Books

Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation

An anthology on the theory and practice of community resilience, particularly as undertaken in the Transition movement, gathered at and around the Resilience 2014 Conference in Montpelier. Its chapters range from national and local accounts of Transition in action, through more theoretical pieces on community action as applied resilience science, to programmatic pieces on global strategies for bottom-up action towards a more resilient (therefore fairer and more sustainable) world.

Permaculture and Climate Change Adaptation

A summary overview of diverse expressions of permaculture in practice, viewed through the lens of grassroots responses to climate change. Structured around seventeen key patterns that describe social and technical methods for community-scale action that combine mitigation and adaptation, and drawing on detailed case studies from around the world, it provides a snapshot of the growth of permaculture as an global movement between the International Permaculture Convergences in Cuba in 2013 and London in 2015.

Edges, Fringes, Frontiers

A theoretical monograph in Human Ecology that builds on my research on indigenous forest use and ethnoecological knowledge in Guyana. It explores why self-organised groups of indigenous peoples lacking any formal scientific method, explicit conversation ethic or centralised political structures are so much more successful in solving complex social-ecological problems associated with resource use than centralised approaches rooted in conservation science and with apparently far greater levels of material, technical, intellectual and political resources. The answer lies in the ability to move between multiple different ways of understanding the natural environment, deciding action according to whichever of these best suits the situation at hand.

Wapishana Ethnoecology

A lightly copy-edited reissue of my PhD thesis in Environmental Anthropology, originally completed in 2002. It can be thought of as a background volume to Edges, Fringes, Frontiers, which adds ethnographic depth to the later book’s more theoretical treatment. In its own right, it’s an important document for anyone interested in the social, political and cultural dimensions of sustainable development and indigenous relationships with state-led conversation programmes, in Guyana, elsewhere in South America or the rest of the world.