Research Institute for
Sustainability | at GFZ

Dr. Michael Keary

Affiliate Scholar

© RIFS/ Arne Weychardt

Drawing on the Digitalisation and Sustainability Transformations Research Group's knowledge of Industry 4.0 technologies, and Dr. Keary's background in green political philosophy, this project examines the potential for AI to act in line with the principles of ecological rationality. The latter has long been seen by dark green thinkers as both a way of critiquing contemporary unsustainability and the foundation upon which a sustainable society must be built. AI trained in this way would not try to solve the system’s problems – and thereby help maintain the unsustainable system – it would work to discover and publicise those problems, in order to overturn the ecologically destructive status quo and help build a sustainable political community. If AI could be used to generate output from this Critical perspective, it could become a powerful tool for ecological justice.

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Director, NovaAura Research 2021-Present
  • Research Fellow, RIFS Potsdam 2022-2023
  • Tutor in Global Politics, King's College London 2021-2022
  • Head of Discipline NUFYP HSS, Nazarbayev University 2015-2021
  • PhD Aberystwyth University 2013
  • (2024) ‘The Political Theory of Technological Change: Lessons from the Liberalism-Ecologism Debate’, Politics, 44(1), pp. 155-172
  • (2023) ‘A Green Theory of Technological Change: Ecologism and the Case for Technological Scepticism’, Contemporary Political Theory, 22, pp. 70–93

  • Green Political Thought
  • Technological Change
  • Digitalisation
  • Liberal Political Thought
  • Realist Political Thought
  • The Politics of Emotion
  • Political Order and Stability

Publications at the RIFS

2023

Journal articles

Publications prior to joining the RIFS

  • (2023) 'The Political Theory of Technological Change: Lessons from the Liberalism-Ecologism Debate'. Politics. Forthcoming.

  • (2023) 'A Green Theory of Technological Change: Ecologism and the Case for Technological Scepticism'. Contemporary Political Theory 22, pp. 70-93. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41296-021-00541-6

  • with Conor Purcell (2023), 'Human security impacts of crossing the Amazon rainforest tipping point'. Germanwatch Tipping points blog series #1. https://www.germanwatch.org/en/87906

  • (2022) 'The Sum of Solutions: Utilising Problem-Based Learning to Solve Critical Problems' in Satish Kumar and Lorna Howarth (Eds.), Regenerative Learning: Education as if People & Planet Matter. London: Global Resilience Publishing

  • (2016) 'The New Prometheans: Technological Optimism in Climate Change Mitigation Modelling'. Environmental Values 25, pp. 7-28. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/whp/ev/2016/00000025/00000001/art00003

  • (2022) King's College London Excellence in Teaching Award Nomination