The Martin Presence Jean Martin and the Making of the Social Sciences in Australia

Jean Martin was a pioneer of sociology, inventing a version of the discipline that was uniquely suited to Australia in the post-war period. Jean Isobel Martin (1923–79) made herself a sociologist before the discipline was established in Australia. Regarded as a founder of Australian sociology, her writing, teaching and policy helped shape Australia in the period of economic growth and social development that followed World War II. The Martin Presence is a biography that examines her life and her work across the concerns of the time and explores her far-reaching influence on the social sciences in Australia.

Peter Beilharz is director of the Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology at La Trobe University and a fellow in Cultural Sociology at Yale. Trevor Hogan is deputy director of the Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology at La Trobe University, and works in social theory and urban studies. Sheila Shaver is honorary professor at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.