Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Space

The Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Space (CRESS) is a major research centre based at Cardiff University.

It replaces the Centre for Rural Environment and Society (CRES), which was established in 2004 to develop a growing volume of rural and environmental research within the University.

CRESS is concerned to bring together environmental and social research themes in respect to rural areas, making connections between natural, social, cultural, economic and political processes within rural spaces.

Aims

The Centre aims to develop significant programmes of research and international collaborative working, as well as PhD and Masters courses around rural and environmental themes.

Research

We have a multi-disciplinary focus, with researchers drawn from human geography, planning, sociology and landscape ecology. Expertise is provided across a broad range of research themes, including:

rural society and culture
rural economy
the sustainability of rural environments
rural and environmental governance
environmental justice and rural welfare
rural housing and services
agri-food systems
ethical consumption

Projects

Funded research programmes and projects to the value of £2.3 million have been directed by members of CRESS.

Project name	Funded	Investigator(s)
UK collaborative centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE)	ESRC, £401,137	Dr P Mackie, Dr S Orford
Shaping inter-species connectedness: Training cultures and the emergence of new forms of human-animal relations	Leverhulme Trust, £99,647	Professor M Miele, H Smith
Anaerobic digestion plants in rural Wales: social-spatial diffusion of technology, social acceptance and energy transition	Sêr Cymru II - COFUND, £161,821.30	Dr S Martinat, Professor R Cowell
A long-pending Indian question: Consequences of agribusiness expansion and ambiguous national borders for the Guarani- Kaiowás in Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil)	British Academy Newton Fund, £72,975	Dr A Ioris
Agro-cultural frontiers and the Amazon: contested histories, new alterities and emerging cultures	AHRC, £48,576	Dr A Ioris
SUSPLACE	EU-Commission, £449,165	Professor T Marsden
Strengthening animal production and health through the immune response	EU-Commission, £265,435	Dr G Enticott
A new literary geography: Establishing a digital atlas of Wales and its borderlands	AHRC, Literature Wales, £477,232	Professor J Anderson, Dr S Orford
Place-based systems thinking in developing healthy future Malaysian cities	British Council, £59,996	Professor T Marsden, Professor D Fone, Dr Yi Gong
Development of research framework programme	Canal and River Trust, £120,000	Professor T Marsden, Dr H Pitt
Standards and the circular economy	ESRC, Panalpina, £3,000	Dr A Flynn
Resilience in groundwater supply systems: Integrating resource-based approaches with agency, behaviour and choice in West Africa (RIGSS)	Natural Environment Research Council, £88,011	Professor G Bristow
Green infrastructure for healthier citizens: promoting networks and learning between Indonesia and Malaysia	ESRC IAA, £3,091	Dr A Flynn, Dr A Frank
Novel approaches of employing green infrastructure (GI) to enhance urban sustainability	Institute of International Education, £18303	Dr A Flynn, Dr A Frank, Professor C Tweed, Dr W Jabi

Meet the team

Director

Professor Paul Milbourne

Professor of Human Geography

: +44 29208 75791
: MilbourneP@cardiff.ac.uk

Academic staff

Professor Jon Anderson

Professor in Human Geography, Director of Recruitment and Admissions

: +44 29208 75308
: AndersonJ@cardiff.ac.uk

Professor Gillian Bristow

Head of the School of Geography and Planning

: +44 29208 75388
: BristowG1@cardiff.ac.uk

Professor Richard Cowell

Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning, Director of Research and Innovation

: +44 29208 76684
: CowellRJ@cardiff.ac.uk

Professor Gareth Enticott

Professor of Human Geography

: +44 29208 76243
: EnticottG@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr Andrew Flynn

Professor in Environmental Policy and Planning

: +44 29208 74851
: FlynnAC@cardiff.ac.uk

Professor Kersty Hobson

Professor in Human Geography

: +44 29206 88682
: HobsonK@cardiff.ac.uk

Publications

Anderson, J. 2017. Retreat or re-connect: how effective can ecosophical communities be in transforming the mainstream?. Geografiska Annaler B: Human Geography 99 (2), pp.192-206. (10.1080/04353684.2017.1324653)
Bridgens, B. et al., 2019. Closing the loop on e-waste: a multidisciplinary perspective. Journal of Industrial Ecology 23 (1), pp.169-181. (10.1111/jiec.12645)
Cowell, R. and Devine-Wright, P. 2018. A 'delivery-democracy dilemma'? Mapping and explaining policy change for public engagement with energy infrastructure. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 20 (4), pp.499-517. (10.1080/1523908X.2018.1443005)
Cowell, R. J. W. 2017. Decentralising energy governance? Wales, devolution and the politics of energy infrastructure decision-making. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 35 (7), pp.1242-1263. (10.1177/0263774X16629443)
Cowell, R. J. W. 2017. Policy and practice: the EU referendum, planning and the environment: where now for the UK?. Town Planning Review 88 (2), pp.153-171. (10.3828/tpr.2017.12)
Doheny, S. and Milbourne, P. 2017. Community, rurality, and older people: critically comparing older people's experiences across different rural communities. Journal of Rural Studies 50 , pp.129-138. (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.12.003)
Enticott, G. 2018. International migration by rural professionals: professional subjectivity, disease ecology and veterinary migration from the United Kingdom to New Zealand. Journal of Rural Studies (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.02.006)
Hacking, N. and Flynn, A. 2017. Networks, power and knowledge in the planning system: a case study of energy from waste. Progress in Planning 113 , pp.1-37. (10.1016/j.progress.2015.12.001)
Ioris, A. 2017. Places of agribusiness: displacement, replacement, and misplacement in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Geographical Review 107 (3), pp.452-475. (10.1111/gere.12222)
Ioris, A. 2018. Seeding a narrow future and harvesting an exclusionary past: the contradictions and future scenarios of agro-neoliberalism in Brazil. Futures 95 , pp.76-85. (10.1016/j.futures.2017.10.003)
Ioris, A. A. R. 2017. Encroachment and entrenchment of agro-neoliberalism in the Centre- West of Brazil. Journal of Rural Studies 51 , pp.15-27. (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.01.011)
Ioris, R. and Ioris, A. 2018. Colombia's fractured history and continued challenges following the Havana Accord. Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 13 , pp.79-83. (10.1080/15423166.2017.1401485)
Marsden, T. 2016. Exploring the rural eco-economy: beyond neoliberalism. Sociologia Ruralis 56 (4), pp.597-615. (10.1111/soru.12139)
Maye, D. , Enticott, G. and Naylor, R. 2017. Using scenario-based influence mapping to examine farmers' biosecurity behaviour.. Land Use Policy 66 , pp.265-277. (10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.04.026)
Miele, M. et al. 2017. Implementation of the European legislation to protect farm animals: a case-study on French inspections to find solutions to improve compliance. Animal Welfare Journal 26 (3), pp.311-321. (10.7120/09627286.26.3.311)
Milbourne, P. and Mason, K. 2017. Environmental injustice and post-colonial environmentalism: opencast coal mining, landscape and place. Environment and Planning A 49 (1), pp.29-46. (10.1177/0308518X16665843)
Sanderson Bellamy, A. and Ioris, A. A. R. 2017. Addressing the knowledge gaps in agroecology and identifying guiding principles for transforming conventional agri-food systems. Sustainability 9 (3) 330. (10.3390/su9030330)
Schulz, C. and Ioris, A. A. R. 2017. The paradox of water abundance in Mato Grosso, Brazil.. Sustainability 9 (10) 1796. (10.3390/su9101796)
Schulz, C. et al., 2017. The value base of water governance: a multi-disciplinary perspective. Ecological Economics 131 , pp.241-249. (10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.09.009)
Schulz, C. et al., 2017. Applying a ‘value landscapes approach’ to conflicts in water governance: the case of the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway. Ecological Economics 138 , pp.47-55. (10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.03.033)
Smith, K. et al. 2017. “It’ll be our own little Wales out there”: re-situating Bardsey Island for post-devolution Wales in Fflur Dafydd’s Twenty Thousand Saints. Island Studies Journal 12 (2), pp.317-328. (10.24043/isj.35)
Wonneck, L. and Hobson, K. 2017. Practice-based spill-over effects: evidence from Calgary’s municipal food and yard waste recycling pilot. Canadian Geographer / Geographie Canadien 61 (3), pp.415-427. (10.1111/cag.12391)

Events

Visit the School of Social and Spatial Sciences events page if you're interested in similar topics.

Past events

Sustainable and responsive environments: Green space planning for health and well-being

This event featured a presentation by Dr Mick Lennon (University College Dublin) regarding ongoing work that seeks to address an identified need for a conceptually informed way for user-responsive green space planning for health and well-being.

Dr Alan Netherwood (Netherwood Sustainable Futures) and Cardiff University researchers involved in health and green infrastructure research (School of Social and Spatial Sciences) provided critical comments and reflections highlighting links of Dr Lennon’s study with other initiatives such as those by the Welsh Office for Future Generations and the Well-being Act.

Brexit and the future of food and farming

This event examined the impacts and possible future scenarios arising from Brexit in the food and farming sectors. Since June 2016, the process of leaving the EU has highlighted the complex ways the farming and food sectors are connected to Europe through markets, regulation and policy.

Brexit will require new systems of rural development, agricultural subsidies and ecosystem services, and new rules to address the sector's reliance on overseas labour.

Schools

School of Social and Spatial Sciences

We are a multi-disciplinary applied human geography and urban studies school.