Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101522
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$368,000.00
Summary
The politics of torture in Myanmar and Thailand. This project aims to explore how torture occurs in Asian countries of political, economic and strategic importance to Australia. Torture is by many accounts routine practice for police and security forces across Asia. How is torture possible? What role is it playing? By documenting where, when and how torture occurs, this project aims to determine what torture constitutes and analyse the politics that enable it. It is anticipated that information ....The politics of torture in Myanmar and Thailand. This project aims to explore how torture occurs in Asian countries of political, economic and strategic importance to Australia. Torture is by many accounts routine practice for police and security forces across Asia. How is torture possible? What role is it playing? By documenting where, when and how torture occurs, this project aims to determine what torture constitutes and analyse the politics that enable it. It is anticipated that information from the project could be used to develop effective interventions to address torture. The project also anticipates contributing to policy-oriented debate on whether torture can be eliminated, or merely suppressed.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100573
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$322,699.00
Summary
Glasnost for Myanmar? Political cultures in transition. Myanmar is a major country in Southeast Asia and has since 2008 made moves towards more democratic government. This project will research and explain this period of transition in terms of political cultures. It will provide guidance on the processes of democratisation underway in a society that has experienced long-term military rule.
Urbanising Western China: Nation-building on the Sino-Tibetan frontier. This project aims to explore urbanisation as a key part of the Chinese Communist Party's policies in Tibet and the novel opportunities it affords for Tibetan identity, language, and culture. An international, multidisciplinary team will combine analysis of key government texts, interviews with government officials and ethnic minority elites, as well as observations of daily life amongst urban Tibetans. The project will produ ....Urbanising Western China: Nation-building on the Sino-Tibetan frontier. This project aims to explore urbanisation as a key part of the Chinese Communist Party's policies in Tibet and the novel opportunities it affords for Tibetan identity, language, and culture. An international, multidisciplinary team will combine analysis of key government texts, interviews with government officials and ethnic minority elites, as well as observations of daily life amongst urban Tibetans. The project will produce new understandings of the challenges of governing diversity in China, and will benefit Australia by exploring a fundamental aspect of the changing social fabric of our region’s dominant power.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101123
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$393,359.00
Summary
Through their eyes: Rethinking the role of information operations in counterinsurgency scholarship and strategy. Western counterinsurgency forces regularly lose the 'information battle' to militarily and economically inferior insurgent forces. This project explores why and how insurgent adversaries often prove superior in shaping the perceptions of local populations and winning their support. Through case studies of East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, the project identifies the key strategic pilla ....Through their eyes: Rethinking the role of information operations in counterinsurgency scholarship and strategy. Western counterinsurgency forces regularly lose the 'information battle' to militarily and economically inferior insurgent forces. This project explores why and how insurgent adversaries often prove superior in shaping the perceptions of local populations and winning their support. Through case studies of East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, the project identifies the key strategic pillars in insurgent information operations in order to critically analyse and revise the role of information operations in counterinsurgency theory and practice. This research will advance scholarly understanding of the psychosocial dynamics of influence during conflict and challenge dominant trends in counterinsurgency theory and practice.Read moreRead less
Money Politics: Patronage, Political Networks and Electoral Dynamics in Southeast Asia. How does money politics shape electoral competition and outcomes in developing democracies? This project tackles this question by focusing on pork barrelling, spoils, vote buying and related phenomena in the four most important electoral regimes of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Using methods that range from close observation of election campaigns to national surveys, the p ....Money Politics: Patronage, Political Networks and Electoral Dynamics in Southeast Asia. How does money politics shape electoral competition and outcomes in developing democracies? This project tackles this question by focusing on pork barrelling, spoils, vote buying and related phenomena in the four most important electoral regimes of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Using methods that range from close observation of election campaigns to national surveys, the project will analyse how the distribution of material benefits via clientelist and other networks affects political dynamics. By identifying and explaining variations in patronage, the research will cast light on issues critical to the future of democracy, governance and political stability in Southeast Asia and beyond.Read moreRead less
Constructing ethnic politics in Indonesia. Exploring political dynamics in provincial Indonesia, this project will address fundamental questions about how ethnicity becomes important in political affairs, and about why political actors choose to emphasise some ethnic identities but not others. It will also help identify the conditions which lead to inter-ethnic cooperation rather than conflict.
The new politics of ethnicity in regional Indonesia. By examining the role played by ethnicity in local politics in Indonesia, this project will address broad questions about how ethnic identities become mobilised politically and about the conditions that enable inter-ethnic harmony rather than conflict. It will also greatly enhance our understanding of politics in the new democratic Indonesia.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101706
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$369,573.00
Summary
Courts, politics and power in Southeast Asia. Are the courts taking over political life in Southeast Asia? This comparative study of high courts in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will examine ways in which these courts have become central to political life in those nations. It will focus particularly on the consequences for democratic rule and the rule of law in society.
Local politics, governance and public goods in Southeast Asia. This project aims to investigate how variations in local government across four Southeast Asian states affect the delivery of critical public goods such as infrastructure and healthcare to citizens. The project will compare governance regimes across 16 municipalities in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Expected outcomes include an improved understanding of how varying political dynamics can shape state-citizen inte ....Local politics, governance and public goods in Southeast Asia. This project aims to investigate how variations in local government across four Southeast Asian states affect the delivery of critical public goods such as infrastructure and healthcare to citizens. The project will compare governance regimes across 16 municipalities in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Expected outcomes include an improved understanding of how varying political dynamics can shape state-citizen interactions and access to services at a local level. The findings will enhance understanding of local politics, a topic of growing scholarly interest, and also benefit Australian and other policy makers seeking to enhance the design of development interventions.Read moreRead less
Global Citizen Deliberation: Analysing a Deliberative Documentary. The project will enact and film the world’s first truly global citizens’ deliberation, a global citizens’ assembly (GCA) on genome editing, and proceed to analyse the impact of the ‘deliberative documentary’ film on public understanding of complex, fast-evolving science and technology. It will investigate the cross-cultural capacity of citizens to deliberate complex value-laden issues, and so ascertain prospects for an informed g ....Global Citizen Deliberation: Analysing a Deliberative Documentary. The project will enact and film the world’s first truly global citizens’ deliberation, a global citizens’ assembly (GCA) on genome editing, and proceed to analyse the impact of the ‘deliberative documentary’ film on public understanding of complex, fast-evolving science and technology. It will investigate the cross-cultural capacity of citizens to deliberate complex value-laden issues, and so ascertain prospects for an informed global public response to challenges posed by genome editing. Research will test the effects of the deliberative documentary on viewers, examining benefits of communicating complex issues via the work of the GCA. Other benefits include improving public trust in governance and advancing the Australian film industry.
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