Environmental Politics

This section aims to run eight panels focusing on current issues in and approaches to environmental politics and policy. We expect to attract a diverse range of panels from scholars across the academic political science community. Environmental themes are relevant to an increasing number of political research clusters, including (but not limited to) those specialising in public policy, parties and elections, global governance, social movements, and political theory. To date, we have already had several expressions of interest with regard to panel proposals including ‘Rewilding and Political Theory from Marcel Wissenburg (Nijmegen) and Mihnea Tanasescu (VU Brussels). The ECPR Environmental Politics Standing Group has 315 members and its sections have been vibrant and over-subscribed at ECPR General conferences to date. The only break we have had was for Hamburg last year but at all previous General conferences we have been able to run 8 or 9 panels, producing a series of high-quality discussions on subjects ranging from democracy and climate change to energy policy to biofuels governance to shale gas controversies. We expect an Environmental Politics section at Wrocław 2019 to be similarly notable and stimulating. The overarching aim of the section is for all panels to draw together conceptual expertise and rigorous empirical analysis in order to explore, challenge and re-configure theories surrounding environmental problems, both new and old. We especially encourage panels that propose innovative designs for encouraging interaction between presenters – as well as between presenters and the audience. This could include round-tables, debates, dedicated discussants, and shorter papers with more time for facilitated discussion. We call for panels which reflect both the more established core interests in the study of environmental politics and more recent or emerging areas of academic enquiry. Core topics include green political theory; green parties; environmental protest and civil society; environmental policy and regulation; sustainable development; the interface between environmental science and public policy; global environmental governance, energy policy/politics and climate change. Emerging topics include areas such as: the ethics and politics of climate engineering, governance of natural resources, eco-social innovations, eco-feminist politics, environmental justice, environmental politics in everyday life, and methodologies and pedagogies in environmental politics. ECPR Environmental Politics Standing Group Convenors: Prof Brian Doherty (Keele University, UK) Dr Sherilyn MacGregor (University of Manchester, UK) Dr Hannes Stephan (University of Stirling, UK)