Conflicting temporalities of climate governance: a comparative sociology of policy design and operationalization in Australia and the United Kingdom. This project will investigate the ways in which climate policy in Australia and the United Kingdom deals with uncertainty in the timing of climate change and climate change impacts. It will evaluate the utility of various approaches to climate policy and the potential contradictions that arise between climate dynamics and the policy design.
Exploring the construction of memory and place in repeat disaster landscapes. Community disaster resilience requires active engagement from emergency management agencies and people in at-risk landscapes. There is tension between collaborative planning in preparing for emergencies and command-and-control procedures during actual emergencies. Communities and agencies need new ways to interact and adapt to future repeat disasters in changing landscapes. This innovative research project analyses com ....Exploring the construction of memory and place in repeat disaster landscapes. Community disaster resilience requires active engagement from emergency management agencies and people in at-risk landscapes. There is tension between collaborative planning in preparing for emergencies and command-and-control procedures during actual emergencies. Communities and agencies need new ways to interact and adapt to future repeat disasters in changing landscapes. This innovative research project analyses community-led planning projects underway nation-wide, identifying emergent theory, assessing opportunities and benefits, as well as barriers to change. It aims to build community resilience and shared responsibility by integrating and refining existing practices; strengthening civic society through social resilience to risk.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101126
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$387,574.00
Summary
Fair food futures, civil society and the sustainable development goals. This project aims to investigate how community food networks address inequalities in food access by advancing understandings of food justice and governance. Identifying transformative pathways to sustainable and just food systems is a challenge for research and policy. This project expects to generate new knowledge on community food networks' visions for sustainable food production and consumption in Australia. Expected outc ....Fair food futures, civil society and the sustainable development goals. This project aims to investigate how community food networks address inequalities in food access by advancing understandings of food justice and governance. Identifying transformative pathways to sustainable and just food systems is a challenge for research and policy. This project expects to generate new knowledge on community food networks' visions for sustainable food production and consumption in Australia. Expected outcomes include improved dialogue between food system actors and lessons for governance. This project should provide significant benefits for those seeking to enhance implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.Read moreRead less
Incendiary cultures: co-constructing resilience to engage with fire and risk in landscape management. Effective communication and management of bushfire risk can be hindered by wide divergence between expert views and community understandings. Building on resilience theory, this project will draw together experts from fire agencies and local communities to rethink fire from modelling to combat, and from resisting to engaging in response activities.
Exploring social innovations in urban water systems with a novel modelling approach. The project will investigate how wide reaching social renewal takes place in the urban water sector. With improved understanding of how social innovation works, the project will develop a computer model to assist decision-making under conditions of high uncertainty with systematic scenario analysis.
Facilitating the decline of unsustainable urban infrastructure. Two kinds of process bring sustainable socio-technical practices into the mainstream: those supporting adoption of alternatives (much studied already), and those facilitating decline of superseded practices (seriously neglected so far). Exposing that second and less visible side of the coin, this research aims to develop a more holistic and balanced theory than current advocacy-based accounts of urban infrastructure change, and insi ....Facilitating the decline of unsustainable urban infrastructure. Two kinds of process bring sustainable socio-technical practices into the mainstream: those supporting adoption of alternatives (much studied already), and those facilitating decline of superseded practices (seriously neglected so far). Exposing that second and less visible side of the coin, this research aims to develop a more holistic and balanced theory than current advocacy-based accounts of urban infrastructure change, and insights into the 'interface' between discarding the old and adopting the new. To complement theory, it aims to offer the first empirical study of processes that weaken old paradigms. Outcomes are expected to include a new research agenda and a practitioner toolkit for addressing institutional barriers to sustainability transitions.Read moreRead less
Work, life and sustainable living: how work, household and community life interact to affect environmental behaviours and outcomes. The project addresses the research priority of an environmentally sustainable Australia. It examines how the circumstances and interaction of work, home and community affect capacities to reduce negative environmental impacts especially workplace and household transport, waste, energy and water use practices. The project brings the changing configuration of work to ....Work, life and sustainable living: how work, household and community life interact to affect environmental behaviours and outcomes. The project addresses the research priority of an environmentally sustainable Australia. It examines how the circumstances and interaction of work, home and community affect capacities to reduce negative environmental impacts especially workplace and household transport, waste, energy and water use practices. The project brings the changing configuration of work to the fore, addressing a gap in current research. It examines the implications for environmental change of the temporal and spatial organisation of 'work-life', including analysis of socio-economic and gender differences, informing practice and theory about how workers, workplaces and households can change for the better, in the interests of a sustainable, socially inclusive society.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101583
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,000.00
Summary
How social networks and power shape adaptive action. This project aims to determine how social networks affect adaptive action in response to the potential effects of climate change. The project will provide a longitudinal study that tracks individuals and a governance institution before and after a global coral bleaching event to explicitly demonstrate key factors that facilitate or inhibit adaptive action at multiple scales. This project will significantly improve our understanding of how adap ....How social networks and power shape adaptive action. This project aims to determine how social networks affect adaptive action in response to the potential effects of climate change. The project will provide a longitudinal study that tracks individuals and a governance institution before and after a global coral bleaching event to explicitly demonstrate key factors that facilitate or inhibit adaptive action at multiple scales. This project will significantly improve our understanding of how adaptive capacity translates into adaptive action, and the role of social networks and power in shaping adaptive responses. This project will contribute practical guidance on how to build adaptive capacity among both individuals and governance institutions.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100278
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,000.00
Summary
Automating the smart home: an investigation of automated cooling practices. Home automation technologies are expected to achieve reductions in household energy costs and consumption. However, there has been no systematic investigation of the ways in which they are being incorporated into everyday life. The project aims to address this critical gap in relation to home cooling. It will investigate how automated cooling technologies are being incorporated into household practices in Australia, and ....Automating the smart home: an investigation of automated cooling practices. Home automation technologies are expected to achieve reductions in household energy costs and consumption. However, there has been no systematic investigation of the ways in which they are being incorporated into everyday life. The project aims to address this critical gap in relation to home cooling. It will investigate how automated cooling technologies are being incorporated into household practices in Australia, and the expectations they promote, sustain and transform. The project also aims to produce important new knowledge about how to study and understand the effects of ambient and automated technologies in everyday life and their potential impact on energy consumption.Read moreRead less
The actor and institutional dynamics in emerging socio-technical transitions. The project addresses the translation of environmental resource policies to widespread practice in the face of institutional inertia. The outcome informs the design of policy mechanisms for enabling the emergence and mainstreaming of alternative resource technologies and consolidates Australia's leadership in urban water resource management.