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Associate Professor Bill Pritchard, BA, PhD

Bill Pritchard

Madsen Building, Rm 450
Phone: +61 2 9351 3309
Fax: +61 2 9351 3644
Email:

I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
Stephen Jay Gould

...Where's the professor? We need him now!
Ed Kuepper & Chris Bailey, Know Your Product, 1977

Research Interests

Bill Pritchard is an economic geographer. His research and teaching addresses the ways that economic, social and cultural processes intermesh with one another to create the specificities of place and space.

Within this broad agenda, he focuses on the geographies of global change in agriculture, food and rural places: the ways that the emerging global economy in food and agriculture is transforming places, industries and people's lives. These questions have been pursued through a series of Australian-based and international studies into the global value chains of specific industries (wine grapes, dairy, beef, tomatoes, tea, coffee), complemented by in-depth examination of the policies, rules and institutions that have guided the globalisation project. He remains a skeptical internationalist - believing in the promise of a better world but frustrated by the obstacles that beset this objective.

Dr Pritchard has undertaken research for a number of leading national and international organisations, and his work is cited widely within professional circles. He is an author of two books, an editor of a further four, and has published almost 50 refereed articles and chapters. He has been engaged in several major consulting research projects, and given over 50 conference presentations. He is an active member and former convenor of the Agri-Food Research Network, and a member of the Australian Research Council Research Network on Spatially Integrated Social Sciences. Bill Pritchard is on the executive committees for the International Geographical Union’s Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Space, and the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on the Sociology of Food and Agriculture.

Dr Pritchard carries with him a geographer's passion to understand our world. His philosophy is to eschew abstract modelling in favour of approaches with seek to appraise how places and economies are forged through the cluttter of geographical circumstance, historical process, and institutional practice. In his own life, by way of contrast, he tries to avoid as much clutter as possible with interests in bush and urban walking, falling asleep on beaches on warm days, taking an entire day to read the paper, and watching the look of utter disbelief on his daughter's face when yet another of his terrible jokes fails to amuse.

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Past and Present Research Projects

Bill in the field

Between 2001 and 2009, Dr Pritchard was Chief Researcher in four Australian Research Council Discovery Projects relating to food and globalisation in South and Southeast Asia. The first of these assessed agri-food globalisation, and led to the book Agri-food Globalisation in Perspective (Ashgate, 2003, co-authored with David Burch). This book used the international restructuring of the processing tomato industry to present new insights into the extent and consequences of global competition in agri-food industries. The second project focussed on the global value chains of tropical commodities (tea, coffee, spices and cocoa), using detailed field-based research from the Western Ghats in India and various sites in Indonesia. It considered the fate of smallholders and plantation estates at a time of difficult global conditions within these industries. This led to the book Value Chain Struggles: Institutions and Governance in the Plantation Districts of South India (Wiley Blackwell, 2009, co-authored with Jeff Neilson). The third project involved a broad-ranging study into the liberalization of Indian agriculture, using various case studies from the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnatka and Andhra Pradesh. Publications are listed below. Closer to home, the fourth project is the 'Heartlands' study, which documented the regional economic restructuring of the Australian farm sector (publications listed below).

In 2010, Dr Pritchard has three currently funded research projects. The Environmental and Productive Implications of Farm Consolidation and Fragmentation is a four-year study funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. A second project, funded through the Linkage Grants scheme of the Australian Research Council, will assess the implications of farm restructuring and drought on farm exit. This project is being undertaken in conjunction with the Department of Treasury and Finance, Government of Victoria, and involves colleagues from Victoria University, Monash University and the University of Melbourne. The third research project is a newly commencing four-year project funded by the Australian Research Council on food security in India. This project is led by Dr Pritchard and involves colleagues in the University of Western Australia, Griffith University, and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Units Taught

Selected Publications: Books (since 2000)

  • Neilson, J. and Pritchard, B. (2009) Value Chain Struggles: Institutions and Governance in the Plantation Districts of South India, Blackwell, Oxford.
  • Pritchard, B. (ed) (2006) Japanese Official Development Assistance in South-East Asia. Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific (University of Sydney) for the Ministry of Finance (Japan), Sydney.
  • Fold, N. & Pritchard, B. (eds) (2005) Cross-continental Food Chains, Routledge, London.
  • Pritchard, B. (ed) (2005) The Regulation of Foreign Direct Investment: Southeast Asia at the Cross-roads. Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific (University of Sydney) for the Ministry of Finance (Japan), Sydney.
  • Pritchard, B., Curtis, A., Le Heron, R. & Spriggs, J. (eds) (2003) The Social Dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line in Rural Australia, Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra.
  • Pritchard, B. & Burch, D. (2003) Agri-food Globalization in Perspective: International Restructuring in the Processing Tomato Industry, Ashgate, Aldershot.
  • Beer, A., Maude, A. & Pritchard, B. (2003), Developing Regional Australia, UNSW Press, Kensington.
  • Lockie, S. & Pritchard, B. (eds) (2001) Consuming Foods, Sustaining Environments, Australian Academic Press, Melbourne.
  • Pritchard, B. (2001) The Aboriginal Component of the Kimberley Economy, Kimberley Development Commission, Kununurra.
  • Pritchard, B. & McManus, P. (eds) (2000), Land of Discontent: The Dynamics of Change in Rural and Regional Australia, UNSW Press, Kensington.
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Articles and Chapters (since 2000)

  • Pritchard, B. & Connell, J. (accepted) “Contract farming and the remaking of agrarian landscapes: Insights from South India’s ‘chilli belt’”, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography.
  • Pritchard, B., Argent, N., Baum, S., Bourke, L., Martin, J., McManus, P., Sorensen, A., & Walmsley, J. (accepted) “Local-if-possible: How the spatial networking of economic relations amongst farm enterprises aids small town survival in rural Australia”, Regional Studies.
  • Oro, K. & Pritchard, B. (2010, advance online access) The evolution of global value chains: An explanation of the displacement of captive upstream investment in the Australia-Japan beef trade, Journal of Economic Geography.
  • Neilson, J. & Pritchard, B. (2010, advance online access) “Fairness and ethicality in their place: The regional dynamics of fair trade and ethical sourcing agendas in the plantation districts of South India”, Environment and Planning A.
  • Pritchard, B., Gracy, C.P. & Godwin, M. (2010) “The impacts of supermarket procurement on farming communities in India: Evidence from rural Karnataka”, Development Policy Review, 28(4), pp. 435-56.
  • Fold, N., Neilson, J. & Pritchard, B. (forthcoming) ‘Being sandwiched: The reshaping of ASEAN–China food trade’, in Jarvis, D. & Welch, A. (eds) ASEAN Industries and the Challenge from China: The Dragon & the Tiger Cubs, Palgrave, London.
  • Pritchard, B. (2009) “The long hangover from the second food regime: A world-historical interpretation of the collapse of the WTO Doha Round, Agriculture and Human Values 26, pp. 297-307.
  • Pritchard, B. (2009) ‘Food regimes,’ in Kitchin, R. & Thrift, N. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Elsevior, London.
  • Pritchard, B. & Searle, G. (2009) Planning for creativity and innovation in a global city: Sydney's IT Clusters in the context of the 2005 Metropolitan Strategy International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy 5(1-2-3), pp. 205-213.
  • Pritchard, B. (2008) On its own terms: India’s emergence as an agri-food exporter, Farm Policy Journal 5(2), pp. 15-27.
  • Searle, G. & Pritchard, B. (2008) Beyond planning: Sydney’s knowledge sector development’, in Yigitcanlar, T., Velibeyoglu, K. & Baum, S. (eds.) Knowledge-Based Urban Development: Planning and Applications in the Information Era, Idea Group Reference, Hershey (PA), pp. 184-202.
  • Neilson, J. & Pritchard, B. (2008) “Big is not always better: Global value chain restructuring and the crisis in South Indian tea plantations”, in Le Heron, R. and Stringer, C. (eds) Agri-food Commodity Chains and Globalising Networks, Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 35-48.
  • Neilson, J. & Pritchard, B. (2007) “The final frontier? The global roll-out of the retail revolution in India”, D. Burch & G. Lawrence (eds) Supermarkets and Agri-Food Supply Chains: Transformations in the Production and Consumption of Foods, Edward Elgar, Melbourne, pp. 218-42.
  • Neilson, J. & Pritchard, B. (2007) “Green Coffee? The contradictions of global sustainability initiatives from the Indian perspective”, Development Policy Review, 25(3), pp. 311-331.
  • Pritchard, B. & Tonts, M. (in press) “Market efficiency in agriculture as the basis for prosperity in rural Australia? in A. Beer (ed) Region and Nation, Ashgate, Aldershot.
  • Pritchard, B., Burch, D. & Lawrence, G. (2007) “Neither ‘Family’ nor ‘Corporate’ Farming: Australian Tomato Growers as Farm Family Entrepreneurs” Journal of Rural Studies, 23, pp.75-87.
  • Neilson, J. & Pritchard, B. (2006) ‘Traceability, supply chains and smallholders: Case studies from India and Indonesia’, Report to the 17th Session of the Committee on Commodity Problems/Intergovernmental Group on Tea, Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Nairobi. Document CCP:TE 06/4.
  • Godwin, M. & Pritchard, B. (2006) “Self-helping from the hand that feeds? Evaluating the ‘deserving community’ ethic of governance in North East Tasmania”, Rural Society, 16(3), pp. 329-40.
  • Pritchard, B. (2006) “More than a ‘blip’: The changed character of Southeast Asia’s engagement with the global economy in the post-1997 period” Asia-Pacific Viewpoint 47(3), pp. 311-26.
  • Neilson, J., Pritchard, B. & Spriggs, J. (2006) “Implementing quality and traceability initiatives among smallholder tea producers in Southern India”, Acta Horticulturae 699, (Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Improving the Performance of Supply Chains in the Transitional Economies, ed. Batt, P.): 327-334.
  • Pritchard, B. (2006) “The political construction of free trade visions: the geo-politics and geo-economics of Australian beef exporting”, Agriculture and Human Values, 23(1), pp.37-50.
  • Pritchard, B. (2005) “Implementing and maintaining neoliberal agriculture in Australia. Part II: Justifying policy” International Journal of the Sociology of Food and Agriculture, 13(2), pp. 1-14.
  • Pritchard, B. (2005) “Implementing and maintaining neoliberal agriculture in Australia. Part I: The development of policy” International Journal of the Sociology of Food and Agriculture, 13(1), pp. 1-12.
  • Pritchard, B. (2005) “How the rule of the market rules the law: the political economy of WTO dispute settlement as evidenced in the US-Lamb Meat decision”, Review of International Political Economy 12(5), pp. 776-803.
  • Pritchard, B. (2005) “Beyond the resource enclave: Regional development challenges in northern remote Australia” Journal of Australian Political Economy, 55, pp.77-93
  • Searle, G. and Pritchard, B. (2005) “Industry clusters and Sydney’s ITT sector: Northern Sydney as ‘Australia’s Silicon Valley’?” Australian Geographer, 36(2), pp. 145-69.
  • Pritchard, B. (2005) “Unpacking the neoliberal approach to regional policy: a close reading of John Freebairn’s ‘Economic Policy for Rural and Regional Australia’, Geographical Research 43(1), pp. 103-12.
  • Pritchard, B. (2005) “The world steer revisited: Australian cattle production and the Pacific Basin beef complex”, in N. Fold & B. Pritchard (eds) Cross-continental Food Chains, Routledge, London, pp. 239-53.
  • Fold, N. & Pritchard, B. (2005) “Introduction”, in N. Fold & B. Pritchard (eds) Cross-continental Food Chains, Routledge, London, pp. 1-22.
  • Pritchard, B. (2005) “The internationalisation paths of Australian and New Zealand food MNEs”, in Rama, R. (ed) Multinational Agribusiness, The Haworth Press, Binghampton, New York (ISBN 1-56022-937-3), pp.219-52.
  • Pritchard, B. & Curtis, R. (2004) “The persistence of national institutions in global commodity chains: Japanese dairy provisioning, the WTO and the Australian connection” Economic Geography 80(2), pp. 173-190.
  • Herbert, B. & Pritchard, B. (2004) “The changing geographies of power and control in rural service provision: recent restructuring of the Australian tractor dealership system” Australian Geographical Studies, 42(1), pp. 18-33.
  • Pritchard, B. & Lloyd, K. (2003) “Business cultures, the state, and the changing investment environment of East and Southeast Asia”, in N.Phelps & P. Raines (eds) The New Competition for Inward Investment, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 173-92.
  • Pritchard, B., Curtis, A., Le Heron, R. & Spriggs, J. (2003) “Introduction”, in Pritchard, B., Curtis, A., Le Heron, R. & Spriggs, J. (eds) The Social Dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line in Rural Australia, Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra, pp. 9-21.
  • McManus, P. & Pritchard, B. (2001) “Regional policy: towards the triple bottom line” Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, 7(3), pp. 249-60.
  • Pritchard, B. (2001) “Transnationality matters: related party transactions and corporate finance in the Australian food industry” Journal of Australian Political Economy, 48, pp 23-45.
  • Lockie, S. & Pritchard, B. (2001) “Linking production, consumption and environment in agri-food research”, in Lockie, S. and Pritchard, B. (eds) Consuming Foods, Sustaining Environments, Australian Academic Press, Melbourne.
  • Pritchard, B. (2000) “Geographies of the firm and agro-food corporations in East Asia” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 21(3) pp246-62
  • McManus, P. & Pritchard, B. (2000) “Geography and the emergence of rural and regional Australia” Australian Geographer, 31(3), pp.383-91.
  • Pritchard, B. (2000) “Negotiating the two-edged sword of agricultural trade liberalisation: trade policy and its protectionist discontents”, in Pritchard, B. & McManus, P. (eds) Land of Discontent: The Dynamics of Change in Rural and Regional Australia, UNSW Press, Kensington, pp 90-104.
  • Pritchard, B. (2000) “Introduction”, in Pritchard, B. & McManus, P. (eds) Land of Discontent: The Dynamics of Change in Rural and Regional Australia, UNSW Press, Kensington, pp 1-13.
  • McManus, P. & Pritchard, B. (2000) “Concluding thoughts”, in Pritchard, B. & McManus, P. (eds) Land of Discontent: The Dynamics of Change in Rural and Regional Australia, UNSW Press, Kensington, pp 218-22.
  • Pritchard, B. (2000) “Transnational corporate networks and the case of breakfast cereals in Asia” Environment and Planning A 32(5) pp 789-804.
  • Daly, M.T. & Pritchard, B. (2000) “Sydney: Australia’s financial and corporate capital”, in J. Connell (ed) Sydney: The Emergence of a World City, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp 167-188.
  • Pritchard, B. (2000) “Beyond the modern supermarket. Geographical approaches to the analysis of contemporary Australian retail restructuring” Australian Geographical Studies 38(2), 204-218.
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