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Update your browserI don’t like to live with regret, the past is gone and we can’t change it. But I do think reflecting on our decisions, helps us decide how we want to shape our future. My past was unconventional, in that I didn’t set off to be a social policy researcher in an academic institution. As a first-generation immigrant from South Africa, I spent years prioritising economic stability and job security over my own interests. I said yes to opportunities because they seemed safe or came with lots of perks, but not necessarily because they aligned with what I truly wanted. I found my way after much soul-searching about values, work and purpose, reflecting on what I was good at and what genuinely interested me. So if I could go back, I’d tell myself to slow down. To say no more often. To really ask, if this is what I want to be doing in five years? Saying no is incredibly hard, but it’s one of the most important things we can do for ourselves.
I love that my work gives me so much professional and personal satisfaction and agency. Every project I work on is directly focussed on how to improve the lives of people facing social and economic hardship. Social justice is the core of everything I do. And while there is plenty to be disheartened about, I genuinely believe systems will get better for those who need it the most. At the same time, my work constantly challenges me intellectually. I often have to think of new ways to look at a problem – a new quantitative angle or qualitative perspective. So there’s never a dull day (exhausting maybe but never dull). And I have complete agency over the types of projects I take on and how I spend my time. That combination of intellectual freedom, real policy impact and social justice makes me feel incredibly fortunate to have found this work.
In my opinion, we have disciplines to help us create order under the guise that chaos is not ok. But in reality, disciplines, fields, sectors, industries, even professions are far more blurred than we like to admit. This may be because I was trained as an economist, worked in corporate marketing, and now work as an academic who predominantly does research in the wonderfully messy field of social policy. What I think people could learn from social policy is to unapologetically be problem-focussed rather than discipline-focussed. I work with people trained as economists, sociologists, psychologists, lawyers, social workers, historians, teachers and more, but all united by the same goal: to understand people’s lives and improve the systems that shape them. It’s liberating not to be constrained by disciplinary boundaries.
Yuvisthi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW. She is an internationally recognised social policy researcher specialising in the measurement and understanding of living standards, with particular expertise in poverty, inequality, deprivation, budget standards, and wellbeing. She brings a distinctive research approach that combines academically rigorous quantitative analysis of complex survey datasets with qualitative research methods and expertise in translating research into policy impact. Her research program has direct policy relevance to improve the lives of socially and economically disadvantaged people
Yuvisthi has extensive experience working on ARC-funded projects and collaborating with community sector organisations to influence government policy. She has published extensively in academic journals and policy publications. Her work contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals including No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, and Reduced Inequalities.
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