Julien-Francois Gerber

Julien-François Gerber is an Associate Professor of Environment and Development at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague. His roles include co-supervising six PhD students and contributing to the editorial team of Development and Change. Prior affiliations include the Royal University of Bhutan (2015-16), Jawaharlal Nehru University (2012-13), Harvard University (2010-12), and a 2018-19 ISRF Fellowship at the London School of Economics. He is currently undergoing Gestalt psychotherapy training in the USA.

Education:

• MSc from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich)
• PhD in political ecology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (supervised by Joan Martínez-Alier and Giorgos Kallis)
• Advanced Certificate in Ecopsychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute (2023)

Research Interests: Gerber’s work focuses on three core areas:

• Political Economy of Sustainability: Examines ownership/debt systems, their impact on economies and mentalities, with fieldwork in Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Cameroon, and Ecuador.
• Social Movements & Alternatives: Analyzes environmental justice, anti-debt movements, and degrowth’s intersections with rural dynamics, the pluriverse, and psychology.
• Ecopsychology and Psychoanalysis: Explores transformative potentials of depth psychology, including theories of self/soul, alienation, and spiritual ecology.

Research Trends: Recent publications address capitalism’s contradictions, psychoanalytic critiques of growth, and degrowth’s philosophical underpinnings. These works integrate Marxist theory, political ecology, and existential phenomenology to critique systemic structures and subjective dimensions of sustainability.

Awards:

• ISRF Fellowship (2018-19) for research on debt at LSE

Advising & Editorial Work: Co-supervises six PhD students while serving as an editor at Development and Change. His activities include organizing the 8th International Conference on Degrowth (2021) and advancing Gestalt psychotherapy training to bridge psychological and ecological critiques.