Staff Profile
Professor Ash Amin
Contact (email at ash.amin@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
Ash Amin, Professor of Geography, was Head of Department from March 2003 to August 2005. He holds a degree in Italian Studies (1979) and a PhD in Geography (1986), both from the University of Reading. He has held Professorial Fellowships at the Universities of Bologna, Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Uppsala. He was founding co-editor of the Review of International Political Economy and sits on the editorial board of a number of international social science journals. He has been a member of the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council’s Research Priorities Board (1997 to 2001) and is currently finishing a three year term as one of four race and ethnicity advisers to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. He is an academician of the Academy of the Learned Societies in the Social Sciences, Life Corresponding member of the Italian Institute of Geographers, Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holder of the Royal Geographical Society’s Edward Heath Prize in 1998 for contributions to research on Europe.
Professor Amin’s early research career focused on the challenges of urban and regional economic development in the context of structural change and international economic integration, combining conceptual work with research in Britain, Italy, Ireland, and Denmark. In more recent years his contributions have lain primarily in different areas of contemporary social and spatial theory, including the urban imaginary in network society, meanings of the local and local attachment in a cosmopolitan age, multi-ethnicity and the Idea of Europe, prospects for urban and regional democracy, and the economy re-imagined as situated knowledge, cultural performance, and plural logics including non-profit activity. Much of this work has involved public and policy engagement and influence at local, national, EU and OECD level in the areas of spatial policy, multiculturalism, and economic development. He is currently leading an ESRC funded project on ethnographies in the social economy, and an EU Network of Excellence initiative on knowledge generation through communities of practice.
Research Groups
Research Projects
Research Interests
- Democracy and citizenship
- Institutional and social economics
- Multiculturalism in Europe
- Regional development studies
- Urban theory
Selected Publications
Books: authored
- Amin, A. & Cohendet, P. Architectures of Knowledge: Firms, Capabilities and Communities. Oxford.: Oxford University Press; 2004. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Amin, A., Massey, D. & Thrift, N.J. Decentering the Nation: A radical approach to regional inequality. Catalyst; 2003. (Additional information)
- Amin, A. & Thrift, N. Cities: Reimagining the Urban. Cambridge: Polity Press; 2002. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Amin, A., Cameron, A & Hudson, R. Placing the Social Economy. Oxford.: Routledge; 2002. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Books: edited
- Amin, A. & Roberts, J. Community, Economic Creativity and Organization. Oxford.: Oxford University Press; 2008. (Additional information)
- Amin, A. & Thrift, N. The Blackwell Cultural Economy Reader. Oxford: Blackwell; 2004. (Additional information)
Books: sections
- Amin, A. & Sepulveda, L. Decentralising industrial polices: threat or opportunity in developing countries? In: Bianchi, P. & Labory, S. International Handbook on Industrial Policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar; 2006.
- Amin, A. Kulturelle ֫onomie und Stadt. In: Berndt, C. & Glckler, J. Denkanst�46;e ze einer anderen Geographie der ֫onomie. Transcript Verlag; 2006.
- Amin, A. Le Soutien au local au Royaume-Uni: entre le recul politique et l'engagement solidaire. In: InKlein, J-L. & Harrisson, D. L'Innovation Sociale. Canada: Presses De l'Universit頄u Qu颥c, Canada; 2006.
- Amin, A., Thrift, N., Baker, H. & Massey, D. Centres don't have to be points. Politics beyond state boundaries. In: Latour, B. & Weibel, P. Making Things Public. Cambridge: MIT Press; 2005.
- Amin, A. Habits of solidarity. In: Bunting, M. Islam, Race and Identity in Britain. London: Guardian; 2005.
Journal papers: academic
- Amin, A. Cultural-Economy and Cities. Progress in Human Geography. 2007.
- Amin, A. Re-thinking the Urban Social. City. 2007.
- Amin, A. & Cohendet, P. Geographies of Knowledge Formation in Firms. Industry and Innovation. 2006;12:465-486.
- Amin, A. The Good City. Urban Studies. 2006;43:1009-1023. (Additional information)
- Amin, A. Local community on trial. Economy and Society. 2005;34:612-633. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Amin, A. & Thrift, N. What's left? just the future. Antipode a radical journal of geography. 2005;37:220-238. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Amin, A. Multi-ethnicity and the idea of Europe. Theory, Culture and Society. 2004;21:1-24. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Amin, A. Regions unbound towards a new politics of place. Geografiska annaler series B human geography. 2004;86:33-44. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Amin, A. Regulating economic globalization. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 2004;29:217-233. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Amin, A. Ethnicity and the multicultural city: living with diversity. Environment and Planning A. 2002;34:959-980. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Amin, A. Spatialities of globalisation. Environment and Planning A. 2002;34:385-399. (Additional information) (View publication online)