The role of lifestyle television in transforming culture, citizenship and selfhood: Australia, China, Taiwan, Singapore and India. Television now reaches 97% of the population in China and Indian TV is among the world's fastest growing industries. Despite its dominance as a media form in our region, in Australia we know little about the social and cultural dimensions of television in Asia. By researching lifestyle TV – a genre concerned with promoting new forms of lifestyle and consumption – thi ....The role of lifestyle television in transforming culture, citizenship and selfhood: Australia, China, Taiwan, Singapore and India. Television now reaches 97% of the population in China and Indian TV is among the world's fastest growing industries. Despite its dominance as a media form in our region, in Australia we know little about the social and cultural dimensions of television in Asia. By researching lifestyle TV – a genre concerned with promoting new forms of lifestyle and consumption – this project will help us comprehend the shifting cultural, economic and social dynamics of our region, contributing to Research Priority 4. Through engagement with Asian cultures and scholarship, it will also help position Australian media research as relevant both regionally and internationally and will help to inform Australian TV producers of new developments in the region.Read moreRead less
Secular modernisers in the Indonesian media: A biography of Mochtar Lubis (1922 - 2004). Democracy in post-Suharto Indonesia is being challenged by radical religious and communal interests. Precisely what form of polity will emerge remains unclear but, as Indonesia responds to such threats, Australia has a direct stake in the outcomes and needs new ways of understanding this dynamic. Media play a vital role in this. One of the most strained aspects of Australian-Indonesian relations has been the ....Secular modernisers in the Indonesian media: A biography of Mochtar Lubis (1922 - 2004). Democracy in post-Suharto Indonesia is being challenged by radical religious and communal interests. Precisely what form of polity will emerge remains unclear but, as Indonesia responds to such threats, Australia has a direct stake in the outcomes and needs new ways of understanding this dynamic. Media play a vital role in this. One of the most strained aspects of Australian-Indonesian relations has been the vastly differing assumptions on both sides about the relationship, exacerbated by a poor understanding of how the other's media operate. This research, and the biography of Mochtar Lubis, will provide a greater understanding of Indonesia's media, and of the unresolved struggle within it between secular democracy and sectarianism.Read moreRead less
The impact of Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson on European modernism and cultural life. The story of how the Black American entertainers Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson became stars in Jazz-Age Europe is the stuff of legend. Lionised by artists and intellectuals and idolised by popular audiences, they embodied the spirit of the age. As an allegory for those times, their story reveals a secret history of cultural intermixing at the heart of European modernism. It also holds up a mirror to our ....The impact of Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson on European modernism and cultural life. The story of how the Black American entertainers Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson became stars in Jazz-Age Europe is the stuff of legend. Lionised by artists and intellectuals and idolised by popular audiences, they embodied the spirit of the age. As an allegory for those times, their story reveals a secret history of cultural intermixing at the heart of European modernism. It also holds up a mirror to our times. By demonstrating the cosmopolitanism and ingenuity of popular culture, the research will simultaneously discomfort multicultural and anti-racist assumptions and deflate the myth of a pure or unchanging cultural identity.Read moreRead less
China's Rural Migrant Workers: Social Transition and Cultural Practice. This project will help Australians understand some of the growing social tensions and conflicts in contemporary China, thereby enhancing Australia's already strong reputation as a leading research community on China. It will generate grass-roots knowledge of individuals' experiences and perspectives - particularly those of the rural migrant. This knowledge is crucial if Australia is to forge links with China, and develop a n ....China's Rural Migrant Workers: Social Transition and Cultural Practice. This project will help Australians understand some of the growing social tensions and conflicts in contemporary China, thereby enhancing Australia's already strong reputation as a leading research community on China. It will generate grass-roots knowledge of individuals' experiences and perspectives - particularly those of the rural migrant. This knowledge is crucial if Australia is to forge links with China, and develop a nuanced and penetrating grasp of the socio-economic realities of the region. In addition, the study will generate cross-cultural perspectives on media, work and family - all increasingly pressing issues in the formation of social policy in Australia.Read moreRead less
Media in a Post-Authoritarian State: Crisis and Democratisation in Indonesia. The Indonesian experience since mid-1998 provides the opportunity to contribute to current theoretical debates internationally about the role of the media in the development and maintenance of democratic societies. This project will analyse the articulation of print and broadcast media into post-authoritarian politics in Indonesia since 1998, to address two related questions: (1) how the media is being transformed, bot ....Media in a Post-Authoritarian State: Crisis and Democratisation in Indonesia. The Indonesian experience since mid-1998 provides the opportunity to contribute to current theoretical debates internationally about the role of the media in the development and maintenance of democratic societies. This project will analyse the articulation of print and broadcast media into post-authoritarian politics in Indonesia since 1998, to address two related questions: (1) how the media is being transformed, both in terms of its structure and its texts, by the changed political economy of post-New Order Indonesia; (2) the potential of this media in enabling or hampering the development of a pluralist democracy in Indonesia.Read moreRead less
Representing Kanaks: Generic Variation, Identity, and the Politics of the Everyday Semiotic. The project hypothesizes that representational struggles over indigenous identity are crucially shaped by the range of genres in which identity is asserted. Through the case of Kanaks in New Caledonia, as represented by several everyday genres hitherto neglected by scholarship, the representational politics of indigeneity are interrogated with the aim of demonstrating that Kanak existence is constituted ....Representing Kanaks: Generic Variation, Identity, and the Politics of the Everyday Semiotic. The project hypothesizes that representational struggles over indigenous identity are crucially shaped by the range of genres in which identity is asserted. Through the case of Kanaks in New Caledonia, as represented by several everyday genres hitherto neglected by scholarship, the representational politics of indigeneity are interrogated with the aim of demonstrating that Kanak existence is constituted in the semiotic detail of everyday generic variation. The project's significance lies in its radical reconception of identity and representational politics: going beyond indigenous versus colonial binaries, it reveals the complexity of day-to-day competition over and consolidation of indigenous identity through representational systems.Read moreRead less