School of Geography and the Environment

Profile

Sam Randalls joined ECI in January 2006 as a James Martin Fellow. He has a BA in Geography, MSc in Research in Human Geography and PhD from the University of Birmingham. His PhD was entitled ‘Firms, finance and the weather: the UK weather derivatives market', which examined the development of weather derivatives in the UK.

Research Interests

Sam's current research falls into three main areas.

1. A project examining the relations between weather derivatives, emissions markets, renewable energy and climate change policy in the UK energy sector and beyond. This examines the ways in which weather derivatives may interact with climate policy issues including business approaches to climate risks, the financing of renewable energy and issues surrounding the use of markets for reducing carbon emissions. The work has broader implications for how market-based approaches to environmental risks are conceived and work in practice.
2. A project with Max Boykoff and Dave Frame examining the development of climate science and policy in the 1980s focusing on the rise of climate stabilization as the predominant discourse. This work combines science and history of science to explore how an issue became settled and what alternative framings of climate policy are possible.
3. Sam is also pursuing ideas that attempt to widen the debates around climate policy, including examining the colonialisms and environmentalisms implicated and critiqued in climate policy, the politics and philosophies underlying climate policy and the potential value of exploring cultural histories of weather/climate for contemporary policy issues.

Research interests primarily converge on understanding weather-society relationships in both historical and contemporary aspects. These interests include histories of meteorology (19th century to present), construction of weather knowledges, the effects of weather/climate on economy and society, and climate change politics. Linked to this is a more general interest in science, finance and law. This embraces topics such as the funding of science, commercialization of science and the relationships between science and law. These empirical interests are supported by theoretical interests in sociology of science, pragmatic philosophy of science and political economies. I am particularly keen to explore these in relation to interdisciplinary issues.

Recent Publications

• Randalls, S.C. 2005. Weather, finance and meteorology: forecasting and derivatives, In: Emeis, S. and Lüdecke, C. (eds) From Beaufort to Bjerknes and beyond: critical perspectives on observing, analyzing and predicting weather and climate, Algorismus, 52, ERV Dr. Ervin Rauner Verlag, Augsburg, Germany, 227-238.
• Evans, J.P. and Randalls, S.C. Forthcoming. Geography and paratactical interdisciplinarity: views from the ESRC-NERC studentship program, Geoforum
• Pollard, J.S., Oldfield, J.D., Randalls, S.C. and Thornes, J.E. Forthcoming. Firm finances, weather derivatives and geography, Geoforum