Rethinking climate justice in an age of adaptation: capabilities, local variation, and public deliberation. This project aims to produce recommendations, designed by citizens and stakeholders, for climate adaptation policies in three regions of Australia. These recommendations will be based on a definition of climate justice that incorporates basic needs and resources to be protected, as identified by potentially impacted communities.
The New Environmentalism of Everyday Life: Sustainability, Material Flows, and the Evolution of Environmental Movements. In recent years, a whole range of environmental groups have developed with a focus not on environmental policy at the state or national level, but instead on the development of new and more sustainable practices relating to food, energy, transport, and a range of other basic needs. This project will examine the array of newly developing practices, movements, and institutions; ....The New Environmentalism of Everyday Life: Sustainability, Material Flows, and the Evolution of Environmental Movements. In recent years, a whole range of environmental groups have developed with a focus not on environmental policy at the state or national level, but instead on the development of new and more sustainable practices relating to food, energy, transport, and a range of other basic needs. This project will examine the array of newly developing practices, movements, and institutions; draw connections between a seemingly disparate set of foci and movement groups; and design and apply a new, broad analytical framework to explain such developments in environmental action and practice. Significantly, the goal is a major new theory about the structure, foci, and strategies of a range of new environmental movements.Read moreRead less
Deliberative democracy in the public sphere: achieving deliberative outcomes in mass publics. This project will systematically explore ways in which citizens can engage more deeply with complex policy issues without the need to resort to massive expenditure on running multiple deliberative forums, such as citizens' assemblies. It will identify the language is needed to deliberatively inform and the vehicles for providing that information.
Environmental Justice and the Making of Just Food and Energy Policy. This project aims to improve two key areas of environmental policy by investigating the meaning of environmental justice and how it is best implemented. It will generate a significant new framework of the idea of environmental justice and offer innovative research that demonstrates what hinders and enables just policies in practice. Expected outcomes of this project include an updated and enhanced theory of environmental justic ....Environmental Justice and the Making of Just Food and Energy Policy. This project aims to improve two key areas of environmental policy by investigating the meaning of environmental justice and how it is best implemented. It will generate a significant new framework of the idea of environmental justice and offer innovative research that demonstrates what hinders and enables just policies in practice. Expected outcomes of this project include an updated and enhanced theory of environmental justice, a new understanding of the enablers and barriers to its implementation in practice, and recommendations to make policies on urban food security and energy transition more just. Overall, the project should provide the benefit of the development of more just policies on two key environmental issues facing Australia.Read moreRead less
China's invisible economic leadership: women in family enterprises. Chinese women are generally regarded as not having been in the leadership of economic reform. In contrast, the Chief Investigator's recent research on the new rich in North China suggests that the wives of new entrepreneurs may play significant, though unacknowledged, leadership roles in enterprise development. In particular, it suggests that women often act as business managers and accountants alongside their husbands, especial ....China's invisible economic leadership: women in family enterprises. Chinese women are generally regarded as not having been in the leadership of economic reform. In contrast, the Chief Investigator's recent research on the new rich in North China suggests that the wives of new entrepreneurs may play significant, though unacknowledged, leadership roles in enterprise development. In particular, it suggests that women often act as business managers and accountants alongside their husbands, especially in family based enterprises first established in the private sector. It is now proposed to test the wider applicability of these findings, and explore the consequences for the development of enterprises, families and local politics.Read moreRead less
Economic growth in China's west: the social basis of enterprise development. This project examines the new economic elites in the ethnic borderlands of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai and is designed to analyse the social basis of enterprise development and its consequences. The project will add to understanding of local social capital formation in the People's Republic of China.
Democratic dialogue and capabilities: new opportunities in post-reconciliation era Australia. In conflict and post-conflict societies around the world, democratic dialogue has proven to be an important element in processes designed to facilitate social change and create a more just and inclusive society. This project will make a significant theoretical and methodological contribution to national and international understanding of methods for resolving longstanding intercultural conflicts. It aim ....Democratic dialogue and capabilities: new opportunities in post-reconciliation era Australia. In conflict and post-conflict societies around the world, democratic dialogue has proven to be an important element in processes designed to facilitate social change and create a more just and inclusive society. This project will make a significant theoretical and methodological contribution to national and international understanding of methods for resolving longstanding intercultural conflicts. It aims to demonstrate the role that democratic dialogue can have in transforming the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It will test the hypothesis that the social and institutional change that is possible through dialogue will have capability-enhancing effects for Indigenous Australians.Read moreRead less
Rights Defence Lawyers and Constitutionalism in China. Scholars have argued that rights lawyers have played key roles in advancing social and political change in a reforming society through defining and defending citizen rights, developing civil society, and seeking to moderate state power. However, few studies have examined the political roles or aspirations of lawyers in contemporary China. This project aims to demonstrate how Chinese 'rights defence' lawyers have drawn together diverse strand ....Rights Defence Lawyers and Constitutionalism in China. Scholars have argued that rights lawyers have played key roles in advancing social and political change in a reforming society through defining and defending citizen rights, developing civil society, and seeking to moderate state power. However, few studies have examined the political roles or aspirations of lawyers in contemporary China. This project aims to demonstrate how Chinese 'rights defence' lawyers have drawn together diverse strands of social protest to become an articulating voice for constitutional reform. The project aims to make both empirical and theoretical contributions to the world-wide debate on the interaction between rights lawyers, rule of law, social activism and political reform.Read moreRead less
Reconciling nations: what can Australia learn from the international experience of democratic dialogue? This project will draw on international experience to explore the capacity for facilitated, democratic dialogue to revitalise the Australian reconciliation process. Using innovative case study research and an original applied theoretical approach, the project will develop new methods for resolving intercultural conflict in Australia.
The New Rich and the State in China: The social basis of local power. Australia's relationship with China is important for economic, political and social, reasons. This project will generally assist in contributing to understanding about China's social and political development, and will develop specific expertise in the socio-economic environments of its research localities across five provinces that will be of use to Australian companies seeking access to the China market. It will also add to ....The New Rich and the State in China: The social basis of local power. Australia's relationship with China is important for economic, political and social, reasons. This project will generally assist in contributing to understanding about China's social and political development, and will develop specific expertise in the socio-economic environments of its research localities across five provinces that will be of use to Australian companies seeking access to the China market. It will also add to the development of Australia's standing as a major centre of research on contemporary China. Read moreRead less