Biography

Kate Burningham is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology of the Environment; a joint appointment between the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) at the University of Surrey.

Her research interests focus on the social construction of environmental problems, public environmental knowledge, environmental inequalities and sustainable lifestyles.

Research Interests

Kate is a co-investigator in the ESRC research group on Lifestyles, Values and Energy Consumption (RESOLVE) and the ESRC, Defra and Scottish Government funded Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group (SLRG) in which she is leading a qualitative longitudinal project Exploring Lifestyle Changes in Transition (ELiCiT).

She has recently been involved in: an ESRC project (with colleagues at Surrey, Manchester, Loughborough, Lancaster and Northumbria Universities) ‘Beyond NIMBY: A Multidisciplinary Investigation of Public Engagement with Renewable Energy Technologies; a project with AEA consultants for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation looking at vulnerability to heat and drought in the South West of England; a project funded by ESRC, The Environment  Agency and Hull City Council  (with colleagues at Surrey and Lancaster Universities) exploring children’s experiences of flooding in Hull.  Past projects include: work for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the environmental perspectives of disadvantaged groups; projects for the Environment Agency researching vulnerability to flooding, public responses to flood warnings in the UK, and environmental inequalities and a project funded by the ESRC investigating chemical corporations’ understandings of, access to and use of lay environmental knowledge.

Publications

Barnett, J., Burningham, K., Walker, G., & Cass, N., (2010) 'Imagined publics and engagement around renewable energy in the UK' Public Understanding of Science OnlineFirst, published on June 30, 2010 http://pus.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/06/21/0963662510365663.

Benzie, M.,Harvey, A., Burningham, K., Hodgson, N., & Siddiqi, A. (2011) Vulnerability, heat and Drought: Case studies of climate change adaptation from the south-west Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report York: York Publishing. 

Burningham, K. (in press) 'NIMBYism' in International Encyclopaedia of Housing and Home Elsevier.

Burningham, K. Fielding, J., Thrush, (2008 ) ‘“It’ll never happen to me”: Understanding Public Awareness of Local Flood Risk’ Disasters: The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management Vol 31 (2) 216-238.

Burningham, K. , Barnett, J. , Carr, A., Clift, R., & Wehrmeyer, W. (2007) ‘Industrial constructions of publics and public knowledge; A qualitative investigation of practice in the UK chemicals industry’ Public Understanding of Science Vol 16 (1) p23-43.

Burningham, K. & Thrush, D. (2004). ‘Pollution Concerns in Context: A comparison of the risks associated with living close to a road and a chemical factory’ Journal of Risk Research 7(2): 213-232.

Burningham, K & O'Brien, M. (2003). 'Global Environmental Values and Local Contexts of Action' in Robertson, R & White, K. (2003) Globalization: Critical Concepts in Sociology Vol 5. Routledge.

Burningham, K. & Thrush, D. (2003). ‘Experiencing Environmental Inequality: The Everyday Concerns Of Disadvantaged Groups’ Housing Studies 18(4): 517-536.

Burningham, K & Thrush, D (2001). Rainforests are a long way from here: The environmental concerns of disadvantaged groups York: York Publishing Services Ltd.

Burningham, K. (2000). Using the Language of NIMBY: A topic for Research not an activity for res earchers. Local Environment 5(1): 55-67.

Burningham, K. & Cooper, G. (1999). ‘Being Constructive: Social Constructionism and the Environment’ Sociology 33(2): 297-316.

Burningham, K. (1998). ‘A Noisy Road or Noisy Residents?: A Demonstration of the Utility of Social Constructionism for Analysing Environmental Problems’ The Sociological Review 46(3): 536-563.

Castan-Broto, V., Burningham, K. Carter, C., & Elghali, L. (2010) 'Stigma and attachment: performance of identity in an environmentally degraded place' Society and Natural Resources Vol 23 (10) 952-968.

Fielding, J., & Burningham, K. (2005) ‘Environmental inequality and flood hazard’ Local Environment, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1-17, August 2005.

Walker, G. & Burningham, K. (2010 in press) Flood risk, vulnerability and environmental justice: evidence and evaluation of inequality in a UK context.  Critical Social Policy special issue on 'Social Justice, Social Policy, and the Environment'.

Walker G, Cass N, Burningham K, Barnett J, (2010) 'Renewable energy and sociotechnical change: imagined subjectivities of ‘the public’ and their implications' Environment and Planning A 42(4) 931 – 947.

Teaching

In the Sociology Department Kate teaches on a number of research methods modules and offers options on the sociology of the environment.  In CES she teaches an introductory module on social research methods.

Related Links

Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey
www.surrey.ac.uk/resolve/

http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/beyond_nimbyism//.