Stewart Lockie

Executive Committee (Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Director, The Cairns Institute)

Professor Stewart Lockie is Director of the Cairns Institute at James Cook University, a multidisciplinary centre for advanced studies in sustainable industries, economies, people and societies in the tropics. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the Australian National University.

Professor Lockie is one of Australia’s leading environmental and rural sociologists. He is a former President of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Environment and Society and he is Foundation Editor-in-Chief of the Committee’s journal, Environmental Sociology.

A core theme running through Professor Lockie’s research is the governance of complex social and environmental problems through multiple institutional and social arrangements. His research has addressed natural resource management in agriculture and the coastal zone, climate governance, biodiversity conservation, extractive industries, natural and industrial hazards, and other topics.

Current projects include the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, Stakeholder Engagement Sub-Program (Australian Government, 2020–2024) and Clean Growth Choices for Communities in Transition (Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science, 2018–2019).

The academic quality of Professor Lockie’s work is reflected in his extensive publication profile, a profile that includes the recent book Failure or Reform? Market-Based Policy Instruments for Sustainable Agriculture and Resource Management (Routledge, 2020) and the co-edited volume Risk and Social Theory in Environmental Management (CSIRO Publishing, 2013).

Professor Lockie’s ability to apply his work in policy and management contexts is evidenced by numerous contributions to state, national and multilateral advisory processes. In 2019-2020 he Chaired the Expert Working Group for the Australian Council of Learned Academies project The Future of Agricultural Technologies,reporting to the Commonwealth Chair Scientist, and contributed as a member of the Expert Working Group for another Australian Council of Learned Academies project Enhancing the Research Capabilities of Universities in Regional, Rural and Remote Areas, reporting to the Commonwealth Department of Education.

In 2016, Professor Lockie served as an Expert Group Member advising the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs on emerging issues and opportunities for sustainable development and subsequently addressed a Ministerial Session of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development on the science-policy interface and emerging issues for sustainable development.