Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Quarter-Century of Social Change

The Social Policy Research Centre invites offers of papers for presentation at the next Australian Social Policy Conference to be held at the University of New South Wales from 20-22 July 2005.

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Social Policy Research Centre. To mark this event, the overarching theme for the 2005 conference will be "Looking Back, Looking Forward". The end of the long economic boom in the mid 1970s led to the realisation that new social policies were needed to cope with the new economic and social environment. The establishment of the SPRC in 1980 (initially known as the Social Welfare Research Centre) was one response to this. Twenty-five years later, economic growth has returned, but inequality continues to grow and social change continues to be rapid. Like the Red Queen, social policy-makers must keep running in order to adapt to new circumstances and needs.

For the 2005 Australian Social Policy Conference, presenters are being encouraged to examine social and policy changes past, present and future.