Prof. Mitchell Dean

Biography

I joined the University of Newcastle in December 2010 from Macquarie University where I was Professor of Sociology. I was Dean of the Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy at Macquarie (2003-8). During that time, I was founder member and chair of the management board of the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion. I have taught sociology at six Australian universities including Macquarie (1991-2001) and at the Copenhagen Business School where I was Research Professor in the Department of Management, Philosophy and Politics (2002-3). I have held Visiting Fellowships at the Australian National University, Birkbeck College, London, and Goldsmiths College, London, and have been a consultant author for the Sociology course for the Open University UK.

My work has been translated into Danish, German, and Finnish. Among the Universities and Institutes to which I have been invited are the Open University, the National University of Ireland, Sciences Po, Paris, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the State University of New York, Buffalo, Monash University, Roskilde University, and the Universities of Auckland, Aarhus, Copenhagen, Jyvaskyla, Leipzig, Linkoping, Queensland, Sydney, Tampere, and Victoria (Canada).

Qualifications

• PhD (Sociology), University of New South Wales, 1988
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of New South Wales, 1977

Research

Research keywords

• Liberalism and Neoliberalism
• Political and Historical Sociology
• Public Governance
• Public Policy
• Social Theory

Research expertise

My areas of speciality are political and historical sociology, critical social and political thought, and governing in liberal democracies. I have written on the history of discourses and government of poverty, and on theory and method in historical sociology. These are represented respectively by my books, The Constitution of Poverty and Critical and Effective Histories both published by Routledge.

My book on Governmentality is probably the standard text in the field. It is now in second, revised edition for Sage publications. It is one of the two English-language works cited in the afterword of the recent publication of Michel Foucault’s lectures on the topic, and has received the benefit of an excellent Danish translation by Kaspar Villadsen.

With Barry Hindess of the Australian National University I have edited the first country-specific application of governmentality studies entitled Governing Australia (Cambridge University Press). I have also edited a special issue of the journal, Alternatives: global, local, political with Paul Henman of the University of Queensland called ‘Governing Society Today’ and contribute as a referee to many journals across the social and political sciences. With Dr Henman, I was a chief investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery project on e-government, citizenship and public policy. Our current ARC project is on technologies of performance in the public sector.

My more recent research areas include sovereignty, liberalism and government, I have written on states of exception, sovereignty and violence, liberal authoritarianism, international police and problems of the international order. These topics are addressed in my book, Governing Societies: political perspectives on domestic and international rule (Open University Press). My work has of course been most influenced by the problematics of Michel Foucault, but more recently I have undertaken critical readings of contemporary thinkers as diverse as Ulrich Beck, Hardt and Negri, and Giorgio Agamben and of contemporary social and political thought on individualisation, cosmopolitanism and globalization.

I have supervised and examined many research theses. Recent research theses supervised include topics such as governing women on release from prison, the genealogy of child protection, property law and governance in rural Australia, criminality and electoral disqualifications, Malaysian modernization plans, and public policy and remote Indigenous communities.

Fields of Research

Memberships

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Member - International Studies Association

Editorial Board.

• Member - Journal of Power
• Member - Journal of Cultural Economy
• Member - Journal of International Political Sociology
• Member - Scan: Journal of Media Arts and Culture
• Editor - Distinktion

Appointments

Invitations