  We investigate the acceleration of particles via the second-order Fermi
process in the lobes of giant radio galaxies. Such sites are candidates for the
accelerators of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We focus on the nearby FR I
radio galaxy Centaurus A. This is motivated by the coincidence of its position
with the arrival direction of several of the highest energy Auger events. The
conditions necessary for consistency with the acceleration timescales predicted
by quasi-linear theory are reviewed. Test particle calculations are performed
in fields which guarantee electric fields with no component parallel to the
local magnetic field. The results of quasilinear theory are, to order of
magnitude, found to be accurate at low turbulence levels for non-relativistic
Alfven waves and at both low and high turbulence levels in the mildly
relativistic case. We conclude that for pure stochastic acceleration to be
plausible as the generator of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in Centaurus A, the
baryon number density would need to be several orders of magnitude below
currently held upper-limits.
