Professor Cathy McIlwaine
Professor of Geography

School of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
Phone: 020 7882 8418
Fax: 020 7882 7479
Email: c.j.mcilwaine@qmul.ac.uk

Research interests:

My research is rooted in development geography although more recently I have begun to work on issues related to transnational migration in the UK and on North-South linkages.  My early work in the Global South focused on development processes in relation to gender, poverty, employment and household livelihoods, together with subsequent work on urban violence and insecurity and civil society.  Although much of this research focused on Latin America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala), I have also worked in South East Asia (the Philippines), and southern Africa (Botswana). My most recent research on international migration has concentrated on Latin American migration to the UK as well as migrant labour within London’s low-pay economy.

As well as my academic research, I have worked as a consultant for the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. I also served on the Management Board of CARILA Latin American Welfare Group, an organisation devoted to improving the lives of Latin Americans living in London between 2006 and 2008. I currently serve on the board of trustees for the organisation Children of the Andes.

I am on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Latin American Studies and European Urban and Regional Studies and I have previously been on the editorial boards of the Bulletin of Latin American Research and Gender, Place and Culture.

Current research:

Transnational voting practices among Colombian migrants: the Colombian 2010 Elections from the UK and Spain 2010–2011
This British Academy funded research examines the external voting patterns among Colombian migrants living in the UK (London) and Spain (Madrid) in relation to the Legislative and Presidential elections in 2010.  

 My other recent previous projects include:

‘The Latin American community in London’ funded by the Trust for London and the Latin American Women’s Rights Service, 2009–2010
This project to explored the nature, needs and problems of the Latin American community in London. It was the first large-scale research project based on a questionnaire survey and a range of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions.  It also generated an estimate of the size of the Latin American population in London. 

See the Latin Americans in London webpages.

‘Global cities at work: migrant labour in low paid employment in London’
This is an ESRC-funded project being co-ordinated with my colleagues Jane Wills, Kavita Datta, and Jon May. This research explored the importance of migrant labour in global cities focusing on the experiences, practices and politics of workers in the low-paid sectors of London’s labour market (mainly in cleaning, care, and construction).  It examined a range of processes behind the formation of a distinct ‘migrant division of labour’, focusing particularly on the lives of migrants in the city as well as their transnational lives through their links with home. 

See Global Cities at Work.

‘Coping practices among Latin American migrants in London’
As part of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, and building on previous research in Latin America and with Colombians in London (on a British Academy-funded project), this study explored how recent Latin American migrants, as a much neglected group, coped with living in London. Drawing on livelihoods conceptual frameworks, the research explored the nature of coping practices developed by migrants ranging from securing employment, learning the language to developing support networks. 

Working papers on Latin Americans in London:
Challenging displacement: livelihood practices among Colombian migrants in London [PDF 480KB]
Negotiating gender-based violence: the paradoxes of migration for Latin American women in London [PDF 380KB]
Living in Latin London: How Latin American Migrants Survive in the City [PDF 1.2MB]
Vivir... Sorevivir...Latinoamercanos en Londres [PDF 1.1MB]
The postcolonial practices of international migration: Latin American migration to London [PDF 313KB]
Subversion or subjugation: transforming gender ideologies among Latin American migrants in London [PDF 288KB]
Webs of (ir)regularity among latin American migrants in London, Working Paper WP-09-0, ICMiC, School of Sociology & Social Policy: University of Nottingham.
Coping practices among Colombian migrants in London [PDF 1MB]

Postgraduate supervision:

PhD supervision (primary)

• Supriti Bezbaruah Gender, employment and the state in India, September 2006–present
• Cristen Dávalos Ecuadorian migrant cleaners in Madrid, 2005–2012 (with A. Kershen)
• Olivia Sheringham Religious transnationalism among Brazilian migrants in London, 2008–2011
• Kate Hardy Sex worker organising strategies in Argentina, September 2006–2010 (with Jane Wills)
• Juan Cock Colombian Migrants, Latin American Publics: Ethnicity and Transnational Practices among Colombian Migrants in London, 2005–2009  
• Anastasia Bermudez Torres Political organising among the Colombian diaspora in London and Madrid, 2003–2008
• Carolyn Gaskell Fighting for respect: youth, violence and citizenship in East London, 2002–2005
• Ailsa Winton Youth, social capital and social exclusion in Guatemala, 1999–2002

Publications:

Books

McIlwaine, Cathy (2011) (ed) Cross-Border Migration among Latin Americans: European Perspectives and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Download flyer

Wills, Jane; Datta, Kavita; Evans, Yara; Herbert, Joanna; May, Jon; McIlwaine, Cathy (2010) Global Cities at Work: New Migrant Divisions of Labour, Pluto, London.

Chant, Sylvia and McIlwaine, Cathy (2009) Geographies of Development in the 21st Century: An Introduction to the Global South, Edward Elgar, London

McIlwaine, Cathy (with Caroline Moser) (2004) Encounters with Violence in Latin America, Routledge, London.

McIlwaine, Cathy (with Katie Willis) (editors) (2002) Changes and Challenges in Middle America: Perspectives on Development in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, Pearson: Harlow.

McIlwaine, Cathy (with Caroline Moser) (2000) Violence in a Post-Conflict Context: Urban Poor Perceptions from Guatemala, World Bank, Washington D.C. Full text available here

McIlwaine, Cathy (with Caroline Moser) (2000) Urban Poor Perceptions of Violence and Exclusion in Colombia, World Bank, Washington D.C. Full text available here
Also available in Spanish here

McIlwaine, Cathy (with Sylvia Chant) (1998) Three Generations, Two Genders, One World: Women and Men in a Changing Century, Zed Press: London.

McIlwaine, Cathy (with Sylvia Chant) (1995) Women of a Lesser Cost: Female Labour, Foreign Exchange and Philippine Development, Pluto Press: London: (finalist, National Book Awards for Social Science, the Philippines, 1995).

Selected Recent Journal articles/chapters

2012
McIlwaine, C. (2012) Constructing transnational social spaces among Latin American migrants in Europe: perspectives from the UK, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 5: 2, 271-288: http://cjres.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/2/289.full.pdf+html

Datta, K., McIlwaine, C., Herbert, J., Evans, Y. May, J. and Wills, J. (2012) Global workers for global cities: low-paid migrant labour in London. In Derudder, B., Hoyler, M., Taylor, P.J. and Witlox, F. (eds) International handbook of Globalization and World Cities, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 390-397.

2011
McIlwaine, Cathy and Bermudez, Anastasia (2011) The gendering of political and civic participation among Colombian migrants in London, Environment and Planning A, 43, 1499–1513

McIlwaine, Cathy, Cock, Juan Camilo and Linneker, Brian (2011) No Longer Invisible: The Latin American Community in London, Trust for London: London. (http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/docs/research/latinamerican/48637.pdf).

McIlwaine, C. (2011) Postcolonial geographies of Latin American migration to London from a materialist perspective, in Pollard, J., McEwan, C. and Hughes, A. (eds) Postcolonial Economies: Rethinking Material Lives, Zed, London, 157–181.

Wills, J., Datta, K., McIlwaine, C., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., and May, J. (2011) Immigration, local regional and uneven development, in Pike, A., Rodriguez-Pose, A. and Tomaney, J. (eds) Routledge Handbook of Local and Regional Development. Routledge, London, 449–459.

McIlwaine, C. (2011) Introduction: theoretical and empirical perspectives on Latin American migration across borders. In McIlwaine, Cathy (2011) (ed) Cross-Border Migration among Latin Americans: European Perspectives and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 1–17.

McIlwaine, C. (2011) Super-diversity, multiculturalism and integration: an overview of the Latin American population in London, UK. In McIlwaine, Cathy (2011) (ed) Cross-Border Migration among Latin Americans: European Perspectives and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 93–117.

McIlwaine, C. and Carlisle, F. (2011) Gender transformations and gender-based violence among Latin American migrants in London. In McIlwaine, Cathy (2011) (ed) Cross-Border Migration among Latin Americans: European Perspectives and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 157–174.

McIlwaine, C. (forthcoming, 2011) Migración Transitoria como Recurso: Latinoamericanos en Gran Bretaña vía España. In Jorge Ginieniewicz (ed) El impacto de la migración latinoamericana a España en las ciudades de origen: una mirada desde el modelo de acumulación de activos, FLACO, Quito, 215–236.

Datta,K. McIlwaine, C, Herbert, J., Evans, Y., May, J. and Wills, J. (2011) Global workers for global cities: low paid migrant labour in London. In Taylor, P., Derudder, B., Hoyler, M. and Witlox, F. (eds) International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 390–397.

2010
McIlwaine, C. (2010) Migrant machismos: exploring gender ideologies and practices among Latin American migrants in London from a multi-scalar perspective, Gender, Place and Culture, 17:3, 281–300.

McIlwaine, C. (2010) The gendered exclusion of international migration: perspectives from Latin American migrants in London, in Chant, S. (ed) International Handbook on Gender and Poverty, Edward Elgar, London, 260–265.

Datta, K., McIlwaine, C., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., May, J., and Wills, J. (2010) A migrant ethic of care? Negotiating care and caring among migrant workers in London's low pay economy. Feminist Review, 94, 93–116.

May, J., Wills, J., Datta, K., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., and McIlwaine, C. (2010) Global Cities at Work: Migrant labour in low paid employment in London, The London Journal, 35:1, 85–99.

Wills, J., McIlwaine, C.; Datta, K., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., May, J. and (2010) New migrant divisions of labour, in Coe, N. and  Jones, A. (eds) The Economic Geography of the UK. Sage, London, 225–238.

McIlwaine, C. (2010) Costa Rica: Economy. In South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2011, 19^th edition, Routledge, London.

McIlwaine, C. (2010) Costa Rica: History. In South America, Central America and the Caribbean 2011, 19^th edition, Routledge, London.

2009
Moser, C. and McIlwaine, C. (2009) La violencia urbana en Latinoamérica como problema de desarrollo, in Lunecke, A., Munizaga, A.M., and Ruiz, J.C (eds) Violencia y delincuencia en barrios: sistemización de experiencias, Fundación Paz Ciudadana, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile, 13-40.

McIlwaine, C. (2009) Development: Civil Society, in Kitchin, R. and Thrift, N. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Volume 1, Elsevier, Oxford, 136-141.

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

Datta, K., McIlwaine, C., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., May, J. and 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.

Wills, Jane, May, Jon, Datta, Kavita, Evans, Yara, Herbert, Joanna, McIlwaine, Cathy (2009) London’s Migrant  Division of Labour. European Urban and Regional Studies, 16:3, 257–271.

May, J. Datta, K. Evans, E. Herbert, J. and McIlwaine, C. and Wills, J. (2009) Travelling neoliberalism: Polish and Ghanaian migrants workers in London, in Smith, A., Stenning, A. and Willis, K. (eds) Social Justice and Neoliberalism: Global Perspectives. London, Zed, 61–89.

2008
Herbert, Jo, May, Jon, Wills, Jane, Datta, Kavita, Evans, Yara and McIlwaine, Cathy (2008) ‘Multicultural living?’ Experiences of everyday racism amongst Ghanaian migrants in London, European Urban and Regional Studies, 15: 2, 103–117.

McIlwaine, Cathy (2008) Gender- and Age-Based Violence. In Vandana Desai and Robert Potter (eds) The Companion to Development Studies, Arnold: London (second edition), 445–449.

2007
McIlwaine, Cathy (2007) From local to global to transnational civil society: re-framing development perspectives on the non-state sector. Geography Compass, 1: 6, 1252–1281.

Evans, Yara, Wills, Jane, Datta, Kavita, Herbert, Jo, McIlwaine, Cathy and May, Jon (2007)
Subcontracting by stealth in London’s hotels: impacts and implications for labour organising, Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society, 10, 85–97.

May, Jon, Wills, Jane, Datta, Kavita, Evans, Yara, Herbert, Jo and McIlwaine, Cathy (2007) Keeping London working: global cities, the British state, and London's new migrant division of labour, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS, 32, 151–167.

Datta, Kavita, McIlwaine, Cathy, Wills, Jane, Evans, Yara, Herbert, Jo, and May, Jon (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.

Datta, Kavita, McIlwaine, Cathy, Evans, Yara, Herbert, Jo, May, Jon, and Wills, Jane (2007) From coping strategies to tactics: London’s low-pay economy and migrant labour, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 45:2, 409–438.

2006
McIlwaine, Cathy (with Caroline Moser) (2006) Latin American urban violence as a development concern: towards a framework for violence reduction, World Development, 34: 1, 89–112.

McIlwaine, Cathy and Moser, Caroline (2006) Living in fear: how the urban poor perceive violence, fear and insecurity, in Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt (eds) Fractured Cities: Social Exclusion, Urban Violence and Contested Spaces in Latin America, Zed: London, 117–137.

McIlwaine, Cathy (2006) Using indigenous local knowledge and literature. In Vandana Desai and Robert Potter (eds) Doing Development Research, Sage: London, 222–230.

2005
McIlwaine, Cathy (2005) Susan George. In Simon, D. (ed) Fifty Key Thinkers on Development, Routledge, London, 111–116.

McIlwaine, Cathy (2005) Gender and Industrialization, Gender and Poverty, Urban Poverty. In Tim Forsyth (ed) Routledge Encyclopaedia of International Development, Routledge: London, 269–271, 271–272, 730–732.

2004
McIlwaine, Cathy (with Kavita Datta) (2004) ‘Endangered youth?’: Youth, gender and sexualities in Urban Botswana, Gender, Place and Culture, 11: 4, 483–511.

McIlwaine, Cathy (with Caroline Moser) (2004) Drugs, alcohol and community tolerance: an urban ethnography from Colombia and Guatemala, Environment and Urbanization, 16: 2, 49-62 (full text is available here)

Chant, Sylvia et McIlwaine, Cathy (2004) Migrations intérieures et internationales des Philippines: leurs effets dans les régions de depart. In Verschuur, C. et Reysoo, F. (eds) Genre, nouvelle division internationale du travail et migrations, Cahiers Genre et Développement no 5, L’Harmattan, IUED, efi: Geneva, 145-155.

2003
McIlwaine, Cathy (with Kavita Datta) (2003) From feminising to engendering development, Gender, Place and Culture, 10: 4, 345–358.

McIlwaine, Cathy (with Caroline Moser) (2003) Poverty, violence and livelihood security in urban Colombia and Guatemala, Progress in Development Studies, 3: 2, 113–130.

2002
McIlwaine, Cathy (2002) Perspectives on poverty, vulnerability and exclusion. In Cathy McIlwaine and Katie Willis (eds) Challenges and Change in Middle America: Perspectives on Development in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, Prentice Hall: Harlow, 82–109.

McIlwaine, Cathy, Chant, Sylvia and Lloyd Evans, Sally (2002) Making a Living: Employment, Livelihoods and the Informal Sector.  In Cathy McIlwaine and Katie Willis (eds)Challenges and Change in Middle America: Perspectives on Development in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, Prentice Hall: Harlow, 110–135.

2001
McIlwaine, Cathy (with Caroline Moser) (2001) Violence and social capital in urban poor communities: perspectives from Colombia and Guatemala. Journal of International Development, 13:7, 965–984 (full text available here)

Moser, Caroline and McIlwaine, Cathy (2001) Gender and social capital in contexts of political violence: community perceptions from Colombia and Guatemala. In Caroline O.N. Moser and Fiona C. Clark (eds) Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence, Zed: London, 178–200.

2000 and before
McIlwaine, Cathy (with Caroline Moser) (1999) Participatory Urban Appraisal and its application for research on violence. Environment and Urbanization, 11:2, 203–226 (full text available here). A version of this is available in Spanish here

McIlwaine, Cathy (1999) Geography and development: crime and violence as development issues. Progress in Human Geography, 23: 3, 453–463.

McIlwaine, Cathy (1998) Contesting civil society: reflections from El Salvador. Third World Quarterly, 19: 4, 651–672.

McIlwaine, Cathy (1998) Civil Society and Development Geography.  Progress in Human Geography, 22:3, 415–24.

McIlwaine, Cathy (1997) Vulnerable or poor? A study of ethnic and gender disadvantage among Afro-Caribbeans in Limón, Costa Rica. The European Journal of Development Research, 9: 2, 35–61.

McIlwaine, Cathy (1996) The Negotiation of Space among Sex Workers in Cebu City, the Philippines. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 17: 2, 150–164.

McIlwaine, Cathy (1997) Third World Development: Urbanizing for the Future.  Progress in Human Geography, 21:3, 406–413.

Chant, Sylvia and McIlwaine, Cathy (1995) Gender and Export-Manufacturing in the Philippines: Continuity or Change in Female Employment? The Case of Mactan Export Processing Zone. Gender Place and Culture, 2:2, 147–176 (reprinted in J. Rigg [ed] 2008 Southeast Asian Development: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences, Routledge, London, Chapter 28).     

I have also edited a special issue of Progress in Development Studies (2003, 3: 2) with Dr Glyn Williams (KCL) on Entanglements of Participation: the Theory and Practice of Attacking Poverty.

Undergraduate teaching:

Undergraduate teaching 

1^st year: Globalisation, Development and Inequality (convenor)
2^nd year: Spaces of Uneven Development
3^rd year: Gender and Development (convenor)

2^nd and 3^rd year: Researching Global Change (convenor)

Postgraduate teaching:

Postgraduate teaching

Globalisation and Development in Practice

Understanding Globalisation I and II

Social Science Research: Methods and Methodologies

Geographical Thought and Practice

Dissertation module (convenor)