Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200385
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$262,359.00
Summary
Transforming Democracy in the Bush: A Study of Politics in Rural Australia. This project aims to examine changing patterns of political participation and representation in rural Australia. Almost one third of our population lives outside major cities yet little is known about the democratic dynamics unfolding in rural Australia as it faces major demographic, economic and environmental change. Through in-depth case research this project will analyse how rural Australians participate in politics, ....Transforming Democracy in the Bush: A Study of Politics in Rural Australia. This project aims to examine changing patterns of political participation and representation in rural Australia. Almost one third of our population lives outside major cities yet little is known about the democratic dynamics unfolding in rural Australia as it faces major demographic, economic and environmental change. Through in-depth case research this project will analyse how rural Australians participate in politics, the interests they seek to advance and the efficacy of their political and civic activities. Expected outcomes include strengthened research capacity in rural politics, new frameworks for assessing how democracy is transforming, and reform pathways to enhance the engagement of diverse constituencies in our political system.Read moreRead less
Democratic Resilience: The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks. The project aims to explain responses to extremist attacks intended to sow division, and why some democracies prove fragile, succumbing to polarisation or exclusion of key groups, while others prove resilient by sustaining integrative, tolerant discourse. The project develops new knowledge through an innovative synthesis of cultural sociology and deliberative democracy to analyse nine cases of responses in the public realm to attack ....Democratic Resilience: The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks. The project aims to explain responses to extremist attacks intended to sow division, and why some democracies prove fragile, succumbing to polarisation or exclusion of key groups, while others prove resilient by sustaining integrative, tolerant discourse. The project develops new knowledge through an innovative synthesis of cultural sociology and deliberative democracy to analyse nine cases of responses in the public realm to attacks. Expected outcomes include a new account of the democratic public sphere, and identification of how meaningful, civil communication whose health is vital to democracy, especially in a multicultural society, can be maintained. Benefits include identification of measures to counter extremist political disruption.Read moreRead less
Political Trust and Satisfaction with Democracy in Australia. Declining public support is one of the greatest challenges to democracy. In 2019, Australia recorded the lowest level of trust in politics on record. This project aims to understand the reasons for declining political trust and satisfaction with democracy in Australia. The project hopes to field the 2022-25 Australian Election Study to address these issues by surveying a representative sample of voters following the 2022 and 2025 Aust ....Political Trust and Satisfaction with Democracy in Australia. Declining public support is one of the greatest challenges to democracy. In 2019, Australia recorded the lowest level of trust in politics on record. This project aims to understand the reasons for declining political trust and satisfaction with democracy in Australia. The project hopes to field the 2022-25 Australian Election Study to address these issues by surveying a representative sample of voters following the 2022 and 2025 Australian federal elections, in addition to continuing a longitudinal survey started in 2016. The project wants to add to an unbroken series of publicly available data on Australian political behaviour since 1987, while also producing new insights into how individual opinions change over time.Read moreRead less
Women, politics and democracy: political labour in India and Indonesia . This project aims to advance understandings of Asia's two largest democracies through an examination of the pathways and dead-ends to political power for women in India and Indonesia. Research of women's everyday political labour will examine their contributions to generating different forms of power, and their adverse incorporation into political structures. The comparative ethnographic approach will lead to the developme ....Women, politics and democracy: political labour in India and Indonesia . This project aims to advance understandings of Asia's two largest democracies through an examination of the pathways and dead-ends to political power for women in India and Indonesia. Research of women's everyday political labour will examine their contributions to generating different forms of power, and their adverse incorporation into political structures. The comparative ethnographic approach will lead to the development of analytical and conceptual tools to understand democracy across different socio-historical contexts. The project aims to produce policy and practice relevant knowledge to increase the meaningful participation of women in politics in India and Indonesia, with comparative lessons for other countries Read moreRead less
Expectations and commitments in the Australia-USA alliance. This project aims to investigate the gap between the high expectations of mutual support and the lack of detailed security commitments in the Australia-US Alliance. The project intends to use a focused approach that captures thematic aspects of the alliance through project frames and historical slices across time. Expected outcomes can advance understanding of how alliances operate as security institutions. The outcomes can help to prom ....Expectations and commitments in the Australia-USA alliance. This project aims to investigate the gap between the high expectations of mutual support and the lack of detailed security commitments in the Australia-US Alliance. The project intends to use a focused approach that captures thematic aspects of the alliance through project frames and historical slices across time. Expected outcomes can advance understanding of how alliances operate as security institutions. The outcomes can help to promote a more informed national conversation about the costs and benefits of Australia's security relationship with the United States of America (USA) and contribute to debates over the future of the Australia-USA Alliance during a period of strategic uncertainty.Read moreRead less
Governing harmful commodities: the case of ultra-processed foods. This project aims to generate new knowledge on how to influence public policy in order to reduce the supply and consumption of a health-harming commodity, ultra-processed foods. Using governance theory and qualitative techniques the project intends to identify the actors who are influential in the three key policy areas of trade, taxation and marketing and who affect the consumption of these foods in Australia, Thailand and Fiji. ....Governing harmful commodities: the case of ultra-processed foods. This project aims to generate new knowledge on how to influence public policy in order to reduce the supply and consumption of a health-harming commodity, ultra-processed foods. Using governance theory and qualitative techniques the project intends to identify the actors who are influential in the three key policy areas of trade, taxation and marketing and who affect the consumption of these foods in Australia, Thailand and Fiji. Expected outcomes include strategies for pursuing these different actors’ interests and evidence that can help institutions to promote better policies. Intended benefits include better nutrition outcomes in Australia, Thailand and Fiji.Read moreRead less
Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. This project aims to develop an automated suicide risk detection system to reduce the incidence and impact of railway suicide, which has a devastating effect on victims’ families, station staff, train drivers, emergency workers, and bystanders. This project will use open-systems theory to develop two complementary information systems for more effective detection and reporting of suic ....Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. This project aims to develop an automated suicide risk detection system to reduce the incidence and impact of railway suicide, which has a devastating effect on victims’ families, station staff, train drivers, emergency workers, and bystanders. This project will use open-systems theory to develop two complementary information systems for more effective detection and reporting of suicide risk; use these systems to investigate how different situational factors interact with different combinations of service interventions to influence suicide risk; and share the findings to reduce railway suicide in Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
Digital nomadism: How IT enables new forms of working and organising. This project aims to gain a better understanding of digital nomadism. Digital nomads use IT platforms to work remotely over the Internet while perpetually travelling. The project will develop new knowledge by better understanding of how IT transforms work and enable digital nomadism, the motivations and values of workers and their clients/organisations engaged in digital nomadism and the implications and consequences of digita ....Digital nomadism: How IT enables new forms of working and organising. This project aims to gain a better understanding of digital nomadism. Digital nomads use IT platforms to work remotely over the Internet while perpetually travelling. The project will develop new knowledge by better understanding of how IT transforms work and enable digital nomadism, the motivations and values of workers and their clients/organisations engaged in digital nomadism and the implications and consequences of digital nomadism for workers and clients/organisations. The project is expected to have a significant impact on policy and public discourse by providing an in-depth explanation and understanding of digital nomadism based on rigorous research.Read moreRead less
Transforming Microgrid to Virtual Power Plant –ICT Frameworks,Tools,Control. The project aims to enhance large scale renewable penetrations to national power grid by advancing control, optimization, and ancillary services of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), considering different disruptive events including recent South Australian blackout. This project expects to create new control, frame communication architecture, develop plug and play type IoT enabled grid interfacing inverter, and optimize resou ....Transforming Microgrid to Virtual Power Plant –ICT Frameworks,Tools,Control. The project aims to enhance large scale renewable penetrations to national power grid by advancing control, optimization, and ancillary services of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), considering different disruptive events including recent South Australian blackout. This project expects to create new control, frame communication architecture, develop plug and play type IoT enabled grid interfacing inverter, and optimize resource management for distributed VPPs. The anticipated benefits from this institutional level collaborations are that VPPs help in enhancing national power grid operations during normal and disruptive conditions when more renewables are connected and also secure benefits of consumers, prosumers, and grid operators.Read moreRead less
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