Library Blog - May 2026

Selected readings

AI and Emerging Technology:

• How AI Hype Masks the Exploitation of African Workers: Marché Arends, Kathryn Cleary, Tech Policy Press
  Arends et al. argue that the hype surrounding artificial intelligence obscures the exploitation of African digital workers, whose precarious and underpaid labour is essential to building today’s AI systems while risk and responsibility are shifted away from powerful tech companies.
• No accountability, no checks and balances, no responsibility’: how Indigenous peoples think about AI: Bronwyn Carlson, Tamika Worrell, The Conversation
  Carlson et al. present Indigenous perspectives on artificial intelligence, highlighting deep concerns about accountability, trust and harm when AI systems are introduced into already unequal systems without Indigenous governance, consent or control.
• Generative AI Across Research Traditions: Uses and Ethical Considerations: Simon Knight 
  Knight reviews the growing use of generative AI in research, identifying key ethical tensions and applying established research ethics principles to help researchers navigate its responsible use across different research approaches.
• Why books feel harder, what the science shows, and how to rebuild the capacity: Hana Lee Goldin, Card Catalog 
  Hana Lee Goldin in her blog, Card Catalog, examines how scroll‑based digital design has reshaped reading habits, reducing deep attention and comprehension while encouraging faster, more fragmented consumption of information.

Disability and Inclusion:

• Radical accessibility: co-designing for intersectionality in a peer-led LGBTIQA+ disability digital storytelling project: Drysdale, K., Gendera, S., Londos, C., White, G., & Fisher, K. R., Disability and Rehabilitation, 1–16
  Drysdale et al. examine how applying radical accessibility within a co‑designed digital storytelling initiative supported LGBTIQA+ people with disability to build peer‑led, intersectional spaces for advocacy and social change.
• Everyday Harm Experienced by People With Disability From Culturally Diverse Backgrounds Using Community Services in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review:  S. S. Tun, Q. Fang, S.Robinson, K. R. Fisher, Social Policy & Administration 1–11 
  Tun et al. review evidence showing that people with disability from culturally diverse backgrounds frequently experience overlooked everyday harm in community services, highlighting the need for culturally responsive policy change, rights‑based service reform and more inclusive research.

Democratic Institutions, Reform and Public Trust:

• Fake news on everything from whales to wind farms: Australia is flooded with climate misinformation: Downie, C., The Conversation
  Downie, in The Conversation, outlines how widespread climate misinformation in Australia, amplified by social media and artificial intelligence, is undermining public trust, democratic decision‑making and progress on climate action.
• Productivity, inequality and the rise of populism: Michael Keating, Pearls and Irritations 
  Keating argues that weak productivity growth and falling real wages are key drivers of rising populism, and that restoring living standards through inclusive productivity reform is essential to maintaining democratic trust.
• Built to last? History shows us the art of reform that’s both bold and enduring: Pat Leslie, The Conversation
  Leslie draws on Australian policy history to show that enduring reform depends not only on bold ideas, but on careful coalition‑building, effective implementation and sustained public support.

Children and Families:

• Fixating on a “magic number” of childcare hours misses what’s most important for kids’ development: Erin Harper, The Conversation
  Harper argues that focusing on a specific number of childcare hours oversimplifies child development research and that the quality of early childhood education, alongside family support, is far more influential for children’s outcomes.
• Interventions to Reduce Child Poverty and Its Determinants: A Rapid Overview of Reviews:  H.Sabri, et al.,
  Sabri et al. review evidence on child poverty reduction interventions in high‑income countries, finding promising outcomes across areas such as family support, housing and integrated services, while highlighting limitations in evidence quality and the need for stronger, long‑term evaluation to inform policy decisions

Work, Welfare and Economic Security:

• Invested, not employed: assetisation and the reconfiguration of work: Pau López-Gaitán, Futures of Work
  López-Gaitán discusses how work is increasingly shaped by “assetisation,” where people are valued for their potential financial return rather than their labour, shifting risk and responsibility from organisations onto workers.
• Can activation policies foster sustainable wellbeing? Phenomenological analysis of long-term unemployed jobseekers’ lived experiences: Ruottunen S., Journal of Social Policy 
  Ruottunen explores how activation services affect the wellbeing of long‑term unemployed jobseekers, showing that meaningful, socially connected activities can support wellbeing, while rigid conditionality can act as a barrier to engagement and inclusion.
• Employment data shows the early signs of AI job disruption are already here: Clinton Free, The Conversation
  Free analyses recent employment data to show that AI‑related job disruption is already underway, with early impacts concentrated in routine and entry‑level roles and significant implications for how work may be reorganised in Australia.
• Australian Social Services Scandals: Towards Dystopia? Or Equity and Justice for the Vulnerable?: Terry Carney, Carney Public Lecture 2025 
  This lecture examines systemic harms caused by failures in Australian social services, arguing that while legal remedies address individual grievances, they fall short in preventing or redressing large‑scale injustices, and that stronger governance approaches are needed to address structural failures across systems such as income support and the NDIS
• First Robodebt, now NDIS and aged care: how computers still decide who gets care: Laura Davy, The Conversation
  Davy examines how automated decision‑making systems in welfare, disability and aged care risk repeating the harms of Robodebt by prioritising efficiency and consistency over transparency, accountability and people’s lived needs when determining access to support.

Journals

Academic journals present peer‑reviewed research by subject experts.
Recent issues from selected publishers are listed below.

• The British Journal of Social Work (Volume 56, Issue 2, March 2026)
• Children and Youth Services Review (Volume 184, May 2026)
• Gender, Work & Organization (Volume 33, Issue 3, May 2026)
• Poverty & Public Policy (Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2026)
• Policy and Society (Volume 45, Issue 2, March 2026)
• Social Problems (Volume 73, Issue 2, May 2026)
• Social Policy & Administration (Volume 60, Issue 3, May 2026)

Listen and watch

A selection of podcasts, webinars and recorded talks relevant to our work.

• The Mission: Travis Lovett on The National Walk for Truth: The Mission, Triple R Radio.
  Travis Lovett is a proud Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man and Traditional Owner and the former Deputy Chair and Commissioner of the Yoorrook Justice Commission and the Executive Director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Truth Telling and Dialogue. Travis joins Uncle Charles Pakana to discuss his initiative The National Walk for Truth, an 820 km walk from Victorian Parliament in Melbourne to Parliament House in Canberra.
• Five years of Fairer, Safer Renting: How is Victoria faring and what's to come? VCOSS 
  Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs, The Hon. Nick Staikos in conversation with VCOSS CEO, Juanita Pope - together they  discussed Victoria's rental fairness agenda.
• The Machine-Readable Renter: Automated Societies (podcast)
  PhD researcher Samantha Floreani from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at Monash University is conducting a study on the growing influence of digital technologies in the residential real estate sector.
• National Press Club Address: Dr Martin Parkinson and Violet Roumeliotis: ABC iview
  Martin Parkinson, Chancellor of Macquarie University and former Treasury Secretary joins Violet Roumeliotis, Chief Executive Officer of SSI on the topic "The productivity boost we're missing: Activating Australia's skills".
• Indigenist Assemblage: The Lowitja Journal
  This webinar introduced a new series on Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, with Dr Ali Drummond reflecting on how Indigenous scholars can use relational, accountable theoretical frameworks to protect intellectual sovereignty and resist extractive research practices.
• The hidden crisis behind rising electricity disconnections: SwitchedOn Podcast
  As the cost‑of‑living crisis drives up energy bills, rising electricity disconnections may signal growing household energy debt and financial stress, suggesting deeper systemic pressures as Australia continues to electrify.

Learning Opportunities

Upcoming events, including talks, short courses and webinars.

• Understanding Poverty, Inequality and Social Disadvantage in Australia (short course)
  UNSW, 5 May, Online.
  Through a concentrated approach grounded in research and practical impact, this specialised short course builds on the research and findings of the Poverty and Inequality Partnership (PIP) with ACOSS to examine the causes and consequences of inequality and poverty in Australia. It offers a unique Australian policy perspective, utilising evidence-based methodologies to drive meaningful change to social inequality.
• Freebairn Public Lecture - Presented by Ms Allegra Spender MP
  Melbourne Institute, 5 May, Woodward Conference Centre, Carlton 
  This session examines Australia’s growing economic challenges and argues that future prosperity will depend on deliberate policy choices and leadership, rather than continued reliance on favourable circumstances.
• Finding the common ground: Developing a generalisable theory of change
  AIFS, 6 May, Online, Free 
  This webinar explores how AIFS and Relationships Australia co‑designed a national theory of change for Men’s Behaviour Change Programs to strengthen program design, evaluation and evidence‑based approaches to reducing violence against women.
• The Battle for Public Education
  The Australia Institute, 8 May, Online, Free 
  This session brings together Jane Caro AM, Tom Greenwell and Skye Predavec to unpack why Australia’s education costs are rising while outcomes decline, and to discuss evidence‑based pathways out of the current policy impasse.
• Reclaiming Democracy Together
  Conversation at the Crossroads, 9 May, Melbourne Town Hall.
  Across the Western world, democratic institutions face deep strain. Public trust is fragile. Civic life is unsettled. On 9 May 2026, Reclaiming Democracy Together is launched — a seven-year national initiative dedicated to rethinking and revitalising democratic life in Australia and beyond. This launch marks the beginning of that long-term work.
• David Moscrop: Too Dumb for Democracy
  Wheeler Centre, 10 May
  In an era overshadowed by income inequality, environmental catastrophes, terrorism and the decline of democracy, Moscrop argues that the political decision-making process has never been more important. In fact, our survival may depend on it. Hosted by Sally Warhaft as part of The Fifth Estate series.
• Thriving Together
  nib Thrive, 19 May, Online, Free 
  A livestreamed panel event, hosted by nib Thrive, bringing together two of Australia’s leading disability organisations and valued nib foundation partners - People with Disability Australia (PWDA) and Down Syndrome Australia (DSA), alongside sector leaders. Hear practical, lived experience led insights that are designed to help organisations build inclusive workplaces, improve recruitment and communication, and co-design care models with people with disability, not for them.
• Lunch & Learn - May 2026 - Improving Health Together
  ChangeFest, 21 May, Online, Free 
  This session explores how Beaconsfield Neighbourhood House and local residents in Tasmania’s West Tamar region are co‑designing health services through a community‑led approach that prioritises trust, local strengths and sustainable change beyond the life of the project.
• Evaluating Place-Based Approaches: Bridge theory and practice in driving equitable change
  Clear Horizon Academy, 22 May, Online 
  Join the creators of the Place-Based Evaluation Framework to discover how to evaluate place-based initiatives.
• Lowitja Institute Knowledge Translation Summit 
  Lowitja Institute, 28 May, Online 
  Lowitja Institute is proud to host the Knowledge Translation (KT) Summit 2026, an online gathering that brings together policymakers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities, and researchers to share knowledge, showcase innovation, and influence systems change
• Scholarship Disabled: Crip research, crip scholars
  Newcastle Youth Studies Centre, 22 July, Online, Free.
  In this presentation, some core members of the Scholarship Disabled team will share the results of our research, interweaved with our own experiences of ableism and disablism in higher education.

Current Display

This month the book display in the library is our collection of biographies. Please see the current display list for information about these items.