Professor Gordon Wilson
Profile summary
- Emeritus Professor
- Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
- School of Social Sciences & Global Studies
- Development
- gordon.wilson
Professional biography
Early career in the sciences, later involved in the cooperative movement. He started to work for the Open University full-time in September 1987. He has been writing and researching on development issues for many years. These include technological capabilities, professional expertise and practice, knowledge production through active social learning, and science and technology for development. He has also written extensively on sustainable development. In addition to the projects with Hazel Johnson outlined above, he has also investigated how development professionals conceptualise development management as demonstrated through research projects carried out for the Open University.
From March 2006 to February 2010 he was the first Director of the inter-faculty 'Environment, Development and International Studies' Programme. In this role he had overall responsibility for curriculum development, quality and promotion of three undergraduate degrees and three taught Masters' degrees, together with associated diplomas.
He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Research interests
- The lived experience of climate change, involving collaboration with African Universities and senior NGO practitioners who are also alumni of the Open University Development Management MSc in Africa.
- Social learning and knowledge transfer and production in partnerships (especially municipal partnerships) and other social engagements in the South.
- The relationship between knowledge, learning and practice;
- Development expertise and the agency of professional development experts.
- Science and technology for development.
Teaching interests
Chaired the production presentation and presentation of the interdisciplinary undergraduate development studies course at the Open University (1992-2003 and again since 2006), the postgraduate development studies course in the Development Management Programme (1997-2002), and the residential school course: ‘Working with conflict’ (2005). He has written extensively for other courses in the Postgraduate Development Management Programme and most recently (2006/7) he has co-authored with Hazel Johnson an undergraduate teaching text on ICTs and development. From 1998 to 2000 he was seconded 40% to the Refugees Studies Centre at University of Oxford to re-design its international summer school in forced migration according to active learning principles. In 2004 he created a Sustainable development in practice network of OU academic staff, associate lecturers and African alumni from the OU Development Management Programme. The network held a major conference in Kampala October 2006, out of which a Reader on environment, development and sustainability was created. In 2009, he led a successful bid involving 9 European HEIs across 6 countries, for an Erasmus grant to support Masters dissertations in the broad area of 'The lived experience of climate change'. The project started in October 2009 and will last until May 2012.
Publications
Journal articles
Global (best) together with (or against) local networks and practices? Liquid engineering and the uses programme (2020-01)
Robbins, Peter; Wield, David; Wilson, Gordon; Watkins, Andrew and MacPhail, Peter
Journal of International Development, 32(1) (pp. 118-28)
Exploring the Global and the Local in Engineering and International Development: towards a liquid engineering approach (2020-01)
Robbins, Peter; Wield, David and Wilson, Gordon
Journal of International Development, 32(1) (pp. 5-10)
Engineering for Development as Borderland Activity (2020)
Robbins, Peter; Wield, David and Wilson, Gordon
Engineering Studies, 12(1) (pp. 58-78)
Dimensions of professional competences for interventions towards sustainability (2018-01)
Perez Salgado, Francisca; Abbott, Dina and Wilson, Gordon
Sustainability Science, 13(1) (pp. 163-177)
Mapping Engineering & Development Research Excellence in the UK: An Analysis of REF2014 Impact Case Studies (2017-01-31)
Robbins, Peter T.; Wield, David and Wilson, Gordon
Journal of International Development, 29(1) (pp. 89-105)
Development Engineering Meets Development Studies (2017)
Robbins, Peter; Watkins, Andrew; Wield, David and Wilson, Gordon
Third World Quarterly, 38(10) (pp. 2187-2207)
Climate change: lived experience, policy and public action (2014)
Abbott, Dina and Wilson, Gordon
International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, 6(1) (pp. 5-18)
The lived experience of climate change: expanding the knowledge base through collaborative Master's curriculum in the European Union (2012-03-29)
Wilson, Gordon
International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 6(1) (pp. 43-52)
The lived experience of climate change: complementing the natural and social Sciences for knowledge, policy and action (2012)
Abbott, Dina and Wilson, Gordon
The International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses, 3(4) (pp. 99-114)
‘The lived experience of climate change’: creating open educational resources and virtual mobility for an innovative, integrative and competence-based track at Masters level (2011)
Wilson, Gordon; Abbott, Dina; de Kraker, Joop; Salgado Pérez, Paquita; Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Catharien and Willems, Patrick
International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning,, 3(2) (pp. 111-123)
Learning and mutuality in municipal partnerships and beyond: a focus on northern partners (2009-04)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
Habitat International, 33(2) (pp. 210-217)
The world has problems while universities have disciplines: Universities meeting the challenge of environment through interdisciplinary partnerships (2009)
Wilson, Gordon
Journal of the World Universities Forum, 2(2) (pp. 57-62)
Our knowledge ourselves: Engineers (re)thinking technology in development (2008)
Wilson, Gordon
Journal of International Development, 20(6) (pp. 739-750)
Knowledge, innovation and re-inventing technical assistance for development (2007-07)
Wilson, Gordon
Progress in Development Studies, 7(3) (pp. 183-199)
Knowledge, learning and practice in North-South practitioner-to-practitioner municipal partnerships (2007-04)
Wilson, Gordon and Johnson, Hazel
Local Government Studies, 33(2) (pp. 253-269)
Beyond the Dichotomies in Technology for Development (2007-03)
Wilson, Gordon
Geography Compass, 1(2) (pp. 119-135)
Development management as reflective practice (2006-12-15)
Abbott, Dina; Brown, Suzanne and Wilson, Gordon
Journal of International Development, 19(2) (pp. 187-203)
Enabling technological learning among light engineering SMEs in Zimbabwe through networking (2006-08-25)
Chipika, Stephen and Wilson, Gordon
Technovation, 26(8) (pp. 969-979)
Beyond the technocrat? The professional expert in development practice (2006-05)
Wilson, Gordon
Development and Change, 37(3) (pp. 501-523)
North-South/South-North partnerships: closing the 'mutuality gap' (2006-02)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
Public Administration and Development, 26(1) (pp. 71-80)
Connecting people and places: spaces for thinking, learning, knowledge and action (2006)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
Journal of International Development, 18(6) (pp. 747-755)
The Antagonistic relevance of development studies (2005-10)
Mohan, Giles and Wilson, Gordon
Progress in Development Studies, 5(4) (pp. 261-278)
Biting the bullet: civil society, social learning and the transformation of local governance (2000-11)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
World Development, 28(11) (pp. 1891-1906)
Institutional sustainability: community and waste management in Zimbabwe (2000-04)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
Futures, 32(3) (pp. 301-316)
Institutional sustainability as learning (1999-02)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
Development in Practice, 9(1/2) (pp. 43-55)
Authored books
The Lived Experience of Climate Change: Knowledge, Science and Public Action (2015-06)
Abbott, Dina and Wilson, Gordon
ISBN : 978-3-319-17944-5 | Publisher : Springer International Publishing | Published : Cham
Learning for Development (2009)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
Development Matters
ISBN : 978-1-84813-198-9 | Publisher : Zed Books | Published : London
Book chapters
Engineering for Development (2021-10-21)
Robbins, Peter; Wield, David and Wilson, Gordon
In: Allen, Tim and Thomas, Alan eds. Poverty and Development in the 21st Century Third Edition (pp. 416-432)
ISBN : 978-0-19-956324-1 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford
Transforming academic knowledge and the concept of Lived Experience: Intervention Competence in an international e-learning programme. (2014)
Pérez Salgado, Francisca; Wilson, Gordon and van der Klink, Marcel
In: Azeiteiro, Ulisses Miranda; Leal Filho, Walter and Caeiro, Sandra eds. E-Learning and Education for Sustainability. Environmental Education, Communication and Sustainability (35) (pp. 59-70)
ISBN : 978-3-631-62693-1 | Publisher : Springer | Published : Frankfurt am Main
Making the connections between environment, development, and sustainability (2009)
Wilson, Gordon
In: Wilson, Gordon; Furniss, Pamela and Kimbowa, Richard eds. Environment, Development, and Sustainability: Perspectives and cases from around the world (pp. 3-12)
ISBN : 9780199560646 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford, UK
Conclusion (2009)
Wilson, Gordon
In: Wilson, Gordon; Furniss, Pamela and Kimbowa, Richard eds. Environment, Development, and Sustainability: Perspectives and cases from around the world (pp. 274-280)
ISBN : 9780199560646 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford, UK
Technology, knowledge and development (2002-02)
Wilson, Gordon
In: Desai, Vandana and Potter, Robert eds. The Companion to development studies (pp. 219-223)
ISBN : 340760516 | Publisher : Arnold | Published : London, UK
Edited books
Introducing Development (2009-01-10)
Fawssett, Susan; Hanlin, Rebecca; Le Mare, Ann; Papaioannou, Theodoros and Wilson, Gordon eds.
ISBN : 1848732473 | Publisher : Open University Worldwide | Published : Milton Keynes
Environment, Development, and Sustainability: Perspectives and cases from around the world (2009)
Wilson, Gordon; Furniss, Pamela and Kimbowa, Richard eds.
ISBN : 9780199560646 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford, UK
Conference items
Beyond means and ends: learning, engagement and towards an emancipatory development management (2011-09)
Johnson, Hazel; Pinder, Richard and Wilson, Gordon
In : EADI-DSA 2011 Conference (13th EADI General Conference): Rethinking Development in an Age of Scarcity and Uncertainty: New Values, Voices and Alliances for Increased Resilience (19-22 Sep 2011, York, UK)
The lived experience of sustainable learning: the LECH-e OER Project bridging formal and non formal lifelong learners (2011)
Teixeira, António Moreira; Nicolau, Paula Bacelar; Caeiro, Sandra; Dams, Lieve; van Dorp, Kees Jan and Wilson, Gordon
In : EDEN Annual Conference: Learning and Sustainability: The New Ecosystem of Innovation and Knowledge (19-22 Jun 2011, Dublin, Ireland)
Other
Journal of International Development 32 (1). Special issue and policy arena: The global and the local in engineering and international development (2020-01)
Robbins, Peter; Wield, David and Wilson, Gordon
Wiley, Oxford.
Biting the Bullet: Civil Society, Social Learning and the Transformation of Local Governance (2000)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
Development Policy and Practice Research Group, Faculty of Technology, The Open University
Performance, learning and sustaining: reflections on development management for sustainable development (1998)
Johnson, Hazel and Wilson, Gordon
Development Policy and Practice Research Group, Faculty of Technology, The Open University
From Day-to-Day Coping to Strategic Management: Developing Technological Capability Among Small-Scale Enterprises in Zimbabwe (1995)
Wilson, Gordon
Development Policy and Practice Research Group, Faculty of Technology, The Open University
Technological capability in small-scale development projects supported by UK-based NGOs (1993)
Wilson, Gordon
Development Policy and Practice Research Group, Faculty of Technology, The Open University
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