Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy

Introduction

The Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy began in July 2008. It is one of the University of Western Sydney’s eight research centres. It is currently made up of 10 full-time academic members as well as five academic members in teaching positions in the College of Arts at UWS. Its new and unique Doctoral Program in Political and Social Thought began in 2010 with its first cohort of students. The Centre engages with a number of communities: academic and non-academic as well as postgraduate students in intellectual and research-oriented conversation through its seminar and workshop series. Members of the Centre publish monographs and articles in high-ranking academic journals and they participate in international, national and regional academic conferences. The Centre also collaborates in research with practitioner communities especially in the areas of social enterprise, deliberative democracy, and deep democracy. As a result Centre publications are focused on varied audiences.

Mission

The Centre seeks to promote democratic governance, active citizenship, and a practical awareness of the interdependencies of the political, the social, the economic and the environmental.

Goals

The goals of the Centre are three-fold: 
1. To produce, communicate and network internationally recognized and high quality research on important topics in citizenship and public policy;
2. To engage in research and other kinds of partnership with practitioners in government and non-government organizations;
3. To train and educate postgraduate students who can take the Centre’s vision in new directions.