Dr David Benson is lecturer in politics at the University of Exeter. After receiving his doctoral degree at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 2007, he undertook an ESRC Post Doctoral Fellowship that examined the allocation of environmental powers across EU multi-level governance. He was then appointed as a lecturer in environmental politics, policy and governance at UEA. His research, based at the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) in Penryn, encompasses a range of issue areas at the interface between political and environmental sciences, most notably EU environmental and energy policy, comparative environmental politics and governance, federalism and public participation in environmental decision-making.

Dr Lei Xie is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Exeter. After receiving her doctoral degree from Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University in 2007, she has worked as a Research Associate at Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter and Visiting Research Fellow at Department of International Politics, City University London. Dr. Xie’s research focuses on transnational social movements, environmental politics and environmental communication.