Professor and the Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research.(College of Arts and Social Sciences)

BA, University of Auckland
MA (Hons), University of Auckland
PhD (Anthropology), Australian National University

Professional Background

Jon has a disciplinary background in economics and anthropology. In 1990, Jon was appointed the foundation director of CAEPR and since 2001 has been an adjunct Professorial Fellow at the School for Environmental Research at Charles Darwin University in Darwin. In 2003, Professor Altman was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Professor Altman has also been awarded an ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship (2008 to 2013) focusing his research efforts on the project 'Hybrid Economic Futures for Remote Indigenous Australia’.

 

Research and Teaching Interests

Jon Altman's research interests include: Sustainable economic development and associated policy issues for Indigenous Australia; the hybrid economy framework; the economic engagement of Indigenous people with the Australian and global economies (especially in mining, tourism, arts industries and emerging industries); sustainable commercial utilisation of wildlife and fisheries; the Indigenous customary economy and its articulations with the market; land rights, native title and Indigenous land management; and theoretical issues in economic and development anthropology.

Notable Publications

(with G. Buchanan and N. Biddle) ‘Measuring the “real” Indigenous economy in remote Australia using NATSISS 2002’, Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 9 (1): 17–31, 2006.

(with J. Morrison) ‘Enhancing economic independence’, Journal of Indigenous Policy, Issue 5: 48–53, 2006.

(with J. Koenig, A.D. Griffiths and A. Kohen) ‘20 years of Aboriginal woodcarving in Arnhem Land, Australia: Using art sales records to examine the changing dynamics of sculpture production’, Forests, Trees and Livelihoods 17 (1): 43–60, 2007.

(with M.J. Hinkson) ‘Mobility and Modernity in Arnhem Land: The social universe of Kuninjku trucks’, Journal of Material Culture, 12 (2): 181–203, 2007.

‘Alleviating poverty in remote Indigenous Australia: The role of the hybrid economy’, Development Bulletin, No. 72, March 2007: 47–51, 2007.