Brian F. O’Neill is a sociologist and postdoctoral research scholar in the College of Global Futures and the School of Ocean Futures at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2022. His research often draws from engagements with the intellectual traditions of environmental sociology, political ecology, and political economy. The underlying question motivating much of his empirical work is: what is the nature of the recent, intense interest in “green” practices invoked by climate adaptation strategies? In problematizing existing adaptation efforts, he has explored issues of environmental injustices, public opinion, and social inequalities in policymaking at the nexus of the water and energy sectors (e.g., rivers and dams, desalination, fisheries, wind, and natural gas), using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Most recently, his work has focused on the intersections of climate and ocean policies as they illuminate significant trends in the future of labor, political economy, and competing conceptions of sustainability. Brian’s activities are indicative of his commitment to scholarship that requires engagement across diverse publics, that is, with the academic community, but also those in power to make decisions about our future, and those who may not (yet) have a seat at the table. His research has been published in various venues, including Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, The Sociological Quarterly, Human Geography, Visual Studies, the Journal of World-systems Research and more.
2022 - Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2018 - M.A. in Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2016 - M.S. in Water, Society, and Policy, University of Arizona
2014 - B.A. Washington & Jefferson College
Environmental Sociology (e.g., environmental politics, grassroots mobilization)
Global and Transnational Sociology (e.g., World-systems)
Economic Sociology (e.g., political economy, financialziation, labor)
Political Ecology (e.g., Anthropocene, landscapes)
Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation (e.g., technology, ideology)
Futurity (e.g., oceans, climate, social)
Visual Studies (e.g, theory and practice of photography)
Ethnography (e.g., the methodological challenges of globalization and finance)
School of Ocean Futures
Conservation International
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. “Water for Whom? Desalination and the Cooptation of the Environmental Justice Frame in Southern California.” Online first at Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. DOI 10.1177/25148486221102377
- Part of the Theme Issue: Water Matters
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. “Documentary Photography as Vocation: Reflecting on Frank Cancian’s Contribution to Visual Studies.” Visual Studies. Online first at DOI 10.1080/1472586X.2021.2008815
2021 O’Neill, Brian F. and Matthew Jerome Schneider. “A Public Health Frame for Fracking? Predicting Public Support for Hydraulic Fracturing.” The Sociological Quarterly. Vol. 62, Issue 3: 439-463. DOI 10.1080/00380253
- 2nd Place – 2020 Midwest Sociological Society graduate student paper competition ($150)
- Winner – 2019 George L. Beslow Award for outstanding unpublished graduate student paper in the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ($100)
2020 O’Neill, Brian F. “The World-Ecology of Desalination: From Cold-War Positioning to Financialization in the Capitalocene.” Journal of World-Systems Research. Vol. 26, No. 2: 318-349. DOI 10.5195/JWSR.2020.987
- Winner – 2021 Florian Znaniecki Award for outstanding published graduate student paper in the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ($300)
- Part of the special issue “World-systems Analysis in the Anthropocene” edited by Michael Murphy and Leslie Sklair.
2020 O’Neill, Brian F. and Anne-Lise Boyer. “Water Conservation in Desert Cities: From the Socioecological Fix to Gestures of Endurance.” Ambiente & Sociedade. Vol. 23. DOI 10.1590/1809-4422asoc20190069r1vu2020L1AO
2019 O’Neill, Brian F., Hany Zayed, and Heba Khalil. “‘I’d Rather be Teaching’-Transforming Injustice into Action in a Graduate Labor Movement.” Berkeley Journal of Sociology. March 2019: Vol. 63. http://berkeleyjournal.org
- In February 2021, my archive of 439 black and white, 35mm film negatives that I made during this project was acquired by the Urbana Free Library Archives and Special Collections Department in Urbana, Illinois -
- Accession No. 2021-0013.
2017 Brice, Becky, Christopher Fullerton, Kelsey L. Hawkes, Megan Mills-Novoa, Brian F. O’Neill, and Wincenty M. Pawlowski. “The Impacts of Climate Change on Natural Areas Recreation: A Multi-Region Snapshot and Agency Comparison.” Natural Areas Journal. January 2017: Vol. 37, Issue 1: 86-97. DOI 10.3375/043.037.0111
2016 Cortinas, Joan, Murielle Coeurdray, Brian O’Neill, et Franck Poupeau, « Les mégaprojets hydriques de l’ouest étasunien: histoire d’État(s) et gestion des ressources naturelles », VertigO - la revue électronique en sciences de l'environnement. Décembre 2016, Vol. 16 numéro 3. DOI 10.4000/vertigo.18085
Books
2023 (Forthcoming) Le Champ des Politiques Hydriques dans l’Ouest Étasunien. 2023. Franck Poupeau, Brian F. O’Neill, Joan Cortinas Munoz, Murielle Coeurdray, Eliza Benites-Gambirazio. Paris: Éditions du Croquant.
2019 Poupeau, Franck, Brian F. O’Neill, Joan Cortinas-Muñoz, Murielle Coeurdray, and Eliza Benites-Gambirazio. The Field of Water Policy: Power and Scarcity in the American Southwest. December 2019. Routledge, New York, New York. ISBN-10: 0367192594
Reviews:
- Sylvain Barone. 2021. “Les Logiques Sociales des Politiques de L’eau: Leçons du Sud-ouest Américain” Revue Française de Science Politique Vol. 71. No. 2 pp. 274-278.
- Corinne Delmas, “Franck Poupeau, Brian F. O’Neill, Joan Cortinas Munoz, Murielle Coeurdray, Eliza Benites-Gambirazio, The Field of Water Policy. Power and Scarcity in the American Southwest,” Lectures. Les comptes rendus, 2020, mis en ligne le 19 juin 2020.
- Kenney, Douglas S. 2020. Review of “The field of water policy: power and scarcity in the American Southwest,” Routledge, 2019, by F. Poupeau et al. Water Alternatives.
Chapters
2022 Boyer, Anne-Lise and Brian F. O’Neill. “Water Conservation in Arizona Desert Cities: A Socioecological Fix to the Oasis Lifestyle?” In Chloé Nicolas-Artero, Sébastien Velut,Graciela Schneier-Madanes, Franck Poupeau, and Carine Chavarochette (ed.): Luttes pour l’Eau dans les Amériques. Mésusages, Arrangements et Changements Sociaux. Chapter 11, pg. 254-274. April 2022. Éditions de l’HEAL Collection n°2. Aubervilliers, France. ISBN 978-2-37154-145-0
2018 O’Neill, Brian F., Joan Cortinas, Murielle Coeurdray, and Franck Poupeau. “Reinventing Water Conservation: Coalitions for Water Policy in the American West.” In Franck Poupeau, Lala Razafimahefa, Jérémy Robert, Delphine Mercier, Gilles Massardier, and Pedro Roberto Jacobi (ed.): Water Conflicts and Hydrocracy in the Americas: Coalitions, Networks, Policies. Chapter 10, pg. 293-326. November 2018. University of São Paulo Press, São Paulo, Brazil.
2017 Cortinas, J., Brian F. O’Neill, and Franck Poupeau. “Drought and Water Policy in the Western USA: Genesis and Structure of a Multi-level Field.” In James Albright, Deborah Hartman, and Jacqueline Widin (ed.): Bourdieu’s Field Theory and the Social Sciences (Chapter 2, pg. 21-37). October 2017. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-5385-6_2
2016 Coeurdray, Murielle, Franck Poupeau, Brian O’Neill, and Joan Cortinas. “Delivering More than Water-The Salt River Project: The Invention of an Adaptive Partnership for Water Management” In Franck Poupeau and Dominique Lorrain (ed.): Water Regimes: Beyond the Public and Private Sector Debate. Chapter 2, pg. 37-53. September 2016. Routledge, New York, New York.
2016 O’Neill, Brian F., Murielle Coeurdray, Franck Poupeau, Joan Cortinas. “Laws of the River: Conflict and Cooperation on the Colorado River.” In Franck Poupeau, Hoshin Gupta, Aleix, Serrat-Capdevila, Maria A. Sans-Fuentes, Susan Harris, and László G. Hayde (ed.): Water Bankruptcy in the Land of Plenty. Chapter 4, pg. 43-62. June 2016. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. ISBN: 978-1-138-02969-9.
Public Sociology
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. 2022. “Desalination as a New Frontier of Environmental Justice Struggle: A Dialogue with Oscar Rodriguez and Andrea León-Grossmann.” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism. DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2022.2126130. Online first.[1]
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. “Comprendre la Politique du Dessalement: Une Approche de Terrain.” In Rés-EAUx: Réseau d’Études et d’Échanges en Sciences Sociales sur l’Eau,[2] April 29, 2022.
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. “Desalination and the Political (Blue) Economy of Climate Adaptation.” EnviroSociety, March 7, 2022.
2021 O’Neill, Brian F. and Matthew Jerome Schneider. “Fracking, Public Health, and Biden’s Green New Deal.” Special Feature in The Society Pages,[3] July 21, 2021.
2021 O’Neill, Brian F. and Matthew Jerome Schneider. “Putting Sociology to Use: Reframing Fracking as a Public Health Risk.” In E. Miranda Reiter and Abigail B. Reiter (ed.) Introduction to Health Inequalities: A Social Science Approach Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
2018 O’Neill, Brian F. “Of Asphalt and Aquatic Snails: Tracing the Precarity of the Anthropocene.” Kritik. The Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. September 21, 2018.
Review Essays
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. and Matthew Jerome Schneider. “Demystifying the Global ‘Just Transition’ – On Power Strugglesand Electric Mountains.” Online first at https://doi.org/10.1177/19427786221098700. In Human Geography.[4]
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. “Thinking with Sarah Kaufman’s Devil’s Pool.” Online first at https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2022.2062043. In Visual Studies.
2019 O’Neill, Brian F. “The Oral Tradition of Pierre Bourdieu – Classification Struggles, Manet, and On the State.” International Sociology. September 2019, Volume 34, Issue 5: 526-535. DOI 10.1177/0268580919870448[5]
Book Reviews
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. “Review of Matthew Gandy’s Natura Urbana: Ecological Constellations in Urban Space.” In New Global Studies. https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2022-0039. Online first.
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. 2022. “Review of Madeleine Fairbairn’s Fields of Gold: Financing the Global Land Rush.” https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2022-0031. Online first In New Global Studies.
2022 O’Neill, Brian F. and Matthew Jerome Schneider. “Electric Mountains: Climate, Power, and Justice in an Energy Transition.” Sociation. Volume 21, Issue 2. Available online at https://sociation.ncsociologyassoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/bookreview_oneill_schneider_proof_2022.pdf
2021 O’Neill, Brian F. “Review of Bronislaw Szerszynski and Nigel Clark’s Planetary Social Thought: The Anthropocene Challenge to the Social Sciences.” Online first in New Global Studies. https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2021-0036
2021 O’Neill, Brian F. “Review of Anastasia Samoylova’s FloodZone.” In Visual Anthropology Review. Spring 2021, Volume 37, Issue 1: 193-197. DOI: 10.1111/var.12231
2021 O’Neill, Brian F. “Review of David Sepkoski’s Catastrophic Thinking: Extinction and the Value of Diversity from Darwin to the Anthropocene.” Spring 2021, Volume 15 Issue 2–3: 369–373. In New Global Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2021-0008
2019 O’Neill, Brian F. “Review of Pierre Bourdieu’s Classification Struggles.” In Sociological Research Online. September 2019.DOI 10.1177/1360780419875154
2019 O’Neill, Brian F. “Review of Eric Perramond’s Unsettled Waters: Rights, Law, and Identity in the American West.” In Journal of Political Ecology. February 2019, Vol. 26. DOI 10.2458/v26i1.23168
[1] This piece was written in collaboration with my research site interlocutors.
[2] Article reviewed by two anonymous referees, despite it being public-facing.
[3] Article reviewed by two anonymous referees, despite it being public-facing.
[4] Review essay reviewed by two anonymous referees.
[5] Reviewed by one referee and the journal editor.
Research projects to date have included the following themes:
2022 - present - Human rights, labor, and the global politics of fishing.
2021 - present - The environmental politics of (coastal) wind energy.
2019 - present - Local/global environmental political dynamism related to the desalination industry.
2014 - 2017 - Water policymaking across the Colorado River Basin.
2013-2021 - The politics of natural gas drilling in the United States.
2022 Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award Committee Member. American Sociological Association – Section on Environmental Sociology.
- Read, reviewed, evaluated 28 recent books published across the field of environmental sociology for their merit and contribution to the discipline.
- Awarded books: Amalia Leguizamón’s Seeds of Power: Environmental Injustice and genetically Modified Soybeans in Argentina (1st Place), and Colin Jerolmack’s Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town (Honorable Mention)
2022 Textbook Reviewer. Routledge Press.
- Read, reviewed, and evaluated textbooks in the Political Sociology catalogue.
2022/ American Association of Geographers
- Affinity Groups: Cultural and Political Ecology, Political Geography, Economic Geography, Water
2022/ Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics
- Network: Climate Change, Environment, and Economy
2022/ Climate Social Science Network – Politics of Geoengineering Working Group (Institute at Brown for Environment and Society)[1]
2021/ International Visual Sociology Association
2020/ RésEAUx (Transnational Political Ecology Network – Université Paris X Nanterre)
2016/ American Sociological Association
- Sections: Environmental Sociology, Political Economy and the World System (PEWS),[2] Sociological Theory, Political Sociology,[3] Global and Transnational Sociology (GATS), Economic Sociology, Science, Knowledge, and Technology (SKAT).
2017/ Southwest Social Science Association
2017/ Alpha Kappa Delta (International Sociology Honor Society)
2016/ International Sociological Association
- Sections: Environment and Society, Economic Sociology
2016/ Midwest Sociological Society
2016/8 North Central Sociological Association
2015/6 Midwest Political Science Association
2014/ Pi Gamma Mu (International Honor Society in the Social Sciences)
[1] Membership by invitation of Executive Director Timmons Roberts.
[2] I was one of two featured doctoral candidates in the PEWSNews (Political Economy and the World System ASA section newsletter) in 2022, Issue 1, p. 8-10.
[3] I was a featured doctoral candidate in the Spring/Summer 2022 issue of the American Sociological Association’s Political Sociology Section Newsletter.
2022/ Post-doctoral Research Scholar – Arizona State University, College of Global Futures, School of Ocean Futures.
- Conducted policy analysis and ethnographic research to identify appropriate policy and legal reform needed at domestic levels and regional levels for transboundary fisheries management to meet international social and environmental norms and standards of practice including issues of human rights violations.
2021 Doctoral Research Fellow – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology.
- Writing conducted from dissertation fieldwork for original research project on the environmental politics, risks, and financing of large-scale desalination projects.
2019/20 Research Assistant to Dr. Anna-Maria Marshall at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Sociology.
- Funded by the Walton Family Foundation through the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force Project.
- Developed of a study of the impact of public and private funding sources towards agricultural conservation practices.
2018 Graduate Instructor – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Sociology
- Taught courses in the Sociology Department’s curriculum such as Sociological Research Methods, Political Sociology, Global Inequalities and Social Change, and Introduction to Sociology, in addition to mentoring and advising undergraduates.
2017 Project Engineer (ingénieur d’étude) to Dr. Franck Poupeau of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Global Environmental Studies (UMI-iGLOBES [UMI-3157]), a joint research laboratory of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Arizona.
- Coordinated with Dr. Poupeau to prepare the completion of “Drought and Water Policy in the Western USA: Genesis and Structure of a Multi-level Field,” published in James Albright, Deborah Hartman, and Jacqueline Widin (ed.): Bourdieu’s Field Theory and the Social Sciences, and the 2019 publication of the book The Field of Water Policy: Power and Scarcity in the American Southwest.
- Work included writing, archival work, and the preparation of statistical analysis, specifically Multiple Correspondence Analysis using Microsoft Excel, R-Studio, and SAS.
2014/6 Research Assistant (chercheur associé) to Dr. Franck Poupeau of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Global Environmental Studies (UMI-iGLOBES [UMI-3157]), a joint research laboratory of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Arizona.
- Collaborated with Dr. Poupeau and colleagues for the preparation of presentations, conferences, and international meetings with researchers and administrators, and assisted in the implementation of specific goals related to the grants for the UNESCO funded Sustainable Water ActioN project (SWAN) and the (National Research Agency of France (ANR) Struggles for Blue Gold in the Americas (BLUEGRASS) project.
- The outcome of the SWAN project was the 2016 book Water Bankruptcy in the Land of Plenty. The result of the BLUEGRASS project work was the 2018 book Water Conflicts and Hydrocracy in the Americas: Coalitions, Networks, Policies.
- Project tasks included the development of historical research on specific case studies of water conflicts in Tucson, Arizona, and then later this analysis was expanded to Phoenix, other regions of Arizona, and eventually to parts of California.
2021/2 External Speaker Committee. Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Faculty-selected position).
- Speakers personally secured: Caleb Scoville (Tufts University), Eliza Benites-Gambirazio (Université Paris Gustave Eiffel), Ryan Calder (Johns Hopkins University), Mike Gibson-Light (University of Denver), Kate Pride-Brown (Georgia Institute of Technology), Cynthia Bruce (Concordia University), Michael Murphy (University of Pittsburgh).
2021 Discussant. Race, Ethnicity, Immigration and Border Studies session. Southwestern Social Science Association annual meeting. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. April 17, 2021. (Virtual conference due to pandemic).
2021 Invited Speaker. Sociology Ambassadors Program Sociology Ambassadors Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Ecosociology: Careers Combining Natural Resources Management and Sociology.” March 10, 2021.
2020 Invited Speaker. Introduction for Dr. Douglas Barnes, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Outstanding Alumni Award Ceremony. December 3, 2020.
2019 Discussant. Social Capital session. Southwestern Social Science Association annual meeting. San Diego, California, USA. November 1, 2019.
2017/9 Treasurer. Graduate Student Advisory Council. University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Department of Sociology. Urbana, Illinois, USA. (Peer-elected position).
2018 Research Evaluator. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Undergraduate Research Symposium. Global and Transnational Connections Section. Urbana, Illinois, USA. April 19, 2018.
2017 Research Evaluator. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Undergraduate Research Symposium. Social Sciences and Human Behavior Section. Urbana, Illinois, USA. April 27, 2017.
2015/6 Graduate and Professional Student Council Grant Application Reviewer. University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.