@simonbatterbury
Day job: Environmental Studies Prof@ Melbourne www.simonbatterbury.net Editor, Journal of Political Ecology since 2003 https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe. Political ecology, critical minerals, New Caledonia-Kanaky, community bike workshops
"Through this special issue, we invite broader discussion on Diamond OA and its future(s), from the highly conceptual to the deeply infrastructural. What is next for Diamond OA as it oscillates between the potential for either a technocratic or community-led and commons-based future?"
See comments. I think they are wrong
Major annoyance is colleagues is article authorship: profs. shouldn't be authors if not contributing by doing fieldwork etc. Rife, turns out I am not alone in my view. "professors [should] have the guts to allow their group members to publish without them". www.theguardian.com/higher-educa...
Fletcher, R., (2026) “Planetary Political Ecology”, Journal of Political Ecology 33(1): 10137. doi: doi.org/10.2458/jpe....
@pollenetwork.bsky.social
theconversation.com/the-greatest... Yes, but for non AI- using instructors, we are still very stuck on the cheating issue.
Consumption reduction is dismissed as insufficient. There is no real attack on the super rich, Trump is seen as a 'blip' or setback in the preface, and capitalism in general escapes much criticism. The points about poverty alleviation accompanying decarbonization are, however, well taken.
Somehow, an economically rational innovative future with better market signals and investment in clean tech will prevail, and dig us out of a very deep hole.
But what is the political project exactly in this public-facing, only partially scholarly, volume [referencing is pretty thin, I found]? The section on degrowth, although brief, is very out of step with current thinking in Europe and beyond and will upset a lot of its proponents.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofb... I Argument is that climate action and economic growth can be mutually reinforcing
This is the company that runs Elsevier, the least liked academic publisher because of its high charges to academics and university libraries. Coupled with a high remuneration to management, this has led me to boycott them since 2011 & the 'cost of knowledge' campaign.
I review up to 40 a year. I never use AI. I read everything in an hour, and because I type with 3 fingers [badly] I use a dictate into Word, then review that, comments submitted within 1.5 hrs. Honestly, how hard is it to do that, esp. for junior colleagues? Not an imposition on time at all.
Only November 2025 on the website
The compassionate conservation approach that they don't like, rings true. I don't really think conservationists should be wiping out predators. distasteful. Darwinian survival is playing out.Cats are not leaving. they are just part of ecosystems.humans are 96% from elsewhere, brought animals.
True
Excellent. But "confrontative" is not in common usage, do not think most people ever use it outside this type of research. I would change it to "confrontational" in @jpoliticalecology.bsky.social
I thought the story was going to be that "I unselfishly gave up my chance of a professorship to support my wife", but no. What lessons should we learn?
I am British-Australian. I managed 2.5 years at a new professor job in the UK from 2017-19, with my family, but Brexit was a big part of moving back to Australia. The whole thing brought back bad memories of hard right British nationalism in 1970s and 80s SE London - sadly, sentiments back again.
Rob's article on planetary PE has had its referee comments given to author....
Terrible
I’ll never forget the look of hatred Nigel Farage had for me at school, simply for existing
What of scholar-led OA publishing? Our article doi.org/10.1111/area... For scholarly work, print-only books are not OA, and therefore unavailable to the world, much of which cannot access them for reasons of geographical location or cost. This is unjust.
Batterbury, SPJ. 2025. Book review of Nicole George. (2025). Between Rights and Rightfulness: Gender and violence in the Pacific Islands. Pacific Dynamics. 9(2), 1405-1408. doi.org/10.26021/16135
I have been doing this as a social scientist in order to complete a book on the ethics, role of non-human actors, and political economy of pandemics, and goodness me, philosophy is a minefield ! I think we will finish it without a full knowledge of traditions and styles of argumentation.
WeCycle www.wecycle-melbourne.com won the City of Darebin Sustainability Award 2025 [I am holding it]. Recognition of years of supplying 1000s of free bikes to people in need. The Shed in Batman Park is also a player, leased from Council.
Currently not electable.
No worries, Handbook not out quite yet. Sorry, a typo, when trying to meet the character limit. Communities of scientists are also being ineffective though. Live issue at our uni., which has signed up to DORA but still looking at journal rankings. Old habits die hard.
