The skin of commerce: the role of plastic packaging in the construction of food security, waste and consumer activism in Australia. Plastic packaging has been important to ensuring food security in Australia, however it is also a major waste burden. This project will critically assess new approaches to reducing plastic packaging in food markets and waste streams and will produce key insights into how sustainable food systems can be organised with less reliance on plastic.
From the Tap to the Bottle: an international study of the social and material life of bottled water. Water is a critical resource in Australia yet little is known about water in bottles. This project will be the first comparative study of bottled water marketing, consumption and disposal. It will make a significant contribution to national and international understandings of changing practices in the consumption of drinking water. The research will produce an analysis of the rise of the bottle i ....From the Tap to the Bottle: an international study of the social and material life of bottled water. Water is a critical resource in Australia yet little is known about water in bottles. This project will be the first comparative study of bottled water marketing, consumption and disposal. It will make a significant contribution to national and international understandings of changing practices in the consumption of drinking water. The research will produce an analysis of the rise of the bottle in relation to the tap. Specifically, how various anxieties associated with drinking tap water, in Australia and elsewhere, impact on bottled water consumption. The knowledge produced about bottled water collection, circulation and regulation will contribute to wider debates about sustainable water provision and access to safe water for all.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100119
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,218.00
Summary
Community Gardening in Australia: A Nationwide Study. By researching community gardeners’ experiences, food gardening media and government policies through digital and sensory ethnography, interviews and textual analysis, this project aims to produce a nationwide qualitative study of community gardening in Australia. The rise of community gardens is of major significance, emerging as it does out of a broader range of concerns over the environment, health and wellbeing, food security, social incl ....Community Gardening in Australia: A Nationwide Study. By researching community gardeners’ experiences, food gardening media and government policies through digital and sensory ethnography, interviews and textual analysis, this project aims to produce a nationwide qualitative study of community gardening in Australia. The rise of community gardens is of major significance, emerging as it does out of a broader range of concerns over the environment, health and wellbeing, food security, social inclusion, and community resilience. The intended outcomes of the project will provide an evidence base to enable the development of effective local, state and national policies on community gardening, and recommendations on how community, government, and media can work together to facilitate the expansion of sustainable lifestyles and wellbeing.Read moreRead less
Building Difference: Architectural Strategies in Colonial Museums. Natural history and ethnology museums built in the 19th century in British imperial territories in Australia, New Zealand, India, and Canada were driven by specific colonising intent. Their architecture reflects the cultural complexities of empire. Using archival sources, the project researches the deployment of metropolitan architectural theory in colonial museum design from the foundation of these institutions to decolonisatio ....Building Difference: Architectural Strategies in Colonial Museums. Natural history and ethnology museums built in the 19th century in British imperial territories in Australia, New Zealand, India, and Canada were driven by specific colonising intent. Their architecture reflects the cultural complexities of empire. Using archival sources, the project researches the deployment of metropolitan architectural theory in colonial museum design from the foundation of these institutions to decolonisation and institutional modernisation in the mid-20th century. It examines how architectural strategies were exploited and inflected by different local conditions, to produce a sophisticated investigation of the architecture of empire.Read moreRead less
Sustaining Places: Public Space Design in a time of loss. Public space currently experiences various forms of loss: environmental, symbolic and spiritual. As it is an index of democratic health, this represents a diminished capacity to sustain ourselves politically and culturally. The project aims to reverse this decline through an innovative approach to public space design. It redefines public space to include ?soft-edge? environments. It identifies ephemeral and performative heritages that len ....Sustaining Places: Public Space Design in a time of loss. Public space currently experiences various forms of loss: environmental, symbolic and spiritual. As it is an index of democratic health, this represents a diminished capacity to sustain ourselves politically and culturally. The project aims to reverse this decline through an innovative approach to public space design. It redefines public space to include ?soft-edge? environments. It identifies ephemeral and performative heritages that lend places their sustaining character. Through global case studies, and an in-depth account of current Australian public space commissioning processes, it identifies obstacles to the creation of sustaining places, and defines an integrated theory and practice to produce them.
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The rise of ethical consumption in Australia: from the margins to the mainstream. This nationwide project will be the first of its kind to examine the rise and impact of ethical consumption in Australia. Through engaging with consumers, retailers and producers, the project’s findings will enable the development of policy and industry frameworks aimed at the promotion of more ethical and sustainable ways of consuming.
Intercolonial networks of the Indian Ocean. This project falls within National Research Priority 4, Safeguarding Australia, specifically the priority goal Understanding our Region and the World. It will enhance Australia's capacity to interpret and engage with its local and global environment and shed new light on regional security issues through an innovative re-appraisal of its history and role both locally and internationally. It will document, highlight and potentially reactivate long-establ ....Intercolonial networks of the Indian Ocean. This project falls within National Research Priority 4, Safeguarding Australia, specifically the priority goal Understanding our Region and the World. It will enhance Australia's capacity to interpret and engage with its local and global environment and shed new light on regional security issues through an innovative re-appraisal of its history and role both locally and internationally. It will document, highlight and potentially reactivate long-established but neglected trade linkages with India, an emerging economic giant, as well as other Indian Ocean countries. Consequent research collaborations and outcomes will strengthen intellectual relationships between Australia and the region, particularly India.Read moreRead less
Backpacker cultures, residential communities, and the construction of tourist spaces and landscapes: A regional study of changing tourism dynamics in Sydney. This interdisciplinary project draws on Cultural Studies, Cultural Geography, and Tourism to respond to industry calls for more comprehensive, long-term research on tourism issues, particularly backpacker tourism in the Sydney metropolitan region. The project will explore tourism as a complex cultural practice through an innovative approach ....Backpacker cultures, residential communities, and the construction of tourist spaces and landscapes: A regional study of changing tourism dynamics in Sydney. This interdisciplinary project draws on Cultural Studies, Cultural Geography, and Tourism to respond to industry calls for more comprehensive, long-term research on tourism issues, particularly backpacker tourism in the Sydney metropolitan region. The project will explore tourism as a complex cultural practice through an innovative approach investigating the links between backpacker tourism and the transformation of places and communities. The focus is on backpackers, with a special emphasis on the problems Local Government faces in relation to backpackers within residential communities. The project will generate new approaches to these issues, informing a range of policies for local councils.Read moreRead less
Urban Imaginaries/Cultural Landscapes: An Asia-Pacific Transnational and Cross-Cultural Research Collaboration. The aim of the program is to foster research collaboration between the ANU's Humanities Research Centre and Lingnan University's Cultural Research and Development Program by examining public culture, transnational culture, urban landscapes and urban cultural identities in the contemporary Asia-Pacific and Australian context. We will do this by extending ties with researchers from the ....Urban Imaginaries/Cultural Landscapes: An Asia-Pacific Transnational and Cross-Cultural Research Collaboration. The aim of the program is to foster research collaboration between the ANU's Humanities Research Centre and Lingnan University's Cultural Research and Development Program by examining public culture, transnational culture, urban landscapes and urban cultural identities in the contemporary Asia-Pacific and Australian context. We will do this by extending ties with researchers from the region including early career and students and by developing a comparative cross-cultural methodology capable of encompassing specific socio-historical patterns and processes of dynamically changing public cultural formations in contemporary urban centres in the Asia-Pacific, including Australia. Specific outcomes include a book, e-journal and a multi-media exhibition.
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Zeroing in on food waste: Measuring, understanding and reducing food waste. By developing a socio-culturally aware public education and social marketing programme to reduce food waste behaviours, the proposal addresses the national research priority area of an environmentally sustainable Australia. Reducing food waste by just 10% would save ~$530 million worth of wasted expenditure on food and reduce food waste in landfill by ~300,000 tonnes per annum, thereby reducing the costs associated with ....Zeroing in on food waste: Measuring, understanding and reducing food waste. By developing a socio-culturally aware public education and social marketing programme to reduce food waste behaviours, the proposal addresses the national research priority area of an environmentally sustainable Australia. Reducing food waste by just 10% would save ~$530 million worth of wasted expenditure on food and reduce food waste in landfill by ~300,000 tonnes per annum, thereby reducing the costs associated with disposal and the release of harmful methane gases. The methodology refined by this project to understand food waste will provide the basis for efficient and sustainable food waste reduction strategies and provide an approach that can be generalised to other waste streams with strong socio-cultural determinants.Read moreRead less