STAFF PROFILE
Dr Ben Cooke
Position:
Senior Lecturer
College / Portfolio:
Design and Social Context
School / Department:
Global, Urban and Social Studies
Phone:
99259943
Email:
ben.cooke@rmit.edu.au
Campus:
Melbourne 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
- 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
- Cooke, B.,Corbo-Perkins, G. (2018). Co-opting and resisting market based instruments for private land conservation In: Land Use Policy, 70, 172 - 181
- Prado, J.,Puszka, H.,Forman, A.,Cooke, B.,Fitzsimons, J. (2018). Trends and values of 'Land for Wildlife' programs for private land conservation In: Ecological Management and Restoration, 19, 136 - 146
- 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
- Cooke, B. (2017). The co-presence of past and future in the practice of environmental management: Implications for rural-amenity landscapes In: Nature Temporality and Environmental Management Scandinavian and Australian Perspectives on Peoples and Landscapes, Taylor and Francis Group, New York, United States
- Bosomworth, K.,Cooke, B.,Coffey, B. (2017). Living in uncertain landscapes: an NRM lens on the implication of climate change for regional futures In: Australiasian Journal of Regional Studies, 23, 344 - 357
- Cooke, B.,West, S.,Boonstra, W. (2016). Dwelling in the biosphere: Exploring an embodied human-environment connection in resilience thinking In: Sustainability Science, 11, 831 - 843
- Selinske, M.,Cooke, B.,Torabi, N.,Hardy, M.,Knight, A.,Bekessy, S. (2016). Locating financial incentives among diverse motivations for long-term private land conservation In: Ecology and Society, 22, 1 - 10
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
- 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)