2026-11-25 –, MacCallum Room
Intervention projects often aim to impact the social networks of those who are participating. Using a social ecology Theory of Change, the ‘Common Ground Project: Future Fit Masculinities’ is a consortium project funded by the Department of Social Services aiming to reduce violence attitudes and improve masculinity attitudes in boys and young men in secondary schools. The project used a combination of Tomorrow Man (TM) education workshops for older boys, Foundation for Positive Masculinity (+M) curriculum education for the younger ones, and social network analysis to observe changes in social ties but also attitudes. Results showed that compared with baseline, there is statistically significant evidence for both +M and TM that harmful masculinity attitudes are significantly reduced after programs/workshops for males. Additionally, there is a large and significant decrease for harmful masculinity attitudes by influence nominations, indicating that such influential endorsers of a negative masculinity have (a) changed their attitudes to be more pro-equity and (b) have lost some of their influence.
Dean Lusher is a Professor of Management, the Academic Director Indigenous for the School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship (SoBLE) and a a social network researcher. Dean is a member of Swinburne's Social Network Research Laboratory, a world-leading group in statistical models for social networks. His expertise is in the theory and application of statistical network models. Dean's applied research focuses on social and technological innovation, organisational culture, learning and education, and network effectiveness. Dean has conducted network research with the Australian Football League (AFL), Boeing, CSIRO, Department of Health and Human Services Victoria, Department of Premier and Cabinet Victoria, Siemens, UAP, VicHealth and a variety of schools and community groups.
Dean was a founding member of the Australian Network for Social Network Analysis (ANSNA) and is current VIce President of ANSNA. He was also Chair of the Organising Committee for Sunbelt 2022 International Social Networks Conference (Cairns, Australia), the world's premier conference on social network analysis. Dean is a co-founder of SNA Toolbox, a Swinburne start-up company focusing on social network data collection, analysis, interpretation and rapid reporting for organisations, schools, professional sporting teams, communities and researchers.
Dean is a proud Wamba Wemba man.