Email: A.A.Mah@warwick.ac.uk 

Room: E0.07

Telephone: +44 (0) 2476 522205

Pronouns: she/her

Orchid ID: 0000-0001-8183-2527Link opens in a new window

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Profile

Alice Mah is Professor of Sociology and Head of Department, with research interests in urban and environmental sociology, environmental justice, toxic colonialism, and just transformations. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the London School of Economics and was Principal Investigator of the European Research Council-funded Starting Grant “Toxic Expertise: Environmental Justice and the Global Petrochemical IndustryLink opens in a new window” from 2015-2020.

Alice is the author of Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation (forthcoming, Duke University Press, 2023, open access); Plastic Unlimited: How Corporations Are Fuelling the Ecological Crisis and What We Can Do About It Link opens in a new window(Polity Press, 2022); Toxic Truths: Environmental Justice and Citizen Science in a Post-Truth AgeLink opens in a new window (with Thom Davies, University of Manchester Press, 2020, open access); Port Cities and Global Legacies: Urban Identity, Waterfront Work, and RadicalismLink opens in a new window (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); and Industrial Ruination, Community, and Place: Landscapes and Legacies of Urban DeclineLink opens in a new window (University of Toronto Press, 2012), winner of the 2013 BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.

Alice is also Co-Director of the Warwick Environmental Systems Interdisciplinary CentreLink opens in a new window (WESIC).

Externally Funded Research Projects

Selected Recent Publications

• Mah, A. (Forthcoming, 2023, open access). Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Mah, A. 2022. Plastic Unlimited: How Corporations Are Fuelling the Ecological Crisis and What We Can Do About ItLink opens in a new window. Polity Press.
• Tilsted, J.P., A. Mah, T.D. Nielsen, G. Finkill, and F. Bauer. 2022. “Petrochemical Transition Narratives: Selling Fossil Fuel Solutions in a Decarbonizing WorldLink opens in a new window” Energy Research and Social Science 94: 102880.
• Feltrin, L., A. Mah, and D. Brown. 2022. 'Noxious Deindustrialization: Experiences of Precarity and Pollution in Scotland’s Petrochemical CapitalLink opens in a new window' Environment and Planning C 40(2): 950–969.
• Brown, D., A. Mah, and G. Walker. 2022. 'The Tenacity of Trust in Petrochemical Communities: Reckoning with Risk on the Fawley Waterside (1997-2019)Link opens in a new window,' Environment and Planning E,5(3): 1207–1229.
• Mah, A. 2021. 'Future-Proofing Capitalism: The Paradox of the Circular Economy for PlasticsLink opens in a new window' Global Environmental Politics 21(2), 121-142.
• Mah, A. 2021. 'Ecological Crisis, Decarbonisation, and Degrowth: The Dilemmas of Just Petrochemical TransformationsLink opens in a new window' Stato e Mercato, no. 121: 51-78. Available green open accessLink opens in a new window.
• Davies, T. and A. Mah, eds. 2020. Toxic Truths: Environmental Justice and Citizen Science in a Post-Truth AgeLink opens in a new window, University of Manchester Press. Available open accessLink opens in a new window.
• Verbeek, T. and A. Mah. 2020. 'Integration and Isolation in the Global Petrochemical Industry: A Multiscalar Corporate Network AnalysisLink opens in a new window' Economic Geography 96(4): 363-387.
• Jephcote, C, D. Brown, T. Verbeek, and A. Mah. 2020. 'A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Haematological Malignancies in Residents Living Near Petrochemical Facilities'Link opens in a new window Environmental Health 19(53): https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-020-00582-1Link opens in a new window.
• Mah, A. and X. Wang. 2019. 'Accumulated Injuries of Environmental Injustice: Living and Working with Petrochemical Pollution in Nanjing, ChinaLink opens in a new window.' Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 109(6): 1961-197.
• Jephcote, C. and A. Mah. 2019. “Regional Inequalities in Benzene Exposures across the European Petrochemical Industry: A Bayesian Multilevel Modelling ApproachLink opens in a new window.” Environment International 132.
• Mah, A. and X. Wang. 2017. ‘Research on Environmental Justice in China: Limitations and PossibilitiesLink opens in a new window.’ Chinese Journal of Environmental Law 263-272.
• Mah, A. 2017. 'Environmental Justice in the Age of Big Data: Challenging Toxic Blind Spots of Voice, Speed, and Expertise'Link opens in a new window Environmental Sociology 3 (2): 122-133.

Further Publications

• See full list of publications hereLink opens in a new window.

Research Students and Postdoctoral Researchers

• • Supervises PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in environmental, political, and urban sociology (and related interdisciplinary fields)
  • See research students and postdoctoral researchers hereLink opens in a new window.

Media and Public Webinars

• BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed episode on "The Sea" discussing Plastic UnlimitedLink opens in a new window, 14 September 2022.
• "The Plastics Crisis Has Deep Corporate Roots: To Protect our Planet, They Need to be ExposedLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window," The Conversation, 4 August 2022.
• "Untangling the Corporate Lies about PlasticLink opens in a new window" excerpt from Plastic Unlimited published in Fast Company Magazine; see also "Remember all the Disposable Stuff You Used when Covid Hit: It Made the Plastic Crisis Much WorseLink opens in a new window," by Elizabeth Segran, Fast Company Magazine, 28 July 2022.
• "Plastics: The One Word that Best Incapsulates our Environmental CrisisLink opens in a new window," interview about Plastic Unlimited with Andrew Keen, Keen On Podcast, 27 July 2022.
• "How the Plastic Industry Turned the Pandemic to its AdvantageLink opens in a new window," The Observer, 24 July 2022 (edited extract from Plastic Unlimited).
• Interview about Plastic Unlimited with Bill MillerLink opens in a new window, Global Connections Television, 9 July 2022.
• "How Corporations Have Locked Us into a Lifetime of Plastic Consumption,Link opens in a new window" interview with Conor Purcell in The Irish Times, 7 July 2022.
• "The Plastic Paradox, and How to Regulate the Oceans: Books in BriefLink opens in a new window," Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week's best science picks including Plastic Unlimited in Nature, 17 June 2022.
• "Plastics and Toxic ColonialismLink opens in a new window," Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project, "The Environment and Climate Change," 16 June 2022.
• "A Continuing Crisis: Corporations owning the Circular Economy NarrativeLink opens in a new window," interview with Chris Seekings in IEMA Transform Magazine about Plastic Unlimited, 26 May 2022.
• Climate and Colonialism: Reflections on COP26Link opens in a new window, BSA Postcolonial and Decolonial Project Transformation Study Group and Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project webinar, 27 January 2022.
• The Climate Footprint of PlasticsLink opens in a new window, China Environment Forum Wilson Center webinar, 1 December 2021.
• The Toxic Costs of Petrochemical and Plastics InvestmentsLink opens in a new window, Planet Tracker webinar, 23 September 2021.
• Governing Petrochemicals Panel, Global Governance of Plastic Pollution Conference, Graduate Institute in Geneva and UNCTAD, Link opens in a new window31 Aug 2021
• Virtual Blue COP Webinar on Plastic Pollution, the Climate Crisis, and Oceanic ChangeLink opens in a new window, 7 Dec 2019
• Spotlight on Scientists at the European Parliament,Link opens in a new window 7 July 2018
• BBC Radio 4 'Thinking Allowed' interview about port cities researchLink opens in a new window, 3 Dec 2014
• BBC Radio 4 'Thinking Allowed' interview about industrial ruinationLink opens in a new window, 27 March 2013
• British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2013 interview,Link opens in a new window April 2013