Invitation to Sustainable Development Lecture by Professor John Barry - 1 May
Department of Environment and Planning cordially invites you to its annual Sustainable Development lecture
Guest speaker: Professor John Barry, Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action, Queen’s University, Belfast
Title of lecture: Why is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism? revolutionary green politics to address the planetary emergency
Date: Thursday 1st May
Time: 2pm to 4pm
Venue: Room 417, Bolton Street
John Barry
Professor of Green Political Economy School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics
John Barry is a father, a political activist, recovering politician, trades unionist and Professor of Green Political Economy in the Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action at Queens University Belfast.
What keeps him awake at night is the life opportunities and future wellbeing of his and other children in this age of the planetary emergency and intersecting social and economic injustices within and between countries. What also keeps him awake at night is the following question: why it is easier for most people to believe in the end of the world than the end of capitalism and economic growth
His areas of academic-activist research include post-growth and heterodox political economy; decarbonisation and decolonisation; the politics, policy and political economy of climate breakdown and climate resilience; socio-technical analyses of low carbon just energy and sustainability transitions; climate injustice-based nonviolent direct action and social mobilisation; and the overlap between conflict transformation and these sustainability and energy transformations.
His forthcoming book is provisionally entitled, Practicing What You Teach: Anti-Capitalist and Post-Growth Tales of Failing (Forward) from the Molehills of Power and Disciplinary Margins (2025, Agenda Publishers).