Youth civic participation and social connection in post-industrial society: a comparative analysis. The project generates important new knowledge about youth civic participation and will develop more effective indicators for contemporary meanings of citizenship and connection that are relevant to young people today. It will make a direct contribution to youth, education and welfare policies on issues of youth participation and connection, helping to shape a timely and responsive approach on the ....Youth civic participation and social connection in post-industrial society: a comparative analysis. The project generates important new knowledge about youth civic participation and will develop more effective indicators for contemporary meanings of citizenship and connection that are relevant to young people today. It will make a direct contribution to youth, education and welfare policies on issues of youth participation and connection, helping to shape a timely and responsive approach on the part of policy makers, service providers and programme designers. The project will also contribute significantly to the development of ongoing international collaborations between researchers in Australia and Europe, and to the research training of the next generation.Read moreRead less
Islamic movements in secular societies: grammars of experience. There is increasing public debate about the place of Islam in western societies, but little reference to lived experience. At a same time, we are witnessing new forms of Islamic movements and experiences, in particular among a 'global generation' of young people. This study explores forms of tension and grammars of creativity, assisting actors make sense of and communicate their experience. It also grapples with new global forms o ....Islamic movements in secular societies: grammars of experience. There is increasing public debate about the place of Islam in western societies, but little reference to lived experience. At a same time, we are witnessing new forms of Islamic movements and experiences, in particular among a 'global generation' of young people. This study explores forms of tension and grammars of creativity, assisting actors make sense of and communicate their experience. It also grapples with new global forms of violence that profoundly impact personal experience. This project aims at understanding new forms of social creativity, as well as new types of tension, and to assist rethinking both contemporary security and citizenship.Read moreRead less
Connecting Government to Community: A study of social and political connectivity at the municipal level. Facilitating community strengthening by making public institutions more responsive to the needs of citizens is a central policy challenge in the global era. This project will advance theoretical, methodological and practical understandings of this issue by using comparative measures of personal ties and organizational connectedness in four municipalities to explicate the networks linking poli ....Connecting Government to Community: A study of social and political connectivity at the municipal level. Facilitating community strengthening by making public institutions more responsive to the needs of citizens is a central policy challenge in the global era. This project will advance theoretical, methodological and practical understandings of this issue by using comparative measures of personal ties and organizational connectedness in four municipalities to explicate the networks linking politicians, bureaucrats, civic leaders and ordinary citizens. The study will generate new measures of which kinds of connections count most, which ties bring more isolated groups closer to engagement, and which community strengthening strategies are likely to make improved governance outcomes feasible.Read moreRead less
Reading the Social Future of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. This project investigates how and if the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) is building social capital. It does this by interrogating existing practices and operations at the ARCBS and by surveying donors and non-donors. This project aims to develop a Deleuzian critique of the notion of social capital.
Community consultation and the hard to reach. Local government, social profiling and civic infrastructure. This study offers conceptual insights into reasons for non-participation in local government consultation, drawing on critical policy analysis and debates on governance and democratic capacity. The collaboration of 7 local councils and the VLGA enable the development of a transferable, generally viable framework linking: (i) sophisticated demographic profiles (ii) types of communication me ....Community consultation and the hard to reach. Local government, social profiling and civic infrastructure. This study offers conceptual insights into reasons for non-participation in local government consultation, drawing on critical policy analysis and debates on governance and democratic capacity. The collaboration of 7 local councils and the VLGA enable the development of a transferable, generally viable framework linking: (i) sophisticated demographic profiles (ii) types of communication media on a continuum of intensity (face to face, telephone/mail survey, email/Internet); (iii) issues on which residents wish to be consulted; and (iv) implications for civic infrastructure. Outcomes will benefit councils and Victorian citizens by providing an innovative, practically applicable framework for policy implementation using consultative processes.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 1-in-4 Poll: Inclusion of people with a disability and carers in social and political deliberative processes. This proposed project will benefit Australia by developing a method that includes ongoing quarterly topical surveys through which people with a disability and their carers, approximately one in four Australians, can effectively participate in social and political processes. It will also test the efficacy of 'influencing activities' that derive from those surveys. Additionally, the pr ....The 1-in-4 Poll: Inclusion of people with a disability and carers in social and political deliberative processes. This proposed project will benefit Australia by developing a method that includes ongoing quarterly topical surveys through which people with a disability and their carers, approximately one in four Australians, can effectively participate in social and political processes. It will also test the efficacy of 'influencing activities' that derive from those surveys. Additionally, the project will establish a data set that will provide regular and reliable information from and about people with a disability in Australia. This is a unique and much needed contribution to social justice within Australia. Read moreRead less
Coherent, independent and user-friendly? Participant perceptions of social security administrative review processes in Australia and Britain. The capacity to exercise rights associated with citizenship, and to participate meaningfully in community life, is significantly affected by access to financial security and by community confidence in the independence and fairness of systems of entitlement review. This research will examine recent developments in Australian social security review mechanism ....Coherent, independent and user-friendly? Participant perceptions of social security administrative review processes in Australia and Britain. The capacity to exercise rights associated with citizenship, and to participate meaningfully in community life, is significantly affected by access to financial security and by community confidence in the independence and fairness of systems of entitlement review. This research will examine recent developments in Australian social security review mechanisms, in both policy and practice. It is of national significance as it will demonstrate the extent to which statutory objectives of fairness, comprehensibility and accessibility are achieved, particularly from the perspectives of participants in appeals. The research has critical implications for legislation, policy and practice in administrative law and tribunal practice. Read moreRead less
Understanding a changing Australia: Ordinary people's politics. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material (to be collected) to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. In particular it will focus on: how individual Australians construct their sense of moral community, their expectations of the role of government, and how they have negotiated the shift from an expli ....Understanding a changing Australia: Ordinary people's politics. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material (to be collected) to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. In particular it will focus on: how individual Australians construct their sense of moral community, their expectations of the role of government, and how they have negotiated the shift from an explicitly white, British national identity to a multicultural one, their understandings of settler-indigenous relations. It will integrate these responses with analysis of their life histories and characteristic political ideologies.Read moreRead less
Local Governance, Multiculturalism and Active Citizenship: The Case of Arab-Muslim Diaspora in the West. This project will advance our understanding of the best practice approaches towards the management of intercultural relationships within multicultural communities. It will generate international benchmark data on the management of multicultural spaces and will lead to a range of practical policies for local city councils, NGOs and state governments. The findings will form a robust empirical b ....Local Governance, Multiculturalism and Active Citizenship: The Case of Arab-Muslim Diaspora in the West. This project will advance our understanding of the best practice approaches towards the management of intercultural relationships within multicultural communities. It will generate international benchmark data on the management of multicultural spaces and will lead to a range of practical policies for local city councils, NGOs and state governments. The findings will form a robust empirical basis for understanding the optimal way of formulating government-NGOs partnerships in the successful implementation of culturally responsive policies. The study will also result in the development of effective policy responses aimed at enhancing active citizenship, social cohesion and intercultural understanding.Read moreRead less