Cameron Duff

Cameron Duff is a Professor in the Centre for Organisations and Social Change in the College of Business and Law at RMIT University, where he is also Deputy Dean, Research and Innovation in the School of Management. Trained in Political Science and with a strong commitment to interdisciplinarity, Professor Duff’s ongoing program of research has three main areas of focus: (A) theoretical and conceptual investigations of community, place, and ‘the commons’, with a focus on theories of praxis and social change; (B) empirical investigations of the ways notions of ‘place’ and ‘community’ are mobilised in social innovations in diverse community settings; and (C) policy and practice investigations of the ways organisational forms and processes support (or inhibit) innovation in the design of social impact and sustainability initiatives in particular organisational settings. 

In each of his areas of focus, Duff is concerned to elaborate how social innovation and social change are argued about in Australian social and political debates – including across ‘civil society’ and the ‘for purpose’, community and not-for-profit sectors – with a focus on problems of sustainability, housing, health and social care. With his collaborators, Duff publishes the results of this research in the top international journals in geography and urban planning, organisational studies, sociology and medical anthropology. Recent key publications indicate how demands for social change typically reflect enduring local struggles over place and belonging, identity and social inclusion. Duff’s research is highly cited and he is routinely placed in the top 2% of research scientists in the Stanford/Elsevier Global ranking of highly cited scholars. Duff serves on the Editorial Boards of Wellbeing, Space & Society, Contemporary Drug Problems and the International Journal of Drug Policy where he is the Senior Editor for submissions in social sciences, political and social theory. 

Across RMIT, Duff regularly collaborates with researchers at the Centre for Urban Research, the Social Equity Research Centre, and the Workforce Innovation and Development Institute where he is embedded in key research programs in organisational innovation, social care, housing and mental health research. Recent national research collaborations have involved collegeagues at the University of New South Wales, Swinburne University and the University of Tasmania He also has a number of longstanding international collaborations with colleagues at the Goldsmiths and Liverpool University in the United Kingdom, and the University of British Columbia and McMasters University in Canada. Duff has attracted nearly $2million in career external research income with recent projects funded by the Australian Research Council (LP190100247) for research exploring the social and policy implications of the ongoing widening of categories of ‘personality disorders’. Additional research has been funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (18/PRO53210 and 22/PRO/51311) for studies exploring the coordination and integration of housing, health and social care responses in community settings. The results of this research provide crucial insights into the needs of diverse groups seeking support across the health and social care sectors in Australia, and how programs may be improved to better meet these needs.

Duff commenced at RMIT in 2015 when he was appointed as Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for People, Organisation and Work in the School of Management. Prior to joining RMIT, Duff held a Monash Fellowship in the Social Sciences and Health Research Centre at Monash University. Between 2005 and late 2008, Dr Duff was a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Dr Duff was awarded his PhD in Political Theory at the University of Queensland in 2002 for research that developed a novel political ethics from the works of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Duff’s first book, Assemblages of Health: Deleuze’s Empiricism and the Ethology of Life, was published in 2014 by Springer.

Industry experience:
Professor Cameron Duff's current program of research is informed by an extended period of applied and practical research engagement. From August 2005 to January 2009 he was Manager of Youth Addiction & Mental Health Services at Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Canada. In this role he was responsible for delivering evidence based mental health care services for disadvantaged youth in complex urban settings. His most significant responsibility in this time was the leadership of a large change management activity supporting the introduction of ‘community based’ youth mental health promotion initiatives across all programs within the Youth Addiction & Mental Health Services portfolio. Working with partners at the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver School Board, the Provincial Ministry of Health, and the School of Public and Population Health at the University of British Columbia, all programs were reviewed and then restructured to incorporate ‘strengths based’ program orientations. The goal was to move the locus of prevention care from clinical settings into the community.

Awards:
2019 RMIT Research Excellence Award; Outstanding Research Performance by an Academic in the School of Management

2018 RMIT Research Excellence Award; Innovative Research Supervision by an Academic in the School of Management

2017 RMIT Research Excellence Award; Best Journal Publication by an Academic in the School of Management

2014 Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellowship. RMIT University.

2009 Sir John Monash Fellowship. Monash University.

2004 Young Writer’s Award. International Journal of Drug Policy Award for best paper published in 2004 by a writer aged under 35.

2002 Dean’s Commendation for High Achievement, University of Queensland.

1997 Australian Postgraduate Award