A series of webinars created by the Hothouse at ANU, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.
This episode will feature Beck Pearse, a sociologist at the ANU School of Sociology and the Fenner School of Environment & Society.
Beck will discuss the social realities of Australia’s energy workforce and the resultant difficult questions about the political economy and geography of ‘just transition’ advocacy. Answers to questions about the where and who of transition management will be negotiated at multiple scales. The presentation will conclude with provisional thoughts on the institutions and reform strategies that will shape the future conditions, and therefore health, of energy labour.
Beck Pearse is a Lecturer jointly appointed to the ANU School of Sociology and Fenner School of Environment and Society. Beck’s current research projects investigate labour and land relations in the transition to a 'net zero' economy. She's interested in how people work and negotiate industrial change. Beck's doctoral thesis on the political economy of Australia’s emissions trading scheme was published as a monograph Pricing Carbon in Australia (Routledge/Earthscan, 2018). More recently, she co-authored Renewables and Rural Australia (2022) - the first social study of rural people's perspectives on the NSW Renewable Energy Zones.
Event Speakers
Beck Pearse
Beck Pearse is a sociologist at the ANU School of Sociology and the Fenner School of Environment & Society. Her teaching and research focuses on inequalities and environmental policy. Beck is interested in how people from different walks of life experience environmental change and how environmental policy can contribute to building a fair and ecologically abundant world.
Megan Arthur
Megan is a Laureate Research Fellow with the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse. She is an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher working at the intersection of social policy and public health. She studies the politics of governance for health and wellbeing at multiple levels.
Sharon Friel
Sharon Friel is an ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor of Health Equity and Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and co-Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity.