Professor Guy Robinson (FIAG) Citation
GUY M ROBINSON
Statement detailing contribution to Geography
I am self-nominating for the award of Fellowship of the Institute of Australian Geographers, as a continuous member for 16 years, based on my sustained contribution to the discipline of Geography through research, teaching, and service to geographical organisations and beyond in the wider public realm.
I have worked as a geographer in higher education for over 50 years, including 16+ years based in Australia and 40 years researching and teaching in Australasia. I have held substantive positions at four universities in the United Kingdom (UK) and two in Australia, as well as official visiting positions at 17 institutions worldwide, including six universities in Australasia. Throughout my career, I have been an active researcher, publishing 14 books (six as single author), 153 papers in academic journals and 88 book chapters. My books include Conflict and Change in the Countryside (1990), Methods and Techniques in Human Geography (1998), Agricultural Geographies (2004), Sustainable Rural Systems (edited) (2008), and Transforming Rural China (2024). Over 100 of my papers are published in Q1 journals. I have an h-index of 37 (Google Scholar) and >6600 citations. I have led research projects funded by the Australian Research Council, the European Union (TEMPUS), the British Academy, the British Council, various charitable trusts (including Leverhulme, Earthwatch, Carnegie and Gilchrist) and government departments. I have also delivered keynotes and conference presentations around the world (c140).
My research and teaching have focused on rural development and environmental management, primarily in Australia and the UK but also with some work in developing countries, notably China. My main concern has been to develop a greater understanding of human interaction with the environment, especially through research on decision making by farmers (adopting pro-environmental practices) and households (managing waste; responding to the threat of bushfire). This work has been set in broad contexts, including globalization, agricultural transitions, and the circular economy, often with a focus on the peri-urban fringe.
My teaching has ranged across the breadth of human geography, including first-year courses at Edinburgh and Kingston London, and to third-year and final-year u/g students at the same institutions on quantitative and qualitative methods, from which emerged a major book (Robinson, 1998). Specialist teaching at final year u/g level concentrated on rural development and innovative teaching about Australasia and the Pacific, with a focus on cultural, economic and social geography, and geopolitics. I was part of a team that launched the Masters in GIS at Edinburgh in 1987 (the world’s first such course). At Adelaide, I have contributed to both u/g and p/g teaching, including ‘Globalisation,’ ‘Environmental Planning and Management,’ ‘Smart Cities,’ and ‘Environmental Planning and Governance.’
In Australia, key research has included an ARC Linkage project (as Chief Investigator) examining tensions between maintaining biodiversity and ensuring public safety in bushfire-prone areas in South Australia; corporate social responsibility in the Australian mining industry (Remote Economic Participation CRC); Aboriginal homelessness (FaHCSIA); and evaluating Australia’s new bushfire warning system (UoAdelaide). In the UK, I was part of the ESRC-funded Scottish Regional Research Laboratory, and was the leader of research projects on household waste management in London (Leverhulme, Royal Boroughs Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames), reconstruction in Bosnia (EU TEMPUS), agri-environment initiatives in Canada (Canadian government), and transition from subsistence agriculture in Central America (Earthwatch).
I have played a significant role in various geographical organisations, including currently as Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia and Chair of the IGU’s Commission on Agricultural Geography and Land Engineering. In the UK, I was Chair of the RGS-IBG’s Rural Geography Research Group, a member of the Council of British Geography for eight years, Secretary of the UK Universities’ Heads of Geography for four years, and a member of the Geography Panel for the national Research Assessment Exercise (1996). I was President of the British Australian Studies Association, and edited its journal, Australian Studies, for nine years. I also sat on the Awards Panel of the Menzies Centre at King’s College London for nine years.
In the UK, I was a postdoc at the University of Oxford before becoming a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, where I twice received a Dean’s Merit Award and the President’s Medal from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. I was then appointed inaugural Professor of Geography at Kingston University London, first being Head of the School of Geography and then Director of the Centre for Environmental and Earth Science Research, which secured the NERC ICP-MS research facility. I moved to Australia in 2008 to head UniSA’s Centre for Rural Health and Community Development, subsequently managing UniSA’s two regional campuses as Director of the Centre for Regional Engagement (CRE) and Director of the University Department of Rural Health (UDRH). I was a leading member of a team that obtained A$18 million from federal government for a new building at the Mount Gambier campus. On retiring in 2015 I moved to the University of Adelaide as Adjunct Professor, supervising PhD students, and contributing to u/g and p/g teaching. Since 2018 I have held an honorary position at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Land Economy (DLE), providing mentoring and participating in conferences/workshops. In the DLE I am a Fellow of the Lab for Interdisciplinary Spatial Analysis.
In Australia, I have played a part in linking higher education to the community through service on the Upper Spencer Gulf Common Purpose Group, and the Community Advisory Group for a UNESCO World Heritage bid, as a Director of the Australian Rural Health and Education Network, and a government-appointed Member of TAFESA Regional Board. I was on the organising committees for the IAG’s annual conferences held in Adelaide in 2024 and 2016. I have been a member of the Editorial Board of Geographical Research for seven years, but my major Editorial role has been as Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal Land Use Policy (12 years), during which time the impact factor trebled. I am now Editor Emeritus and since 2019 have been founder Editor-in-Chief of another Elsevier journal, Research in Globalization.
Guy M. Robinson March 10th 2025.