Directory

Laurie Adkin, PhD, MA, BA Hons

Professor Emerita, Faculty of Arts - Political Science Dept
Curriculum Vitæ
Contact Overview Announcements Activities

Contact

Professor Emerita, Faculty of Arts - Political Science Dept
Email
ladkin@ualberta.ca
Address
10--16 Tory (H.M.) Building
11211 Saskatchewan Drive NW
Edmonton AB
T6G 2H4

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

political ecology Alberta Canada; European politics

About

Laurie Adkin grew up in Ontario and Saskatchewan, completed graduate studies in Ontario, and held a post-doctoral position in France before coming to Alberta in 1991. 

 She received her doctorate in Political Studies from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Her first field of specialization (through her BA Hons., MA, and Ph.D. programs) was the Comparative Politics of Developing Societies, with area studies including Latin America and East Africa. Her second field was the Comparative Politics of Industrialized Societies, with area specializations in British and Italian politics. At the doctoral level she made a research shift to the study of social movements in the context of the advanced capitalist societies of Europe and North America. By tutoring in the Women’s Studies Program at Queen’s University, and through various research project choices, she also studied feminist theory.

 From January 1990 to June 1991 she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre de Recherches en Sciences Sociales de Travail, Université de Paris XI, Paris, France. In 1991 she was hired at the University of Alberta in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts. From January to May 1998, she was a Visiting Professor at the Centre d’Analyse et d’Intervention Sociologiques, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France. Her research in France focused on the relations between the labour movement and the anti-nuclear movement as well as the relationships of the French Green Party (Les Verts) with social movements. 

Dr. Adkin taught courses in the fields of comparative politics (comparative theory and methodology, European politics, social movements, populist far-right parties), Canadian and Alberta politics (the political economy of Alberta, Canadian environmental policy, Green transition in Canada) and gender and politics (feminist theory). Ecology and Politics (Pol S 333) was one of the requirements for the interdisciplinary Environmental Studies BA program. Throughout her career at the University of Alberta she was a strong advocate for interdisciplinary studies and research, leading two initiatives to institute a signature area of research and teaching in ecological and social sustainability studies.

Dr. Adkin retired from the University of Alberta on December 31, 2023.

Research

Dr. Adkin’s areas of research include political ecology, climate change policy, and democratic theory. However, she has also published work on social movement theory, ecology and political economy, comparative family policy, and the neoliberal restructuring of post-secondary education. 

From 2015- 2022, Dr. Adkin was a core member of the Mapping Corporate Power (SSHRC Partnership Grant) project, based at the University of Victoria, BC, and involving scholars from multiple universities and four policy think-tanks.

Earlier research collaborations include:

A list of publications is available in the resume.

Teaching

COURSES AND COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Pol S 333 Ecology and Politics (last taught in Fall 2023)

Course Description: Ecology and Politics surveys political framings of global and local ecological crises, and critically examines predominant approaches to resolving these crises. The course begins with an introduction to political ecology as an integrated, multi-scalar theoretical framework. The key approaches utilized by political ecologists are political economy and discourse analysis. John Dryzek’s book, Politics of the Earth, provides the backbone of our study of environmental discourses, but this is supplemented by the work of other authors, which brings into play Indigenous knowledge, environmental justice movements, and feminist historical analysis of the nexus between capitalism, patriarchy, and science (Merchant’s The Death of Nature). Using political economy, we ask which social, economic, and political interests underpin policy approaches to environmental crises. What are the implications of these policies for socio-ecological futures? If explanations and strategies for dealing with the climate breakdown conflict, how do we choose among them? Who is responsible to do what?

Pol S 470/540 Green Transition in Canada (last taught in Fall 2023)

Course description: This course takes a critical political economy approach to understanding both the limitations of current policy approaches to the climate crisis (and related environmental crises) and the case for more transformative approaches. Students are introduced to concepts such as “fossil capitalism,” “petro-state politics,” and “climate capitalism” and to the range of actors that are engaged in climate policy battles in the Canadian context. They will have an opportunity to explore proposals for deep decarbonization, democratization, and decolonization that have been largely outside the framework of mainstream climate policy but that have support from climate justice movements and experts in multiple fields related to ecological sustainability. 

Prerequisites: This course has been designed for fourth-year students who have a background in political economy, environmental studies, or critical policy studies in another field. It is cross-listed with a graduate course (Pol S 540). It is recommended that undergraduate students have completed at least one third-year political science or sociology course with political economy content before taking Pol S 470. An excellent prerequisite for 470 is Pol S 333 Ecology and Politics.

Announcements

Scholarly Activities

Research - Climate Change Policy and Environmental Regulation in Alberta

This work examines a range of drivers of Alberta’s “climate change” policy since the 1990s, including: government-initiated public consultations and public opinion, international climate change negotiations and agreements, policy and political developments in the United States, policy and political developments at the federal level in Canada, political-economic developments in Alberta, corporate, environmental, indigenous organizations’ campaigning/influence, and climate science. The findings are that climate change policy in Alberta has been principally an adjunct to the government’s prioritization of energy sector development, and that its formation has been driven by developments and pressures that are external to the province. Selected research products include:

  • Adkin, Laurie E. “Extraction First: the UCP Government’s Anti-Environmental Policies,” in Trevor Harrison and Ricardo Acuna, eds., Anger and Angst: Jason Kenney’s Legacy and Alberta’s Right. Montreal: Black Rose Books, April 2023.
  • Adkin, Laurie E. "A Cap on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Oil and Gas Sector." Written brief and oral testimony for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Parliament of Canada, March 24, 2022.
  • Adkin, Laurie E. “Technology innovation as a response to climate change: The case of the Climate Change Emissions Management Corporation of Alberta.” Review of Policy Research vol. 36, no. 5 (2019). E-published July 5, 2019. 
  • “Resources and Directions for Green Transition in Alberta,” presentation to the Financial Management Institute, Edmonton, 5 October 2018. 
  • “Climate Change and Energy Policy in Alberta,” presentation to the Symposium on Public Policy in Alberta, University of Alberta, Edmonton, July 10, 2017.
  • Adkin, Laurie E. “Crossroads in Alberta: Climate Capitalism or Ecological Democracy.” Socialist Studies vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 2017), 2-31.
  • Adkin, Laurie E., Lori Hanson, David Kahane, John Parkins, and Steve Patten, “Can public engagement democratize environmental policymaking in a resource-dependent state? Comparative case studies from Alberta, Canada,” Environmental Politics vol. 26, no. 2 (2017). Published online: 27 Oct 2016.
  • "Making Climate Change Policy in Alberta,” paper presented to the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) annual conference, Political Economy section, Brock University, May 29, 2014.
  • "Comparing the 2002 and 2007 climate change consultations in Alberta,” paper presented to the Canadian Political Science Association Conference, University of Alberta, June 2012.

Research - Ecology, Democracy, Citizenship

First World Petro-Politics: The Political Ecology and Governance of Alberta. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016. [Editor and contributor]

Environmental Conflict and Democracy in Canada. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 2009. [Editor and contributor]

The Politics of Sustainable Development: Citizens, Unions, and the Corporations. Montreal; New York; London, U.K.: Black Rose Books, 1998. [Sole Author]

“Political Ecology,” in Janine Brodie, Sandra Rein, and Malinda Smith, eds. Critical Concepts, 6th edition, Oxford University Press, 2022.

“Hegemony and Counter-hegemony,” in Patricia Ballamingie and David Saznto, eds.  Showing Theory to Know Theory: Understanding Abstractions in Critical Social Science through Illustrative Vignettes. Rebus Community. March 2022. https://showingtheory.net/ 

Interviewed by Ryan Katz-Rosene and Peter Andree for Studies in Political Economy: “Canada’s ecological political economy and the climate crisis: an interview with Dr. Laurie Adkin.” Studies in Political Economy vol. 102, issue 1 (2021).

“Political Ecology and Counter-hegemonic Politics,” in William K. Carroll and Kanchan Sarker, eds. A World to Win: Contemporary Social Movements and Counter-hegemony, 93-110. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Press, 2016.

Research - Political Ecology of Knowledge Production