Rebecca Lawrence    

Rebecca Lawrence is a Phd Candidate at the Department of Sociology.

Rebecca’s research is interdisciplinary and focuses on the intersection of Indigenous claims with governments and the private sector. Rebecca has undertaken fieldwork/research on Indigenous employment and training programs in the Central Australian mining industry; Shared Responsibility Agreements (mutual obligation contracts) in remote Australian communities; and Swedish Saami campaigns at the EU level.

Rebecca’s current research has two main foci. The first concerns the Finnish forestry industry, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Indigenous Saami claims. The second concerns concepts of ‘social risk’ and the incorporation of social sustainability principles and human rights into the core business practices of the financial sector. Central to these research concerns are the ethical responsibilities of the corporate sector and the chain of accountability throughout global resource industries. Rebecca works closely both with companies, NGOs and communities in her research. Rebecca’s intellectual interests include Foucauldian analyses of power, governmentality, liberalism, Indigenous rights theory, post-colonialism, gender theory and questions of representation.

Academic positions have included a guest position at the Gender Institute at London School of Economics and Political Science and a guest position at the Department of Human Geography at Macquarie University, Sydney, where Rebecca is an Honorary Associate. She has conveyned social theory courses on sexuality and governmentality, gives guest lectures in stakeholder engagement, ethical investment, CSR and supply-chain management in the forestry sector, and has tutored in Human Geography courses on Globalisation and the Asia-Pacific region.
Rebecca has professional experience in environmental and social planning and is specialised in Social Impact Assessment. She has also worked on-site at the Granites Goldmine in the Tanami Desert in Central Australia in the Indigenous Affairs and Community Relations Department. Rebecca currently provides advice to Saami organisations and communities in their negotiations with the proponents of resource developments. In this work Rebecca promotes responsible and sustainable corporate practices in forestry, mining, exploration and wind-power projects impacting on Saami communities and territories.