The Real Deal is a project coordinated at the University of Sydney (School of Geosciences) and based in places across Australia designed to give local communities a real say in the changes and transitions they are facing by deploying participatory research, community organising and other relationship based research strategies.

The project began in the mid 2019, in recognition that the climate debate in Australia had become deeply polarised - divided between issues like jobs and climate, and between our regions and our cities.

The project works to put people and communities at the centre of policy and politics by building place-based projects and national actions that allow us to build power from the ground up.

Initially was founded by a national coalition of climate, community and union partners, including United Workers Union, GetUp!, Australian Conservation Foundation, Jesuit Social Services, Climate Justice Union, Queensland Community Alliance, Sydney Alliance, Victoria Trades Hall, Tomorrow Movement, NSW Conservation Council and Sweltering Cities.

In 2021, the Real Deal initiated a series of place-based projects to support community-led transition, first in Gladstone, Geelong and now Western Sydney. These projects have initiated community coalitions to use participatory methods like the relational method (based on community organising). In Geelong the project was initiated with the support of the University of Sydney, in Gladstone the project was supported by Queensland Community Alliance and in Western Sydney the project was supported by the Sydney Alliance.

The Real Deal also convenes a network of multidisciplinary academics from across the University of Sydney and across Australian universities to support economic and climate transition.

The Team

Associate Professor Amanda Tattersall is the Academic Chair of the Real Deal project. She co-founded GetUp.org.au in 2005, brought US-style community organizing to Australia in 2007 founding and leading the Sydney Alliance, and is the host of ChangeMakers Podcast. She is the author of Power in Coalition (Cornell University Press) and People Power in Cities (forthcoming - Oxford University Press, with Kurt Iveson). She researches social change strategy and uses community-led research methods to work on tough issues like climate change and mental health.