Dr Charles Masquelier

Much of my work has sought to understand how different struggles for justice (social and environmental) intersect and what those intersections can tell us about the nature of social change. This is informed by a range of critical social theories, such as Western Marxism, intersectionality theory, and decolonial theory. 

Social empowerment – both its nature and conditions for realisation – is a core thread running through my research. It is central to the 'intersectional socialist' utopia I envision in this monograph and to my work on environmental land management. As social science lead for theme 3 of the RENEW project, I am exploring how land managers in the UK could be empowered to engage in nature recovery. Here, much of the focus is on envisioning how the local knowledge of land managers can be integrated with scientific expertise in the delivery of environmental objectives in the UK.

My areas of interests are:

• critical theory (Marxism, Western Marxism, Bourdieu, intersectionality theory)
• environmental land management (barriers and enablers; integrating 'knowledge cultures')
• social movements (their evolution and potential for large-scale social change)
• socialist theory (its different forms – statist vs. libertarian - and contemporary relevance)
• environmental sociology (political economy of sustainability; rural sociology)
• worker cooperatives (how they operate, the way they mediate the more-than-human world and potential role in large-scale social change)
• neoliberalism (its social consequences and how to adapt critique to this stage of capitalist development)