Professor Karen Bickerstaff

I am an environmental geographer interested in i) the place-based dimensions of living with techno-environmental risks, ii) geographies and temporalities of environmental injustice, and iii) social change and collaborative and practice.

Taking each of these core interests in turn:

i) Living with techno-environmental ‘risks’ and infrastructures that operate at different scales, such as climate change, air pollution, nuclear infrastructures, and domestic low carbon devices. My work addresses the intersections between technology, emotion and agency, and how the dynamics of place shape our experience of socio-technical change. Her research has challenged ideas about ‘toxic’ communities – raising questions about the history of place(s), the experience of harm and the exercise of power.

ii) Ideas about environmental justice. My work here seeks to explore the geographical inclusions and exclusions embedded in foundational ‘tenets’ of energy and climate justice. One way that she is currently progressing this research is through an interest in following the geographies of carbon – and how our multiple relations to/with carbon offer a critical entry point to assessing the ethical and political challenges (and opportunities) of global climate mitigation. This research is funded through a Leverhulme Research Fellowship starting in autumn 2023.

iii) A longstanding interest in the theory, practice and challenges of engaged and collaborative research in relation to environmental policy and practice. I am a member of the Leadership Team of the Exeter-led ACCESS network (Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environment Social Science), lead its Responsive Insights Group, and chairs its Net Zero Task Force.  I am part of the Exeter-based team of researchers (in Geography and Political Sciences) working on the ESRC-funded Governing Sustainable Futures project, which is looks at how we can use novel collaborative mechanisms to address place-based contestations around sustainable living (what we refer to as sustainainability flashpoints). 

Karen has previously held research and lecturing posts at the University of East Anglia (Environmental Sciences), Durham University (Geography) and Kings College London (Geography). 

Karen is an Editor of Geo: Geography and Environment

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