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 political ecology, science and technology studies, and environmental humanities. I have published extensively, including articles on the financialisation of water services, urban commons in post-crash Dublin, and the poetics of John Clare. 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: political ecologies of water contamination and industrial agriculture; the politics of expertise and environmental data within catchment management; the material politics and urban/rural geographies of water infrastructure; the cessation of peat extraction in the midlands, just transition, and ecological restoration; rural contestation around new energy infrastructures; the offshoring of wind energy and the blue frontier; and the material ecologies and geographies of the tech industry (data centres) in the context of climate politics.

    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 welcome inquiries concerning supervision of research students in the following areas: politics and political ecology of infrastructure; just transition and legacies of extraction; postcolonial environmentalism and environmental justice; the green economy and financialization of nature. 

    I am currently supervising:
    - Jamie Rohu on Just transitions in the Irish peatlands (IRC-funded).
    - Laure de Tymowski on knowledge politics in urban environmental governance.

    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
    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 'Infrastructural care and water politics in Cochabamba, Bolivia'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2020) 'Infrastructural care and water politics in Cochabamba, Bolivia' In: Split Waters: Examining Conflicts Related to Water and Their Narration. UK: 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
    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, [IR Link] [Details]
    2018 'Water, our relative: trauma, healing and hydropolitics'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2018) 'Water, our relative: trauma, healing and hydropolitics'. Community Development Journal, [IR Link] [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, [IR Link] [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, [IR Link] [Details]
    2016 'The bio-financialization of Irish Water: New advances in the neoliberalization of vital services'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2016) 'The bio-financialization of Irish Water: New advances in the neoliberalization of vital services'. Utilities Policy, [IR Link] [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, [IR Link] [Details]
    2013 'John Clare and the manifold commons'
    Patrick Bresnihan (2013) 'John Clare and the manifold commons'. Environmental Humanities, [IR Link] [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, [IR Link] [Details]

    Published Reports

      Year Publication
    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]