SEI staff
John Forrester
john.forrester@sei-international.org
Telephone: +44 1904 325336
Title: Senior Research Fellow
Expertise: participation, environment and development
Centre: York
John’s work could be described as ‘anthropology of science’: his work is related to all aspects of human engagement with the science behind environmental issues.
His research focuses on how different stakeholders such as citizens, policy actors, and experts perceive environmental social and ecological research science, and how it is communicated between them. His research interests lie in spanning the branch of learning that have been differentiated by the broad terms ‘sociology of science’ and science communication.
His interest in individual actor and social group engagement with social-ecological research is central to SEI’s mission to provide ‘integrative knowledge that bridges science and policy in the field of environment and development’ and has led to John working on, and leading, a number of cross-centre, cross programme, and inter-institutional ‘action research’ projects as well as more theoretical work in his areas of interest. Selected current and recent projects are listed below.
Work experience before SEI
John joined SEI in 1997. Before working for SEI, John worked as a Researcher Fellow at the Sociology Department, University of Ulster; Department of Sociology and Social Policy, The Queen’s University of Belfast and School of Health Care Studies, University of Leeds and as an Associate Lecturer at the Centre for Science Education, The Open University.
Education
John holds a PhD in Social Anthropology (on tourism development and cultural change) from the Queen’s University of Belfast, 1996; a MA in Qualitative Research Methods from the University of York, 1998 and a Hons BA from Queen’s Belfast in Social Anthropology with History & Philosophy of Science, 1989.
He also holds a HNC in Electronic Engineering, from the Limerick School of Engineering, 1981.
Current Research
Whole decision network analysis for coastal ecosystems (WD-NACE) – part of the UK Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme.
Webpage at http://www.esi.ac.uk/espa/files/espa/Framework%20I002448%20Raffaelli.pdf
Sustainable Cultivation of Productive Environments (SCoPE) – part of the UK Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme.
Webpage at http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/david.harvey/SCOPE/scope.html
Managing Borderlands – part of the UK Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme.
Webpage at http://www.tweedforum.com/borderlands/content/borderlands_pdf
Publications
Governance of Air Quality and Stakeholder Engagement: Lessons and Experience from International Cases (Book chapter - 2011)
Overcoming the Challenges of ‘Doing Participation’ in Environment and Development: Workshop Summary of Lessons Learned and Ways Forward (Proceedings - 2010)
Getting to policy impact: Lessons from 20 years of bridging science and policy with sustainability knowledge (Research report - 2009)
Improved partnership working for local authority transport planning (Journal article - 2009)
Stakeholder Engagement and the Work of SEI: An Empirical Study (Working paper - 2008)
Participatory GIS and its application in governance: the example of air quality and the implications for noise pollution (Journal article - 2008)
Enhancing participation: Experiences of participatory geographic information systems in Shanxi province, China (Journal article - 2008)
DISTILLATE Guide to Cross-sectoral and Intra-organisational Partnership Working for Sustainable Transport Decision Making (Report - 2008)
DISTILLATE Product D2 “online guidance to using DISTILLATE tools”. Leeds: Institute for Transport Studies (Report - 2008)
Small and Local Scheme, Assessment Tool, DISTILLATE (Report - 2008)
Complete list of publications »
Projects
Recent publications
