Nathalie Berny
Nathalie Berny has specialised in the study of collective action at the intersection of policy-making in various contexts (France, UK, European Union (EU), UN Economic Committee for Europe). She brings together insights from organisation studies to key topics within social movement theory and interest group studies (such as coalition-building, and Europeanisation) as well as to approaches to policy change (Aarhus convention, Biodiversity policies in France). Her present research in the UK focuses on the advocacy strategies of environmental groups in times of policy changes.
From 2020 she has been Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po Rennes where she delivered several lectures on environmental politics and policies as well as sustainability transitions to both undergraduates and Masters students. She also lectures on EU policy-making and methodologies in social sciences. She is a member of the CNRS Research Centre Arènes. In Oxford, she is an associate member of Nuffield College.
Publications
(2025). 'Under normative pressure: the European Union at odds with the Aarhus Convention'. Journal of European Integration, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2025.2490155
(2024) with V. Gravey. 'Campaigning or Not in the 2016 Referendum? UK Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations and European Union Membership'. Political Studies, 72(4), 1332-1353. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231178997 (Original work published 2023).
(2021) with V. Gravey and A. Thomas, 'Les turbulences du Brexit: légitimité démocratique, gouvernance et action publique', Politique européenne, 2021 n° 73(3), 8-30.
(2021) ‘‘Interest groups‘‘, with B. Moore, in Jordan A. & V. Gravey (eds), Environmental Policies in the EU. Actors, Institutions and Processes, Routledge, 4e édition.
(2019) Défendre la cause de l'environnement. Une approche organisationnelle. Presses universitaires de Rennes (Respublica).
(2019) With Ellen Clarck, ‘NGOs and the Grassroots’, in Routledge Companion in Davoudi S., Cowell R., White I. and Blanco H. (eds), Routledge Companion to Sustainable Development and Land Planning, Routledge, Abingdon, 2019, pp. 150-60.
(2018) “The restoration of biodiversity in France : from words to deeds”, in Burns C., Tobin p. & Sewerin S. (eds), The Global Economic Crisis and European Environmental Policy, Oxford University Press.
(2018) ‘Institutionalisation and distinctive competences of environmental NGOs: the expansion of French organisations’, Environmental Politics, 27(6), 1033-1056.
(2018) With Rootes, C., ‘Environmental NGOs at a crossroads?’, Environmental Politics, 27(6), 947-972.
(2018) 'Failing to preach by example? The EU and the Aarhus Convention', Environmental Politics, 27:4, 2018, 757-762.
Communications
(2024) "Advocating for the environment in Brussels", University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) Annual Conference, Trento , 1-4 September.
(2024) "La fabrication de la norme environnementale", VIe assises Franco-Polonaises du droit, Université de Lorraine, Université Adam Mickiewicz, Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, 15-17 April.
(2024) "UK environmental Groups. Advocating for the environment in turbulent times", Department of sociology, University of Oxford, Oxford, 26 February.
(2022) “Advocating for the environment in turbulent times. UK environmental organisations in a Brexit and pandemic context”, ECPR General Conference, Innsbruck, 22-26 August 2022.
(2019) Environmental NGOs in times of change’’, Political Science Association Environment Workshop ‘Activism and Academia in the Age of Environmental Breakdown’, Nottingham-Trent University, Nottingham, 20 September.
Organisation of seminars
(2024)"European Elections 2024 results: change and continuity", Oxpo and MFO event, Co-convened with Steve Fisher (University of Oxford), Oxford, 13 June.
(2024) "Contemporary research on environmentalism", Oxpo and MFO event, co-convened with Joost de Moor (Sciences Po Paris), Oxford,8 May.
(2022) « Régionalisation et politiques environnementales. Capacités et mise en œuvre aux niveaux infranationaux », (avec Jean-Pierre Le Bourhis, Arènes) pannel ASRDLF 58e colloque, Rennes, 29 june-1st July.
(2019) European and British Public policy caught in the Brexit turbulence, Congrès de l’Association française de science politique, Bordeaux, 3-7 July 2019. (With Viviane Gravey)
