Governance & Public Policy

The School’s governance and public policy research is diverse and at its core is a concern to deepen and broaden our understanding of the decisions and the institutions which shape our world.  

Our researchers are certainly interested in deepening our understanding of the established research puzzles that already define our discipline. We care about understanding and finding solutions to wicked policy problems. We want to know more about how we might inform policy decisions with better evidence. And we are concerned to explore what changing patterns of governance might mean for classic conceptualisations of power and democracy.

We also want to broaden the study of public policy and governance. We are unique as a School because of our commitment to an alternative form of policy research which is different to the status quo. More globally orientated, more inter-disciplinary in nature and more willing to use alternative theoretical tools to properly understand policy complexity in the twenty-first century.

Our School is home to some of the world’s leading scholars as well as a number of nationally recognised early-career academics. What connects us all is our commitment to taking  our discipline into exciting and contemporary empirical areas, which in turn ensures that our research is published in the world’s best journals and university presses and that our staff regularly win Australian Research Council grants.

• Public Management
• Political Economy
• Evidence Based Policy
• Participatory and Deliberative Governance
• Human Rights and Free Speech
• Rhetoric and Public Policy
• Indigenous Policy
• Feminism, Gender and Public Policy
• Political Psychology
• Welfare and Social Policy
• Disaster and Crisis Management