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.
Read moreRead less
Women in Local Government: Understanding their Political Trajectories. This project aims to investigate the chronic under representation of women in Australian politics through a local government lens. It expects to generate new knowledge about barriers to female political representation, their political performance and pathways to higher tiers of elected office. By following men and women councillors across an election cycle, this research seeks to robustly compare and measure women's experienc ....Women in Local Government: Understanding their Political Trajectories. This project aims to investigate the chronic under representation of women in Australian politics through a local government lens. It expects to generate new knowledge about barriers to female political representation, their political performance and pathways to higher tiers of elected office. By following men and women councillors across an election cycle, this research seeks to robustly compare and measure women's experiences of local politics to develop a new framework to map and address obstacles preventing political equity. Expected outcomes include theoretical advances and a 'best practice' guide for achieving parity.This should provide significant public benefits by advancing female participation across all levels of governments.
Read moreRead less
Reconciling nations: what can Australia learn from the international experience of democratic dialogue? This project will draw on international experience to explore the capacity for facilitated, democratic dialogue to revitalise the Australian reconciliation process. Using innovative case study research and an original applied theoretical approach, the project will develop new methods for resolving intercultural conflict in Australia.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101113
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,103.00
Summary
Advancing gender equality through aid: Realising women's empowerment. This project aims to evaluate links between of aid programs and women’s empowerment in Southeast Asia. Women’s empowerment has gained substantial visibility as a global development objective, however progress has been slow. This project offers the first study of the political economy of the design, implementation and evaluation of aid programs for women's empowerment across development institutions, companies and NGOs. Explori ....Advancing gender equality through aid: Realising women's empowerment. This project aims to evaluate links between of aid programs and women’s empowerment in Southeast Asia. Women’s empowerment has gained substantial visibility as a global development objective, however progress has been slow. This project offers the first study of the political economy of the design, implementation and evaluation of aid programs for women's empowerment across development institutions, companies and NGOs. Exploring these dynamics is a key to understanding how aid initiatives can generate successful approaches to empowering women. The project will build on current practices to improve aid programming and place Australia at the forefront of donors’ efforts to advance gender equality.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
Islam and the left in Indonesia and Turkey. This project aims to examine how secular regimes, even after long periods of economic development, give way to a politics based on identity and appeals to religion. This will be done by investigating two major Muslim-majority societies where such transformations have taken place - Indonesia and Turkey. In Indonesia, the focus is on old communist party bases; in Turkey on former radical union strongholds. The expected outcomes will provide a unique lens ....Islam and the left in Indonesia and Turkey. This project aims to examine how secular regimes, even after long periods of economic development, give way to a politics based on identity and appeals to religion. This will be done by investigating two major Muslim-majority societies where such transformations have taken place - Indonesia and Turkey. In Indonesia, the focus is on old communist party bases; in Turkey on former radical union strongholds. The expected outcomes will provide a unique lens for examining the socio-economic conditions that provide fertile ground for transformed articulations of political demands.Read moreRead less
Realising socio-economic rights: law and the politics of access to public services in Indonesia. This project seeks to identify the conditions under which justiciable legal frameworks or socio-economic rights are effective in promoting realisation of these rights in developing countries. The empirical focus is on Indonesia during the post-Suharto era and rights related to free basic education, water, and free health care for the poor.
The infrastructure of China's international influence. This project aims to investigate how China uses infrastructure-driven development to wield international influence, by studying how Chinese ideas of ‘developmentalism’ interact with nation building and regime security imperatives in Indonesia, Myanmar and Laos. The project expects to generate new comparative knowledge about development logics and competing sectoral interests around major infrastructure projects that breaks new conceptual gro ....The infrastructure of China's international influence. This project aims to investigate how China uses infrastructure-driven development to wield international influence, by studying how Chinese ideas of ‘developmentalism’ interact with nation building and regime security imperatives in Indonesia, Myanmar and Laos. The project expects to generate new comparative knowledge about development logics and competing sectoral interests around major infrastructure projects that breaks new conceptual ground on analysing international influence and the economic-security nexus in Asia. Enhanced understanding of the conditions under which China’s development model is attractive to others, would benefit Australian and international agencies seeking strategic diplomatic and investment decisions in the Asia-Pacific.Read moreRead less
Asia-Pacific Cosmopolitanisms: Managing Diversity and Identity Politics in a Changing Region. Why can people of diverse cultural and other backgrounds sometimes devise ways of living together while, at other times, they can be drawn into racism and violence? Are there ways of coping with, managing - even celebrating - human social, cultural, biological and sexual diversity that do not lead to conflict and exclusion? Are we seeing new cosmopolitanisms emerging? This research will investigate thes ....Asia-Pacific Cosmopolitanisms: Managing Diversity and Identity Politics in a Changing Region. Why can people of diverse cultural and other backgrounds sometimes devise ways of living together while, at other times, they can be drawn into racism and violence? Are there ways of coping with, managing - even celebrating - human social, cultural, biological and sexual diversity that do not lead to conflict and exclusion? Are we seeing new cosmopolitanisms emerging? This research will investigate these questions by focusing on the Asia-Pacific region. The research will result in several publications (monographs, articles, etc.), a website/discussion forum, research database/resources facilities, a conference, and the consolidation of long-term collaborative links with Asian intellectuals.Read moreRead less
Democratic dialogue and capabilities: new opportunities in post-reconciliation era Australia. In conflict and post-conflict societies around the world, democratic dialogue has proven to be an important element in processes designed to facilitate social change and create a more just and inclusive society. This project will make a significant theoretical and methodological contribution to national and international understanding of methods for resolving longstanding intercultural conflicts. It aim ....Democratic dialogue and capabilities: new opportunities in post-reconciliation era Australia. In conflict and post-conflict societies around the world, democratic dialogue has proven to be an important element in processes designed to facilitate social change and create a more just and inclusive society. This project will make a significant theoretical and methodological contribution to national and international understanding of methods for resolving longstanding intercultural conflicts. It aims to demonstrate the role that democratic dialogue can have in transforming the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It will test the hypothesis that the social and institutional change that is possible through dialogue will have capability-enhancing effects for Indigenous Australians.Read moreRead less