Chris GIBSON

Position:  Professor of Human Geography
Room:  41.G08
Phone No:  +61 2 4221 3448
Email:  cgibson@uow.edu.au

Research Interests

Social, Economic & Political Geography ~ Cultural Economy ~ Cities & Regions ~ Tourism

 Rural Festivals Project
AUSCCER
 Current Research Projects

• New book release - Creativity in Peripheral Places, Redefining the Creative Industries.  
  Edited by Chris Gibson, Routledge, 2012
• New report on rural festivals now available online.
• ARC Creative Tropical City report now available online.

Editorial Board Duties

- Dialogues in Human Geography 
- Political Geography 
- Social & Cultural Geography 
- Tourist Studies 

Representative Publications

Gibson, C, Head, L, Gill, N and Waitt, G (2011) ‘Climate change and household dynamics: beyond consumption, unbounding sustainability’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36, 1, 3-8

Gibson, C and Connell, J (eds) (2011) Festival Places: Revitalising Rural Australia, Channel View, Bristol  ISBN: 978-1-84541-166-4 (Pbk); 978-1-84541-167-1 (Hbk)

Gibson, C (2010) ‘Geographies of tourism: (un)ethical encounters’, Progress in Human Geography, 34, 4, 521-527

Gibson, C (2010) ‘Creative geographies: tales from the ‘margins’’, Australian Geographer, 41, 1, 1-10 [Special issue, “Creativity in ‘peripheral’ places: redefining the creative industries”, edited by Chris Gibson]

Gibson, C (2010) ‘Obama’s post-imperial America? A view from the south’, Political Geography, 29, 1, 10-13

Gibson, C, Waitt, G, Walmsley, J and Connell, J (2010) ‘Cultural festivals and economic development in regional Australia’, Journal of Planning Education and Research, 29, 3, 280-293

Gibson, C (2009) ‘Geographies of tourism: critical research on capitalism and local livelihoods’, Progress in Human Geography, 33, 4, 527-534

Brennan-Horley, C and Gibson, C (2009) ‘Where is creativity in the city? Integrating qualitative and GIS methods’, Environment and Planning A, 41, 11, 2595 – 2614

Waitt, G and Gibson, C (2009) ‘Creative small cities: rethinking the creative economy in place’, Urban Studies, 46, 5&6, 1223-1246

Gibson, C. Dufty, R. Phillips, S. and Smith, H (2008) 'Counter-geographies: the campaign to prevent closure of agricultural research stations in New South Wales, Australia', Journal of Rural Studies, 24, 351-366

Gibson, C (2007) 'Geography in Higher Education in Australia' Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 31, 1, 97-119 [special symposium, The Place of Geography in Higher Education, edited by Lily Kong]

Gibson, C and Kong, L (2005) 'Cultural economy: a critical review', Progress in Human Geography, 29, 5, 541-561

Gibson, C and Connell, J (2005) Music and Tourism, Channel View Press, Clevedon ISBN: 1-873150-93-8 (Hbk); 1-873150-92-x (Pbk); 1-873150-94-6 (Elec.).

Gibson, C and Klocker, N (2004) ‘Academic publishing as ‘creative’ industry, and recent discourses of ‘creative economies’: some critical reflections’, Area, 36, 4, 423-434.

Dunbar-Hall, P and Gibson, C (2004) Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: Contemporary Aboriginal Music in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney and University of Washington Press, Seattle ISBN: 0 86840 622 8.

Connell, J. and Gibson, C (2003) Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place, Routledge, London and New York ISBN-10: 0 4151-7027 3 (HBK); 0415170281 (PBK)

Gibson, C (1999) 'Cartographies of the colonial and capitalist state: a geopolitics of indigenous self-determination in Australia', Antipode, 31, 1, 45-79

Full Publications List

Searchable Publication List

Current Students

Andrew Warren (PhD): Vernacular creativity and cultural assets in the Illawarra
Ben Gallan (PhD): Day and night: temporality, cultural infrastructure and the right to the city
Eliza de Vet (PhD): An ethnography of Australian weather
Elyse Stanes (PhD): Shopping, consumption and youth sustainability
Andrea Gordon (MSc): Music and everyday life for Australian farming communities

Past Students

Wan Azdie Mohd Abu Bakar (PhD, 2010): Mapping food insecurity in the Illawarra
Chris Brennan-Horley (PhD, 2010): Creative city mapping: experimental applications of GIS for cultural planning and auditing
Kate Roggeveen (MSc, 2010): Tomato journeys from farm to fruit shop: greenhouse gas emissions and cultural analysis
Rae Dufty (PhD, 2008): Rethinking the politics of distribution: the geographies and governmentalities of housing assistance in rural New South Wales, Australia
Natascha Klocker (PhD, 2008): A participatory, action-oriented and youth-led investigation into child domestic work in Iringa, Tanzania
Karen McNamara (PhD, 2007): The politics of ‘environmental refugee’ protection at the United Nations

Suggested Topics for Future Students 

Opportunities exist for future honours and postgraduate research connected to the projects listed above, including:

Festivals

• social and economic impacts of festivals and events in rural areas (specific case studies, testing new methodologies)
• environmental impacts of festivals and events – ecological footprint analysis
• social and cultural issues surrounding festivals

Creative economies

• Specific industries in metropolitan and rural areas (e.g. film, design, heritage) – economic impacts; geographical patterns, ethnographic studies of internal linkages
• Mapping employment and business activity in the creative economy (GIS methodologies)
• Links between creative industries and social change and conflict – gentrification, property markets, inter-regional and international migration
• Industrial relations dimensions of the creative economy – conditions of work, career paths, job security/insecurity

Rural youth issues

• futures for young people in non-metropolitan areas – job prospects, cultural life, migration opportunities
• young people and the creative industries – new jobs, creative industries as youth retention strategies, socio-cultural conflicts

Cultures of sustainability

- Everyday life and sustainability
- Cultural economy of household ‘stuff’
- Demographic and generational cultures of sustainability

Abbreviated CV

BA (hons) (1995); PhD Geography (USYD, 2000). Chris Gibson began at UOW in August 2005, after teaching at UNSW, the University of Sydney and the University of Western Sydney. Currently Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research.