Esther Carmen
James Hutton Institute
Errol Road
Dundee
Scotland
DD2 5DA
Biography
I am an interdisciplinary qualitative environmental social scientists interested in the role of different actors in shaping system change in the context of complex environmental challenges, and how social, political and cultural factors intersect within collective change processes to shape what emerges.
My research increasingly draws on systems thinking, often involves a transdisciplinary research approach, and is strongly orientated towards practice - informed by 10 years working as a freshwater environmental practitioner in the UK and in Cambodia working with natural resource dependent communities.
Over the last 10 years my research has often focused on the role of state actors, from across levels of governance, and community-based actors. Commercial actors from across economic sectors are also critical for helping to shape systemic change and my role at the Hutton explicitly focuses on examining how to better engage with and enable this important and diverse group of actors to support the shift to more sustainable collective futures
My current research focuses on anchoring nature-based solutions and natural capital approaches to support how socio-environmental connections are perceived and strengthened in practice by commercial actors within different economic sectors.