STAFF PROFILE
Dr Ben Cooke
Position:
Senior Lecturer
College / Portfolio:
Design and Social Context
School / Department:
DSC|School of GUSS
Phone:
+61399259943
Email:
ben.cooke@rmit.edu.au
Campus:
City Campus
Contact me about:
Research supervision
Ben is a human geographer with a broad interest in the socio-ecological dynamics of conservation and a commitment to praxis-based pedagogy in environmental studies.
I am a lecturer based in the Bachelor of Environment and Society Program who has conducted extensive research into the practice and policy of private land conservation in Australia. My current work is focused on questions of equity, justice and property around urban greening, as well as the application of market-based instruments to leverage conservation outcomes.
Research interests include:
- Geography of human-environment relations
- Politics of urban greening
- Private land conservation practice and policy
- Nonhuman agency
- Qualitative research methods
- Interdisciplinary environmental research
Teaching responsibilities include:
- ENVI1049 - Environment Assessment, Monitoring and Systems
- ENVI1062 - Client Based Research
- ENVI1128 - Environmental Management Systems and Tools
- ENVI1213 - Sustainability Strategies (capstone)
By appointment
- BEnvSc (Deakin University) - 2005
- BA (Hons) (Monash University) - 2006
- PhD (RMIT University) - 2013
Local Government Environmental Planner
Consultancy work for private land conservation agencies
Teaching and research collaborations with the policy, NGO and community sector
- Fitzsimons, J.,Cooke, B. (2021). Key questions for conservation tenders as a means for delivering biodiversity benefits on private land In: Ecological Management and Restoration, 22, 110 - 114
- Cooke, B.,LANDAU-WARD, A.,Rickards, L. (2020). Urban greening, property and more-than-human commoning In: Australian Geographer, 51, 169 - 188
- Cooke, B.,Lane, R. (2020). Making Ecologies on Private Land, Palgrave Pivot, Cham, Switzerland
- Cooke, B. (2020). The politics of urban greening: an introduction In: Australian Geographer, 51, 137 - 153
- Ford, J.,Ison, J.,McKenzie, L.,Cannizzo, F.,Mayhew, L.,Osborne, N.,Cooke, B. (2020). What ongoing staff can do to support precariously employed colleagues: the Academic Precariat In: Australian Universities Review, 62, 57 - 62
- Jellinek, S.,Wilson, K.,Hagger, V.,Mumaw, L.,Cooke, B.,Guerrero, A.,Erickson, T.,Zamin, T.,Waryszak, P.,Standish, R. (2019). Integrating diverse social and ecological motivations to achieve landscape restoration In: Journal of Applied Ecology, 56, 246 - 252
- Maller, C.,Mumaw, L.,Cooke, B. (2019). Health and social benefits of living with 'wild' nature In: Rewilding, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom
- Moon, K.,Adams, V.,Cooke, B. (2019). Shared personal reflections on the need to broaden the scope of conservation social science In: People and Nature, 1, 426 - 434
- Cooke, B.,Lane, R. (2018). Plant-human commoning: Navigating enclosure, neoliberal conservation, and plant mobility in exurban landscapes In: Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108, 1715 - 1731
- Clements, H.,Selinske, M.,Archibald, C.,Cooke, B.,Fitzsimons, J.,Groce, J.,Torabi, N.,Hardy, M. (2018). Fairness and transparency are required for the inclusion of Privately Protected Areas in publicly accessible conservation databases In: Land, 7, 1 - 13
Human-environment relationships, Time and environment management, Rural-amenity migration and changing rural landscapes, Private land conservation policy, Environmental stewardship as concept and policy.
3 PhD Current Supervisions
- Phillip Island Nature Parks Research Project Evaluating interactions of beachgoers and their dogs with local wildlife. Funded by: Phillip Island Nature Park (Contract) from (2019 to 2021)
- Strategies towards integrating urban Edible City Solutions for social resilient and sustainably productive cities in Europe (EdiCitNet) (administered by Technische Universitaet Berlin). Funded by: Horizon 2020 Innovation Actions from (2018 to 2023)
- Owning nature: mapping the contested country of private protected areas (administered by University of Tasmania). Funded by: ARC Discovery Project via Other University from (2018 to 2020)