Fran Collyer, Professor of Sociology

Fran Collyer was born in London and her family migrated to Australia when she was a young girl. She began her tertiary education at the School of Art, majoring in painting, but transferred to Flinders University in South Australia to complete studies in Fine Arts, Philosophy, Women's Studies and Sociology. She completed her graduate studies in sociology at the Australian National University in Canberra, and finally a doctorate at Flinders University. Fran Collyer has held academic posts at Macquarie University, Canberra University, the Australian National University and the University of Sydney, prior to taking a position at Karlstad University.

“I am a sociologist, with two major fields of research: the sociology of health and the sociology of knowledge. I have published extensively on issues such as the privatisation of healthcare services, public-private financing partnerships, health insurance systems, neoliberalism and higher education systems, the academic publishing industry, and social theory and methodology. My most recent research concerns the history of sociology and the social sciences, focusing on the global system of organised, scholarly knowledge, and the barriers that prevent the free flow of information and knowledge between individuals, groups, organisations and communities.

Historically, the world of Europe was dramatically altered by the industrial revolution when heavy manufacturing came to dominate the economies. Subsequent change brought a post-industrial world, with financial and human services taking on far greater importance. The contemporary historical moment is a knowledge society, with a knowledge economy, where the production and exchange of information and knowledge have become fundamental to the structures of our institutions, the labour markets, our work practices, our financial systems. They say knowledge is power – and this is certainly the case. Unless we understand this knowledge society, the inner workings of the knowledge economy, its hierarchical arrangements and its dynamics; we will remain subject to the current trajectory with its systematic inequalities and unable to improve the world we live in. The knowledge is used by teachers, researchers, policy-makers and decision-makers to improve inter-generational knowledge and aspects of the social world".

Fran Collyer is blessed with an extended family of scholars, researchers, policy-makers and activists across several generations. In addition she also has several little grandchildren, located in many corners of the globe. Each one provides an abundant reason for constant travel and the need to keep abreast of the many pressing issues, such as human rights and climate change – issues that link private troubles with the public events that beset our world. This is how Fran Collyer´s sociology links in to daily life.