Research

My interdisciplinary research program is motivated by a desire to understand and strengthen social movements working towards social and ecological justice. My research aims to improve the internal function of social movements so that they can better overcome external constraints, such as the concentrated economic power of elites, and more effectively address pressing challenges like climate change, white supremacy, settler colonialism, heterosexism, and economic inequality. My work cuts across three main areas – political theory, social movement strategy, and political economy – in order to develop an integrated and critical understanding of the challenges social movements face.

I have recently completed a book titled Radical Mindfulness: Why Transforming Fear of Death is Politically Vital. The book inquires into the root causes of injustice, asking why inequalities along the axes of race, class, gender, sexuality, and species continue to persist. Specifically, I examine fear of death as a root cause of systemic injustice and propose a more embodied approach to social change as a solution. I am increasingly interested in an “existential political ecology” that links the importance of structural change with affective or embodied changes to achieve social and ecological justice.

I was also a recent co-investigator with the Corporate Mapping Project, focused particularly on the role of finance in facilitating and blocking needed energy transition. Work on this project has been published with Corporate Knights, Jacobin, The Narwhal, openDemocracy, the National Observer, the Vancouver Sun, the Vancouver Province, and the Tyee.ca. This research has been covered by numerous media outlets including, the Huffington Post, The Atlantic, CBC Radio, The Narwhal, iPolitics, the National Observer, Jacobin, and the Victoria Times Colonist. Most recently, this research was featured on CBC Radio’s climate change show, What on Earth.

Below is a list of writings (with open access links):

Rowe, J. (2024). Meet the Indigenous leader using psychedelic medicine to heal the traumas of colonization. Waging Nonviolence.

Rowe, J. (2024). Trump is now Officially a Superhero. Biden Isn’t. The Tyee.

Rowe, J. (2024). Joe Biden’s refusal to step aside illustrates the political dangers of ‘death denial’ The Conversation.

Yunker, Z & Rowe, J. & Dempsey J. (2023). “Pension Investments in Renewables May Be Undermining a Just Transition,” Jacobin.  

Rowe, J. (2023) “Mahaprajapati: An Arrow Ancestor,” The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture and Politics 10:3, pp. 38-44.

Rowe, J. & Godrej, F. & Mariotti, S. (2022). “Contemplative Superpowers for Social Change: Three New Books on How Mind-Body Practices Can Support (and Sometimes Limit) Collective Liberation,” The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture, and Politics 9:3, pp. 6-19.

Long, J. & Rowe, J. & Shaw, K. (2022). “Not So Clear Cut: Transforming Gender-Based Violence in British Columbia’s Tree Planting Industry,” BC Studies no. 215 Autumn 2022, pp 27-49.

Ojeda, J. & Salomon, A. & Rowe, J. & Ban, N. (2022). “Reciprocal Contributions between People and Nature: A Conceptual Intervention,” Bioscience 72:10, pp/ 952-962.

O’Manique, C. & Rowe, J. & Shaw, K. (2021). “Degrowth, political acceptability and the Green New Deal,” Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 12:2, 254-276.

Rowe, J. & Mager, J. & Dempsey, J. (2021). “For Climate’s Sake, Canada Pension Plan Needs to Take a Serious Look at its Investments.” National Observer [Reprinted in the Tyee].

Rowe, J. & Dempsey, J. & Yunker, Z. (2021). “CPP Oil Investments on the Rise.” Vancouver Sun.

Dempsey, J. & Rowe, J. & Reeder, K. & Vincent, J. & Yunker, Z. (2021). An Insecure Future: Canada’s Biggest Public Pension Funds are Still Banking on Fossil Fuels. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Rowe, J. & Mathews, D. (2021). “Death Denial, Human Supremacy, and Ecological Crisis: Indigenous and Euro-American Perspectives,” The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture and Politics 8:1, pp. 13-32.

Belliveau, E. & Rowe, J. & Dempsey, J. (2021). “Fossil Fuel Divestment, Non-reformist Reforms and Anti-capitalist Strategy.” W. Carroll (Ed.), Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press.

Rowe, J. & Corntassel, J. & Lowan, E. & Watts, J. (2021). “UVic Takes a Big Step Towards Fossil Fuel Divestment.” National Observer.

Rowe, J. (2020). “Baldwin and Buddhism: Death Denial, White Supremacy, and the Promise of Racial Justice.” The Arrow.

Rowe, J. (2020). “The Green New Deal, Decolonization, And/as Ecocritique.” New Political Science 42:4, pp. 624–630. 

Rowe, J. (2020). “Toilet Paper as Terror Management.” The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture, and Politics. [Reprinted in openDemocracy].

Rowe, J. & Carroll, W. & Adamson, E. & Hemmerling, J. (2020). “Why has UBC divested from fossil fuels but UVic has not? The high cost of industry influence.” Policy Note [Reprinted in the National Observer.]

Rowe, J. & Dempsey, J. & Yunker, Z & Glanzmann, S. (2019). Canada Pension Plan fuels climate-change crisis. Vancouver Province.

Rowe, J. & Glanzmann, S. & Dempsey, J. & Yunker, Z. (2019). Fossil Futures: The Canada Pension Plan’s Failure to Respect the 1.5 Degree Limit. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Rowe, J. & Shotwell, A. (2019). “Canada’s Vampire Pension Plan.” The Bullet.

Rowe, J. & Chalykoff, L. & Corntassel, J. & Goldblatt, Colin. UVic faculty massively voted to divest from fossil fuels. Tyee. 

Yunker, Z. & Dempsey, J. & Rowe, J. (2018). BC public pensions fuel climate change crisis. Vancouver Sun.

Yunker, Z. & Dempsey, J. & Rowe, J. (2018). Canada’s Fossil-Fuelled Pensions: The Case of the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Rowe, J. & Peredo, A & Sullivan, M. & Restakis, J. (2018). Policy Supports for Co-operative Development: Learning from Co-op Hot Spots. Journal of Cooperative Studies 51:1.

Rowe, J.K. & Simpson, M. (2017). Lessons From the Frontlines of Anti-Colonial Pipeline Resistance. Waging Nonviolence. September.

Rowe, J. & Peredo, A & Sullivan, M. & Restakis, J. (2017). Co-operative development, policy, and power in a period of contested neoliberalism: The case of Evergreen Co-operative Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. Socialist Studies 11:2.

Rowe, J. & Peredo, A. & Restakis, J. (2017). How the NDP and Greens and Grow BC’s Cooperative Economy. The Tyee.

Smith, T.L. & Rowe, J. (2017). Pipelines as Sun Tunnels: Visualizing Alternatives to Carboniferous Capitalism. C-Theory.

Rowe, J. et al. (2017). First Nations Show Leadership in Pipeline Debates. Times Colonist.

Rowe, J. (2017). Upstream and Downstream: The Sacred Importance of Joining Contemplative Practice and Political Engagement. The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture, and Politics.

Rowe, J. & O’Manique, C. & Belliveau, E., Boothroyd, M. (2017). UVic Seeks to Profit from Corporate Climate Change Deniers. Tyee.

Rowe, J. (2016). Micropolitics and Collective Liberation: Mind/Body Practices and Left Social Movements. New Political Science 38:2, pp. 206-225.

Rowe, J.K. (2016). Is a Fear of Death at the Heart of Capitalism?  The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Culture, Society, and Politics. June. [Reprinted with openDemocracy, Resilience, and The Leap].

Rowe, J. & Dempsey, J & Gibbs, P. (2016). The Power of Fossil Fuel Divestment (And its Secret). W.K. Carroll, K. Sarker (Eds.),  A World To Win: Contemporary Social Movements and Counter-Hegemony. Winnipeg: ARP Books.

Collard, R. & Dempsey, J. & Rowe, J. (2016). Re-Regulating socioecologies under neoliberalism. S. Springer, K. Birch, and J. MacLeavy (Eds.), The Handbook of Neoliberalism. New York: Routledge.

Rowe, J.K. (2015). Zen and the Art of Social Movement Maintenance. Waging Nonviolence. 21 March. [Reprinted in openDemocracy and New Politics].

Rowe, J. & Carroll, M. (2015). What the left can learn from Occupy Wall Street. Studies in Political Economy 96:1, pp. 145–166.

Rowe, J. & Carroll, M. (2014). Reform or radicalism: Left social movements from the Battle of Seattle to Occupy Wall Street. New Political Science 36:2, pp. 149–171.