John Cain Lunch (November): From Resistance to Reform with Prof Philip Mendes

IN-PERSON TICKET SALES CLOSE FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14 AT 12PM AEDT.

In his new book "From Resistance to Reform: Case studies of long term social justice advocacy in Australia", Prof Philip Mendes presents a comprehensive historical and political analysis of four policy areas where reform was achieved after many years of neglect.

• Young people transitioning from out-of-home care

• Medically supervised injecting facilities

• Social security payments for the unemployed, and

• Compulsory income management

For each of these policy areas, Mendes presents the long-term chronology of the public policy debates, the key arguments and evidence presented by researchers and advocacy groups in favour of policy reform, the strategies used by policy advocates, and the contrary arguments presented by governments and other bodies, as well as other factors which may have hindered or enabled policy change.

Arguing that governments should introduce policy development processes and networks that include active engagement with knowledge from domestic and global research studies, this is critical reading for scholars and policymakers internationally on the dynamics of policy initiatives, outcomes and reform.

Join us at the November 2025 John Cain Lunch, featuring a presentation from Professor Philip Mendes on his latest book Resistance to Reform: Case Studies of Long-Term Social Justice Advocacy in Australia.

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Want to purchase the book? Visit: https://bookstore.emerald.com/from-resistance-to-reform-hb-9781835497210.html and use the code EME30 for a 30% discount, thanks to the kind folks at Emerald Publishing.

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Professor Philip Mendes teaches social policy and the welfare state and community practice, and is the Director of the Social Inclusion and Social Policy Research Unit (SISPRU) in the Department of Social Work at Monash University.

His research areas include the life experiences of young and older adults who grew up in forms of out-of-home care, welfare conditionality, Medically supervised injecting facilities, and social workers and policy practice.

He is the author or co-author of 14 books including Young people transitioning from out-of-home care: International research, policy and practice (Palgrave, 2016), the third edition of Australia’s Welfare Wars (UNSW Press, 2017), and Empowerment and control in the Australian welfare state: A critical analysis of Australian social policy since 1972 (Routledge, 2019).

His newest book, From Resistance to Reform: Case Studies of Long-Term Social Justice Advocacy in Australia, has just been published by Emerald

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Attend our in-person lunch and discussion at 12:30pm or watch the live stream remotely.

The live stream will commence at:

1:00pm AEDT (NSW, ACT, VIC, TAS)
12:00pm AEST (QLD)
12:30pm ACDT (SA)
11:30am ACST (NT)
10:00am AWST (WA)

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Register here to reserve a seat at our Graduate House event. Your ticket includes lunch from 12:30pm followed by a discussion from 1pm.

If you purchase a live stream ticket, you will receive the live stream link by email.

Per Capita is committed to keeping its events accessible to those who may not be able to purchase a ticket. For this reason we are making a number of Concession Tickets available for unwaged/student/full age pension concessions. These tickets cover the cost of lunch plus a free ticket to the discussion.

Free tickets are available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in recognition of the fact that this event is being held on stolen land. Please email info@percapita.org.au to request a free ticket.

If you are able to and would like to help us increase the number of Concession Tickets available, please consider a donation on top of your ticket purchase.