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Professor Jane Wills

Director of the Environment and Sustainability Institute and Professor of Geography

Environment and Sustainability Institute

Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK

Office hours:

Please email to book a time to meet: via Amrita Sharma (A.Sharma4@exeter.ac.uk) or direct to Jane (j.wills2@exeter.ac.uk)

Overview

Jane Wills is Director of the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) and Professor of Geography at the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science (CGES) at the University of Exeter in Cornwall, UK.

Current research interests are focused on public and policy engagement for sustainability - see more below.

I also have long-standing interests in the politics and philosophy of research and knowledge production, and political and economic geography.

My philsophical interests are reflected in a recent edited volume: The Power of Pragmatism: Knowledge production and social inquiry (Manchester University Press, 2020, Edited with Robert W. Lake). There is a short blog written to promote the book here: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/articles/relinquishing-the-quest-for-certainty-in-the-social-sciences-or-learning-from-the-coronavirus-crisis/

Other books include: Locating Localism: Statecraft, citizenship and democracy (Policy Press, 2016), Global Cities at Work: New migrant divisions of labour (Pluto Press, 2010), Threads of Labour: Garment industry supply chains from the workers’ perspective (Blackwell, 2005), Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalisms (Blackwell, 2001), Geographies of Economies (Arnold, 1997) and Union Retreat and the Regions (Routledge, 1996).

Broad research specialisms

Historically, my research interests focused on: the changing geopolitical economy of work and regional economic development; new forms of urban political alliances including community organizing and living wage campaigns; and the politics and practice of localism in the UK.

Since moving to the University of Exeter and working in Cornwall, I have shifted to focus on public and policy engagement for sustainability. I have PhD students working on the future of farming policy in relation to the environment (Jen Clements); regional economic policy for peripheral regions of the UK (Nick Woolgrove); island life histories (Rosie Layfield); the politics of renewable energy infrastructure (Zoe Chateau); and community-oriented development practices for sustainable forest farming in Peru (Lena Prouchet).

My current research is focused on the way in which nature can be integrated into regional policy, as well as being considered alongside socio-economic factors by using the 'doughnut economics' approach (see the research link for more information).

As part of the British Academy's programme called Shared Understandings of a Sustainable Future (2022), I have a project co-directed with Dr Rachel Turner called 'Localising and decentralising goal-based governance for sustainability'. This project has involved contributing to the annual review of the Cornwall Plan, a workshop with key leaders in Cornwall about partnership-building around shared concerns, and organising a civil society assembly to reflect and respond to socio-ecological issues in Cornwall. The council has used doughnut economics to shape the Cornwall Plan, and we are working to engage civil society in determining and acting on shared goals for sustainability (and you can find reports produced as part of this work on the research tab).

In early 2020, I led a UKRI-funded project on public engagement in nature-based solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss. Working with partners in Cornwall Council and the voluntary sector, we organised co-production workshops with residents in Helston, Launceston and Newquay to explore their uses of local green spaces, documenting their ideas for improvements. A full report and short film about the 'Growing community through nature' project can be found on this website: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/esi/research/communitiesthroughnature/

For more information about previous research into the living wage campaign, including papers and data, please visit the website located at my old employer, Queen Mary, University of London: www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/livingwage/

Qualifications

BA(Hons) Geography Cambridge 1986

PhD Open University 1995

Career

Jane Wills joined the University of Exeter in October 2017, moving from Queen Mary, University of London. Prior to that she worked at the University of Southampton, University of Cambridge and in local government.

Research group links

Environment and Sustainability

Research

Research interests

Current research interests include policy and public engagement in sustainability and the geography of political institutions, with particular attention paid to local structures and the ways in which people can engage in decision-making. This is part of my wider interests in devolution and localism, community organizing, civic innovation and sustainability.

In 2022 Rachel Turner, Claire Collins and I are working on a British Academy project called 'Localising and decentralising goal-based governance for sustainability' this is part of a broader programme and reports later this year. We are working with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Leadership Board as part of an annual review of the Cornwall Plan (2020-50) to explore partnership working and collaboration around the shared goals underpinning the goal to achieve greater socio-ecological sustainability in Cornwall. You can find our report on the council site here: https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/cornwall-plan or the ESI projects page: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/esi/research/projects/impact-towardsasustainablecornwall

Britain’s Leading Edge is a new collaboration of 11 Local Authorities in predominantly rural and peripheral areas. Led by Cornwall Council, the group aims to provide a fresh voice to reframe the debate around the ‘regional problem’ and shape a national policy landscape that harnesses the unique strengths of all peripheral areas, particular those related to natural capital. This is about 'levelling out' to the periphery, recognising the strengths and contributions being made by these areas to the national economy and its ecosystems. Two research projects have involved organising a conference in December 2020 and we are publishing a new report in 2022: 'Levelling up for the rural periphery', led by Nick Woolgrove (PhD student).

In 2021 I led a team working on ideas to 'sustain the visitor economy and environment in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly' (SVEE-CIOS). Funded by UKRI, and developed in partnership with colleagues in the Business School (Steffen Boehm, Joanne Connell) and Tevi (an EU-funded business support project), the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Cornwall Council’s Environmental Growth Team and Cornwall Wildlife Trust, as well as the Islands Partnership, the IOS Wildlife Trust, and the Council of the IOS, this project aimed to find the synergy between the visitor economy and the environment. We explored best practice in nature based tourism, what is already going on in relation to nature-oriented tourism in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, areas for innovation and development. Post-pandemic tourist recovery in CIOS could exemplify regenerative forms of development, feeding into the local industrial strategy, identifying policy supports for the visitor economy after Covid-19.

Recent projects also include Growing communities through nature, funded by UKRI as part of the Enhancing Partnerships for Place-Based Public Engagement programme, which involved working with the Making Space for Nature team at Cornwall Council and Helston's Climate Action Group. A report can be found, along with a short film, here: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/esi/research/communitiesthroughnature/

In 2019, I published a report entitled: A new geography of local government: The changing role of town and parish councils in Cornwall . As a Commissioner for Locality's Commission on the Future of Localism, I researched the changing role of town and parish councils in Cornwall. The combined impact of support for devolution along with financial pressures caused by budget cuts has prompted Cornwall Council to transfer important assets to the ownership and management of local councils. I have explored these changes and their impact and you can access the report here: https://researchpubs.exeter.ac.uk/viewobject.html?cid=1&id=755576

The crisis caused by Covid-19 had a devastating impact on the economy and community, and a research survey and report documenting the experiences of the voluntary sector, written for Cornwall's Voluntary Sector Forum, is available here: http://www.cornwallvsf.org/

Research grants

2022 British Academy Small Grants
Localising and decentralising goal-based governance for sustainablity

Publications

Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year

Publications by category

Books

Wills J (eds)(2020). The Power of Pragmatism Knowledge Production and Social Research. Manchester, Manchester University Press. Abstract.

Blunt A, Wills J (2016). Dissident geographies: an introduction to radical ideas and practice. Abstract.

Wills J (2016). Locating Localism Statecraft, Citizenship and Democracy., Policy Press. Abstract.

WILLS J, DATTA K, EVANS Y, HERBERT J, MAY J, McILWAINE C (2015). Global Cities at Work.

Lee R, Wills J (2014). Geographies of economies. Abstract.

Wills J, Lee R (2014). Introduction.

(2008). Threads of Labour., Wiley.

Martin R, Sunley P, Wills J (1996). Union retreat and the regions: the shrinking landscape of organised labour. Abstract.

Journal articles

Turner RA, Wills J (2022). Downscaling doughnut economics for sustainability governance. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 56 Abstract.

Collins C, Shaw RF, Wills J (2022). Using place-based public engagement to improve social and environmental sustainability: Lessons from partnership working in Cornwall, UK. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, 4 Abstract.

Clements J, Lobley M, Osborne J, Wills J (2021). How can academic research on UK agri-environment schemes pivot to meet the addition of climate mitigation aims?. Land Use Policy, 106, 105441-105441.

Chateau Z, Devine-Wright P, Wills J (2021). Integrating sociotechnical and spatial imaginaries in researching energy futures. Energy Research and Social Science, 80 Abstract.

Kinsley S, Layton J, Davis J, Wills J, Featherstone D, Temenos C, Barnett C (2020). Reading Clive Barnett's the Priority of Injustice. Political Geography, 78, 102065-102065.

Greenhough B, Read CJ, Lorimer J, Lezaun J, McLeod C, Benezra A, Bloomfield S, Brown T, Clinch M, D’Acquisto F, et al (2020). Setting the agenda for social science research on the human microbiome. Palgrave Communications, 6(1).

The human microbiome is an important emergent area of cross, multi and transdisciplinary study. The complexity of this topic leads to conflicting narratives and regulatory challenges. It raises questions about the benefits of its commercialisation and drives debates about alternative models for engaging with its publics, patients and other potential beneficiaries. The social sciences and the humanities have begun to explore the microbiome as an object of empirical study and as an opportunity for theoretical innovation. They can play an important role in facilitating the development of research that is socially relevant, that incorporates cultural norms and expectations around microbes and that investigates how social and biological lives intersect. This is a propitious moment to establish lines of collaboration in the study of the microbiome that incorporate the concerns and capabilities of the social sciences and the humanities together with those of the natural sciences and relevant stakeholders outside academia. This paper presents an agenda for the engagement of the social sciences with microbiome research and its implications for public policy and social change. Our methods were informed by existing multidisciplinary science-policy agenda-setting exercises. We recruited 36 academics and stakeholders and asked them to produce a list of important questions about the microbiome that were in need of further social science research. We refined this initial list into an agenda of 32 questions and organised them into eight themes that both complement and extend existing research trajectories. This agenda was further developed through a structured workshop where 21 of our participants refined the agenda and reflected on the challenges and the limitations of the exercise itself. The agenda identifies the need for research that addresses the implications of the human microbiome for human health, public health, public and private sector research and notions of self and identity. It also suggests new lines of research sensitive to the complexity and heterogeneity of human–microbiome relations, and how these intersect with questions of environmental governance, social and spatial inequality and public engagement with science.

Abstract.

Wills J (2020). The geo-constitution and responses to austerity: Institutional entrepreneurship, switching, and re-scaling in the United Kingdom. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers Abstract.

Wills J (2019). The geo-constitution: Understanding the intersection of geography and political institutions. Progress in Human Geography, 43(3), 416-435. Abstract.

Wills J, Scott J (2017). The geography of the political party: Lessons from the British Labour Party’s experiment with community organising, 2010 to 2015. Political Geography, 60, 121-131.

Wills J (2016). (Re)Locating community in relationships: questions for public policy. Sociological Review, 64, 639-656.

Wills J, Simms M (2016). Building reciprocal community unionism in the UK. Capital & Class, 28(1), 59-84. Abstract.

Harney L, McCurry J, Scott J, Wills J (2016). Developing ‘process pragmatism’ to underpin engaged research in human geography. Progress in Human Geography, 40(3), 316-333. Abstract.

Wills J (2016). Emerging geographies of English localism: the case of neighbourhood planning. Political Geography, 53, 43-53.

Wills J, Lincoln A (2016). Filling the Vacuum in New Management Practice? Lessons from US Employee-Owned Firms. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 31(8), 1497-1512. Abstract.

Wills J (2016). Great Expectations: Three Years in the Life of a European Works Council. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 6(1), 85-107. Abstract.

Wills J (2016). Political economy II: the politics and geography of capitalism. Progress in Human Geography, 24(4), 641-652.

Linneker B, Wills J (2016). The London living wage and in-work poverty reduction: Impacts on employers and workers. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 34(5), 759-776. Abstract.

Wills J (2015). Populism, localism and the geography of democracy. Geoforum, 62, 188-189.

Wills J, Linneker B (2013). In-work poverty and the living wage in the United Kingdom: a geographical perspective. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39(2), 182-194.

Flint E, Cummins S, Wills J (2013). Investigating the effect of the London living wage on the psychological wellbeing of low-wage service sector employees: a feasibility study. Journal of Public Health, 36(2), 187-193.

Wills J (2013). London’s Olympics in 2012: the good, the bad and an organising opportunity. Political Geography, 34, A1-A3.

Datta K, Cathy McIlwaine, May J, Wills J (2012). Migrants and migration: Academic research in the UK. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 20(1), 103-105.

Wills J (2012). The geography of community and political organisation in London today. Political Geography, 31(2), 114-126. Abstract.

Datta K, McLlwaine C, Evans Y, Herbert J, May J, Wills J (2010). A migrant ethic of care? Negotiating care andcaring among migrant workers in london’slow-oav economy. Feminist Review, 94(1), 93-116. Abstract.

Wills J (2010). Academic agents for change. City, 14(6), 616-618.

May J, Wills J, Datta K, Evans Y, Herbertand J, McIlwaine C (2010). Global Cities at Work: Migrant Labour in Low-Paid Employment in London. London Journal, 35(1), 85-99.

Datta K, McIlwaine C, Herbert J, Evans Y, May J, Wills J (2009). Men on the move: Narratives of migration and work among low-paid migrant men in London. Social and Cultural Geography, 10(8), 853-873. Abstract.

Wills J, Datta K, Evans Y, Herbert J, May J, McIlwaine C (2009). Religion at work: the role of faith-based organizations in the London living wage campaign. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2(3), 443-461.

Rantisi NM (2009). Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Workers Perspective. Edited by Angela Hale and Jane Wills. Economic Geography, 83(2), 205-206.

WILLS J (2008). Making Class Politics Possible: Organizing Contract Cleaners in London. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32(2), 305-323.

Wills J (2008). Mapping Class and its Political Possibilities. Antipode, 40(1), 25-30.

Herbert J, May J, Wills J, Datta K, Evans Y, McIlwaine C (2008). Multicultural Living?. European Urban and Regional Studies, 15(2), 103-117. Abstract.

Wills J (2008). Subcontracted Employment and its Challenge to Labor. Labor Studies Journal, 34(4), 441-460. Abstract.

Wills J (2008). Taking on the CosmoCorps? Experiments in Transnational Labor Organization. Economic Geography, 74(2), 111-130.

Evans Y, Wills J, Datta K, Herbert J, McIlwaine C, May J (2007). 'Subcontracting by Stealth' in London's Hotels: Impacts and Implications for Labour Organising. Just Labour

Datta K, McIlwaine C, Evans Y, Herbert J, May J, Wills J (2007). From Coping Strategies to Tactics: London's Low-Pay Economy and Migrant Labour. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 45(2), 404-432.

May J, Wills J, Datta K, Evans Y, Herbert J, McIlwaine C (2007). Keeping London working: global cities, the British state and London's new migrant division of labour. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 32(2), 151-167.

Datta K, McIlwaine C, Wills J, Evans Y, Herbert J, May J (2007). The new development finance or exploiting migrant labour? Remittance sending among low-paid migrant workers in London. International Development Planning Review, 29(1), 43-67. Abstract.

HALE A, WILLS J (2007). Women Working Worldwide: transnational networks, corporate social responsibility and action research. Global Networks, 7(4), 453-476.

Wills J (2006). What's left? the left, its crisis and rehabilitation. Antipode, 38(5), 907-915.

Wills J (2005). The Geography of Union Organising in Low-Paid Service Industries in the UK: Lessons from the T&G's Campaign to Unionise the Dorchester Hotel, London. Antipode, 37(1), 139-159.

Savage L, Wills J (2004). New geographies of trade unionism. Geoforum, 35(1), 5-7.

Wills J (2004). Trade unionism and partnership in practice: evidence from the Barclays–Unifi agreement. Industrial Relations Journal, 35(4), 329-343.

Wills J (2003). Book Review: Globalization and labour: the great new transformation. Progress in Human Geography, 27(2), 244-245.

Wills J (2002). Bargaining for the space to organize in the global economy: a review of the Accor-IUF trade union rights agreement. Review of International Political Economy, 9(4), 675-700.

Wills J (2002). Book Review: Global political economy: Contemporary theories. Progress in Human Geography, 26(5), 703-704.

Hodkinson S (2002). Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalismsedited by Peter Waterman and Jane Wills, Oxford: Blackwell, 2001, 300 pp. ISBN 0-631-22983-3. Relations industrielles, 57(4), 796-796.

Wills J (2002). Political economy III: Neoliberal chickens, Seattle and geography. Progress in Human Geography, 26(1), 90-100.

Wills J, Peck J (2002). Progress or Retreat?. <i>Antipode</i>. and the Radical Geographical Project. Antipode, 34(4), 667-671.

Wills J (2001). Book Review: the political economy of New Labour: labouring under false pretences?. Progress in Human Geography, 25(4), 677-678.

Wills J (2001). Community unionism and trade union renewal in the UK: moving beyond the fragments at last?. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 26(4), 465-483.

Waterman P, Wills J (2001). Space, Place and the New Labour Internationalisms: Beyond the Fragments?. Antipode, 33(3), 305-311.

Wills J (2001). Uneven Geographies of Capital and Labour: the Lessons of European Works Councils. Antipode, 33(3), 484-509.

Wills J (1999). European Works Councils in British firms. Human Resource Management Journal, 9(4), 19-38.

Wills J (1999). Political economy I: global crisis, learning and labour. Progress in Human Geography, 23(3), 443-451.

Wills J (1998). A Stake in Place? the Geography of Employee Ownership and its Implications for a Stakeholding Society. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 23(1), 79-94.

Wills J (1998). Taking on the CosmoCorps? Experiments in transnational labor organization. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, 74(2), 111-130. Author URL.

Wills J (1998). Uprooting tradition: Rethinking the place and space of labour organization. European Planning Studies, 6(1), 31-42.

Wills J (1996). Geographies of Trade Unionism: Translating Traditions Across Space and Time. Antipode, 28(4), 352-378.

Wills J (1996). Uneven Reserves: Geographies of Banking Trade Unionism. Regional Studies, 30(4), 359-372.

Martin R, Sunley P, Wills J (1994). Local Industrial Politics. Employee Relations, 16(2), 84-99.

Martin R, Sunley P, Wills J (1994). The Decentralization of Industrial Relations? New Institutional Spaces and the Role of Local Context in British Engineering. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 19(4), 457-457.

Martin R, Sunley P, Wills J (1994). UNIONS AND THE POLITICS OF DEINDUSTRIALIZATION: SOME COMMENTS ON HOW GEOGRAPHY COMPLICATES CLASS ANALYSIS. Antipode, 26(1), 59-76.

Martin R, Sunley P, Wills J (1993). The Decentralisation of Industrial Politics? the Role of Regional Context in the Reshaping of Trade Unionism within British Engineering. Management Research News, 16(5/6), 2-2. Abstract.

Chapters

Wills J, Lake RW (2020). Introduction: the power of pragmatism. In (Ed) The power of pragmatism: Knowledge production and social inquiry, Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 3-54. Abstract.

Harney L, Wills J (2020). Reflections on an Experiment in Pragmatic Social Research and Knowledge Production. In (Ed) The power of pragmatism: Knowledge production and social inquiry, Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 176-194. Abstract.

Wills J (2019). Organising. In the Antipode Editorial Collective (Ed) Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 202-206. Abstract.

Wills J (2018). Faith in action: Lessons from Citizens UK’s work in east London. In Pemberton C (Ed) Theology and civil society, Routledge, 19-44.

Wills J, Horton A (2018). Impacts of the living wage on in-work poverty. In Lohmann H, Marx I (Eds.) Handbook of research on in-work poverty, Edward Elgar.

Wills J (2017). Living Wage. In (Ed) International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology, 1-2.

Wills J (2017). Migrant Division of Labor. In (Ed) International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology, 1-2.

Lee R, Wills J (2014). Concluding reflections on geographies of economies. In (Ed) Geographies of Economies, 357-358.

Wills J (2014). Engaging. In Lee R (Ed) Sage handbook of progress in human geography, 367-384.

(2013). Globalization and protest Jane Wills. In (Ed) Introducing Human Geographies, Routledge, 585-599.

Wills J (2013). Organising in the global economy: the accor IUF trade union rights agreement. In (Ed) European Works Councils: Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will?, 211-223.

Wills J (2012). Place and Politics. In (Ed) Spatial Politics: Essays for Doreen Massey, 133-145.

Datta K, McIlwaine C, Herbert J, Evans Y, May J, Wills J (2011). Chapter 35: Global Workers for Global Cities: Low Paid Migrant Labour in London. In (Ed) International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities.

Datta K, McIlwaine C, Herbert J, Evans Y, May J, Wills J (2011). Global workers for global cities: Low paid migrant labour in London. In (Ed) International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities, 390-397.

Wills J, Datta K, May J, McIlwaine C, Evans Y, Herbert J (2010). (Im)migration, local, regional and uneven development. In (Ed) Handbook of Local and Regional Development, 449-459.

Wills J, McIlwaine C, Datta K, May J, Herbert J, Evans Y (2010). New migrant divisions of labour. In (Ed) The Economic Geography of the UK, 225-238.

Anderson J, Hamilton P, Wills J (2010). The multi-scalarity of trade union practice. In (Ed) Handbook of Employment and Society: Working Space, 383-397.

Wills J, Hurley J (2008). Action Research: Tracing the Threads of Labour in the Global Garment Industry. In (Ed) Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Workers' Perspective, 69-94.

Hale A, Wills J (2008). Conclusion. In (Ed) Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Workers' Perspective, 234-239.

Wills J, Hale A (2008). Threads of Labour in the Global Garment Industry. In (Ed) Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Workers' Perspective, 1-15.

Wills J (2007). The place of personal politics. In (Ed) Politics and Practice in Economic Geography, 131-140.

Wills J (2003). Organizing in transport and travel: Learning lessons from TSSAs Seacat campaign. In (Ed) Union Organizing: Campaigning for Trade Union Recognition, 133-152. Abstract.

Wills J (2001). Uneven Geographies of Capital and Labour: the Lessons of European Works Councils. In (Ed) Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalisms, 180-205.

Conferences

Wills J, May J, Datta K, Evans Y, Herbert J, McIlwaine C (2009). London's migrant division of labour. Abstract.

Jamoul L, Wills J (2008). Faith in politics. Abstract.

Reports

Wills J, Turner R, Collins C, Honeybun-Arnolda E (2022). A Civic Lantern to engage civic and civil society in goal-setting for sustainability in Cornwall: a research report. Penryn, Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute. Abstract.

Wills J, Turner R, Collins C, Mukhopadhyay R (2022). Annual Review of the Cornwall Plan (2021-2022). Research into partnerships and collaborative working for the delivery of the Cornwall Plan. Cornwall Council, Penryn, Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute. Abstract.

Wills J, Woolgrove N (2022). Levelling up the Leading Edge: Investing in our natural assets for collective wealth. Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute (University of Exeter).

Wills J, Turner R, Collins C, Honeybun-Arnolda E, Mukhopadhyay R (2022). Localising and decentralising goal-based governance for sustainability in England: Policy summary. Penryn, Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute. Abstract.

Wills J, Collins C (2022). The real living wage in Penzance: a research report. Penzance BID and Cornwall Council, Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute (University of Exeter).

Wills J, Woolgrove N, Willett J, Ax T (2021). Peripheral Vision:. Reimagining. Regional Policy for a Greener Union. Britain's Leading Edge and University of Exeter, Cornwall, Cornwall Council and University of Exeter. Abstract. Author URL.

Turner R, Blundell A, Collins C, Exeter O, Wills J (2021). Sustainable Development in Cornwall: Local Perspectives on Challenges and Opportunities. Penryn, Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter. 72 pages.

Wills J, Gaskell C, Craig N, Hartgroves R (2021). Sustaining the Environment and Visitor Economy in Cornwall. University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK, Environment and Sustainability Institute. Abstract.

Wills J, Smyth V, Harvey-Scholes C (2021). Sustaining the Visitor Economy and Environment in the Isles of Scilly. University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK, Environment and Sustainability Institute. Abstract. Author URL.

Wills J, Shaw R, Muir M (2020). Growing Communities Through Nature: Research report. UKRI, Penryn, Cornwall, University of Exeter. 0 pages. Abstract.

Turner R, Poznansky F, Smirthwaite N, Blundell A, Benson D, Gaston K, Hamshar J, Maclean I, Wills J, Yan X, et al (2020). Towards a sustainable Cornwall: State of the Doughnut. Penryn, Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter. 71 pages. Abstract.

Wills J (2019). A new geography of local government: the changing role of town and parish councils in Cornwall, UK. Locality, Penryn, University of Exeter. 30 pages. Abstract.

Publications by year

2022

Turner RA, Wills J (2022). Downscaling doughnut economics for sustainability governance. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 56 Abstract.

Wills J, Woolgrove N (2022). Levelling up the Leading Edge: Investing in our natural assets for collective wealth. Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute (University of Exeter).

Wills J, Collins C (2022). The real living wage in Penzance: a research report. Penzance BID and Cornwall Council, Cornwall, Environment and Sustainability Institute (University of Exeter).

Clements J (2022). Understanding English agri-environment. schemes: uptake, engagement and. outcomes.

The Agriculture Act (2020) proposes that future agri-environment schemes (AES) are framed around the principle of ‘public money for public goods’. While
it is too early to fully assess the impacts of this Act, Defra intends to open new agri-environment schemes to applications in 2024, and pilots began in 2021.
This presents a window of opportunity in which it should be possible to design schemes that are better able to engage participants and cultivate the intrinsic
values that are necessary for ‘culturally sustainable’ participation in environmental approaches (Burton and Paragahawewa, 2011; Chan et al.
2016). However, it has been claimed that more research is needed on the social processes that underlie successful environmental management programmes involving farmers (de Snoo et al. 2013, p. 67). This project seeks to fill this gap by addressing two research questions:
• What factors explain farmers’ participation and engagement, or lack thereof, in agri-environment schemes?
• How can this evidence inform future policy focused on improving the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes?
These questions are approached using a mixed methodology; a statistical analysis of quantitative Farm Business Survey Data using a Generalised Linear
Model and a case study in the county of Cornwall, including interviews, analysed thematically and using Qualitative Comparative Analysis. This allowed
the research to approach agri-environment scheme participation and engagement holistically while testing a novel methodology. The results of this
research are discussed in relation to published literature on values, scheme design, and attitudes and behaviour, using a pragmatist epistemology.
An overemphasis on the choices of individual farmers, as opposed to the operational pressure of the wider agricultural industry and its institutions, risks
schemes not contributing significantly to meeting climate mitigation and biodiversity targets. In this vein, adjusting agri-environment schemes without
wider changes to the food production system will not engender the desired improvements to uptake, engagement and outcomes, and there are significant
research gaps around interventions that offer simultaneous environmental, economic and cultural benefits. A a result, this research has included both an
individual and a system focus. The quantitative analysis identified factors such as production type that influenced land managers’ participation in agri environment schemes, while the qualitative and comparative approaches highlighted pathways to participation and engagement in the context of
Cornwall. It is concluded that agri-environment schemes would benefit from having a place-based focus, supported by the provision of expert advice and
reskilling for land managers. In addition, scheme goals should be supported by wider agricultural and environmental policy, including in the form of a stringent regulatory baseline and potentially intervention elsewhere in the supply chain,
including in processing and retail.

Abstract.

2021

Chateau Z, Devine-Wright P, Wills J (2021). Integrating sociotechnical and spatial imaginaries in researching energy futures. Energy Research and Social Science, 80 Abstract.

2020

Wills J, Shaw R, Muir M (2020). Growing Communities Through Nature: Research report. UKRI, Penryn, Cornwall, University of Exeter. 0 pages. Abstract.

Kinsley S, Layton J, Davis J, Wills J, Featherstone D, Temenos C, Barnett C (2020). Reading Clive Barnett's the Priority of Injustice. Political Geography, 78, 102065-102065.

Wills J (2020). Review of spatial histories of radical geography. The Annals of the Association of American Geographers: Review of Books, 8(4), 236-258. Abstract. Author URL.

Abstract.

Wills J (eds)(2020). The Power of Pragmatism Knowledge Production and Social Research. Manchester, Manchester University Press. Abstract.

2019

Wills J (2019). A new geography of local government: the changing role of town and parish councils in Cornwall, UK. Locality, Penryn, University of Exeter. 30 pages. Abstract.

Wills J (2019). Organising. In the Antipode Editorial Collective (Ed) Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 202-206. Abstract.

Wills J (2019). The geo-constitution: Understanding the intersection of geography and political institutions. Progress in Human Geography, 43(3), 416-435. Abstract.

2018

Wills J (2018). Faith in action: Lessons from Citizens UK’s work in east London. In Pemberton C (Ed) Theology and civil society, Routledge, 19-44.

Wills J, Horton A (2018). Impacts of the living wage on in-work poverty. In Lohmann H, Marx I (Eds.) Handbook of research on in-work poverty, Edward Elgar.

2017

Wills J (2017). Living Wage. In (Ed) International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology, 1-2.

Wills J (2017). Migrant Division of Labor. In (Ed) International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology, 1-2.

Wills J, Scott J (2017). The geography of the political party: Lessons from the British Labour Party’s experiment with community organising, 2010 to 2015. Political Geography, 60, 121-131.

2016