Bebbington can point to his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, as an example of a community that has flourished and then slumped, part of the boom-and-bust cycle of coal and ore mining, and steel production. Wedgwood and other iconic potteries — part of an industry historically linked to coal, which fires the kilns — sprang up there in the 18th century.

“For a period of time, mining there really did foster economic development of sorts,” he explains. “But that link between mining and potteries meant there were periods when Stoke had the dirtiest air in the UK. … People tolerated these costs because it also generated lots of jobs.” Yet, “the mines then all closed, and the steel mill closed, and now most of the potteries have gone as well.”

In his earlier research, Bebbington, who holds a Ph.D. from Clark’s Graduate School of Geography, studied rural development and small-scale agriculture in South America’s Andean countries. He credits his life partner, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, research associate professor in International Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE), for introducing him to issues arising from mining and other extractive activities when both were working in Peru in the early 1990s. Since then, the Bebbingtons have explored and published on the topic; they are co-authors — with Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, Marja Hinfelaar, and Cynthia Sanborn — of the book “Governing Extractive Industries.”

With colleagues in the Graduate School of Geography — Professor John Rogan; Nick Cuba, M.A. GIS ’16, Ph.D. ’11; and Laura Sauls, Ph.D. ’19 — they have collaborated on research through the Center for the Study of Natural Resource Extraction and Society at Clark.