Lauren Rickards | RMIT University (original) (raw)

Papers by Lauren Rickards

Environment and Planning F

In this article, we seek to open up for critical debate disciplinary narratives that center the “... more In this article, we seek to open up for critical debate disciplinary narratives that center the “synthesis” qualities of geographic thought. Proponents of Geography often emphasize its integrative, synthesis approach to human–environment relations to underline its value to interdisciplinary research initiatives addressing critical real-world issues such as climate change. But there are multiple styles of knowledge synthesis at work within academia and beyond, and they have contradictory ethical and epistemological effects. More specifically, synthesis is on the rise, but it is not Geography’s synthesis-as-understanding. Rather, an increasingly dominant cybernetic sociotechnical imaginary is installing a specific notion of synthesis—“synthesis-as-solution”—into universities, transforming both the production of knowledge and the institutional management and technological manifestation of that production. This cybernetic sociotechnical imaginary constrains research ethically and episte...

The Routledge Handbook of Social Change, Aug 8, 2022

Futures

Abstract University-based research is an inherently future-oriented activity and plays a unique r... more Abstract University-based research is an inherently future-oriented activity and plays a unique role in shaping futures in diverse domains. Despite the push for academic research to demonstrate ‘societal impact’, there is surprisingly little thought to the need for, or development of, futures literacy as a core capability within research impact in higher education. Futures literacy – notably the ability to imagine and prepare for changes that may occur – has the potential to transform current trajectories in academic research impact. In this paper we argue that futures literacy has been neglected in the research impact agenda in universities and call for more action-learning and training on it using Futures Literacy Laboratories for Research Impact (FLL-RI). Drawing on exploratory research, we sketch five key principles which together highlight the need to re-orient research impact as an anticipatory agenda for futures literacy praxis in higher education.

Climate, Society and Elemental Insurance

Insurance as utopian narrative Insurance is inherently future-oriented. Acknowledging the need fo... more Insurance as utopian narrative Insurance is inherently future-oriented. Acknowledging the need for insurance is about acknowledging the fact that things may go wrong in the future, that disasters may occur, that our current life may be disrupted. At the same time, in response to this dystopian vision, insurance seeks to reassure; it offers a Plan B, a compensatory measure to speed our recovery to an imagined disruption. In this way, the insurance industry flits between two of the three classic narratives about the future, a triad of utopian stories 1 characterised, respectively, by the phrases 'If this continues, then.', 'What if?', and 'If only.' Insurance warns us that if the volatility and riskiness of the world continues-as it will increasingly do under climate changethen all of us will likely face periods of disruption, loss, and damage. Once we are forewarned, it posits a solution: What if you had insurance? What if you had a Plan B? A promise is dangled: our future would be difficult but not destitute, different but not disastrous. This triad of narratives about the future-'If this continues, then.', 'What if?', and 'If only.'-are not only stylistic devices used by writers of utopian science fiction, but are a reflection of a triptych that Bridgit Schneider (2017) traces to eschatological depictions of the future within Christianity. Capturing messages of the prophets, they represent warnings, speculations, and promissory visions. Schneider argues that a similar triptych features in IPCC depictions of possible futures under their Representative Concentration Pathways: a dark climate future with out-of-control atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, a moderate climate future, and a least disastrous climate future secured by rapid and immediate mitigation and, notably, widespread use of 'negative emissions technologies' (NETs)-that is, carbon removal geoengineering techniques. Jumping genres, Schneider also suggests that the same sort of triad features in a 1979/1982 cartoon A Short History of America by Robert Crumb. The cartoon depicts the gradual replacement of 'natural landscapes' with urban sprawl, and three potential futures: the Ecological Disaster that arguably awaits if urbanisation continues unchecked; the ecomodernist Fun Future that capitalists suggest we can

Développement durable et territoires, 2022

Droughts are intensifying in many mid-latitude river basins due to climate change; therefore unde... more Droughts are intensifying in many mid-latitude river basins due to climate change; therefore understanding the influence of droughts on water policy is crucial. This study of the politics of water reforms in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) analyses contrasting discourses of water security during the Millennium Drought (1996-2010). The paper traces the historical evolution, mobilisation and effects of three discourses defined as 'drought-proofing', 'higher value use' and 'river restoration'. These are broadly aligned with engineering, economics and ecological perspectives, and while all discourses were integrated into government responses to the drought, the resurgence of drought-proofing significantly altered policy settings intended to shift MDB water management onto a more sustainable path. The paper illustrates the political and physical conditioning of water policy, placing drought responses in their historical context. The analysis demonstrates ho...

Research Anthology on Environmental and Societal Impacts of Climate Change, 2022

Human consumption of livestock remains a marginal issue in climate change debates, partly due to ... more Human consumption of livestock remains a marginal issue in climate change debates, partly due to the IPCC's arbitrary adoption of 100-year global warming potential framework to compare different emissions, blinding us to the significance of shorter-term emissions, namely methane. Together with the gas it reacts to form - tropospheric ozone - methane has been responsible for 37% of global warming since 1750, yet its atmospheric life is just 10 years. Neglecting its role means overlooking powerful mitigation opportunities. The chapter discusses the role of livestock, the largest anthropogenic methane source, and the need to include reduced meat consumption in climate change responses. Looking beyond the conventional focus on the consumer, we point to some underlying challenges in addressing the meat-climate relationship, including the climate science community's reluctance to adopt a short-term focus in its climate projections. Policy options are presented.

Researchers and research institutions are increasingly required to demonstrate research impact, a... more Researchers and research institutions are increasingly required to demonstrate research impact, and significant effort is going into enhancing and promoting the impact of research projects around the world. But what exactly is research impact and how should we approach it, given the complex challenges the world faces? To inform this report, we reviewed research impact literature from across the globe and talked with research leaders around RMIT to think through different approaches to research impact. The result is this report and our framework of three ‘generations’ of research impact. The last of these is an approach we call ‘research impact as ethos’ – one that takes seriously the challenge of generating a positive, learning-oriented research impact culture appropriate to the challenges at hand. This is about research impact as more than the ‘backwash’ of research, but as a purposeful, connected and adaptive orientation to research work across and beyond institutions.In addition ...

The Resilience Machine, 2018

Contents 4 of 192 6. Towards guiding principles for improving the effectiveness of scenario plann... more Contents 4 of 192 6. Towards guiding principles for improving the effectiveness of scenario planning for climate adaptation ..

Eureka street, 2019

This past week has seen unprecedented bushfires across north-eastern Australia and predictions it... more This past week has seen unprecedented bushfires across north-eastern Australia and predictions it will only intensify in the coming months. Experts concur that the underlying conditions are driven by climate change, itself caused by increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Hunger and Development Hunger has been a core issue for ‘development’ since the early colonial er... more Hunger and Development Hunger has been a core issue for ‘development’ since the early colonial era when keeping populations fed—both ‘at home’ (e.g. Ireland) and in ‘the peripheries’ (e.g. India)—proved a major governance challenge (Nally, 2011). The focus then and arguably ever since was on the quantity of food available, specifically the amount produced by agriculture. During the colonial era and post-World War period, modernising agricultural production thus became a dominant development objective, based on the belief that it would not only reduce hunger among smallholders, but would reduce hunger among other (exsmallholder) households by contributing to economic growth, household incomes and purchasing power. It has increasingly become apparent, however, that this approach is far from sufficient or necessarily helpful, and that hunger remains a major unresolved problem. It is largely in response to the persistence of hunger, and growing recognition that unmitigated economic grow...

The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice, 2017

Australia illustrates a particular arena of environmental justice (EJ) theorizing that warrants c... more Australia illustrates a particular arena of environmental justice (EJ) theorizing that warrants closer scrutiny and development - the relationship between cultural identity, place attachment, environmental policy, and the experience of injustice. In this chapter we review the relationship between this strong place identification and claims of environmental (in)justice. While historically not a major organizing principle or movement, applications and uses of EJ discourse in the Australian context are increasing. We begin by defining and arguing for the centrality of place attachment to conceptions of environmental justice. We then discuss three very different Australian cases where this approach is articulated: Aboriginal Australians' relationship to Country; coal and gas mining; and a fire event that brings together concerns about climate change and air pollution.

Thinking with Soils, 2020

Urban Studies, 2016

For some time now, the field of urban studies has been attempting to figure the urban whilst cogn... more For some time now, the field of urban studies has been attempting to figure the urban whilst cognisant of the fact that the city exists as a highly problematic category of analysis. In this virtual special issue, we draw together some examples of what we call urban concepts under stress; concepts which appear to be reaching the limits of their capacity to render knowable a world characterised by the death of the city and the ascent of multi-scalar de-territorialisations and re-territorialisations. We organise the papers selected for inclusion into three bundles dealing respectively with complex urban systems, the hinterland problematic and governing cities in the age of flows. The phenomenon of urban concepts under stress stems from the existence of a gap between existing cartographies, visualisations and lexicons of the urban and 21st century spatial conditions and territorialities. Given that this disarticulation will surely increase as this century unfolds, a pressing question pr...

International Planning Studies, 2016

ABSTRACT In this paper, we critically explore the combination of a dynamic, multilayered understa... more ABSTRACT In this paper, we critically explore the combination of a dynamic, multilayered understanding of community with an open-ended, ‘emergent’ understanding of resilience, and highlight the relevance for planners. We argue prevailing planning policies and practices on community resilience tend to work with rather simplistic, one-dimensional understandings of both ‘community’ and ‘resilience’. The multiple layers of meaning that are embedded in the word community are ignored when it is treated as an add-on intended to give underlying ideas about resilience planning greater public appeal. Apart and together the concepts of community and resilience bring into play a host of tensions between, for example, continuity and change, resistance and adaptation, inclusion and exclusion. This paper offers a framework for ensuring that these important considerations are openly negotiated within transparent normative frameworks of planning policy and practice.

Geographical Research, 2015

Intellectually as well as materially, the Anthropocene is a deeply cultural phenomenon. This incl... more Intellectually as well as materially, the Anthropocene is a deeply cultural phenomenon. This includes its communicative form, which is a contested trope-rich narrative, even within the sciences. In this essay I focus on the role of metaphor in Anthropocene thought and in particular, on the provocative, ambiguous, and potentially far-reaching idea of humans as a geological force. By considering the different interpretations and meaning this metaphor encourages - including differences in what is meant by geological and force, both within and beyond stratigraphy and Earth System Science - we gain a stronger sense of the deeply allegorical and theological character of the Anthropocene story and the way it promises to reposition humans in the world.

Nature Climate Change, 2013

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2015

Environment and Planning F

In this article, we seek to open up for critical debate disciplinary narratives that center the “... more In this article, we seek to open up for critical debate disciplinary narratives that center the “synthesis” qualities of geographic thought. Proponents of Geography often emphasize its integrative, synthesis approach to human–environment relations to underline its value to interdisciplinary research initiatives addressing critical real-world issues such as climate change. But there are multiple styles of knowledge synthesis at work within academia and beyond, and they have contradictory ethical and epistemological effects. More specifically, synthesis is on the rise, but it is not Geography’s synthesis-as-understanding. Rather, an increasingly dominant cybernetic sociotechnical imaginary is installing a specific notion of synthesis—“synthesis-as-solution”—into universities, transforming both the production of knowledge and the institutional management and technological manifestation of that production. This cybernetic sociotechnical imaginary constrains research ethically and episte...

The Routledge Handbook of Social Change, Aug 8, 2022

Futures

Abstract University-based research is an inherently future-oriented activity and plays a unique r... more Abstract University-based research is an inherently future-oriented activity and plays a unique role in shaping futures in diverse domains. Despite the push for academic research to demonstrate ‘societal impact’, there is surprisingly little thought to the need for, or development of, futures literacy as a core capability within research impact in higher education. Futures literacy – notably the ability to imagine and prepare for changes that may occur – has the potential to transform current trajectories in academic research impact. In this paper we argue that futures literacy has been neglected in the research impact agenda in universities and call for more action-learning and training on it using Futures Literacy Laboratories for Research Impact (FLL-RI). Drawing on exploratory research, we sketch five key principles which together highlight the need to re-orient research impact as an anticipatory agenda for futures literacy praxis in higher education.

Climate, Society and Elemental Insurance

Insurance as utopian narrative Insurance is inherently future-oriented. Acknowledging the need fo... more Insurance as utopian narrative Insurance is inherently future-oriented. Acknowledging the need for insurance is about acknowledging the fact that things may go wrong in the future, that disasters may occur, that our current life may be disrupted. At the same time, in response to this dystopian vision, insurance seeks to reassure; it offers a Plan B, a compensatory measure to speed our recovery to an imagined disruption. In this way, the insurance industry flits between two of the three classic narratives about the future, a triad of utopian stories 1 characterised, respectively, by the phrases 'If this continues, then.', 'What if?', and 'If only.' Insurance warns us that if the volatility and riskiness of the world continues-as it will increasingly do under climate changethen all of us will likely face periods of disruption, loss, and damage. Once we are forewarned, it posits a solution: What if you had insurance? What if you had a Plan B? A promise is dangled: our future would be difficult but not destitute, different but not disastrous. This triad of narratives about the future-'If this continues, then.', 'What if?', and 'If only.'-are not only stylistic devices used by writers of utopian science fiction, but are a reflection of a triptych that Bridgit Schneider (2017) traces to eschatological depictions of the future within Christianity. Capturing messages of the prophets, they represent warnings, speculations, and promissory visions. Schneider argues that a similar triptych features in IPCC depictions of possible futures under their Representative Concentration Pathways: a dark climate future with out-of-control atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, a moderate climate future, and a least disastrous climate future secured by rapid and immediate mitigation and, notably, widespread use of 'negative emissions technologies' (NETs)-that is, carbon removal geoengineering techniques. Jumping genres, Schneider also suggests that the same sort of triad features in a 1979/1982 cartoon A Short History of America by Robert Crumb. The cartoon depicts the gradual replacement of 'natural landscapes' with urban sprawl, and three potential futures: the Ecological Disaster that arguably awaits if urbanisation continues unchecked; the ecomodernist Fun Future that capitalists suggest we can

Développement durable et territoires, 2022

Droughts are intensifying in many mid-latitude river basins due to climate change; therefore unde... more Droughts are intensifying in many mid-latitude river basins due to climate change; therefore understanding the influence of droughts on water policy is crucial. This study of the politics of water reforms in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) analyses contrasting discourses of water security during the Millennium Drought (1996-2010). The paper traces the historical evolution, mobilisation and effects of three discourses defined as 'drought-proofing', 'higher value use' and 'river restoration'. These are broadly aligned with engineering, economics and ecological perspectives, and while all discourses were integrated into government responses to the drought, the resurgence of drought-proofing significantly altered policy settings intended to shift MDB water management onto a more sustainable path. The paper illustrates the political and physical conditioning of water policy, placing drought responses in their historical context. The analysis demonstrates ho...

Research Anthology on Environmental and Societal Impacts of Climate Change, 2022

Human consumption of livestock remains a marginal issue in climate change debates, partly due to ... more Human consumption of livestock remains a marginal issue in climate change debates, partly due to the IPCC's arbitrary adoption of 100-year global warming potential framework to compare different emissions, blinding us to the significance of shorter-term emissions, namely methane. Together with the gas it reacts to form - tropospheric ozone - methane has been responsible for 37% of global warming since 1750, yet its atmospheric life is just 10 years. Neglecting its role means overlooking powerful mitigation opportunities. The chapter discusses the role of livestock, the largest anthropogenic methane source, and the need to include reduced meat consumption in climate change responses. Looking beyond the conventional focus on the consumer, we point to some underlying challenges in addressing the meat-climate relationship, including the climate science community's reluctance to adopt a short-term focus in its climate projections. Policy options are presented.

Researchers and research institutions are increasingly required to demonstrate research impact, a... more Researchers and research institutions are increasingly required to demonstrate research impact, and significant effort is going into enhancing and promoting the impact of research projects around the world. But what exactly is research impact and how should we approach it, given the complex challenges the world faces? To inform this report, we reviewed research impact literature from across the globe and talked with research leaders around RMIT to think through different approaches to research impact. The result is this report and our framework of three ‘generations’ of research impact. The last of these is an approach we call ‘research impact as ethos’ – one that takes seriously the challenge of generating a positive, learning-oriented research impact culture appropriate to the challenges at hand. This is about research impact as more than the ‘backwash’ of research, but as a purposeful, connected and adaptive orientation to research work across and beyond institutions.In addition ...

The Resilience Machine, 2018

Contents 4 of 192 6. Towards guiding principles for improving the effectiveness of scenario plann... more Contents 4 of 192 6. Towards guiding principles for improving the effectiveness of scenario planning for climate adaptation ..

Eureka street, 2019

This past week has seen unprecedented bushfires across north-eastern Australia and predictions it... more This past week has seen unprecedented bushfires across north-eastern Australia and predictions it will only intensify in the coming months. Experts concur that the underlying conditions are driven by climate change, itself caused by increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Hunger and Development Hunger has been a core issue for ‘development’ since the early colonial er... more Hunger and Development Hunger has been a core issue for ‘development’ since the early colonial era when keeping populations fed—both ‘at home’ (e.g. Ireland) and in ‘the peripheries’ (e.g. India)—proved a major governance challenge (Nally, 2011). The focus then and arguably ever since was on the quantity of food available, specifically the amount produced by agriculture. During the colonial era and post-World War period, modernising agricultural production thus became a dominant development objective, based on the belief that it would not only reduce hunger among smallholders, but would reduce hunger among other (exsmallholder) households by contributing to economic growth, household incomes and purchasing power. It has increasingly become apparent, however, that this approach is far from sufficient or necessarily helpful, and that hunger remains a major unresolved problem. It is largely in response to the persistence of hunger, and growing recognition that unmitigated economic grow...

The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice, 2017

Australia illustrates a particular arena of environmental justice (EJ) theorizing that warrants c... more Australia illustrates a particular arena of environmental justice (EJ) theorizing that warrants closer scrutiny and development - the relationship between cultural identity, place attachment, environmental policy, and the experience of injustice. In this chapter we review the relationship between this strong place identification and claims of environmental (in)justice. While historically not a major organizing principle or movement, applications and uses of EJ discourse in the Australian context are increasing. We begin by defining and arguing for the centrality of place attachment to conceptions of environmental justice. We then discuss three very different Australian cases where this approach is articulated: Aboriginal Australians' relationship to Country; coal and gas mining; and a fire event that brings together concerns about climate change and air pollution.

Thinking with Soils, 2020

Urban Studies, 2016

For some time now, the field of urban studies has been attempting to figure the urban whilst cogn... more For some time now, the field of urban studies has been attempting to figure the urban whilst cognisant of the fact that the city exists as a highly problematic category of analysis. In this virtual special issue, we draw together some examples of what we call urban concepts under stress; concepts which appear to be reaching the limits of their capacity to render knowable a world characterised by the death of the city and the ascent of multi-scalar de-territorialisations and re-territorialisations. We organise the papers selected for inclusion into three bundles dealing respectively with complex urban systems, the hinterland problematic and governing cities in the age of flows. The phenomenon of urban concepts under stress stems from the existence of a gap between existing cartographies, visualisations and lexicons of the urban and 21st century spatial conditions and territorialities. Given that this disarticulation will surely increase as this century unfolds, a pressing question pr...

International Planning Studies, 2016

ABSTRACT In this paper, we critically explore the combination of a dynamic, multilayered understa... more ABSTRACT In this paper, we critically explore the combination of a dynamic, multilayered understanding of community with an open-ended, ‘emergent’ understanding of resilience, and highlight the relevance for planners. We argue prevailing planning policies and practices on community resilience tend to work with rather simplistic, one-dimensional understandings of both ‘community’ and ‘resilience’. The multiple layers of meaning that are embedded in the word community are ignored when it is treated as an add-on intended to give underlying ideas about resilience planning greater public appeal. Apart and together the concepts of community and resilience bring into play a host of tensions between, for example, continuity and change, resistance and adaptation, inclusion and exclusion. This paper offers a framework for ensuring that these important considerations are openly negotiated within transparent normative frameworks of planning policy and practice.

Geographical Research, 2015

Intellectually as well as materially, the Anthropocene is a deeply cultural phenomenon. This incl... more Intellectually as well as materially, the Anthropocene is a deeply cultural phenomenon. This includes its communicative form, which is a contested trope-rich narrative, even within the sciences. In this essay I focus on the role of metaphor in Anthropocene thought and in particular, on the provocative, ambiguous, and potentially far-reaching idea of humans as a geological force. By considering the different interpretations and meaning this metaphor encourages - including differences in what is meant by geological and force, both within and beyond stratigraphy and Earth System Science - we gain a stronger sense of the deeply allegorical and theological character of the Anthropocene story and the way it promises to reposition humans in the world.

Nature Climate Change, 2013

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2015

Environmental Politics, 2020

This essay seeks to open a conversation about multispecies justice in environmental politics. It ... more This essay seeks to open a conversation about multispecies justice in environmental politics. It sets out some of the theoretical approaches, key areas of exploration, and obvious challenges that come with rethinking a core plank of liberal theory and politics. First, we discuss some of the diverse scholarly fields that have influenced the emergence of multispecies justice. We then discuss core concerns at the centre of this reconfiguration of justice – including broadening conceptions of the subject of justice and the means and processes of recognition (and misrecognition). The importance of deconstructing and decolonising the hegemony of liberal political discourse is crucial, and is part of a larger project for multispecies justice to rework a politics of knowledge and practice of political communication. Finally, we begin to explore what a commitment to multispecies justice might demand of politics and policy.