My research in political communication draws on my study of anarchist and syndicalist theory and practice, my familiarity and critique of marxist and neo-marxist perspectives, feminist political theory, and my critique of liberal democratic theory.

In my doctoral thesis I critique Arrow's impossibility theorem (which proves the impossibility of aggregating individual preference – as in voting – in order to arrive at a collective or social preference), not to reject his conclusion, but to argue that determining social preference can only be achieved through a discursive process. This argument provides the foundations for adopting a discursive conception of social choice and democracy, as proposed by Habermas and other Critical Theorists.

Habermas's discursive conception of democracy, initially elaborated in his Knowledge & human interests, his Communication and the evolution of society, and his Theory of communicative action', brought political theory and communication theory together and laid the groundwork for later discussions of the Public Sphere in Communication Studies. My critical engagement with Habermas and liberal conceptions of democracy (as shown in conference papers to Communication Conferences in 1992 and 1994, and a peer reviewed journal article critiquing the application of Habermas’ deliberative democracy in the public relations literature in 2005) places my research in political theory squarely within this overlap.

With the benefit of the historical perspective of coauthor Drew Hutton, founding member of the Queensland & Australian Green, and retired QUT historian, I explored the inadequacy of extant discussions of green political theory in the peer reviewed paper we wrote for the 2005 Ecopolitics conference. In my review of John Dryzek's 2005 Post-communist democratization, I demonstrated it was not just green political theory that was confined to liberal democratic or neo-marxist perspectives (including those of Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School), but that it dominated all the literature on all democratic theory.

The technical committee which reviewed and approved the inclusion of my forthcoming book chapter ‘Representative vs. indirect democracy: Building and maintaining participatory democracy’, said that 'it was appreciated for it's rich content and info' and the editor said 'it would certainly enhance its [the book's] readability considerably'. The source for this chapter were discussion papers I wrote ( ‘Representative vs. Indirect Democracy' and 'Consensus meeting processes for large organisations') for the Queensland Greens as part of my efforts to educate members on the internal democratic organisational structures and processes of the party. It subsequently informed discussion and reform of organisational practices in the Australian Greens.

The monograph I am currently writing - Cooperative Democracy: an alternative to Liberal Representative democracy – draws together and elaborates on these existing publications, as well as new material based on my research on World Bank theoretical discussions and aid practices for the consultancy work I did for a Solomons development project; and material based on my examination of the organisational structures and theory of the ecovillage and permaculture movements.

This monograph articulates a model of democracy that involves a significant conceptual advance in the field. It also creates opportunities for realising significant practical outcomes in the areas of governance, citizen participation, poverty alleviation, and democratisation projects. These practical applications are of relevance to the commercial sector, to UN and World Bank projects, and to NGOs.

Forthcoming

 -       ‘Image schemas and political ontology’, in AS da Silva, JC Martins, L Magalhães, & M Gonçalves (eds), Communication, Cognition and Media: Political and Economic Discourse, Aletheia, Portugal.

-        ‘Metaphors of power: objectivist ontologies of gender, love & marriage’, in S Petrella (ed), Gender and Love: Constructions, Practices and Narrative, Fisher Imprints.

-        'Objectivist & essentialist ontologies of gender & love', Dikmen Yakali-Camoglu & Rob Fisher (eds) Based on papers presented to the 2^nd Global Conference on Gender & Love. e-Book, Inter-Disciplinary Press.

-        ‘Representative vs. cooperative democracy: Beyond small group participatory democracy’, in Rohit Raj Mathur, (ed) Glimpses of democracy at work, Icfai University Press, Hyderabad, India, Source: 'Representative vs. indirect democracy',February 2003. Revised and updated 2008.

 2005 Review of John Dryzek & Leslie Holmes’ Post-Communist Democratization: Political Discourses Across Thirteen Countries, in Forum, Centre for Citizenship & Human Rights, Deakin University, No 44, Dec 2005, p6-7, 

 2005 co-authored with Drew Hutton, 'Rebuilding the ship: a new model of democracy in emergence' in Ecopolitics XVI: Transforming Environmental Governance for the 21st Century, ed Cassandra Star, Ecopolitics Association of Australasia/Centre for Governance and Public Policy (pub), Griffith Uni (Nathan Campus), July 2005 

2012 'Image schemas and the ontological commitments of liberal political theory and mainstream economics', II International Conference on Communication, Cognition and Media: Political and Economic Discourse, Braga, Portugal, 19-21 September.

1994 ‘Censorship and a feminist critique of liberalism’, invited paper, International Communication Association Conference, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

1992 ‘Gender & normative biases in Habermas’s Ideal Speech situation’, Australian Communication Association National Conference, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia.

2006  To the ‘Impact of Petrol Pricing’ Select Committee, Qld Parliament. Public Hearing Toowoomba - Monday 7 November 2005 - 9.30 am to 11.30 am, Empire Church Theatre, 56 Neil Street, Toowoomba, Australia.
Transcript pp8-9
My written submission

2003  To the Electricity Group, ACCC on the proposed Powerlink transmiission line.
List of submissions:
My submission, 13 May 2003