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Society and Environment

Society and Environment

The Society and Environment research theme is focused on the interdisciplinary investigation and critical analysis of contemporary social and environmental challenges.

The work of the group is shaped by theoretical interests in:

  • knowledge, expertise and governance;
  • space, scale, time and socio-spatial relations;
  • political economy; and
  • everyday practice, resilience and systemic socio-technical change.

These concepts are explored through empirical research that seeks to contribute to the cross cutting societal goals of sustainable development, social justice and environmental justice.

We undertake our research on contemporary social and environmental challenges in a diversity of global regions including Africa (Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Botswana, and South Africa), the Americas (Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, Trinidad, the USA and Canada), Australia, East Asia (South Korea, Japan), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi), Continental Europe (Germany and Italy) and the UK.

Current Research Topics

  • climate change mitigation and the social and political dimensions of transitions in energy and transport systems and in patterns of consumption
  • geographies of everyday life and how these relate to changing identities, mobilities and consumption practices over the life course
  • processes of globalization, the dynamics of change and their implications for flows of people, commodities, resources and knowledges; global production networks (GPNs)
  • work, employment and labour, including: unfree labour and contemporary ‘slavery’; degrading / precarious work; and migrant labour
  • the management and governance of environmental risks and resources in the context of climate change adaptation and changing patterns of social and health vulnerability
  • the protection, exploitation and commodification of biodiversity, genetic and other natural resources and associated political, legal and cultural implications
  • the political economy of uneven development
  • nonhuman geographies
  • environmental humanities/geophilosophy

Engagement

Our aim is to have major impacts through this research both within and beyond the academic world. Our research is orientated around engagement with a wide range of actors in business, government, third sector organizations and activist and community groups. We have impacts across these sectors through building user engagement into the process of developing and undertaking research projects, as well as through imaginative and varied dissemination activities.

Here are some examples of research we have been involved with which has impact beyond academia:

Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration

Our research draws on a diversity of disciplinary traditions, most importantly those of human geography, development studies, sociology, anthropology, history and socio-legal studies. We work across disciplines in collaborations which extend across the University and into a diversity of research teams within the UK and overseas. Within LEC we collaborate through projects with the Centre for Sustainable Water Management and the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

Within the wider University our research links closely to the Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe), Institute for Health Research (IHR), Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS), Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA), Lancaster University Law School and the Departments of Sociology, History and Linguistics.

We also collaborate with Liverpool and Manchester Universities through the ESRC's Northwest Doctoral Training Centre on the Geography & Environment and Development & Humanitarianism pathways.