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Much of my current work explores the intersection between everyday environmentalisms and the political potentials and dangers of populism.
Recent publications include:
How (not) to politicize the climate crisis: Beyond the anti-populist imaginary, with Sherilyn MacGregor. Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 2025.
Power and Truth in Science-Related Populism: Rethinking the Role of Knowledge and Expertise in Climate Politics, Political Studies, 2024.
"The People" and Climate Justice: Reconceptualizing Populism and Pluralism within Climate Politics, Polity, 2024.
Thinking about Hope, Vision, and Mobilization with Darrel Moellendorf's Mobilizing Hope, Ethics, Policy, & Environment, 2024.
Experimentalism and its alternatives: toward viable strategies for transformative change and sustainability, Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 2023.
Information about books I've written and (co-)edited can be found by clicking on the cover images, below.
Far-reaching efforts to address environmental issues rarely seem to resonate with citizens of the United States or other wealthy postindustrial societies. In Engaging the Everyday, John Meyer considers this impediment to action on environmental problems—which he terms “the resonance dilemma”—and argues that an environmental agenda that emerges from everyday concerns would resonate more deeply with ordinary citizens. Meyer explores the contours of this alternative, theorizing both obstacles and opportunities and then considering it in terms of three everyday areas of material practice: land use, transportation by automobile, and home dwelling.
Adopting the stance of an “inside critic” (neither detached theorist nor narrow policy advocate), and taking an approach that he calls “contested materiality,” Meyer draws on a variety of theoretical perspectives to construct a framework for understanding material practices. He reimagines each of the three material practices in terms of a political idea: for land, property; for automobiles, freedom; and for homes, citizenship. His innovative analysis offers a grounded basis for reshaping our talk about political concepts and values.
There are other interviews and talks,here, here, here, and here, in which I discuss my work.
My book Engaging the Everyday: Environmental Social Criticism and the Resonance Dilemma (MIT Press, 2015) was awarded the first annual Clay Morgan Award for Best Book in Environmental Political Theory.
An earlier book Political Nature: Environmentalism and the Interpretation of Western Thought (MIT Press, 2001) was recognized as a "Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2002" and a "Great Work in Environmental Political Thought" in 2012.
I am an editor, with Graeme Hayes, Sikina Jinnah, Prakash Kashwan, David Konisky, Sherilyn MacGregor, and Anthony Zito, of Trajectories in Environmental Politics (Routledge, 2022); with Teena Gabrielson, Cheryl Hall, and David Schlosberg, of the Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory (Oxford University Press, 2016; paperback 2019); with Jens Kersten of The Greening of Everyday Life: Challenging Practices, Imagining Possibilities (Oxford University Press, 2016); with Michael Maniates of The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice (MIT Press, 2010); and of American Indians and U.S. Politics (Praeger, 2002).
I’ve published articles, essays, and reviews in academic journals including the American Political Science Review; Democratization; Environmental Politics; Environmental Values; Ethics, Place, and the Environment; the Journal of Political Philosophy; the Journal of Politics; Organization and Environment; Perspectives on Politics; Political Studies; Political Theory; Polity; Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, and Theory & Event. I’ve also written magazine essays and blog posts for a broader public audience.
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