Gareth Fearn
Biography
I am a writer and researcher based in Manchester, UK. I write about politics, energy, environmental and urban planning and the state. I focus on the UK and largely on England, relating what is happening here to more global changes. I am currently working on a project on the UK electricity system and the energy crisis, as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Manchester.
I have published academic journal articles as well as articles for publications such as Tribune, London Review of Books and New Socialist. I will happily consider commissions on the areas which my research and experience cover.
Email: gareth.fearn-2@manchester.ac.uk
Twitter: @g_f_red
Bluesky: @gfearn.bsky.social
Academic Papers
Fearn, G. (2025). A Tale of Two Energy Crises: Between a Neoliberal Policy Paradigm and Electro-Capitalism. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2025.2570832
Özatağan, G., Fearn, G., & Eraydin, A. (2025). Neoliberal crises and the city: Wrestling with authoritarian neoliberal urbanism(s). Urban Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251361667
Fearn, G (2025) Electricity decarbonisation targets and the distribution dilemma, Energy Policy, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421525001326
Fearn, G (2025) Neoliberalism’s apotheosis? Class, capital and the ideological development of the UK Labour Party’s planning reforms’ Town Planning Review, https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/tpr.2024.59
Fearn, G (2024) Housing the Historical Bloc: Civil society contestation of authoritarian neoliberalism in England, Urban Studies, Special Isssue, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00420980241254925
Fearn, G. (2024). Planning incapacitated: Environmental planning and the political ecology of austerity. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X241238880
Fearn, G. (2023) New management, old energy: The UK Labour party’s revanchist energy policy, Soundings, 2023(83), 34-52, available: https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/soundings/vol-2023-issue-83/abstract-9733/
Fearn, G. (2023). The end of the experiment? The energy crisis, neoliberal energy, and the limits to a socio-ecological fix. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486231172844
Fearn, G.& Davoudi, S. (2022) ‘From post-political to authoritarian planning in England, a crisis of legitimacy’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 00, 1– 16. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12501
Fearn, G. (2022), ‘The age of the manager is over? Shale gas fracking and the challenge to the post-political regime for English planning’ Political Geography,
Volume 93 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102550
Podcasts
GND Media Podcast: ‘Budget 2026: Is the Planet in the Plan?’ https://open.spotify.com/episode/3jK7EZkaNXJXnO5Rjg97JG
TrashFuture Podcast: ‘We can hallucinate it for your wholesale ft Gareth Fearn’ https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/e/we-can-hallucinate-it-for-you-wholesale-ft-gareth-fearn/
TrashFuture Podcast: ‘Honk if you’re Honu ft Dr Gareth Fearn’ https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/e/honk-if-you-re-honu-feat-dr-gareth-fearn/
Bartlett Planning Podcast: ‘From post-political to authoritarian planning in England with Dr Gareth Fearn’ https://soundcloud.com/user-569374150/from-post-political-to-authoritarian-planning-in-england-with-dr-gareth-fearn
Cocktails
Gareth Fearn & Gareth Edge (2014) ‘Caribbean Sazerac’, Difford’s Guide, Caribbean Sazerac Cocktail Recipe
Policy
Editor of ‘Planning for the Public: Why Labour should support a public planning system’ : https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/planning/news/2023/jul/new-policy-paper-calls-labour-party-embrace-reinvigorated-public-planning-system
Online publications
Submission to The World Transformed Assembly, ‘Crisis, Revanchism and Opportunities’ (The World Transformed 2025 // Assemblies at TWT25) – My contribution: TWT assembly
‘Private Power, Public Crisis’ Common Wealth Private Power, Public Crisis | Perspectives
‘Back to Blackrock’ Tribune https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/01/back-to-blackrock
Gareth Fearn & Pancho Lewis, Cumbria coal mine shows planning is the next battleground in UK climate policy (theconversation.com)
Gareth Fearn, Abi O’Connor, Isaac Rose ‘The Bonfire of Structures’ Tribune The Bonfire of Structures (tribunemag.co.uk)
‘Liberalism without accountability’ London Review of Books Gareth Fearn | Liberalism without Accountability (lrb.co.uk)
‘To tackle climate change Labour must rebuild the planning system – not ‘bulldoze’ it’ The Conversation To tackle climate change Labour must rebuild the planning system – not ‘bulldoze’ it (theconversation.com)
‘Planning and the Left’, Greater Manchester Housing Action, http://www.gmhousingaction.com/planning-and-the-left/
‘Like Sunak, Starmer must recognise net zero trade-offs – but make the rich pay’ Labourlist https://labourlist.org/2023/09/net-zero-rishi-sunak-speech-cars-boilers-heat-labour-response/
‘Labour must be radical fixing Tory crises – or risk sharing blame for them’ LabourList https://labourlist.org/2023/06/labour-missions-policy-crisis-economy-housing-energy-fiscal-discipline/
‘Neoliberalism in a Coma’, New Socialist, https://newsocialist.org.uk/neoliberalism-coma/
‘Tory Levelling Up Doesn’t Exist’, Tribune https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/09/levelling-up-bill-funding-planning-history
‘Ransom Capitalism’, London Review of Books https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2022/august/ransom-capitalism
‘Fracking is not the Future’ Tribune https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/03/fracking-shale-gas-energy-crisis-russia-ukraine-oil-conservatives
Sonali Dhanpal & Gareth Fearn, ‘Newcastle – ‘The Stottie Principles’ Vittles https://vittles.substack.com/p/newcastle-the-stottie-principles
‘Why Capitalism Loves Corruption’ Tribune https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/11/corruption-sleaze-mps-parliament-owen-paterson-second-jobs-history-colonialism-east-india-company
‘Planning Reforms Are Turning the Tories on Each Other’ Tribune https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/09/planning-reforms-are-turning-the-tories-on-each-other
‘How Public Ownership Helped the Tories in Tees Valley’ Tribune https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/05/how-public-ownership-helped-the-tories-in-tees-valley
‘Labour must challenge the ‘Red Wall’ framing – or risk a ‘balancing the books’ trap’ Labourlist https://labourlist.org/2020/08/labour-must-challenge-the-red-wall-framing-or-risk-a-balancing-the-books-trap/
‘Fracking bans, Election Giveaways and the Fight for the Future’ New Socialist
https://newsocialist.org.uk/fracking-bans-election-giveaways-and-fight-future/
‘Coal is the past: time to plan for the future’ New Socialist https://newsocialist.org.uk/coal-future/
‘Labour and the Planning System: Lessons from Fracking’ New Socialist https://newsocialist.org.uk/labour-and-planning-system-lessons-fracking/
Gareth Fearn 