Dave Mercer is currently Associate Professor, School of Global, Urban & Social Studies, RMIT University.

Dave’s main research interests are in the areas of natural resource management and environmental policy and politics at the local, national and international scales. He also has extensive consultancy experience for state, commonwealth and local governments in Australia, and in July 2002 was appointed to the five-person Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC). This body was established by the Bracks Government to give independent advice to the Minister for Environment on the management of public lands and waters. In 2004 Dave was one of the judges on the panel adjudicating the ‘Celebrating Melbourne Awards’.

Dave is also part of a research team carrying out a landmark study of peri-urban regions in two Australian states, Victoria and Queensland. This project Change and Continuity in Peri-Urban Australia investigated the nature and extent of contemporary peri-urban regions in Australia, identified future patterns of socio-economic and environment change in peri-urban landscapes, and also developed scenarios for future land use and management based on ‘business-as-usual’, interventionist and deregulated options. ‘Change and Continuity in Peri-Urban Australia’ is a collaborative project between RMIT University and Griffith University, Brisbane, and was funded by Land and Water Australia. Four major monographs were produced from this project in 2007 and 2008.

In 2012 Dave was elected a Senior Fellow by the World Leisure Academy for his contributions to leisure research both in Australia and internationally

Qualifications

PhD Monash University
Dip. Education, Cambridge University
BA (Hons), Cambridge University