Jon Barnett

University of Melbourne
Australia

Feb 26, 2019

Jon Barnett is a professor of political geography at the University of Melbourne and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow. His research focuses on the ways that social groups respond to environmental change, especially in ways that sustain peace and social justice. Jon received a Bachelor of Planning and Design from Melbourne University and a Ph.D. in Geography from The Australian National University. He held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. In addition to his professorship at the University of Melbourne, he has received three research fellowships from the Australian Research Council. He has published extensively on climate resilience in island states, environmental security, and political ecologies of environmental change, most recently co-authoring a book on the political ecology of water in Shanghai.

A central tenet of Jon’s research is the drive to explain the factors that lead to successful responses to environmental change, and grow knowledge around local and national responses to climate change. He explains, “I think we are all a bit too much in thrall of the power and terror of environmental change and a bit too committed to reproducing that knowledge. Our meta narratives of environmental change do not necessarily lead to constructive changes, and can indeed impede them. I want to expand the body of evidence that shows that peaceful and fair adaptation to environmental change is possible, and to build better theories about how that happens.” His work has mainly focused on small islands in the South Pacific, but has also focused on rural Australian communities and water resource management in China. In particular, his work on Pacific islands has expanded both the theoretical and practical frameworks for a peace that is climate resilient. In pursuing this approach, he has made important contributions to the field of environmental peacebuilding by taking environmental change as a jumping off point for more resilient and peaceful futures. He has been able to apply his perspectives on possibilities for responding to environmental change in the policy arena, for example as a Lead Author of the Human Security Chapter of the most recent (Fifth) IPCC Assessment Report.

Jon’s work also highlights the role of dominant narratives in shaping what people see as possible. He argues, “The way we talk about the vulnerability of certain peoples and places to environmental changes can be as much a cause of social impacts as actual material changes in environmental conditions.” His work thus performs a crucial rhetorical service in unravelling pervasive narratives that can contribute to what people see as inevitable futures of violence or social disadvantage. Jon’s research and views suggest that creating narratives about possibilities that arise from environmental change are deeply important to create the enabling conditions for peace and climate resilience.

For Jon, the Association provides an important opportunity for consolidation of the research and policy community involved with environmental peacebuilding. He says, “It is a great community of researchers who are critically aware yet empirical, idealistic yet pragmatic, serious yet fun. I have really benefitted from and very much enjoyed the formal and informal collaborations I have had with many researchers in the field.” Jon cites the upcoming First International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding as a place for further exciting collaboration and connection.