Research activities conducted under Academy auspices take advantage of the extensive scholarly network available through the Fellowship, and encourage participation by independent or more junior scholars in such research. The drive for cutting-edge social science research is applied across all Academy activity and in addition to promoting specific research projects, is manifest in the Workshop Program, the Annual Symposium and Cunningham Lecture and publication of research findings or debate through the journal Dialogue, and the Occasional Paper Series.

The Research Program, overseen by the Research Committee, encourages collaboration across the range of the social science disciplines and ensures that leading edge research projects are endorsed by the Fellowship and, where possible, represent a cross section of specialist knowledge and participation from the disciplines.

The range of research projects being undertaken by the Academy have been funded as part of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Special Projects funding for the Learned Academies, with additional projects arising from occasional special funding.

The purpose of the program includes:

• To conduct and/or bring together research on contemporary social and/or political issues of national and international significance.
• To promote research excellence and through dissemination of research findings to stimulate public debate.
• To encourage interdisciplinary collaboration within the social sciences.
• Where appropriate, to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration with other disciplines and scholars not included in the social sciences (eg. humanities, sciences, etc.).
• Encourages the contribution of its expertise to policy formulation through the application of research findings.

Research Projects

A research proposal entitled The Social Sciences and the Making of Postwar Australia with chief investigators, Professors Stuart Macintyre, (University of Melbourne) and Robert Pascoe (Victoria University of Technology) received ARC Linkage Projects funding in 2005/6. The project involves research collaboration between Victoria University and the University of Melbourne, and Industry Partners, the National Library of Australia and the Academy.

This project explores the foundational significance of the social sciences in the creation of modern Australia. Using the history of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia as a focus, it is undertaking the first broad historical analysis of the various social scientific fields in Australia since World War II. In doing so it will highlight the previously under-examined but critical influence these fields of knowledge exerted over civil society and public policy.

Research began in April 2005. A bibliography of relevant archival holdings has been compiled and archival research has been completed. An important resource for this history has been the testimony of significant Fellows of the ASSA and its predecessor the Social Science Research Council. An interview program, supported by the National Library of Australia's Oral History Unit, has been completed and draft chapters are currently being produced.

Commissioned Research 2006/07

As part of additional DEST funding under the Higher Education Innovation Program, ASSA committed funds towards commissioned research, with a preference for policy related research.

An Academy Policy Paper entitled Wages Policy in an Era of Deepening Wage Inequality prepared by Chris Briggs, John Buchanan and Ian Watson of the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training (acirrt), University of Sydney was published in February 2006, as Occasional Paper 1/2006 Policy Paper #4

Income Contingent Loans as Public Policy by Bruce Chapman, Economics Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University was published as Occasional Paper 2/2006 Policy Paper #5.

Learning to Read in Australia
Professors Max Coltheart (Macquarie University) and Margot Prior (University of Melbourne) Occasional Paper 1/2007 #6

Population and Australia's Future Labour Force by Professor Peter McDonald (ANU) and Dr Glenn Withers was published in Februrary of 2008 as Occasional Paper 1/2008 Policy Paper #7..

ARC Linkage Learned Academies Special Project 2008

Integration and Multiculturalism: A harmonious combination, Project Directors: Dr James Jupp and Professor Michael Clyne

The Project will apply several social science disciplines, namely Linguistics, Sociology, Demography, Political Science, History and Psychology. These will focus on issues raised by the transformation of Australia into a multicultural society as a result of post-1945 immigration. Among these issues are the maintenance and consolidation of social cohesion, the development of a common national identity and core values and the role of public agencies in securing these objectives. As these are contested issues, the Project aims at exploring the variety of analyses which have been applied to ethnic and cultural variety and the concrete outcomes of public policy. Language use and maintenance will be an important focus, as will participation in social and public life. Human interactions, including marriage patterns, choice of location and political participation are all within the professional interests of the proposed research team.

The Project will provide a clearer picture of social aspects of life in a culturally diverse society, and will aim to provide a clarification of the policy approaches to deal with the effects of continuing immigration. Various prejudices and misconceptions should be analysed and placed in the context of Australia's role in its region and in a globalising world. A reasoned survey of public debates will be provided, analysed through the perspectives of the social science disciplines. This approach should illuminate and benefit various public policies, including migrant settlement, citizenship testing, national security, language policy and social integration. The bases for continuing social harmony will be analysed in the light of existing local experience and comparative studies from comparable societies. Hopefully a lasting basis should be laid for interdisciplinary co-operation around these issues and for the encouragement of generational change from those who have laid the foundations to those who are developing new approaches. Many of those working in these fields are now at or beyond retirement age, but there is also an active younger generation at the Doctoral level, especially in the study of specific migrant communities.

The two Team Leaders are well known for their expertise in language policy and ethnic community issues respectively. Members are known for their active involvement in national and international studies of relevant policy developments and issues. The major outcome will be a carefully analysed account of social cohesion and community relations within a globalised migration system.

Members of the 2008 Research Committee

Emeritus Professor Anne Edwards (Chair)
Professor Michael Bittman
Professor Amarjit Kaur
Professor Murray Goot
Professor Helen Christensen
Professor Stuart Macintyre (President of the Academy)
Dr John Beaton (Executive Director of the Academy)