I am an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and part of the Cultural Sociology Programme Group. My research focuses broadly on the intersection between social and environmental sustainability. I specialise in public and expert perceptions of risk in the areas of climate change, nuclear energy and green finance. I am interested in how the environment, technologies and institutions interact to shape perceptions risks and/or produce unintended risks. I am also interested in how these interactions influence decisions, from individual energy choices or investment decisions, to climate policy and resource allocation.
My research has largely been based on fieldwork, which I have conducted in India, China, Australia, Singapore, th UK and Luxembourg. I have also dabbled in experimental research methods with the use of online gaming interventions to explore the role of culture in shaping resilience against online dis/misinformation.
In 2019, I received the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) Directorate Fellowship in Potsdam (Germany) to expand my work on green finance, and in 2021, I was awarded a Research Scholarship at the University of Cambridge, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER).
I received my PhD in Environmental Sociology from the Australian National University (ANU) and a Masters in Global Studies from the University of Freiburg in Germany. I have held research positions at James Cook University (Australia), the University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg), and the National University of Singapore (Singapore). I also spent time in the private sector as a business planning analyst at Hewlett Packard in Ireland, programme coordinator at the Global Development Network in India, and a journalist for The Business Times and The Straits Times in Singapore.
Book
Wong, C.M.L (2018) Energy, Risk and Governance: The Case of Nuclear Energy in India. London: Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-63363-3
Journal Articles
Wong, C. M. L. (2021) “Temporality and systemic risk: the case of green bonds”, Journal of Risk Research, 45(1): pp110-120
Wong, C., Hesse, M., & Sigler, T. J. (2021). “City-states in relational urbanization: the case of Luxembourg and Singapore.” Urban Geography, pp1-22. doi:10.1080/02723638.2021.1878331
Mark C. J. S., McLevey, J., Schweizer, V. and Wong, C. M. L. (2020) “Climate change and energy futures - theoretical frameworks, epistemological issues, and methodological perspectives”, Society & Natural Resources, 33(11): pp1331-1338
Wong, C. M. L. and Lockie, S. (2020) “Climate policy and industry elite perceptions of risk and uncertainty: a cross-national study”, Society & Natural Resources, 33(11), pp1399-1418
Wong, C. M. L. and Jensen, O. (2020) “The paradox of trust: perceived risk and public compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore”, Journal of Risk Research, 23(7-8): pp1021-1030
Hesse, M. and Wong, C. M. L. (2019) “A relational lens on cities. Niche-economic strategies and related urban development trajectories in Geneva (Switzerland), Luxembourg (Luxembourg) and Singapore”, Geographischen Zeitschrift, 108(2020/2), pp74-98
Wong, C. M. L and Lockie, S. (2018) “Sociology, risk and the environment: a material-semiotic approach”, Journal of Risk Research, 21(9), pp1077-1092.
Wong, C. M. L (2018) “Review of fact and fiction in global energy policy: 15 contentious questions.”, Edited by B. K. Sovacool, M. A. Brown, and S. V. Valentine, Risk Analysis, 38(4), pp866-868.
Jetzkowitz, J., Koppen, V-K., Lidskog, R., Lieske, V-K, Wong, C. M. L., (2017) “The significance of meaning. Why IPBES needs the social sciences and humanities”, Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 31(1), pp38-60.
Wong, C. M. L (2016) “Assembling interdisciplinary energy research through an Actor Network Theory (ANT) frame”, Energy Research and Social Science, Vol. 12 (February 2016), pp106-110.
Wong, C. M. L (2015a) “The mutable nature of risk and acceptability: a hybrid risk governance framework”, Risk Analysis, 33 (11), pp.1969-1982.
Wong, C. M. L (2015b) “Organisational risk perception and transformations in India’s nuclear establishment", Journal of Risk Research, 8(8), pp1012-1029.
Wong, C. M. L (2012) “The developmental state in ecological modernisation and the politics of environmental framings: the case of Singapore and implications for East Asia” Nature and Culture, 7(1), pp95-119.
Goodsite, M., Wong C. M. L, Hertel, O., Moseholm, L. (2010) “Responses to air pollution based on historical and current policies in the EU and ASEAN”, Global Environment, 3(6), pp150-183.
Book Chapters
Lockie, S., and Wong, C. M. L. (2018) "Conflicting temporalities of social and environmental change". In M. Boström and D. Davidson (Eds.), Environment and Society: Concepts and Challenges. (pp. 327-350). London: Palgrave and Macmillan.
Lockie, S. and Wong, C.M.L (2017) “Risk, sustainability and time: sociological perspectives” in Schandl, H. and Walker, I. (2017) Sustainability: Social Science Contributions. (pp. 187-198) Canberra: CSIRO Publishing
Wong, C. M. L (2017) “The clash of risk perceptions: reconciling ‘the publics’ and ‘the experts’” in Janardhanan, N., Pant, G. and Grover, R. (Eds) Resurgence of Nuclear Power: Challenges and Opportunities for Asia. (pp. 105-124) Singapore: Springer
Wong, C. M. L (2010) “Facing the storm through the market”, in Montesano, M. J. and Lee, P.O. (Eds), Regional Outlook 2010-2011. (pp. 72-28) Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, ISBN: 978-981-4279-53-6
Technical Reports
Wong, C. M. L. (2021) “Inoculation Against Fake News? An experiment using a fake news game in the context of COVID-19. Preliminary Key Findings Report”, National University of Singapore, Singapore [Download report here]
Wong, C. M. L., Hesse, M. (2019) “Small but Global Cities: A Comparative Analysis of Luxembourg & Singapore: Stakeholder Report”, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg [Download report here.]
Stoddart, M., Wong, C. M. L, Schweizer, V., McLevy, J. (2018) “Climate Change and Energy Futures: Final Report”, Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada [Download report here]
Wong, C. M. L (2006), “A Comparative Study of Key Socio-Economic Indicators in China and India”, Ireland: Hewlett-Packard Dublin Inkjet Manufacturing Operation (DIMO), Dublin: HP Internal Publications.
Opinion Editorials & Commentaries (Selected)
Koh. C.G., Lee, L., Lo, C., Wong, C.M.L, Yap, J. (2020) “A socio-psychological perspective” in World Economic Forum Insight Report, Challenges and Opportunities in the Post-COVID-19 World (pp 44-48). Geneva: World Economic Forum
Wong, C. M. L., Koh, C. G and Lee, L. (2020) “Outbreaks of diseases make us exaggerate or under-estimate risks. The COVID-19 shows that”, Channel News Asia, 20 Feb
Wong, C. M. L. (2015) “Energy security in Southeast Asia? Let’s start with the future”, The Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, No.18, http://kyotoreview.org/yav/energy-security-southeast-asia-the-future/
Wong, C. M. L. (2014) “The Australia-India nuclear deal – a qualitative risk analysis perspective”, Australian Resources and Investment, 8(4), pp155-156 (By invitation)
Wong, C. M. L. (2014) “Australian uranium deal could make Indian nuclear power safer”, The Conversation, 5 Sept
Wong, C. M. L (2012) “India's nuclear programme: Trust abroad but not at home”, Al Jazeera, 3 Nov
Wong, C. M. L. (2010) “When green is the colour of exclusion”, The Straits Times, 6 Jul
Wong, C. M. L (2010) “Fit human life and capitalism to nature”, The Straits Times, 25 Feb
Wong, C. M. L (2009) “Clean-growth opportunities for Southeast Asia”, The Business Times, 17 Nov
I teach the following courses: