Catherine Allan

Professor Catherine Allan

Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences

Biography

Catherine began her professional career helping farmers reclaim drifting sand dunes in the South Australian Mallee, then moved to supporting groups in Victoria with activities as diverse as managing their creek frontages to maintain populations of Trout Cod, to fostering group management skills to maintain Landcare groups. A common thread throughout her agency employment was working with, and learning from, the people who manage the land. Indeed, as she learned more about environmental management she came to appreciate that humans are part of a complex, dynamic social ecological system.

Since commencing employment at CSU in 2004 both Catherine's teaching and research have centred on predominantly social aspects of this social ecological system. Her research interests include regional scale adaptive management, and the related topics of participatory and social learning. Catherine is particularly interested in qualitative research approaches, including participatory, collaborative and action research which empowers communities. She also employs analysis of social discourse to better understand the rural societies in which we live.

Catherine’s work, while often in south-eastern Australia, is expanded by her current role as leader of Program 1 of the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC), and by involvement with groundwater and salinity projects in Pakistan.

Research
  • Adaptive management
  • Environmental sociology
  • Rural sociology
  • Social ecological systems
  • Participatory, collaborative and action research
Publications
Full publications list on CRO

Recent five publications

  • Culas, R., Rajin Anwar, M., McGrath, N., Southwell, A., Diack, J., Hogan, J., Maraseni, T., Storer, C., Godfrey, S., & Allan, C. (2024). Assessing the Benefits of Organic Fertilizers in Cropping Systems. 1. Abstract from 68th Annual Conference of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economic Society 2024, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
  • Allan, C. Baloch, T., Channa, M. Y., Channa, M. A., Heaney-Mustafa, S., Jabeen, N., Kumbhar, B., Malik, I. N., Mohiuddin, I. Mitchell, M., Riaz, M. F., Rubab, A., Samoo, A. H., Zahid, S. M. A. & Zaman, B. (2024). Adapting to Salinity in the Southern Indus Basin: Stories of Change. Gulbali Report 4. Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW 2640.
  • Allan, C., Mitchell, M., Heaney-Mustafa, S., Baloch, T., Channa, M. A., Channa, Y., Kumbhar, B., Malok, I., Mohiuddin, I., Rubab, A., Riaz, F., Samoo, A. H., Zahid, S. M. A., & Zaman, B. (2024). Evaluating ASSIB: Stories of Change. Poster session presented at International ACIAR Salinity Futures Symposium, Can Tho, Viet Nam.
  • Allan, C. (2023). A critique of the language of ‘constraints’ Soil constraints and productivity and its consequences for soil management. In N. Bolan, & MB. Kirkham (Eds.), Soil constraints and productivity (pp. 419-426). CRC Press.
  • Allan, C. (2023). Helping scientists reflect on their relationship with rivers via frames. River Research and Applications: an international journal devoted to river research and management. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.4154