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Paul Milbourne

Professor Paul Milbourne

Professor of Human Geography

School of Geography and Planning

Email
MilbourneP@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 75791
Campuses
Glamorgan Building, Room Room 2.60, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA

Overview

I am Professor of Human Geography in the School of Geography and Planning. I am also Director of Cardiff University's Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Space. Previously, I was Director of the Wales Rural Observatory, 2004-14, as well as Head of the School of Geography and Planning.

I am a human geographer whose main research interests lie in the field of social geography and, more specifically, the geographies of welfare, poverty, homelessness and injustice. I also have interests in environmental geography, particularly the interplay between social and environmental forms of injustice. My research has been undertaken in rural, urban and ex-industrial areas in the UK and other countries in the Global north. My current research projects are focused on urban food systems; food poverty and justice; urban agriculture and; migrant workers in the agri-food system.

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

  • Milbourne, P. 2009. Homelessness, rural. In: Kitchen, R. and Thrift, N. eds. The International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 191-195.

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1997

Articles

Book sections

Books

Monographs

Research

Research interests:

I am a human geographer whose main research interests lie in the field of social geography and, more specifically, the geographies of welfare, poverty, homelessness and injustice. I also have interests in environmental geography, particularly the interplay between social and environmental forms of injustice. My research has been undertaken in rural, urban and ex-industrial areas in the UK and other countries in the Global north. My current research projects are focused on urban food systems; food poverty and justice; urban agriculture and; migrant workers in the agri-food system.

Research awards (since 2000):

I have been awarded more than 40 research grants totalling £27 million across my career. Funding organisations include European Commission, RCUK, the Economic and Social Research Council, Welsh Government, Scottish Government, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, Finnish Academy, Home Office, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Forestry Commission, Countryside Agency, local government, Big Lottery Fund and anti-poverty organisations.

Funded research projects:

  • 2020 – 24: FOODTRAILS: Building Pathways Towards Inclusive and Integrated Urban Food Policies. Funded by European Commission (Horizon 2020), €14 million (with R Sonnino and European partners).
  • 2018: National Development Framework for Wales, Regions and Rural Areas Research Study. Funded by the Welsh Government, £73,000 (with Arup)
  • 2017 – 23: Rural Futures. Funded by the Big Lottery Fund, £2 million (with Severn Wye Energy and Bro Consultancy).
  • 2017: Generating a Research Strategy for the Post-Brexit Agri-food sector. Funded by ESRC, £5,200 (with G Enticott and K Morgan).
  • 2014: Alternative Urbanisms. Funded by GW4, £15,000, with C Barnett (University of Exeter), G Bridge (University of Bristol) and G Brown (University of Bath).
  • 2017 – 18: Farm Workers in Scottish Agriculture – Case Studies in the International Seasonal Migrant Labour Market. Funded by Scottish Government, £69,000 (with Scotland’s Rural College).
  • 2014: Growing spaces: community gardening in disadvantaged urban communities. Funded by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, £5,000.
  • 2014 – 15: Growing healthy diets: developing community gardening and food projects within schools. Funded by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, £4,900, with J Hawkins, A Fletcher and K Morgan.
  • 2009 – 14: Climate Change Consortium for Wales (C3W). Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, £4 million (with colleagues at Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Swansea universities).
  • 2003 – 13: Wales Rural Observatory. Funded by the European Commission and the Welsh Government, £4.05 million (with Aberystwyth University).
  • 2011 – 13: Growing a healthy older population: community and allotment gardening amongst older people in the South Wales Valleys. Funded by the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research, £150,000, with D Clayton et al. (Cardiff Metropolitan University).
  • 2010 – 12: Connecting Communities: the economic, social and cultural impacts of Broadband in rural Wales. Funded by the Welsh Government, £210,000, with S Hurley (School of Computer Science).
  • 2009 – 12: Grey and Pleasant Land? An interdisciplinary exploration of the connectivities of older people in rural society (with Plymouth, Swansea, West of England and Bournemouth Universities). Funded through the RCUK’s New Dynamics of Ageing research programme, £1.1 million
  • 2009 – 10: Homelessness and Central and Eastern European Migrants. Funded by the Big Lottery, £92,000, with Shelter Cymru and Swansea University.
  • 2008 – 10: Planting Spaces, Growing Places: Community gardening and regeneration in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods in the UK. Funded through research overheads, £45,000.
  • 2008 – 10: Welfare, Restructuring and Regionalisation in Finland. Funded by the Finnish Academy, €300,000 (international partner, with S Hanninen and T Silvasti, University of Helsinki).
  • 2007 – 08: Commission on Rural Housing in Wales. Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, £18,000
  • 2004 – 05: The Future of Rural Services. Funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, £114,000 (with University of Gloucestershire).
  • 2003 – 07: The Shifting Governance of State Forestry in Britain. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (CASE award), £12,000.
  • 2003 – 06: Rural Governance and Forestry. Funded by the Forestry Commission, £108,000 (with T Marsden).
  • 2003 – 05: Forestry, Community and Social Research in Wales. Funded by the Forestry Commission, £105,000 (with T Marsden).
  • 2003 – 05: The Role of the Housing System in Rural Wales. Funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, £80,000 (with B Edwards and S Orford).
  • 2003 – 05: Rural Economy and Society Study Group Seminar Series. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Research Seminar Series), £11,900
  • 2002 – 05: The Social Regulation of the Rural Environment. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (CASE award), £14,500
  • 2002 – 03: Forests, Nature and Society in Post-industrial Spaces. Funded by the Forestry Commission, £40,000
  • 2002 – 03: Age Balanced Communities in Rural Wales. Funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, £83,000 (with Newidiem consultancy).
  • 2000 – 03: Forestry, Land and Community in Wales. Funded by the Forestry Commission, £120,000 (with K Bishop and T Marsden).
  • 2000 – 02: Rural Economy and Society Study Group Seminar Series. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Research Seminar Series), £8,200
  • 2000: The Effects of Hunting with Dogs on the Social and Cultural Life of the Countryside of England and Wales. Research Project for the Burns Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs funded by the Home Office, £49,000

Biography

Education and qualifications

1988 – 1991                 Ph.D., Department of Geography, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

1985 – 1988                 B.A. (Hons.), Human Geography, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Career overview

2013 –                         Head of School, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University

2005 –                         Professor, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University

2003 – 2005                Reader, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University

1999 – 2003                Cardiff Senior Fellow, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University

1993 – 1999                Research Fellow Senior Research Fellow, Countryside and Community
Research Unit, University of Gloucestershire

1992 – 1993                Research Associate, Department of Geography, University of Bristol

1991 – 1992                Research Officer, Department of Geography, University of Wales, Lampeter

Honours and awards

Elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences (2011 –)

Elected Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (2019 –)

Professional memberships

Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences (2011 –)

Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (2019 –)

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

Committees and reviewing

Head of the School of Geography and Planning (2013 –)

Director of Research, School of Geography and Planning (2009 – 13)

Member of Council (2016 – 19)

Member of Senate (2011 –)

Founder and Director of Cardiff University’s Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Space (CRESS) (2005 –)

External committees

Member of the Royal Geographical Society’s Policy Committee (2015-18)

Member of the Royal Geographical Society’s Research and Higher Education Committee (2012-15)

Secretary (2011-14) and Committee Member (2014-) of the Geographies of Justice Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society. Past committee member of the Rural Geography Research Group

Member of the Council of the International Rural Sociology Association (IRSA) (2004-12)

Member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Rural Sociology (2003-07)