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campbellMA(Otago) PhD(C Sturt)

Chair in Sociology

Contact details

Room 6C13, Richardson Building
Tel +64 3 479 8749
Email hugh.campbell@otago.ac.nz

Hugh Campbell has held a Chair in Sociology since 2011. Prior to that he was Director of the Centre for Sustainability (CSAFE) from 2000–2010 (www.csafe.org.nz).

Hugh has been the leader or co-leader of four major projects:
1) Greening Food, which studied the political economy of new commercial alternatives in agri-food systems (like organic agriculture).
2) The 12-year ARGOS project which studied sustainability dynamics on 100+ New Zealand farms and orchards.
3) New Rural Economies, working with researchers in Europe, Canada and Australasia to theorise alternatives to neoliberal policy models for rural development.
4) Biological Economies, which engaged in a radical re-theorising of rural economies using post-structural and more-than-human approaches to the relationship between biology and economy in land-based industries in New Zealand.

Professor Campbell is also a member of Food Waste Innovation, a University of Otago Research Theme which measures food waste, develops reduction strategies, applies innovative technology, and works to modify producer and consumer behaviour.

Teaching

I co-ordinate and teach:

SOCI 202: Big Ideas in Sociology
SOCI 319: The Global Politics of Food

I teach sections of:

AGRI 101: Agricultural Innovation
SOCI 101: Sociology of New Zealand Society
SOCI 103: Crime, Deviance and Social Transformation
SOCI 208: Environmental Sociology

Postgraduate supervision

  • Sociology of agriculture and food
  • Environmental dynamics in food and agriculture
  • Social dimensions of sustainability
  • Food and agricultural governance and neoliberalisation

Current and recent students

Katharine Cresswell Riol (PhD in Centre for Sustainability)

Right to food, and hunger in New Zealand

Rudi Kresna (PhD in Centre for Sustainability)

Developing economic, social and environmental responsive policies for sustainability of dairy farming in Indonesia

Karly Burch (PhD in Sociology)

Fighting for food safety in post Fukushima Japan

Cinzia Piatti (PhD in Geography)

Enacting the alter-native:
 A theoretical reframing of local food initiatives in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Angga Dwiartama (PhD in Geograpy)

Investigating the resilience of agriculture and food systems: insights from two theories and two case studies

David McKay (PhD in Geography)

Education for Survival and Sustainability

Stephanie Rotarangi (PhD in Geography)

Planted Forests on Ancestral Land: The Experiences and Resilience of Maori Land Owners

David Reynolds (MA in Sociology)

The Depoliticisation of Deprivation: Food Insecurity in Aotearoa New Zealand

Madeline Hall (MA in Environmental Sociology)

From 'Producers' to 'Polluters: Farmers' experience in the Lake Taupō Water Quality Trading Programme

Ali Stoddart (MA in Environmental Sociology)

A Matter of Waste: Making experiences and perceptions of food waste visible

Elizabeth Simmons (MA in Environmental Sociology)

The philosophy and pragmatics of sustainable agriculture

Publications

Campbell, H. (2020). Farming inside invisible worlds: Modernist agriculture and its consequences. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 232p. doi: 10.5040/9781350120570 Authored Book - Research

Le Heron, R., Campbell, H., Lewis, N., & Carolan, M. (Eds.). (2016). Biological economies: Experimentation and the politics of agri-food frontiers. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 274p. Edited Book - Research

Campbell, H., Evans, D., & Murcott, A. (2017). Measurability, austerity and edibility: Introducing waste into food regime theory. Journal of Rural Studies, 51, 168-177. doi: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.01.017 Journal - Research Article

Campbell, H., & Rosin, C. (2011). After the 'Organic Industrial Complex': An ontological expedition through commercial organic agriculture in New Zealand. Journal of Rural Studies, 27(4), 350-361. doi: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2011.04.003 Journal - Research Article

Campbell, H. (2009). Breaking new ground in food regime theory: Corporate environmentalism, ecological feedbacks and the 'food from somewhere' regime? Agriculture & Human Values, 26(4), 309-319. doi: 10.1007/s10460-009-9215-8 Journal - Research Article

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