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.
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Understanding heavy alcohol consumption cultures among nurses and lawyers . This Project aims to investigate drinking cultures among nurses and lawyers – two sizeable Australian workforces where heavy drinking is common. Addressing drinking cultures among social groups is an emerging strategy to complement population and individual level efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm. Alcohol use among workers has implications for health, safety and performance, yet researchers have paid little attentio ....Understanding heavy alcohol consumption cultures among nurses and lawyers . This Project aims to investigate drinking cultures among nurses and lawyers – two sizeable Australian workforces where heavy drinking is common. Addressing drinking cultures among social groups is an emerging strategy to complement population and individual level efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm. Alcohol use among workers has implications for health, safety and performance, yet researchers have paid little attention to occupational drinking cultures. Using rigorously collected qualitative and quantitative data, this Project expects to generate new knowledge on sociocultural practices and meanings of drinking in the groups, illuminate relations between drinking cultures and harms, and enable innovative intervention opportunities.
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Digital energy futures: forecasting changing residential electricity demand. This project aims to understand and forecast changing digital lifestyle trends and their impact on future household electricity demand, including at peak times. The project expects to generate new knowledge by employing digital ethnography and sociological theories to investigate how changing social practices will impact on electricity sector planning. Expected outcomes include: scenarios and principles for digital ener ....Digital energy futures: forecasting changing residential electricity demand. This project aims to understand and forecast changing digital lifestyle trends and their impact on future household electricity demand, including at peak times. The project expects to generate new knowledge by employing digital ethnography and sociological theories to investigate how changing social practices will impact on electricity sector planning. Expected outcomes include: scenarios and principles for digital energy futures; an interdisciplinary energy demand forecasting methodology; and demand management tools to help the sector meet future residential consumption. This should provide significant benefits, such as lowering the cost of infrastructure spending, and helping secure affordable electricity provision.Read moreRead less
Borderline Personality as Social Phenomena. Mental disorders attract social stigma and those diagnosed are widely misunderstood. This project aims to collect and analyse accounts of people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - mainly women - and perspectives of social support practitioners. The intended outcome is to provide a sophisticated understanding of BPD as a social phenomenon, develop sociological evidence based on lived experiences and generate Australian digital resources ....Borderline Personality as Social Phenomena. Mental disorders attract social stigma and those diagnosed are widely misunderstood. This project aims to collect and analyse accounts of people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - mainly women - and perspectives of social support practitioners. The intended outcome is to provide a sophisticated understanding of BPD as a social phenomenon, develop sociological evidence based on lived experiences and generate Australian digital resources including narratives of BPD, creative outputs and practitioner perspectives. The anticipated goal of this project is to inform policy and community responses addressing stigma and marginalisation, and the improvement of social support for those affected by BPD.Read moreRead less
Science and Citizenship: Democracy in the age of science-mediated risk. This community-based project in the Goulburn Valley focuses on citizens' negotiation of scientific expertise, perceptions of risk and participation in policy formation. It asks: 'how can democracy work in a world of proliferating cultures of expertise?' The project will produce an environmental history drawn from citizens' experience of transforming the landscape for irrigation and agribusiness, and of scientific advice ov ....Science and Citizenship: Democracy in the age of science-mediated risk. This community-based project in the Goulburn Valley focuses on citizens' negotiation of scientific expertise, perceptions of risk and participation in policy formation. It asks: 'how can democracy work in a world of proliferating cultures of expertise?' The project will produce an environmental history drawn from citizens' experience of transforming the landscape for irrigation and agribusiness, and of scientific advice over time. It will explore how citizens deal with conflicting scientist-generated scenarios around climate change and environmental flows in the light of their historical experience, and trial new modes of public policy formation.Read moreRead less
The Future Cemetery. This project aims to identify and critically assess the potential of innovative technologies to enhance the experience of the cemetery for an increasingly diverse, secular, and well-informed public, and to strengthen cemeteries’ community connections.
It will generate knowledge about the industry’s and the public’s future-oriented desires through an interdisciplinary, collaborative, and evidence-based assessment of emerging cemetery-based technologies including mobile apps, ....The Future Cemetery. This project aims to identify and critically assess the potential of innovative technologies to enhance the experience of the cemetery for an increasingly diverse, secular, and well-informed public, and to strengthen cemeteries’ community connections.
It will generate knowledge about the industry’s and the public’s future-oriented desires through an interdisciplinary, collaborative, and evidence-based assessment of emerging cemetery-based technologies including mobile apps, GPS systems, drones, holography, virtual reality, green burials, and resomation.
A key expected outcome is a future cemetery that makes sensitive use of technology to enhance its services to public and community, underpinned by scholarly research.
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Cost-effective and Reliable Edge Caching for Software Vendors. This project aims to deliver a suite of models and techniques for cost-effective and reliable data caching in the multi-access edge computing (MEC) environment facilitated by 5G mobile network. MEC offers great promises for rapidly advancing mobile and IoT applications in various domains in Australia, e.g., smart cities, remote medical services, advanced manufacturing, etc. Combining graph analytics, optimisation techniques and game ....Cost-effective and Reliable Edge Caching for Software Vendors. This project aims to deliver a suite of models and techniques for cost-effective and reliable data caching in the multi-access edge computing (MEC) environment facilitated by 5G mobile network. MEC offers great promises for rapidly advancing mobile and IoT applications in various domains in Australia, e.g., smart cities, remote medical services, advanced manufacturing, etc. Combining graph analytics, optimisation techniques and game theory, this project tackles the new challenges in the placement, update and adaptation of edge data faced by software vendors embracing 5G. The outcomes can ease software vendors' cost and security concerns during the transition from 4G to 5G, and significantly promote the wave of 5G innovation in Australia.Read moreRead less
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.
Life ways of the first Australians. The project will enhance national cultural heritage assessment and management in the west Kimberley. This is a Australian Government priority because of planned Liquid Natural Gas and other developments in this region. Through the project officer positions, Indigenous communities will gain training and skills that will lead to sustainable livelihoods in cultural tourism or employment opportunities in government cultural heritage agencies. The project directly ....Life ways of the first Australians. The project will enhance national cultural heritage assessment and management in the west Kimberley. This is a Australian Government priority because of planned Liquid Natural Gas and other developments in this region. Through the project officer positions, Indigenous communities will gain training and skills that will lead to sustainable livelihoods in cultural tourism or employment opportunities in government cultural heritage agencies. The project directly addresses the National Research Priority goal of responding to climate change and variability by advancing knowledge and understanding of past climates, and assisting in better modelling of future climate change in our region. The project will provide postgraduate training in fieldwork and analysis for four APAIs.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.