Staff Profiles

Mark Considine Phone: 8344 5242 Email: mark1@unimelb.edu.au Office: Medley Building Room 417

Background

Mark Considine is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at The University of Melbourne. His research areas include governance studies, comparative social policy, employment services, public sector reform, local development, and organisational sociology. Mark is an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (Victoria) and the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.

Mark's most recent book is: Considine, M. and Giguere, S: The Theory and Practice of Local Government and Economic Development, Palgrave MacMillan. 2008.

In 2000, Mark and co-author Jenny Lewis received the American Society for Public Administration's Marshall E. Dimmock Award for the best lead article in Public Administration Review. In 2001, Mark received the American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Publication Award for The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Mark has been associated with governments and the community sector in the implementation of a number of recent projects and organisational reviews. These include:

• OECD LEED Program review of local partnerships
• Community Strengthening strategies at state and local level
• Premier's Working Party of Strategic Partnerships with the Community Sector
• Minister's reference group for the Review of the Local Government Act
• Communication and Marketing Review for Job Network
• Advisor on research strategies and organisational capacity at the Brotherhood of St Laurence

Research

Mark Considine's current research has two related strands. He is involved in comparative studies of the reform of employment services in Australia, the UK, the Netherlands and other OECD countries. This work builds upon his four country study of reform in Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the Netherlands, published as Enterprising States: The Public Management of Welfare to Work (Cambridge University Press, 2001)

A second set of projects looks at the emergence of networks as an alternative to markets and hierarchies in the organisation of government and new governance systems. Networks in this case include both personal ties or affiliations among political actors, as well as institutional linkages or relationships.

The program of work on network governance includes a new study of partnerships, pacts and other local collaborative structures for achieving improved social inclusion, economic participation and democratic renewal in Australia, Austria, Italy, the UK , Canada and Ireland.

For further information about these projects see the following links:

• Creating Collaborative Advantage through Better Network Governance: A Comparative Study of New Institutions and Instruments
• Fostering innovation inside government: the role of structural and personal networks in improving innovation performance among politicians and bureaucrats.
• Social connectedness and policy development: modelling strategies and measures.

Supervision

Areas of supervision include social policy, organisational analysis and public sector reform in Australia, Europe and the USA. Comparative projects are of particular interest. Theoretical projects dealing with issues related to networks, self-organisation and institutional reform are also welcomed.

Recent Publications

Books

Considine, M. Making Public Policy: Institutions, Actors, Strategies, Polity Press. 2005.

Considine, M. Enterprising States: The Public Management of Welfare to Work, Cambridge University Press. 2001.

Considine, M. & Marginson, Simon. The Enterprise University: power, governance and reinvention in Australia, Cambridge University Press. 2000.

Book Chapters

Considine, M. 'Steering, Efficiency and Partnership: The Australian Quasi-Market for Public Employment Services', pp. 191-210 in Bredgard, T. & Larsen, F (eds.): Employment Policy From Different Angles, DJOF Publishing. 2005.

Considine, M. & Lewis, J. 'Mapping the Normative Underpinnings of Local Governance', pp. 205-225 in Smyth, Paul. Reddell, Tim & Jones, Andrew (eds.): Community and Local Governance in Australia, UNSW Press. 2005.

Considine, M. 'The Reform that Never Ends: Quasi-Markets and Employment Services in Australia', pp. 41-71 in Sol, Els. & Westerveld, Mies (eds.): Contractualism in Employment Services: A New Form of Welfare State Governance, Kluwer Law International. 2005.

Journal Articles

Considine, M. 'The Theory and Practice of Local Government and Economic Development', Palgrave MacMillan

Considine, M.'Il governo dei processi di sviluppo locale', Local pacts and partnerships and Sicily's economic development. The power of network governance. Aracne.

Considine, M. & Lewis, J. 'Working with Networks: Explaining service delivery strategies in public and private organisations as networking effects', Journal of European Public Policy. Vol 10 (1): 46-58. 2003.

Considine, M. & Lewis, J. 'Enterprise Governance: The Frontline Bureaucrat in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom', Public Administration Review. Vol 63 (2): 131-140. 2003.

Considine, M. 'The Impact of Competition on Non-Profit Organisations', Australian Journal of Political Science. Vol 38 (1): 63. 2003.