Living With Uncertainty: Creating the Postmodern Self in Contemporary Australia. Life in postmodernity is marked by rapid change and uncertainty. Increasingly, as tradition is worn away, individuals must create new scripts to give life meaning and structure. Through a case study of gays and lesbians, this project will investigate how a group of Australians are creating postmodern selves. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it traces the relationship between discursive and psychological accounts of t ....Living With Uncertainty: Creating the Postmodern Self in Contemporary Australia. Life in postmodernity is marked by rapid change and uncertainty. Increasingly, as tradition is worn away, individuals must create new scripts to give life meaning and structure. Through a case study of gays and lesbians, this project will investigate how a group of Australians are creating postmodern selves. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it traces the relationship between discursive and psychological accounts of the postmodern self and their political effects. With a particular interest in emotional life, this study will provide critical information on how individuals and communities can manage creatively the uncertain conditions of postmodernity.Read moreRead less
The making of market society on a world scale: social experience and social theory from the global South. How does our social world change, when markets become dominant? This project explores the problem on a global scale-beyond Eurocentrism. Placing Australia in a broad world context, using both web-based and close-focus research methods on four continents, this project will pioneer a new approach to understanding modern society.
Cosmopolitan encounters in contemporary Australia. Australian society is increasingly subject to global forces and flows. This study explores how far-reaching, global changes are articulated locally within a range of Australian cities and towns. Using the concept of the ‘cosmopolitan encounter’, it investigates the nature and meaning of encounters with cultural difference in Australian communities.
Agency and Change in Institutionalised Organisations: The role of volunteers as institutional agents in the non-profit sector. This project intends to test recent developments in neoinstitutional organisational theory. The theoretical model developed is designed to address two questions bedvilling the genre: the role of human agency in institutional processes, and understanding institutional change. These questions are addressed in two ways: first, it takes voluntarism as an example of agency ....Agency and Change in Institutionalised Organisations: The role of volunteers as institutional agents in the non-profit sector. This project intends to test recent developments in neoinstitutional organisational theory. The theoretical model developed is designed to address two questions bedvilling the genre: the role of human agency in institutional processes, and understanding institutional change. These questions are addressed in two ways: first, it takes voluntarism as an example of agency in action; and second, it is located in the non-profit sector, an organisational field undergoing significant change. The project employs a micro-sociological methodological orientation rarely used in neoinstitutional research; that of non-participant observation and conversation analysis.Read moreRead less
The Salmon Ponds and the Development of an Acclimatisation Culture and Landscape in the Derwent Valley, Tasmania. The Derwent Valley, Tasmania, is both an economically depressed rural area and one of the most special and richly endowed colonial landscapes. This project will assist in developing and restoring its status as a touring and angling landscape for tourists by researching and reconstructing its making through the acclimatisation network centred on its cultural and technical hub at Salm ....The Salmon Ponds and the Development of an Acclimatisation Culture and Landscape in the Derwent Valley, Tasmania. The Derwent Valley, Tasmania, is both an economically depressed rural area and one of the most special and richly endowed colonial landscapes. This project will assist in developing and restoring its status as a touring and angling landscape for tourists by researching and reconstructing its making through the acclimatisation network centred on its cultural and technical hub at Salmon Ponds, New Norfolk. The research will trace the social and technical networks that linked newly formed angling associations,landowners, technical and scientific expertise with commercial and political patronage. It will elaborate how these in turn produced both a unique landscape and a culturally embedded association with it.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100071
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$368,000.00
Summary
Understanding intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership. Rates of intergenerational financial support with first home ownership have skyrocketed over the last decade. This project aims to understand how this support is negotiated within families. It will use innovative qualitative methods to identify how this form of financial assistance impacts upon families over time, and from the perspectives of multiple family members. Expected outcomes include a new, systematic framework to ....Understanding intergenerational financial assistance with home ownership. Rates of intergenerational financial support with first home ownership have skyrocketed over the last decade. This project aims to understand how this support is negotiated within families. It will use innovative qualitative methods to identify how this form of financial assistance impacts upon families over time, and from the perspectives of multiple family members. Expected outcomes include a new, systematic framework to recognise how families shape young adults’ pathways into home ownership and to develop evidence-based financial policy. This should provide significant benefits including greater protection for both donors and recipients of financial assistance when purchasing property. Read moreRead less
Young hospitality workers and value creation in the service economy. This project aims to investigate how labour performed by young people in the hospitality industry contributes to the creation of economic value. The project intends to examine the specific practices through which hospitality workers create value as well as the personal capacities and forms of identity that allow young people to become a successful part of the hospitality labour force. The knowledge gained in this project will i ....Young hospitality workers and value creation in the service economy. This project aims to investigate how labour performed by young people in the hospitality industry contributes to the creation of economic value. The project intends to examine the specific practices through which hospitality workers create value as well as the personal capacities and forms of identity that allow young people to become a successful part of the hospitality labour force. The knowledge gained in this project will inform current social and political debate about working conditions, wages and penalty rates in the service economy. This project will enhance growth and job creation within the service sector together with the quality of Australia’s service workforce.Read moreRead less
Knowledge-making in Australian society: sociology and its social impact. This project aims to reveal how Australians, over several generations, have sought to make sense of society in an organised way. The project intends to draw from interviews with key scholars, archival and citation data to ascertain how sociological knowledge has been shaped by a context of post-colonialism, multiculturalism and global capitalism as well as the extent to which these ideas have contributed to, and been influe ....Knowledge-making in Australian society: sociology and its social impact. This project aims to reveal how Australians, over several generations, have sought to make sense of society in an organised way. The project intends to draw from interviews with key scholars, archival and citation data to ascertain how sociological knowledge has been shaped by a context of post-colonialism, multiculturalism and global capitalism as well as the extent to which these ideas have contributed to, and been influenced by, policy, legislation and public debate. Expected outcomes include new evidence about the role of disciplines and contribute to the international research effort in this emerging field.Read moreRead less
Employment Activation and the Changing Economy-Society Relation. Underemployment and joblessness have emerged as serious social problems in an age of global economic uncertainty. This project focuses on how, across advanced liberal societies, these problems are being redefined via transnational policy models and experiments seeking to 'activate' underemployed and unemployed populations. This project posits that these experiments articulate a new dynamic between economy and society and aims to pr ....Employment Activation and the Changing Economy-Society Relation. Underemployment and joblessness have emerged as serious social problems in an age of global economic uncertainty. This project focuses on how, across advanced liberal societies, these problems are being redefined via transnational policy models and experiments seeking to 'activate' underemployed and unemployed populations. This project posits that these experiments articulate a new dynamic between economy and society and aims to provide a better understanding of this dynamic. It aims to deliver a reconceptualisation of under- and unemployment, a new and relevant analysis of policy models, and new empirical insight into the mobilisation of activation policies.Read moreRead less
Democrats within the Chinese Communist Party and China's Democratic Future: The Case of Li Shenzhi. A major nuclear power with ambitions for regional predominance, China is home to one fifth of the world's population, the world's fastest-growing economy since the 1980s, one of the few surviving communist regimes, and Australia's third-largest trading partner. Whether China will democratise is central to international peace and stability and to any assessment of the future of world politics and i ....Democrats within the Chinese Communist Party and China's Democratic Future: The Case of Li Shenzhi. A major nuclear power with ambitions for regional predominance, China is home to one fifth of the world's population, the world's fastest-growing economy since the 1980s, one of the few surviving communist regimes, and Australia's third-largest trading partner. Whether China will democratise is central to international peace and stability and to any assessment of the future of world politics and international order. The project will make conceptual and empirical advances in the study of intellectual life and political trends in China and help Australian government and public bodies achieve a greater understanding of the political process in that country.Read moreRead less