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John M. Meyer

Prof. Dr. John M. Meyer

Carson Fellow

John M. Meyer is professor in the department of politics at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. At Humboldt he is also affiliated with interdisciplinary programs in environmental studies and “Environment and Community,” for which he served as founding coordinator. He received his PhD in political science, with emphasis on political theory and environmental politics, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Meyer is the author of Political Nature: Environmentalism and the Interpretation of Western Thought (MIT Press, 2001), co-editor of The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice (MIT Press, 2010), and has published articles in journals including Environmental Politics, Journal of Political Philosophy, Political Theory, and Polity. He is a founder of the international discussion group and annual workshop on “Environmental Political Theory.” At the Rachel Carson Center, he will complete a book manuscript, which explores ways in which large-scale material practices in society—including use of land, reliance upon automobiles, and dwelling in homes—can create opportunities as well as constraints for arguments regarding sustainability.

RCC Research Project: Environmentalism as Social Criticism: Engaging Material Practices in the Pursuit of Sustainability (pdf, 12 KB)

Film Interview with John M. Meyer


Selected Publications:

The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Edited with Michael Maniates.

Political Nature: Environmentalism and the Interpretation of Western Thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.

“We Have Never Been Liberal: The Environmentalist Turn to Liberalism and the Possibilities for Social Criticism,” Environmental Politics 20, no. 3 (2011): 356–73.

“The Concept of Private Property and the Limits of the Environmental Imagination,” Political Theory 37, no. 1 (2009): 99–127.

“Sacrifice and a New Politics of Sustainability.” In State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, edited by Erik Assadourian, 26. Washington DC: Worldwatch Institute, Island Press 2012.