Noel Castree


Noel Castree FAcSS is a British geographer whose research interests are in capitalism-environment relationships and, more recently, in the role various experts play in discourses about global environmental change. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Progress in Human Geography.

Background

Castree was born in Bury, Greater Manchester, UK and has a BA in Geography from the University of Oxford, and an MA and PhD from the University of British Columbia. He taught for 5 years at Liverpool University before joining the University of Manchester in 2000 and becoming a Professor of Geography in the School of Environment and Development in 2004. In January 2014 he joined the University of Wollongong in Australia, in a new Department of Geography & Sustainable Communities. He returned to Manchester University in late 2017.

Key contributions

His "principal interests are in the political economy of environmental change, regulation and contestation". He has sought to develop and apply Marxian approaches to understanding a range of environmental problems, with an emphasis on understanding the meaning and limits of 'commodification'.".
One of his main intellectual contributions to the discipline of geography is advancing the concept of "social nature"; another is anatomizing the 'neoliberalisation of nature'. His more recent research focuses on who speaks for the Earth and humanity in light of growing concerns about a global environmental crisis. He has served twice as a managing editor of peer review journals, once for Antipode and more recently for Progress in Human Geography.

Awards

Books Authored
Edited