Understanding a Changing Australia. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. An APD Fellow will focus on changes in people's understandings of indigenous issues in these decades, and the project as a whole will include a comparison of metropolitian and rural/regional responses. The project will integrate participants' r ....Understanding a Changing Australia. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. An APD Fellow will focus on changes in people's understandings of indigenous issues in these decades, and the project as a whole will include a comparison of metropolitian and rural/regional responses. The project will integrate participants' responses to the changes of the past two decades with analysis of their life histories and characteristic political ideology.Read moreRead less
Understanding a changing Australia: Ordinary people's politics. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material (to be collected) to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. In particular it will focus on: how individual Australians construct their sense of moral community, their expectations of the role of government, and how they have negotiated the shift from an expli ....Understanding a changing Australia: Ordinary people's politics. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material (to be collected) to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. In particular it will focus on: how individual Australians construct their sense of moral community, their expectations of the role of government, and how they have negotiated the shift from an explicitly white, British national identity to a multicultural one, their understandings of settler-indigenous relations. It will integrate these responses with analysis of their life histories and characteristic political ideologies.Read moreRead less
Australian Responses to Refugees, 1901-2005. Determining appropriate responses to refugees is a definitive political concern in contemporary Australia. However, conceptual and historical analysis is lacking of the global context and genealogy of Australia's current policy. This project will analyse Australian reactions to refugees from Federation to the present. It is hypothesised that positions on refugees have been integral to the constitution of Australian national identity. Using an innovati ....Australian Responses to Refugees, 1901-2005. Determining appropriate responses to refugees is a definitive political concern in contemporary Australia. However, conceptual and historical analysis is lacking of the global context and genealogy of Australia's current policy. This project will analyse Australian reactions to refugees from Federation to the present. It is hypothesised that positions on refugees have been integral to the constitution of Australian national identity. Using an innovative combination of theory (relating to nationhood), cultural reading and archival research, this project will explore the complex interaction between government policy, humanitarian concerns, and the culture of security considerations. The project will inform public and policy debate.Read moreRead less
Fearing going home: Australia's return of rejected asylum seekers, temporary refugees and others from refugee-like situations. Recent changes in government policy, combined with international political developments, mean that increasing numbers of asylum seekers and temporary refugees are being deemed ineligible for protection and removed from Australia or from Australian-run facilities. Notwithstanding the government's assessment that such people do not have protection needs, many live in acute ....Fearing going home: Australia's return of rejected asylum seekers, temporary refugees and others from refugee-like situations. Recent changes in government policy, combined with international political developments, mean that increasing numbers of asylum seekers and temporary refugees are being deemed ineligible for protection and removed from Australia or from Australian-run facilities. Notwithstanding the government's assessment that such people do not have protection needs, many live in acute fear of their pending return. They may indeed be returned to situations of danger, deprivation and desperate poverty. This project aims to research and document the plight of 'returnees' as they face the prospect of repatriation and then, to the extent possible, after they have been repatriated.Read moreRead less
The role of development agencies in shaping national identity in Thailand. The study will provide much needed research on a country that has an important bilateral relationship with Australia. More specifically, the role of development agencies in the shaping of national identity is little understood. Given the increased role that such agencies play in the reconstruction of nations, this is a timely study. My study, based on intense fieldwork and extensive use of Thai language documents, will of ....The role of development agencies in shaping national identity in Thailand. The study will provide much needed research on a country that has an important bilateral relationship with Australia. More specifically, the role of development agencies in the shaping of national identity is little understood. Given the increased role that such agencies play in the reconstruction of nations, this is a timely study. My study, based on intense fieldwork and extensive use of Thai language documents, will offer an analysis of this role. Understanding how Thai national identity has adapted to change is an important component of Australian cross-cultural literacy, and important in understanding the future direction of Thai politics. Read moreRead less