School of Geography - Faculty of Environment

Project Overview

From Climate Change to Climate Justice: Power, Resistance, Knowledge

At a time when we face multiple economic and ecological crises, my research traces and participates in the development of the globally emerging Climate Justice movements and asks whether we are capable of contributing to the radical, wholescale social change required in overcoming these crises. I am interested in the overlap between 'horizontal' and institutional spheres, the ambiguous role of the state, the relation between capital and ecology, and the problematic of developing/practicing 'non-capitalist' ecologies.

Central to my research is the development and practice of participatory co-research methods. The purpose of research is not to document or produce information 'about' movements', but to co-produce tools useful to the aims and goals of these movements. Research should not look to produce an unobtainable objective knowledge, but imbedded and networked forms of knowledge useful in engaging and changing the world.

I am inspired and informed by the work of authors and collectives such as; the Free Association, George Caffentzis, Gilles Deluze, Massimo De Angelis, Silivia Federici, Michel Foucault, Felix Guattari, Michael Hardt, David Harvey, John Holloway, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Antonio Negri and the Midnight Notes Collective.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

• Building Bridges Collective (2010) Space for Movement: Reflections from Bolivia on Climate Justice, Social Movements and the State, Leeds: LUP Available to Download: http://spaceformovement.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/space_for_movement2.pdf

Papers

• Russell, B. & Pusey, A. (2012) 'Do the entrepreneuriat dream of electric sheep? Why contemporary activsts talk about power', in A. Lunghi & S. Wheeler (eds.) (2012) Occupy Everything: Reflections on why it's kicking off everywhere. Wivenhoe/New York/Port Watson: Minor Compositions/Autonomedia
• Russell, B; Pusey, A. & Chatterton, P. (2011) 'What can an assemblage do? Seven propositions for a more strategic and politicized assemblage thinking', City, 15(5)
• Pusey, A. & Russell (2010) 'The Climate Crisis or the Crisis of Climate Politics?', Perspectives 2010, online at: http://www.anarchiststudies.org/node/423
• Russell, B; Pusey, A. & Sealey-Huggins, L. (forthcoming) 'A Tale of Three Cities', ACME

Articles

• Russell, B et al. (2011) 'Showdown at the Sausage Factory', Roundhouse & ROU: Reimagine the University Journal
• Russell, B. & Milburn, K. (2011) 'From the Defence of the Present to the Control of the Future', Shift Magazine, 11, online at: http://shiftmag.co.uk/?p=398
• Russell, B. (2010) 'Dancing with the Devil?', Red Pepper, October 2010
• Russell, B. (2010) 'The political success of the COP15 mobilisations is still to come...', Shift Magazine, 8, online at: http://shiftmag.co.uk/?p=331
• Brien, Y; Cutler, A. & Russell, B. (2010) 'Summit Different', New Internationalist, June 2010

Book Reviews

• Russell, B. (2011) 'What Would It Mean to Win?', Social Movement Studies, 10(2), 214-216
• 'The Communist Hypothesis' by Alain Badiou, in Red Pepper, Oct 2010
• 'Commonwealth' by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri, in Red Pepper, May 2010 (with Pusey, A.)