Research

Previous Reports

• To develop a broad research base that appropriately informs the philosophy and goals of the Edmund Rice Centre (ERC).
• To inform and support initiatives and programs of the Edmund Rice Centre.

The central purpose of the ERC is educational, providing an informed response to social, political and economic issues in Australian society, and internationally. Our research informs our work in community education and advocacy. Within the Asia-Pacific region and beyond the era of global economic liberalism has precipitated a widening gap between those who are advantaged and those who are excluded from full participation in society.

Across the globe organisations and networks are working for advocacy, action and change. Non-government organisations have become vitally important in critiquing issues of human rights and social justice. In building networks of support and solidarity the research emerging from ERC is based upon two important principles in contemporary Australian society;

• Firstly that Australians must begin to open their hearts and minds to accepting the injustices of the past, and understanding the consequent exclusion and disadvantage for Indigenous people in Australia today.
• Secondly, social change within Australian society must increasingly build upon values for a just and diverse social, political and economic order if we are to develop a realistic and genuine national identity into the twenty first century.

Our programs and initiatives focus on the key pedagogical approaches of adult and community education such as experiential learning, action research, critical pedagogy and transformative learning. Through programs of immersions and social analysis we seek to develop greater understanding and critical analysis of the social and political realities of structural inequity.

The Business Ethics Initiative is currently undertaking research to explore employees perceptions of ethics in the workplace. Ethical values are a key element of organisational culture and success. Collaborating with organisations such as the Ethics Resource Center in Washington new initiatives aim to gain greater insight into the experiences and perspectives of Australian workers, to establish clear benchmarks and develop a base for future research in Australia.

It has been suggested that the new century could hold " the possibility for a new set of ethical principles to take hold and transform human society more profoundly than any technological invention in history" ( Heinberg, Yes: A Journal of Positive futures, Winter 2001:p1).

For further information please contact Zeena Elton +61 2 9764 1330, zeena@erc.org.au