Emeritus Professor Deborah Stevenson

Emeritus Professor, ICS, Western Sydney University
Honorary Professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, University of Bath 

Deborah Stevenson, FASSA, was appointed Emeritus Professor in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University in 2024, having previously held the positions of Professor of Sociology and Urban Cultural Research, Foundation Dean of the Graduate Research School, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Research, and Head of the School of Social Sciences. She has also held positions at the University of Newcastle and the University of Technology, Sydney, and is an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Bath.

Deborah’s many publications include the books: Cultural Policy Beyond the Economy: Work, Value and the Social (2023); Cities of Culture: A Global Perspective (2017; translated into Chinese and Serbian); The City (2013; translated into Polish); Tourist Cultures: Identity, Place and the Traveller (co-authored, 2010; translated into Turkish); Cities and Urban Cultures (2003; translated into Greek and Chinese and published under license in India and Southeast Asia); and Art and Organisation: Making Australian Cultural Policy (2000). In addition, she is co-editor of the Ashgate Research Companion to Planning and Culture (2013); the Routledge Urban Media and Communication Companion (2020); and The Australian Art Field: Practices, Policies, Institutions (2021).

She has been a chief investigator on nine successful Australian Research Council grants including the recent projects ‘UNESCO and the Making of Global Cultural Policy: Culture, Economy, Development’ (DP180102074) and ‘The Collaborative Museum: Embedding Cultural Infrastructure in the City’ (LP200301481).

Qualifications

• PhD (Sociology), 1994, University of Newcastle, Australia.
• BA (Hons-1) (Sociology), 1990, University of Newcastle, Australia.
• BA (Double major in Sociology), 1989, University of Newcastle, Australia.

Research Focus

• Arts and cultural policy
• Cities and urban life
• Gender and cultural production and consumption

Selected Publications

Stevenson, D. (2020) The Unfashionable Cultural Worker: Considering the Demography and Practice of Artists in Greater Western Sydney (opens in a new window), The International Journal of Cultural Policy, 26(1): 61-80

Stevenson, D. (2017) Cities of Culture: A Global Perspective (opens in a new window). London: Routledge. First published in hardback in 2014.

Stevenson, D. (2013) The City (opens in a new window). Cambridge, UK and Malden, MA: Polity.

Wearing, S., Stevenson, D. and Young. T. (2010) Tourist Cultures: Identity, Place and the Traveller (opens in a new window). London, Thousand Oaks CA, New Delhi and Singapore: Sage.

Everingham, C., Stevenson, D. and Warner-Smith, P. (2007) Things are Getting Better all the Time’? Challenging the Narrative of Women’s Progress from a Generational Perspective (opens in a new window), Sociology (Journal of the British Sociological Association), 41(3): 419-437.

Stevenson, D. (2005) Cultural Planning in Australia: Texts and Contexts (opens in a new window), Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, 35(1): 36-49.

Stevenson, D. (2004) Civic Gold’ Rush: Cultural Planning and the Politics of the Third Way (opens in a new window), The International Journal of Cultural Policy, 10(1): 119-131.

Stevenson, D. (2003) Cities and Urban Cultures (opens in a new window). Maidenhead, UK and Philadelphia PA: Open University Press.

Stevenson, D. (2000) Art and Organisation: Making Australian Cultural Policy. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.

Stevenson, D. (1999) Reflections of a ‘Great Port City’: The Case of Newcastle, Australia (opens in a new window), Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 17(1): 105-119.

Access All Publications

• Western Sydney Staff Profile
• Google Scholar Profile (opens in a new window)

Contact

• Contact Emeritus Professor Deborah Stevenson