Staff

Dr Sonja Klinsky

Position(s):

• Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada) post-doctoral fellow
  Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions post-doctoral fellow

  (Dr. Klinsky is co-hosted by the University of Cambridge, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University)

Contact information:

Tel.: +44 (0)1223 765224
Email: sk678

Research interests:

• Climate change policy
• Environmental policy development
• Justice argumentation in policy dilemmas
• Public perceptions of sustainability
• Social psychology of justice
• Public opinion methodology
• Decision-making under uncertainty

Recent research projects

My research explores how sustainability policies are designed and understood.  I currently have two major research trajectories.  First, I am conducting work that analyses how climate change policy has been developed and perceived in both domestic and international arenas.  Currently this work focuses on the development of cap and trade mechanisms.  I am particularly interested in the role of economic modelling in policy decision-making, and the ways in which arguments about justice are embedded in climate change policy dilemmas. 

Second, I am engaged in research that explores methodologies for exploring public opinion about complex sustainability policy issues. This has included work on public understandings of “pro-environmental” behaviour, and of climate change policy in both Canada and Costa Rica. Similarly, previous work investigated the power of information and representation to shift public discourses of sustainability. 

Publications:

Klinsky, S., Sieber, R., Meredith, T. (2010) “Connecting Local to Global: Geographic Information Systems and Ecological Footprints as Tools for Sustainability”. The Professional Geographer, Vol 62. N.1.

Klinsky, S.  and Dowlatabadi, H. (2009) “Conceptualizations of Justice in Climate Change Policy” Climate Policy, Vol 9. N. 1

Klinsky, S., Sieber, R., Meredith, T. (2009) “Creating Local Ecological Footprints in a North American Context” Local Environment. Vol 14. Issue 6

Klinsky, S. (2007) “Mapping Emergence: Network Analysis of Climate Change Media” Integrated Assessment Vol. 7 No. 1

Policy Reports and Non-Refereed Published Contributions

Klinsky, S. (2009) Fairness in British Columbia’s Climate Policy; report submitted to the Sustainable Prosperity Network, Vancouver, BC. September 2009

Meredith, T., Klinsky, S., Hackett, D., Straub, M. (2003) eds. Caring for Community: An environmental atlas for sustainable development of Montreal’s West Island; CBED.  McGill University.  Montreal, Quebec

Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNCSD; ICLEI (2002) Second Local Agenda 21 Survey: Background Paper # 15 for the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. 

Klinsky, S. (2001) "How Do We Increase the Participation of Young Women in HIV/AIDS Activism?" Canadian Women's Studies, Vol. 21 No. 2