News

The following news story was supplied by Allan Shafer in Australia. To supply a news story please email Rachel Kelly, r.kelly@tavinstitute.org

Group Relations in Australia

A complex set of factors led to the closing of AISA (the Australian
Institute of Socio-Analysis) in March 2004, after many valuable
years of work in the fields of socio-analysis and group relations. Many
national and international conferences were run, as well as an array
of valuable group relations programmes, workshops, seminars,
scientific meetings, scientific conferences, and a socio-analytic
fellowship programme, inter alia. The journal Socio-Analysis was
produced from 1999 and has now relocated under the editorship of
Professor Susan Long to the COS Group at RMIT University.

Various initiatives either continue or have evolved: A new national
organisation is planning for 2005, a major conference and a series of
mini-conferences and other events in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and
currently runs reading groups, Listening posts and Work-in-Progress
meetings. RMIT continues to sponsor group relations events for its
post-graduate students in various Organisational studies programmes
based in Systems-Psychodynamic approaches, taking over and developing
some work that originally was offered at Swinburne University. Another
small group lead by Alastair Bain called the Centre for
Socio-Analytic Studies is also offering some programmes.