Jon Charles Altman

Jon Altman (born September 8, 1954) is a social scientist with a disciplinary focus on anthropology and economics.^[1][2] He is an emeritus professor of the Australian National University currently affiliated to the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU. He was the founding director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at the Australian National University (1990 to 2010) and then a research professor there until 2014 when he retired. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia^[3] and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. From 2008 to 2013 he was an Australian Research Council Australian Professorial Fellow.^[4]

Early life

Altman was born in Haifa, Israel and attended school in New Zealand. In 1973 he completed a BA in Economics and Philosophy at the University of Auckland and went on to complete a MA (Hons) in Economics. Altman relocated to Australia in 1976.

Career

In his early career Altman played a pivotal role in developing the Indigenous economy in Australia as a new and distinct disciplinary field. He sought to examine Indigenous disadvantage from an economic rather than the then dominant social welfare perspective and to place Indigenous economic development issues in a comparative international context.^[5]

Between 1978 and 1982 Altman completed a PhD in Anthropology at the Australian National University. He used ethnographic methods and comparative analysis from the sub-discipline of economic anthropology to examine distinctly Aboriginal ways of living, especially at remote outstations on Aboriginal-owned land. He undertook fieldwork amongst the Kuninjku people in Western Arnhem Land.^[6]

Throughout the 1980s Altman undertook a series of culturally-informed research projects about Indigenous engagement with new industries including mining,^[7] tourism,^[8] and the visual arts.^[9] He collaborated with Chris Gregory, an anthropologist at the Australian National University, to theorise and document this methodology.^[10]

In 1990, Jon Altman established the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at the Australian National University as a multidisciplinary centre to enhance Australia’s capacity to undertake social sciences research about the economic situation of Indigenous people.^[11] He was director of the Centre from 1990 to 2010.

Since 2001, Altman has focused his research on the hybrid economy framework and theory that encompasses the intercultural nature of Aboriginal livelihood approaches particularly in remote regions. This new research field is particularly focused on the articulations between customary, market and state sectors of remote Aboriginal economies.^[12]

Over the past decade Altman has shifted his intellectual focus to political ecology and critical development studies. The influence of Arturo Escobar, James Ferguson and Paul Nadasdy is evident in his most recent writings on the links between conservation of Indigenous-owned lands and development opportunity.^[13]

Altman has also been an outspoken critic of the neo-paternalist policies of the Australian government in Indigenous affairs, that he labels neoliberal assimilation, especially since the Northern Territory National Emergency Response (the Intervention) in 2007. He has co-edited two books with his partner, anthropologist Melinda Hinkson, which critically engage with the Intervention.^[13][14]

Altman has made over seventy submissions to government enquiries in an effort to shape public policy as it relates to Indigenous development.^[15] He has a particular interest in policy reform as it relates to property rights, the Community Development Employment Projects scheme, housing and land tenure.^[16] Altman is a regular contributor to Tracker ^[17] and Crikey.^[18]

References

• http://caepr.anu.edu.au/StaffProfiles/altman.php
• http://www.assa.edu.au/fellows/profile.php?id=433
• http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/jon-altman-34470.html
• Altman, J.C. and Nieuwenhuysen, J.P. 1979. The Economic Status of Australian Aborigines, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, xix + 230 pp. (republished in 2006 as a Cambridge paperback).
• Altman, J.C. 1987. Hunter-Gatherers Today: An Aboriginal Economy in North Australia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, xvi + 251 pp.
• Altman, J.C. 1983. Aborigines and Mining Royalties in the Northern Territory, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, xvii + 164 pp.
• Altman, J.C. 1988. Aborigines, Tourism, and Development: the Northern Territory Experience, North Australia Research Unit of the Australian National University, Darwin, xvi + 345 pp.
• Altman, J.C. 1989. The Aboriginal Arts and Craft Industry, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, xviii + 376 pp.
• Gregory, C.A. and Altman, J.C. 1989. Observing the Economy, ASA Research Methods in Social *Anthropology 3, Routledge, London, x + 252 pp.
• http://caepr.anu.edu.au/
• Altman, J.C. and Hinkson, M. (eds) 2010. Culture Crisis: Anthropology and Politics in *Aboriginal Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney, xvi + 288 pp.
• Altman, J.C. and Hinkson, M. (eds) 2007. Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia, Arena Publications Association, Melbourne, x + 342 pp.
• http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard
• http://theconversation.edu.au/profiles/jon-altman-2991
• http://tracker.org.au/
• http://www.crikey.com.au/