Staff Profile
Professor Danny MacKinnon
Professor of Regional Development and Governance; Director of CURDS
- Email: danny.mackinnon@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 8604
- Fax: +44 (0) 191 208 7742
- Address: Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS)
Newcastle University
Newcastle Upon Tyne
UK
NE1 7RU
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. My future research agenda involves linking urban and regional development to issues of social and spatial justice in an increasingly unequal world, particularly through work on inclusive growth.
Current work
Current and developing research has three main strands.
First, work on regional adaptation and evolution, which is being undertaken collaboratively with colleagues in CURDS and elsewhere. The main focus for this research is the issue of new path creation in post-industrial regions, focusing on renewable energy and the offshore wind sector in particular. The research aims to understand how economic novelty emerges, given the pre-occupation of much evolutionary research with the reproduction of existing forms, often understood in terms of path dependence or 'lock-in'. Other work in this area is developing the idea of adaptive capacity and applying it to local economic governance institutions.
Second, long-standing interests in governance and the institutions and politics of urban and regional development. This is being pursued though on-going research on the Northern Powerhouse as a key pan-regional initiative designed to address regional disparities in England.
A third strand of research is concerned with developing progressive approaches to urban and regional development, focusing on question of inclusive growth. This has been developed recently in the form of JRF-funded research on demand-side initiatives to promote inclusive growth in cities. More broadly, this work seek to develop the outlines of an alternative progressive approach to regional development informed by wider theories of spatial justice.
Postgraduate Supervision
Laura Sariego
Diana Morales
Lewis Evans
Peter Morris
Robert Pollock
Gemma Bone
Ruth Puttick
Samson Afewerki (based at NTNU, Trondheim)
Undergraduate Teaching
GEO2099 Economic Geography
GEO3114 Local and Regional Development
Postgraduate Teaching
GEO8002 Local and Regional Development Theory and Practice
GEO8009 Developing Local and Regional Strategies
GEO8018 Local and Regional Development and Governance
- 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 2021, Epub ahead of print.
- 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 2021, (ePub ahead of Print).
- Pike A, Coombes M, Kempton L, Mackinnon D, O'Brien P. A response to the UK2070 Commission’s Second Report by the Centre for Urban and Regional Development (CURDS). http://uk2070.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PIKE-Final-Submission-UK2070-Commission.pdf: UK2070 Commission, 2020. UK2070 Commission Think Pieces.
- 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. Governing uneven development: the Northern Powerhouse as a ‘state spatial strategy’. Territory, Politics, Governance 2020, n/a, n/a.
- MacKinnon D. Making sense of the Northern Powerhouse. Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique 2020, XXV-2, 1-18.
- O'Brien P, Kempton L, MacKinnon D, Pike A. Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee inquiry into 'Supporting Regional Investment and Growth': A submission by the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies. 2019. In Preparation.
- Afewerki S, Karlsen A, MacKinnon D. Configuring floating production networks: A case study of a new offshore wind technology across two oil and gas economies. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 2019, 73(1), 4-15.
- 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, 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.
- MacKinnon D, Dawley S, Pike A, Cumbers A. Rethinking Path Creation: A Geographical Political Economy Approach. Economic Geography 2019, 95(2), 113-135.
- Pike A, Kempton L, MacKinnon D, O'Brien P, Tomaney J. Submission to HCLG Select Committee Inquiry on Progress on Devolution in England. 2019. Available at: http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/housing-communities-and-local-government-committee/progress-on-devolution-in-england/written/104700.pdf.
- Pike A, Lee N, MacKinnon D, Kempton L, Iddewala Y. Job Creation and Inclusive Growth in Cities. York, UK: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2017.
- Mackinnon D. Labour branching, redundancy and livelihoods: Towards a more socialised conception of adaptation in evolutionary economic geography. Geoforum 2017, 79, 70-80.
- Hastings T, MacKinnon D. Re-embedding agency at the workplace scale: Workers and labour control in Glasgow call centres. Environment and Planning A 2017, 49(1), 104-120.
- O'Brien P, Pike A, Kempton L, MacKinnon D, McCarthy A. CURDS evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee Inquiry into the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine. 2016.
- Pike A, MacKinnon D, Cumbers A, Dawley S, McMaster R. Doing evolution in economic geography. Economic Geography 2016, 92(2), 123-144.
- Cumbers A, Featherstone D, MacKinnon D, Ince A, Strauss K. Intervening in globalisation: the spatial possibilities and institutional barriers to labour's collective agency. Journal of Economic Geography 2016, 16(1), 93-108.
- Pike A, MacKinnon D, Coombes M, Champion T, Bradley D, Cumbers A, Robson L, Wymer C. Uneven growth: tackling city decline. York, UK, 2016. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
- Pike A, Mackinnon D, Coombes M, Champion T, Bradley D, Cumbers A, Robson L, Wymer C. Uneven growth: tackling city decline. York, UK: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2016.
- Ince A, Featherstone D, Cumbers A, MacKinnon D, Strauss K. British Jobs for British Workers? Negotiating Work, Nation, and Globalisation through the Lindsey Oil Refinery Disputes. Antipode 2015, 47(1), 139-157.
- MacKinnon D. Devolution, state restructuring and policy divergence in the UK. Geographical Journal 2015, 181(1), 47-56.
- Featherstone D, Strauss K, MacKinnon D. In, against and beyond neo-liberalism: The “crisis” and alternative political futures. Space and Polity 2015, 19(1), 1-11.
- MacKinnon D, Cumbers A, Featherstone D. Local and Regional Economic Development in Britain. In: Green, J; Hay, C; Taylor-Gooby, P, ed. The British Growth Crisis: The Search for a New Model. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp.201-220.
- 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.
- MacKinnon D. Resilient City. In: James D. Wright, ed. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition. Oxford: Elsevier, 2015, pp.561-567.
- MacKinnon D. Splintering labour markets. In: Paddison, R and Hutton, T, ed. Cities and Economic Change. London, UK: Sage, 2015, pp.93-107.
- Derickson KD, MacKinnon D. Toward an Interim Politics of Resourcefulness for the Anthropocene. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 2015, 105(2), 304-312.
- O'Brien P, Pike A, MacKinnon D, Marlow D, Robson L. CURDS submission to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee Inquiry into the 'Fiscal Devolution to Cities and City Regions'. Newcastle upon Tyne: Centre for Urban and Rural Development (CURDS), Newcastle University, 2014.
- MacKinnon D, Derickson KD. From resilience to resourcefulness: A critique of resilience policy and activism. Progress in Human Geography 2013, 37(2), 253-270.
- MacKinnon D. Strategic Coupling and Regional Development in Resource Economies: the case of the Pilbara. AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHER 2013, 44(3), 305-321.
- Docherty I, MacKinnon D. Transport and economic development. In: The SAGE Handbook of Transport Studies. SAGE Publications Inc, 2013, pp.226-240.
- MacKinnon D. Beyond strategic coupling: reassessing the firm-region nexus in global production networks. Journal of Economic Geography 2012, 12(1), 227-245.
- Bryceson D, MacKinnon D. Eureka and beyond: Mining's impact on African urbanisation. Journal of Contemporary African Studies 2012, 30(4), 513-537.
- Featherstone D, Ince A, MacKinnon D, Strauss K, Cumbers A. Progressive localism and the construction of political alternatives. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2012, 37(2), 177-182.
- MacKinnon D. Reinventing the State: Neoliberalism, State Transformation, and Economic Governance. In: Barnes, T.J., Peck, J. Sheppard, E, ed. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, pp.344-357.
- MacKinnon D, Cumbers A. Introduction to Economic Geography: Globalisation, Uneven Development and Place. Harlow: Prentice Hall, 2011.
- Shaw J, MacKinnon D. Moving on with ‘filling in’? Some thoughts on state restructuring after devolution. Area 2011, 43(1), 23-30.
- Cumbers A, MacKinnon D. Putting 'the political' back into the region: power, agency and a reconstituted regional political economy. In: Pike, A; Rodriguez-Pose, A; Tomaney, J, ed. Handbook of Local and Regional Development. London: Routledge, 2011, pp.249-258.
- MacKinnon D. Reconstructing scale: Towards a new scalar politics. Progress in Human Geography 2011, 35(1), 21-36.
- MacKinnon D, Shaw J, Docherty I. Devolution as Process: Institutional Structures, State Personnel and Transport Policy in the United Kingdom. Space and Polity 2010, 14(3), 271-287.
- Cumbers A, MacKinnon D, Shaw J. Labour, organisational rescaling and the politics of production: union renewal in the privatised rail industry. Work, Employment & Society 2010, 24(1), 127-144.
- MacKinnon D, Shaw J. New state spaces, agency and scale: devolution and the regionalisation of transport governance in Scotland. Antipode 2010, 42, 1226-1252.
- Birch K, MacKinnon D, Cumbers A. Old industrial regions in Europe: a comparative assessment of economic performance. Regional Studies 2010, 44(1), 35-53.
- Pike A, Birch K, Cumbers A, MacKinnon D, McMaster R. A Geographical Political Economy of Evolution in Economic Geography. Economic Geography 2009, 85(2), 175-182.
- MacKinnon D, Teztlaff D. Conceptualising scale in catchment science and regional studies. Geography Compass 2009, 3(3), 976-996.
- Docherty I, Shaw J, Knowles R, MacKinnon D. Connecting for competitiveness: the future of transport in UK city regions. Public Policy and Management 2009, 29, 321-328.
- Shaw J, MacKinnon D, Docherty I. Divergence or convergence? Devolution and transport policy in the United Kingdom. Environment and Planning C 2009, 27, 546-567.
- MacKinnon D, Cumbers A, Pike A, Birch K, McMaster R. Evolution in Economic Geography: Institutions, Political Economy, and Adaptation. Economic Geography 2009, 85(2), 129-150.
- MacKinnon D. Regional geography II. In: Kitchin, r: Thirft, N, ed. International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography. London: Elsevier, 2009, pp.228-235.
- MacKinnon D, Shaw J, Docherty I. Diverging Mobilities? Devolution, Transport and Policy Innovation. Oxford: Elsevier, 2008.
- MacKinnon D, Vigar G. Devolution and the UK's new transport policy landscape. In: Docherty I; Shaw J, ed. Traffic Jam: Ten Years of 'Sustainable' Transport in the UK. Bristol: Policy Press, 2008, pp.29-48.
- MacKinnon D. Evolution, path dependency and economic geography. Geography Compass 2008, 5, 1449-1463.
- MacKinnon D, Cumbers A, Shaw J. Re-scaling employment relations: key outcomes of change in the privatised rail industry. Environment and Planning A 2008, 40, 1347-1369.
- MacKinnon D, Pirie G, Gather M. Transport and economic development. In: Knowles, RD; Shaw, J; Docherty, I, ed. Transport Geographies: Mobilities, Flows and Spaces. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008, pp.10-28.
- Phelps NA, Mackinnon D, Stone I, Braidford P. Embedding the multinationals? Institutions and the development of overseas manufacturing affiliates in Wales and North East England. REGIONAL STUDIES 2003, 37(1), 27-40.