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The Impacts of Doing Environmental Research (Core Tenet #3)

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The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography

Abstract

The third core tenet of Critical Physical Geography recognizes that the environmental research we produce has deep impacts on the people and landscapes we study. Some of these impacts result from the methods we use; other impacts result from the distribution and application of our work. I consider both of these areas of impact in this chapter. I pay particular attention to environmental research in and on the Anthropocene, an era cast as a time and place for experimentation, and I argue that our scientific interventions in this “laboratory Earth” are always political—whether we intend them to be or not. I conclude with suggestions for managing these research impacts and possible directions for future research.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, USA

    Justine Law

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  1. Justine Law
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Rebecca Lave

  2. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Christine Biermann

  3. Université de Lausanne, Gryon, Switzerland

    Stuart N. Lane

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Law, J. (2018). The Impacts of Doing Environmental Research (Core Tenet #3). In: Lave, R., Biermann, C., Lane, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71461-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71461-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71460-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71461-5

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