Contemporary contestations over working time: should health weigh in? In the last 30 years, the demand for economic competitiveness has driven the growth in flexible employment conditions, with little consideration of the impacts on the nation’s health. Using mixed methods, the research tests a new theory that when governments deregulate labour markets they destabilise cultural practices, with potential health and well-being consequences. It also determines whether and how the health implication ....Contemporary contestations over working time: should health weigh in? In the last 30 years, the demand for economic competitiveness has driven the growth in flexible employment conditions, with little consideration of the impacts on the nation’s health. Using mixed methods, the research tests a new theory that when governments deregulate labour markets they destabilise cultural practices, with potential health and well-being consequences. It also determines whether and how the health implications of flexible work practices are considered in recent reviews of the Fair Work Act and the Modern Award Review Process. The research fills a policy vacuum in relation to the health impacts of the temporalities of working life, and will contribute to understanding time as both a cultural and economic resource. Read moreRead less
Food/body encounters: New approaches and alternative solutions to obesity prevention and policy. There is growing recognition of the need for new ways to tackle the obesity problem, and for forms of intervention that move beyond the limitations of individual behavioural changes. This project provides a paradigm for re-orientating how we have come to know obesity by investigating the cultural and institutional processes that shape everyday food and activity practices. Understanding and intervenin ....Food/body encounters: New approaches and alternative solutions to obesity prevention and policy. There is growing recognition of the need for new ways to tackle the obesity problem, and for forms of intervention that move beyond the limitations of individual behavioural changes. This project provides a paradigm for re-orientating how we have come to know obesity by investigating the cultural and institutional processes that shape everyday food and activity practices. Understanding and intervening in these dynamics of social practice are central to the challenges of reversing trends in the prevalence of obesity.Read moreRead less
An ethnographic study of obesity risk in a disadvantaged community. This project will investigate how families who are seen as ‘at risk’ of developing obesity respond to Australia's largest obesity intervention, and if messages about healthy eating and increased physical activity are acted upon. Information gathered will provide an important context for what works (and doesn’t work) in obesity intervention.
The making of market society on a world scale: social experience and social theory from the global South. How does our social world change, when markets become dominant? This project explores the problem on a global scale-beyond Eurocentrism. Placing Australia in a broad world context, using both web-based and close-focus research methods on four continents, this project will pioneer a new approach to understanding modern society.
Cosmopolitan encounters in contemporary Australia. Australian society is increasingly subject to global forces and flows. This study explores how far-reaching, global changes are articulated locally within a range of Australian cities and towns. Using the concept of the ‘cosmopolitan encounter’, it investigates the nature and meaning of encounters with cultural difference in Australian communities.
Building successful diverse communities: what works and why? This project is focused on strengthening locally-based interventions to maximise community harmony in the context of demographic diversity (ethnic, cultural, religious). It also will strengthen the relationship between world-leading researchers and senior policy experts and provides valuable research training for three junior scholars.
The social ontology of personhood: a recognition-theoretical approach. This project pursues the hypothesis that what distinguishes human persons from animals is a certain form of sociality consisting of 'attitudes of recognition'. Understanding the role of these attitudes in the coming about and flourishing of human persons and their communities is essential for fostering the social fabric of multicultural Australia.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100570
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$358,715.00
Summary
Evolving social, moral and economic values of blood in China. This project aims to explore the changing economic, social, moral and political meanings of blood in 20th and 21st century China, particularly the relationship between blood economies and multiple inequalities. The project will research the selling, buying and donation of blood in Chinese history, challenge contemporary understandings of resistance to blood-donation, and suggest solutions to contemporary problems in China’s blood sect ....Evolving social, moral and economic values of blood in China. This project aims to explore the changing economic, social, moral and political meanings of blood in 20th and 21st century China, particularly the relationship between blood economies and multiple inequalities. The project will research the selling, buying and donation of blood in Chinese history, challenge contemporary understandings of resistance to blood-donation, and suggest solutions to contemporary problems in China’s blood sector. The results are expected to contribute to welfare, blood sector and policy reform and to concerns about health, inequality and security in China in an interconnected world.Read moreRead less
Reducing imprisonment rates in Australia: international experiences, marginal populations and a focus on the overrepresentation of Indigenous people. The purpose of this study is to test the validity of factors influencing imprisonment rates and initiatives that have been trialed in other jurisdictions to decrease prison numbers for the Australian situation. The expected outcome is to identify ways to reduce the prison population, most particularly the over-representation of Indigenous people.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100622
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,756.00
Summary
Welfare entrepreneurs and paradoxes of social control in rural China. This project aims to examine how non-state welfare systems run by local private entrepreneurs affect power relationships in contemporary rural China. Combining humanistic and social science approaches, the project expects to generate new knowledge about how welfare policies and practices interact with or develop alongside institutions of social control. Expected research outcomes include new empirical data on informal politica ....Welfare entrepreneurs and paradoxes of social control in rural China. This project aims to examine how non-state welfare systems run by local private entrepreneurs affect power relationships in contemporary rural China. Combining humanistic and social science approaches, the project expects to generate new knowledge about how welfare policies and practices interact with or develop alongside institutions of social control. Expected research outcomes include new empirical data on informal political processes and institutional development in post-Socialist economies. This will enhance the basis for scholarly theory and provide commercial and governmental organisations with the information and conceptual tools to accurately assess the priorities of their Chinese partners, competitors, or counterparts.Read moreRead less