CAEPR's current 2009-2011 Research Plan is built around four broad themes:

• Economic, cultural and social circumstances
• Economic development aspirations and sustainable futures
• Governance, policy and the state
• Education and learning for life

Theme 1. Economic, cultural and social circumstances

Lead researchers: Dr John Taylor and Dr Boyd Hunter

This research theme contributes directly to the policy discourse on 'closing the gaps' between Indigenous and other Australians across a range of social indicators. Since its inception in 1990, a core focus of CAEPR's research has been the tracking of change in Indigenous social and economic circumstances at national, regional and local levels. Notable in the current plan is a major population project sponsored by the Ministerial Council on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. This is examining regional change in Indigenous social indicators, establishing measures of residential segregation and migration in metropolitan areas, and developing a typology of short term mobility and its consequences for service delivery.

Theme 2. Economic development aspirations and sustainable futures

Lead researcher: Professor Jon Altman

This theme explores innovative ways to improve livelihood opportunities for Indigenous people through economic engagement with the market and the customary sectors appropriately enabled by the state. Much of the focus is regional and remote Australia and on Indigenous communities located on the significant Indigenous estate. The theme addresses two crucial issues: the provision of economic development opportunity for Indigenous people in geographically remote contexts; and the provision of economic development opportunity that acknowledges the diversity of Indigenous aspirations and their fundamental difference (in many instances) from those of mainstream Australians.

Theme 3. Governance, policy and the state

Lead researchers: Dr Will Sanders and Dr Janet Hunt

This theme examines governance and public policy relating to Indigenous Australians at a number of different empirical and conceptual levels. It includes research on Indigenous community governance, examining successful organisations within diverse service delivery areas, particularly regionalized local government. It also pays attention to the larger policy environment in which these local and regional organisations operate, dominated by Commonwealth and State/Territory governments. In addition it recognises the growing role of non-state actors in Indigenous governance and policy. The theme notes the complexity of state organisation in Indigenous affairs and the indeterminacy and frequently changing nature of policy. Conceptually, the theme asks whether organisational complexity has benefits for Indigenous affairs as well as costs, and whether policy indeterminacy and change are inevitable or can be lessened. The theme seeks in the first instance to analyse state policy towards Indigenous people and, in light of this, to formulate possibilities for improvement where this seems possible.

Theme 4. Education and learning for life

Lead researchers: Dr Jerry Schwab and Dr Inge Kral

This research theme focuses on the effective delivery of education, the development of evidence-based education policy and the social context of literacy and life-long learning among Indigenous Australians. It includes research on all levels and sectors of formal education and training, but also extends to consideration of non-formal contexts and learning across the lifespan. Research under this theme involves both qualitative and quantitative methodologies and is anchored by an understanding that learning is fundamentally social and situated and can be found and enhanced both inside and outside the classroom. In addition, CAEPR research in this area is framed by an awareness that education and training are most effective when linked to the local social, cultural and economic contexts of everyday life. Several of the current projects in this theme involve collaborations with government departments, Indigenous organisations and communities and involve ground-breaking research that addresses post-school skills acquisition and youth pathways to employment through land management, media and other community-based arenas of learning.

The CAEPR Strategic Plan 2009-2011 is available here.

The CAEPR Research Plan 2009-2011 is available here.