Katharine McKinnon is a Professor of Geography at Victoria University of Wellington with expertise in diverse economies and community economies and extensive field experience in participatory action research in the Asia-Pacific region, including Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Australia. She specialises in collaborating with community members and professional actors to better understand how to maximise place-based opportunities for sustainable and equitable futures, building strong livelihoods and community wellbeing in ways that are suited to local cultures and economies. Her field experience in majority world contexts has included work with semi-subsistence agricultural communities, marginalised urban communities, and Indigenous people and ethnic minorities. Gender and economy, care, cultural survival and professional practice are central themes of her work.