University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Jenny’s work explores alternatives to capitalism that generate environmental and social justice, focusing on three interconnected areas: environment, difference, and grassroots experiments.
On environment, she examines how humans value (or fail to value) the natural world, with a focus on environmental activism and campaign framing, including work on wilderness, Indigenous-environmentalist relations, and forest activism in Tasmania. On difference, she investigates how social categories such as class, gender, race, and nationality shape activist movements, with a particular interest in participatory methodologies, indigenous knowledge systems, and research ethics. On experiments, she explores practical alternatives to capitalist lifestyles, especially affordable self-build eco-housing, eco-communities, and hopeful approaches to environmental education.
Jenny is currently working on two projects: the social, geographical, and political dimensions of eco-homes and eco-communities, drawing on empirical research with over thirty worldwide examples; and a critical examination of environmentalism in the global north, developing new frameworks to assess its contributions and limitations, and building on prior work with Indigenous activists, sustainability transitions, and everyday environmentalism.
Jenny holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, and an MSc in Geographical Information Systems from Edinburgh University. She has taught at Curtin University (Australia) and the University of Leicester, and has held a Chair in Environmental Geography at the University of Sheffield since 2014.