Dr Patrick Bresnihan

    Geography

    Rhetoric House
    2nd
    18
    (01) 708 3756

    Biography

    I am a lecturer in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University. I joined the Department in 2019. Prior to joining Maynooth, I was lecturer in the Department of Geography in Trinity College Dublin (2015-2019). I hold a PhD from Trinity College Dublin (2012) and an MPhil from Cambridge University (2007).

    I work across the interdisciplinary fields of urban political ecology, science and technology studies, and environmental humanities. I have published extensively, including articles on water contamination and infrastructure, urban commons in post-crash Dublin, and the extractive logics of wind energy and data in Ireland. My book, Transforming the Fisheries: Neoliberalism, Nature and the Commons (University of Nebraska Press, 2016) won the Geography Society of Ireland Book of the Year in 2018. 

    Research Interests

    My current research focuses on different but related concerns around water, energy and infrastructure in Ireland including: water contamination and industrial agriculture; the politics of expertise and environmental data within catchment management; urban/rural geographies of water infrastructure; the cessation of peat extraction in the midlands, just transition, and ecological restoration of bogs; rural climate justice and the politics of energy/data infrastructures

    I have just completed an 18 month EPA-funded project entitled 'Learning from Group Water Schemes: Community Infrastructures for Sustainable Development' (WISDOM). The project examines the history and development of rural, community-managed water infrastructures in Ireland known as Group Water Schemes (GWSs) and how the work they undertake can help us re-conceive the complex relationships between water, infrastructures, and people. See: http://waterschemes.ie

    My research is often collaborative, including working with environmental scientists, activists and artists. I am interested in experimenting with creative methods and practices. This interest has been shaped by  my involvement in the Provisional University (provisionaluniversity.wordpress.ie) and the Authority Research Network (www.authorityresearch.net). 

    I am currently supervising:
    - Jamie Rohu on Just transitions in the Irish peatlands (IRC-funded).
    - Laure Detymowski on urban environmental justice.

    Research Projects

      Project Role Funding Body / Program Description Start Date End Date Award (€)
    What Does Good Water Mean? Participatory Catchment Mapping through Visual Methodologies PI Irish Research Council (IRC) / New Foundations This project will use established visual methodologies to elicit better understanding of people’s relationships to their water catchments. Building on existing research networks, the project will work with individuals living and working on three specific catchments, enrolling them to document their relationships to their catchments via photography. Resulting photographs will be shared in facilitated focus groups. Selected images and transcribed text from the group discussions will be arranged by the research team and exhibited locally in the three chosen sites, as well as being used for an online, interactive mapping tool designed to capture the diverse ways of understanding catchments. 16-APR-19 23-MAR-20 2343.23
    Learning from Group Water Schemes: Community Infrastructures for Sustainable Development PI Environmental Protection Agency Ireland / EPA / STRIVE (Science, Technology, Research & Innovation for the Environment) The WISDOM project is an 18–month study funded by Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency on the history and development of community-managed water infrastructures in Ireland known as Group Water Schemes (GWS). GWS deliver water supplies to many parts of rural Ireland and account for ~7% of the water sector. GWS developed in the 1960s and 1970s, responding to the lack of public water supply in rural areas. In the last 20 years, however, GWS have undergone considerable change within the Irish water sector. The sector has collectively faced new regulatory requirements, challenges from contamination and leakage, infrastructural disrepair, and the restructuring of the public water sector into a semi-state utility. These changes have coincided with significant urban development, an expanding agricultural sector, the economic recession, demographic changes, and new and more frequent extreme weather events across Ireland. The WISDOM project examines the role of GWS in the Irish water sector to understand how they have endured these pressures and how the work they undertake helps us to re-conceive the complex relationships between water, infrastructures, and people. 31-MAR-18 30-SEP-19 1900
    Learning from Group Water Schemes: Community infrastructures for sustainable development PI / Government State Bodies 30-APR-17 30-SEP-19

    Books

      Year Publication
    2016 Transforming the Fisheries : Neoliberalism, Nature, and the Commons.
    Patrick Bresnihan (2016) Transforming the Fisheries : Neoliberalism, Nature, and the Commons. Lincoln, United States: University of Nebraska Press. [Details]

    Book Chapters

      Year Publication
    2021 'Decolonising environmental politics'
    Patrick Bresnihan and Naomi Millner (2021) 'Decolonising environmental politics' In: Viviana Asara, Emanuele Leonardi, Luigi Pellizzoni (eds). Handbook of Critical Environmental Politics. UK: Edward Elgar. [Details]
    2020 'Cneasú creathí: Healing the Wound'
    Patrick Bresnihan and Monica de Bath (2020) 'Cneasú creathí: Healing the Wound' In: Karen Till (eds). Earth Writings: Bogs, Forests, Fields & Gardens. Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland: Maynooth University Department of Geography. [Details]
    2020 'State and community enterprise: Negotiating water management in rural Ireland'
    Patrick Bresnihan and Arielle Hesse (2020) 'State and community enterprise: Negotiating water management in rural Ireland' In: The Handbook of Diverse Economies. UK: Elgar. [Details]
    2020 'Climate Action via Just Transitions Across the Island of Ireland: Labour, Land and the Low-Carbon Transition'
    Sinead Mercier, Patrick Bresnihan, Damien Mcllroy, John Barry (2020) 'Climate Action via Just Transitions Across the Island of Ireland: Labour, Land and the Low-Carbon Transition' In: David Robbins, Diarmuid Torney, Pat Brereton (eds). Ireland and the Climate Crisis. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan. [DOI] [Details]
    2021 'Infrastructural care and water politics in Cochabamba, Bolivia'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2021) 'Infrastructural care and water politics in Cochabamba, Bolivia' In: Split Waters: The Idea of Water Conflicts. London: Routledge. [Details]
    2020 'Beyond Limits to Growth: Neoliberal Natures and the Green Economy'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2020) 'Beyond Limits to Growth: Neoliberal Natures and the Green Economy' In: The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology. UK: Cambridge University Press. [Details]
    2015 'The more-than-human commons: From commons to commoning'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2015) 'The more-than-human commons: From commons to commoning' In: Space, Power and the Commons: The Struggle for Alternative Futures. UK: Routledge. [Details]
    2013 'Participation in (a time of) crisis'
    Patrck Bresnihan (2013) 'Participation in (a time of) crisis' In: Problems of Participation. Reflections on Authority, Democracy and the Struggle for Common Life. Brighton, UK: ARN Press. [Details]

    Edited Books

      Year Publication
    2017 Problems of Hope
    Leila Dawney, Claire Blencowe and Patrick Bresnihan (Ed.). (2017) Problems of Hope Brighton, UK: ARN Press. [Details]

    Peer Reviewed Journals

      Year Publication
    2021 'Geographies of Authority'
    Julian Brigstocke, Patrick Bresnihan, Leila Dawney, Naomi Millner (2021) 'Geographies of Authority'. Progress in Human Geography, [Details]
    2020 'New extractive frontiers in Ireland and the moebius strip of wind/data'
    Patrick Bresnihan and Patrick Brodie (2020) 'New extractive frontiers in Ireland and the moebius strip of wind/data'. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, [Details]
    2020 'Political ecologies of infrastructural and intestinal decay'
    Patrick Bresnihan and Arielle Hesse (2020) 'Political ecologies of infrastructural and intestinal decay'. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, [Details]
    2018 'O comum mais-que-humano: do comum à comunalização'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2018) 'O comum mais-que-humano: do comum à comunalização'. Aurora. Revista de Arte, Mídia e Política, [full-text] [Details]
    2016 'The bio-financialization of Irish Water: New advances in the neoliberalization of vital services'
    Bresnihan P. (2016) 'The bio-financialization of Irish Water: New advances in the neoliberalization of vital services'. Utilities Policy, 40 :115-124 [DOI] [full-text] [Details]
    2018 'Water, our relative: trauma, healing and hydropolitics'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2018) 'Water, our relative: trauma, healing and hydropolitics'. Community Development Journal, [full-text] [Details]
    2017 'Revisiting neoliberalism in the oceans: Governmentality and the biopolitics of ‘improvement’in the Irish and European fisheries'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2017) 'Revisiting neoliberalism in the oceans: Governmentality and the biopolitics of ‘improvement’in the Irish and European fisheries'. Environment and Planning A, [full-text] [Details]
    2017 'The (slow) tragedy of improvement: Neoliberalism, fisheries management & the institutional commons'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2017) 'The (slow) tragedy of improvement: Neoliberalism, fisheries management & the institutional commons'. World Development, [full-text] [Details]
    2015 'Escape into the city: Everyday practices of commoning and the production of urban space in Dublin'
    Patrick Bresnihan and Michael Byrne (2015) 'Escape into the city: Everyday practices of commoning and the production of urban space in Dublin'. Antipode, [full-text] [Details]
    2013 'John Clare and the manifold commons'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2013) 'John Clare and the manifold commons'. Environmental Humanities, [full-text] [Details]
    2013 'From land to sea: unsettling subjectivities'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2013) 'From land to sea: unsettling subjectivities'. Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, [full-text] [Details]

    Published Reports

      Year Publication
    2021 Learning from Group Water Schemes: Community Infrastructures for Sustainable Development.
    Patrick Bresnihan, Arielle Hesse and James Merricks-White (2021) Learning from Group Water Schemes: Community Infrastructures for Sustainable Development. Environmental Protection Agency, Clonskeagh, Dublin. [Details]
    2019 Public engagement in water governance. Report to The Water Forum.
    Patrick Bresnihan and Arielle Hesse (2019) Public engagement in water governance. Report to The Water Forum. An Forum Uisce, Ireland. [Details]
    2016 Valuing Nature – Perspectives and Issues.
    Patrick Bresnihan (2016) Valuing Nature – Perspectives and Issues. National Economic and Social Council, Dublin. [Details]
    2015 The Dynamics of Environmental Sustainability and Local Development: Aquaculture.
    Patrick Bresnihan (2015) The Dynamics of Environmental Sustainability and Local Development: Aquaculture. National Economic and Social Council, Dublin. [Details]

    Blog

      Year Publication
    2020 Rural and urban, green and red, against eco-austerity.
    Patrick Bresnihan (2020) Rural and urban, green and red, against eco-austerity. Blog [Details]

    Magazine Article

      Year Publication
    2020 Energy vacuums: Data centres, renewable energy, and rural politics.
    Patrick Bresnihan and Patrick Brodie (2020) Energy vacuums: Data centres, renewable energy, and rural politics. Magazine Article [Details]