Dr Ruth Machen is an environmental and political geographer whose research focuses on climate science-policy interaction. Through her current fellowship at Newcastle University Ruth is developing her research on algorithmic climate governance. This examines how algorithmic ways of thinking – embedded in models, platforms and interfaces – are shaping both the process and outcomes of climate governance in a range of case-studies from the USA. Her previous research examined the work of climate boundary organisations in the UK (PhD, Durham 2016), and as a research associate Ruth has worked on several international projects on smart urbanism (UK/Brazil 2016), smart technologies in disaster contexts (UK/Mexico, 2020) and low-carbon transition (Sweden 2015 and UK 2017). Ruth also has experience of leading local authority climate policy in the UK as a practitioner (2005-11).
Ruth’s research is united by her interest in knowledge politics and crosscutting questions around values, legitimacy, and power. She is particularly interested in how particular values, discourses and imaginaries are produced, fixed or contested during the making and circulation of environmental knowledge, and how possibilities for political voice and social change are opened-up or closed-down through these processes.
