Simon Batterbury

Simon Batterbury
Born	1963 (age 61–62) Greenwich, south-east London, England
Nationality	British-Australian
Education	Eltham College; Reading University (BSc, Human and Physical Geography, 1985); Clark University (MA, 1990; PhD, 1997)
Occupation(s)	Geographer, Academic
Years active	1993–present
Employer(s)	University of Melbourne, Australia; Lancaster University, UK
Known for	Research in political ecology, environmental studies, Indigenous peoples and mining, dryland livelihoods in Africa
Title	Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne; Visiting Professor at Lancaster University
Awards	British Academy Fellowship, 2024; James Martin Fellow, University of Oxford, 2007
Website	http://simonbatterbury.net

Simon Batterbury (born 1963) is a British-Australian geographer, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne,[1] Australia and a visiting professor at Lancaster University, UK.

Background

Born in Greenwich and raised in Eltham, South East London, he attended Eltham College and Reading University (Human & Physical Geography, 1985, taught by Sir Peter Hall and Mike Breheny). He worked at Property Market Analysis in the 1980s doing applied property research, moving to Clark University in Massachusetts for an MA (1990) and PhD (1997) in geography, supervised by Doug Johnson and Billie Lee Turner II).[2] He then held academic appointments at Brunel University (1993–1999, beginning at West London Institute), the London School of Economics (1999–2001), the University of Arizona (2001–2004) and the University of Melbourne (2004–2016, 2019–date).[3] From 2017 to 2019 he was the inaugural Professor and Chair of Political Ecology in the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, and remains affiliated.[4]

At the University of Melbourne, he directed the Office for Environmental Programs[5] and the unique interdisciplinary Master of Environment degree with 370 students,[6] and from 2023, the Melbourne Climate Futures Academy for PhD students and early career researchers.[7]

Contributions

Batterbury was an early adopter of cross-scale political ecology when working with a development program in Burkina Faso offering soil conservation through diguettes, showing how local environmental changes/erosion resulted from adverse national and international political economic forces, networks of power, and inequality.[8]

A large interdisciplinary investigation of land use change and livelihoods in South West Niger with Andrew Warren followed, funded by the UK-based ESRC. The work showed the adaptability of peasant farmers to drought, poverty, and inequality in access to resources through 'productive bricolage' and diversification of livelihoods.[9] Empirical studies of desertification in the Sahel found strong local adaptability to uncertain rainfall,[10] with little use of Western agricultural inputs or seed varieties.[11]

A comparative study of World Bank relationships with NGOs in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Ecuador with David Lewis and Tony Bebbington resulted in several articles.[12]

Since 2010 he has worked in the un-decolonised South Pacific settler economy[13] of New Caledonia-Kanaky on the political ecology of mining and other issues affecting Indigenous Kanak societies and cultures, producing a major volume in English in 2024 with Matthias Kowasch.[14] Indigenous people have reluctantly embraced mining, but use it to their geopolitical advantage including control of a major nickel project, the Koniambo mine.[15] The Critical Raw Materials Act in Europe has a peripheral influence on mining on the islands and poses new challenges for raw material supply for the European Green Deal.[16]

Research on Community Bike Workshops and their contributions of low carbon mobility, social justice, and active travel is an emerging area (funded by the British Academy, 2024).[17] Batterbury chairs a small workshop, WeCycle,[18] that gives away more than 250 rebuilt and repaired bikes a year to refugees and asylum seekers in Melbourne; it featured on national TV.[19]

Open Access

Batterbury has co-edited the Journal of Political Ecology since 2003.[20] Editing this zero-budget OA journal led to strong support for Diamond Open Access non-commercial scholarly publishing including an Open Access Manifesto and media work.[21][22][23]

Awards

• British Academy fellowship, 2024[24]
• Best PhD/Graduate supervisor, University of Melbourne, 2019[25]
• COSMOPOLIS fellow, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2015
• James Martin Fellow, ECI, University of Oxford, 2007

Selected Publications

• Kowasch M. and Batterbury, S.P.J. (eds.). 2024. Geographies of New Caledonia-Kanaky: environments, politics and cultures. Springer. (19 chapters) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49140-5
• Batterbury S.P.J. and I. Vandermeersch. 2016. Bicycle justice: community bicycle workshops and "invisible cyclists" in Brussels. In A. Golub, M.L. Hoffmann, A.E.Lugo & G.F. Sandoval (eds.). Bicycle justice and urban transformation: biking for all? Routledge. 189-202.
• Reynolds J.F., D.M. Stafford-Smith, E. Lambin, B.L. Turner II, M.J Mortimore, S.P.J Batterbury, T.E. Downing, H. Dowlatabadi, R.J. Fernandez, J.E. Herrick, E. Huber-Sannwald, H. Jiang, R. Leemans, T. Lynam, F. Maestre, B. Walker, and M. Ayarza. 2007. Global desertification: building a science for dryland development. Science. 316 (May 11): 847-851. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1131634
• Batterbury, S.P.J. (ed.) 2006. Rescaling governance and the impacts of political and environmental decentralization. World Development 34(11): 1851-1995. (8 articles)
• Batterbury, S.P.J & A. Warren (eds.) 2001. The African Sahel 25 years after the Great Drought. Global Environmental Change 11(1): 1-96. (8 articles).

References

1. "Academic staff". 2 January 2024.
2. "The Home Page of Simon PJ Batterbury". simonbatterbury.net. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
3. Simon Batterbury Find an Expert
4. "Simon Batterbury".
5. Dorey, Nathan (20 February 2024). "Office for Environmental Programs". Office for Environmental Programs. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
6. Batterbury S.P.J. and M. Toscano. 2018. Seeking justice through interdisciplinary environmental education at postgraduate level: lessons from Melbourne, Australia. International Journal of Education for Social Justice / Revista Internacional de Educación para la Justicia Social (RIEJS) 7(1): 141-156.
7. "MCF Academy". 30 January 2024.
8. "ORCID".
9. Batterbury, S.P.J. 2001. Landscapes of diversity: a local political ecology of livelihood diversification in south-western Niger. Cultural Geographies 8(4): 437-464
10. Reynolds J.F., D.M. Stafford-Smith, E. Lambin, B.L. Turner II, M.J/ Mortimore, S.P.J Batterbury, T.E. Downing, H. Dowlatabadi, R.J. Fernandez, J.E. Herrick, E. Huber-Sannwald, H. Jiang, R. Leemans, T. Lynam, F. Maestre, B. Walker, and M. Ayarza. 2007. Global desertification: building a science for dryland development. Science. 316 (May 11): 847-851
11. Batterbury, S.P.J. 1996. Planners or performers? Reflections on indigenous dryland farming in Northern Burkina Faso. Agriculture & Human Values 13(3):12-22
12. Bebbington, Anthony; Lewis, David; Batterbury, Simon; Olson, Elizabeth; Siddiqi, M. Shameem (2 April 2024). "Of texts and practices: Empowerment and organisational cultures in world bank-funded rural development programmes". Journal of Development Studies. 43 (4): 597–621. doi:10.1080/00220380701259665.
13. Sciences, Dr Simon Batterbury, University of Melbourne and Dr Matthias Kowasch, University College of Teacher Education, Austria and Inland Norway University of Applied (10 December 2021). "New Caledonia referendum: A flashpoint for decolonisation". Pursuit. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
14. Kowasch, Matthias; Batterbury, Simon P. J. (26 February 2024). Kowasch, Matthias; Batterbury, Simon P. J. (eds.). Geographies of New Caledonia-Kanaky: Environments, Politics and Cultures. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-49140-5. ISBN 978-3-031-49139-9.
15. Batterbury SPJ, M. Kowasch and S. Bouard. 2020. The geopolitical ecology of New Caledonia: territorial re-ordering, mining, and Indigenous economic development. Journal of Political Ecology 27: 594-611. https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23812
16. "European Green Deal". miningbeyondhotair.org. Archived from the original on 8 March 2024. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
17. Batterbury SPJ, Uxo, C., Nurse, S. & M. Abord de Chatillon. (2023). On Mutual Bicycle Aid: Community bike workshops in Australia Green Agenda Journal 1. 25 March 2023
18. "WeCycle". WeCycle. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
19. "The House of Wellness TV 2023 - Season 7, Episode 19". 23 June 2023.
20. "Journal of Political Ecology".
21. Simon Batterbury (24 October 2020). "Open but Unfair- The role of social justice in Open Access publishing". lse.ac.uk. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
22. Batterbury, Simon P. J.; Pia, Andrea E.; Wielander, Gerda; Loubere, Nicholas (2024). "Against book enclosures: Moving towards more diverse, humane and accessible book publishing". Area. doi:10.1111/area.12916.
23. Pia, Andrea E.; et al. (2020). "Labour of Love: An Open Access Manifesto for Freedom, Integrity, and Creativity in the Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences". Commonplace. doi:10.21428/6ffd8432.a7503356. hdl:11584/305620.
24. "Dr Simon Batterbury".
25. "Faculty of Science staff celebrated with 2019 Melbourne Excellence Awards". 2 February 2024.