Benedict Singleton

• Environmental Sociology
• Professor (Associate) at University of Gothenburg

Societal climate transitions must (1) fundamentally alter unsustainable normative assumptions and (2) be attentive to notions of social justice. Our research project seeks to encourage this by disseminating knowledge of intersectionality theory to four Swedish government agencies involved in the Swedish climate transition: the Swedish Environmental...

Cities and their governance structures face myriad environmental and sustainability challenges and are often important sites for environmental action. This is the case for biodiversity protection, which is increasingly an urban policy focus. Concomitant to this are conceptualisations of human-environmental relationships. Exploring and problematisin...

This article investigates the processes of group formation. Utilising a ritual framework, it looks at how the Sweden Touch (rugby) team formed and bonded together to compete in the 2022 European Championships. Based on autoethnographic data, I focus on the role of rituals in bonding players as a group within Team Sweden and with the wider Touch com...

Many conservation researchers and practitioners argue that knowledges traditionally conceptualized as non-academic are useful for guiding environmental decision-making and stewardship. As demonstrated by the articles in this special issue, bringing Indigenous and local knowledges to bear on environmental conservation requires forging new relationsh...

Culture and tradition have long been the domains of social science, particularly social/cultural anthropology and various forms of heritage studies. However, many environmental scientists whose research addresses environmental management, conservation, and restoration are also interested in traditional ecological knowledge, indigenous and local kno...

Cities are important sites for societal transitions towards sustainability, which is increasingly recognised around the issue of biodiversity conservation and protection. However, cities are often characterised by the need to develop and grow. Furthermore, efforts to promote sustainable development have been criticised as failing to address the fun...

Parris et al.'s seven lamps (principles) of planning for biodiversity in the city (2018) provides a framework for achieving two objectives. Firstly, to alter the normative basis on which urban planning is predicated by integrating a concern for nonhuman inhabitants. Secondly, it argues for the greater enrolment of ecologists and the field of ecolog...

Many scientists and environmental activists argue that the scale and scope of contemporary conservation must increase dramatically if we are to halt biodiversity declines and sustain a healthy planet. Yet conservation as currently practiced has faced significant critique for its reliance on reductionist science, advocacy of “fortress”-like preserva...

In a recent opinion article, sustainability researcher Örjan Bodin claims that a shift leftward in sustainability science has rendered certain topics and research methods taboo, thus inhibiting the field's ability to contribute to achieving Agenda 2030. In this response, we problematise Bodin's framing of sustainability science, arguing he has misr...

Comment to Reyes-García et al. 2022a, Lopez-Maldonado 2022 & Reyes-Garcia et al. 2022b, in Ambio 51 In the recent exchange between Reyes-García et al. and Lopez-Maldonado, important points are raised, but both sides fail to recognise their embeddedness in an ongoing conflict about the epistemological boundaries of science and the social category o...

Reflexivity is a hallmark of good ethnography and many consider it a defining characteristic of anthropology. It is thus surprising that anthropologists have not paid more attention to how we teach students to be reflexive. Many of us learn reflexivity by making mistakes in the field, yet discussions of anthropological faux pas and their potential...

Governing bodies at different levels are authoritative institutions and civil servants/policy-makers are key actors in realizing global and national climate objectives. They have largely failed to create effective, legitimate, democratic, and just policies. This is problematic in light of research that views the climate transition as a social and b...

The political ecological study of environmental issues is often concerned with the interactions of diverse actors, leading to accounts of different, conflicting worldviews. While different epistemological and ontological standpoints are covered, there is consensus that environmental issues are simultaneously social and material, and that worldviews...

Climate institutions, such as government agencies, are important sites for climate change action. However, the type of action available to any institution will relate to the historical experiences of the institution and those embedded within it. Thus, institutions may exhibit path-dependency, based on previous experiences, such as gender-blindness....

Climate change effects, views and approaches vary based on geographical location, class, gender, age and other climate related social factors. It is thus relevant to explore how various government bodies/authorities involved in dealing with climate change represent and act on social difference across diverse societies. This article performs a disco...

This chapter illuminates the complex interrelation between the concepts of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ in relation to claims of indigeneity, sovereignty and cultural difference. By using the example of Sami identity processes, where notions of tradition and modernity are potent concepts employed by both Sami and non-Sami, we wish to elucidate how a...

Migration is a prominent topic in many European societies, spawning numerous initiatives aiming to help 'integrate' newcomers. One subsection of these initiatives in Nordic countries is 'Nature-Based Integration' (NBI). Varied in scope, NBI involve activities where newcomers engage in activities in local natural environments. This article analyses...

Nature-Based Integration' (NBI) has been proposed as a solution to two prominent issues in contemporary Nordic societies: increasing separation from nature among 'modern' societies; and the need to 'integrate' groups of diverse newcomers. This article examines NBI activities in € Orebro County, central Sweden, exploring how these practices seek to...

This article explores the world-building activities of players of the tabletop game Blood Bowl—a game that parodies American Football within a fantasy setting. It utilizes a ritual framework to focus on players’ activities relating to the considerable amount of luck inherent to the game. Based on fieldwork and survey data, it interprets players’ ri...

Guided interactions with nature form part of integration programmes aimed at immigrant groups in Nordic societies. Based on data collected on several Swedish Nature-Based Integration (NBI) projects this article examines the rituals nature guides employ on guided walks. It explores how guides enact taskscapes through structured and improvised ritual...

Review of Ybarra's Green Wars: Conservation and Decolonization in the Maya Forest..

A review of Russell' Fielding's 2018 book 'The Wake of the Whale'

This article discusses the tendency within environmental communication to homogenise diverse situations. Utilising the case of whale conservation it describes how actors on both sides of the whaling debate utilise the ‘super-whale’ – a homogenised discursive construct. The article argues that there are pragmatic advantages to such framing of enviro...

Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and technological advances, but deep and enduring social and cultural changes. The purpose of this article is to contribute a theoretical approach to understand conditions and constraints for societal change towards sustainable development. In order to break w...

Beroende på de sociala sammanhang man lever och verkar i, exempelvis yrkesroll och gruppgemenskap, har man olika sätt att se på naturen, och fastnar för olika slags argument i debatten. Ett kulturteoretiskt perspektiv gör att man kan förstå de naturrelaterade intressekonflikterna mellan aktörer med olika natursyn.

The use of lethal research methods on cetaceans has a long and complicated history in cetology (the scientific study of whales, dolphins and porpoises). In the current era, collecting data through the hunting of whales (sometimes referred to as scientific whaling) remains a source of considerable conflict in various fora, including scientific ones....

A research review on the relationships between whale meat consumption and tourism. Literature is analysed utilising a political ecology lens highlighting the implications of changing lifestyles and economies in whaling countries.

Three researchers share their thoughts about a roundtable discussion on “Emotional Political Ecologies” during the ENTITLE Undisciplined Environments Conference, held in Stockholm from 20 to 24 March 2016. The roundtable participants – Christos Zografos (chair), Neera Singh, Andrea Nightingale and Marien González Hidalgo – discussed the main outcom...

Since 1990, Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for common property resource (CPR) institutions have been highly influential, offering a counter to pessimistic arguments about resource users’ prospects of cooperating tomanage CPRs sustainably. However, the theoretical underpinnings of Ostrom’s theory have been criticised: as unfairly negative towards...

Whaling is a globally controversial topic, and Faroese drive-style whaling, grindadráp, is no exception. A complex common-pool resource (CPR) institution, viewable from multiple moral, social, economic and political viewpoints, grindadráp is a challenge to assess. Responding to calls to utilise more relationship-centred and multi-perspectival appro...

A perennial challenge in efforts to deal with environmental issues is the question of how to simplify. As such, where and when one simplifies is often a source of conflict, but perversely also paramount to finding a solution. This thesis focuses on one long-standing environmental issue, the whaling debate. Specifically, it performs a strategically...

Ecotourism as a development strategy is often attractive – rather than exhausting natural resources, local communities can benefit from their conservation. Ecotourism-based conservation thus becomes conceived as a ‘win-win’ for local communities and narrative-based campaigns have emerged to promote it. This article investigates how a narrative of e...

A key question in any environmental dispute is the nature of what is under discussion. 'Cosmopolitics' – political battles over the form of reality – are a feature of many environmental clashes. This article focuses on one such clash: during the summer of 2014, grindadráp – the iconic practice of driving pilot whales for meat – was the big news ite...

The global whaling debate is one of the most well-known environmental disputes; despite the continued moratorium, both whaling and conflict continue. This endless discord has been criticised as deleterious to whale conservation and as imperialistic towards whaling communities. The history of the whaling debate is examined through the lens of cultur...

Carers make a considerable contribution to the health and social care of sick or disabled people, reducing the strain on health and social care systems. This has been recognised through support mechanisms, including (in the UK) a payment for caring (Carer's Allowance – CA). This article draws upon data from a study of carers receiving CA. Utilising...

This paper examines the evolution of unwritten regulations and formal government policies in the control of the Faroese pilot whale drive, or grindadrap. This form of whaling has occurred in the Faroe Islands since at least the sixteenth century, probably much longer. Informed by theories of anarchist geography, we discuss specific policies, both f...

The Manta Ray of Hope (MRH) campaign has sought to engender enthusiasm for the conservation of mobulids (manta and mobula rays) and to lobby for their protection. In doing this the campaign utilises a series of techniques to frame mobulid conservation. It demarcates what mobulids are, the threats that face them, what needs to be done to save them a...

HIV sensitisation campaigns often aim to empower people living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA) to enable them to cope with their illness by getting on with normal life as best as they can. However, contained within these messages are implicit assumptions about the needs of PLWHA. This research found that in Jamaica PLWHA's reproductive health needs are co...

This thesis investigates the main obstacles preventing PLWHA in Jamaica from accessing treatment. Currently the number of PLWHA accessing treatment in Jamaica is lower than would be expected. This research utilises qualitative data collection methods in order to canvass the views of a broad range of individuals involved in the fight against HIV in...