[csaa-forum] Adelaide launch of Graeme Turner's new book - Broken: Universities, Politics and the Public Good

[Susan Luckman]

At a time when the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS) are at once never more needed but nationally increasingly under threat, the Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3) will be hosting the Adelaide launch of Graeme Turner's Broken: Universities, Politics and the Public Good.
If you're in town, please come join the conversation.

[A blue book cover with white text  AI-generated content may be incorrect.]When Wednesday July 23, 5.30 pm for 6pm
Venue Ern Malley Est. 1943, 137 Magill Rd, Stepney, SA 5069
A strong higher education system is fundamental to civil society. The building of knowledge and the dissemination of information is vital to the proper functioning of our democracy. At the economic level, higher education is in the top three of our export industries; international students have become central to the hospitality, retail and agricultural economies; and the country desperately needs well-trained, knowledgeable citizens to shore up its future.
Yet, in February 2024, a detailed review of higher education in this country concluded that the system is broken and urgently needs fixing. The problems that afflict it are legion, including over-investment in international enrolment, an epidemic of casualisation and the burning out of a generation of academics, culture wars over the content and orientation of university research and teaching, the lack of sectoral coordination around the national interest, and the consequences of decades of funding cuts.
In Broken, Graeme Turner provides a reality check for those who imagine the academic life is one of privilege and leisure, laying bare the enormous challenges and lack of hope experienced by many in academia. He unearths the foundations of this crisis, then explains how the solution lies in an overhaul of the one-size-fits-all approach to university funding, the establishment of genuine full-time career paths, and the formation of an independent body to ensure our university system serves the national interest in both teaching and research, rather than the ferocious competitiveness of the marketplace.
Above all, we need to jettison the current economic focus on education, and re-embrace the idea that higher learning is a fundamental public good - and should be funded as such.

Graeme Turner AO is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland. He has published 30 books and his work has been translated into eleven languages. He has served as President of the Academy of the Humanities, is a former Federation Fellow, and is the only humanities scholar to have served two successive terms as a member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. He has had extensive engagement with higher education policy, research assessment and commentary on the sector, including prominent roles with the Australian Research Council, the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, and the Learned Academies. He co-authored the landmark 2014 study of the state of the humanities, creative arts and social sciences disciplines in Australia, Mapping HASS. His 'state of the nation' book, The Shrinking Nation, was published in 2023.
Graeme Turner will be in conversation with Justin O'Connor on his new book Broken: Universities, Politics and the Public Good.
Justin O'Connor is Professor of Cultural Economy at the University of South Australia and a Visiting Professor at the School of Cultural Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University. His recent books include Red Creative: Culture and Modernity in China (Intellect, 2020), and Culture is Not an Industry (2024, Manchester University Press).

[A qr code with a logo  AI-generated content may be incorrect.]Books are available for signing from 5.30pm and again after the event.
Additional information:
Registration is free but required for catering purposes.
RSVP: https://events.humanitix.com/book-launch-broken-universities-politics-and-the-public-good-by-graeme-turner




Professor Susan Luckman (she/her)
Professor of Culture and Creative Industries
Founding Director of the Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3)

Selected recent open access publications:
Luckman 2025, 'Making as Care: Valuing craft skills', in Designing through Planetary Breakdown: Locating Material Knowledge and Practical Skill.<https://www.taylorfrancis.com/reader/download/1b893311-6110-4070-be5c-7b0c0595f34b/chapter/pdf?context=ubx>
Phillipov, Michelle, Susan Luckman and Lyn Gaur (2025), 'The Artisanal Imaginaries of Contemporary Production', Journal of Communication.<https://academic.oup.com/joc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/joc/jqaf028/8174072?login=false>
Taylor & Luckman 2024, 'Mentoring as affective practice', International Journal of Cultural Policy<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2024.2320427>

Australian University Provider Number PRV12107
CRICOS Provider Number 00121B


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