Professor Lynda Cheshire

Head of School

School of Social Science
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
l.cheshire@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52248

Overview

Lynda is the Head of School in the School of Social Science and an internationally renowned sociologist. She first studied sociology in the UK where she obtained her Bachelors degree from the University of Wales. After moving to Australia, she completed a PhD in sociology from Central Queensland University before taking up a position at The University of Queensland. From 2011-15 she was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow.

Lynda undertakes research in the areas of community, neighbourhoods and housing. More specifically, she examines how people live and interact in contemporary local communities; how structural and policy processes impact upon those communities and the relationships that play out within them; and the consequences of these changing social dynamics for well-being, feelings of attachment to home and place, conflict, social exclusion and cohesion. She has undertaken her research in a variety of settings including rural areas; remote fly-in, fly-out mining communities; outer-suburban master planned estates; inner-city gentrifying suburbs; low-income neighbourhoods; and new housing developments for older public housing tenants and people with severe and persistent mental health challenges.

Lynda is presently leading a programme of research on ‘un-neighbourliness’ which examines the nature, causes and outcomes of problems between neighbours and their effects on neighbouring more broadly. Funded by an ARC Discovery grant, she and colleagues are exploring how processes of urban change, such as urban consolidation and gentrification influence neighbour relations, and how neighbouring is enacted in different residential contexts. The results of this study have implications for councils trying to respond to rising neighbour complaints; social housing providers managing disputes between tenants; and for urban planning and community resilience policies. She is also an international partner on the ESRCs’ Connected Communities consortium (Crow et al) and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERDII).

Lynda welcomes inquiries from prospective Honours or Higher Degree Research students who are interested in working with her on any of these, or related, topics.

Courses taught: SOCY2019 Introduction to Social Research

Research Impacts

Lynda works extensively with government, corporate and community partners to identify and resolve some of the complex challenges they encounter in their lives and/or professional practices, and some of the undesirable (and often unintended) consequences of their policies. Current and completed projects include:

  • Community relations in the mining industry
  • Discourses of self-help in Australian rural community development policy
  • Building sustainable social capital on a master planned estate
  • The governmental challenge of private property developers as key actors in building new communities
  • Delivering better homes for under-occupying older public housing tenants
  • Community resilience and disaster policy and practice
  • Sustaining tenancies in the social housing sector for tenants with mental health and other complex issues.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Central Queensland University
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, Central Queensland University
  • Bachelor, University of Wales

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Woods, Michael and Cheshire, Lynda (2020). Citizenship and governmentality. Encyclopedia of human geography. (pp. 223-228) edited by Audrey Kobayashi. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10243-4

  • Cheshire, Lynda (2017). Gentrification as policy goal or unintended outcome? Contested meanings of urban renewal in an Australian city. Urban renewal and social housing: a cross-national perspective. (pp. 105-139) edited by Paul Watt and Peer Smets. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing.

  • Cheshire, Lynda (2016). Power and governance: empirical questions and theoretical approaches for rural studies. Routledge international handbook of rural studies. (pp. 593-600) edited by Mark Shucksmith and David L. Brown. Abingdon, Oxon, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315753041-67

  • Cheshire, L. (2012). Master plan developers. International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home. (pp. 195-199) edited by Susan J. Smith. Oxford, United Kingdom: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-047163-1.00455-0

  • Broom, Alex, Cheshire, Lynda and Emmison, Michael (2012). Qualitative researchers' understandings of their practice and the implications for data archiving and sharing. SAGE secondary data analysis. (pp. X-XX) edited by John Goodwin. London, United Kingdom: Sage Publishing.

  • Lawrence, Geoffrey and Cheshire, Lynda (2012). Queensland towns. Sociology: Antipodean perspectives. (pp. 133-143) edited by Peter Beiharz and Trevor Hogan. South Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Oxford University Press.

  • Lawrence, Geoffrey and Cheshire, Lynda (2012). Regions. Sociology: antipodean perspectives. (pp. 31-37) edited by Peter Beiharz and Trevor Hogan. South Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Oxford University Press.

  • Cheshire, L. and Woods, M. (2009). Citizenship and Governmentality, Rural. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography: Volume 1-12. (pp. V2-113-V2-118) Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00896-8

  • Cheshire, Lynda and Woods, M. Aberystwyth (2009). Rural Citizenship and governmentality. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, volume 2. (pp. 113-118) edited by R. Kitchin and N. Thrift. London: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00896-8

  • Cheshire, L., Higgins, V. and Lawrence, G. (2007). Introduction: Governing the rural. Rural Governance: International Perspectives. (pp. 1-18) edited by L. Cheshire, V. Higgins and G. Lawrence. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.

  • Cheshire, Lynda, Higgins, Vaughan and Lawrence, Geoffrey (2007). Rural governance and power relations: Theorising the complexity of state-citizen interactions. Rural governance: International perspectives. (pp. 291-303) edited by L. Cheshire, V. Higgins and G. Lawrence. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203968178

  • Lawrence, G A and Cheshire, L A (2006). Queensland Towns. Sociology: Place, Time and Division. (pp. 107-111) edited by P. Beilharz and T. Hogan. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.

  • Lockie, Stewart, Lawrence, Geoffrey and Cheshire, Lynda (2006). Reconfiguring rural resource governance: The legacy of neoliberalism in Australia. Handbook of Rural Studies. (pp. 29-43) edited by P. Cloke, T. Marsden and P. Mooney. London: Sage. doi: 10.4135/9781848608016.n3

  • Lawrence, G A and Cheshire, L A (2006). Regions. Sociology: Place, Time and Division. (pp. 20-25) edited by P. Beilharz and T. Hogan. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.

  • Dibden, J. and Cheshire, L. A. (2005). Community Development. Sustainability and change in rural Australia. (pp. 212-229) edited by C. Cocklin and J. Dibden. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

  • Cheshire, L. A. and Lawrence, G. A. (2005). Reshaping the State: Global/local networks in association and the governing of agricultural production.. Agricultural Governance: Globalization and the New Politics of Regulation. (pp. 35-49) edited by V. Higgins and G. Lawrence. London: Routledge.

  • Lawrence, G. A., Cheshire, L. A. and Richards, C. A. (2004). Agricultural production and the ecological question. Controversies in environmental sociology. (pp. 221-237) edited by R. White. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511804434.014

  • Richards, Carol, Lawrence, Geoff and Cheshire, Lynda (2004). Environmental sustainability in the beef grazing sector of Central Queensland: What helps, what hinders?. Social innovations in natural resources management handbook. (pp. 65-67) edited by Carol Richards and Lyn Aitken. Brisbane, Australia: Department of Natural Resources & Mines.

  • Lawrence, G. A. and Cheshire, L. A. (2004). The social consequences of the rural reform agenda. The Politics of Australian Society: Political Issues for the New Century. (pp. 338-356) edited by P. Boreham, G. Stokes and R. Hall. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Longman.

  • Cheshire, L. A. and Lawrence, G. A. (2003). Monto, Queensland. Community Sustainability in Rural Australia: A Question of Capital?. (pp. 10-37) edited by C. Cocklin and M. Alston. Wagga Wagga: Centre for Rural Res., Charles Sturt Univ.

  • Lockie, S., Herbert-Cheshire, L. A. and Lawrence, G. A. (2003). Rural sociology. The Cambridge Handbook of Social Sciences in Australia. (pp. 604-625) edited by Ian McAllister, Steve Dowrick and Riaz Hassan. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

  • Cheshire, L. (2001). Changing people to change things: building capacity for natural resource management - a governmentality perspective. Environment, Society and Natural Resource Management: Theoretical Perspectives from Australasia and the Americas. (pp. 270-282) edited by Geoffrey Lawrence, Vaughan Higgins and Stewart Lockie. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Edited Outputs

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision