Short BIO
Davis Gibbs is a Researcher & Lecturer in the School of Sustainability, Governance, and Methods at Modul University Vienna. As an American living in Europe, he has a multicultural perspective into the core issues surrounding socioeconomic development and human capital. Additionally, he can provide insight into American study sites as he spent his youth traveling all over the United States, from city to city, gaining first-hand knowledge and experience of the potential of, but also the challenges that American cities incur. Further evidence of this can be found in Davis’ master thesis work, “Detroit’s Urban Revival: The influence of lower-class socioeconomic groups on Detroit’s urban revitalization.” The thesis can be found here.
His MSc in Sustainable Development, Management, and Policy, in combination with his undergraduate degree of International Relations with an emphasis in Political Science at Webster University carved out a path to his current PhD research where he examines governance, human capital, carbon neutrality, and socioeconomic development at various geographic levels.
Research
Davis is currently examining the impact that sustainability initiatives have on improving human capital deficits. Using Human Capital Theory as a framework for his research, Davis examines the driving factors of human capital deficits and how these deficiencies can be improved. Growing up in the United States, Davis has been influenced by experiencing his homeland’s historical and current socioeconomic inequalities. Solving the problem of socioeconomic inequalities, especially in American urban environments is a complex one and one that needs a bottom-up approach. Davis believes that people’s socioeconomic conditions must be improved on a global scale and once this is achieved, environmental improvements can be reached. That is why Davis argues for a delicate balance of stakeholder-driven initiatives that improve human capital deficits and in parallel, positively contribute to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of sustainability as a global challenge that humanity faces. His PhD research focuses on the Just Transition Fund, and how it serves to address human capital deficits in lagging European Union regions with the overall effect of achieving carbon neutrality on the European continent.
Courses
- Economic Geography
- Entrepreneurial Innovation
- The Startup Ecosystem
- Supply Chain Management
- Different Dimensions of Sustainable Development
- Environmental Management and Sustainability