Research strengths

Participation in the professions has long been regarded as a source of significant moral issues. Society often grants specific professions monopoly or cartel control of a range of services, and as a matter of reciprocity professionals are expected to provide those services while abiding by codes of ethics and exercising fiduciary responsibilities towards their clients and other people in their care. Our work in this area will focus on practical ethical issues arising in the professions, including areas such as social work, policing, law, politics, and ministry.

Our work in this area will focus on a number of related topics including:

• What are professional obligations? How do these change over time?
• Does the reality of the global pandemic impose new moral responsibilities on professionals? If so, what are these new responsibilities?
• What moral responsibilities do we have to elderly people?
• How can concerns for the religious freedom and conscience of individual professionals be reconciled with the obligations of professionals towards their clients?

Members

• Oliver Burmeister
• Steve Clarke
• Daniel Cohen
• Anna Corbo Crehan
• Morgan Luck
• Seumas Miller
• Piero Moraro
• Emma Rush
• Suzanne Uniacke

Focus

This focus is also supported by our association with the research group:

• PAPER (The Practical And Public Ethics Research group)

Professional groups are increasingly recognising a number of social and environmental obligations. We consider how best such obligation are understood, and what must occur to meet them.

Our work in this area will focus on a number of related topics including:

• In what ways can community engagement and curriculum co-creation enhance education for the professions?
• How is contemporary social work practice conceptualised in the context of disaster preparedness?
• How can e-health education build capacity for professional practice in end-of-life care?

Members

• Karen Bell
• Heather Boetto
• Wendy Bowles
• Donna Bridges
• Peta Jeffries
• Bernadette Moorhead
• Manohar Pawar
• Holly Randell-Moon
• Sabine Wardle

This focus is also supported by our association with the research group:

• The Environmental and Social Justice Research Group

Our research focuses on the key challenges emerging from contemporary society that affect the professions, and examining how library and information services can used to meet these them.

Our work in this area will focus on a number of related topics including:

• What are the major challenges facing library and information science education for professional practice in a changing world?
• How will local services such as public libraries facilitate social connection in the post-COVID world?
• How can public libraries in Australia extend their services through inter-professional collaboration with social work?
• How should librarians deal with misinformation and disinformation?

Members

• Mary Carroll
• Jane Garner
• Kasey Garrison
• Philip Hider
• Hamid Jamali
• Simon Wakeling

This focus is also supported by our association with the research group:

• The Libraries Research Group