Matthew Turner – “Alternatives to Sustainability Science”: A political ecology of soil nutrient depletion in the fields of African farmers

Matthew Turner, Professor of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Matthew Turner is a professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research concerns, in broad terms, nature-society relations in dryland West Africa. Using political ecology frameworks, he has conducted research on questions of environmental governance, resource-related conflict, pastoral livelihoods, property institutions, dryland degradation, vegetative dynamics, food security, and climate change vulnerability. His work often involves mixed methods combining qualitative and quantitative data and analysis in novel ways. As someone with strong commitments to the rural people with whom he works, he often finds it necessary to critically engage with environmental science and development practices that directly or indirectly shape their lives.