Contact
John Barry is a father, a political activist, recovering politician, trade unionist, and professor of green political economy at the Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action (SECA) at Queen’s 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 is it 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; decarbonization and decolonization; the politics, policy, and political economy of climate breakdown and climate resilience; sociotechnical analyses of low carbon just energy and sustainability transitions; climate injustice-based nonviolent direct action and social mobilization; and the overlap between conflict transformation and these sustainability and energy transformations.
Selected Publications:
- “A Tale of Carbon and Economic Unicorns: Techno-Optimism and Dangerous Mythic Thinking.” Capitalism Nature Socialism (2025).
- with Amanda Slevin. “Reconciling Ireland’s Climate Ambitions with Climate Policy and Practice: Challenges, Contradictions and Barriers.” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 24 (2024): 29–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-024-09632-2.
- with Louise Taylor. “Northern Ireland as a Sacrifice Zone: The Lough Neagh Crisis.” E-International Relations, 22 September 2024. https://www.e-ir.info/2024/09/22/northern-ireland-as-a-sacrifice-zone-the-lough-neagh-crisis/.
- with Duncan P. McLaren, Christine Anderson, Vanesa Castán Broto, et al. “Developing a Minifesta for Effective Academic-Activist Collaboration in the Context of the Climate Emergency.” Frontiers in Education 9 (2024). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1384614.
- with Calum McGeown. “Agents of (Un)Sustainability: Democratising Universities for the Planetary Crisis.” Frontiers in Sustainability 4 (2023). https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.1166642.
- with Seán Fearon. “Beyond Growth and Partition: Post-Growth and Ecological Perspectives on the Political Economy of Irish Reunification.” Irish Studies in International Affairs 33, no. 2 (2022): 373–405. http://doi.org/10.1353/isia.2022.0018.