My research and teaching focus on environmental politics. In geography this often goes under the label of political ecology, which refers to much more than the government or the state. It includes consideration of how environmental politics is shaped by and shapes economics, science, culture, history, gender, racism, colonialism, social movements and more.

Those working in political ecology, including me, aim to better understand urgent problems – biodiversity loss, drought, poverty, ongoing dispossessions, gendered and racialized violences, climate change – but recognize that diagnosing the causes of these problems, and understanding the relationships between them, is complex and always political.

In my research I focus especially on trying to understand how biodiversity loss continues despite the proliferation of international, national and regional conservation laws, policies and advocacy efforts. It seems as thought biodiversity loss has a kind of momentum of its own: but from where does that momentum stem?

My current major research projects focus on 1) developing a political economic explanation of extinction, centered on an investigation of Canadian wildlife, and 2) examining dominant, increasingly economic and financial approaches to conservation. My research is in dialogue with diverse methodologies and literatures, including political ecology, feminist political economy, economic geography, science studies, and green finance.

2024

Dempsey, J. Irvine-Broque, A. Christensen, J. and P. Bigger. 2024. Thin and shallow: Financial instruments for biodiversity conservation and their outlook. Kuala Lumpur: Third World Network. Available at https://www.twn.my/title2/books/Thin%20and%20Shallow.htm

Dempsey, J. and J. Sundberg. 2024. Political ecology. In Introducing Human Geographies (4th Edition), edited by P. Cloke, K. Dombroski, M. Goodwin, J. Qian, and A. Williams, 586-599. New York, NY: Routledge.

Sumaila, U.R. Alam, L. Abdallah, P.R. Aheto, D. Akintola, S. L. Alger, J. Andreoli, V. Bailey, M. Barnes, C. Ben-Hasan, A. Brooks, C. M. Carvalho, A. R. Cheun, W. W. L. Cisneros-Montemayor, A. M. Dempsey, J. Halim, S. A. Hilmi, N. Ilori, M. O. Jacquet, J. Karuaihe, S. T. Le Billon, P. Leape, J. Martin, T. G. Meeuwig, J. J. Micheli, F. Mokhtar, M. Naylor, R. L. Obura, D. Palomares, M. L. D. Pereira, L. M. Rogers, A. A. Sequeira, A. M. M. Sogbanmu, T. O. Villasante, S. Zeller, D. and Pauly, D. WTO must complete an ambitious fisheries subsidies agreement. npj Ocean Sustain 3 (6). doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-024-00042-0

2023

Irvine-Broque, A. and J. Dempsey. 2023. Risky business: Protecting nature, protecting wealth? Conservation Letters 16, e12969. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12969

Collard, R. Dempsey, J. Muir, B. Allan, R.  Herd, A. and P. Bode. 2023. Years late and millions short: A predictive audit of economic impacts for coal mines in British Columbia, Canada. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 100. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107074

2022

Collard, R. and J. Dempsey. 2022. Future Eco-Perfect: Temporal Fixes of Liberal Environmentalism. Antipode 54(5): 1545-1565. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12849

Dempsey, J. Doebeli, A. G. Hoogeveen, D. Quinn, C. and I. Sosa‐Aranda. 2022. Inconsistent, downplayed, and pathologized: How mining’s gendered impacts are considered in BC environmental assessment. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12795

Dempsey, J. Irvine-Broque, A. Bigger, P. Christensen, J. Rojas Marchini, F. Nelson, S. Shapiro-Garza, E. Muchhala, B. Schuldt, A. and A. Disilvestro. 2022. Addressing debt, taxes, and austerity to advance transformative change in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Nature Ecology and Evolution 6: 237-239.

2021

Doebeli, A. Magnuson, B. Yoon-Henderson, K. Collard, R. Dempsey, J. Carre, M. Corrado, M. Dhaliwal, R. Giesting, A. Gonchar, K. Hsu, C. Johnson, T. Karve, U. Lam, E. Nelson, K. Teske, M. Valente, E. Wang, I. Wheaton, P. Getherington, C. Hsu, L. Wen, C. and C. Yeung. 2021. How does the environmental state “see” endangered marine animals? Environmental Science and Policy 124: 293-304.

Belliveau, E. Rowe, J. K. and Dempsey, J. 2021. Fossil Fuel Divestment, Non-reformist Reforms, and Anti-capitalist Strategy.  In Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy, edited by W. K. Carroll, 453-477.  Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press.

2020

Dempsey, J., Martins, T. and Sumaila, R. 2020. Subsidizing extinction. Conservation Letters 13(1), 1-3. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12705

Collard, R. C., Dempsey, J. and Holmberg, M. 2020. Extirpation despite regulation? Environmental assessment and caribou. Conservation Science and Practice 2(4), 1-10. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.166

2019

Collard, R. C. and Dempsey, J. 2019. Two icebergs: difference in feminist political economy. Environment and Planning A 52(1): 237-247.

Dempsey, J. and Bigger, P. 2019. Intimate Mediations of For-Profit Conservation Finance:  Waste, Improvement, and Accumulation. Antipode 51(2): 517-538.