Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
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President's Report
Fay Gale
Not only is this the last Dialogue for 1999, popularly if inaccurately known as the end of the Millennium, it is also the last Dialogue to come from our rooms upstairs in University House. During the recent Annual General Meeting many Fellows were able to view the new rooms, just across the road from University House. For those of you who were unable to attend the AGM, let me explain that in addition to offices for each member of staff, our new accommodation will provide us with a large and versatile conference room, a library, an office for both the President and the Vice-President and a large Fellows room where Fellows will be able to meet when visiting Canberra. More car parking, no stairs and a large garden are an extra bonus.
The central topic for this Dialogue concerns 'Ethics in the Social Sciences'. It is a topic that concerns us all as most of our research deals directly with people. Universities now have ethics committees to deal with research grant applications and to ensure that codes of conduct are being followed.
At the July Executive meeting and the last AGM there was discussion about the new revised code of conduct for research dealings with humans. This new code was proposed and developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council. Some of our Fellows who were consulted had a substantial input into the revised code and considered it superior to the one now in force. Some other colleagues, especially in anthropology and psychology, expressed concern that those disciplines had not been adequately consulted. But as usual in such matters our required response time was short. However the Academy will continue to monitor the new code and would wish to hear what changes in the future Fellows consider we should request.
The Academy has been successful in winning funding for another major research project, 'The Economic and Social Costs of Unemployment'. This means the Academy, thanks to Dr John Robertson, now has four large research studies in operation. Because of the recent growth in our research activity it was felt that a Research Projects Committee should be established. This was done at the last AGM and Associate Professor Sue Richardson was appointed to chair it. All four Panel Chairs are on this new Committee. If you have ideas that might be pursued by the Academy for a major research project please contact either your Panel Chair or Dr Robertson. These projects lend themselves to socially significant transdisciplinary topics where several Fellows can advise and participate. In addition to our highly successful workshop program they are an important role for the Academy to pursue and one which will publicise the profile of the Academy.
Also at the AGM a new Finance Committee was established and bylaws passed to help guide the financial side of the Academy's work. A Finance Committee is allowed for in our constitution and its nominal membership is reported in the Annual Report. But none of the present staff can remember it meeting. The work has been carried out by the Treasurer and Executive Director reporting to the Executive Committee. Whilst this has been done meticulously and well audited, a committee to consider future policies and new developments is necessary to enhance the work and funding base of the Academy. It is hoped this new Committee will play a role in enlarging the budget thus allowing new initiatives and greater public profiling. The Committee will be chaired by the Treasurer, Professor Gavin Jones.
In my report in the last edition of Dialogue 3/1999, I referred to my meeting with Lord Plant in London. Lord Plant had been chairing a committee to set up an Academy of the Social Sciences. This new Academy has been launched. In my report I did express pleasure with this move as this would link our Academy more closely to our British colleagues. I was aware that not all social scientists who are fellows of the British Academy were happy with the move, although I did not discuss this, considering this was not really my business to comment on. Professor John Barnes, a Fellow of our Academy, has explained these concerns in a letter to the Academy and this letter is published later in this copy of Dialogue. I am sorry if I upset some of our British colleagues but I am pleased to see that Dialogue is so widely read.
In October I attended the Biennial Conference of the Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils held in Seoul, South Korea. It was held at the SangNam Institute of Management. It is a new building just completed this year, thanks to the magnificent gift of the benefactor after whom it is named. It is situated in the beautiful grounds of Yonsei University, a leading private university very close to the old city. We were hosted extremely well and generously entertained by the Korean Social Science Research Council and its President, Dr Ahn Byung-Young. He was also President of AASSREC and the former Minister of Education.
The primary topic for the three day meeting was 'Reflections on Sustainability: Past and Future'. The various papers dealt largely with environmental and social sustainability in the face of economic growth. A paper was presented by the delegate of each member country. My paper on social sustainability in Australia examined improvements and drawbacks to the current social policies and their effects on poverty and health. It examined the changes in social policy with the present government and was based on research material emanating from the Academy's project on Unequal Futures, directed by Ruth Fincher and Peter Saunders. It was indeed valuable to have a topic that fitted so well with one of our projects. At the Conference I was elected Vice-President and incoming President of AASSREC. The next Conference will be held in Hanoi in 2001 on the topic of 'Globalisation and its Impact on the Asia Pacific Region: economic, social and cultural dimensions'. It would be enormously useful if we had a project running by then on Globalisation and its effects on Australian society.
Australia is committed to hosting the meeting after Vietnam, in 2003. This will be an honour for Australia, now clearly accepted as part of the Asian Social Science Research Council. The meeting with Asian representatives demonstrated how important the Social Sciences are. There are considerable expectations that our research will help to solve a range of social problems resulting from rapid change in the economic and physical environments in many regions. We are not always recognised for this role and often we ourselves forget how crucial our research is. In spite of the high public profile of medical and scientific research, it is social scientists who are so often asked to comment on significant community issues. This is evident by the number of times our Fellows appear in the press. Our real problem seems to be in communicating our importance, and in being recognised, like scientists are, as social scientists, irrespective of our particular discipline base. This is even more important now with the growth in transdisciplinary research.
Research is our core interest and thus as an Academy and a member of the National Academies Forum, we have been active in responding to the recent green paper on research and postgraduate training. As part of this profiling, I am speaking at a research conference on the topic 'Where do the Social Sciences fit in the New Research Framework?'
Our projects and workshops show clearly that we fit extremely well in terms of relevance, but in terms of a substantial increase in nongovernment funding it is another story. Conflict of interest is a major concern when funds are tied to particular beneficiaries. Although the papers which address Ethics in the Social Sciences in this edition of Dialogue deal with very different cases, they invite a wider consideration of ethical issues, with both immediate and global implications.
Fay Gale
1999
Last modified: 2 November 2009.