For recent research reports from the Centre for Work + Life, visit:
http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/default.asp

2012 (with Natalie Skinner and Philippa Williams) Time Bomb. Work Rest and Play in Australia Today. New South Books. Order at: http://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/isbn/9781742232959.htm

2009 'Gift of Knowledge Lecture: 'The Uses and Misuses of Economics: Reflections of a Recovering Economist', Delivered on November 3rd 2009, University of South Australia.

2009 Foenander Lecture, 'Meaningful work in the 21st century: what makes good jobs good, and what gives them some dark sides'. University of Melbourne, 21st October, 2009.

2009 Keynote at International Industrial Relations Conference (IIRA):  Conceptualising Work, Family and Community:
What’s missing?

For Work, Life and Workplace Flexibility: The  Australian Work and Life Index 2009, by Barbara Pocock, Natalie Skinner and Reina Ichii visit:
http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/default.asp

For Work, life and workplace culture: The Australian Work and Life Index 2008, by Natalie Skinner and Barbara Pocock visit:
http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/default.asp

For Work, Life and Time: The Australian Work and Life Index 2007, by Barbara Pocock, Natalie Skinner and Phillipa WIlliams visit:
http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/default.asp

Helen Masterman-Smith and Barbara Pocock Living Low Paid: The Dark Side of Prosperous Australia, Allen & Unwin.
http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741753967

For 2007 Work and Family Policy Roundtable Benchmarks visit:
http://www.familypolicyroundtable.com.au/

For Not Fair, No Choice: The Impact of WorkChoices on twenty South Australian workers and their households visit: http://barbarapocock.com.au/documents/Not%20Fair%20No%20Choice.pdf

Click here to order The Labour Market Ate My Babies: Work, Children and a Sustainable Future. Published by Federation Press in October 2006. Launched at Imprints, 107 Hindley Street, Adelaide, 6.00pm, 17th November by Minister Jay Weatherill.

Clare Burton Lecture 2006 'Jobs, Care and Justice: A Fair Work Regime for Australia'
Click here for a copy of the lecture.
For a 5 minute summary podcast of 'Jobs, Care and Justice' from ABC RN Perspectives, 28th November 2006 click here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/pve_20061128.mp3

Policy Principles for a National System of Early Childhood Education and Care


Barbara Pocock and Elizabeth Hill are convenors of the Work + Family Policy Roundtable (www.familypolicyroundtable.com.au). With the support of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the roundtable convened a national workshop on early childhood education and care in Australia in July 2006. The Roundtable heard fifteen papers and agreed on a set of Principles for National System of early Childhood Education and Care. The principles can be downloaded here, and a fuller document including the principles, the participants at the workshop, its program and abstracts of papers can be downloaded here. The papers will be published in a book through the Australian Council for Educational Research later in 2006.

Centre for Work and Life


The Centre for Work + Life was established as part of the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies at the University of South Australia in January 2006. It is led by Professor Barbara Pocock  (barbara.pocock@unisa.edu.au).

Visit: http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/default.asp

The Centre's Charter: Charter for Centre for Work and Life

The Centre is conducting a range of research projects investigating the issues affecting how Australian's live and work. Its current activities include analysis of low paid work in Australia, the ways in which Australians are 'putting together' their jobs, households and communities in a range of socio-economic settings across Australia, and the impact of changing industrial relations regulations upon working Australians and their households and communities.

 The Centre is located at:
The Centre for Work + Life, St Bernards Road, Magill, SA
Postal Address: The Centre for Work + Life, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide SA 5001 Australia
Telephone: +61 8 8302 4194
Fax: +61 8 8302 4227

Research Reports


‘The configuration of work, home and community in Australia: Research background, context and some early analysis in two master planned communities’
with Philippa Williams and Susan Oakley, Paper presented at Seminar in the School of Business at University of Queensland, Friday 4th August 2006.

‘Women and Work: Pleasure, Pain, Prospects’
Powerpoint presentation at ‘Our work, Our lives’ A National Conference on Women and Industrial Relations, Brisbane, 12-14 July 2006
(Also presented at ‘From little things big things grow…’
Northern Territory IRS 2006 Annual Convention, Sky City Darwin, August 2006)

‘Work: yesterday, today and tomorrow: The impact of work in our lives’
Powerpoint presentation: National Conference: ‘24/7: Work-related alcohol and drug use’, Hilton Hotel Adelaide 29th June 2006

‘Work, families and affordable housing’
with Helen Masterman-Smith
Paper presented at Dunstan Foundation Forum ‘Over our heads: Housing cost and Australia’s future’, 6 June 2006, National Wine Centre, Adelaide

‘House, home and low pay. Some evidence from South Australian childcare workers'
with Helen Masterman-Smith
Overheads presented at forum on low paid workers, RMIT, Melbourne, April 2006

'Research Evidence About the Effects of the 'Work Choices' Bill'
A submission to the Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005 by a Group of 151 Australian Industrial Relations, Labour Market and Legal Academics, November 2005

The Impact of The Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005 (or "Work Choices") on Australian Working Families
A Paper Prepared for Industrial Relations Victoria, October 2005

Presentation to Work Life Association Annual Conference,
Royal Australian College of Surgeons, Melbourne, 18th October 2005
'Mediating the Work Life Collision: Some International Policies and Practices that Work'

Presentation to Brotherhood of St Laurence Symposium on Industrial Relations Changes 11th October 2005, University of Melbourne
'Work and Family and the Howard Industrial Agenda'

'Labour Market Participation, Working Time, and Work-Care Conflict: Lessons from Europe For Australia' Seminar Paper given at Institute for Employment Studies, Sussex University, 8th June 2005
Download word version

Witness Statement in Support of 14 weeks Paid Maternity Leave in the South Australian public sector (the basis of 1.5 days cross examination in the SA Industrial Relations Commission on 28th February, 1st March 2005)
Download pdf version

'Who's a Worker Now? And What Does it Matter for Australian Politics?'
Download pdf version
Keynote address to 2005 AIRAANZ (Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand) Annual Conference, 9-11th February 2005, University of Sydney

 

'Successful Research in the Work/Life Collision: What's Possible?'
Presentation to the ANU Law School, 3rd November 2004
Download a copy (powerpoint)

'A New Work and Care Settlement: Can Australia's Institutions Catch up with Australians?'
The 2004 T. R. Ashworth Lecture in Sociology, Wednesday 13th October 2004, The University of Melbourne
Download a copy of the lecture (Word)

Powerpoint Presentation on "Work and Care Futures: What Young People Think and Plan"
Download the slides

Powerpoint Presentation on "The Work/Life Collision"
Download the slides

Work and Family Futures: How Young Australians Plan to Work and Care
(The Australia Institute, 2004)
Download a summary of this report  (PDF)

 

Can't Buy Me Love?
(The Australia Institute, 2004), (with Jane Clarke)
This report was released in February 2004. It is published by The Australia Institute which funded the study along with support from the Australian Research Council. It examines the views of young Australians about their parents, work, their views about parental time versus money, parental guilt and the spillover of parents, jobs onto young people, along with issues related to young people's own consumption.
Download a summary of this report  (PDF)

 

Only a Casual? How Casual Work Affects Employees, Households and Communities in Australia
(Labour Studies, University of Adelaide, 2004)
Download a copy of the full report  (word doc)
Download a copy of the Summary report (pdf)

Securing Quality Employment: Policy Options for Casual and part-time Workers in Australia.
(With John Buchanan and Iain Campbell.)
Report to the Chifley Foundation, April 2004.
Download from http://www.chifley.org.au

 

"New Industrial Relations" - Meeting the Challenge of Casual Work in Australia
(With John Buchanan and Iain Campbell.)
Paper at the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference, Noosa, Queensland. Summarises policy options on the regulation of casual work in Australia.

The Work/Life Collision
(Federation Press, 2003)
Download chapter 1 (PDF)

 

Fifty Families: What Unreasonable Hours are Doing to Australians, Their Families and Their Communities
(ACTU, 2001)
(with Stefani Strazzari, Brigid van Wonrooy, and Ken Bridge)
A copy of this report is downloadable from http://www.actu.asn.au/public/papers/fiftyfamilies.html

Having a Life: Work, Family, Fairness and Community
(Centre for Labour Research, 2001)
Released in May 2001, this report examines what work is doing to Australians through a qualitative study based in South Australia. a copy of the report 'Having a Life'.
Download a copy of this report (PDF)

Doing More With Less: Tension and Change at work in South Australian Local Government
(Authors: Barbara Pocock, Margaret Sexton, Lou Wilson.)
Released in June 2001, this report examines change in local government in South Australia through analysis of literature, a series of case studies, and a randomised survey of employees in selected South Australian local councils. Download a copy of the report 'Doing More With Less'.
Download a summary of this report (word doc)

 

Union Renewal: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Union Power'
(Centre for Labour Research, Adelaide. Author Barbara Pocock.)
This report sets out a framework for making sense of union power as unions attempt to transform their institutions to meet the challenge of a new workplace and industrial regime in Australia.

 

Organising our Future. What Australian Unions Can Learn from US Labour's Fightback
(with John Wishart)
This reports a 1998 study of union renewal in the US and Canada.