Environmental Politics
'Environmental politics' is an umbrella term covering a wide array of work in political science that focuses on some aspect of the environment. This ranges from work on the political processes that lay behind the development of particular environmental legislation, to work in political philosophy that asks questions such as 'does nature have intrinsic value?' Environmental impacts have relevance to a broad range of policy areas, particularly energy, transport, and agriculture.
Work in this area at Nottingham has focused recently on 'direct action' forms of environmental politics, and the place of this kind of activism within a democratic setting. Under what circumstances might such apparently 'undemocratic' forms of political activity be justified? What kind of response by the state is appropriate? There has also been work on developments in UK environment policy and the politics of climate change.
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