Professor Susan E Owens OBE MA PhD AcSS

Head of Department, Professor of Environment and Policy and Fellow of Newnham College

Environmental governance, primarily in developed economies: policy processes; knowledge and policy learning; land use and environmental planning.

Biography

Professor Owens has researched and published widely on environmental governance and policy processes, and on interpretations of sustainable development in theory and practice, particularly in the context of land use and environmental planning. She has supervised many PhD students on a range of environmental topics. Her work has also made a substantial contribution to public policy. She was a member of the standing Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution 1998-2008 and has served on a number of other public bodies. She is currently a member of the Strategic Research Board of the Economic and Social Research Council and served on sub-panel H31 (Town and Country Planning) for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Professor Owens was awarded an OBE for services to sustainable development in 1998 and in 2000 received the Royal Geographical Society's 'Back' Award for contributions to research and policy formulation in this field. She was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 2006 and an Honorary Professor of the University of Copenhagen in 2008. For the academic year 2008-09 she holds the King Carl XVI Gustaf Professorship of Environmental Science, hosted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

Career:

1978-1980: Research Officer to the Energy Panel of the Social Science Research Council
1980-1981: Research Fellow, Institute of Planning Studies, University of Nottingham
1981-1986: University Assistant Lecturer in Geography, University of Cambridge
1986-2000: University Lecturer in Geography, University of Cambridge
2000-2004: Reader in Environment and Policy, University of Cambridge Department of Geography
2004-present: Professor of Environment and Policy, University of Cambridge Department of Geography

Qualifications

BSc (first class honours), Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (1975)
PhD, (Energy and planning) School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (1981)

Research

Environmental governance, primarily in developed economies. Concepts and interpretations of sustainability, particularly in the context of the use and development of land; environmental politics and policy processes, especially their cognitive dimensions.

Current and recent projects

Appraisal, Institutional Learning and Sustainability: Defining a New Agenda (RES-221-25-0017), ESRC Environment and Behaviour New Opportunities Programme, 2003-04. This project explored the role of environmental appraisal in the political process, and ways in which it may help to modify the beliefs, values and behaviour of individuals and organisations. The broad aim was to develop a new theoretical framework for appraisal, and to contribute to practice that is better informed by social science.

Knowledge and Power: Exploring the Science-Society Interface in the Urban Environment Context, with Professor Judith Petts, Birmingham University. ESRC Trans-disciplinary seminar series, 2002-04.

The Knowledge Brokers: The Role and Influence of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, book in preparation for Oxford University Press, drawing on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust and RCEP which explores the influence of this unique advisory body during a formative period for environmental politics in the UK and Europe, 1970-1995. The research contributes to our understanding of the knowledge/policy interface, particularly in the context of boundary work and the role of 'knowledge brokers'.

Current PhD students

Gareth Hughes: Ideas into practice? Limitations and impacts of current strategies for integrating public knowledge into risk assessment processes for agricultural pesticides.
Emily Noah: Consumers, citizens and identities in environmental policy: the case of stewardship schemes
Elizabeth Rough: Framing the debate about civil nuclear power in the UK

Recently Graduated PhD Students

Wilko Graf von Hardenburg (2007): Nature Conservation and Political Ideologies: A Comparative Study
Mike Nye (2006): Understanding business participation in UK emissions trading
Heather Lovell (2005): The governance of emerging socio-technical systems: the case of low energy housing in the UK
Louise Driffill (2008) Exploring the 'Missing Link': participatory and formal decision-making processes in waste planning in Wiltshire

Publications

Selected publications:

Owens, S. (1997) 'Negotiable environments: needs, demands and values in the age of sustainability.' Environment and Planning A 29: 571-580
Owens, S. (1997) 'Giants in the Path: planning, sustainability and environmental values.' Town Planning Review 68: 293-304
Owens, S. (1997) 'Interpreting sustainable development: the case of land use planning.' in M. Jacobs (ed.) Greening the Millennium: the New Politics of the Environment. Oxford: Blackwell (Political Quarterly, Fifth Issue), 87-97
Cowell, R. and Owens, S. (1998) 'Suitable locations: equity and sustainability in the minerals planning process.' Regional Studies 32(9): 797-811
Owens, S. (1998) 'Better for everyone?: change, choice and continuity in "A New Deal for Transport.' Town and Country Planning 67(11): 329-331
Owens, S. and Rayner, T. (1999) '"When knowledge matters": the role and influence of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.' Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 1 (1): 7-24.
Owens, S. (2001) '"Engaging the public": information and deliberation in environmental policy.' Environment and Planning A 32:1141-1148
Owens, S. and Cowell, R. (2002) Land and Limits: Interpreting Sustainability in the Planning Process, London and New York: Routledge
Owens, S. and Cowell, R. (2001) 'Planning for sustainability: new orthodoxy or radical challenge?', Town and Country Planning 70, 6, 170-172.
Owens, S. (2002) '"A collision of adverse opinions?": major projects, planning inquiries and policy change', Environment and Planning A 34: 949-957, 2002.
Owens, S. (2003) 'Is there a meaningful definition of sustainability?' Journal of Plant Genetic Resources 1, 1: 5-9.
Owens, S. (2003) 'The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution', in G. Altner, H. Leitschuh-Fecht, G. Michelsen, U. E. Simonis and E. U. von Weizsäcker (eds.) Jarhbuch Ökologie 2004, München: Verlag C. H. Beck, 96-103.
Owens, S. (2004) 'Siting, sustainable development and social priorities', Journal of Risk Research 7, 2: 101-114.
Owens, S., Rayner, T. and Bina, O. (2004) 'New agendas for appraisal: reflections on theory, practice and research', Environment and Planning A 36, 11, 1943-1959.
Owens, S. (2005) 'Making a difference? Some perspectives on environmental research and policy', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 30, 3: 287-292.
Owens, S. and Cowell, R. (2006) 'Governing space: planning reform and the politics of sustainability', Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 24: 403-421
Owens, S., Petts, J. and Bulkeley, H. (2006) Theme Issue of Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy Knowledge and policy in the context of urban environments: Vol 24, no. 5, pp 633-717 (six papers including Owens, Petts and Bulkeley below)
Owens, S., Petts, J. and Bulkeley, H. (2006) 'Boundary work: knowledge, policy and the urban environment', Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 24, 5: 633-643
Petts, J., Owens, S. and Bulkeley, H. (2008) 'Crossing boundaries: interdisciplinarity in the context of urban environments', Geoforum 39, 2: 593-601
Nye, M. and Owens, S. (2008) 'Creating the UK emissions trading scheme: motives and symbolic politics', European Environment 18, 1-15
Owens, S. (2008) 'Why conserve marine environments?' Environmental Conservation 35, 1: 1-4

Teaching

Part II (final year) course: "Environment, Policy and Society"
Master of Philosophy in Environment and Development: contributions to core course, "Environment: ethics and policies".
Master of Geographical Research: contributions on environmental issues

External activities

Professor Owens was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, one of the longest-standing environmental advisory bodies in the U, from 1998 to 2008. Recent reports include:

Novel Materials in the Environment: the Case of Nanotechnology (2008)
The Urban Environment (2007)
Turning the Tide: Addressing the Impact of Fisheries on the Marine Environment (2004)
Chemicals in Products: Safeguarding the Environment and Human Health (2002)
The Environmental Effects of Civil Aircraft in Flight (2002)
Environmental Planning (2002)
Energy: The Changing Climate (2000)

From 2003-2006, she chaired the Environmental Governance Working Group of the European Environmental Advisory Councils (EEAC), a network of official environmental advisory bodies from different European countries, which prepares working papers and reports, and seeks to influence the direction of environmental governance within the European Union and its member states.

In previous years, Professor Owens has served on an Office of Science and Innovation Steering Group for a review of science in the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development and the Countryside Commission. She has advised a number of governmental and non-governmental organisations, and was a member of a small panel of experts advising Ministers during the preparation of the 1998 Integrated Transport White Paper.