Ian Cook is an Emeritus Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, and formerly a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Birmingham, and a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Wales, Lampeter.Chris Philo (2002) Our journey through Lampeter': a marginal space of geographical knowledge. Paper delivered at the AAG Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, March

Background Cook has a BSc in Human Sciences, University College London (1986); an MA in Human Geography, University of Kentucky (1992); a PhD in Human Geography, University of Bristol (1997). Their PhD was highly autobiographical, and took several years to be awarded.Ian Cook (2001) You want to be careful you don't end up like Ian. He's all over the place: autobiography in/of an expanded field. In Moss P (ed) Placing Autobiography in Geography, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 99-120 Director's cut They began their academic career at the University of Wales, Lampeter (1993-9), then worked at the University of Birmingham (1999-2007), before moving to the University of Exeter (2007-2025).

They were the Director of Education & Resources for the Fashion Revolution movement (2014-2016)Sarah Ditty, Ian Cook, Laura Hunter, Futerra, Tamsin Blanchard (2018) How to be a Fashion Revolutionary. Ashbourne: Fashion Revolution and a Visiting Professor of Geography, University of Paris 7 - Denis Diderot (2016-18).

'Follow the thing' Cook's contributions to research, teaching and pedagogy have been to develop geographical approaches to:

material culture studies via a 'follow the thing' approach connecting the lives of the producers and consumers of commodities,Ian Cook & Philip Crang (1996) 'The world on a plate': culinary culture, displacement and geographical knowledges. Journal of Material Culture 1(2), 131-153Ian Cook et al. (2006) Geographies of food: following. Progress in Human Geography, 30(5), 655-666Ian Cook & Tara Woodyer (2012) Lives of things. in Eric Sheppard, Trevor Barnes & Jamie Peck (eds) Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 226-241 starting with papaya grown,Ian Cook (1995) Constructing the exotic: the case of tropical fruit. in John Allen & Doreen Massey (eds) Geographical worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 137-142Ian Cook et al. (2004) Follow the Thing: Papaya. Antipode 36(4), 642-664 and hot pepper sauces made,Ian Cook & Michelle Harrison (2003) ‘Cross over food: re-materialising postcolonial geographies’. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 28(3), 296-331Ian Cook & Michelle Harrison (2007) Follow the thing: ‘West Indian hot pepper sauce’. Space and Culture 10(1), 40-63 in Jamaica and consumed in the United Kingdom. ethnographic and autoethnographic research practices, in particular those suited to the multi-sited demands of 'follow the thing' studiesIan Cook & Mike Crang (1995) Doing ethnographies. CATMOG 58. Norwich: Environmental PublicationsMike Crang & Ian Cook (2007) Doing ethnographies. London: Sage and the creative, first person and filmic writing that can be appropriate to convey its research findings.Ian Cook (2005) Positionality / situated knowledge. in David Atkinson, Peter Jackson, David Sibley & Neil Washbourne (eds) Cultural geography: a critical dictionary of key ideas. London: IB Tauris, 16-26 trade justice pedagogies that encourage learners to research and publish online their own 'follow the thing' studies of things that matter to them and to consider appropriate responses to any labour rights issues surfaced in the process.Ian Cook, Tim Angus & James Evans (2001) A Manifesto for Cyborg Pedagogy. International Research in Geographical & Environmental Education 10(2), 195-201Ian Cook, James Evans, Helen Griffiths, Rebecca Morris, & Sarah Wrathmell (2007) 'It's more than just what it is': defetishising commodities, expanding fields, mobilising change. Geoforum 38(6), 1113-1126 non-traditional open-access academic publishing, most notably followthethings.comIan Cook et al. (compiler) (2011-) followthethings.com [Internet archive versions] which is a spoof online store showcasing research into the making, discussing and impacts of over 100 examples of 'follow the thing' trade justice activism (2011-date).Ian Cook et al. (2019) A new vocabulary for cultural-economic geography? Dialogues in human geography 9(1), 83-87Ian Cook et al. (2017) From 'follow the thing: papaya' to followthethings.com. Journal of consumer ethics 1(1), 22-29 address elements of the 'unfollowable thing' critique of early research in this genre,Alison Hulme (2017) Following the (unfollowable) thing: methodological considerations in the era of high globalisation. Cultural geographies 24(1), 157-160 in projects involving LEGO to visualise labour in supply chain research's inaccessible spacesIan Cook et al. (2018) Inviting construction: Primark, Rana Plaza & Political LEGO. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 43(3), p.477-495Ian Cook et al. (2018) Minifigurative politics. Inaugural Lecture, University of Exeter, 8 June and collaborative, digitally informed social artwork to surface the role played by algorithms, datafication and predictive analytics in the geographies of trade.Paula Crutchlow & Ian Cook (2022) Museum of Contemporary Commodities: valuing the things we buy today as the heritage of tomorrow. Exeter: Museum of Contemporary CommoditiesPaula Crutchlow & Ian Cook (2015-) Museum of Contemporary Commodities website. Internet archive versions

Awards and recognition in 2013, Cook's 'follow the things' approach - and the followthethings.com website - was incorporated into the UK's National Curriculum for Geography's teaching of global trade, ethics and sustanability.University of Exeter (2014) ‘Follow The Things’: developing critical pedagogies to promote geographically informed and ethically aware consumption in school geography curriculum. Research Excellence Framework Impact Case Study in 2017, Cook received the Royal Geographical Society's 'Taylor & Francis Award for Excellence in the Promotion & Practice of Teaching and Learning of Geography in Higher Education'

See also Lampeter Geography School

References