Jean-Paul Gagnon

Assistant Professor

BIO/CV

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Jonathan Pickering is an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics, Economics and Society at the University of Canberra, where he teaches International Relations. From 2015 to 2019 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Canberra, based at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance. His research focuses on democracy and justice in global environmental governance, with an emphasis on climate change and biodiversity. His research has been published in a range of journals including Climate Policy, Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Politics, and World Development. He has co-authored with John Dryzek a book on The Politics of the Anthropocene (Oxford University Press, 2019) and with several colleagues a Cambridge Element on Deliberative Global Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

PHD SUPERVISION

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Dr Pickering welcomes PhD proposals focusing on the following topics: global environmental politics (especially aspects relating to deliberative democracy, justice, discourses, institutional architecture, multilateral negotiations, international financing, and North-South politics), and deliberative democratic theory and practice.

PUBLICATIONS

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Selected Publications:

• Pickering, J., McGee, J. S., Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, S. I., and Wenta, J. (2018). “Global Climate Governance between Hard and Soft Law: Can the Paris Agreement’s ‘Crème Brûlée’ Approach Enhance Ecological Reflexivity?”, Journal of Environmental Law. Online version.

• Pickering, J. (2018), “Ecological Reflexivity: Characterising an Elusive Virtue for Governance in the Anthropocene”, Environmental Politics: 1-22.

  Dryzek, J.S., & Pickering, J. (2017), "Deliberation as a catalyst for reflexive environmental governance". Ecological Economics, 131, 353-360. 

• Pickering, J. and Mitchell, P. (2017), "What Drives National Support for Multilateral Climate Finance? International and Domestic Influences on Australia’s Shifting Stance". International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 17 (1): 107-125.

• Pickering, J. (2016). "Moral Language in Climate Politics". In: Roser, D. & Heyward, C. (eds.) Climate Justice in a Non-Ideal World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Pickering, J. (2015), “Top-down Proposals for Sharing the Global Climate Policy Effort Fairly: Lost in Translation in a Bottom-up World?”. In Breakey, H., Popovski, V. and Maguireeds, R., eds, Ethical Values and the Integrity of the Climate Change Regime, Aldershot, Ashgate, pp. 89-104

• Pickering, J., Jotzo, F. and  Wood, P.J. (2015), "Sharing the Global Climate Finance Effort Fairly with Limited Coordination". Global Environmental Politics 15, 4, pp. 39-62.

• Pickering, J., Skovgaard, J., Kim, S, Timmons Roberts, J., Rossati, D, Stadelmann, M. and Reich, H. (2014), "Acting on climate finance pledges: Inter-agency dynamics and relationships with aid in contributor states", World Development, 68, pp. 149-162.

• Pickering, J. and Rübbelke, D. (2014), “International Cooperation on Adaptation to Climate Change”. In Markandya, A., Galarraga, I. and Sainz de Murieta, E., eds, Routledge Handbook of the Economics of Climate Change Adaptation, Abingdon, Routledge, pp. 56-75

• Pickering, J., Vanderheiden, S. and Miller, S. (2012), "If equity’s in, we're out”: Scope for fairness in the next global climate agreement", Ethics and International Affairs, 26, 4, pp. 423-443. 

• Pickering, J. and Barry, C. (2012), "On the concept of climate debt: Its moral and political value", Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 15, 5, pp. 667-685. 

• Parker, C.,  Brown, J., Pickering, J., Roynestad, E., Mardas, N. and  Mitchell, A.W. (2009), "The little climate finance book, Oxford: Global Canopy Programme".

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

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• 2014. PhD (Philosophy), Australian National University

• 2006. MSc (Development Studies), London School of Economics and Political Science

• 2003. Bachelor of Laws (Hons; University Medal), University of Sydney

• 2000. Bachelor of Arts (Hons; University Medal), University of Sydney.

ADMINISTRATION

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• 2015-Present. Co-editor, working paper series, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance.

• 2015-Present. Convenor, Ecological Democracy Working Group, Taskforce on Conceptual Foundations of Earth System Governance.

• 2015. Convener, Environmental Politics Stream, Australian Political Studies Association annual conference.

AFFILIATIONS

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• International Studies Association (2011-current); Society for Applied Philosophy (2012-current); Australian Political Studies Association (2015-current)

• Research Fellow, Earth System Governance network (2015-current)

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

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• 2015-Present: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra

VISITING FELLOWSHIPS

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• 2014-Present. Visiting Fellow, Development Policy Centre, Australian National University.  

AWARDS AND HONOURS

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• 2009-2012. Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship for Doctoral Study, Australian National University

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

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• Contributor to Policy Space and DevPolicy blogs.

RESEARCH PROJECTS & GRANTS

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Deliberating in the Anthropocene (2015-2019)

Investigators: John Dryzek

Post-Doctoral Fellow: Jonathan Pickering

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The Anthropocene is the emerging environmental epoch in which human activity is a major driver of a less stable and more chaotic Earth system, which can be contrasted with the unusual climatic stability of the past 10,000 years of the Holocene (in which human civilization arose). The implications are profound: for example we cannot so easily speak of  “restoration” ecology or environmental “preservation” because there is no going back to any ecological baseline. To date the response of social scientists has been limited, producing at most calls for strengthened global governance. This project explores the idea that a polycentric deliberative approach to the Anthropocene involving co-evolutionary relations between human and ecological systems may yield more effective governance than a top-down managerial approach. The project is both theoretical and empirical, with applications to the global governance of climate change, biological diversity, and ozone layer protection.

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Funding: Australian Research Council – Laureate Fellowship