Director Named for Swinburne CSI

Leading Not for Profit researcher Jo Barraket has been appointed as the first Director of the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria.

Barraket will take up the position in April 2014 as Professor and Director of Swinburne Centre for Social Impact (part of the national Centre for Social Impact).

Since 2008, Barraket led the social enterprise and innovation research program at The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, Queensland University of Technology.

Prior to this, she was an academic in the University of Melbourne’s School of Social and Political Sciences.

In 2010, she led the first national mapping study of social enterprise in Australia and has been an expert advisor to the OECD on two projects related to this work.

With a PhD in applied sociology from the University of New South Wales, Barraket has published broadly on social enterprise, social innovation and the relationship between governments and the third sector in public policy development and implementation.

One of her first tasks in the new role will be to deliver the Swinburne Commencement Lecture on April 3 on the topic “Backing the Best of Social Innovation: emergence, hybridity and impact”.

Barraket will argue that recognising and supporting social innovation requires a shift towards resourcing, leadership and impact measurement approaches that can respond to emergent practice in hybrid systems.  

“These systems mix ‘old’ and ‘new’, suggesting that alchemy rather than innovation alone, is a pathway to social impact,” Barraket said.

For details on the Commencement Lecture, click here.