Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
President's Report
Professor Stuart Macintyre
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia is a learned society that seeks to advance the social sciences. Through a range of activities it promotes research and teaching, provides expert advice, fosters greater appreciation of the social sciences and represents them in national and international settings.
Download the Annual Report [PDF:
8.01 MB]
The Academy is also an autonomous, nongovernmental organisation. While most of the Fellows hold academic posts, the membership extends beyond the universities. The Fellows are elected to the Academy on the basis of their scholarly distinction in one or more of the social sciences, and comprise an unusual breadth of expertise. The advice and the assistance that the Academy provides to government and to the public is valued because of its independence.
From its formation the Academy has worked with a modest budget and the annual grant-in-aid from the Australian Government has been its principal source of income. The chief asset has always been the expertise of the Fellows. Their willingness to contribute time and energy for no recompense has allowed the Academy to serve its objectives; but in order for this resource to be mobilised effectively the Academy depends on an appropriate infrastructure of professional staff and operational support.
At last year's Annual General Meeting the Academy was forced to make economies in its expenditure because of the conclusion of additional government funding under the Higher Education Innovation Program. A Review of the Learned Academies had reported in early 2006 and recommended that their grants-in-aid be doubled, but the federal budget announced in that year made no such provision. In May of this year we were informed by the Honourable Julie Bishop, the Minister for Education, Science and Training that the recommendation of the Review has been accepted and our grant-in-aid will be doubled.
We have already expressed our appreciation to the Minister for this vote of confidence in the Academy, and we also owe thanks to a number of friends of this and the other three Learned Academies who helped to establish a better appreciation of their work. My predecessors Leon Mann and Sue Richardson were particularly tenacious in pursuing the funding recommendations, and John Beaton as Executive Director provided invaluable intelligence to support their advocacy.
This increased funding will be available from the beginning of 2008, and thus provides the Academy with an opportunity to plan how best to augment its activity.
There is potential to expand a number of the successful current programs, and also to enhance the work of the Academy with new initiatives.
Contributions of Academy expertise to public policy
A major objective of the Academy is to contribute its expertise to public policy. The ways in which the Academy opens debate about national issues, so that it may contribute the expertise of its Fellows to both the general public and to policy formulation and effectiveness, is built into its various programs through:
- Roundtables and other activities of the Policy and Advocacy Program;
- innovative and cutting edge research discussed in the Workshop Program;
- exchange with researchers in other countries offered in the International Program;
- encouragement and support of research projects in the Research Program;
- the Annual Cunningham Lecture and the Annual Symposium; and
- publication of scholarly debate through its journal Dialogue, and Occasional Papers on a variety of topics.
Each of these is considered in detail elsewhere in the Annual Report, but a few words about the Policy Roundtables are pertinent here. Roundtables have brought together Fellows and other scholars with senior public servants and policy makers from the Federal and State governments for intensive half-day discussions of particular issues. These Roundtables were identified within the Policy and Advocacy Program as the best contribution that could be made through that Program, within the limits of a curtailed budget in 2006-2007.
From the Academy's inception, government support has been premised on the expectation that the social sciences could inform and assist national objectives. Despite this shared aspiration, both social scientists and government frequently found the results to be disappointing. The ARC Linkage Project that I have been conducting with Professor Robert Pascoe on 'The Social Sciences and the Making of Postwar Australia' reveals a persistent misunderstanding of expectations in the relationship.
As government expanded its support for universities and their research activity, it expected findings that could serve its economic and social objectives and found much of what was done impractical, esoteric or unpalatably critical. For their part, social scientists felt decision makers disregarded their expertise in favour of expedient alternatives. Neither party learned from this confusion of purposes. Government became increasingly prescriptive in its research policy, failing to see that narrow instrumentalism would yield barren results. Academic researchers bent the new rules to their own purposes, confirming the suspicions of those who funded them.
The Policy Roundtables provide an alternative forum for establishing a more productive relationship between public servants and social scientists. By identifying a particular topic and exploring it intensively, they allow both parties to gain a clearer understanding of their respective needs and interests.
During 2007 there were two Roundtables: the first, on Community, was held in collaboration with the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA); the second, held in conjunction with the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA), and with the support of Minter Ellison Lawyers, examined Federalism. A third Roundtable will be held immediately following the Annual Symposium, 'Power, People, Water: Urban Water Services and Human Behaviour in Australia', and the roundtable, supported by the National Water Commission, will foster discussion on the policy implications and possibilities related to this theme. My thanks go to Michael Keating, who has managed this Program for the Academy since its inception, and to Glenn Withers, to whom the baton has now passed. Will Douglas provides administrative support. Summaries of each Roundtable are published in Dialogue and posted at the Academy's website.
Publications
Three issues of the Academy journal Dialogue have been published. Besides publishing reports of Academy activities, each issue provides a forum for discussion of a topical issue: in 2006-07 these were 'We Live in Interesting Times'; 'The Arts in Society'; and '(Some of) Our National Institutions'. Also published were the Cunningham Lecture: Building Democracy and Justice after Conflict by Hilary Charlesworth; and in the Occasional Paper Series: 3/2006 Income Contingent Loans as Public Policy by Bruce Chapman; 1/2007 Learning to Read in Australia by Max Coltheart and Margot Prior; and (currently being peer reviewed) 'Population and Australia's Future Labour Force' by Peter McDonald and Glenn Withers.
Indigenous Summer School
The Academy also recognises its responsibilities in outreach activities. Since 2003 ASSA has conducted a summer school for Indigenous postgraduate students from all round the country. The summer school was initiated by a former President, Leon Mann, and a Fellow, Marcia Langton, and operates in partnership with the University of Melbourne, primarily through the Centre for Health and Society (and the active support of its Director, Professor Ian Anderson). Jennifer Fernance of the Academy Secretariat provides administrative support.
In 2007 another successful summer school included seventeen Indigenous postgraduate students, representing all states except Tasmania. Seven faculty members participated fulltime and eight part-time, assisting the students in developing skills and techniques appropriate to their postgraduate studies. ASSA is tracking the program's effectiveness and will continue to do so until at least 2009.
Election of Fellows
In 2007 twenty-four new Fellows were elected to the membership of the Academy. The eleven women and thirteen men will be introduced and welcomed at the Annual Academy dinner in November.
The Early Career Award for 2007 has been won by Dr Jason Sharman, Queen Elizabeth II Fellow and Associate Professor in the Centre for Governance and Public Policy of the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University. I congratulate all new Fellows and the Early Career Award recipient on their success.
National Academies Forum
In addition to the increase in the grants-in aid to the four Learned Academies, the government also increased the grant to the National Academies Forum (NAF). NAF is the umbrella organisation of the Learned Academies, and its presidency and secretariat rotates among them. The Academy of the Social Sciences took responsibility for NAF at the beginning of the year. Irina Kotycheva joined the ASSA Secretariat to assist with administration.
The chief activity of NAF has been in response to the new Research Quality Framework (RQF). The Academy has been engaged in workshops and forums on the principles and design of the RQF, and was asked by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) to assist in one of the instruments that is to be used to evaluate research, a ranking of journals.
NAF is also in the final stages of editing the proceedings of the conference 'A celebration of the history, culture, science and technology of Recherche Bay' held in February. This is expected to be published before the end of 2007.
Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils
The Academy has also assumed the secretariat of the Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils, and the Executive Director reports on its activity elsewhere in the Report.
Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
The Academy remains a major affiliate and supporter of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS), and has been involved in a number of its activities during the year.
CHASS was established as a much-needed advocacy group on behalf of the humanities and the creative and performing arts as well as the social sciences. For good reason the board of CHASS is constituted to serve the needs of the sector rather than to represent particular components, but the election of Sue Richardson to the board has assisted a closer involvement of the Academy in its activities. The expanded responsibilities of the Academy have made it necessary for CHASS to find new accommodation, so that we no longer share our premises with its secretariat, but we look forward to continuing close involvement in its activities.
Donations
I wish to acknowledge those Fellows who have made donations to the Academy during the financial year: Don Spearritt; Sir Anthony Mason; Victor J Callan; JD Bruce Miller; Michael Clyne; John Poynter; Cindy Gallois; John Legge; Peter Groenewegen; Chin-Liew Ten; Jamie Mackie; Mary Luszcz; Stephen Castles; and Keith Hancock. Thank you.
Acknowledgements
I noted above that the efficacy of the Academy derives from the expertise of the Secretariat and the willingness of Fellows to participate in its activities. We are fortunate that the staff who constitute Secretariat are so highly skilled and so committed to the fortunes of the Social Sciences. In my first year as President I have relied particularly on their advice and assistance, and I thank John Beaton as Executive Director along with all his colleagues.
The same holds for the Fellows who constitute the Executive and chair the various committees, as well as those who serve on them and others who contribute to the life of Academy. They have contributed to a successful year and helped me measurably.
Stuart Macintyre
President, 2007
Last modified: 2 November 2009.