Gavin George Newing MacKenzie (8 March 1942 – 18 September 2001) was a British political scientist and sociologist.
Gavin George Newing MacKenzie was born on 8 March 1942 in Bournemouth, where he attended the grammar school.
He went to study at Brown University, where he completed a Master of Arts degree (supervised by Kurt B. Mayer and awarded in 1966) and a doctorate; supervised by Sidney Goldstein, his PhD was awarded in 1970 for his thesis "Middle-class craftsman: A test of selected aspects of the thesis of embourgeoisement in the United States".
He was a lecturer in sociology at the University of Leicester (1968–70) and then in 1970 joined the University of Cambridge as a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and as a faculty assistant lecturer (1970–73); at Jesus College, he was a tutor from 1972 and senior tutor in 1982.
In 1992, he left academia to work for the consultancy Saxton Bampfylde Hever.