Ray Watters

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Ray Watters
Born
Raymond Frederick Watters

(1928-06-02)2 June 1928
Cambridge, New Zealand
Died3 February 2024(2024-02-03) (aged 95)
Woburn, New Zealand
Academic background
Alma materLondon School of Economics
ThesisThe geography of Samoa about 1840 : a study in historical geography (1956)
Academic work
DisciplineGeography
Sub-disciplineRural development and social change in the developing world
InstitutionsVictoria University of Wellington
Notable ideasMIRAB model

Raymond Frederick Watters (2 June 1928 – 3 February 2024) was a New Zealand geographer.[1] He conducted interdisciplinary studies and projects for UN agencies, British Overseas Development Administration, NZ Aid and governments of a number of developing countries including Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru and Papua New Guinea.

Biography[edit]

Watters was born in Cambridge on 2 June 1928.[2][3] After attaining Bachelor of Arts and MA (Hons) degrees from Auckland and Victoria University Colleges, he completed a PhD at the London School of Economics in 1956 for a thesis on the historical geography of Samoa.[4] He taught at Victoria University of Wellington for 38 years, giving courses on Latin America, historical geography, the Pacific and Chinese peasantry. In 2009, he was honoured with a Distinguished New Zealand Geography Award.[5]

Watters specialised in rural development and social change in the developing world, especially in Oceania (South Pacific), Latin America and Guizhou in south-west China. He had also extensively studied shifting agriculture in the hot, wet tropics, human geography and development problems in tribal and peasant societies at micro, meso and macro levels, and the nature of peasantry in the southern Andes, Peru. Many studies involved geographic, historical, anthropological and economic analyses or synthesis, as well as village fieldwork.

Watters led research projects on the Solomon Islands, resulting in three PhDs and four major reports; the Gilbert and Ellice Islands project, yielding three PhDs and six major reports; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs project on small island states (with Geoff Bertram),[6] out of which came the MIRAB (migration, remittance, foreign aid, public bureaucracy) model.[7]

Watters died in the Lower Hutt suburb of Woburn on 3 February 2024, at the age of 95.[2]

Selected publications[edit]

  • Rural Latin America in Transition: Development and Change in Mexico and Venezuela[8]
  • Land and Society in New Zealand: Essays in Historical Geography[9]
  • Koro, Economic Development and Social Change in Fiji[10]
  • Shifting Cultivation in Latin America[11]
  • With W. H. GEDDES, ANNE CHAMBERS, BETSY SEWELL, ROGER LAWRENCE – Atoll Economy: Social Change in Kiribati and Tuvalu[12]
  • With I. G. Bertram – New Zealand and its Small island Neighbours. A report of NZ policy towards the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Kiribati and Tuvalu[13]
  • Poverty and Peasantry in Peru's Southern Andes, 1963–90[14]
  • With T. G. McGee – Asia Pacific. New Geographies of the Pacific Rim[15]
  • Journeys Towards Progress: Essays of a Geographer on Development and Change in Oceania[16]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Ray Watters, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington". Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Raymond Watters obituary". The Post. 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Births". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. 65, no. 19963. 4 June 1928. p. 1. Retrieved 5 February 2024 – via PapersPast.
  4. ^ Crozier, Michael; Morrison, Philip (2010). "Distinguished New Zealand Geography Award: Professor Ray Watters". New Zealand Geographer. 66: 87–88. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7939.2010.01175_4.x. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  5. ^ "Distinguished New Zealand Geographer".
  6. ^ "New Zealand and its Small Island Neighbours: A Review of New Zealand Policy Toward the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Kiribati and Tuvalu". igps.victoria.ac.nz.
  7. ^ Tisdell, Clement. "The MIRAB Model of Small Island Economies in the Pacific and their Security Issues: A Draft". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  8. ^ Watters, Ray (2021). Rural Latin America in Transition: Development and Change in Mexico and Venezuela. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-65033-9.
  9. ^ Land and society in New Zealand; essays in historical geography. A. H. & A. W. Reed. 1965. OCLC 450574.
  10. ^ Harre, John (October 1972). "KORO. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN FIJI. By R. F. Watters". New Zealand Geographer. 28 (2): 202–203. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7939.1972.tb01188.x.
  11. ^ Raymond Frederick Watters (November 1971). Shifting cultivation in Latin America. Food and Agriculture Organization. ISBN 9780119403411.
  12. ^ Petersen, Glenn (February 1985). "Atoll Economy: Social Change in Kiribati and Tuvalu". American Ethnologist. 12 (1): 172–173. doi:10.1525/ae.1985.12.1.02a00280.
  13. ^ Bertram, I. G.; Watters, R. F. (1984). "New Zealand and its Small Island Neighbours: A Review of New Zealand Policy Toward the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Kiribati and Tuvalu". researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/.
  14. ^ Watters, Ray (1994). Poverty and Peasantry in Peru's Southern Andes. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-55023-6.
  15. ^ Raymond Frederick Watters; T. G. McGee; Ginny Sullivan (1997). Asia-Pacific: New Geographies of the Pacific Rim. UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-0647-3.
  16. ^ Borovnik, Maria (August 2010). "Journeys Towards Progress. Essays of a Geographer on Development and Change in Oceania". New Zealand Geographer. 66 (2): 173–174. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7939.2010.01183_5.x.
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