Dr Carol Richards

Dr Carol Richards

Postdoctoral Fellow
Sociology

c.richards@uq.edu.au
Phone:  (+61 7) 336 53493
Fax:  (+61 7) 336 51544

Room 401, Level 4,
Michie Building (#9), St Lucia Campus

Qualifications:

2007 PhD (Sociology), The University of Queensland, Australia
2001 Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) Honours, Class 1, The University of Queensland, Australia (2001 John Western Prize for Honours degree)
1997 Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), The University of Queensland, Australia
 

Professional activities:

Australian Oceanic Network Representative, the International Rural Sociology Association (IRSA)
Convenor, Australasian Agrifood Research Network
Committee Member, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA)
Member, RC40 Agriculture and Food Research Committee of the International Sociology Association
 

Background:

Fixed term lecturer, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK - 2007-2008
Researcher, Sustainable Ecosystems, CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland - 2007
PhD candidate, School of Social Sciences, The University of Queensland 2002 – 2007
Researcher, Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland State Government 2004

Research interests:

• sociology of rural society
• sustainable agriculture
• food governance
• sociology of natural resource management
• agricultural restructuring
• food security
• power and food supply chains
• urban agriculture and alternative food networks
• risk and trust in production and consumption
   

Recent Research Projects:

2011 National Climate Change Adaption Research Facility research grant
Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change
View the report online here.

2011 Visiting researchers’ grant, Norwegian Research Council to visit the Centre for Rural Research, Trondheim, Norway.

2010 Awarded Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship – commencing July 2011. 
The New Farm Owners: Finance Companies and the Restructuring of Australian and Global Agriculture

2010 Partner Investigator - Governing food in a globalising society: Innovation and market strategies in Norwegian food supply chains (GOFOOD) - Norwegian Centre for Rural Research (CRR)

2008 Awarded Post-doctoral fellowship, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland
From Seedling to Supermarket: The Social and Environmental Implications for Australia of the Restructuring of Agri-food Supply Chains

2008 Chief investigator - Research Consultancy: Connection to Land, Commission for Rural Communities, England
 

Representative publications:

Lawrence, G., Richards, C. and Lyons, K. (in press) Food Security in Australia in an Era of Neoliberalism, Productivism and Climate Change. Journal of Rural Studies (invited paper for Special Issue: Food security: Emerging perspectives and responses)

Lawrence, G., Richards, C., Gray, I. and Hansar, N. (2012) Climate change and the resilience of commodity food production in Australia, in C. Rosin, P. Stock and H. Campbell (eds) The Global Food Crisis and the Future of Agriculture, London: Earthscan.

Woods, M., Healey, J. Richards, C. and Watkin, S (2012) Rural People and the Land, in I. Convery, G. Corsane and P. Davis (eds) Making Sense of Place: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge

Richards, C., Lawrence, G. and Burch, D. (2011) Supermarkets and Agro-Industrial Foods: The Strategic Remanufacturing of Consumer Trust. Food, Culture and Society 14 (1), 29-47.

Measham, T., Richards, C., Robinson, C., Larson, S. and Brake, L. (2011) Genuine Community Engagement in Remote Dryland Regions: Natural Resource Management in Lake Eyre Basin. Geographical Research 49(2), 171–182).

Smith, K., Lawrence, G. and Richards, C. (2010) Supermarkets’ Governance of the Agri-food Supply Chain: Is the ‘Corporate-Environmental’ Food Regime Evident in Australia? International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food 17(2), 140-161.

Measham T., Richards, C., Robinson C., Larson S. and Brake, L. (2009) Terms of Engagement: Consensus or Control in Remote Australian Resource Management, Socio-Economics and the Environment in Discussion CSIRO working paper series 2009-10.

Richards, C. and Bjørkhaug, H. (2009) Comment: The importance of agency in facilitating the transition to a multifunctional countryside. Journal of Rural Studies 25 (2), 249.

Measham T., Robinson C., Richards, C., Larson S., Stafford Smith M. and Smith T. (2009) Tools for successful NRM in the Lake Eyre Basin: Achieving effective engagement in Measham TG, Brake L (eds), People, communities and economies of the Lake Eyre Basin, DKCRC Research Report 45, Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, Alice Springs. pp. 125–170.

Richards, C. and Lawrence, G. (2009) Adaptation and Change in Queensland’s Rangelands: Cell Grazing as an Emerging Ideology of Pastoral-Ecology. Land Use Policy 26 (3), 630-639.

Bjørkhaug, H. and Richards, C. (2008) Post-productivism or Multifunctionality? Conceptualising Emerging Agricultural Land Use in Australia and Norway, Journal of Rural Studies 24 (1), 98-111.

McAllister, R., Cheers, B., Darbas, T., Davies, J., Richards, C., Robinson, C., Ashley, M., Fernando, D. and Maru, Y. (2008) Social Networks in Arid Australia: A Review of Concepts and Evidence. The Rangeland Journal 30 (1), 167-176.

Richards, C., Lawrence, G., and Kelly, N. (2005). Beef Production and the Environment: Is it really 'hard to be green when you are in the red'? Rural Society 15 (2), 192-209.

Lawrence, G., Cheshire, L. and Richards, C. (2004). Agricultural Production and the Ecological Question in R. White (Ed.), Controversies in Environmental Sociology, pp. 221-237. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lawrence, G., Richards, C. and Cheshire, L. (2004). The Environmental Enigma: Why Do Producers Professing Stewardship Continue to Practice Poor Natural Resource Management? Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 6 (3/4), 251-270.

Richards, C. and Aitken, L. (eds) (2004). Social Innovations in Natural Resource Management: A handbook of social research in Queensland. Brisbane: Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Qld. 

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