Thinking Through Badgers

"This is a refreshing account of research in all its entanglements – the research embedded in the contemporary neo-liberal university, in the careers of the connected academics, in the ‘life’, thoughts and reflections of the frontline researcher, and in the moments of connection between the researcher and the interviewees – here allowed to speak through extensive unmediated interview quotes.

If Les Back’s (2016) Academic Diary is a reflection on ‘Why Higher Education still matters’ from the perspective of a professor at the height of their career, ‘Thinking Through Badgers’ reflects on the research process and academia from the perspective of someone at the faltering early stages, wracked with doubt about the value and opportunity a life in academia can afford. Stephan Price, a researcher on an interdisciplinary project navigating the contested politics of the bTB badger cull, documents the research process in all its glory. The reader is taken from meetings with The Professors (and their smartphones), interviews with cull supporters and opponents, DEFRA consultation events (with or without Post-It notes), allowing a true appreciation of the commitment required to get everyone in same room for some good-old stakeholder dialogue. Stephan considers the effect of how we fund, structure and undertake research on the outcomes of the research itself, just as he critiques the practice and implications of ways of doing ‘evidence-based’ policy-making. Woven through this is a compelling story of the politics, science and practice of the bTB controversy in the UK. Stephan reads, baulks at, troubles over and holds up to scrutiny academic writing on the geographies of nature, philosophy of science and democracy, constantly trying to pull these back to the question of what it all means for cattle and badgers.

Stephan brings the sense of immediacy and openness that comes from good blogging into the book form.

This is likely to appeal particularly to PhD students, early career academics and academics interested in the ‘doing’ of research. The detailing of the conflict itself, the voices of the interviewees laid out in extensive sections, and Price’s reflections on environment conflict, the science-policy interface and the issues of participatory democracy is a useful resource for academics, policy-makers and environmental activists whose work touches this particular conflict."

Dr Kezia Barker

Dept of Geography, Environment and Development Studies (GEDS)

Birkbeck, University of London