Kerr, Ewan Photo

Ewan Kerr

PhD Student

ewan.kerr@gcu.ac.uk

After completing my undergraduate degree at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), I joined Strathclyde University undertaking an MSc in Political Research. My research interests are broadly within the realm of political theory, and include environmental political though, anarchist studies and Marxism. I secured a full scholarship to return to GCU for my doctoral studies, which commenced in September 2012. I also act as co-convenor of the Reconnecting Politics Network, a group focused upon facilitating undergraduate engagement with the study of politics and associated disciplines.

Dissertation

Trade Unions and Environmental Politics: Varieties of Labour-Environmentalism

Supervisor

Dr Stewart Davidson, Dr Fraser Duncan and Professor Elaine McFarland

Department & Subject Group

History & Politics

Specialisms & Interests

  • Environmental Political Thought
  • Anarchist Studies
  • Marx & Marxisms
  • Social Movements and Social 
  • Movement TheoryLabour Studies

Professional Memberships & Activities

  • Political Studies  
  • AssociationLabour Movements
  • Specialist Group (PSA)
  • Political Thought     
  • Specialist Group (PSA)
  • Environmental Politics  
  • Specialist Group (PSA)
  • Anarchist Studies Network (PSA)
  • ECPR Graduate Student
  • NetworkSocial Movements Network
  • (MeCCSA) British Sociological Association

Current Research

Contributing to a developing body of literature referred to as environmental labour studies, this research seeks to highlight the perspectives and activities which unions call upon to understand, interpret and engage with environmental groups & campaigns, environmental political thought and the physical environment which sustains them.  Its central aim is to uncover these discursive strategies of labour-environmentalism by critically analysing them within the context of political ecology.  Problematizing the assumptions made by each strategy will be carried out by subjecting each to sustained interrogation, in order to offer a conceptual clarification and development of what are, at the moment, a disparate and diverse collection of interpretations.  A further analytic contribution is provided by my argument that the form of labour-environmentalism determines the scope of opposition to the capitalist system and domination of nature, alongside the prospects of establishing opposition and resistance.  In effect, it determines the extent to which perspectives of labour-environmentalism engage in a counter-hegemonic politics of eco-socialism.

Selected Publications 

Kerr, E (2013) Red and Green in the Frame Scottish Left Review, Issue No. 77 [Online] Accessed from http://www.scottishleftreview.org/article/green-and-red-in-the-frame/