Rose CairnsResearch Fellow (The Sussex Energy Group)
Research
I am broadly interested in humanity’s changing relationships with nature, and in exploring how ongoing transformations in these relationships could be shaped in ways that make them more sustainable, equitable and meaningful. I draw inspiration, as well as theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches from political ecology, critical policy studies, environmental governance and STS.
My research has spanned a number of empirical areas relevant to global sustainability over recent years, including: biodiversity conservation, climate change, geoengineering, the food/energy/water ‘nexus’, sustainable agriculture and urban digital infrastructures. Within these diverse areas, I take a critical approach to policy processes, examining questions of power, language and framing in the construction of expertise, unpicking dominant policy narratives, and examining the institutions through which the worlds of science and policy are mediated. I am particularly interested in analysing environmental discourse, and the kinds of political and ethical work that environmental discourses perform across different social worlds, as well as asking questions related to the politics of knowledge in the domain of global sustainability, exploring how different claims to expertise are constructed, whose knowledge counts, and what social processes influence and are influenced by these.
I have been a Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit since 2012. Prior to joining SPRU, I worked as a post-doctoral research assistant at Leeds University, examining the role of boundary organisations in climate governance. I hold a degree in Social Anthropology (University of Cambridge), a Masters in Conservation and Biodiversity (Exeter University) and a PhD from the Sustainability Research Unit (Leeds University). Prior to embarking on my PhD I worked for a number of years in the environmental NGO sector, (at People & Planet, the Centre for Alternative Technology, and Community Service Volunteers).
Current and recent projects:
Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations (GoST) (Current/ongoing)
I am currently involved in a project focusing on transformation processes in three areas of crucial relevance to global sustainable development: energy systems, agriculture, and urban digital infrastructures. Adopting a systematic comparative approach, we aim to use sociotechnical imaginaries as a conceptual tool to make sense of how collective imaginations of transformation have determined present conditions. The GoST project is a collaboration between the University of Sussex, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Harvard University, the African Centre for Technology Studies (Kenya) and Environment Support Group (India). The GoST project is funded by NORFACE and the Belmont Forum as part of a joint transnational research programme on Transformations to Sustainability.
STEPS Centre Methods (Current/ongoing)
I am currently collaborating with the ESRC STEPS (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre, in a methods work stream which reflects on epistemic, practical and political challenges of new ways of working around sustainability issues, especially across disciplines, with activists and in relation to policy change.
SDG 17++: Managing cross disciplinary trade-offs for sustainable development (ended Oct 2018)
This project, carried out in collaboration with colleagues in the School of engineering and Informatics, explored how disciplinary dynamics within interdisciplinary research teams shape sustainability research, and with what outcomes and implications for sustainability policy and practice. http://www.sussex.ac.uk/ssrp/research/sustainability-perspectives/trade-offs-for-sustainable-development
The Nexus Network (ended mid 2017)
Between June 2014 – 2017 I coordinated the ESRC funded Nexus Network, a project which supported transdisciplinary research at the food-water-energy-environment nexus and worked to create meaningful links between communities of researchers, policymakers, business leaders and practitioners. https://thenexusnetwork.org/
Climate Geoengineering Governance Programme (ended Dec 2014)
The Climate Geoengineering Governance (CGG) project was a collaboration between the Universities of Oxford and Sussex and University College London, between July 2012 and December 2014. The project researched the ethical, legal, social and geopolitical implications of a range of geoengineering approaches. My research focused on unpicking framings of geoengineering (for example the ‘climate emergency framing’ and its implications for broader climate governance and sustainability), examining the relevance of possible dynamics of technological ‘lock in’ with regard to geoengineering, and critically exploring security implications of the increase in discursive and policy focus on these kinds of approaches. http://geoengineering-governance-research.org/