Michael Thompson
Senior Research Scholar
Equity and Justice Research Group
Population and Just Societies Program
Biography
Originally a professional soldier, Michael Thompson studied anthropology (first degree and PhD at University College London, B.Litt at Oxford) whi9le also following a career as a Himalayan Mountaineer. (Annapurna South Face 1970, Everest Southwest Face 1975). His early research on how something second-hand becomes an antique (Rubbish Theory, 1979, Oxford University Press) led to work on the "energy tribes" (in various western think tanks), on risk, on Himalayan deforestation and sustainable development, on household product development (in Unilever), on global climate change, on technology and development, and on what might be called "the even newer Institutionalism" (e.g., Cultural Theory, co-authored with Richard Ellis and Aaron Wildvasky, 1990, West View).Dr. Thompson is a Fellow at the James Marin Institute for Science and Civilization, University of Oxford and a Senior Researcher at the Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Research, University of Bergen, Norway. At IIASA he is affiliated with the Risk and Resilience (RISK) Program.
Last update: 02 MAY 2016
Publications
Verweij, M., Ney, S., & Thompson, M. (2022). Cultural Theory’s contributions to climate science: reply to Hansson. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 12 (2) e34. 10.1007/s13194-022-00464-y.
Beck, M.B., Ingram, D., & Thompson, M. (2021). The Adaptor Emerges: A resilient business strategy for a long-term perspective. The Actuary December 2021.
Beck, M.B., Ingram, D., & Thompson, M. (2021). Modeling the Variety of Decision Making. SOA Research Institute , Illinois, USA.
Thompson, M. (2021). Mülltheorie: Über die Schaffung und Vernichtung von Werten. transcript Verlag. ISBN 9783839452240 10.1515/9783839452240.
Beck, M.B., Thompson, M., Gyawali, D., Langan, S. , & Linnerooth-Bayer, J. (2018). Viewpoint – Pouring money down the drain: Can we break the habit by reconceiving wastes as resources? Water Alternatives 11 (2) 260-283.