Populism’s Heartlands: Place, Identity, and Localism in Populist Politics. This project aims to investigate how populism intersects with localism through systematic, comparative, and in-depth empirical study of three populist parties inextricably associated with ‘heartlands’ in Australia, Germany and Spain. This project expects to generate new knowledge about how populists utilise the language of localism and how people’s attachment to place shapes their support for populists. Expected outcomes ....Populism’s Heartlands: Place, Identity, and Localism in Populist Politics. This project aims to investigate how populism intersects with localism through systematic, comparative, and in-depth empirical study of three populist parties inextricably associated with ‘heartlands’ in Australia, Germany and Spain. This project expects to generate new knowledge about how populists utilise the language of localism and how people’s attachment to place shapes their support for populists. Expected outcomes of the project include a new understanding of how populism and localism affect one another; and identification of how right and left populist support are differently affected by community engagement and participation. Benefits include the identification of local interventions to lessen the appeal of exclusionary populisms.Read moreRead less
Judicial Loyalties and Resistance in Southeast Asia. This project is designed to stimulate new insights, for both theory and practice, into how courts in Southeast Asia are responding to growing politicization, interference by other branches, and political backlash. The study will advance understanding of the rule of law, democratic governance, and judicial politics and launch a new database on how high court justices defend judicial institutions and constitutional practice. The findings should ....Judicial Loyalties and Resistance in Southeast Asia. This project is designed to stimulate new insights, for both theory and practice, into how courts in Southeast Asia are responding to growing politicization, interference by other branches, and political backlash. The study will advance understanding of the rule of law, democratic governance, and judicial politics and launch a new database on how high court justices defend judicial institutions and constitutional practice. The findings should help both academics and policymakers to better understand how political, social, and ideational networks of judges can affect the ability of courts to resist threats to constitutional democracy as they arise. Read moreRead less
Global Governance, Eco-Justice, and International Grievance Mechanisms. Despite their global use, there is no evidence that grievance mechanisms provide remedies for people and ecosystems harmed by international development projects. This project aims to investigate whether grievance mechanisms provide eco-justice, where communities seek to be recognised and participate, can lead full lives safe from undue environmental risk, in ecosystems that can regenerate and repair. This is significant give ....Global Governance, Eco-Justice, and International Grievance Mechanisms. Despite their global use, there is no evidence that grievance mechanisms provide remedies for people and ecosystems harmed by international development projects. This project aims to investigate whether grievance mechanisms provide eco-justice, where communities seek to be recognised and participate, can lead full lives safe from undue environmental risk, in ecosystems that can regenerate and repair. This is significant given increasing environmental conflict and deaths at project sites around the world. Examining over 430 original claims to the Multilateral Development Banks’ mechanisms over 25 years, and four case studies, the project aims to determine whether the mechanisms deliver eco-justice, and can improve global rules for remedy.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101151
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$454,532.00
Summary
Harnessing social norms to find a socially acceptable energy transition. This project aims to discover the potential of social norms to enable energy-producing communities to explore and define a socially acceptable energy transition. By implementing and evaluating a new social norm change intervention in the Upper Hunter region, this project expects to generate new knowledge about what matters most to communities facing transition, and how norms, identities, and networks interact to enable or c ....Harnessing social norms to find a socially acceptable energy transition. This project aims to discover the potential of social norms to enable energy-producing communities to explore and define a socially acceptable energy transition. By implementing and evaluating a new social norm change intervention in the Upper Hunter region, this project expects to generate new knowledge about what matters most to communities facing transition, and how norms, identities, and networks interact to enable or constrain change. Outcomes include direct input to energy transition planning, enhanced collaboration with policy and civil society, and new international research networks. This should provide significant benefits by helping Australian communities and policy-makers navigate the local impacts of global energy transition.Read moreRead less
Political Representation in Indonesia. The project aims to understand political representation in Indonesia, asking how far politicians resemble voters in both their policy views and backgrounds (gender, religion, education etc.) It will generate new knowledge on a major potential source of fragility in the world’s third largest democracy, and pioneer a new multi-method approach for explaining how representation varies. Expected outcomes include a new framework that extends analysis of represent ....Political Representation in Indonesia. The project aims to understand political representation in Indonesia, asking how far politicians resemble voters in both their policy views and backgrounds (gender, religion, education etc.) It will generate new knowledge on a major potential source of fragility in the world’s third largest democracy, and pioneer a new multi-method approach for explaining how representation varies. Expected outcomes include a new framework that extends analysis of representation to illiberal democracies, and a tranche of public data on Indonesia for cross-national comparisons. Benefits will include a new set of analytical tools to help policy makers in Australia and the region assess sources of weakness in representative institutions in illiberal settings.Read moreRead less
Political Conflict, Inefficient Markets, and Food Crises. This project aims to investigate the effect of political conflict on food markets in low- and middle-income countries across Africa and Southeast Asia by utilizing granular data on ethnopolitical conflict, prices, and institutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of conflict studies using an innovative approach that allows eliciting disruptive effects of conflict by examining price relationships in spatially and ....Political Conflict, Inefficient Markets, and Food Crises. This project aims to investigate the effect of political conflict on food markets in low- and middle-income countries across Africa and Southeast Asia by utilizing granular data on ethnopolitical conflict, prices, and institutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of conflict studies using an innovative approach that allows eliciting disruptive effects of conflict by examining price relationships in spatially and temporally connected food and agricultural markets. Expected outcomes of this project include improved techniques to examine market inefficiencies in the wake of political conflict. This should provide significant benefits, such as creating an early warning platform for food crises in times of conflict.Read moreRead less
Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies and Social Cohesion. Civilisational populist rulers polarise societies mainly along religious lines. They also interfere with their emigrants, mobilising supporters against other expatriates. This project aims to advance knowledge of authoritarian states' transnational influence on social cohesion and inter-group conflict. By studying Islamist and Hindutva civilisationist mobilisations, their reach into their emigrants via digital technologies, ....Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies and Social Cohesion. Civilisational populist rulers polarise societies mainly along religious lines. They also interfere with their emigrants, mobilising supporters against other expatriates. This project aims to advance knowledge of authoritarian states' transnational influence on social cohesion and inter-group conflict. By studying Islamist and Hindutva civilisationist mobilisations, their reach into their emigrants via digital technologies, and their impact on Turkish and Indian groups in Australia, the project aims to assist policy makers and community groups by generating conceptual frameworks, benchmarking data, and recommendations for making policies to deal with this phenomenon's negative effects and for developing intervention strategiesRead moreRead less
Global Governing Gaps and Accountability Traps for Solar Energy and Storage. The climate crisis has spurred the global race for renewables, dramatically increasing solar energy and lithium-ion storage battery use. This project investigates the global governance of these technologies environmental and social impacts. This is significant because regulation lags technology: there are governance 'gaps' for protecting
communities, ecosystems, and developing states, and accountability 'traps' that pri ....Global Governing Gaps and Accountability Traps for Solar Energy and Storage. The climate crisis has spurred the global race for renewables, dramatically increasing solar energy and lithium-ion storage battery use. This project investigates the global governance of these technologies environmental and social impacts. This is significant because regulation lags technology: there are governance 'gaps' for protecting
communities, ecosystems, and developing states, and accountability 'traps' that prioritise governance processes over outcomes. The project examines how solar and storage production, use, and disposal is governed and whether governance initiatives can account for harm. The expected outcomes are to determine whether global governance can regulate renewables, with benefit for improving global protection rules.Read moreRead less
Discerning China’s Foreign Policy Playbook: Goals and Strategies. This project aims to unpack China’s foreign policy decisions and policy making through exploring the agency of Chinese scholars. By conceptualising a new theoretical model of Chinese scholars’ perceptions, signals and debates, this project expects to generate new knowledge on the goals and strategies of China’s foreign policy in the economic, trade, political, and security dimensions through elite interviews, textual analysis, an ....Discerning China’s Foreign Policy Playbook: Goals and Strategies. This project aims to unpack China’s foreign policy decisions and policy making through exploring the agency of Chinese scholars. By conceptualising a new theoretical model of Chinese scholars’ perceptions, signals and debates, this project expects to generate new knowledge on the goals and strategies of China’s foreign policy in the economic, trade, political, and security dimensions through elite interviews, textual analysis, and focus group research. The outcomes will include analyses for use by Australian policy, academic and business communities. During times of difficult communications, attaining a realistic understanding of China’s current and future policy orientations can enable more constructive and effective China policy.Read moreRead less
Mapping & Harnessing Public Mistrust: Constitutional Values Survey 2023-27. Declining public trust is well recognised as a problem of democratic government, including in Australia. However solutions are more elusive, confounded by the reality that mistrust and distrust play not just negative, but positive roles in our existing political and constitutional traditions. This project aims to be the first to comprehensively map the positive values of mistrust in citizen political attitudes and experi ....Mapping & Harnessing Public Mistrust: Constitutional Values Survey 2023-27. Declining public trust is well recognised as a problem of democratic government, including in Australia. However solutions are more elusive, confounded by the reality that mistrust and distrust play not just negative, but positive roles in our existing political and constitutional traditions. This project aims to be the first to comprehensively map the positive values of mistrust in citizen political attitudes and experience, building on previous Constitutional Values Surveys (2008-21) to test new measures of the content of trust including a first-ever longitudinal study of changing trust over time. The results will inform concrete solutions to three key policy reform dilemmas, providing better answers for sustaining public trust overall.
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