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Brendon

Prof. Brendon Barnes

Professor
Name: Brendon Barnes
Department of Psychology Staff, Faculty of Humanities  Staff Members

Contact Details:

Email: bbarnes@uj.ac.za

About Prof. Brendon Barnes

Area of Specialization​

  • Climate change, environment, and psychology (CEP)
  • Behaviour-change and CEP
  • Environmental and climate activism
  • Methodologies to strengthen CEP

My research focuses on psychology, environment and health in the global South. I have worked on studies of air pollution, urban housing, lead poisoning, mercury, as well as water and sanitation. I contribute to this field in the following ways: to identify the association between toxic environments and child development, to deepen and critique the concept of ‘behaviour’ in environmental health, to understand the role of activism in environmental health promotion, and to develop the research methodologies we use to study environment and health. I teach in the areas of health psychology, public health, and research methodology at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Recent publications

  • Barnes, B. R. (2024). Imagination, disruption and complexity: strengthening psychological scholarship of activism and collective action (perspective). Global Environmental Psychology, 2, Article e12999.
  • Barnes, B. R. (2024). Racism and youth climate activism: what can we learn from racism allegations about the image exclusions of black women activists? In J. O’Connor (Ed). The Handbook of Youth Activism. (pp. 196-209). Edward Elgar.
  • Barnes, B. R. (2023). Household air pollution and behaviour change: learning from unexpected findings in N. Murtagh & B. Gatersleben (Eds). Handbook of Pro-environmental Behavior. (pp. 307-319). Edward Elgar.
  • Barnes, B. R. (2022). Racism, climate activism and the politics of apology: the digital exclusion of black climate activists. South African Journal of Psychology, 52(4), 522-532.
  • Klarmann, S. & Barnes, B. R. (2022). Towards a ‘just’ conservation psychology. Psychology in Society (PINS), 64, 44-66.
  • Barnes, B. R. (2021). Reimagining African women youth climate activism: the case of Vanessa Nakate. Sustainability, 13, 13214, 1-14.
  • Fernandes-Jesus, M., Barnes, B. R. & Diniz, R. (2020). Communities reclaiming power and social justice in the face of climate change. Journal of Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 6(2), 1-21.
  • Rafaely, D. & Barnes, B. R. (2020). How African women climate activists are undermined: the tacit silencing of Vanessa Nakate. Journal of Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 6(2), 71-86.
  • Pillay, A. & Barnes, B. R. (2020) Psychology and COVID-19: impacts, themes and way forward. South African Journal of Psychology, 50(2), 148-153.