Living With Uncertainty: Creating the Postmodern Self in Contemporary Australia. Life in postmodernity is marked by rapid change and uncertainty. Increasingly, as tradition is worn away, individuals must create new scripts to give life meaning and structure. Through a case study of gays and lesbians, this project will investigate how a group of Australians are creating postmodern selves. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it traces the relationship between discursive and psychological accounts of t ....Living With Uncertainty: Creating the Postmodern Self in Contemporary Australia. Life in postmodernity is marked by rapid change and uncertainty. Increasingly, as tradition is worn away, individuals must create new scripts to give life meaning and structure. Through a case study of gays and lesbians, this project will investigate how a group of Australians are creating postmodern selves. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it traces the relationship between discursive and psychological accounts of the postmodern self and their political effects. With a particular interest in emotional life, this study will provide critical information on how individuals and communities can manage creatively the uncertain conditions of postmodernity.Read moreRead less
Victorian Fishers: an ethnographic study. The project will study fishers and their families in three Victorian coastal communities- Lakes Entrance, the Corner Inlet ports, and Portland - to investigate how the character of fishing communities and perceptions of fishing as a way of life are affected by socio-economic context. The project will contribute new conceptual understandings of the construction of identity in fishing communities, establish a basis for studying diversity in discourse and p ....Victorian Fishers: an ethnographic study. The project will study fishers and their families in three Victorian coastal communities- Lakes Entrance, the Corner Inlet ports, and Portland - to investigate how the character of fishing communities and perceptions of fishing as a way of life are affected by socio-economic context. The project will contribute new conceptual understandings of the construction of identity in fishing communities, establish a basis for studying diversity in discourse and practice in contexts where access to marine resources is governed by legislative control and scientific advice, and has the potential to provide input to policy development within the Victorian and Commonwealth fishing industryRead moreRead less
Mapping Justice Globalism: Reassessing the Ideological Landscape of the Twenty-First Century. "Mapping Justice Globalism" offers the first comprehensive analysis of the ideological claims of the global justice movement. The project assesses problem-solving approaches and policy platforms of civil society groups within the global justice movement and implications for Australian policy development and practice. The project offers alternative strategies to anticipate and address problems of globali ....Mapping Justice Globalism: Reassessing the Ideological Landscape of the Twenty-First Century. "Mapping Justice Globalism" offers the first comprehensive analysis of the ideological claims of the global justice movement. The project assesses problem-solving approaches and policy platforms of civil society groups within the global justice movement and implications for Australian policy development and practice. The project offers alternative strategies to anticipate and address problems of globalization, such as climate change, financial volatility, migratory pressures and cultural conflict. Key findings will be made available to Australia's policy-making sector in targeted and accessible formats. The project will enhance Australia's capacity to interpret and engage with the forces of globalization shaping our region and the world.Read moreRead less
Agency and Change in Institutionalised Organisations: The role of volunteers as institutional agents in the non-profit sector. This project intends to test recent developments in neoinstitutional organisational theory. The theoretical model developed is designed to address two questions bedvilling the genre: the role of human agency in institutional processes, and understanding institutional change. These questions are addressed in two ways: first, it takes voluntarism as an example of agency ....Agency and Change in Institutionalised Organisations: The role of volunteers as institutional agents in the non-profit sector. This project intends to test recent developments in neoinstitutional organisational theory. The theoretical model developed is designed to address two questions bedvilling the genre: the role of human agency in institutional processes, and understanding institutional change. These questions are addressed in two ways: first, it takes voluntarism as an example of agency in action; and second, it is located in the non-profit sector, an organisational field undergoing significant change. The project employs a micro-sociological methodological orientation rarely used in neoinstitutional research; that of non-participant observation and conversation analysis.Read moreRead less
Challenging the neoliberal critique of deficit spending and public debt. This project aims to analyse the rhetoric of balanced budgets by examining its intellectual and political history and revisiting counterarguments. Expected outcomes from the project will include insights into the development of rhetoric based on analysis of archival, textual and interview-based data . Findings from the project will be published in online fora with wide readership in national and international policy circle ....Challenging the neoliberal critique of deficit spending and public debt. This project aims to analyse the rhetoric of balanced budgets by examining its intellectual and political history and revisiting counterarguments. Expected outcomes from the project will include insights into the development of rhetoric based on analysis of archival, textual and interview-based data . Findings from the project will be published in online fora with wide readership in national and international policy circles. The project has the capacity to provide insights into and benefits for policy discourse on government deficit-spending and public debt.Read moreRead less
Job quality and the mental health and well-being of working parents and their children. Maximizing workforce participation is a national priority, essential to support an ageing population. Also critical is the full development of children's capabilities; part of a healthy start to life. Jobs, parents, children and family life lie at the centre of these priorities. Although employment supports families financially, this may come at a cost if aspects of the job affect parent well-being, or strain ....Job quality and the mental health and well-being of working parents and their children. Maximizing workforce participation is a national priority, essential to support an ageing population. Also critical is the full development of children's capabilities; part of a healthy start to life. Jobs, parents, children and family life lie at the centre of these priorities. Although employment supports families financially, this may come at a cost if aspects of the job affect parent well-being, or strains family relationships, which are critical to children's development and well-being. As well as informing industrial relations changes, this project will benefit the twin economic and social policy goals of workforce participation while at the same time supporting the health and well-being of parents and their children.Read moreRead less
Social Division and the Pursuit of Harmony Across the Antipodes in the Twentieth Century. Into the twentieth century,reformers envisaged the antipodes as a liberal utopia. The social laboratory in Australia and New Zealand is now viewed as a reactionary social model. This project sets out to place Paul Kelly's influential notion of an Australian Settlement within a series of frames which establish the extent of division and the limits to inclusion alongside the achievements of the antipodean exp ....Social Division and the Pursuit of Harmony Across the Antipodes in the Twentieth Century. Into the twentieth century,reformers envisaged the antipodes as a liberal utopia. The social laboratory in Australia and New Zealand is now viewed as a reactionary social model. This project sets out to place Paul Kelly's influential notion of an Australian Settlement within a series of frames which establish the extent of division and the limits to inclusion alongside the achievements of the antipodean experiment. It considers Arbitration as the core institution of the new liberal utopia, and its transformation by Labor into the 1980s. It will result in a major book, two shorter books and two doctoral theses.Read moreRead less
Open Cuts to Land and Culture: Rural Community Engagement with Large-Scale Industrial Development. The effects of coal mining and combustion on local communities have not been adequately researched even though export-oriented coal production is a key element of Australia's economy in the 21st century. Increasing numbers of rural Australian communities are affected by profound changes to climate, environment and social life associated with open-cut mining and coal-fired power stations. This resea ....Open Cuts to Land and Culture: Rural Community Engagement with Large-Scale Industrial Development. The effects of coal mining and combustion on local communities have not been adequately researched even though export-oriented coal production is a key element of Australia's economy in the 21st century. Increasing numbers of rural Australian communities are affected by profound changes to climate, environment and social life associated with open-cut mining and coal-fired power stations. This research examines the impact of these developments in the Hunter Valley of NSW, from the point of view of local communities. The understandings we gain will offer government, corporate and community stakeholders the prospect of mutually beneficial outcomes in dealing with these impacts. Read moreRead less
The changing nature of national identity and its relationship to other forms of identity. By providing a cultural understanding of the relationship between nationalism and other forms of identity, this project sets the background for understanding the nature of Australian identity as we embark upon the difficult passage from a post-imperial peripheral jurisdiction to a potentially more open, generous and constructive polity. The project contributes to the recently added National Research Priorit ....The changing nature of national identity and its relationship to other forms of identity. By providing a cultural understanding of the relationship between nationalism and other forms of identity, this project sets the background for understanding the nature of Australian identity as we embark upon the difficult passage from a post-imperial peripheral jurisdiction to a potentially more open, generous and constructive polity. The project contributes to the recently added National Research Priorities category, 'Safeguarding Australia: Understanding our Region and the World' - not in the sense of identifying 'the threat' to Australia, but rather in the much more important long-term sense of understanding ourselves in a global, historical and comparative context.Read moreRead less
In it to win it: an interdisciplinary investigation of sports betting. This project aims to better understand how young adults use, communicate about and experience mobile phone sports betting applications. Gambling generates significant health and social harms in Australia. Yet there is little research on the use of betting apps, even though sports betting is the fastest growing segment of the gambling market. This project intends to examine how use of sports betting apps is becoming establishe ....In it to win it: an interdisciplinary investigation of sports betting. This project aims to better understand how young adults use, communicate about and experience mobile phone sports betting applications. Gambling generates significant health and social harms in Australia. Yet there is little research on the use of betting apps, even though sports betting is the fastest growing segment of the gambling market. This project intends to examine how use of sports betting apps is becoming established as everyday social practice normalising problem gambling. The findings will enhance understanding of the social contexts of sports betting, and inform gambling policy and programs leading to better health and social outcomes.Read moreRead less