Paul G Munro
Biographic Data
| ID | 293105 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul G Munro |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul G |
| FAMILY NAME | Munro |
| SIGNATURE | MUNRO P G |
| AFFILIATIONS | UNSW Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3768-0006 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 163 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Timber colonialism and forest reserve imaginaries: Colonial constructions, legal legacies and governance conflicts in Sierra Leone's Kambui Hills
In this paper we offer a critical examination of the colonial forest reserve and its key territorial role in broader ambitions and dynamics of timber colonialism. Products of the colonial project, forest reserves were established (and still exist) as physical spaces across much of Africa, Asia, and parts of Latin America. Perhaps more saliently, however, they also persist within geographical and legal imaginaries — specifically as spaces that can…
Underground urbanism in Africa: Splintered subterranean space in Lagos, Nigeria
Africa is rapidly urbanising and is likely to home to some of the most populous cities within the next decade. Such rapid growth has made the prevention of urban sprawl a Sisyphean Quest in many African cities, as rural fringes are rapidly being transformed into urbanised space. A strategy proposed around the world to address some of the urban challenges is the increasing adoption of a volumetric lens to planning the city. Specifically, to use th…
Australian political geography I: Conservative beginnings, 1920s to early 1980s
This article, the first in a two-part series, traces the development of Australian political geography from the 1920s to the 1980s, offering the first comprehensive review of the sub-discipline's evolution in the region. It situates contemporary scholarship in relation to the recent establishment of the Political Geography Study Group within the Institute of Australian Geographers. The article reflects on the challenges of writing this history, p…
The right to repairable energy: A political ecology of off-grid solar repair in Zambia
The sale of off-grid solar products in Zambia has grown rapidly over the past decade, with around 1 million small-scale solar products sold between 2018 and 2022. However, these products, which are promoted as a means for energy-poor populations to access basic energy services, tend to have short working lives. This poses significant ethical and infrastructural challenges in terms of solar e-waste that the off-grid solar industry and nation state…
Colonial Seeds in African Soil: A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone
“Empire forestry”—the broadly shared forest management practice that emerged in the West in the nineteenth century—may have originated in Europe, but it would eventually reshape the landscapes of colonies around the world. Melding the approaches of environmental history and political ecology, Colonial Seeds in African Soil unravels the complex ways this dynamic played out in twentieth-century colonial Sierra Leone. While giving careful attention …
Community forestry in Nepal: A critical review
Community forestry praxis has a long history in Nepal. The country is often considered an exemplar in promoting community forestry for environment and development. In this paper, we provide a critical review of Nepali community forestry scholarship to offer internationally relevant lessons and to identify areas of future research. Our review shows that community forestry outcomes have been mixed. Despite playing a role in improving social and env…
Off-Grid Electrical Urbanism: Emerging Solar Energy Geographies in Ordinary Cities
Off-grid solar products, which are typically positioned as a solution to rural energy poverty, have experienced rapid sales growth in urban centers across the Global South over the last decade. In this article, we critically examine the rapidly emerging off-grid electrical urbanism in the Global South, with a focus on how off-grid solar technologies are reshaping urban energy geographies in “ordinary cities.” We document how forms of off-grid ele…
What does a right to repair tell us about our relationship with technology
This article examines the recommendations of the recent Productivity Commission Inquiry regarding the right to repair through the lens of social issues surrounding the right to repair movement. It describes the right to repair movement in Australia and globally and examines which repair practices are considered important by the Commission, and the limitations of the Commission’s preoccupation with existing repair markets. It also discusses changi…
The afterlives of off-grid solar: The dynamics of repair and e-waste in Malawi
Somewhat original: Energy ethics in Malawi’s off-grid solar market
Solar products are increasingly framed as being integral to addressing energy poverty in the Global South. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa where the promise of centralized grids has given way to an emphasis on off-grid market-based solutions. While these solutions promise much, the quality and originality of these products is often contested. In this paper, we draw upon ethnographic insights from Malawi’s solar market to examine…
Energy political ecologies in the South Pacific: The politics of energy transitions in Vanuatu
In this article, I develop a political ecology analysis of Vanuatu’s grid electricity policies, with a specific focus on Espiritu Santo Island. I show how the global political economy looms large in shaping the island’s energy geographies. Colonial legacies, ideologically conflictive donor aid programmes, multinational corporate legal discords, parliamentary political caprices and the vicissitudes of the local environment all intersect to shape t…
Colonial Wildlife Conservation and National Parks in Sub-Saharan Africa
Colonial wildlife conservation initiatives in Africa emerged during the late 19th century, with the creation of different laws to restrict hunting as well as with the setting up of game reserves by colonial governments. Key influential figures behind this emergence were aristocratic European hunters who had a desire to preserve African game populations—ostensibly protecting them from settler and African populations—so that elite sports hunting co…
Urban megaprojects and water justice in Southeast Asia: Between global economies and community transitions
Within the Southeast Asian context, urban megaprojects are often delivered in aquatic or semi-aquatic contexts, transforming local hydrological systems used for sanitation, agriculture, sustenance, resource use and cultural purposes by the local populations. This paper addresses a key knowledge gap on the impacts of urban megaprojects on water security and water-related human rights in Southeast Asia through a literature review, field observation…
African energy poverty: A moving target
Historically, ‘energy poverty’ in Sub-Saharan Africa has been understood in relatively static terms and its solutions largely understood as a modernist state-led project of expanding centralised distribution to achieve a coordinated ‘transition’ from traditional fuels. In recent decades, however, political economies of energy in the region have exhibited considerable dynamism, changing what energy poverty looks like. The rapid dissemination of mo…
Colonial Seeds in African Soil A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone: A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone
Empire forestry"-the broadly shared forest management practice that emerged in the West in the nineteenth century-may have originated in Europe, but it would eventually reshape the landscapes of colonies around the world. Melding the approaches of environmental history and political ecology, Colonial Seeds in African Soil unravels the complex ways this dynamic played out in twentieth-century colonial Sierra Leone. While giving careful attention t…
Energy solution or future pollution? Applying an energy justice perspective to coal seam gas in New South Wales
The emergence of an unconventional extractive industry of coal seam gas (CSG) in New South Wales, Australia has caused a range of social tensions. Although the industry has generally received strong support from state-level governments across Australia, an eclectic social movement has arisen in opposition. Critical questions of justice have emerged in these debates about CSG, particularly about the ‘winners' and ‘losers' that would emerge should …
Energy bricolage in Northern Uganda: Rethinking energy geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa
On, off, below and beyond the urban electrical grid the energy bricoleurs of Gulu Town
This paper builds on heterogeneous infrastructures scholarship to examine urban electricity access geographies in the Global South. I propose the notion of urban bricoleurs to help understand how the urban poor negotiate changing electrical infrastructure opportunities. Using a Ugandan case study, I present socio-electric stories of residents to show how electricity supply is derived from an eclectic range of sources, and how accessing these sour…
Voluminous territorialisation: Historical contestations over the Yucatan Peninsula’s subterranean waterscape
Proyectos de Muerte: Energy justice conflicts on Mexico’s unconventional gas frontier
Living with disasters: Social Capital for Disaster Governance
This paper explores how social networks and bonds within and across organisations shape disaster operations and strategies. Local government disaster training exercises serve as a window through which to view these relations, and 'social capital' is used as an analytic for making sense of the human relations at the core of disaster management operations. These elements help to expose and substantiate the often intangible relations that compose th…
Feeding the flock: Wild cockatoos and their Facebook friends
Wildlife is persisting in urban areas of Australia even though white settler colonialism has resulted in the large-scale destruction of forested landscapes. While many bird species are in decline, the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo has found emergent opportunities for flourishing within the built environment. Cockatoos are actively generating relationally constituted spaces, drawing humans into urban ecosystems that are 'more-than-human' places, abunda…
Energy justice for all? Rethinking Sustainable Development Goal 7 through struggles over traditional energy practices in Sierra Leone
The Great Artesian Basin: A Contested Resource Environment of Subterranean Water and Coal Seam Gas in Australia
The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) in Australia is one of the largest subterranean aquifer systems in the world. In this article we venture into the subterranean “resource environment”’ of the Great Artesian Basin and ask whether new insights can be provided by social analyses of the “vertical third dimension” in contemporary contests over water and coal seam gas. Our analysis makes use of a large number of publicly available submissions made to rece…
Contesting African landscapes: A critical reappraisal of Sierra Leone’s competing forest cover histories
In the late-1990s anthropologists James Fairhead and Melissa Leach declared in a series of seminal publications that mainstream understandings of Sierra Leonean forest cover history had greatly exaggerated its past extent and rate of conversion to other land uses. Using archival evidence, they recast the ‘official’ story as a product of antiquated European environmental philosophy rather than empirical data. Moreover, they found that it distorted…
On, off, below and beyond the urban electrical grid the energy bricoleurs of Gulu Town
This paper builds on heterogeneous infrastructures scholarship to examine urban electricity access geographies in the Global South. I propose the notion of urban bricoleurs to help understand how the urban poor negotiate changing electrical infrastructure opportunities. Using a Ugandan case study, I present socio-electric stories of residents to show how electricity supply is derived from an eclectic range of sources, and how accessing these sour…
Feeding the flock: Wild cockatoos and their Facebook friends
Wildlife is persisting in urban areas of Australia even though white settler colonialism has resulted in the large-scale destruction of forested landscapes. While many bird species are in decline, the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo has found emergent opportunities for flourishing within the built environment. Cockatoos are actively generating relationally constituted spaces, drawing humans into urban ecosystems that are 'more-than-human' places, abunda…
The Great Artesian Basin: A Contested Resource Environment of Subterranean Water and Coal Seam Gas in Australia
The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) in Australia is one of the largest subterranean aquifer systems in the world. In this article we venture into the subterranean “resource environment”’ of the Great Artesian Basin and ask whether new insights can be provided by social analyses of the “vertical third dimension” in contemporary contests over water and coal seam gas. Our analysis makes use of a large number of publicly available submissions made to rece…
Energy bricolage in Northern Uganda: Rethinking energy geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Voluminous territorialisation: Historical contestations over the Yucatan Peninsula’s subterranean waterscape
Proyectos de Muerte: Energy justice conflicts on Mexico’s unconventional gas frontier
Living with disasters: Social Capital for Disaster Governance
This paper explores how social networks and bonds within and across organisations shape disaster operations and strategies. Local government disaster training exercises serve as a window through which to view these relations, and 'social capital' is used as an analytic for making sense of the human relations at the core of disaster management operations. These elements help to expose and substantiate the often intangible relations that compose th…
The afterlives of off-grid solar: The dynamics of repair and e-waste in Malawi
Social enterprise development and renewable energy dissemination in Africa: The experience of the community charging station model in Sierra Leone
In many parts of Africa, the spread of grid electrical networks into rural areas has remained a pernicious challenge. There has been a persistent bias towards expanding electricity access to urban centres, perhaps understandably as they are the main drivers of national economic growth. In contrast, the expansion of grid electricity networks into rural areas is largely seen as being financially unviable and thus is unlikely to be achieved in the f…
The Role of Cenotes in the Social History of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula has had a complex and dynamic history, which has seen processes such as the rise of the Maya civilisation, colonial conquests, indigenous rebellions and a range of commercial activities. The Peninsula also represents a unique ecological place in the world: no rivers or major lakes exist on its surface - rather fresh water can only be found in its extensive underground flooded cave system, which is only accessible throug…
Somewhat original: Energy ethics in Malawi’s off-grid solar market
Solar products are increasingly framed as being integral to addressing energy poverty in the Global South. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa where the promise of centralized grids has given way to an emphasis on off-grid market-based solutions. While these solutions promise much, the quality and originality of these products is often contested. In this paper, we draw upon ethnographic insights from Malawi’s solar market to examine…
Energy political ecologies in the South Pacific: The politics of energy transitions in Vanuatu
In this article, I develop a political ecology analysis of Vanuatu’s grid electricity policies, with a specific focus on Espiritu Santo Island. I show how the global political economy looms large in shaping the island’s energy geographies. Colonial legacies, ideologically conflictive donor aid programmes, multinational corporate legal discords, parliamentary political caprices and the vicissitudes of the local environment all intersect to shape t…
Urban megaprojects and water justice in Southeast Asia: Between global economies and community transitions
Within the Southeast Asian context, urban megaprojects are often delivered in aquatic or semi-aquatic contexts, transforming local hydrological systems used for sanitation, agriculture, sustenance, resource use and cultural purposes by the local populations. This paper addresses a key knowledge gap on the impacts of urban megaprojects on water security and water-related human rights in Southeast Asia through a literature review, field observation…
Contesting African landscapes: A critical reappraisal of Sierra Leone’s competing forest cover histories
In the late-1990s anthropologists James Fairhead and Melissa Leach declared in a series of seminal publications that mainstream understandings of Sierra Leonean forest cover history had greatly exaggerated its past extent and rate of conversion to other land uses. Using archival evidence, they recast the ‘official’ story as a product of antiquated European environmental philosophy rather than empirical data. Moreover, they found that it distorted…
Underground urbanism in Africa: Splintered subterranean space in Lagos, Nigeria
Africa is rapidly urbanising and is likely to home to some of the most populous cities within the next decade. Such rapid growth has made the prevention of urban sprawl a Sisyphean Quest in many African cities, as rural fringes are rapidly being transformed into urbanised space. A strategy proposed around the world to address some of the urban challenges is the increasing adoption of a volumetric lens to planning the city. Specifically, to use th…
What does a right to repair tell us about our relationship with technology
This article examines the recommendations of the recent Productivity Commission Inquiry regarding the right to repair through the lens of social issues surrounding the right to repair movement. It describes the right to repair movement in Australia and globally and examines which repair practices are considered important by the Commission, and the limitations of the Commission’s preoccupation with existing repair markets. It also discusses changi…
Colonial Seeds in African Soil A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone: A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone
Empire forestry"-the broadly shared forest management practice that emerged in the West in the nineteenth century-may have originated in Europe, but it would eventually reshape the landscapes of colonies around the world. Melding the approaches of environmental history and political ecology, Colonial Seeds in African Soil unravels the complex ways this dynamic played out in twentieth-century colonial Sierra Leone. While giving careful attention t…
Energy solution or future pollution? Applying an energy justice perspective to coal seam gas in New South Wales
The emergence of an unconventional extractive industry of coal seam gas (CSG) in New South Wales, Australia has caused a range of social tensions. Although the industry has generally received strong support from state-level governments across Australia, an eclectic social movement has arisen in opposition. Critical questions of justice have emerged in these debates about CSG, particularly about the ‘winners' and ‘losers' that would emerge should …
Deforestation: Constructing problems and solutions on Sierra Leone's Freetown Peninsula
This article examines the issue of deforestation on Sierra Leone's Freetown Peninsula, specifically analysing the gap that exists between the rhetoric surrounding the problem of deforestation and the subsequent policies and projects that are implemented to address it. It is argued in this paper that this gap can be better understood by examining how different actors involved in policy and projects interact over the issue of deforestation. Such an…
Deforestation: Constructing problems and solutions on Sierra Leone's Freetown Peninsula
This article examines the issue of deforestation on Sierra Leone's Freetown Peninsula, specifically analysing the gap that exists between the rhetoric surrounding the problem of deforestation and the subsequent policies and projects that are implemented to address it. It is argued in this paper that this gap can be better understood by examining how different actors involved in policy and projects interact over the issue of deforestation. Such an…
The Role of Cenotes in the Social History of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula has had a complex and dynamic history, which has seen processes such as the rise of the Maya civilisation, colonial conquests, indigenous rebellions and a range of commercial activities. The Peninsula also represents a unique ecological place in the world: no rivers or major lakes exist on its surface - rather fresh water can only be found in its extensive underground flooded cave system, which is only accessible throug…
Social enterprise development and renewable energy dissemination in Africa: The experience of the community charging station model in Sierra Leone
In many parts of Africa, the spread of grid electrical networks into rural areas has remained a pernicious challenge. There has been a persistent bias towards expanding electricity access to urban centres, perhaps understandably as they are the main drivers of national economic growth. In contrast, the expansion of grid electricity networks into rural areas is largely seen as being financially unviable and thus is unlikely to be achieved in the f…
The Great Artesian Basin: A Contested Resource Environment of Subterranean Water and Coal Seam Gas in Australia
The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) in Australia is one of the largest subterranean aquifer systems in the world. In this article we venture into the subterranean “resource environment”’ of the Great Artesian Basin and ask whether new insights can be provided by social analyses of the “vertical third dimension” in contemporary contests over water and coal seam gas. Our analysis makes use of a large number of publicly available submissions made to rece…
Contesting African landscapes: A critical reappraisal of Sierra Leone’s competing forest cover histories
In the late-1990s anthropologists James Fairhead and Melissa Leach declared in a series of seminal publications that mainstream understandings of Sierra Leonean forest cover history had greatly exaggerated its past extent and rate of conversion to other land uses. Using archival evidence, they recast the ‘official’ story as a product of antiquated European environmental philosophy rather than empirical data. Moreover, they found that it distorted…
Energy justice for all? Rethinking Sustainable Development Goal 7 through struggles over traditional energy practices in Sierra Leone
Proyectos de Muerte: Energy justice conflicts on Mexico’s unconventional gas frontier
Living with disasters: Social Capital for Disaster Governance
This paper explores how social networks and bonds within and across organisations shape disaster operations and strategies. Local government disaster training exercises serve as a window through which to view these relations, and 'social capital' is used as an analytic for making sense of the human relations at the core of disaster management operations. These elements help to expose and substantiate the often intangible relations that compose th…
Feeding the flock: Wild cockatoos and their Facebook friends
Wildlife is persisting in urban areas of Australia even though white settler colonialism has resulted in the large-scale destruction of forested landscapes. While many bird species are in decline, the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo has found emergent opportunities for flourishing within the built environment. Cockatoos are actively generating relationally constituted spaces, drawing humans into urban ecosystems that are 'more-than-human' places, abunda…
Energy bricolage in Northern Uganda: Rethinking energy geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa
On, off, below and beyond the urban electrical grid the energy bricoleurs of Gulu Town
This paper builds on heterogeneous infrastructures scholarship to examine urban electricity access geographies in the Global South. I propose the notion of urban bricoleurs to help understand how the urban poor negotiate changing electrical infrastructure opportunities. Using a Ugandan case study, I present socio-electric stories of residents to show how electricity supply is derived from an eclectic range of sources, and how accessing these sour…
Voluminous territorialisation: Historical contestations over the Yucatan Peninsula’s subterranean waterscape
African energy poverty: A moving target
Historically, ‘energy poverty’ in Sub-Saharan Africa has been understood in relatively static terms and its solutions largely understood as a modernist state-led project of expanding centralised distribution to achieve a coordinated ‘transition’ from traditional fuels. In recent decades, however, political economies of energy in the region have exhibited considerable dynamism, changing what energy poverty looks like. The rapid dissemination of mo…
Colonial Seeds in African Soil A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone: A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone
Empire forestry"-the broadly shared forest management practice that emerged in the West in the nineteenth century-may have originated in Europe, but it would eventually reshape the landscapes of colonies around the world. Melding the approaches of environmental history and political ecology, Colonial Seeds in African Soil unravels the complex ways this dynamic played out in twentieth-century colonial Sierra Leone. While giving careful attention t…
Energy solution or future pollution? Applying an energy justice perspective to coal seam gas in New South Wales
The emergence of an unconventional extractive industry of coal seam gas (CSG) in New South Wales, Australia has caused a range of social tensions. Although the industry has generally received strong support from state-level governments across Australia, an eclectic social movement has arisen in opposition. Critical questions of justice have emerged in these debates about CSG, particularly about the ‘winners' and ‘losers' that would emerge should …
Somewhat original: Energy ethics in Malawi’s off-grid solar market
Solar products are increasingly framed as being integral to addressing energy poverty in the Global South. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa where the promise of centralized grids has given way to an emphasis on off-grid market-based solutions. While these solutions promise much, the quality and originality of these products is often contested. In this paper, we draw upon ethnographic insights from Malawi’s solar market to examine…
Energy political ecologies in the South Pacific: The politics of energy transitions in Vanuatu
In this article, I develop a political ecology analysis of Vanuatu’s grid electricity policies, with a specific focus on Espiritu Santo Island. I show how the global political economy looms large in shaping the island’s energy geographies. Colonial legacies, ideologically conflictive donor aid programmes, multinational corporate legal discords, parliamentary political caprices and the vicissitudes of the local environment all intersect to shape t…
Colonial Wildlife Conservation and National Parks in Sub-Saharan Africa
Colonial wildlife conservation initiatives in Africa emerged during the late 19th century, with the creation of different laws to restrict hunting as well as with the setting up of game reserves by colonial governments. Key influential figures behind this emergence were aristocratic European hunters who had a desire to preserve African game populations—ostensibly protecting them from settler and African populations—so that elite sports hunting co…
Urban megaprojects and water justice in Southeast Asia: Between global economies and community transitions
Within the Southeast Asian context, urban megaprojects are often delivered in aquatic or semi-aquatic contexts, transforming local hydrological systems used for sanitation, agriculture, sustenance, resource use and cultural purposes by the local populations. This paper addresses a key knowledge gap on the impacts of urban megaprojects on water security and water-related human rights in Southeast Asia through a literature review, field observation…
Colonial Seeds in African Soil: A Critical History of Forest Conservation in Sierra Leone
“Empire forestry”—the broadly shared forest management practice that emerged in the West in the nineteenth century—may have originated in Europe, but it would eventually reshape the landscapes of colonies around the world. Melding the approaches of environmental history and political ecology, Colonial Seeds in African Soil unravels the complex ways this dynamic played out in twentieth-century colonial Sierra Leone. While giving careful attention …
Community forestry in Nepal: A critical review
Community forestry praxis has a long history in Nepal. The country is often considered an exemplar in promoting community forestry for environment and development. In this paper, we provide a critical review of Nepali community forestry scholarship to offer internationally relevant lessons and to identify areas of future research. Our review shows that community forestry outcomes have been mixed. Despite playing a role in improving social and env…
Off-Grid Electrical Urbanism: Emerging Solar Energy Geographies in Ordinary Cities
Off-grid solar products, which are typically positioned as a solution to rural energy poverty, have experienced rapid sales growth in urban centers across the Global South over the last decade. In this article, we critically examine the rapidly emerging off-grid electrical urbanism in the Global South, with a focus on how off-grid solar technologies are reshaping urban energy geographies in “ordinary cities.” We document how forms of off-grid ele…
What does a right to repair tell us about our relationship with technology
This article examines the recommendations of the recent Productivity Commission Inquiry regarding the right to repair through the lens of social issues surrounding the right to repair movement. It describes the right to repair movement in Australia and globally and examines which repair practices are considered important by the Commission, and the limitations of the Commission’s preoccupation with existing repair markets. It also discusses changi…
The afterlives of off-grid solar: The dynamics of repair and e-waste in Malawi
The right to repairable energy: A political ecology of off-grid solar repair in Zambia
The sale of off-grid solar products in Zambia has grown rapidly over the past decade, with around 1 million small-scale solar products sold between 2018 and 2022. However, these products, which are promoted as a means for energy-poor populations to access basic energy services, tend to have short working lives. This poses significant ethical and infrastructural challenges in terms of solar e-waste that the off-grid solar industry and nation state…
Geography (18 works) · Political science (18 works) · Economics (17 works) · Energy and Environment Impacts (12 works) · Water Governance and Infrastructure (11 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (9 works) · Archaeology (8 works) · Engineering (8 works)