Robin Grove-White (born

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, 1941) is an Anglo-Irish Welsh environmentalist, and academic, Emeritus Professor of Environment and Society at Lancaster University. Grove-White Chairs the board of the Institute for Study of Welsh Estates (ISWE) at Bangor University. He is also involved in local organisations such as Menter Mechell and Cymdeithas Hanes Mechell and is president of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary fellowship for Services to the Community at Bangor University

Personal life

Grove-White was born in

and raised on Anglesey, Wales, the son of William Grove-White, descended from the Bulkeley family of landowners and residing at Brynddu (rebuilt 1690) near

Llanfechell Llanfechell ( cy, 'Llanfechell' ' church + Saint ''Mechell'') is a village in Anglesey, Wales. It is the largest of several small villages and dispersed settlements that make up Mechell Community Council area. It is east of Holyhead, and west of ...

. He attended Worcester College, Oxford. Robin Grove-White is married to the artist Helen Grove-White (née Smith) and they have three children; Ruth, Simon and Francis. Robin Grove-White has another child, Will Grove-White, a member of George Hinchcliffe's

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UOGB) is a British musical ensemble founded in 1985 by George Hinchliffe and Kitty Lux as a bit of fun. The orchestra features ukuleles of various sizes and registers from soprano to bass. The UOGB is ...

, from his first marriage to the writer

Virginia Ironside Virginia Ironside (born 3 February 1944) is a British journalist, agony aunt and author. Born in London, she is the daughter of Christopher Ironside, painter and coin designer, and Janey Ironside who was the first professor of fashion design at t ...

Career

From 1963-1968 he became a freelance scriptwriter, for the television series TW3 (

That Was the Week that Was ''That Was the Week That Was'', informally ''TWTWTW'' or ''TW3'', is a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced, and directed by Ned Sherrin and Jack (aka John) Duncan, and pr ...

), a satirical programme hosted by David Frost and featuring

Ned Sherrin Edward George Sherrin (18 February 1931 – 1 October 2007) was an English broadcaster, author and stage director. He qualified as a barrister and then worked in independent television before joining the BBC. He appeared in a variety of r ...

Willie Rushton William George Rushton (18 August 1937 – 11 December 1996) was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the satirical magazine ''Private Eye''. Early life Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in 3 Wilbraham Plac ...

and

Lance Percival John Lancelot Blades Percival (26 July 1933 – 6 January 2015), known as Lance Percival, was an English actor, comedian and singer, best known for his appearances in satirical comedy television shows of the early 1960s and his ability to impr ...

. Other work was in TV, radio, cabaret, film, and advertising in UK, US and Canada (including 'The Establishment' (London), 'The Frost programme' (ITV), 'Marty' (TV series), This Hour Has Seven Days (CBCTV),

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

(Chicago), and McCann-Erickson (Toronto & London). In his late 20s he returned to complete his degree at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in politics, economics and philosophy ( Worcester College, Oxford 1971). This led him into rural protection and environmental campaigning with the

Campaign for the Protection of Rural England CPRE, The Countryside Charity, formerly known by names such as the ''Council for the Preservation of Rural England'' and the ''Council for the Protection of Rural England'', is a Charitable organization, charity in England with over 40,000 memb ...

(1972-1981, then Director, 1981-1987). He was Chair of the Board of

Greenpeace UK Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

until 2004. After a short spell at Imperial College he moved to Lancaster University in 1989 as a research fellow, eventually becoming Professor of Environment and Society. He established the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC) in 1991, to focus on problems of contemporary environmental knowledge and policy development. The centre now resides in the Sociology Department but it was highly active in environmental research, achieving a 5* research rating in the 1990s, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Health and Safety Executive, and the European Environment Agency. Other important members and collaborators included Prof.

Brian Wynne Brian Wynne is Professor Emeritus of Science Studies and a former Research Director of the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC) at the Lancaster University. His education includes an MA (Natural Sciences, Cambridge 1968), PhD ( ...

, Prof. Elizabeth Shove, Simon Shackley, Bron Szerszynski, Prof. Claire Waterton and Prof. Phil Macnaghten. He was a member of the Government's Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission. Grove-White retired in 2006 and moved back to the family farm in

, Anglesey, initiating several environmental improvements. He completed a PhD in History in 2011 at Bangor University, with a thesis entitled ''Welsh, English - or British? Hugh Hughes and late sixteenth-century Anglesey''. This was later published by the Anglesey Antiquarian Society. He served as High Sheriff of Anglesey and Gwynedd in 2011–12. In Llanfechell he helped initiate the community hub venture, Caffi Siop Mechell.

Contributions

Grove-White's career is dedicated to the challenge of a viable future in the face of environmental and technological change. As an academic he strove to develop social science-based approaches to 'environmental' research, using 'sociology of knowledge' frameworks linking university centres with wider society. His main contributions there were to the public understanding of science, attitudes towards genetic engineering, local economic development, and spirituality and nature. He continues to agitate.

Publications

* Deane-Drummond C., B Szerszynski and R. Grove-White (eds.). 2003. ''Reordering Nature: Theology, Society and the New Genetics''. London: Bloomsbury. * Waterton, C, B Wynne, R Grove-White and T Mansfield. 2001. Scientists Reflect on Science: Scientists' Perspectives on Contemporary Science and Environmental Policy. Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Grove-White R., P. Macnaghten and B. Wynne. 2000.
Wising up : the public and new technologies.
'. Lancaster University: Centre for the Study of Environmental Change. * Grove-White R., P. Macnaghten, C. Waterton & S. Weldon. 1998. Woodland Sensibilities: Recreational Uses of Woods and Forests in Britain. Edinburgh: CSEC & Forestry Commission. * Grove-White R., P Macnaghten, S Mayer & B Wynne. 1997
Uncertain World: Genetically Modified Organisms, Food and Public Attitudes in Britain
London: CSEC & Unilever. * Walsh, M, S. Shackley and R. Grove-White. 1996.
Fields Apart? What Farmers Think of Nature Conservation in the Yorkshire Dales
Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Waterton, C., R. Grove-White, J. Rodwell and B. Wynne. 1995. Corine: databases and nature conservation: the new politics of information in the European Union. Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Grove-White, R., and B. Wynne. 1995. Science, Culture and the Environment (Research Report), Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Grove-White, R, H. Armstrong and J. Darrall. 1994. Building Lancaster's Future: Economic and Environmental Implications of Lancaster University's Expansion to 2001. Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Grove-White, R, J. Darrall, P Macnaghten, G Clark and J Urry. 1994. Leisure Landscapes (main report), Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Grove-White, R., A. Phillips and M.D. Toogood. 1993. Sustainability and the English Countryside (Report to the Countryside Commission). Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Wynne, B., C. Waterton and R. Grove-White. 1993 (reissued 2007)
Public Perceptions and the Nuclear Industry in West Cumbria
Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Grove-White, R. 1991. The UK's Environmental Movement and UK Political Culture (Report to EURES-Institut fur Regionale Studien Europa). Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Grove-White, R, P. Morris and B. Szerszynski. 1991. The Emerging Ethical Mood of Environmental Issues in Britain (Report to World Wildlife Fund UK), Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. * Grove-White, R. 2020
A Prism for his times: Late-Tudor Anglesey & Hugh Hughes of Plas Coch
Llangefni: Anglesey Antiquarian Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grove-White, Robin Living people British non-fiction writers Academics of Lancaster University Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Sociologists of science British male writers British environmentalists Green thinkers Sustainability advocates Climate activists 1942 births Male non-fiction writers