Karen Bakker | |
|---|---|
 Bakker in 2018 | |
| Born | (1971-12-06)6 December 1971 Montreal, Canada |
| Died | 14 August 2023(2023-08-14) (aged 51) Vancouver, Canada |
| Occupation | Author, professor, researcher |
| Language | English, French, Spanish |
| Alma mater | McMaster University,Oxford University |
| Subject | Digital transformation,environmental governance,sustainability, water |
| Notable awards | Rhodes Scholarship,Guggenheim Fellowship, Annenberg Fellowship in Communication at theCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford),Trudeau Foundation Fellowship,Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship |
| Website | |
| karenbakker | |
Karen Bakker (6 December 1971 – 14 August 2023)[1] was a Canadian author, researcher, and entrepreneur known for her work ondigital transformation,environmental governance, andsustainability. ARhodes Scholar[2] with a DPhil fromOxford, Bakker was a professor at theUniversity of British Columbia.[3] In 2022–2023 she was onsabbatical leave atHarvard, as aHarvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow.[4] She was the recipient of numerous awards, including aGuggenheim Fellowship,[5]Stanford University's Annenberg Fellowship in Communication,[6] Canada's "Top 40 Under 40",[7] and aTrudeau Foundation Fellowship.[8]
Bakker's research focused on the intersection of digital technologies andenvironmental governance, digital environmental humanities, digital geographies,political ecology, andpolitical economy.[3] In the early part of her career, she focused on water and climate issues.[8] Later, she concentrated on digital technology and environmentalfutures studies as critical yet pragmatic projects aiming to advanceregenerative sustainability andenvironmental justice.[9]
Bakker was born in Montreal and raised in Ottawa. She trained in both the natural and social sciences atMcMaster University (a combined Bachelor of Arts and Science (minor in Physics), followed by a DPhil in geography at theUniversity of Oxford). She published over 100 academic publications, including seven sole-authored and edited scholarly books.[10][11] Her work has been cited over 20,000 times.[12]
She also served as a policy advisor to organizations at the forefront of digital innovation on environmental issues, including the Digital Research Alliance of Canada,[13]Future Earth,[14] Sustainability in a Digital Age,[15] and theInternational Institute for Sustainable Development.[16] Her advisory roles have also included theIPCC,National Round Table on Environment and Economy,OECD,UNDP,UNEP,UNESCO, andOHCHR.[17][18]
Bakker was a member of the Decolonizing Water research collective[19] and the Riverhood project team (funded by the EU),[20] as well as the Coalition on Digital Environmental Sustainability,[21] and the Policy Network on Environment of theInternet Governance Forum.[22] She was also a board member of theNational Research Council Canada,[23] and a member of the editorial board ofGlobal Environmental Change.[24]
Bakker delivered over 200 conference presentations and invited lectures over the course of her career, at academic institutions such as Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, and UCLA. These span several disciplines including geography and environmental studies, computer science, urban studies, labour studies, political ecology, and political economy.[10]
Bakker'sSmart Earth project engaged with two of the most destabilizing, controversial trends of our time: digital transformation and global environmental change.[25]
Smart Earth brings together researchers, educators, and policymakers to study environmental knowledge and seeks to better understand the complex relationships between humans and nature.[25] This project was launched with a meta-review of a smart technologies database in 2018.[26] Bakker curated a website with learning tools regarding digital technologies and their application to environmental issues,[25] and has collaborated with theUnited Nations Environment Program to map out a roadmap for international action on digital transformation and sustainability.[27]
Bakker worked at the intersection of data and sustainability, exploring how technology can be leveraged to better protect, understand, cohabitate, and perhaps even communicate with our non-human counterparts. Bakker wrote critically about the potential pitfalls of the digital listening agenda, comparing it to an environmental variant ofsurveillance capitalism.[28]
In October 2022, Bakker published her book:The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants (Princeton University Press).[29] The book was chosen as the NPR Science Friday Book Club book of the month for November 2022,[30] selected as one of Malcolm Gladwell's Next Big Idea Club nominees in October 2022,[31] and received both popular and critical acclaim, including a review inScience, which described the book as "thoughtful and rigorous…meticulously researched and colorfully presented…in a way that is accessible to non-experts. A wonderful mix of animal ecology, narratives of science-doing, futurism, and accounts of Indigenous knowledge that is as interdisciplinary as the field itself."[32] She was invited to present the book at Google Talks,Aspen Ideas Festival and was the opening keynote at theTED 2023 conference.
Bakker also worked broadly on issues of water accessibility, governance, and policy. Her publications includePrivatizing Water: Governance Failure and the World's UrbanWater Crisis[33] (Cornell University Press),An Uncooperative Commodity: Privatizing Water in England and Wales[34] (Oxford University Press), "Neoliberalizing Nature? Market Environmentalism in Water Supply in England and Wales" (2005),[35] and "Water security: Debating an emerging paradigm" (2012).[36] ThePrivatizing Water book was awarded the Urban Affairs Association Book Award (2011; honourable mention)[37] and the Rik Davidson/Studies in Political Economy Book Prize (2012).[38]
Writing under hernom de plume, Karen Le Billon, Bakker wrote two popular science books on children, food, and families.French Kids Eat Everything[39] (HarperCollins, 2012) was published in 15 countries and 12 languages,[10] awarded the Taste Canada Food Writing Award in 2013,[40] and widely featured in the press, includingThe New York Times,[41]The Guardian,[42] andThe Sunday Times.[43] The follow up book Getting To Yum: The 7 Secrets Of Raising Eager Eaters (HarperCollins, 2014) was also well received by experts and the public.[44]
Bakker died after a brief illness on 14 August 2023.[45]
