Keith Barney

Keith Barney is an Associate Professor and Head of the Resources, Environment & Development Group at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy. He specializes in political ecology, economic geography, and agrarian change in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Laos and broader regional dynamics. His research addresses resource-making processes, property rights, territorialization, and the intersection of authoritarian governance with environmental policy.

His work critically examines China's economic influence in Laos, including debt sustainability, Belt and Road infrastructure projects, and hydropower development's social/environmental impacts. He also studies informal economies like artisanal mining, plantation forestry, and transnational labor migration. Barney contributes to policy debates on sustainable resource governance through his roles at the ANU Southeast Asia Institute and as Associate Editor of Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies.

Recent publications analyze Laos' sovereign debt crisis, the political ecology of hydropower dams, and the socio-economic consequences of tree plantations. His work bridges critical theory with empirical fieldwork, emphasizing experiential and spatial understandings of socio-ecological crises.