Emeritus Professor Valerie Braithwaite
Areas of expertise
- Citizenship 160602
- Public Policy 160510
- Social Policy 160512
- Public Administration 160509
- Social And Community Psychology 170113
- Australian Government And Politics 160601
- Law And Society 180119
- Criminology 1602
Biography
Valerie Braithwaite is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a disciplinary background in psychology. She has taught in social and clinical psychology programs at undergraduate and graduate level, and has held research appointments in gerontology in the NH&MRC Social Psychiatry Research Unit and in the Administration, Compliance and Governability Project in the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU. In 1988-89, she was Associate Director in the Research School of Social Sciences, from 1989-2005 Director of the Centre for Tax System Integrity, and from 2006-2008 Head of the Regulatory Institutions Network in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies.
Currently, Valerie Braithwaite holds a professorial appointment in the Regulatory Institutions Network where she studies psychological processes in regulation and governance. The main themes are:
(a) identifying institutional practices that generate defiance, undermining the individual's capacity and willingness to cooperate in core facets of social life from family and school to work and governance. Of primary interest are practices that fail to respect social values, challenge the stress and coping capabilities of individuals, induce poor shame management skills, and frustrate basic needs;
(b) demonstrating how social relationships facilitate the engagement of individuals in institutional life. This work focuses on building trust, recognizing shared social values, generating hope and institutionalizing dialogue and generosity.
She regularly runs workshops and provides briefings on the adoption of responsive regulatory models by government agencies. Valerie Braithwaite is currently a member of the National Skills Standards Council.
Researcher's projects
Trust and Hope in the Democracy Project
This project examines the role of trust and hope in governance. The central hypothesis is that trust and hope build social capacity and enable cooperation. At the heart of the project is motivational posturing theory. Motivational posturing theory explains responses to government authority of disengagement, game playing, resistance, capitulation and commitment as ways of dealing with the sacrifice of individual freedom. Between 1999 and 2005, these issues were addressed within the context of taxation: What makes people accept the obligation to pay tax even when it is possible to evade or avoid payment? (http://ctsi.anu.edu.au)
School and Workplace Bullying Prevention Projects
These projects have been undertaken in collaboration with Eliza Ahmed, Brenda Morrison, Helene Shin and Jacqueline Homel. Central to this work has been the idea of shame management. Bullying is shown to be associated with an inability to manage shame well because of personal circumstance or a threatening environment. Shame occurs when people do not live up to expectations of themselves or others in terms of competence or moral behaviour.
Capacity Building in Child Protection Project
This project is supported by an ARC Linkage grant with Nathan Harris, Dorothy Scott, Morag McArthur and the ACT Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services. The overall objective is to demonstrate how safety for children can be improved and care capacity in the child's local community can be more effectively harnessed through a responsive regulatory approach.
(http://ccb.anu.edu.au)
Tax System Integrity Project
Taxation has been cocooned for too long as an inevitable and resented instrumentality of government. Australians are acutely aware of what tax dollars deliver. They also are very clear about how government should spend taxpayers’ money and are not unwilling or unable to reflect on community interests. When confidence is lost in the system, however, taxpayers bow out of being a collective player and disengage. Resources permitting, disillusionment may turn into game playing in an attempt to beat the system at its own game. A thriving financial planning industry is able to push game playing along, giving tax defiance a safer avenue for expression. These are among the main findings of the Centre for Tax System Integrity (CTSI), funded from 1999-2005 by an ANU-ATO research partnership. http://ctsi.anu.edu.au
Publications
- Braithwaite, V. 2011 Motivations, Attitudes, Perceptions and Skills: Pathways to Safe Work. Report to Safe Work Australia
- Ivec, M., Braithwaite, V. & Reinhart, M. 2011 A National Survey on Perceptions of How Child Protection Authorities Work 2010: The Perspective of Third Parties, Regulatory Institutions Network Occasional Paper 16, Australian National University.
- McArthur, M., Braithwaite, V., Wilson, F., Conroy, S., Thomson, B., Ivec, M., Harris, N., & Reinhart, M. 2011 How Relevant is the Role of Values in Child Protection Practice? A National Survey of Statutory Child Protection Staff 2009: Preliminary Findings, Regulatory Institutions Network Occasional Paper 17, Australian National University.
- Wood, C., Ivec, M., Job, J. & Braithwaite, V. (2010) Applications of responsive regulatory theory in Australia and overseas, Regulatory Institutions Network Occasional Paper 15, Australian National University.
- Braithwaite, V. 2009 Attitudes to tax policy: Politics, self-interest and social values, Research Note No. 9, Centre for Tax System Integrity, Australian National University, Canberra.
- Maguire, P., Reinhart, M., Mearns, M. & Braithwaite, V. (2007) Trust, Hope and Democracy Project, Progress Report No. 2, Australian National University.
- Braithwaite, V., Hodges, T. & Lyons, B. (2006) Trust, Hope and Democracy Project, Progress Report No. 1, Australian National University