2009-02-28

For students wishing to study at CAEPR, potential areas of research include, but are not restricted to, the following four themes:

Economic, Cultural and Social Circumstances

Lead researchers: Dr John Taylor and Dr Boyd Hunter

Since its inception in 1990, a core focus of CAEPR’s research has been the tracking of change in Indigenous social and economic circumstances at national, regional and local levels. Initially, much of this work was census-based and concerned with demography and economic status but this has gradually broadened to include the analysis of survey and administrative data as well as measurement around specific social issues such as alcohol, criminal justice, poverty, community development and longitudinal pathways for children and families.

Current CAEPR projects in this area include:

• Comprehensive 2006 census regional analysis
• Short-term mobility
• Disaggregation of urban populations
• Population mobility
• Regional population profiling
• The 2006 Census and Indigenous people in remote areas
• Indigenous Australians and alcohol control
• Analysis of the dynamics of Aboriginal interactions with the criminal justice system
• The social context of Indigenous poverty
• The Shepparton project
• Drought and regional Australian families
• Longitudinal study of Indigenous children

Economic Development Aspirations and Sustainable Futures

Lead researchers: Professor Jon Altman

CAEPR is involved in exploring innovative ways to improve livelihood opportunities for Indigenous people through economic engagement with the market and the customary sectors appropriately enabled by the state. Much of the research in this area focuses on opportunities in new emerging sectors, like carbon trading and the provision of environmental services, as well as recognising established competitive advantage in sectors such as the visual arts and cultural tourism. It analyses institutional barriers to development and means to address these and provides an evidence base for new policies to effectively facilitate regional and community economic development for Indigenous well-being and for national benefit.

Current CAEPR projects in this area include:

• After the National Emergency
• Welfare to work
• Indigenous poverty alleviation and natural resource management.
• Hybrid economic futures for remote Indigenous Australia
• Indigenous resources and industries
• Water in Indigenous northern Australia
• Measuring changes in social and economic wellbeing
• Philanthropy, non-government organizations and Indigenous development
• The Torres Strait region
• The relationship between the art sector and government
• Indigenous land titling

Governance, Policy and the State

Lead researchers: Dr Will Sanders and Dr Janet Hunt

CAEPR is conducting research into governance and public policy relating to Indigenous Australians at a number of different empirical and conceptual levels. Research in this area seeks in the first instance to analyse state policy towards Indigenous people and, in light of this, to formulate possibilities for improvement where this seems possible. It includes a study into Indigenous community governance, examining the operation of Indigenous, or predominantly Indigenous, organisations at local and regional levels. It also pays attention to the larger policy environment in which these local and regional organisations operate, dominated by Commonwealth and State/Territory governments.

Current CAEPR projects in this area include:

• Indigenous community governance project
• The potential for regional governance in sparsely settled desert areas
• Indigenous rights in Australia
• Australian public policy in Anangu Pitjantjatjara lands

Education and Learning for Life

Lead researchers: Dr Jerry Schwab and Dr Inge Kral

Research in this area focuses on the effective delivery of education, the development of evidence-based education policy and the social context of literacy and life long learning among Indigenous Australians. It includes research on all levels and sectors of formal education and training, but also extends to consideration of non-formal contexts and learning across the lifespan. It involves both qualitative and quantitative methodologies and is anchored by an understanding that learning can be found and enhanced both inside and outside the classroom and that education and training are most effective when linked to the local social, cultural and economic contexts of everyday life.

Current CAEPR projects in this area include:

• Indigenous early school leavers in the Northern Territory
• Models of youth engagement through land and resource management activities and programs
• From Pedagogy to production: land, education and remote Indigenous youth
• Land, resources and youth: a model for policy and program development
• Lifespan learning and literacy
• Desert learning – an autobiography of Ngaanyatjarra leader Robin Smythe
• Writing words – right way!

More Information

• For more information on CAEPR's current research, see the CAEPR Research Plan 2009-2011
• For more information on the research interests of individual academics, see Potential Supervisors