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Community Rule-Making in the Pacific Islands as Regulatory Innovation. Our study investigates the widespread phenomena of ‘community rule-making’ in Pacific Island countries, in which local communities engage in deliberative processes oriented towards development of new normative orders. Occurring largely outside of state-sanctioned authority, such processes may address social problems such as gender based violence, crime and poverty, and frequently occur in the context of other locally-driven ....Community Rule-Making in the Pacific Islands as Regulatory Innovation. Our study investigates the widespread phenomena of ‘community rule-making’ in Pacific Island countries, in which local communities engage in deliberative processes oriented towards development of new normative orders. Occurring largely outside of state-sanctioned authority, such processes may address social problems such as gender based violence, crime and poverty, and frequently occur in the context of other locally-driven attempts at community regeneration. Through collaborative empirical research in PNG, Solomon Islands and Samoa, our project will build an evidence base to better understand the potential and the dangers of community rule-making, and develop ‘responsive hybridisation’ as a new analytical framework to theorise about it.
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Overcoming Violence and Building Peace in Conditions of Complexity in PNG . The project is an investigation of the drivers and inhibitors of three inter-related forms of violence in Papua New Guinea - tribal fighting, sorcery accusation related violence and family and sexual violence. The harm caused by these forms of violence is systemic and ongoing, with widespread negative impacts for women, men and children across multiple dimensions of social and economic development. The project will produ ....Overcoming Violence and Building Peace in Conditions of Complexity in PNG . The project is an investigation of the drivers and inhibitors of three inter-related forms of violence in Papua New Guinea - tribal fighting, sorcery accusation related violence and family and sexual violence. The harm caused by these forms of violence is systemic and ongoing, with widespread negative impacts for women, men and children across multiple dimensions of social and economic development. The project will produce new knowledge about how violence and peace-making initiatives emerge, connect, spread and disperse, and generate new conceptual models to better analyse the dynamics of violence and peace across time and space. These theoretical insights will inform better violence prevention initiatives for Papua New Guinea and beyond.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100486
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$443,774.00
Summary
Navigating justice systems: how Pacific women secure their property rights. This project aims to investigate the strategies that Pacific women use to challenge gender inequality, and improve understanding of the pathways to justice in Pacific legal systems. Using an innovative socio-legal approach, the project will collect, analyse and disseminate data on the strategies used by women to advocate for stronger property rights, and develop a framework for understanding those strategies. Expected ou ....Navigating justice systems: how Pacific women secure their property rights. This project aims to investigate the strategies that Pacific women use to challenge gender inequality, and improve understanding of the pathways to justice in Pacific legal systems. Using an innovative socio-legal approach, the project will collect, analyse and disseminate data on the strategies used by women to advocate for stronger property rights, and develop a framework for understanding those strategies. Expected outcomes include an improved empirical and conceptual basis for development organisations to design and implement gender equality programs. This should provide significant benefits including enhanced understanding of women’s engagement with legal systems, and better-informed and more effective development assistance.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100189
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$438,000.00
Summary
Beyond Imported Understandings of Domestic Violence in the Pacific. High occurrences of domestic violence across the Pacific region threatens the growth and development of all sectors. This project aims to investigate local understandings of the causes, manifestations, and best-suited responses to the problem in the Pacific. It advances a study of local stakeholder’s perspectives of domestic violence in two of the least developed Pacific Island countries to generate non-Western, context-specific ....Beyond Imported Understandings of Domestic Violence in the Pacific. High occurrences of domestic violence across the Pacific region threatens the growth and development of all sectors. This project aims to investigate local understandings of the causes, manifestations, and best-suited responses to the problem in the Pacific. It advances a study of local stakeholder’s perspectives of domestic violence in two of the least developed Pacific Island countries to generate non-Western, context-specific insight into developing policies and practices to inform improved frontline responses. Expected outcomes include the development of an evidence base to inform contextually appropriate and innovative responses to domestic violence, with benefits to islander/indigenous communities and economies in Oceania.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100857
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$369,354.00
Summary
Local Memories and Nation-building in Timor-Leste and Bougainville. It is well known that, in post-conflict societies, political elites portray and memorialise the past in the service of nation-building. Far less attention has been paid to the relationship between local memory practices and nation-building. By examining how community members in Timor-Leste and Bougainville commemorate the past, construct monuments, undertake reconciliation practices and ritually rebury the dead, this project aim ....Local Memories and Nation-building in Timor-Leste and Bougainville. It is well known that, in post-conflict societies, political elites portray and memorialise the past in the service of nation-building. Far less attention has been paid to the relationship between local memory practices and nation-building. By examining how community members in Timor-Leste and Bougainville commemorate the past, construct monuments, undertake reconciliation practices and ritually rebury the dead, this project aims to reveal how citizens' collective memories are shaping nations. This research aims to contribute new theoretical understandings of the relationship between memory and nation-building, while also influencing policy debates on peace-building and transitional justice after conflict.Read moreRead less
Working through loss from climate change in the Pacific Islands. As global efforts to respond to climate change fail to protect the most vulnerable, its impacts will continue to cause grief and suffering through loss of life, wellbeing, place and culture. In-depth understanding of this loss, particularly its non-economic aspects, is limited. The Fellowship program aims to address this gap. Outcomes include a novel framework and methodology to explore how loss is experienced in three Pacific Isla ....Working through loss from climate change in the Pacific Islands. As global efforts to respond to climate change fail to protect the most vulnerable, its impacts will continue to cause grief and suffering through loss of life, wellbeing, place and culture. In-depth understanding of this loss, particularly its non-economic aspects, is limited. The Fellowship program aims to address this gap. Outcomes include a novel framework and methodology to explore how loss is experienced in three Pacific Island countries, providing new ways of working through loss and grief with communities at the frontline of climate change. The outcomes will inform international and national policy and practice, helping people plan and work through this loss, minimise its harm and have greater hope and agency over their futures.Read moreRead less
3000 Years of settlement and interaction in southern Vanuatu. This project aims to conduct an archaeological survey of Vanuatu. One of archaeology's most significant contributions is providing models for the emergence of cultural diversity through time. Vanuatu is one of the most diverse regions on Earth. The southern islands were an important hub in early settlement and long-term inter-island interactions of Island Melanesia. Yet little is known about the origins of cultural contacts and divers ....3000 Years of settlement and interaction in southern Vanuatu. This project aims to conduct an archaeological survey of Vanuatu. One of archaeology's most significant contributions is providing models for the emergence of cultural diversity through time. Vanuatu is one of the most diverse regions on Earth. The southern islands were an important hub in early settlement and long-term inter-island interactions of Island Melanesia. Yet little is known about the origins of cultural contacts and diversity in the area. A major archaeological survey of the Polynesian outliers Futuna and Aniwa and neighbouring islands Tanna and Aneityum would greatly improve our knowledge of settlement patterns, long-distance exchange, and cross-cultural interaction in the region, from initial Lapita settlement 3000 years ago through to the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 1860s.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100575
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$428,000.00
Summary
Not drowning, fighting?: UN climate governance and Pacific Island countries. This project aims to significantly advance understandings of UN climate governance processes, and the spaces and strategies utilised by Pacific Island countries to influence the final decision outcomes. This project will generate important new knowledge about global climate governance using an innovative approach to collaborative event ethnography that involves a majority Pacific Islander research team and working ‘inte ....Not drowning, fighting?: UN climate governance and Pacific Island countries. This project aims to significantly advance understandings of UN climate governance processes, and the spaces and strategies utilised by Pacific Island countries to influence the final decision outcomes. This project will generate important new knowledge about global climate governance using an innovative approach to collaborative event ethnography that involves a majority Pacific Islander research team and working ‘internal’ to formal UN climate negotiations. The project should identify key climate change outcomes for the Pacific and Australia that will help address climate security issues, and that raise the status of Pacific Indigenous knowledge systems by incorporating them centrally within understandings of climate change policy. Read moreRead less
Improving responses to sexual violence against children in Papua New Guinea. The project aims to result in improved knowledge and community acknowledgement of sexual violence against children in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and an approach that could be adapted and adopted in other low income, fragile contexts. It is a very significant project because sexual violence against children is a widespread and escalating social problem, with a very limited capacity to respond to reported incidents. Working ....Improving responses to sexual violence against children in Papua New Guinea. The project aims to result in improved knowledge and community acknowledgement of sexual violence against children in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and an approach that could be adapted and adopted in other low income, fragile contexts. It is a very significant project because sexual violence against children is a widespread and escalating social problem, with a very limited capacity to respond to reported incidents. Working closely with two specialist services to trial and assess a low-cost approach, the project is expected to result in longer-term support for child survivors and their families, and reduce further victimisation and offending. The potential benefits are multiple and far ranging, in PNG and in the Pacific region more broadly. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100454
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$419,300.00
Summary
A Made in Australia Model for Indigenous-State Treaty-Making. This project aims to address the key public law issues that must be resolved for the negotiation of treaties between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and Australian governments. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the legal, political, institutional, and other factors behind successful treaty-making in the comparative states of Canada and New Zealand and the legal capacity of Australian governments t ....A Made in Australia Model for Indigenous-State Treaty-Making. This project aims to address the key public law issues that must be resolved for the negotiation of treaties between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and Australian governments. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the legal, political, institutional, and other factors behind successful treaty-making in the comparative states of Canada and New Zealand and the legal capacity of Australian governments to engage in treaty-making. Expected outcomes of this project include the development of uniquely innovative and flexible ‘made in Australia’ models of treaty-making that are constitutionally viable. This should provide significant benefits, such as improving the likelihood of successful treaty processes.Read moreRead less