astronomy

Simon Batterbury

Simon Batterbury is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Simon Batterbury rather than just read about it. In short: Simon Batterbury (born 1963) is a British-Australian geographer, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Background Born in Greenwich and raised in Eltham, South East London, he attended Eltham College and Reading University (Human & Physical Geography, 1985, taught by Sir Peter Hall and Mike Breheny).

Key takeaways

Simon Batterbury belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Simon Batterbury to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Simon Batterbury from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Simon Batterbury (born 1963) is a British-Australian geographer, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Background Born in Greenwich and raised in Eltham, South East London, he attended Eltham College and Reading University (Human & Physical Geography, 1985, taught by Sir Peter Hall and Mike Breheny). He worked at Property Market Analysis in the 1980s doing applied property research, moving to Clark University in Massachusetts for an MA (1990) and PhD (1997) in geography, supervised by Doug Johnson and Billie Lee Turner II). He then held academic appointments at Brunel University (1993–1999, beginning at West London Institute), the London School of Economics (1999–2001), the University of Arizona (2001–2004) and the University of Melbourne (2004–2016, 2019–date). From 2017 to 2019 he was the inaugural Professor and Chair of Political Ecology in the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University. At the University of Melbourne, he directed the Office for Environmental Programs and the interdisciplinary Master of Environment degree with 370 students, and from 2023, the Melbourne Climate Futures Academy for PhD students and early career researchers.

Contributions Batterbury was an early adopter of cross-scale political ecology when working with a development program in Burkina Faso offering soil conservation through diguettes, showing how local environmental changes/erosion resulted from adverse national and international political economic forces, networks of power, and inequality. A large interdisciplinary investigation of land use change and livelihoods in South West Niger with Andrew Warren followed, funded by the UK-based ESRC. The work showed the adaptability of peasant farmers to drought, poverty, and inequality in access to resources through 'productive bricolage' and diversification of livelihoods. Empirical studies of desertification in the Sahel found strong local adaptability to uncertain rainfall, with little use of Western agricultural inputs or seed varieties. A comparative study of World Bank relationships with NGOs in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Ecuador with David Lewis and Tony Bebbington resulted in several articles. Since 2010 he has worked in the un-decolonised South Pacific settler economy of New Caledonia-Kanaky on the political ecology of mining and other issues affecting Indigenous Kanak societies and cultures, producing a major volume in English in 2024 with Matthias Kowasch. Indigenous people have reluctantly embraced mining, but use it to their geopolitical advantage including control of a major nickel project, the Koniambo mine. The Critical Raw Materials Act in Europe has a peripheral influence on mining on the islands and poses new challenges for raw material supply for the European Green Deal. Research on Community Bike Workshops and their contributions of low carbon mobility, social justice, and active travel is an emerging area (funded by the British Academy, 2024). Batterbury chairs a small workshop, WeCycle, that gives away more than 250 rebuilt and repaired bikes a year to refugees and asylum seekers in Melbourne; it featured on national TV.

Open Access Batterbury has co-edited the Journal of Political Ecology since 2003. Editing this zero-budget OA journal led to strong support for Diamond Open Access non-commercial scholarly publishing including an Open Access Manifesto and media work.

Awards TEMA fellowship, Linköping University, Sweden, 2026 British Academy fellowship, 2024 Best PhD/Graduate supervisor, University of Melbourne, 2019 COSMOPOLIS fellow, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2015 James Martin Fellow, ECI, University of Oxford, 2007

Selected publications Kowasch M. and Batterbury, S.P.J. (eds.). 2024. Geographies of New Caledonia-Kanaky: environments, politics and cultures. Springer. (19 chapters) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49140-5 Batterbury S.P.J. and I. Vandermeersch. 2016. Bicycle justice: community bicycle workshops and "invisible cyclists" in Brussels. In A. Golub, M.L. Hoffmann, A.E.Lugo & G.F. Sandoval (eds.). Bicycle justice and urban transformation: biking for all? Routledge. 189-202. Reynolds J.F., D.M. Stafford-Smith, E. Lambin, B.L. Turner II, M.J Mortimore, S.P.J Batterbury, T.E. Downing, H. Dowlatabadi, R.J. Fernandez, J.E. Herrick, E. Huber-Sannwald, H. Jiang, R. Leemans, T. Lynam, F. Maestre, B. Walker, and M. Ayarza. 2007. Global desertification: building a science for dryland development. Science. 316 (May 11): 847-851. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1131634 Batterbury, S.P.J. (ed.) 2006. Rescaling governance and the impacts of political and environmental decentralization. World Development 34(11): 1851-1995. (8 articles) Batterbury, S.P.J & A. Warren (eds.) 2001. The African Sahel 25 years after the Great Drought. Global Environmental Change 11(1): 1-96. (8 articles).

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Simon Batterbury

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Simon Batterbury claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Simon Batterbury before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Simon Batterbury ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Simon Batterbury

In research: Simon Batterbury appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Simon Batterbury in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Simon Batterbury is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1963 births, Academic journal editors, Alumni of the University of Reading, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Simon Batterbury outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Simon Batterbury in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Simon Batterbury means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Simon Batterbury out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Simon Batterbury in simple terms?

Simon Batterbury (born 1963) is a British-Australian geographer, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Background Born in Greenwich and raised in Eltham, South East London, he attended Eltham College and Reading University (Human & Physical Geography, 1985, t…

Why does Simon Batterbury matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Simon Batterbury?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Simon Batterbury.