Adjunct Professor
John Western

Biography

John Western has an honours BA degree and a Masters degree in Psychology from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from Columbia University in New York.
He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He started work as a tutor in Psychology at Melbourne University in the 1950s, worked as a lecturer in Sociology at Columbia University in the early 1960s and returned to Australia as a Lecturer in Psychology at Australia National University in 1962.
He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Political Sociology in the Department of Government at the University of Queensland in 1966 and Reader in 1968. He took up the position of Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 1970.
He was a visiting Research Scientist at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London in 1972 and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa in 1973.
John Western served as Head of Department for 12 years and remained a Professor of Sociology until his retirement in 1996. He was a Commissioner of the Criminal Justice Commission in Queensland from 1990 until 1994.
His fields of current research include the impact of neo liberalism on class structures and processes, juveniles in the criminal justice system, urban growth and the quality of life, Anomie in comparative perspective, the professions in Australia and changing patterns of social inequality in Australian society.
He has worked in South and South East Asia and China as well as in Australia. His work has been supported by UNDP, IDP, the World Bank, The Swiss Academy of Development, AIDAB, ARC and other Australian government agencies.
John Western has been President of the Sociological Association of Australia and New Zealand, The Australian Sociological Association and the Asia Pacific Sociological Association. He has authored, co-authored and edited and co-edited over 30 books and monographs, individually and with others over 60 book chapters, and over 100 journal articles.