Anthony Elliott writes about identity, society, globalisation and the digital revolution. His research has had a lasting impact upon social theory and sociology worldwide.
About
Anthony Elliott is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Adelaide University, where he is Executive Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for Digital Transformations. He is also Super-Global Visiting Professor of Sociology at Keio University, Japan and Full Visiting Professor of Sociology at University College, Ireland.
In 2026, Professor Elliott will take up an invitation-only Residency at the IEA de Paris (Paris Institute for Advanced Study). Also in 2026 he will take up the GATES Distinguished Fellowship at Maison de la Création et de l'Innovation (MaCI) at Grenoble University, France, as well as a Visiting Fellowship at St Cross College, Oxford University.
Professor Elliott was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to education, social science policy and research in 2023, and awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Melbourne in 2024.
Born in Australia, he read Politics and Sociology for his BA (Hons.) at the University of Melbourne. He subsequently won a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Packer Scholarship to the UK, where he completed a PhD in Social Theory at Cambridge University under the supervision of Lord Anthony Giddens.
Professor Elliott contributes to media worldwide: among others, he has recently been interviewed by the BBC World Service, The Sunday Times, ABC Radio National, The Australian, BBC Radio 4, GMTV Sunday, as well as European and North American radio and television networks.
Publications
Professor Elliott is one of the world's pre-eminent social theorists and social scientists. He is well known for his work on social theory, identity and the self, and mobilities and globalization. He was instrumental in developing the theory of 'algorithmic modernity', which contextualizes the digital revolution in terms of transformations of economy, society, politics and culture. He is the author and editor of some fifty books including Algorithms of Anxiety, Algorithmic Intimacy, Making Sense of AI, The Culture of AI, Identity Troubles, Mobile Lives (with John Urry), Reinvention, On Society (with Bryan S. Turner), Making The Cut, The New Individualism (with Charles Lemert), Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, Social Theory Since Freud, Subject To Ourselves, Psychoanalytic Theory: An Introduction, and Social Theory and Psychoanalysis in Transition. His work is available in 17 major languages throughout the world.
Current Research
The New Republic has described Elliott’s research breakthroughs as “thought-provoking and disturbing”.
In 2025, Professor Elliott was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant for research on GenAI and Fintech.
He has secured competitive research funding from, among other agencies, the Australian Research Council, the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Programme, the Toyota Foundation, the Australia-Japan Foundation, and the Japan Foundation.
Consultancy
Anthony Elliott has developed fundamental research that impacts industry as well as private companies and public organisations. Professor Elliott has in recent years worked as a consultant for, amongst others:
Nokia
Fazer
Mittmedia
Main Dialog
Norra Västerbotten
In 2009, the Finnish management consultancy LearningMiles engaged Professor Elliott as its European Research Director. Professor Elliott has been sought out for such industry consultation because his work directly addresses the social and personal ramifications of organizational change. In 2014, Professor Elliott contributed to the management change program “FutureWorks” (working with colleagues at LearningMiles and MittMedia), which was awarded the prestigious Global Innovation Award (Best in Europe) by the International News Media Association (INMA). The Australian Financial Review selected The New Individualism as one of the best management books of 2006.