestions by activists/academics/ journalists that populism should not be heard exclusively as a dirty word and that a left populism-a new common sense vision capable of mobilizing collective movement for a just, stable and sustainable world-is needed in response to the rise of right-wing populism in the USA and parts of Europe. The idea of a 'climate populism' that could inspire action towards 'climate justice' or 'just transition' to a post-carbon world seems an interesting extension of this development. Is it an idea worth pursuing? My position will be no. This is a short 'think piece' is written in response to questions in the workshop abstract and offers some provisional (and provocative) thoughts for discussion and debate. First I will give four interrelated reasons why I am inclined against climate populism, all of which stem from the critical feminist-green perspective that I have been developing over many years. Then, because 'no is not enough' in these times, I discuss an alternative framing, which is informed in part by my reading of Joan Tronto's (2013) theory of 'caring democracy' and The Leap Manifesto (https://leapmanifesto.org/wp-content/uploads/Leaplet-digital-NEW.pdf).

Contemporary Political Theory, 2024

Oxfam Research Brief , 2022

Department of Politics & Government, Ben Gurion University

Environmental Politics, 2021

Environmental Justice: Key Issues, edited by Brendan Coolsaet, 2020

Climate Futures: Re imagining Global Climate Justice, 2019

European Journal of Women's Studies, 2019

Book review by Lisa Deutsch, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

British Sociological Association annual conference paper, 2019

Nordic Geographers Meeting, Trondhiem, Norway, 2019

Thinkpiece for a workshop at the Univeristy of Reading, 2018

Keynote - Environmental Justice 2017: Looking Back, Looking Forward University of Sydney, Austral... more Keynote - Environmental Justice 2017: Looking Back, Looking Forward
University of Sydney, Australia - November 7, 2017
Chair: Astrida Neimanis, University of Sydney
Sherilyn MacGregor, University of Manchester
Lesley Head, University of Melbourne

This paper answers Blühdorn’s (2017) call for responsible and theoretically-informed interpretati... more This paper answers Blühdorn’s (2017) call for responsible and theoretically-informed interpretations of the practices and self-descriptions of new participatory movements emerging in the post-democratic, post-ecologist context. My response is grounded in a research project being co-produced with a small group of community activists called ‘Upping it’ who are working to ‘clean up’ a poor, inner city neighbourhood in Moss Side, Manchester. The paper will begin by sharing their story, explaining how I have come to know it, and sketching a picture of the socio-political and environmental conditions in which they operate. I then offer two possible readings, or theorizings, of this empirical case. My ‘green’ reading will position the example within what some have called ‘an environmentalism of everyday life’, a new kind of activism that offers hope for eco-political transformation. My ‘brown’ reading extracts a different message from the case, one that might be heard as evidence of a post-democratic/ecology turn, of a politics of sustaining the unsustainable, perhaps even as a form of 'cost-effective self-management of the excluded'. That two opposite yet equally persuasive interpretations of this case are possible gives rise to two claims. First, I want to claim that rather than debate which of these two interpretations is more theoretically defensible, it may be more productive to consider that both are possible due to the inherently bivalent (or Janus-faced) nature of the environmental citizen-subject created by/living with neoliberalization. Second, I will argue that Blühdorn’s call for more ‘careful analyses and conceptualizations’ and better engagement with ‘socio-theoretical diagnoses’, should be enhanced by critical evaluation of how environmental academics come to know the ‘new participatory movements’ of which they write. Drawing on the work of feminist geographers, I suggest that scholarly work on ‘political participation beyond the post-democratic turn’ can only be responsible if it is a situated and reflexive practice that gets its hands dirty rather than making neat diagnoses from above. So, in addition to offering possible theoretically-informed interpretations of a specific case of actually-existing post-ecologist activism, my aim with this paper is to provoke reflection on the methodological and epistemological challenges that mess up the interpretive authority of academic analysis.

The impacts of climate change, as well as efforts to address it, stand to exacerbate care work. S... more The impacts of climate change, as well as efforts to address it, stand to exacerbate care work. Since responsibility for care work is frequently unequally distributed among men and women, climate change stands to undermine gender justice in multiple ways. Within this context, the aim of this report is to articulate the multiple points of interaction between climate change and women’s disproportionate responsibility for care work, and to describe the principal opportunities to minimize the negative (and accentuate the positive) outcomes of these interactions.

This research project investigates how Somali immigrants to Manchester understand and engage with... more This research project investigates how Somali immigrants to Manchester understand and engage with ‘sustainability’ in everyday life. This research fits within a broader interest in the ways that increased South-North migration and environmental degradation (accelerated by climate change) are intertwined and exert intensifying pressure on global cities. At the same time, the research aims to gain insight into the role that ‘sustainability’, as a culturally-specific normative concept that is now taken-for-granted in the Global North, plays in shaping practices, perceptions, and relations relating to immigrants and immigration. It explores how non-Western cultural knowledge and experience intersect with gender, race, age, and class to shape how people perceive and respond to local and national government agendas to make household practices more environmentally sustainable (or ‘green’).

This STSM fits into priority GenderSTE topic #3, ‘Identifying Research Gaps: Cities, Climate Chan... more This STSM fits into priority GenderSTE topic #3, ‘Identifying Research Gaps: Cities, Climate Change and Energy’. The project will investigate the potential role of urban co-housing as a climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy. It will bring together the expertise of a feminist social scientist (Sherilyn MacGregor at the University of Manchester) and a feminist spatial planner (Lidewiij Tummers at TU Delft) to critically evaluate the extent to which co-housing projects can simultaneously address the need for climate mitigation/adaptation and the need for gender equality.

Drawing on a small selection of case studies in the UK and the Netherlands, the project will develop a framework for researching, comparing, and evaluating the extent to which there is – and can be - a ‘justice dimension’ in urban co-housing projects. Is the incorporation of a justice dimension (which for us includes a balance of gender, environmental, and spatial justice) possible in a tangible way (i.e., more than theory, more than good intentions or mere ‘lip-service’)? In order to answer this question, case studies will be analyzed using an original framework developed as part of the STSM. This framework will integrate and make operable a feminist ‘intersectionality’ approach to understanding the complexities of social difference.

Geoforum, 2019

This paper explores the household sustainability practices of people who have migrated from the G... more This paper explores the household sustainability practices of people who have migrated from the Global South to the Global North, by studying how Somali immigrants living in the UK engage with the sustainability agenda, why, and to what effect. We report on the findings of a mixed methods study conducted in Manchester in summer 2018, identifying patterns of continuity and change between country of origin and current residence in three environmentally significant areas of practice: resource conservation, recycling, and enjoyment of the natural environment. We then show how engagement or non-engagement in household sustainability practices is motivated by material/structural, ideational, and social factors. Our findings suggest that Somali immigrants are engaged with household sustainability for a variety of reasons, experience tensions and frustrations related to barriers to sustainability, and have knowledge that could make a positive contribution to green policy agendas. The findings allow us to disrupt dominant conceptions of household sustainability and to challenge the assumption that newcomers from ‘less developed countries’ need to be socialised into adopting household sustainability practices. We further argue that policy makers should consider more elastic notions of household sustainability, to better fit with and respect the lifestyles and motivations of immigrant communities.

Social Movement Studies , 2019

This article analyses a unique case of local environmental activism in order to think through the... more This article analyses a unique case of local environmental activism in order to think through the puzzle of how to interpret the transformative potential of the forms of small-scale collective action that have recently emerged in neoliberal cities of the Global North. In response to the call by J.K. Gibson-Graham and others for research that is less driven by abstract theory and more attuned to context and ambivalent possibilities, I present the findings of research co-produced with Upping It, a small activist group that uses innovative tactics to clean, green and rehabilitate stigmatized neighbourhoods in Moss Side, Manchester. By enacting forms of interstitial politics, Upping It makes a tangible difference in the lives of ordinary people and creates conditions necessary for politicization, while also participating in unfair and unsustainable local systems. Their story offers rich material for considering the strengths and limitations of two theoretical framings that appear to dominate the literature on micro-political movements: the post-political and new environmentalism framings. These frames, and the criticisms that have been made about them, help to identify two key insights from Upping It that are useful for better capturing the ambiguities and tensions of their kind of struggle in the current conjuncture. Firstly, we can see the importance of including justice-oriented activisms, which in this case might be seen as a form of defensive everyday environmentalism, in the emerging picture of new urban movements. Secondly, Upping It highlights the value of finding modest transformative potential in the cracks and on the margins of urban politics.

International Journal of the Commons, 2019

Co-housing has re-emerged in affluent cities as a model of dwelling that aims to reduce ecologica... more Co-housing has re-emerged in affluent cities as a model of dwelling that aims to reduce ecological impact and increase social welfare. Although it is the subject of growing academic interest, there are significant gaps in knowledge and a tendency toward wishful thinking about its promise that is not supported by evidence. We examine co-housing from a feminist political ecology perspective with the aim of contributing to an improved research agenda, not just on co-housing but commoning more widely. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted at co-housing projects in the Netherlands and the UK, we cast new light on how to assess the impact of sharing practices at the level of the collectivized household. Our findings support the claim that commons thinking is not really commons if it takes the work of social reproduction (caring labour) for granted or overlooks differences between people along the lines of gender, class, race/ethnicity, age and ability. We argue that greater attention to difference entails a new set of questions and criteria, and that these are necessary for assessing the extent to which co-housing projects enable the ‘inclusive commoning’ that their proponents rather wishfully envisage.

Hypatia:Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 2019

A peer-reviewed essay reviewing three books: Greta Gaard, Critical Ecofeminism Lanham; Lexingto... more A peer-reviewed essay reviewing three books:

Greta Gaard, Critical Ecofeminism
Lanham; Lexington Books, 2017 ISBN 978-1-4985-3358-4

Wendy L. Lee, Eco-nihilism: The Philosophical Geopolitics of the Climate Change Apocalypse
Lanham; Lexington Books, 2017 ISBN 978-0-7391-7688-7

D. A. Vakoch, D. A. and S. Mickey, S (editors) Ecofeminism in Dialogue
Lanham; Lexington Books, 2017 ISBN 978-1-4985-6927-9

Routledge SDGs Online, 2019

The Companion to Environmental Studies , 2018

Companion to Environmental Studies presents a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the... more Companion to Environmental Studies presents a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the key issues, debates, concepts, approaches and questions that together define environmental studies today. The intellectually wide-ranging volume covers approaches in environmental science all the way through to humanistic and post-natural perspectives on the biophysical world.
Though many academic disciplines have incorporated studying the environment as part of their curriculum, only in recent years has it become central to the social sciences and humanities rather than mainly the geosciences. ‘The environment’ is now a keyword in everything from fisheries science to international relations to philosophical ethics to cultural studies. The Companion brings these subject areas, and their distinctive perspectives and contributions, together in one accessible volume. Over 150 short chapters written by leading international experts provide concise, authoritative and easy-to-use summaries of all the major and emerging topics dominating the field, while the seven part introductions situate and provide context for section entries. A gateway to deeper understanding is provided via further reading and links to online resources.
Companion to Environmental Studies offers an essential one-stop reference to university students, academics, policy makers and others keenly interested in ‘the environmental question’, the answer to which will define the coming century.

Chapter 2 in Understanding Climate Change through Gender Relations, edited by Susan Buckingham an... more Chapter 2 in Understanding Climate Change through Gender Relations, edited by Susan Buckingham and Virginie Le Masson. London: Routledge

Hypatia: Journal of Feminist Philosophy

European political theorists have argued that contemporary imaginaries of climate change are symp... more European political theorists have argued that contemporary imaginaries of climate change are symptomatic of a post-political condition. My aim in this essay is to consider what this analysis might mean for a feminist green politics and how those who believe in such a project might respond. Whereas much of the gender-focused scholarship on climate change is concerned with questions of differentiated vulnerabilities and gendered divisions of responsibility and risk, I want to interrogate the strategic, epistemological, and normative implications for ecological feminism of a dominant, neoliberal climate-change narrative that arguably has no political subject, casts Nature as a threat to be endured, and that replaces democratic public debate with expert administration and individual behavior change. What hope is there for counter-hegemonic political theories and social movements in times like these? I suggest that rather than give in and get on the crowded climate-change bandwagon, an alternative response is to pursue a project of feminist ecological citizenship that blends resistance to hegemonic neoliberal discourses with a specifically feminist commitment to reclaiming democratic debate about social-environmental futures.

Handbook of Political Citizenship and Social Movements, edited by H.A. van der Heijden. E-book link: www.elgaronline.com/abstract/9781781954706.xml, Oct 31, 2014

This outstanding Handbook establishes the relationship between political citizenship and social m... more This outstanding Handbook establishes the relationship between political citizenship and social movements as an area of study. As an in-depth and well-conceived source for beginners, experienced scholars and students alike, it provides theoretically rich, methodologically diverse, and empirically wide-ranging chapters on political struggles over citizenship. Moreover, the bridging between sociological and political theories of movements and citizenship reveals both in a different light.'

Energy Policy, Volume 65, February 2014, Pages 455–464

Reducing household energy consumption is an essential element of the UK Government's carbon reduc... more Reducing household energy consumption is an essential element of the UK Government's carbon reduction strategy. Whilst increased knowledge alone will not necessarily lead to tangible actions on the part of consumers, knowledge of various kinds is, we argue, still important if domestic energy usage is to be reduced. In an attempt to ‘educate’ the public, governments have typically resorted to ‘mass information’ campaigns that have been considered largely unsuccessful. Yet understanding what alternative forms of learning could be cultivated has been limited by the dearth of research that explores whether and why people consider information about energy and energy saving to be useful. By exploring this, we can move towards an understanding of how knowledge about energy saving can be better shared and communicated, enabling more meaningful learning to take place. Drawing on in-depth qualitative data with fifty-five participants, this paper highlights a range of factors that affect perceptions of energy information. It argues that these factors are not discrete, but are interlinked. A fundamentally different model of knowledge exchange is needed for more effective learning about energy saving to occur. A number of implications for policy are proposed in our conclusions.

Local Environment, May 2013

Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability , Jan 2013

The Climate Change Act 2008 commits the UK to reducing carbon emissions by 80% of 1990 levels by ... more The Climate Change Act 2008 commits the UK to reducing carbon emissions by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. With household emissions constituting more than a quarter of current total energy use in the UK, energy practices in the home have taken on
increased policy attention. In this paper, we argue that the UK government’s approach is founded upon a variant of methodological individualism that assumes that providing greater energy information to individuals will effect behaviour change in
relation to energy use. Such an approach is potentially limited in its effectiveness and does not afford appropriate recognition to all those affected by energy policy. In contrast to this approach, we set out an alternative perspective, a community knowledge networks approach to energy and justice which recognises the contexts and relationships in which people live and use energy. Such an approach emphasises situated knowledge and practices in order to gain a greater understanding of how individuals and communities use energy, but, importantly, offers a means for
affording greater recognitional justice to different social groups.

Reforms to the citizenship process under New Labour were part of a policy of reinvigorating citiz... more Reforms to the citizenship process under New Labour were part of a policy of reinvigorating citizenship as a tool for fostering community cohesion. By requiring newcomers to learn English, take a test and attend a ceremony, the Government aimed to help them to integrate better into British life, thereby reducing problems allegedly caused by growing diversity in large multicultural cities. Several years since the introduction of these reforms, and in the wake of yet more changes by the Coalition government, it is important to reflect critically on their impacts. To do so, this paper presents the results of a study which sought the opinions of non-EU immigrants and others with direct experience of the new citizenship process. The research found that, contrary to the New Labour’s promotion of British citizenship as a common bond, the process serves to reinforce ‘otherness’ and to encourage an instrumental approach to ‘getting nationality’. It is argued that, in modelling the process on those that operate uncontroversially in North America, New Labour forgot the most important ingredients: public support for multiculturalism and respect for newcomers.

The Sociological Review, Jan 1, 2009

This article is based on the introductory chapter of my book, Beyond Mothering Earth: Ecological ... more This article is based on the introductory chapter of my book, Beyond Mothering Earth: Ecological Citizenship and the Politics of Care. 1 In it I provide an overview of the central argument of the book, which is that an uncritical and celebratory acceptance of women's greater sense of responsibility for environmental sustainability is a dangerous move. In the face of global ecological and economic crisis that are placing increased demands on the private sphere, all feminists ought to challenge rather than affirm the feminisation of unpaid caring labour. My argument is that they should do so via the discourse and practice of citizenship. I suggest that an important project for feminist environmentalism is to develop a notion of feminist ecological citizenship.

Are we too many? Few questions have sparked such heated debate in environmental political thought... more Are we too many? Few questions have sparked such heated debate in environmental political thought. It is a question that highlights fundamental tensions between humans and the environment, or people and resources. It stems from a belief that there is imbalance in the natural order and a profound sense of fear for the future of life on earth. It is a politically-charged 'can of worms' that gets opened up at particular times of crisis, such as the food riots of the late 18 th century, the oil shocks of the 1970s and most recently with the grim predictions of climate change.

Contemporary Political …, Jan 1, 2009

Rachel Carson Center Perspectives: Transformations in Environment & Society, 2017

Drawing on ecofeminist theory, environmental politics, and queer theory and ecology, this volume ... more Drawing on ecofeminist theory, environmental politics, and queer theory and ecology, this volume sheds light on the connections between masculinities and environmental change. The essays in this collection examine how hegemonic masculinities are performed and how they are reproduced under conditions of climate change, often perpetuating racial and gender inequalities and unequal power relations. The contributors reveal the making and negotiating of masculinities in very different cultural and economic settings, from central Africa to Central America, to the USA and Japan. Together, these scholars, academics, artists, and activists explore how masculine roles, identities, and practices shape human relationships with the more-than-human world.

The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment gathers together state-of-the-art theoretical re... more The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment gathers together state-of-the-art theoretical reflections and empirical research from leading researchers and practitioners working in this transdisciplinary and transnational academic field. Over the course of the book, these contributors provide critical analyses of the gender dimensions of a wide range of timely and challenging topics, from sustainable development and climate change politics, to queer ecology and interspecies ethics in the so-called Anthropocene.

Presenting a comprehensive overview of the development of the field from early political critiques of the male domination of women and nature in the 1980s to the sophisticated intersectional and inclusive analyses of the present, the volume is divided into four parts:
Part I: Foundations
Part II: Approaches
Part III: Politics, policy and practice
Part IV: Futures

Comprising chapters written by forty contributors with different perspectives and working in a wide range of research contexts around the world, this Handbook will serve as a vital resource for scholars, students, and practitioners in environmental studies, gender studies, human geography, and the environmental humanities and social sciences more broadly.

Environment and Politics (4th edition) is a concise introduction to this ever-expanding interdisc... more Environment and Politics (4th edition) is a concise introduction to this ever-expanding interdisciplinary field, explaining and illustrating how concepts, conflicts, movements, political systems and the practices of policy-making can be analysed in a systematic way. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes that shape the field, and examines a diverse range of environmental problems and policy solutions found in different countries and cultures.

The new edition has been extensively revised to include up-to-date explanation of green political theories and traditions and the debates that shape action on the ground. It contains an expanded discussion of environmental movements that work in the Global North, the Global South and transnationally. Greater attention has been given to the roles of corporations, non-governmental organizations, the media, consumers and citizens in order to reflect the changing nature of environmental governance. The text also focuses throughout on debates surrounding the concepts of environmental security, environmental justice and environmental citizenship.

The authors examine the institutional responses of parliaments, administrative, legal and electoral systems; the more informal politics of social movements; and the politics of markets and the corporate sector as they respond to (or resist) the greening of societies. This engaging text has been fully updated to offer readers a greater understanding of international, national and local environmental politics as well as expected future developments at all levels.

Environment and Politics continues to use illustrative examples of conflicts, people and events spanning North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, giving it global perspective and relevance.

Each chapter includes questions for debate as well as a list of key words and resources for independent research. This successful textbook remains a key resource for undergraduate and postgraduate studies across politics, environmental studies, development studies and human geography courses.

A unique, two-volume collection of case studies of environmental movements in 24 countries on six... more A unique, two-volume collection of case studies of environmental movements in 24 countries on six continents, written by scholars and activists working within the countries about which they write.

Women's environmental activism is often described in maternalist terms- as if motherhood and cari... more Women's environmental activism is often described in maternalist terms- as if motherhood and caring for the environment go hand in hand. While feministts celebrate this connection, women and all those who care for people and environments face increasing burdens and decreasing time for civic engagement. In Beyond Mothering Earth, MacGregor argues that celebrations of 'earth care' as women's unique contribution to the search for sustainability often neglect to consider the importance of politics and citizenship in women's lives. Drawing on interviews with women who juggle private caring with civic engagement in quality-of-life concerns, she proposes an alternative: a project of feminist ecological citizenship that affirms the practice of citizenship as an intrinsically valuable activity while recognising the foundational aspects of caring labour and natural processes that allow its specificity to flourish.

Beyond Mothering Earth provides an original and empirically-grounded understanding of women's involvement in quality-of-life activism and an analysis of citizenship that makes an important contribution to contemporary discussions of green politics, globalisation, neoliberalism and democratic justice.

'Enjeux éthiques et politiques de l’écoféminisme' Séminaire de recherche organisé par l’Institut... more 'Enjeux éthiques et politiques de l’écoféminisme'

Séminaire de recherche organisé par l’Institut de géographie et durabilité
Université de Lausanne
Vendredi 5 avril 2019 (9h30 - 12h30) - Géopolis - 2224

Think piece/paper presented at the 'Envisioning everyday environmentalism and climate populism' w... more Think piece/paper presented at the 'Envisioning everyday environmentalism and climate populism' workshop at the Centre for Climate and Justice, University of Reading, 8 June 2018.

WHY WOMEN WILL SAVE THE PLANET - WOMEN'S URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP Tuesday 13th March 6pm-9p... more WHY WOMEN WILL SAVE THE PLANET - WOMEN'S URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP
Tuesday 13th March 6pm-9pm

The next WEN Forum, in association with Friends of the Earth, will be celebrating the eagerly awaited launch of the 2nd edition of "Why Women Will Save the Planet". We will also be screening the film Feed the Green - Feminist Voices for the Earth. This will followed by a panel discussion and question and answer session.
Amnesty International UK Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2

SPEAKER PANEL

LEONIE COOPER, CHAIR GLA ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
DR SHERILYN MACGREGOR, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
AMELIA WOMACK, DEPUTY LEADER OF THE GREEN PARTY
LIZ HUTCHINS, DIRECTOR OF CAMPAIGNING IMPACTS, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
MARIA ADEBOWALE-SCHWARTE, DIRECTOR, LIVING SPACE PROJECT, URBAN PLACE MAKING, GREEN SPACE & HERITAGE STRATEGIST
EMMANUELLE PINAULT, HEAD OF CITY DIPLOMACY, C40 CITIES NETWORK

WE WILL BE EXPLORING THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

WHY DO GENDER EQUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY GO HAND IN HAND?

WHAT ROLE DOES WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT PLAY IN CREATING SUSTAINABLE CITIES?

WHAT WOULD AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST AND SUSTAINABLE CITY LOOK LIKE?

HOW CAN WE HAVE A GENDER APPROACH TO URBAN CLIMATE POLICY?

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF PROMOTING BOTH GENDER EQUALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY IN CITIES?

HOW CAN WE SUPPORT WOMEN TO BE CLIMATE LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS?

WHAT ROLE DOES GRASS ROOTS ACTION PLAY IN THIS AGENDA?

HOW DO WE ENSURE SOCIAL, GENDER AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN THIS CONTEXT?

ARE THERE ANY SUCCESS STORIES WE CAN LEARN FROM?

I will be participating in a round-table discussion as part of a one-day workshop hosted by the P... more I will be participating in a round-table discussion as part of a one-day workshop hosted by the Political Studies Association's Environmental Politics Group on 15 September in the Sustainability Hub at Keele University. Other panellists: Neil Carter, Amelia Womack, Marc Hudson, Mike Childs. Programme attached.

Litter may not be a typical environmentalist concern, but it is a deeply political issue that tou... more Litter may not be a typical environmentalist concern, but it is a deeply political issue that touches on a range of interrelated aspects of urban life and is increasingly becoming the subject of public policy and citizen activism at local and national levels. It features prominently in UK opinion polls about environmental quality: a 2015 Populus survey found that 90% of respondents consider litter to be a significant problem, with 81% reporting that seeing litter makes them angry and frustrated. Particularly for people living in deprived urban areas, it is a daily barrier to well-being and enjoyment of the city. It costs local authorities upwards of £1 billion annually to clean England’s streets, a huge sum of money that could be used to repair public services crushed by a decade of austerity. In April 2017, the UK government published its National Litter Strategy for England, which both admits the severity of the problem and promotes a variety of community-based and behaviour change measures for redressing it.

It is in this context that I conducted a neighbourhood-level investigation into the problem of rubbish in Moss Side, an inner city ward of Manchester. The project was co-produced with a community group called ‘Upping It’ and used a situated approach to researching everyday life/activism (Pink 2012). Upping It has worked for five years to improve the quality of the street environment in Moss Side by promoting composting and recycling, greening the alleyways, and building neighbourhood waste-watch networks. A desire to better understand their local context and to evaluate their own strategies prompted Upping It members to collaborate with me in a funded research project that ran from April to August 2017. Data were collected via 55 doorstep surveys, three focus groups, 12 key informant interviews, and regular field observation.

In this talk I will discuss the rubbish situation in Moss Side, the experiences of Upping It, and the findings of the research project. I will also offer theoretically-informed interpretation of what I think this case study tells us about citizen environmental action and the politics of (un)sustainability in a ‘first world’ global city like Manchester. Drawing on contemporary environmental political theory, I suggest two competing readings: i) a green reading that positions this example within what some have celebrated as a new kind of activism, ‘an environmentalism of everyday life’ (Schlosberg and Coles 2016) and ii) a brown reading that takes it as evidence of a post-ecological turn, of a politics of ‘sustaining the unsustainable’ that now characterizes life in neoliberal capitalist societies (Blühdorn 2017). These readings raise interesting questions for discussion, not only about how we ought to make sense of this specific case but also about a hot debate currently being waged with the environmental politics field.

'Resistance is fertile: feminist green citizenship and the post-politics of climate change' Thi... more 'Resistance is fertile: feminist green citizenship and the post-politics of climate change'

This talk considers the implications of what has been called a ‘post-political climate consensus,’ where the Left, the Right, and the Green seem to have coalesced around an agenda (entirely supportive of neoliberalism) that erases social difference, limits democratic dissent, and demonizes nature in the name of planetary apocalypse. In response, arguments will be presented for why citizenship, informed by feminist green politics should be embraced as a position from which to resist these worrying trends and to reclaim political spaces from which to imagine just and sustainable futures.

Governments around Europe are promoting ‘pro-environmental behaviour change’ as a way to reduce C... more Governments around Europe are promoting ‘pro-environmental behaviour change’ as a way to reduce CO2 emissions and to achieve sustainable transition to low-carbon living. Located primarily in the private sphere of ‘everyday life,’ policies focus primarily on domestic consumption and waste (cf. Barr et all 2011). Reducing energy consumption through household behaviour change is a significant and growing focus of EU policy and research (including in Horizon 20-20). While many environmental social scientists are critical of approaches that individualize responsibility for environmental change (cf. Shove 2010), gender is largely absent from their analyses. As in many other fields that examine sustainability, without feminist research, no gender disaggregated data are collected and no sustained theoretical examination of the gender dimensions is carried out (cf. Vinz 2009). Consequently, there is almost no recognition of the gendered nature of domestic work or of the unfair gender distributions of resources and responsibilities within households. Nor is there much awareness that the transition to a low-carbon society will be unsustainable if the principles of gender justice are ignored. To begin to fill this gap, I offer a feminist theoretical analysis of ‘pro-environmental behaviour change’ policy discourse in general and energy reduction strategies in particular. Using Nancy Fraser’s (2013) definition of gender justice as
an evaluative framework, I: (i) identify what considerations are missing from behaviour change policies and why the omissions are problematic, (ii) suggest what might be done (in research and practice) to redress these omissions, and (iii) consider what aspects of ‘sustainable transition’ strategies, provided they can be made more sensitive to gender justice, might gain the feminist ‘stamp of approval.’ My analysis is primarily theoretical and agenda-mapping, but is informed by the findings of a research project on energy demand reduction that I carried out in the UK from 2011-13 (Catney et al 2013; Simcock et al 2014).

Paper presented as part of the 'Exploring climate change through gender equity and equality' pane... more Paper presented as part of the 'Exploring climate change through gender equity and equality' panel. ( Based on my Hypatia article published July 2014.)

Convenor and chair: Susan Buckingham

Public lecture at the Rachel Carson Center, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich 24 Juy, 2014 ... more Public lecture at the Rachel Carson Center, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich
24 Juy, 2014
(Available on YouTube)

Joint convenors: Mario Diani, Sherilyn MacGregor and Luke Craven

Watch two documentary videos about the project, co-produced by the Keele University team and my ... more Watch two documentary videos about the project, co-produced by the Keele University team and my research dissemination company PublicSpace Ltd (Directed by Dr Simon Pardoe):

'Energy saving: it's a social thing' (15 mins)'

'Engaging communities in energy efficiency' (12 mins)

http://www.recckn.org.uk/videos.htm

published in Discover Society -- Special Issue: New Directions in Sustainable Consumption (Januar... more published in Discover Society -- Special Issue: New Directions in Sustainable Consumption (January 2016)

Blog to be published in the Sustainable Consumption Institute's blog series in time for Internati... more Blog to be published in the Sustainable Consumption Institute's blog series in time for International Women's Day - March 8, 2017