Simon Batterbury
Biographic Data
| ID | 148145 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simon Batterbury |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simon |
| FAMILY NAME | Batterbury |
| SIGNATURE | BATTERBURY S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2801-7483 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 42 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 303 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Not in my backyard? Prospects, problems and perceptions of lithium extraction in Austria
Against book enclosures: Moving towards more diverse, humane and accessible book publishing
Matthew Gandy's Commentary in Area (2023) criticised the decision of the national funder UKRI to mandate that all books resulting from the research that it funds must be published open access (OA) from 2024. This raises many issues of importance to geographers. We argue that scholars in the discipline need to fight for affordable and ethically produced OA books, not ‘legacy’ modes of publishing. In particular, books produced by scholar‐led OA pre…
Janice Edith Jones Monk (13.03.1937–12.07.2024)
Conclusion: Future Reflections
This multi-authored chapter covers some statements and reflections on the geopolitical but also environmental, societal and economic futures in the aftermath of the third referendum in 2021 on political independence, and after the visit of French President Macron to New Caledonia-Kanaky in July 2023. While for the current French government, the future of the country lies within the French Republic, pro-independence parties see the decolonisation …
Obituary: Janice Monk
Jan Monk, when visiting Sydney and surrounds, 2005 (photo: Bruce Ryan). Acclaimed Australian-American feminist geographer Janice Edith Jones Monk (13 March 1937–12 July 2024) has died in her adopted hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Jan was a beloved colleague and friend to many geographers, not just in her two countries of Australia and the USA but in many other countries as well. We write here to record some of her many achievements and to convey a …
Corporate land acquisitions at the intersection of lineage and patronage networks in Cameroon
Despite the proliferation of literature on large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) in Africa, few empirical studies exist on how patronage networks combine with socio-cultural stratification to determine the livelihood outcomes for African agrarian-based communities. This article draws from ethnographic research on Cameroon to contribute to bridging this gap. We argue that lineage and patronage considerations intersect to determine beneficiaries and…
The geopolitical ecology of New Caledonia: Territorial re-ordering, mining, and Indigenous economic development
In the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, conflict and difference between Indigenous Kanak people and European settlers has existed at least since the 1850s. We interrogate the geopolitical ecology of these islands, which is deeply wedded to natural resource extraction, is instrumentalized in political debate, power struggles, conflict, and the mining sector. Territoriality, including changes to political borders and access to land, has p…
Un atto d'amore: Manifesto Open Access per la libertà, l'integrità e la creatività nelle scienze umane e nelle scienze sociali interpretative
Un atto d'amore: Manifesto Open Access per la libertà, l'integrità e la creatività nelle scienze umane e nelle scienze sociali interpretative, è il risultato di un workshop finanziato da LSE Research Infrastructure and Investment Funds dal titolo Academic Freedom, Academic Integrity and Open Access in the Social Sciences, organizzato da Andrea E. Pia e tenuto presso la London School of Economics il 9 settembre 2019
Labour of Love: An Open Access Manifesto for Freedom, Integrity, and Creativity in the Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences
Labour of Love: An Open Access Manifesto for Freedom, Integrity, and Creativity in the Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences, is the result of an LSE Research Infrastructure and Investment-funded workshop entitled Academic Freedom, Academic Integrity and Open Access in the Social Sciences, organised by Andrea E. Pia and held at the London School of Economics on September 9, 2019
The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge. Diana K. Davis; The Politics of Scale: A History of Rangeland Science. Nathan F. Sayre
"Speaking Power to "Post-Truth: Critical Political Ecology and the New Authoritarianism
Given a history in political ecology of challenging hegemonic “scientific” narratives concerning environmental problems, the current political moment presents a potent conundrum: how to (continue to) critically engage with narratives of environmental change while confronting the “populist” promotion of “alternative facts.” We ask how political ecologists might situate themselves vis-à-vis the presently growing power of contemporary authoritarian …
Geografías fluidas: Territorialización marina y el escalamiento de epistemologías acuáticas locales en la costa Pacífica de Co
Tabula Rasa es una revista científica del área de las ciencias sociales con una periodicidad trimestral, dedicada principalmente a las disciplinas de la Antropología, Historia, Sociología, Trabajo Social, Geografía Humana y Estudios Culturales
Seeking Justice through Interdisciplinary Environmental Education at Postgraduate Level: Lessons from Melbourne, Australia
Los Máster que abordan los problemas ambientales han sido impartidos en las universidades desde la década de 1960. A medida que ha aumentado la severidad de los problemas que abordan y se han vuelto globales en escala y alcance, las ofertas de educación superior han aumentado también en consecuencia. Hoy en día, los Máster ambientales ofrecen una variedad de especializaciones, a menudo integrados en institutos o centros ambientales de la universi…
Fluid geographies: Marine territorialisation and the scaling up of local aquatic epistemologies on the Pacific coast of Colombia
The Pacific region of Colombia, like many sparsely populated places in developing countries, has been imagined as empty in social terms, and yet full in terms of natural resources and biodiversity. These imaginaries have enabled the creation of frontiers of land and sea control, where the state as well as private and illegal actors have historically dispossessed Afro‐descendant and indigenous peoples. This paper contributes to the understanding o…
Land Grabbing and the Axis of Political Conflicts: Insights from Southwest Cameroon
Large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) by foreign interests is a major driver of agrarian change in the productive regions of Africa. Rural communities across Southwest Cameroon are experiencing a range of political conflicts resulting from LSLA, in which commercial interests are threatening local land-use practices and access to land. This paper shows that the struggle to maintain or redefine livelihoods generates tension between inward competition…
Scoones, Ian. 2015. Sustainable rural livelihoods and rural development. UK: Practical Action Publishing and Winnipeg, CA: Fernwood Publishing. Reviewed by Simon Batterbury
Food in the City: Urban Food Geographies and 'Local' Food Sourcing in Melbourne and San Diego County
Perceptions of food systems and food acquisition decisions are grounded in specific socio-economic and environmental contexts. Working in two relatively affluent urban communities in Melbourne, Australia and San Diego County, USA, this article explores the ways that individuals perceive their food systems, where they acquire food, and their definitions of 'local' sourcing. Surveys and interviews reveal a clear discrepancy between the ideals and t…
Land access and livelihoods in post-conflict Timor-Leste: No magic bullets
In Timor-Leste, customary institutions contribute to sustainable and equitable rural development and the establishment of improved access to and management of land, water and other natural resources. Drawing on multi-sited empirical research, we argue that the recognition and valorization of custom and common property management is a prerequisite for sustainable and equitable land tenure reform in Timor-Leste. In a four-community study of the rel…
Contested sites, land claims and economic development in Poum, New Caledonia
Property relations are often ambiguous in postcolonial settings. Property is only considered as such if socially legitimate institutions sanction it. In indigenous communities, access to natural resources is frequently subject to conflict and negotiation in a ‘social arena’. Settler arrivals and new economic possibilities challenge these norms and extend the arena. The article analyses conflicts and negotiations in the French overseas territory o…
We Live From Mother Nature”: Neoliberal Globalization, Commodification, the “War on Drugs,” and Biodiversity in Colombia Since the 1990s
This article explores how macroeconomic and environmental policies instituted since the 1990s have altered meanings, imaginaries, and the human relationship to nature in Colombia. The Colombian nation-state is pluri-ethnic, multilingual, and megabiodiverse. In this context, indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, and some peasant communities survive hybridization of their cultures. They have developed their own ways of seeing, understanding, and emp…
Land access and livelihoods in post-conflict Timor-Leste: No magic bullets
In Timor-Leste, customary institutions contribute to sustainable and equitable rural development and the establishment of improved access to and management of land, water and other natural resources. Drawing on multi-sited empirical research, we argue that the recognition and valorization of custom and common property management is a prerequisite for sustainable and equitable land tenure reform in Timor-Leste. In a four-community study of the rel…
Human research ethics committees: Beyond critique to participation
The best way to smooth anthropologists’ progress through human ethics review is to participate in it. If the committee is knowledgeable and helpful, then an accusation of ignorance of anthropological methods is hard to sustain. This reflects my general academic philosophy; collegial service accompanies writing articles, getting grants and seeking promotion. HREC committee work is thankless, without personal kudos, and is largely unrecognised. It …
Anthropology and Global Warming: The Need for Environmental Engagement
Global Desertification: Building a Science for Dryland Development
In this millennium, global drylands face a myriad of problems that present tough research, management, and policy challenges. Recent advances in dryland development, however, together with the integrative approaches of global change and sustainability science, suggest that concerns about land degradation, poverty, safeguarding biodiversity, and protecting the culture of 2.5 billion people can be confronted with renewed optimism. We review recent …
Of texts and practices: Empowerment and organisational cultures in world bank-funded rural development programmes
The World Bank's recent concern for 'empowerment' grows out of longer standing discussions of participation, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society. While commitments to empowerment enter World Bank texts with relative ease, their practice within Bank-funded projects is far more contingent, and the meanings they assume become much more diverse. This paper considers the relationship between such texts and the development practices…
Rescaling Governance and the Impacts of Political and Environmental Decentralization: An Introduction
"Speaking Power to "Post-Truth: Critical Political Ecology and the New Authoritarianism
Given a history in political ecology of challenging hegemonic “scientific” narratives concerning environmental problems, the current political moment presents a potent conundrum: how to (continue to) critically engage with narratives of environmental change while confronting the “populist” promotion of “alternative facts.” We ask how political ecologists might situate themselves vis-à-vis the presently growing power of contemporary authoritarian …
Sahel pastoralists: Opportunism, struggle, conflict and negotiation. A case study from eastern Niger
Transnational livelihoods and landscapes: Political Ecologies of Globalization
This paper introduces a collection of articles on 'Transnational livelihoods and landscapes'. We outline the analytical value of grounding political ecologies of globalization in notions of livelihood, scale, place and network. This requires an understanding of the linkages between rural people to global processes. We argue that the exploitation of these linkages can, under certain circumstances, result in new options and markets for rural people…
Landscapes of diversity: A local political ecology of livelihood diversification in south-western Niger
The landscapes created by livelihood diversification in rural Africa result from human activity, from biophysical processes, and from their interrelations. The paper explores these interrelationships through analysis of ‘productive bricolage’ -the ways in which rural people in one of Africa’s most disadvantaged countries have constructed a livelihood system that is a response to local constraints and opportunities, and to broader patterns of inco…
Land Grabbing and the Axis of Political Conflicts: Insights from Southwest Cameroon
Large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) by foreign interests is a major driver of agrarian change in the productive regions of Africa. Rural communities across Southwest Cameroon are experiencing a range of political conflicts resulting from LSLA, in which commercial interests are threatening local land-use practices and access to land. This paper shows that the struggle to maintain or redefine livelihoods generates tension between inward competition…
The African Sahel 25 years after the great drought: Assessing progress and moving towards new agendas and approaches
Environmental Activism and Social Networks: Campaigning for Bicycles and Alternative Transport in West London
A key element of sustainable development in cities is the implementation of more effective, less polluting, and equitable transportation policy. This article examines the role of activist organizations promoting transport alternatives in London, Britain's capital city and its largest metropolitan area. Major national, citywide, and local policy changes have permitted citizens' groups to work more actively with progressive elements in government p…
Using and shaping the land: A long-term perspective
Anthropology and Global Warming: The Need for Environmental Engagement
Fluid geographies: Marine territorialisation and the scaling up of local aquatic epistemologies on the Pacific coast of Colombia
The Pacific region of Colombia, like many sparsely populated places in developing countries, has been imagined as empty in social terms, and yet full in terms of natural resources and biodiversity. These imaginaries have enabled the creation of frontiers of land and sea control, where the state as well as private and illegal actors have historically dispossessed Afro‐descendant and indigenous peoples. This paper contributes to the understanding o…
Land access and livelihoods in post-conflict Timor-Leste: No magic bullets
In Timor-Leste, customary institutions contribute to sustainable and equitable rural development and the establishment of improved access to and management of land, water and other natural resources. Drawing on multi-sited empirical research, we argue that the recognition and valorization of custom and common property management is a prerequisite for sustainable and equitable land tenure reform in Timor-Leste. In a four-community study of the rel…
Sustainability and Sahelian soils: Evidence from Niger
It is difficult to produce systems for judging sustainability, despite general enthusiasm for the concept. Here we evaluate the 'capitals' formulation for sustainability, which attempts to bring together the social and the environmental dimensions of the issue, and which has gained wide currency. We concentrate our attention on the 'natural capital' element in this framework, which has apparently been seen as its least problematical component. We…
Planners or performers? Reflections on indigenous dryland farming in northern Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso: Unsteady statehood in West Africa
Journal Article Burkina Faso: Unsteady statehood in West Africa Get access Burkina Faso: Unsteady statehood in West Africa, by Pierre Englebert, Westview Press, 1996. xvi+256 pp. £51.50 hardback. ISBN 0-8133-8249-1. SIMON BATTERBURY SIMON BATTERBURY Brunel University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 96, Issue 383, April 1997, Pages 305–307, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afra…
Obituary: Janice Monk
Jan Monk, when visiting Sydney and surrounds, 2005 (photo: Bruce Ryan). Acclaimed Australian-American feminist geographer Janice Edith Jones Monk (13 March 1937–12 July 2024) has died in her adopted hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Jan was a beloved colleague and friend to many geographers, not just in her two countries of Australia and the USA but in many other countries as well. We write here to record some of her many achievements and to convey a …
Geografías fluidas: Territorialización marina y el escalamiento de epistemologías acuáticas locales en la costa Pacífica de Co
Tabula Rasa es una revista científica del área de las ciencias sociales con una periodicidad trimestral, dedicada principalmente a las disciplinas de la Antropología, Historia, Sociología, Trabajo Social, Geografía Humana y Estudios Culturales
Against book enclosures: Moving towards more diverse, humane and accessible book publishing
Matthew Gandy's Commentary in Area (2023) criticised the decision of the national funder UKRI to mandate that all books resulting from the research that it funds must be published open access (OA) from 2024. This raises many issues of importance to geographers. We argue that scholars in the discipline need to fight for affordable and ethically produced OA books, not ‘legacy’ modes of publishing. In particular, books produced by scholar‐led OA pre…
Corporate land acquisitions at the intersection of lineage and patronage networks in Cameroon
Despite the proliferation of literature on large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) in Africa, few empirical studies exist on how patronage networks combine with socio-cultural stratification to determine the livelihood outcomes for African agrarian-based communities. This article draws from ethnographic research on Cameroon to contribute to bridging this gap. We argue that lineage and patronage considerations intersect to determine beneficiaries and…
The geopolitical ecology of New Caledonia: Territorial re-ordering, mining, and Indigenous economic development
In the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, conflict and difference between Indigenous Kanak people and European settlers has existed at least since the 1850s. We interrogate the geopolitical ecology of these islands, which is deeply wedded to natural resource extraction, is instrumentalized in political debate, power struggles, conflict, and the mining sector. Territoriality, including changes to political borders and access to land, has p…
Food in the City: Urban Food Geographies and 'Local' Food Sourcing in Melbourne and San Diego County
Perceptions of food systems and food acquisition decisions are grounded in specific socio-economic and environmental contexts. Working in two relatively affluent urban communities in Melbourne, Australia and San Diego County, USA, this article explores the ways that individuals perceive their food systems, where they acquire food, and their definitions of 'local' sourcing. Surveys and interviews reveal a clear discrepancy between the ideals and t…
The International Institute for Environment and Development: Notes on a small office
Land Degradation in the Tropics: Environmental and Policy Issues
Regional Disparity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Structural Adjustment of Uneven Development
Planners or performers? Reflections on indigenous dryland farming in northern Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso: Unsteady statehood in West Africa
Journal Article Burkina Faso: Unsteady statehood in West Africa Get access Burkina Faso: Unsteady statehood in West Africa, by Pierre Englebert, Westview Press, 1996. xvi+256 pp. £51.50 hardback. ISBN 0-8133-8249-1. SIMON BATTERBURY SIMON BATTERBURY Brunel University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 96, Issue 383, April 1997, Pages 305–307, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afra…
Land Degradation in the Tropics: Environmental and Policy Issues
Hoe and Wage: A social history of a circular migration system in West Africa
Hoe and Wage: A social history of a circular migration system in West Africa Get access Hoe and Wage: A social history of a circular migration system in West Africa, by Dennis D. Cordell, Joel W. Gregory and Victor Piché. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998. xiv+384 pp. £51.95 hardback, £17.50 paperback. ISBN 0-8133-8168-1 and 0-8133-3608-2. SIMON BATTERBURY SIMON BATTERBURY London School of Economics Search for other works by this author on: Oxfor…
Soil erosion in the West African Sahel: A review and an application of a “local political ecology” approach in South West Niger
The African Sahel 25 years after the great drought: Assessing progress and moving towards new agendas and approaches
Sahel pastoralists: Opportunism, struggle, conflict and negotiation. A case study from eastern Niger
Using and shaping the land: A long-term perspective
Transnational livelihoods and landscapes: Political Ecologies of Globalization
This paper introduces a collection of articles on 'Transnational livelihoods and landscapes'. We outline the analytical value of grounding political ecologies of globalization in notions of livelihood, scale, place and network. This requires an understanding of the linkages between rural people to global processes. We argue that the exploitation of these linkages can, under certain circumstances, result in new options and markets for rural people…
Landscapes of diversity: A local political ecology of livelihood diversification in south-western Niger
The landscapes created by livelihood diversification in rural Africa result from human activity, from biophysical processes, and from their interrelations. The paper explores these interrelationships through analysis of ‘productive bricolage’ -the ways in which rural people in one of Africa’s most disadvantaged countries have constructed a livelihood system that is a response to local constraints and opportunities, and to broader patterns of inco…
Sustainability and Sahelian soils: Evidence from Niger
It is difficult to produce systems for judging sustainability, despite general enthusiasm for the concept. Here we evaluate the 'capitals' formulation for sustainability, which attempts to bring together the social and the environmental dimensions of the issue, and which has gained wide currency. We concentrate our attention on the 'natural capital' element in this framework, which has apparently been seen as its least problematical component. We…
Roots in the African Dust: Sustaining the Drylands
Michael Mortimore, Roots in the African Dust: sustaining the drylands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 219 pp., £37.50, ISBN 0 521 45173.6 hard covers, £13.95, ISBN 0 521 45785 8 paperback. - Volume 71 Issue 1
Struggles over Geography: Violence, Freedom and Development at the Millennium
Environmental Activism and Social Networks: Campaigning for Bicycles and Alternative Transport in West London
A key element of sustainable development in cities is the implementation of more effective, less polluting, and equitable transportation policy. This article examines the role of activist organizations promoting transport alternatives in London, Britain's capital city and its largest metropolitan area. Major national, citywide, and local policy changes have permitted citizens' groups to work more actively with progressive elements in government p…
The International Institute for Environment and Development: Notes on a small office
Rescaling Governance and the Impacts of Political and Environmental Decentralization: An Introduction
Global Desertification: Building a Science for Dryland Development
In this millennium, global drylands face a myriad of problems that present tough research, management, and policy challenges. Recent advances in dryland development, however, together with the integrative approaches of global change and sustainability science, suggest that concerns about land degradation, poverty, safeguarding biodiversity, and protecting the culture of 2.5 billion people can be confronted with renewed optimism. We review recent …
Of texts and practices: Empowerment and organisational cultures in world bank-funded rural development programmes
The World Bank's recent concern for 'empowerment' grows out of longer standing discussions of participation, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society. While commitments to empowerment enter World Bank texts with relative ease, their practice within Bank-funded projects is far more contingent, and the meanings they assume become much more diverse. This paper considers the relationship between such texts and the development practices…
Anthropology and Global Warming: The Need for Environmental Engagement
Human research ethics committees: Beyond critique to participation
The best way to smooth anthropologists’ progress through human ethics review is to participate in it. If the committee is knowledgeable and helpful, then an accusation of ignorance of anthropological methods is hard to sustain. This reflects my general academic philosophy; collegial service accompanies writing articles, getting grants and seeking promotion. HREC committee work is thankless, without personal kudos, and is largely unrecognised. It …
Land access and livelihoods in post-conflict Timor-Leste: No magic bullets
In Timor-Leste, customary institutions contribute to sustainable and equitable rural development and the establishment of improved access to and management of land, water and other natural resources. Drawing on multi-sited empirical research, we argue that the recognition and valorization of custom and common property management is a prerequisite for sustainable and equitable land tenure reform in Timor-Leste. In a four-community study of the rel…
Contested sites, land claims and economic development in Poum, New Caledonia
Property relations are often ambiguous in postcolonial settings. Property is only considered as such if socially legitimate institutions sanction it. In indigenous communities, access to natural resources is frequently subject to conflict and negotiation in a ‘social arena’. Settler arrivals and new economic possibilities challenge these norms and extend the arena. The article analyses conflicts and negotiations in the French overseas territory o…
We Live From Mother Nature”: Neoliberal Globalization, Commodification, the “War on Drugs,” and Biodiversity in Colombia Since the 1990s
This article explores how macroeconomic and environmental policies instituted since the 1990s have altered meanings, imaginaries, and the human relationship to nature in Colombia. The Colombian nation-state is pluri-ethnic, multilingual, and megabiodiverse. In this context, indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, and some peasant communities survive hybridization of their cultures. They have developed their own ways of seeing, understanding, and emp…
Land access and livelihoods in post-conflict Timor-Leste: No magic bullets
In Timor-Leste, customary institutions contribute to sustainable and equitable rural development and the establishment of improved access to and management of land, water and other natural resources. Drawing on multi-sited empirical research, we argue that the recognition and valorization of custom and common property management is a prerequisite for sustainable and equitable land tenure reform in Timor-Leste. In a four-community study of the rel…
Political science (30 works) · Geography (26 works) · Sociology (21 works) · Economics (16 works) · Politics (16 works) · Agriculture (14 works) · Ecology (13 works) · Law (13 works) · Livelihood (11 works) · Philosophy (8 works)