Research Projects
Critical Theory and Social Hope
The Circulation Of Nonviolence: Gandhi And The History Of Global Politics
Dr Sean Scalmer - ARC Discovery
Global protest movements have become a feature of recent campaigns against war and corporate power. The diffusion of protest across national boundaries disrupts official routine, threatens state power, and raises new questions about global citizenship. However, the history, dynamics and novelty of transnational diffusion is still only dimly understood. This project will address such absences. It focuses on the circulation of Gandhian non-violence, and it offers the first comparative, long-term study of the diffusion of collective action. This will greatly enhance our understanding of the processes currently reshaping politics and society and should enrich the practice of contemporary democratic participation.
Applying The Ethics Of Recognition: Work And The Social Bond
A/Prof Nicholas Smith; Dr Jean-Philippe Deranty – ARC Discovery
What is it that binds individuals together in society? How are those bonds affected by the work we do? This project in social philosophy proposes that in modern societies at least, individuals need to be connected through relationships of mutual recognition. It demonstrates that such relationships penetrate all levels of modern society - the economy as much as culture and the family - and it shows in particular that expectations of recognition reach deep into the world of work. The project combines conceptual analysis with an examination of recent empirical studies to offer a new interpretation of the moral significance of work, and it elevates changes in work by reference to the standard of mutual recognition.
Autonomy and Identity: A Relational Theory
A/Prof Catriona Mackenzie - ARC Discovery
Autonomy is widely regarded as an important value in liberal democratic societies and underpins many of the basic rights and legal protections enjoyed by citizens. The principle of respect for autonomy is a guiding ethical principle in a range of areas, including in medical and legal contexts, for example in requirements regarding informed consent, and in ethical guidelines governing protocols for research involving human subjects. A better understanding of autonomy and its relationship to the social context has the potential to produce indirect socio-economic benefits by informing theory and practice in these and other areas.
Migration, Multiculturalism and Nation
Cronulla research project
Transnational Affect and the Moral Economies of Temporary Skilled Migration of South Indians to Australia
Dr Selvaraj Velayutham & Dr Amanda Wise – ARC Discovery
This project will critically examine the experience of temporary skilled Indian migrants to Australia. It aims to develop insights into the cultural and social impacts of temporary migration from the perspective of the temporary skilled migrant, and in terms of their impact on the Australian social and cultural landscape. The research will explore in particular, how gender and temporary visa status shape their experiences of migration, decisions on settlement, family reunion, and engagement with Australian society and everyday life. The project employs ‘masculinities’, ‘affect’, ‘the visa’ and ‘temporariness’ as conceptual frames to analyse the experience from the migrant perspective of this major new shift in Australian multicultural policy. Theories of diaspora, transnationalism, embodiment, affect and gender are central.
Building Neighbourhood Harmony: Strategies for Local Government
Dr Amanda Wise - Department of Immigration & Multicultural Affairs Living in Harmony Partnership
This partnership project explores the role of local government interventions to combat racism and improve interethnic relations at the neighbourhood level and to build sustainable 'community' across and between different ethnic communities in local contexts. It involves a number of components in partnership with three councils around Australia; Ashfield, Canning (WA), and Griffith (NSW). Extensive ethnographic and interview based research was conducted as case studies in Griffith and Canning to explore the localised dynamics of interethnic relations in those areas. In Ashfield, where preliminary fieldwork had already been conducted, the project involves trialling a number of new strategies for strengthening relations between Anglo-and non Anglo Ashfield residents. Community based reference groups were established in each of these areas to guide the research. The project also includes a national survey of local councils on the new strategies they are using to strengthen interethnic relations within their local areas. The project will result in a report and a range of intervention models suitable for deployment by councils around Australia.
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Cultural Diversity, Community and Family Services: Experiences among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse parents of local early childhood services
Dr Amanda Wise; A/Prof Michael Fine, and Ms Kylie Sait – ARC Linkage
The evidence is clear that strong communities and effective early intervention strategies play a key role in preventing social disadvantage later in a child's life. Through the provision of high quality training to a doctoral student, this project will have significant benefits at many levels of policy and government. Local, state and federal governments and family service providers will have the opportunity to see the effectiveness of their services on parents over an extended period of time and to learn from the project about new strategies that may be deployed to assist culturally diverse families in their communities.
Geographies of racism in Australia
Professor Jim Forrest (with Kevin Dunn)
In 2001 a database on racist attitudes was collected, using a telephone survey (5056 sample). A key finding from the Racism project is that while racism is quite prevalent in Australian society its occurrences differ from place to place. These variations have been largely overlooked by anti-racism campaigns in Australia. The findings show that most Australians recognise that racism is a problem in society. Racist attitudes are positively associated with age, non-tertiary education, and to a slightly lesser extent with those who do not speak a language other than English, the Australia-born, and with males.
Measuring and mapping the experience of racism in Australia
A/Prof Jim Forrest (with Dr Kevin Dunn & Dr R Pe-Pua)
This is the first empirical assessment of the circumstances and frequency of the experience of racism in Australia. A telephone survey, 12000 respondents, and fieldwork in ten localities, are the major method. Spatial and social variations in the experience of racism will be analysed. Social construction theory will be tested as an explanation of such variations. Regional anti-racism packages will be developed and tested in the field. Decision-support tools for local authorities and communities to combat racism will be provided. A unique racism database will underpin a scholarly monograph, doctoral dissertation and a series of refereed articles.
The Geography of Ethnic Group Segregation in Australia, 1966-2001
Professor Michael Poulsen
Comprehensive analysis of the nature and dynamics of ethnic group segregation and assimilation in Australian cities and non-urban areas during much of the post-WW2 period is an under-researched area. Overseas work in OECD countries indicates strengthening of structural spatial divisions and of walls separating ethnic groups from each other and from the 'host' society. Yet the evidence for Australia, a quintessentially immigrant country suggests we have the lowest levels of ethnic group segregation among OECD countries. This project uses an innovative methodology developed by the authors to assess and compare change over time and place to test the validity of ideas about the uniqueness of the Australian experience urban ethnic group experience in our multicultural society.
Comparative Ethnic Concentrations
Professor Michael Poulsen - British Academy
This project focuses on comparative research into the geography of ethnic segregation/concentration within the United Kingdom and Australia 1991-2001. There are three reasons why we undertake these studies. First, the comparative approach to the geography of segregation/concentration is important in that the differences between nations are under-researched. Secondly, those differences are important in that they allow us to achieve greater understanding of what is happening within our own countries. Thirdly, working on comparative studies allows us to operate at and network at the international level. This project has involved applying the Poulsen, Johnston and Forrest typology to classify data on census area into one of six types. Those types involve a continuum extending from "white citadels" at one end, through "areas of mix", to areas of "extreme ethnic polarisation". By applying this methodology to two censuses (1991 and 2001) we achieve a set of measures that will inform us about changes in ethnic segregation/concentration over time. Given these are the same measures in both countries we are able to undertake comparative evalations of the geography of segregation/concentration.
The Postcolonial World and Globalisation
Feminist Aesthetics meets Indigenous Art
Dr Jennifer Biddle (with Assoc. Prof. Robyn Ferrell ) – ARC Discovery
The project begins from the political ontology implied by the Dreaming of indigenous Australian art and involves collaboration with Dr Jennifer Biddle, anthropologist at Macquarie University. It considers the work of recent Central Desert women artists, such as Kathleen Petyarre, Emily Kngwarreye and Gloria Petyarre, in its aspect of ' looking like ' abstract art, and appearing as 'modern art ' , at the same time as it gains its celebrity in the genre of ' indigenous art ', which is precisely not modern as far as the contemporary map of the artwork commodity goes. I argue these paintings bear the scars of indigenous contact with European culture, at just that time when these two categories have unsettled each other.
The Changing Context of HIV Vulnerability, Prevention and Treatment amongst Ethnic Groups in Northern Thailand and Laos
Dr Chris Lyttleton
Rockefeller Foundation Grant - Laos
Dr Chris Lyttleton
Inclusion and Exclusion in Urban and Regional Spaces
Social Data Mapping for the City of Ryde
Frank Siciliano
The project will develop and further enhance City of Ryde’s statistical information and data mapping capability through the collation and analysis of available data. The project will enhance the quality and usability of information with a particular focus on improving council’s social planning processes.
Geographies of Resistance
Professor Bob Fagan (with Dr Scott Sharpe, UNSW ADFA) - ARC Discovery
This project explores contemporary responses to economic, social and cultural aspects of globalisation, often termed ‘resistance’ by participants. Such responses are often represented as occurring at global, national and local scales. The research contrasts institutionalised and non-institutionalised responses to aspects of globalisation through four case studies. These are chosen from: first, the Australian banana industry where local producer organisations have built a national campaign designed to resist negative impacts of globalisation on banana-growing regions; second, the Australian trade union movement and their attempts to resist national industrial relations changes legitimised in the name of globalisation; third, highly publicised protests in Australian cities portrayed as being part of a transnational ‘anti-globalisation’ movement; and fourth, spontaneous internet-based forms of resistance known as ‘culture jamming’. The research contributes to better understanding of multiscalar relationships in strategies of resistance but also illuminates the nature of globalisation itself.
New Regionalism and the Dynamics of Local Economies
Professor Bob Fagan (with Dr Matthew Tonts, UWA and Professor Michael Taylor, University of Birmingham) - ARC Discovery
‘New regionalism’ has become a popular a development perspective, emerging primarily from Western Europe, emphasising the social and institutional drivers of local economic change in an era of globalisation. Over the past decade, new regionalism has become prominent in both the rhetoric and practice of regional development policy in Australia. Despite its popularity, little detailed research exists on the extent to which this approach is relevant in the Australian context and can contribute to equitable social and economic development of urban and regional spaces. This project explores the dynamics of economic change in contrasting case study regions of NSW and Western Australia. It focuses on the embeddedness of key local firms in local and non-local networks, institutional frameworks and local labour market dynamics.
Welfare, Care and Social Policy
Alzheimer's Association of NSW Phase Two
A/Prof Michael Fine
The objective of the NSW Quality Support Groups Research Project is to improve our understanding of the operation and structure of support groups for carers of people with dementia in NSW, for the purpose of enhancing current practice. The outcome of this research will be a clearer understanding of what constitutes quality support groups, in both process and content, and how this can be achieved. In Partnership with NSW Alzheimer's Association Dr Michael Fine will undertake a second stage study of carers support (self-help) groups in NSW. Stage one involved survey based audit of care groups. Stage two involves qualitative research analysing a series in-depth interviews with these groups.
Transnational Care: Migration, demography and care work
This project is concerned with three fundamental developments shaping social life in 21stC Australia: 1. the unprecedented demographic shift represented by the ageing of the population; 2. the need for care arising from the support needs of an older population and the rising demand for child care; and 3. the changing patterns of global migration and shifts in the demand for immigrant labour. The convergence of these trends means that Australia (like comparable countries) must sustain a much older population in which increasing numbers of people will be unable to care for themselves at the same time as greater calls will need to be made on the economic contributions of the decreasing population of working age. Focussing on aged care only, the one year project will concentrate on two key research tasks: 1) the analysis of existing secondary data sources on formal and informal care to better identify the extent and distribution of migrant workers in the field of aged care than is presently possible. Specifically this will involve a detailed reanalysis of the Unit Record File (URF) data from the NILs (2003) study, detailed analysis of ABS workforce data, ABS data on (informal) carers, and data from a number of other administrative sources we have identified; and undertaking a modest number of exploratory interviews with migrant care workers, service providers and policy makers.
Department of Housing Neighbourhood Aid Evaluation
This project involves an evaluation of two innovative pilot Neighbour Aid projects which offer low-level support services to people living in Public Housing who are older or have a disability. One, auspiced by the Gladesville Community Aid and Information Service, covers the Blandville Court estate in Gladesville. The other, covering the Redfern, Surry Hills and Waterloo housing estates, is managed by the Redfern and Inner City Home Support Service. The project involves evaluating the success of the two social support projects after their first year of operation, to inform the Department of Housing’s future decisions on the application of Neighbour Aid programs based on the principles of low level social support and active volunteering; assisting assisting in the development of principles develop principles for setting the boundary between low-level support services suitable for delivery by volunteers, and support services to be delivered by specialised professional support services in a social housing setting; identifying alternative models for delivering low-level support services to reduce social isolation, strengthen informal networks and increase community participation in Public Housing estates; and making recommendations make recommendations regarding the future of the partnership arrangement and its potential to inform future schedules under the NSW Housing and Human Services Accord.