Big data and social policy: current and future developments

October 3, 19:30

Dr Philip Gillingham, University of Queensland

Both government and non-government social welfare agencies around the world have been collecting data about service users and service delivery in electronic information systems for many years, as have other government agencies such as health, education and criminal justice. New methods to combine these datasets and to analyse large amounts of data have emerged in recent years and been labelled big data. Following developments in health, big data approaches are being applied to the data from the social welfare sector but thus far, there has been only limited success and some expensive mistakes. Drawing from his extensive research experience and knowledge, Dr Gillingham will explain what big data is, how it works and explore recent developments in how the approach has been applied around the world in the social welfare sector. He will also identify key areas for research and the challenges for the future development of big data in the sector.

Dr Gillingham is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. This award allows him to focus on his research about the use and design of digital technology in social welfare agencies from 2017 to 2021. He was previously a recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award, which supported his research from 2013 to 2015. Dr Gillingham grew up in England and practised there as a qualified social worker before moving to Australia in 1996 where he became a manager in the state social welfare department. In 2004, he moved into academe at Deakin University, Victoria and completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne. He moved to the University of Queensland in 2011. Dr Gillingham has published extensively in the areas of child protection and the use and design of digital technology.

Free admission. Please register.