Ursula Balderson

Profile

I joined the School of Earth and Environment School from the Business School in 2025. I am an interdisciplinary researcher interested in the political economy of environmental policy making and the social impacts of environmental policies. I am currently working on a project about the implications of UK government’s drive for increased private sector involvement in the restoration of UK peatland.

Prior to this I worked on a project about Just Transition in Chile and the UK. This included case studies of Just Transition process in Chile’s coal and lithium sectors. The work was part of a broader project comparing union involvement in climate and Just Transition policymaking across 14 different countries. While at LUBS I also carried out research project the impact of decarbonisation on foundation industry workers and helped design a survey about worker perceptions of climate change and the green transition.

Before coming to Leeds, I worked on a project about the relationship between working hours and wellbeing at the University of Cambridge. This work helped kick start the movement for a 4-day week by highlighting how few hours of work were needed to for the known wellbeing benefits of work to be realised.

My PhD was completed at Newcastle University and was a case study of a conflict between a large gold mining company and a small community whose water resources had been affect by mining activities leading to a complex emotional landscape around the site. The project drew on political ecology and social movement theory to understand the dynamic between actors and the low-level nature of the conflict.

I work primarily with qualitative methods. I have published on topics relating to political ecology, future-of-work, degrowth, Just Transition and UK industrial strategy. I am interested in visual forms of communication and have produced several short films about my research.

Research interests

• Job quality in the green economy
• Green industrial policy
• Mining / water / conflict
• Worker agency in the green transition
• Worker subjectivities in the green transition
• Working time reductions and time use changes
• Risks of nature commodification

Qualifications

• PhD Environmental Sociology
• MSc Environmental Engineering
• MA Latin American Studies
• BA Human Geography

Professional memberships

• Member of the International Society of Ecological Economics