Skip to content
University of Oxford
School of Geography and the Environment

 School of Geography and the Environment

IGS: Current and Recent Graduate Research

Nina Kruglikova

Environmental NGOs and eco-media technologies: an ethnographic study

Supervisor(s):
Contact Info:

Academic Profile

Nina gained a 1st class degree in linguistics from Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia in 2001 and an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford in 2003. Before embarking on a D.Phil. in the School of Geography and the Environment, she completed her graduate studies in my home university and worked as a researcher for the ESRC-funded project on Russian views of sustainable development and their historical antecedents (project coordinators - Dr Oldfield and Dr Shaw, University of Birmingham). She also acted as a research assistant for Oxford Inspires, Science and Sustainability Group, and had an internship in the GLOBE UK, All-party Parliamentary Group for Sustainable Development, The Houses of Parliament.

Affiliations
Selected Awards
  • 2006 - present: Hill Foundation Scholarship to read for D.Phil. in Geography
  • 2005 - 2007: Soros Foundation Grant, Higher Education Support Programme, to participate in the 3-year international project "Environment and Development: policies for our sustainable future"
  • 2002 - 2003: Shell Centenary/FCO Chevening Scholarship to read for MSc in Environmental Change and Management
  • 1996 - 2001: The Russian Federation's Government Scholarship
Selected Travel Grants
  • March 2007: The AGS UT SC (Alliance for Global Sustainability, the University of Tokyo Student Community) Scholarship to participate in the Students Summit for Sustainability, 4-9 March 2007, Tokyo, Japan.
  • March 2006: WSC-SD (The World Student Community for Sustainable Development) Scholarship to participate in the conference "Mind, Knowledge and Sustainability", 27 Mar-1Apr 2006, Switzerland.
  • Nov. 2004: European Society for Environmental History Travel Grant to participate in the 3rd international ESEH conference, 16-19 Feb. 2005, Florence, Italy.
  • July 2002: Open Society Institute/ Soros Foundation Grant to participate in Summer School 'People and Nature in Historical Perspective', Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
  • July 2000: The British Council Award to participate in Oxford University Summer Programme.

Current Research

Nina's research project is focused on an ethnographic study of eco-media technologies in the field of environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a subsequent critical assessment of its findings. The thesis seeks to fill a gap at the interdisciplinary intersections of media anthropology, ethnographic studies of environmentalism and research into relations between the media and the environmental movement.

A review of the academic literature suggests that there has been little ethnographic exploration of how environmental NGOs tailor scientific knowledge to their needs, construct their claims and communicate them in the media. Past research demonstrates that environmental NGOs make an extensive use of scientific evidence and arguments in their campaigns. Presumably, there is a complex web of linkages between the rhetoric of scientificity, political interests and media strategies in this regard. In an effort to investigate this, she intends to do ethnographic work in the selected environmental NGOs.

She will attempt to explore the applicability of the actor-network theory to the empirical investigation of eco-media technologies. The specific research questions have been formulated as follows:

  • How can environmentalism and media technologies be approached in terms of agency, representation and performance?
  • What kind of environmental knowledge is put into the public domain by environmental NGOs and how is it done?
  • How are various types of the eco-media technologies being used to construct the contemporary environmental spectacle?


The fieldwork will involve observant participation, an empirical analysis of eco-media technologies and the analysis of textual artefacts in the settings of their production and mediation. Hopefully, it will provide deeper insights into the practices concerning the performance of environmental NGOs in their relation to science, politics and eco-media technologies. The research thus attempts to understand the complex network of relations involved in these processes and their resulting implications. To the best of her knowledge, it has not yet been explored from the perspective she suggests and with the depth and intensity of ethnographic involvement in the field she proposes.

The research is funded by The Hill Foundation.