Ben Hetherington
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Contact details |
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Email: Benjamin.Hetherington@warwick.ac.uk |
Current PhD student
Biography
I am a second-year PhD student from Cape Town, South Africa. After my undergrad I worked in the City of Cape Town's climate action planning unit, and was then employed by ICLEI Africa, an NGO carrying out similar municipal-level sustainability and climate action projects in a range of locations (my projects were focused on Rwanda, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Cameroon). Afterwards, during my Masters, I worked for an consultancy carrying out evaluations on EU rural and agricultural policies, and the African Development Bank's renewable energy investments.
Research overview
My research project aims to describe and assess the range of values in which Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) and their impacts are situated. NbS have been debated as an overarching and sometimes vague concept, however they broadly reflect the services that people derive from ecosystems, as well as opportunities to address societal issues. I aim to draw on the traditions of political ecology to address this phenomenon.
My project will explore the central research topic through a range of conceptual and empirical questions regarding the stratified interpretations of value surrounding NbS, the recipients of the "solutions" and problems being solved, the implications on land access and distribution, and the community-level consequences of designating certain areas as natural or not.
These will be informed by conducting fieldwork studying the implementation of wetland restoration projects happening in the Camargue region in France.
Academic background
Bachelors of Social Science in Sociology and Economics, University of Cape Town (2018)
Masters of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Université Toulouse Capitole (2022)
Supervisors
- Dr Nick Bernards - Global Sustainable Development
- Dr Nikoleta Jones - IGSD
Research interests
Political ecology, human geography, social sciences of conservation and restoration, biodiversity-climate nexus
Funding and awards
2023 Leverhulme Trust TRANSFORM PhD Scholarship
2021 Campus France South Africa Masters Scholarship
2018 University of Cape Town (UCT) Council Honours Merit Scholarship
2016 University of British Columbia Semester Abroad Scholarship
2015 UCT Humanities Entrance Scholarship