Keynotes

Indigenous policy, fracasomania and Indigenous Data Sovereignty

Professor Maggie Walter’s work is driven by a deep personal quest for equality for Australia’s First Peoples.“My focus is to disrupt, through empirical and theoretically linked research, the often pernicious assumptions that underpin how Indigenous people are represented,” she said. “As one of the few quantitative Indigenous researchers in Australia my research has sought to challenge the established practices of Indigenous statistics which continuously focus on deficit indicators.” The deficit indicators, and continual marginalisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the spectrum of society, is at the heart of Professor Walter’s research efforts. Read on...

Maggie Walter's Abstract presentation

The Political Morality of Sociological Research

Rob Stones is Professor of Sociology at Western Sydney University. He has published extensively in the areas of social and sociological theory and on their use in empirical case study research. In this vein he continues to develop the approach of Strong Structuration Theory (SST), and collaborates with researchers in several specialist substantive areas. Current work, in collaboration with Bryan S. Turner, combines SST with moral and political philosophy to contribute to a more progressive framework for politics, and for research. The approach is based on a distinctive conception of successful societies that places the idea of ‘attentiveness’ (comprehension and concern) at its centre. Recent book publications include Why Current Affairs Needs Social Theory (Bloomsbury, 2015), and Key Sociological Thinkers, 3^rd edition (ed.) (Palgrave: 2017).

Rob Stones's Abstract presentation

Deborah Stevenson is a Professor of Sociology and Urban Cultural Research in the Institute for Culture and Society. Her research focuses in particular on arts and cultural policy, cities and urban life, and place and identity and she has published widely on these topics including the recent books, The city (Polity), Cities of culture: a global perspective (Routledge) and Tourist cultures: identity, place and the traveller (co-authored, Sage). In addition, she is co-editor of the Research companion to planning and culture (Ashgate), Culture and the city: creativity, tourism, leisure (Routledge) and the forthcoming Companion to urban media (Routledge). Read on...

Deborah Stevenson's Abstract Presentation