Noel Longhurst

Office hours: Please email for an appointment. 

I am a geographer / environmental social scientist who is interested in processes of systemic change for sustainability and the multiple relationships between sustainability, energy and economy. 

Empirically, my research has focused on socio-technical energy transitions, fuel poverty, post-capitalism, public engagement in energy, alternative currencies, the Transition Towns movement and alternative food initiatives. My PhD research (at the University of Liverpool) was an ethnographic study of how an ‘alternative milieu’ developed around the town of Totnes, Devon, and the extent to which this supports the emergence of postcapitalist grassroots economic experiments or enhances their longevity.

Key research interests:

Economic geography; energy transitions; energy geographies; sustainability transitions; grassroots innovation; sustainable consumption; urban sustainability; geographies of innovation; alternative economic spaces; technological change; social innovation; new economics; political economy; post-capitalism; post-consumerism; social economy; diverse economies; utopianism; intentional communities; countercultures; alternative places.     

Current roles: 

Deputy Teaching Director 

ENV Student Partnership Officer 

ESID Course Director

Since October 2017 I have been a lecturer in Energy and Climate Change and I currently convene one second year modules (ENV5044B Energy Transitions) and a Master’s module (ENV7029B Energy and Climate Change). I also contribute to a range of other modules and supervise undergraduate, master’s and PhD projects.