Staff Profiles

Damon Alexander PhD (Monash); BA (Hons) La Trobe Phone: 8344 4080 Email:  dta@unimelb.edu.au Office: Room 515, John Medley Building, Parkville Campus

Background

Damon Alexander completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) at La Trobe University before completing his PhD examining One Nation and the Australian Far Right at Monash in 2006.  Damon has worked in the Department of Political Science since 1998 as a tutor and lecturer and more recently as a Research Fellow.  He is currently working on an ARC funded Linkage project with Mark Considine, Jenny Lewis and Jo Barraket examining social and political connectedness at the municipal level.

Research

• Governance, social networks and community engagement
• Public sector innovation
• Social network analysis
• Australian politics
• Rural politics
• Right-wing extremism and right-wing populism
• Electoral behaviour

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Subjects Taught

• 166-536 Advanced Policy Design (with Jenny Lewis)

Previous Teaching

• 166-101 Australian Politics (1998-2002)
• 166-102 Australian Politics in the Global Era (1999-2002)

Supervision (research focus)

• Australian Politics
• Social network analysis applications in Political Science
• Right-wing extremism and right-wing populism

Recent Publications

Book

Considine, M, Lewis, JM and Alexander, D (2008) Networks, innovation and public
policy: Politicians, bureaucrats and the pathways to change inside government. Palgrave Macmillan (In preparation.  Delivery date April 2008)

Journal Articles

Alexander, D. at the 1998 federal election and how they differed from the party’s competitors’ (Submitted to Australian Journal of Political Science in April 2008).

Considine, M, Lewis, JM, and Alexander, D. ‘The importance of networks in
governmental innovation’ (Submitted to Public Administration Review in January
2008).

Lewis, JM, Baez, J and Alexander, D (2008) ‘Partnerships in primary care in Australia: network structure, dynamics and sustainability’, Social Science & Medicine (in press).

Book Chapters

Considine, M, Lewis, JM and Alexander, D (2008) ‘Governance, networks and civil society: how local governments connect to local organisations and groups’.  A chapter in Barraket, J. (ed) Strategic Issues in the Not for Profit Sector UNSW Press, Sydney (in press)

Refereed Conference Papers

Alexander, D (2007) ‘Modelling the Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics of One Nation's Vote’ refereed paper presented to the Australasian Political Studies Association Conference (published on the APSA website), Melbourne, 24-26 September.

Considine, M,Lewis, JM and Alexander, D (2007) ‘Understanding innovation inside government: The networking behaviour of politicians and bureaucrats’, refereed paper presented to the Australasian Political Studies Association Conference (published on the APSA website), Melbourne, 24-26 September.

Non-refereed conference papers/seminar presentations/publications

Alexander, D (2007) ‘Populism’, in Galligan, B and Roberts, W (eds) The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics. Melbourne: Oxford University Press

Alexander, D (2007) ‘One Nation’, in Galligan, B and Roberts, W (eds) The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics. Melbourne: Oxford University Press

Alexander, D. (In collaboration with Considine, M, Lewis, JM and Barraket, J) (2006) ‘Connecting Government to Community: A Study of Social and Political Connectivity at the Municipal Level’. Paper presented at Postgraduate Workshop,Network Governance: between efficiency and democracy, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Alexander, D (In collaboration with Considine, M and Lewis, JM) (2006) 'Innovation inside local government: The connected worlds of politicians and bureaucrats’.  Seminar paper presented at the Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham.

Alexander, D  (2004) ‘Modelling the Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics of the One Nation Party Vote: Impact of Race, Class, Religion and Economic Disadvantage’ paper presented at the Extreme Right in Twentieth Century Australia Conference, University of Sydney, 9-10 October.

Alexander, D. ‘Innovation Inside Local Government’, Local Government Professionals High Performance Conference, Yarra Valley, August 12 2004.

Considine, M, Lewis, JM, Alexander, D, Pattison, P, Robbins, R and Wang, P (2006) ‘Modelling network structures and innovation inside government’, ARC Research Network in Spatially Integrated Social Science 2nd
National Conference, Melbourne, 21-23 May.

Considine, M, Lewis JM and Alexander, D ‘Network governance: The connected worlds of politicians and bureaucrats’, Department of Political Science seminar series, University of Melbourne, May 11, 2006.

Considine, M, Lewis, JM and Alexander, D. ‘Who matters and what counts? Connections and innovation’, Social Connectedness and Communities Symposium, Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne, September 9 2005.

Current Projects

Considine, M., Lewis, J.M., Barraket, J. & Alexander, D. ‘Connecting Communities to Government’, ARC Linkage Grant (2007-09).

Alexander, D. ‘Crossing Boundaries: Social and Political Connectivity in Buloke Shire Council.’, University of Melbourne Early Career Researcher Grant (2007-08).