Accounting for Sustainability: Developing an Integrated Approach for Sustainability Assessments. In today's challenging world, we need to find new ways to sustain our cities, communities and organisations. In the past decade, various bodies have developed highly sophisticated indicators for monitoring and measuring sustainability. However these indicators often become detached from practical tasks at hand - managing businesses, preserving the environment, or promoting social and cultural well-be ....Accounting for Sustainability: Developing an Integrated Approach for Sustainability Assessments. In today's challenging world, we need to find new ways to sustain our cities, communities and organisations. In the past decade, various bodies have developed highly sophisticated indicators for monitoring and measuring sustainability. However these indicators often become detached from practical tasks at hand - managing businesses, preserving the environment, or promoting social and cultural well-being. This project will develop a framework and software system for evaluating and applying indicators in common planning and reporting situations. The project will benefit Australian organisations by a) developing clear, practical sustainability goals; b) lowering cost of reporting compliance and c) improving sustainability practices.Read moreRead less
Generating insights for the future: A retrospective, comparative study of attempts to implement large-scale electronic health record systems. This is a retrospective, comparative study of five attempts to set up regional and national systems for sharing electronic health records in Australia and Britain. The purpose is to learn from the mistakes and successes of the past, so that complex technology projects such as these can be better managed in the future.
Alcohol use and harm minimisation among Australian university students. Alcohol-related harms cost Australians over $15.3 billion per year, and in 2008 were described by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as having reached 'epidemic proportions'. Young people are at greatest risk of alcohol-related damage and university students are among the heaviest drinkers, with up to 70% engaging in binge drinking. By examining the social dynamics of university students' drinking practices and their understanding of ....Alcohol use and harm minimisation among Australian university students. Alcohol-related harms cost Australians over $15.3 billion per year, and in 2008 were described by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as having reached 'epidemic proportions'. Young people are at greatest risk of alcohol-related damage and university students are among the heaviest drinkers, with up to 70% engaging in binge drinking. By examining the social dynamics of university students' drinking practices and their understanding of harm minimisation, together with the policies and measures offered by colleges and State health authorities, the proposed project will yield a new evidence base and innovative theoretical approach for developing fresh strategic harm minimisation interventions.Read moreRead less
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
Work and self-development: a philosophical reappraisal. Many Australians are worried about work, perhaps in more complex ways than ever before. Young people entering work lack the orientation once provided by established career paths, mid-life workers are often subject to disorienting shifts in role and difficulties finding the right 'work-life' balance, and many people leaving work find their lives suddenly bereft of meaning. This project will shed light on these anxieties by framing work withi ....Work and self-development: a philosophical reappraisal. Many Australians are worried about work, perhaps in more complex ways than ever before. Young people entering work lack the orientation once provided by established career paths, mid-life workers are often subject to disorienting shifts in role and difficulties finding the right 'work-life' balance, and many people leaving work find their lives suddenly bereft of meaning. This project will shed light on these anxieties by framing work within an image of the human that does justice to the depth and complexity of contemporary work experience. It promises a deeper understanding of work that would help promote good health and strengthen Australia's social and economic fabric.Read moreRead less
Applying the Ethics of Recognition: Work and the Social Bond. Work matters to most Australians. It is not just of instrumental value, worth it just for the money: a good, fulfilling job is integral to a fulfilled life. Our sense of well-being is inseparably bound up with how things are going at work. But how is this well-being sustained? What moral expectations do we bring to work and what happens when they are not met? This project will develop new answers to these questions by focusing on clai ....Applying the Ethics of Recognition: Work and the Social Bond. Work matters to most Australians. It is not just of instrumental value, worth it just for the money: a good, fulfilling job is integral to a fulfilled life. Our sense of well-being is inseparably bound up with how things are going at work. But how is this well-being sustained? What moral expectations do we bring to work and what happens when they are not met? This project will develop new answers to these questions by focusing on claims for recognition arising out of work. Experiences of misrecognition at work, we propose, seriously damage one's capacity to lead a fulfilling life. By identifying ways in which recognition can be given or denied at work, the project will be of great community benefit.Read 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
The role of the internet in building social capital amongst homosexually active men: virtual communities in HIV prevention. Social capital comprises features of social organisation such as civic participation, norms of reciprocity and trust in others that facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit, including health and wellbeing. The proposed research focuses on the role of the internet in producing the networks that engender social inclusion and community connectedness. There is scepticism about ....The role of the internet in building social capital amongst homosexually active men: virtual communities in HIV prevention. Social capital comprises features of social organisation such as civic participation, norms of reciprocity and trust in others that facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit, including health and wellbeing. The proposed research focuses on the role of the internet in producing the networks that engender social inclusion and community connectedness. There is scepticism about whether the 'virtual community' of the Internet can build social capital. The study will explore the potential benefits as well as harms to those homosexually active men who use the internet to access health information, meet sexual partners and build friendships that affirm gay identity and community inclusion.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
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