Our People

Roles and Responsibilities

Director, Centre for Urban & Regional Development Studies (CURDS)

Qualifications

Ma (Hons) Geography, University of Dundee, 1995 

PhD Geography, University of Edinburgh, 1998

Background

2009-2013: Senior Research Fellow, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow.

2001-2009: Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Aberdeen.

2000-2001: Research Fellow, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen.

1999-2000: Research Associate, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University.

Memberships

Royal Geographical Society/ Institute of British Geographers (RGS / IBG)

Google scholar profile

https//scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=SYM67L8AAAAJ

Research Interests  

I am an economic and political geographer whose research is centrally concerned with the institutions and politics of local and regional development. Recent work has contributed to debates in Evolutionary Economic Geography and to questions of urban and regional adaptation and change in particular. Since 2021, I have been leading an international project titled 'Beyond left behind places' with colleagues in CURDS/UCL, France & Germany. My future research agenda involves linking urban and regional development to sustainability transitions through new projects on: new renewable energy paths for coastal economies; labour market transition in energy intensive regions; and, joined-up sustainability transition at the community level (as part of a new ESRC Centre for equitable and sustainable low carbon living, led by the University of Manchester).

Current Postgraduate Supervision

Laura Ginn

Jeroen Royer (based at IfL Leipzig & University of Jena)

Undergraduate Teaching

GEO2099 Economic Geography

GEO3114 Local and Regional Development

Postgraduate Teaching

GEO8030 Geographical Inequalities & Policy

• Articles

  • Pike A, MacKinnon D, Tomaney J, Velthuis S. What are our obligations to ‘left behind places’? A response to Dijkstra. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 2025. In Press.
  • Dawley S, Mackinnon D, Steen M, Eadson W. State-orchestrated green path development? Industrial decarbonisation in Teesside and the Humber. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 2025, epub ahead of print.
  • Mackinnon D, Kinossian N, Pike A, Beal V, Lang T, Rousseau M, Tomaney J. Spatial Policy Since the Global Financial Crisis. European Urban & Regional Studies 2025, 32(3), 243-260.
  • Velthuis S, Royer J, Le Petit-Guerin M, Cauchi-Duval N, Franklin R, Leibert T, MacKinnon D, Pike A. Regional varieties of 'left-behindness' in the EU15. Regional Studies 2025, 59(1), 2417704.
  • Le Petit-Guerin M, Velthuis S, Royer J, Cauchi-Duval N, Franklin R, Leibert T, MacKinnon D, Pike A. Identifying trajectories of regional 'left-behindness' in the EU15 from 1982 to 2017. ZFW - Advances in Economic Geography 2025, Epub ahead of print.
  • Sanderson R, Franklin R, MacKinnon D, Matthews J. Left out and invisible? : exploring social media representation of 'left behind places'. GeoJournal 2024, 89, 37.
  • Sanderson R, Franklin R, MacKinnon D, Matthews J. Left behind and left out: Evaluating (dis)connections in the spatially focused migration network of England and Wales. Population, Space and Place 2024, 30(1), e2722.
  • Crisp R, Waite D, Green A, Hughes C, Lupton R, MacKinnon D, Pike A. 'Beyond GDP' in cities: Assessing alternative approaches to urban economic development. Urban Studies 2024, 61(7), 1209-1229.
  • Pike A, Beal V, Cauchi-Duval N, Franklin R, Kinossian N, Lang T, Leibert T, MacKinnon D, Rousseau M, Royer J, Servillo L, Tomaney J, Velthuis S. ‘Left behind places’: a geographical etymology. Regional Studies 2024, 58(6), 1167-1179.
  • MacKinnon D, Afewerki S, Karlsen A. Technology legitimation and strategic coupling: A cross-national study of floating wind power in Norway and Scotland. Geoforum 2022, 135, 1-11.
  • MacKinnon D, Kempton L, O'Brien P, Ormerod E, Pike A, Tomaney J. Reframing urban and regional 'development' for 'left behind' places. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy & Society 2022, 15(1), 39-56.
  • MacKinnon D, Karlsen A, Dawley S, Steen M, Afewerki S, Kenzhegaliyeva A. Legitimation, institutions and regional path creation: a cross-national study of offshore wind. Regional Studies 2022, 56(4), 644-655.
  • MacKinnon D. Governing uneven development: the Northern Powerhouse as a ‘state spatial strategy’. Territory, Politics, Governance 2020, n/a, n/a.
  • Pike A, Coombes M, Kempton L, MacKinnon D, O'Brien P. Decentralising governance in England. Town & Country Planning 2020, 89(11), 409-416.
  • MacKinnon D, Dawley S, Pike A, Cumbers A. Rethinking Path Creation: A Geographical Political Economy Approach. Economic Geography 2019, 95(2), 113-135.
  • MacKinnon D, Dawley S, Steen M, Menzel MP, Karlsen A, Sommer P, Hansen GH, Normann HE. Path creation, global production networks and regional development: a comparative international analysis of the offshore wind sector. Progress in Planning 2019, 130, 1-32.
  • Dawley S, Mackinnon D, Pollock R. Creating strategic couplings in global production networks: regional institutions and lead firm investment in the Humber region, UK. Journal of Economic Geography 2019, 19(4), 853-872.
  • Mackinnon D. Labour branching, redundancy and livelihoods: Towards a more socialised conception of adaptation in evolutionary economic geography. Geoforum 2017, 79, 70-80.
  • Pike A, MacKinnon D, Cumbers A, Dawley S, McMaster R. Doing evolution in economic geography. Economic Geography 2016, 92(2), 123-144.
  • Dawley S, Mackinnon D, Cumbers A, Pike A. Policy activism and regional path creation: the promotion of offshore wind in North East England and Scotland. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 2015, 8(2), 257-272.

• Book Chapter

  • Dawley S, Karlsen A, Mackinnon D. Agency, skills and workforce adaptation: examining the challenge of green industrial restructuring for regional labour markets. In: Karlsen, J; Rypestøl, JO; Trippl, M, ed. Sustainable Regional Restructuring: Insights from Economic Geography and Regional Innovation Studies. Edward Elgar, 2025, pp.58-73.

• Editorial

  • MacKinnon D, Beal V, Leibert T. Rethinking 'left-behind' places in a context of rising spatial inequalities and political discontent. Regional Studies 2024, 58(6), 1161-1166.