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James Palmer BA MPhil

PhD Candidate

My research examines the interactions of knowledge and power in the environmental policymaking process, focusing specifically upon contemporary developments in the European Union's biofuels policy.

Biography

Qualifications

  • PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (2009 - present)
  • MPhil Geographical Research, University of Cambridge (2008 - 2009)
  • BA Geography, University of Cambridge (2005 - 2008)

Awards, Grants and Scholarships

  • Commendation, Royal Geographical Society Planning and Environment Research Group Postgraduate Dissertation Prize (May 2010)
  • ESRC 1+3 (Competition) Studentship, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (October 2008-present)
  • William Vaughan Lewis Award (Undergraduate Dissertation Prize), Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (July 2008)
  • Royal Geographical Society Geographical Fieldwork Grant (Co-recipient, August 2007)
  • David Richards Travel Scholarship, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (May 2007)
  • Buchanan Scholar, Downing College, University of Cambridge (2006-2009)

Research

The intuitive appeal of biofuels - as a renewable energy source in the road transport sector, a climate change mitigation tool, and a stimulant for rural economies - is extremely strong. Despite their apparent benefits however, the legitimacy of biofuels has repeatedly been questioned by sceptics who link losses of biodiversity, the destruction of carbon-rich habitats, threats to global food security, the degradation of soil and water resources, and a range of other social and environmental problems to their rapidly increasing production.

Particularly contentious of late have been debates over the nature and significance of a process known as indirect land use change (ILUC), whereby biofuel cultivation displaces existing agricultural activity into new territory. This process is controversial both because its spatio-temporal dimensions are intrinsically indeterminate, and because its socio-economic and environmental impacts are potentially large. Such ambiguity and complexity, combined with the status of ILUC as a problem that cuts across energy, agricultural and environmental policy agendas writ large, raises intriguing questions about the precise interactions of science, evidence, argument, political interests and institutional power in the policymaking process.

Using theories and conceptual tools developed in interpretive policy analysis and Science and Technology Studies, and drawing from semi-structured interviews conducted with a range of well-placed experts and policy actors involved in the debate over ILUC, my doctoral research ultimately aims to unpack these complex interactions and relationships as they have played out at the European level in this case, reflecting in the process upon the wider implications for the effective and legitimate governance of complex policy problems into the future.

Publications

Publications and papers:

Selected Publications

  • Palmer, J. (2012). 'Risk governance in an age of wicked problems: Lessons from the European approach to indirect land-use change.' Journal of Risk Research 15(5): 495-513.
  • Palmer, J. (2011). 'Book Review: "Plant Resources for Food, Fuel and Conservation", by Robert Henry.' The Geographical Journal 177(2): 195-196.
  • Palmer, J. (2010). 'Stopping the unstoppable? A discursive-institutionalist analysis of Renewable Transport Fuel Policy.' Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 28(6): 992-1010.

Conference and Seminar Presentations

  • 'Biofuels and the politics of land-use change: Discourse and place in the EU policymaking process.' Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, New York, February 2012
  • 'Biofuels, food security and the politics of land-use: Implications for intelligent and socially robust governance of sustainable energy futures.' Environmental Change Institute/UKERC conference on 'Energy and People', University of Oxford, September 2011.
  • 'Policy entrepreneurs, persuasion and the politics of expertise: The case of biofuels and indirect land use change in the EU.' Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, London, September 2011
  • 'Biofuels and indirect land use change in the EU: Co-producing carbon footprints?' Institute for Science and Society, University of Nottingham, February 2011
  • 'Biofuels and indirect land use change in the EU: A perfect storm of incomplete science and irresolvable politics?', Graduate Seminar Series Presentation, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, October 2010
  • 'Biofuels and the indirect land use change enigma: Envisioning the unknown through equilibrium modelling?', Graduate Symposium on Risk and Uncertainty, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge, September 2010
  • 'Geographies of Science, Knowledge and Power: The biofuels debate in the UK.' Graduate Forum, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, January 2009

Unpublished Work

  • Palmer, J. 2009. 'Biofuels: Easy win or hard solution? A case study of agenda setting and policy rationalisation in UK energy and climate change policy.' Unpublished Masters Thesis, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.

Teaching

  • 2011-12: Supervisor, Geographical Tripos Part II: Changing Cultures of Risk
  • 2010-11: Supervisor, Geographical Tripos Part IA: People, Space and the Geographies of Difference
  • 2009-10: Supervisor, Geographical Tripos Part II: Environment, Policy and Society

External activities