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About the ISR - Capability statement


The ISR possesses a wealth of knowledge and a reputation for independent, innovative and timely work. We work closely with a diverse range of clients and research partners.

The ISR offers expertise in many areas, including:

  • Housing markets and policy

  • Citizenship, and democracy

  • Immigration and refugee policy

  • Social policy

  • Media and communications

  • Information policy

  • Public administration and finance

  • Philanthropy and grant making

  • Youth policy

  • Gender, cultural diversity and work

Our staff
The ISR employs around thirty specialist staff with a range of government, community, commercial and international experience. ISR researchers include economists, statisticians, sociologists, historians and political scientists. Our work is supported by a full-time editor, a business facilitator, and an administration team able to organise the most demanding specialist function.

ISR staff contribute to leading scholarly journals, enjoy a strong profile in print and electronic media, and sit on the boards of journals, community organisations and government committees. They have links with researchers and policy-makers in North America, Europe and East Asia.

Research skills
In addition to our qualitative research skills, the ISR has an excellent polling infrastructure. We conduct national and regional surveys through telephone interviews, mail-outs, online surveys and face-to-face interviewing. We are experienced in dealing with highly sensitive data, and have a well-developed capacity for analysing complex secondary data sets. We work extensively with secondary data provided by the Taxation Office, the Valuer-General's Office and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Teaching skills
The ISR has an international reputation for teaching. We design and deliver an innovative range of educational and training programmes in housing management, action research, equity and diversity management and philanthropy.

Quality assurance
Quality assurance is of paramount importance to the ISR and is an integral part of our work culture. We have developed our own quality assurance and management system (sisrQ), and also participate and operate within the Australian Universities Quality Assurance reviews and the AUQA Review System.

Our partners and clients
The ISR works with governments at federal, state and local levels. Our past and present clients include the Department of Family and Community Services, Housing Departments in all states and territories, the Australian Broadcasting Authority and eleven local governments, as well as the peak local government associations in Victoria.

We also work with many non-government and commercial organisations including the Victorian Council of Social Service, InfoXchange, Australian Education Union, Australian Nursing Federation, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Council for the Encouragement of Philanthropy in Australia, Interchurch Gambling Taskforce, Melbourne Community Foundation, MFSB, the Myer Foundation, NSW Federation of Housing Associations, the Salvation Army, Telstra, Tenants Union of Victoria, Police Association, and the Victorian Trades Hall Council. The ISR is a foundation member of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

Our strengths
The ISR concentrates on four research areas:

Cities and Housing
This program explores the way globalisation and information technology are reshaping the form of cities and the nature of urban life. It also examines the changing nature of housing systems, both nationally and internationally, with particular reference to the ability of housing markets and housing policy to produce affordable and appropriate housing.

Citizenship and Government
This program includes public policy research on democratic politics, civic capacity, immigration and community planning. Areas of research include Victorian politics and state finances, public services and civic infrastructure, refugee policy, gender and cultural diversity, youth policy, social exclusion and citizenship education. International projects include work on youth and social policy in China, and on Australia's immigration links to the Pacific, Africa, Europe and North America.

Media and Communications
Media and communications are changing rapidly: long-standing policy assumptions are being challenged by new business models, emerging technologies, and shifts in policy and regulation. Researchers working in this programme examine these contemporary transformations from a range of social, legal and public policy perspectives. Our work ranges across new and old media, electronic government, intellectual property and the nature of networked societies. We support a busy print and online publishing programme, hosting Australian Policy Online, www.apo.org.au, a popular gateway to public policy research from more than one hundred and fifty research centres around Australia.

Philanthropy and Social Investment
The Asia Pacific Centre for Philanthropy and Social Investment was established at Swinburne in 2001, reflecting the growing interest worldwide and in Australia in these areas. It undertakes professional education, postgraduate teaching and an extensive seminar program. The centre also researches grant making and offers consultancy services.

Contact us at:
Institute for Social Research
477 Burwood Road, Hawthorn 3122
Victoria, Australia
Telephone +613 9214 8825
Fax +613 9819 5349
Website: www.sisr.net
Email: isr@swin.edu.au