Dr Georgia Van Toorn | UNSW Research

Biography

Georgia is a political sociologist specialising in international social policy, politics, disablement, and social justice. Her research explores global transformations in welfare governance, with a particular focus on processes of marketisation, the commodification of social care, and the growing impact of data analytics and algorithmic decision-making in the public sector. Much of her work to date has centred on the changing nature of...view more

Georgia currently teaches social policy in the School of Social Sciences at UNSW. She is also an Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, where she studies the social justice implications of, and grassroots political responses to, increasing government uses of algorithmic data systems. In 2023 Georgia was awarded a research fellowship at the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University, where she undertook participatory research into the ways automated systems can be recognised, resisted, and reoriented to promote disability justice.

Georgia is the author of The New Political Economy of Disability and has published articles in academic journals such as Critical Social Policy, Environment and Planning A: Economy & Space, Disability and Society, and New Media and Society.

My Grants

Co-Designing Disability-Inclusive Disaster Response in the Philippines (Lead)

Funding bodies: Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW; Disability Innovation Institute, UNSW

May - November 2024

Amount allocated: $20,000

This research project focuses on enhancing disaster response inclusivity for people with disabilities in the Dinagat Islands, Philippines, a region vulnerable to climate disasters. Using a care-based methodology and collaborating with local Filipino disabled people's organisations, it aims to co-design accessible evacuation infrastructures and identify barriers faced by local governments in implementing disability-inclusive policies. The project seeks to empower disabled people and communities by integrating their insights into practical solutions for disaster preparedness and response.

Data Justice Lab Fellowship

Cardiff University, United Kingdom

June - August 2023

Amount allocated: £3000

This project is focused on the public sector's use of automated decision making systems and how these can be influenced, resisted, and reoriented to promote disability justice. The project involves a participatory research workshop that explores how people with disability and their representative organisations understand the potential benefits and risks associated with public sector ADM, and aims to map out new research agendas that draw on and advance civil society responses to its social impacts.

NDIS Workforce Research (CI)

Funding bodies: Health Services Union, Australian Services Union (ASU) and United Workers Union (UWU)

February 2020 – May 2020

Amount allocated: $33,000

This project explores the status of the workforce delivering disability services in the context of the NDIS in early 2020. In partnership with the three unions, the research team will develop a survey and capture information from disability workers about their characteristics, the nature of their work and job quality, their experiences and perceptions of delivering services and supports to people with disability, health and safety, and other workforce issues. The findings will provide a current profile of the disability workforce to provide a basis for evidence-informed policy development and advocacy and inform public debate and directions for further research.