Jenny Patient
Faculty of Social Sciences
PhD Student
Full contact details
Faculty of Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICOSS)
219 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
- Profile
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As a PhD student within the Realising Just Cities programme funded by Mistra Urban Futures, Jenny is focused on developing knowledge that can help trade unions play their full role towards an energy transition that brings both sustainability and justice, at a time when action on climate at a city level has never been so important.
Jenny started her PhD in 2017 as a mature student. She previously worked in the UK rail industry and then in adult education, and for Sheffield Climate Alliance and Heeley City Farm. With Sheffield Climate Alliance, she worked as Campaigns Worker for three years, focusing especially on the employment, health and social co-benefits of climate action. This led to her involvement with the Yorkshire and Humber Low Carbon Task Force set up by the regional TUC.
- Qualifications
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Her first degree, at the University of Warwick, was in Mathematics but was flexible enough to enable her to also study Sociology alongside.
She later studied part-time for a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education at the University of Huddersfield.
She then undertook an interdisciplinary Masters in Human Ecology, at the University of Strathclyde. Themes of organisational learning, action research and climate justice threaded through these degrees.
- Research interests
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Project Title:
Trade Unions and a Just Transition to Low CarbonProject Outline:
Using an Action Research approach to explore the responses of UK trade unions to climate change, in the energy-intensive industries of Yorkshire and the Humber.Jenny's PhD proposal developed from work over three years to engage trade unions around climate change. Making connections through the fringe programme around COP21 in Paris led her to conversations with trade unions in energy-intensive industries, such as steel, glass and cement, that underpin the cities of Leeds, Hull and Sheffield.
As a PhD student within the Realising Just Cities programme funded by Mistra Urban Futures, Jenny is focused on developing knowledge that can help trade unions play their full role towards an energy transition that brings both sustainability and justice, at a time when action on climate at a city level has never been so important.
Supervisors: Professor Beth Perry and Dr Stephen Connolly