Staff profile

I returned to Durham University's Geography Department in October 2011, having left it in 1983. My previous appointments have been at Exeter (1983-84), Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1984-1990), and Sheffield (1990-2011).

Once upon a time I was a historical geographer. So, I used to work in archives. My PhD research was on the transition to agrarian capitalism in North-west England. If you dig around hard enough in the archives of Economic History Review, you will find an article on that. For reasons to do with needing a job, in 1986 I reinvented myself as an interdisciplinary social scientist, working on the interface between human geography and sociology. My first contemporary social science project was on waged domestic labour. It appears as the book Servicing the Middle Classes (Routledge, 1994). My main research interests are in the fields of 'recycling' and waste economies and consumption as devaluation, divestment disposal. The approaches that I take to those fields can be identified with traditions of work in material culture studies, cultural economy and STS and they typically involve working ethnographically. Taking an ethnographic approach to economy produces different insights to what frequently counts as economic knowledge; it highlights economy in action and as an achievement. This kind of ‘edgy’ economic work also focuses the spotlight on the spaces seldom seen, or economic borderlands. It is highlighted by some of my more recent work on logistics and the circulation and movement of goods as well as by my work on waste and recycling.

As an Emerita Professor I can no longer offer either PhD or post-doctoral positions.

Anyone else wanting to know any more or to get in touch with me at: nicky.gregson@durham.ac.uk.

Research Interests

• Consumption & Disposal
• ‘Recycling’ & Waste Economies
• Science in Practice

External Supervisions

Previous Supervisions

Authored book

• Gregson, N. (2007). Living with Things: ridding, accommodation, dwelling. Sean Kingston Publishing
• Gregson, N., & Crewe, L. (2003). Second-hand cultures. Berg

Chapter in book

• Gregson, N. (2016). Asbestos. In M. Salter (Ed.), Making Things International 2: Catalysts and Reactions. University of Minnesota Press
• Gregson, N., & Crang, M. (2015). Waste, Resource Recovery and Labour: Recycling Economies in the EU. In J. Michie, & C. Cooper (Eds.), Why the Social Sciences Matter (60-76). Palgrave Macmillan
• Alexander, C., Gregson, N., & Gille, Z. (2013). Food waste. In A. Murcott, W. Belasco, & P. Jackson (Eds.), The Handbook of Food Research (471-485). Bloomsbury

Journal Article

• Evans, D. M., & Gregson, N. (2023). Money, Debt and Finance: Reclaiming the Conditions of Possibility in Consumption Research. Sociology, 57(6), 1491-1506. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385231156339
• Gregson, N. (2023). Work, labour and mobility: opening up a dialogue between fmobilities and political economy through mobile work. Mobilities, 18(6), 888-902. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2022.2158041
• Gregson, N., & Foreman, P. J. (2021). England’s municipal waste regime: challenges and prospects. The Geographical Journal, 187(3), 214-226. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12386
• Gregson, N., & Crang, M. (2019). Made in China and the new world of secondary resource recovery. Environment and Planning A, 51(4), 1031-1040. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x18791175
• Holmes, H., Gregson, N., Watson, M., Buckley, A., Chiles, P., Krzywoszynska, A., & Maywin, J. (2018). Interdisciplinarity in Transdisciplinary Projects: Circulating Knowledges, Practices and Effects. disP - The Planning Review, 54(2), 77-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/02513625.2018.1487646
• Gregson, N. (2018). Mobilities, mobile work and habitation: truck drivers and the crisis in occupational auto-mobility in the UK. Mobilities, 13(3), 291-307. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2017.1343987
• Gregson, N., Crang, M., & Antonopoulos, C. (2017). Holding together logistical worlds: friction, seams and circulation in the emerging ‘global warehouse’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 35(3), 381-398. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775816671721
• Gregson, N., & Crang, M. (2017). Illicit economies: customary illegality, moral economies and circulation. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 42(2), 206-219. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12158
• Gregson, N., Crang, M., Botticello, J., Calestani, M., & Krzywoszynska, A. (2016). Doing the ‘Dirty Work’ of the Green Economy: resource recovery and migrant labour in the EU. European Urban and Regional Studies, 24(3), 541-555. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776414554489
• Gregson, N., & Ferdous, R. (2015). Making space for ethical consumption in the South. Geoforum, 67, 244-255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.02.009
• Gregson, N., & Crang, M. (2015). From Waste to Resource: The Trade in Wastes and Global Recycling Economies. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 40(1), 151-176. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-102014-021105
• Gregson, N. (2015). Logistics at work: trucks, containers and the friction of circulation in the UK. Mobilities, 12(3), 343-364. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2015.1087680
• Gregson, N., Crang, M., Fuller, S., & Holmes, H. (2015). Interrogating the Circular Economy: the Moral Economy of Resource Recovery in the EU. Economy and Society, 44(2), 218-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2015.1013353
• Gregson, N., Crang, M., Laws, J., Fleetwood, T., & Holmes, H. (2013). Moving up the waste hierarchy: car boot sales, reuse exchange and the challenges of consumer culture to waste prevention. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 77, 97-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.06.005
• Gregson, N., Watkins, H., & Calestani, M. (2013). Political markets: recycling, economization and marketization. Economy and Society, 42(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2012.661625
• Crang, M., Hughes, A., Gregson, N., Norris, L., & Ahamed, F. (2013). Rethinking governance and value in commodity chains through global recycling networks. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(1), 12-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00515.x
• Gregson, N. (2012). Projected futures: the political matter of UK higher activity radioactive waste. Environment and Planning A, 44(8), 2006-2022. https://doi.org/10.1068/a44600
• Gregson, N., Crang, M., Ahamed, F., Akter, N., Ferdous, R., Foisal, S., & Hudson, R. (2012). Territorial agglomeration and industrial symbiosis: Sitakunda-Bhatiary, Bangladesh, as a secondary processing complex. Economic Geography, 88(1), 37-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2011.01138.x
• Gregson, N., Crang, M., & Watkins, H. (2011). Souvenir, Salvage and the Death of Great Naval Ships. Journal of Material Culture, 16(3), 301-324. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183511412882
• Gregson, N. (2011). Performativity, corporeality and the politics of ship disposal. Journal of Cultural Economy, 4(2), 137-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2011.563067
• Gregson, N., Crang, M., Ahamed, F., Akhtar, N., & Ferdous, R. (2010). Following things of rubbish value: end-of-life ships, ‘chock-chocky’ furniture and the Bangladeshi middle class consumer. Geoforum, 41(6), 846-854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2010.05.007
• Gregson, N., & Crang, M. (2010). Materiality and waste: inorganic vitality in a networked world. Environment and Planning A, 42(5), 1026-1032. https://doi.org/10.1068/a43176
• Gregson, N., Watkins, H., & Calestani, M. (2010). Inextinguishable fibres: demolition and the vital materialisms of asbestos. Environment and Planning A, 42(5), 1065-1083. https://doi.org/10.1068/a42123
• Bærenholdt, J., Gregson, N., Everts, J., Granas, B., & Healey, R. (2010). Performing academic practice: using the master class to build postgraduate discursive competences. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 34(2), 283-298. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260903502695
• Gregson, N., Metcalfe, A., & Crewe, L. (2009). Practices of object maintenance and repair: how consumers attend to consumer objects within the home. Journal of Consumer Culture, 9(2), 248-272. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540509104376
• Gregson, N. (2009). Material, literary narrative and cultural economy. Journal of Cultural Economy, 2(3), 285-300. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350903345520
• Bulkeley, H., & Gregson, N. (2009). Crossing the threshold: municipal waste policy and household waste generation. Environment and Planning A, 41(4), 929-945. https://doi.org/10.1068/a40261
• Gregson, N., Metcalfe, A., & Crewe, L. (2007). Moving things along: the conduits and practices of divestment in consumption. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 32(2), 187-200. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2007.00253.x
• Gregson, N., Metcalfe, A., & Crewe, L. (2007). Identity, mobility and the throwaway society. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 25(4), 682-700. https://doi.org/10.1068/d418t
• Gregson, N., Crewe, L., & Brooks, K. (2002). Shopping, space and practice. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 20(5), 597-617. https://doi.org/10.1068/d270t
• Gregson, N., Crewe, L., & Brooks, K. (2002). Discourse, displacement, and retail practice: some pointers from the charity retail project. Environment and Planning A, 34(9), 1661 - 1683. https://doi.org/10.1068/a3415
• Gregson, N., & Rose, G. (2000). Taking Butler elsewhere: performativities, spatialities and subjectivities. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 18(4), 433-452. https://doi.org/10.1068/d232
• Gregson, N., Crewe, L., & Longstaff, B. (1997). Excluded spaces of regulation: car-boot sales as an enterprise culture out of control?. Environment and Planning A, 29(10), 1717 - 1737. https://doi.org/10.1068/a291717
• Gregson, N., & Crewe, L. (1997). The bargain, the knowledge and the spectacle: making sense of consumption in the space of the car-boot sale. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 15(1), 87 - 112. https://doi.org/10.1068/d150087