About the Centre for Work + Life
The Centre for Work + Life (CWL) is part of the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies at the University of South Australia. It is a national research centre that investigates work and its intersection with household, family, community and social life in Australia.
Centre for Work + Life charter (PDF 146 kb)
The Centre for Work + Life aims to generate innovative thinking about work and life in Australia, making sense of experience in order to improve the well being of Australians. It does this by:
- doing research
- linking research to practice: informing workers, employers, government, community organisations, unions and individuals
- publicly disseminating ideas, research results and policy ideas
Australia faces critical work and life questions:
- What is the role of work in a good life, and a healthy society?
- What kinds of social policies and workplace practices create sustainable jobs and workplaces with skilled, productive workers – who can also sustain their households and communities?
- How can those who need care – like children and the aged – be looked after when labour force participation is increasing and private families and community resources are stretched?
- What housing, transport and urban and rural infrastructure configurations will assist the easy reconciliation of work, care and life – as well as contribute to sustainable growth and minimal ecological damage?
- What arrangements help strengthen community fabric?
- What relative roles should the market, the private family and the public sector play in sustaining work, the labour market, workplaces, communities and care?
- What are the demographic effects of the current work and care regimes in Australia – and how can we meet the challenges of an aging population, declining fertility and potential skill shortages?
- How is inequality – by gender, race, ethnicity, class and generations – shaped by particular work–life regimes?
- How is time being deployed in different households by individuals,
and in workplaces, and with what outcomes for employers, workers,
children and the aged, and our larger communities?
The Centre for Work + Life aims to:
-
generate innovative thinking about work and life in Australia,
making sense of experience in order to improve the well-being of
Australians - generate policy ideas based on evidence and sound reasoning, to assist the creation of better institutions, cultures and practices of work and life
- form a lively intellectual community that encourages collaborative, quantitative and qualitative, and internationally comparative research
- train new researchers
- disseminate ideas and information through publications, the web, and
consultation with workers, employers, unions, carers, children and
governments.
A focused research community, working in partnership
The centre is a focused research community analysing work and life with its partners, aiming at long-term change, challenges and policy effect. It is multi-disciplinary. It pursues research that strategically responds to key Australian and international challenges around work and life. The centre hosts imaginative researchers and thinkers from Australia and internationally who are studying work and life. It conducts research, advises governments, unions, companies and community groups, and conducts seminars, roundtables and conferences.
The centre has a number of postgraduate students. It has research affiliates from other universities and organisations.
The centre is supported by:
- the University of South Australia
- specific grants from the Australian Research Council
- support from partners.
Our partners include:
- Brotherhood of St Laurence
- Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development (Victoria)
- Land Management Corporation of South Australia
- Lend Lease Communities
- Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union
- SA Unions
- SafeWork SA
- Western Australian State Health Advisory Committee on Work–Life Balance
Our partners help fund our research and advise on its direction and implications. They are represented on the centre’s Advisory Committee.