
Overview
Background
Geoff is a leading Australian sociologist with interests in rural and regional sociology, globalisation/localisation and agrifood research.
He attended James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney and was School Captain in 1968. He then completed a degree in agricultural economics at Sydney University in 1972. This was followed by a diploma in social science (UNE), Master of Science in Sociology (Wisconisn-Madison) and a PhD (Griffith). In 1992 he became Associate Professor of Sociology and Foundation Director, Centre for Rural Social Research, at Charles Sturt University before moving later that year to Central Queensland University as Foundation Professor of Sociology (1992-2002) and Executive Director, Institute for Sustainable Regional Development (1998-2002). He joined The University of Queensland as Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Social Science in 2002. He is a Life Member of the Fitzroy Basin Association, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Life Member of the Australian Sociological Association, and was President of the International Rural Sociology Association (2012-2016). He became Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Queensland in 2014.
His full profile can be seen at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Lawrence_(sociologist)
Availability
- Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science, University of Sydney
- Postgraduate Diploma, University of New England Australia
- Masters (Coursework) of Science, University of Wisconsin
- Doctor of Philosophy, Griffith University
Research interests
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Agriculture, the Environment and the Politics of Sustainability
The questions are: To what extent is 'greening' and green politics influencing the course of agricultural development and resulting in policies aimed at reducing ecological destruction? What is the nature of the debates and theorisations regarding productivism/post-productivism in the rural landscapes of advance economies? In a practical sense, how is it possible to ensure that current and future natural resource management will provide sustainable outcomes for society?
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Globalisation, Localisation and Restructuring of Regional Australia
This is a broad area whcih includes an examination of the social affects of economic change upon regions and highlights town decline, poverty, unemployment and ill-health - as well as the 'ingredients' for successful community development and the enhancement of social capital. Issues of empowerment and governance are crucial to the understanding of the future of the regions. The issue of global/local relations is also of significance - particularly as Australian governments seek to promote 'self help' and 'partnership' options.
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Financialisation of Food and Farming
Finance capital is playing an increasingly important role in food and farming industries. Entities like merchant banks, sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms and hedge funds are purchasing farmlands and agribusinesses in an effort to increase returns to shareholders. However, some of these activities are speculative and lead to food price distortions; others impact upon traditional owners when so-called 'land grabs' force producers from their farms. 'Financialisation' is seen as being as important as globalisation and neoliberalism in altering the face of food and farming.
Works
Search Professor Geoffrey Lawrence’s works on UQ eSpace
2024
Book
Societal deception: Global social issues in post-truth times
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). Societal deception: Global social issues in post-truth times. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8
2024
Book Chapter
The Power to Lie: Propaganda and Post-truth Politics
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). The Power to Lie: Propaganda and Post-truth Politics. Societal Deception. (pp. 211-270) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8_5
2024
Book Chapter
Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastic: Corporate Profiteering and Planetary Destruction
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastic: Corporate Profiteering and Planetary Destruction. Societal Deception. (pp. 151-209) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8_4
2024
Book Chapter
From Seedling to Supermarket: Farming, Fast Food, and the Fabrication of Trust
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). From Seedling to Supermarket: Farming, Fast Food, and the Fabrication of Trust. Societal Deception. (pp. 99-149) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8_3
2024
Book Chapter
Who Can You Believe? Of Media, Misinformation, and Trumpery
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). Who Can You Believe? Of Media, Misinformation, and Trumpery. Societal Deception. (pp. 1-49) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8_1
2024
Book Chapter
The Future: Confronting the Culprits
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). The Future: Confronting the Culprits. Societal Deception. (pp. 377-451) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8_8
2024
Book Chapter
It’s the Economy, Stupid! Neoliberal Nonsense and the Myths of the Free Market
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). It’s the Economy, Stupid! Neoliberal Nonsense and the Myths of the Free Market. Societal Deception. (pp. 51-98) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8_2
2024
Book Chapter
The Ultimate Diversion: Sport as False Consciousness?
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). The Ultimate Diversion: Sport as False Consciousness?. Societal Deception. (pp. 323-375) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8_7
2024
Book Chapter
Praying for Salvation: Forgeries and Fallacies of Religion
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2024). Praying for Salvation: Forgeries and Fallacies of Religion. Societal Deception. (pp. 271-322) London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-96107-8_6
2022
Journal Article
Tracking farmland investment in Australia: Institutional finance and the politics of data mapping
Smith, Kiah, Langford, Alexandra and Lawrence, Geoffrey (2022). Tracking farmland investment in Australia: Institutional finance and the politics of data mapping. Journal of Agrarian Change, 23 (3), 518-546. doi: 10.1111/joac.12531
2021
Journal Article
Financialization for development? Asset making on Indigenous land in remote northern Australia
Langford, Alexandra, Lawrence, Geoffrey and Smith, Kiah (2021). Financialization for development? Asset making on Indigenous land in remote northern Australia. Development and Change, 52 (3), 574-597. doi: 10.1111/dech.12648
2021
Journal Article
Agri-food scholarship: Past, present and future contributions to Australasian rural sociology
Smith, Kiah and Lawrence, Geoffrey (2021). Agri-food scholarship: Past, present and future contributions to Australasian rural sociology. Journal of Sociology, 58 (2) 144078332110096, 1-22. doi: 10.1177/14407833211009616
2021
Journal Article
Finance's social license? Sugar, farmland and health
Smith, K. and Lawrence, G. (2021). Finance's social license? Sugar, farmland and health. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 10 (12), 1-11. doi: 10.34172/IJHPM.2021.11
2021
Book Chapter
'I want to sleep at night as well': guilt and care in the making of agricultural credit markets
Langford, Alexandra, Brekelmans, Alana and Lawrence, Geoffrey (2021). 'I want to sleep at night as well': guilt and care in the making of agricultural credit markets. Markets in their place: context, culture, finance. (pp. 122-140) edited by Russell Prince, Matthew Henry, Carolyn Morris, Aisling Gallagher and Stephen FitzHerbert. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429296260-7
2021
Conference Publication
Finance's social license? Sugar, health, farmland and the reef
Smith, K. and Lawrence, G. (2021). Finance's social license? Sugar, health, farmland and the reef. International Sociological Association Forum of Sociology, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 25 February 2021.
2020
Other Outputs
Submission to Senate Standing Committee on Economics Inquiry into foreign investment proposals
Smith, Kiah, Langford, Alexandra and Lawrence, Geoffrey (2020). Submission to Senate Standing Committee on Economics Inquiry into foreign investment proposals. Canberra, ACT: Senate Standing Committees on Economics.
2020
Book Chapter
Neoliberal Globalization and Beyond: Food, Farming, and the Environment
Lawrence, Geoffrey and Smith, Kiah (2020). Neoliberal Globalization and Beyond: Food, Farming, and the Environment. The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology. (pp. 411-428) edited by Katherine Legun, Michael Bell and J. Keller. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108554558.026
2020
Journal Article
Financialising governance? State actor engagement with private finance for rural development in the Northern Territory of Australia
Langford, Alexandra, Smith, Kiah and Lawrence, Geoffrey (2020). Financialising governance? State actor engagement with private finance for rural development in the Northern Territory of Australia. Research in Globalization, 2 100026, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.resglo.2020.100026
2020
Journal Article
Understanding the 'Land-grab' phenomenon
Lawrence, Geoffrey (2020). Understanding the 'Land-grab' phenomenon. Agriculture and Food, 14 (1), 19-20.
2020
Book Chapter
State-led and finance-backed farming endeavours: changing contours of investment in Australian agriculture
Lawrence, Geoffrey, Sippel, Sarah Ruth and Larder, Nicolette (2020). State-led and finance-backed farming endeavours: changing contours of investment in Australian agriculture. Finance or food? : the role of cultures, values, and ethics in land use negotiations. (pp. 150-177) edited by Hilde Bjørkhaug, Philip McMichael and Bruce Muirhead. Toronto, ON, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Funding
Supervision
Availability
- Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Available projects
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Students can be involved in work on ARC and other projects exploring:
Structural change in agriculture; changes power relations along agri-food chains; the financialisation of food and farming.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Climate Change in Rural Fiji: Reproduction, Erosion and Limitations of Social Resilience in Intercultural Domains
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Richard Martin, Dr Kim de Rijke
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Doctor Philosophy
Climate Change in Rural Fiji: Reproduction, Erosion and Limitations of Social Resilience in Intercultural Domains
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Richard Martin, Dr Kim de Rijke
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Doctor Philosophy
Climate Change in Rural Fiji: Reproduction, Erosion and Limitations of Social Resilience in Intercultural Domains
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Richard Martin, Dr Kim de Rijke
Completed supervision
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Financialization and the restructuring of agriculture in Tanzania: Global finance and the takeover of farmland
Principal Advisor
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Agri-food transformations in Northern Australia: The work of local actors in mediating financial investments
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kiah Smith
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2017
Doctor Philosophy
Climate Change Adaptation in Southwest Bangladesh: Vulnerability and Gender Inequality
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Adjunct Professor Adil Khan
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2017
Master Philosophy
Cultivating climate change resilience in agri-food systems: Responses to natural disasters and emerging climate risks in Queensland's fresh produce supply chains
Principal Advisor
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
Rice, politics and power: the political economy of food insecurity in East Asia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Melissa Curley
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
The production of audit assurance: Unintended consequences of retailer governance in the Australian food system
Principal Advisor
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
Environmental Governance in Rural Regions: A critical-interpretive perspective on policy implementation in Australia
Principal Advisor
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2011
Doctor Philosophy
Contesting 'ethicality': Ethical trade, gender and sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers in Kenya
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Kristen Lyons
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2010
Doctor Philosophy
Regional whole-of-government in Central Queensland: a sociocultural interpretation
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Lynda Cheshire
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2010
Doctor Philosophy
Lakeside living - realising dreams in a master planned community
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Lynda Cheshire
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2008
Doctor Philosophy
Transformation of the Australian Beef Industry: Integrating Political Economy and Sociocultural Approaches to Agri-Food Restructuring
Principal Advisor
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2007
Doctor Philosophy
ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE CATTLE GRAZING WITHIN A CULTURE OF PRODUCTIVISM? A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF BROADSCALE BEEF PRODUCTION IN CENTRAL QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Lynda Cheshire
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2007
Doctor Philosophy
REGIONAL PLANNING AS GOOD GOVERNANCE: A CENTRAL QUEENSLAND CASE STUDY
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Lynda Cheshire
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2018
Master Philosophy
What is food in the food regime?: Remaking food and markets in a time of crisis
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Kristen Lyons
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
Resonance of the land grabbing frame in Mali, West Africa: A social movements and political ecology perspective
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Kristen Lyons
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2009
Doctor Philosophy
It's for love not money: Queensland graziers' perceptions of sustainable development
Associate Advisor
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2008
Doctor Philosophy
Growing old in Springfield Lakes: the possibility of community in a new suburb
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Lynda Cheshire
Media
Enquiries
Contact Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence directly for media enquiries about:
- Agriculture - sociology
- Financialisation
- Food security
- Globalisation
- Neoliberalism
- Rural Australia
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