Skip to main content

Staff profile

Overview

Professor Ray Hudson

Emeritus Professor

BA, PhD, DLitt, DSC

Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Emeritus Professor in the Department of Geography  
Professor , Economy and Culture316+44 (0) 191 33 41852
Professor , Politics-State-Space316+44 (0) 191 33 41852
Professor , Urban Worlds316+44 (0) 191 33 41852
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing  

Biography

Ray Hudson is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Geography. He joined the Department in 1972 (having been awarded a BA and PhD at Bristol University) and became a Professor in 1990. Ray was Chairman of the Department from 1992 to 1997 and has held, various senior positions in the University, including serving as Director of the interdisciplinary Wolfson Research Institute, 2003 - 2007 and then as Pro-Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor. He was Acting Vice Chancellor, 2014 - 2015. He has served on all of the University's major committees and on a variety of local and regional economic and social development and voluntary organisations.

He has served as a Vice President and Chair of the Research Division of the Royal Geographical Society (1999 - 2004), as Chair of the Conference of Heads of Geography in UK HEIs (1995 - 1999) and on various ESRC and HEFCE committees and boards, including ESRC's Training and Development Board and HEFCE's Strategic Advisory Committee for Enterprise and Skills. Until 2013, he was a co-director of FUSE (the North East Centre of Excellence of Translational Research in in Public Health) and a director of nomis (the National On-line Manpower Information System). For its first decade he chaired the International Advisory Board of WISERD (the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data And Methods).

A political-economic geographer, his research has focussed upon economic geographies, processes of combined and uneven development and issues of territorial development. Much of his empirical reseach has focussed on 'old' industrial regions. He was one of a small number of geographers in the early 1970s who began to explore political economy approaches as an alternative to the then-dominant neoclassical location theories and statiistical modelling approaches. His more recent research has included work on the social economy, on relations betweeen legal and illegal economies, and on the relationships between economy and environment and processes of material transformation and value creation. His publications include Wrecking a Region (Pion, 1989), Production, Places and Environment (Pearson, 2000), Digging up Trouble: The Environment, Protest and Opencast Coal Mining (with Huw Beynon and Andrew Cox, Rivers Oram, 2000), Producing Places (Guilford, 2001), Placing the Social Economy (with Ash Amin and Angus Cameron, Routledge, 2002), Economic Geographies: Circuits, Flows and Spaces, Sage, 2005), Approaches to Economic Geography: Towards a Geographical Political Economy, (Routledge, 2016), Co-Produced Economies: Capital, Collaboration, Competition (Routledge, 2019) and The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the Decline of Industrial Britain (with Huw Beynon (Verso, 2021, forthcoming). He is currently working on a long-period political economy of north east England.

His research has been recognised in a number of ways, including: a DLitt from Durham, a DSc from Bristol and an honorary DSc from Roskilde University. He received the Edward Heath Award from the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded its Victoria Medal in recognition of sustained excelllence in research. He was also awarded the Sir Peter Hall Award by the Regional Studies Association for his contribution to the field of regional studies .He has been elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of the Social Sciences, to the Fellowship of the British Academy and to the European Academy (Academia Europaea). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Regional Studies Association.

His research has involved working with and advising trades unions, community organisations and local, regional and national goverment organisations and has led to invitations to act as Special Adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on Coalfields Regeneration and as an Expert Witness to the National Audit Office in its investigations into coalfield regeneration policies. More recently his research has informed and influenced policy making at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Research interests

  • Political economies of uneven and combined development
  • Economic Geographies
  • Economic & social regeneration in 'old' industrial regions
  • Relationships between capitalist economies and the earth system
  • Relationships berween legal and illegal economies and spaces

Research Projects

  • Durham - CMI Knowledge Exchange Laboratory, The
  • Health Inequalities in an Age of Austerity, Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Grant, £1 million (2013-2018)
  • Waste of the World

Awarded Grants

  • 2013: RF150283: Illicit economies and the spaces of circulation, ESRC, 2013-08-01 - 2015-04-30
  • 2013: Addition to ONS 2011 Census dissemination(£154100.00 from Office for National Statistics)
  • 2012: Office for National Statistics Census 2011 Dissemination(£237314.00 from Office for National Statistics)
  • 2011: Nomis contract extension 2011-2013(£826044.00 from Office for National Statistics)
  • 2010: The impact of demographic change in the functional economies of the North of England(£18952.77 from One NorthEast)
  • 2007: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL(£11756.00 from The British Academy)
  • 2006: WASTE OF THE WORLD(£1129357.00 from ESRC)
  • 2005: KTP - REDCAR & CLEVELAND PCT(£163066.00 from Redcar & Cleveland PCT)
  • 2004: DURHAM-CMI KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE LABORATORY(£182986.00 from Cambridge-MIT Institute Ltd)
  • 2003: COPING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES(£6000.00 from The Nuffield Foundation)
  • 2003: SOCIAL ECONOMY AND REGIONAL REGENERATION(£3850.00 from The British Academy)
  • 2001: ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT STUDY-CORUS STEEL TASK FORCE(£42475.00 from Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council)
  • 1999: ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN FELLOWSHIP-DR BANKS(£20000.00 from The Royal Academy of Engineering)
  • 1999: REGIONAL ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE(£13931.00 from ESRC)
  • 1998: Rural Areas Learning(£59826.00 from Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust)
  • 1997: COAL DISTRICTS IN TRANSFORMATION(£10839.00 from ESRC)
  • 1997: LOCIN - COMBAT SOCIAL EXCLUSION(£84558.00 from )
  • 1993: EUROPEAN STUDIES(£149439.06 from Longman Group UK Ltd)
  • -0001: TMR 20 LUNDEQUIST(£18776.00 from )

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

  • Economics: regional economic development
  • Economics: industrial change
  • Economics: Europe/European Union
  • Employment: practice in employment law
  • Economics & management: industrial change
  • Economics & management: regional economic development
  • Economics & management: political & economic restructuring in Europe
  • Landscape & buildings: mining for coal & metals
  • Landscape & buildings: quarrying
  • Landscape & buildings: conservation of geological sites, etc.
  • Europe: Business, economy & development: industrial change
  • Europe: Business, economy & development: regional development
  • Europe: Business, economy & development: environmental issues and sustainable development
  • Modern History: Europe: industrial change
  • Modern History: Europe: regional and urban development and regeneration
  • Social Policy: Employment & development issues: industrial change and its social consequences
  • Social Policy: Employment & development issues: regional and urban development and regeneration
  • Regional Economy: industrial change and its social effects
  • Regional Economy: regional development
  • Regional Economy: regional economy
  • People: Civilisation & land use: industrial change
  • People: Civilisation & land use: regional and urban development and regeneration

Publications

Authored book

  • Beynon, H. & Hudson, R. (2021). The Shadow of the Mine. Coal and the End of Industrial Britain. Verso.
  • Hudson, R. (2019). Co-produced Economies: Capital, Collaboration, Competition. Routledge.
  • Hudson, R. (2016). Approaches to Economic Geography: Towards a Geographical Political Economy. Routledge.
  • Hudson, R. (2005). Economic Geographies: Circuits, Flows and Spaces. Sage.
  • Amin, A., Cameron, A & Hudson, R. (2002). Placing the Social Economy. Oxford.: Routledge.
  • Hudson, R. (2001). Producing Places. New York.: Guilford Press.
  • Bennett, K, Beynon, H & Hudson, R (2000). Coalfields Regeneration: Dealing with the Consequences of Industrial Decline. Poilicy Press.
  • Hudson, R., Beynon, H. & Cox, A. (2000). Digging up Trouble: Environment, Protest and Opencast Coal Mining. Rivers Oram.
  • Hudson, R. (2000). Production, Places and Environment: Changing Perspectives in Economic Geography. Longman.
  • Hudson, R & Williams, A M (2000). Divided Britain. Mallard Editions.
  • Beynon, H, Hudson, R & Sadler, D (1994). A Place Called Teesside: A Locality in a Global Economy. Edinburgh University Press.
  • Beynon, H, Hudson, R & Sadler, D (1991). A Tale of Two Industries: The Contraction of Coal and Steel in North East England. Open University Press.
  • Hudson, R. (1989). Wrecking a Region: State Policies, Party Politics and Regional Change in North East England. Pion.
  • Hudson, R & Sadler, D (1989). The International Steel Industry: Restructuring, state policies and localities. Routledge.
  • Rhind, D.W. & Hudson, R. (1980). Land Use. Methuen.
  • Pocock, D & Hudson, R (1978). Images of the Urban Environment. Macmillan.

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

  • Hudson, R. (2008), Material matters and the search for resilience: Re-thinking and urban development strategies in the context of global environmental change, International Conference, Studying, Modelling and Sense Making of Planet Earth. University of Aegean, Lesvos., University of Aegean, Lesvos, 1-34.

Edited book

  • Chiodelli, F., Hall, T. & Hudson, R. (2017). The illicit and illegal in regional and urban governance and development: corrupt places. Regions and cities. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
  • Hudson, R & Williams, A M (1999). Divided Europe: Society and Territory. Sage.
  • Hudson, R. & Schamp, E.W. (1995). Towards a New Map of Automobile Manufacturing in Europe? New Production Concepts and Spatial Restructuring. Springer.
  • Hudson, R. & Lewis, J. (1985). Uneven Development in Southern Europe. Methuen.
  • Anderson, J, Hudson, R & Duncan, S (1983). Redundant Spaces in Cities and Regions? Studies in Industrial Decline and Social Change. Institute of British Geographers Special Publications. Academic Press.
  • Hudson, R. & Lewis, J. (1982). Regional Planning in Europe. Pion.
  • Carney, J., Hudson, R. & Lewis, J. (1980). Regions in Crisis: New Perspectives in European Regional Theory. Croom Helm.

Journal Article

Other (Print)

  • Hudson, R. (Published). The Costs of Globalisation: Producing New Forms of Risk to Health and Well-Being. Journal of Risk Management 11: 13-29.
  • Hudson, R., Buckner, L., Cannon, T., Harding, A., Rees, P. & Kurowska, K. (2013). The impacts of demographic change on the functional; economies of the North of England. N8 and Northern Way, Manchester (iv + 35)

Report

  • Hudson, R. & Townsend, A.R. (2005). Coalfield regeneration, 1981-2003: Employment and Travel to work, Parts I and II. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
  • Hudson, R., Miles, N., Robinson, J. F. & Tully, J. (2004). Social Capital and Economic Development in North East England: Promoting Economic and Social Inclusion.
  • Hudson, R. & Townsend, A. (2003). The Steel Industry in the Tees Valley; the supply chain in the Tees Valley and its vulnerability to further reductions in the Steel Industry.
  • Hudson, R. & Townsend, A. (2003). Updating Coalfield Areas.