Environmental Politics Group

We are a community of scholars based in the Politics Department at The University of Manchester who study the political science, political economy, and political philosophy of the environment.

The Politics Department at The University of Manchester is home to over 20 scholars, from PhD researchers to Professors, who analyse environmental politics. Manchester Environmental Politics Group (MEPG) brings together this expertise to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in the world today. Members of the EPG work closely with colleagues at the Sustainable Consumption Institute and the Tyndall Centre, as well as enjoying many partnerships beyond Manchester.

The EPG meets regularly throughout the year by organising a variety of activities, including research paper workshops, guest seminars, and research development events. If you are a scholar of Environmental Politics who intends to visit Manchester, do email the Group’s convenor, Paul Tobin (see below) to let him know and we can help to make the most of your trip.

Members

  • Paul Tobin (EPG Convenor) – comparative, European, and multi-level environmental politics; environmental policy leadership and dismantling.
  • Soham Banerjee- Climate Change Politics, International Climate Finance, Just Energy Transition, Elections and Climate Change. 
  • Sandra Barragán Contreras - energy justice, political economy of energy transitions, human geography, environmental politics.
  • Jonathan Benson – democratic theory, environmental democracy, philosophy of (environmental) economics, environmental values.    
  • Carl Death – environmental politics in Africa, sustainable development, climate fiction.
  • Franco Galdini – climate change politics in Central Asia, climate change and food production.
  • James Jackson – political economy, global governance, comparative environmental politics, climate/nature-related financial risks.
  • Yeqi Jin – climate change, international organisations, international bureaucrats. 
  • Anna-Maria Köhnke – political economy of work and wellbeing, degrowth, (eco)feminist perspectives on intersecting inequalities.
  • Sherilyn MacGregor 
  • Aino Ursula Mäki – housewifisation, queer and (eco)feminist political economy, feminist degrowth.
  • Matthew Paterson – climate change politics, political economy, global governance, cultural politics. 
  • Perla Polanco leal – Social and environmental sustainability, global political economy, (post)colonialism and Latin America.
  • Bulbul Prakash - Climate Change and Conflict, (Eco)Peacebuilding, Gender Studies.
  • Jasmin Ramovic – environmental politics in peace and conflict; international interventions and global political economy. 
  • Louise Thompson – UK green parties, party professionalisation, parliaments, legislation, parliamentary scrutiny.   
  • Samuel Toscano – corporate environmental governance, sustainability communications, governmentality.
  • Grace Tudor-Worrall - critical posthuman feminism, permaculture, environmental resistance, commoning and food sovereignty/justice.
  • Nick Turnbull – public policy, wicked problems, policy and knowledge, relationalism, political rhetoric. 
  • Robert Watt – climate change governance, carbon markets, critical theory. 
  • Stanley Wilshire
  • Yixiao Zhang – great power leadership, climate change governance, and China-US climate relations.

Our termly paperswap workshop

Twice a year, we hold a paperswap workshop where we exchange drafts of our current research for feedback and discussion.

At each workshop, a leading scholar of environmental politics from outside Manchester joins us. At recent events, we have been delighted to be joined by Francesca Vantaggiato, and Jen Iris Allan. Articles that have been presented and subsequently published include: