Graduate School of Public Policy

About

Dr. Jeremy Rayner (PhD) currently serves as the director of the school’s Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy where he is also the Research Lead of the Energy Policy Research Cluster. Dr. Rayner’s research focuses on governance arrangements for complex policy problems, especially at the intersection of energy, climate change and forests. He is Principal Investigator on a multidisciplinary project funded by the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation: Finding a Niche: Northern Communities as Protected Spaces for Small Modular Reactors and Principal Investigator on a research project examining the influence of social learning and attitudes on the perception of risk from low dose radiation funded by Candu Owner's Group (COG).

Dr. Rayner recently participated in the Canada UK nuclear energy dialogue and presented at the Nuclear Energy Agency workshop on ‘The nuclear and social science nexus: Challenges and opportunities for speaking across the disciplinary divide.’  In collaboration with Dr. Margot Hurlbert on energy justice, they have published “Reconciling power, relations, and processes: The role of recognition in the achievement of energy justice for Aboriginal people”. 

Download Jeremy Rayner's abridged CV.

Designations

  • PhD in Political Science, University of British Columbia
  • MA in Politics, University of Durham
  • MA in Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge University

Supervisory Capacity

Jeremy Rayner is currently not accepting applications from new PhD or MPP students for September 2023.

Recent Grants/Awards

  • Principal Investigator. Using transition management theories to understand the options for sustainable power generation in Saskatchewan (SSHRC Canadian Environmental Issues Strategic Grant), 2009-2012, $239,000.
  • Co-investigator. Value Generation through Genomics and GE3LS [VALGEN]. (Genome Canada), 2009-2013, $5.4 million
  • Co-investigator. Assessing Canada's climate change adaptation policy capacity: multi-level, multi-sectoral challenges to policy making in Canadian governments. (SSHRC Canadian Environmental Issues Strategic Grant), 2009-2012, $203,500.
  • Co-investigator. New governance arrangements and sustainable resource management. (SSHRC Canadian Environmental Issues Research Development Initiative), 2009-2010, $38,000.
  • Principal Investigator. Integrated land management policy. (Sustainable Forest Management NCE), 2006-2008, $225,000.
  • Principal Investigator. Sustainability and natural resources. (SSHRC Cluster Design Grant), 2004-2005, $30,000.

Select Publications

Co-Authored Book

  • Cashore, Ben, George Hoberg, Michael Howlett, Jeremy Rayner and Jeremy Wilson. 2001. In Search of Sustainability: BC Forest Policy in the 1990s. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Co-Edited Journal

  • Howlett, Michael and Jeremy Rayner. 2009. "Special issue on managing and designing integrated policy strategies: Lessons from sub-national integrated land management experiences." Policy and Society 28, no. 2.

Refereed Articles and Book Chapters

  • Wellstead, Adam, Michael Howlett and Jeremy Rayner. 2013 (accepted). The Neglect of Governance in Forest Sector Vulnerability Assessments: Structural Functionalism and “Black Box” Problems in Climate Change Adaptation Planning, Ecology and Society.
  • Wellstead, Adam, Jeremy Rayner and Michael Howlett. 2013 (in press). Beyond the Black Box: Forest Sector Vulnerability Assessments and Adaptation to Climate Change in North America, Environmental Science & Policy.
  • McNutt, Kathleen and Jeremy Rayner. 2012. "Nodal Governance: the diffusion of power in global forest governance networks". in Iver Neumann and Stefano Guzzini (eds.), The Diffusion of Power in Global Governance, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 91-116.
  • Rayner, Jeremy, Kathleen McNutt and Adam Wellstead. 2013. Dispersed Capacity and Weak Coordination: The Challenge of Climate Change Adaptation in Canada's Forest Policy Sector, Review of Policy Research, 30(1), 66-90
  • Glueck, Peter and Jeremy Rayner. 2009. "Governance and policies for adaptation." In Adaptation of Forests and People to Climate Change: A Global Assessment Report, ed. Risto Seppälä, Alexander Buck and Pia Katila. Vol. 22 of IUFRO World Series, 187-210. Helsinki: IUFRO
  • Howlett, Michael, Jeremy Rayner, and Chris Tollefson. 2009. "From old to new governance in Canadian forest policy: Dynamics without change?" In Canadian Environmental Policy and Politics: Prospects for Leadership and Innovation, ed. Debora L. VanNijnatten and Robert Boardman, 183-196. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
  • Howlett, Michael, Jeremy Rayner, and Chris Tollefson. 2009. "From governance to governance in forest planning? Lessons from the case of British Columbia Great Bear Rainforest initiative." Forest Policy and Economics 11. no. 5-6: 383-391.
  • Rayner, Jeremy. 2009. "Understanding policy change as a historical problem." Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 11, no. 1: 83-96.
  • Rayner, Jeremy. 2008. "Governance for Global Competitiveness: The future of aquaculture policy in a world turned upside down." In Aquaculture, Innovation and Social Transformation, ed. Keith Culver and David Castles, 297-381. Frankfurt: Springer. 
  • Howlett, Michael, Jeremy Rayner, and Adam Wellstead. 2008. "National forest planning and sustainability concerns: The international influence." In Environmental Challenges and Oppportunities: Local-Global Perspectives on Canadian Issues, ed. Christopher Gore and Peter J. Stoett, 71-93. Toronto: Emond Montgomery.
  • Rayner, Jeremy and Michael Howlett. 2008. "Caught in a staples vise: Political economy of Canadian aquaculture." In Canadian Staples in Transition: The Past, Present, and Future of Canada's Resource Economy, ed. Michael Howlett and Keith Brownsey, 183-216. Toronto: Emond Montgomery. 
  • Howlett, Michael and Jeremy Rayner. 2008. "Third generation policy diffusion studies and the analysis of policy mixes: Two steps forward and one step back?" Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 10, no. 4: 385-402.
  • Howlett, Michael and Jeremy Rayner. 2007. "Design principles for policy mixes: Cohesion and coherence in 'new governance arrangements.'" Policy and Society 26, vol. 4: 1-18.
  • Rayner, Jeremy and Michael Howlett. 2007. "The national forest strategy in comparative perspective." Forestry Chronicle 83: 651-657.
  • Howlett, Michael and Jeremy Rayner. 2006. "Globalization and governance capacity: Explaining divergence in national forest programs as instances of 'next-generation' regulation in Canada and Europe." Governance 19, no. 2: 251-275.
  • Howlett, Michael and Jeremy Rayner. 2006. "Policy divergence as a response to weak international regimes: The formulation and implementation of natural resource new governance arrangements in Europe and Canada."Policy and Society 24, no. 2:16-45.
  • Howlett, Michael and Jeremy Rayner. 2006. "Understanding the historical turn in the policy sciences: A critique of stochastic, narrative, path dependency and process-sequencing models of policy-making over time." Policy Science 39, no. 1:1-18.
  • Howlett, Michael and Jeremy Rayner 2006. "Convergence and Divergence in 'New Governance' Arrangements: Evidence from European Integrated Natural Resource Strategies." Journal of Public Policy 26, no. 2: 167-189.

Current Research

  • Using transition management theories to understand the options for sustainable power generation in Saskatchewan.
  • Critically assessing the "government to governance" thesis in a variety of policy areas, using a Canadian-European comparative perspective.
  • Developing the concept of "policy capacity" and using it to assess the ability of a variety of Canadian policy sectors to adapt to climate change.
  • Analyzing the challenges posed by regulatory and governance failures and demands for more sophisticated citizen engagement in the area of applied agricultural genomics (VALGEN).
  • Coordinating an expert assessment of the international forest regime