Communities Across Borders: The Transnational Dynamics of Emerging and Stateless Refugee Groups in Australia. Dealing with the pressing issue of the refugee experience, this project investigates the transnational dynamics of four emerging and relatively 'invisible' refugee groups in Australia who are stateless minorities in their homelands. Through ethnographic fieldwork among the Assyrians, Kurds, Southern Sudanese and Oromo in Sydney and Melbourne, the project will present a comprehensive pict ....Communities Across Borders: The Transnational Dynamics of Emerging and Stateless Refugee Groups in Australia. Dealing with the pressing issue of the refugee experience, this project investigates the transnational dynamics of four emerging and relatively 'invisible' refugee groups in Australia who are stateless minorities in their homelands. Through ethnographic fieldwork among the Assyrians, Kurds, Southern Sudanese and Oromo in Sydney and Melbourne, the project will present a comprehensive picture of the impact of transnationalism upon the settlement and citizenship of stateless refugees in multicultural Australia. The project will broaden the debate on the transnational cultural processes which operate across borders and challenge the ability of democratic nation-states to sustain the belonging and participation of citizens.Read moreRead less
Doing Social Sustainability: the utopian imagination of youth on the margins. Sustainability is an issue of global urgency, and is recognised as a national research priority in Australia. However, the 'social' is often underestimated or subsumed within economic or environmental discourses. The project will add significantly to Australian and international knowledge about sustainability, marginalized youth, and social inclusion policies. It will develop new conceptual tools, foster public debate, ....Doing Social Sustainability: the utopian imagination of youth on the margins. Sustainability is an issue of global urgency, and is recognised as a national research priority in Australia. However, the 'social' is often underestimated or subsumed within economic or environmental discourses. The project will add significantly to Australian and international knowledge about sustainability, marginalized youth, and social inclusion policies. It will develop new conceptual tools, foster public debate, and offer young people new possibilities for vocational outcomes that complement their desired futures.Read moreRead less
Large screens and the transnational public sphere. With over 8 million annual visitors, Federation Square, Melbourne, is emblematic of the new public sphere emerging at the junction of physical space and media networks. Fed Square's large screen is integral to 70 large-scale cultural events hosted at the site each year attracting an average of 30,000 people. This project will establish a partnership between Fed Square, the Australia Council and Art Center Nabi in Seoul, pioneering the exchange o ....Large screens and the transnational public sphere. With over 8 million annual visitors, Federation Square, Melbourne, is emblematic of the new public sphere emerging at the junction of physical space and media networks. Fed Square's large screen is integral to 70 large-scale cultural events hosted at the site each year attracting an average of 30,000 people. This project will establish a partnership between Fed Square, the Australia Council and Art Center Nabi in Seoul, pioneering the exchange of technology and cultural content. The empirical research will generate fresh insights into public interactions with large screens, providing a prototype for future cross-cultural events and offering new theoretical perspectives on the use of public space.Read moreRead less
Education for a Tolerant and Multicultural Indonesia. The recent shift towards fundamentalist Islam and upsurge in religious and ethnic conflict in Indonesia are matters of great concern for Australia. This project will investigate how education can facilitate peaceful multiculturalism in Indonesia and explore the potential for the co-existence of Islamic and secular educational systems. This research will improve Australia's capacity to understand our region's 'languages, societies, politics an ....Education for a Tolerant and Multicultural Indonesia. The recent shift towards fundamentalist Islam and upsurge in religious and ethnic conflict in Indonesia are matters of great concern for Australia. This project will investigate how education can facilitate peaceful multiculturalism in Indonesia and explore the potential for the co-existence of Islamic and secular educational systems. This research will improve Australia's capacity to understand our region's 'languages, societies, politics and cultures' (National Research Priority 4). Australia has been a world leader in expertise on Indonesia; we need projects like this to train junior scholars and thus sustain Australia's international reputation for excellence in Indonesian Studies into the future. Read moreRead less
Sustaining Places: Public Space Design in a time of loss. Public space currently experiences various forms of loss: environmental, symbolic and spiritual. As it is an index of democratic health, this represents a diminished capacity to sustain ourselves politically and culturally. The project aims to reverse this decline through an innovative approach to public space design. It redefines public space to include ?soft-edge? environments. It identifies ephemeral and performative heritages that len ....Sustaining Places: Public Space Design in a time of loss. Public space currently experiences various forms of loss: environmental, symbolic and spiritual. As it is an index of democratic health, this represents a diminished capacity to sustain ourselves politically and culturally. The project aims to reverse this decline through an innovative approach to public space design. It redefines public space to include ?soft-edge? environments. It identifies ephemeral and performative heritages that lend places their sustaining character. Through global case studies, and an in-depth account of current Australian public space commissioning processes, it identifies obstacles to the creation of sustaining places, and defines an integrated theory and practice to produce them.
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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.
Culture Circuits: Exploring the International Networks and Institutions Shaping Contemporary Cultural Policy. This comparative Project will analyse the international export and exchange of cultural policy discourses and personnel, and their local consequences. The Project will provide a sophisticated understanding of cultural policy formation and the primary relations between culture, governance and nation shaping its development and orientation in Australia. In analysing significant external in ....Culture Circuits: Exploring the International Networks and Institutions Shaping Contemporary Cultural Policy. This comparative Project will analyse the international export and exchange of cultural policy discourses and personnel, and their local consequences. The Project will provide a sophisticated understanding of cultural policy formation and the primary relations between culture, governance and nation shaping its development and orientation in Australia. In analysing significant external influences on Australian cultural development, the Project will aid in the creation and maintenance of a distinctive national culture, so enabling the formulation of cultural policy that is attuned to specific Australian circumstances and better able to play a productive and strategic role in Australia's social and economic development.
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Rethinking Reconciliation and Pedagogy in Unsettling Times. In the context of ?unsettling times', reconciliation processes have the potential to strengthen the fragile network of relationships that holds Australian society together. Unfortunately, the pedagogical potential of reconciliation processes has yet to be adequately elaborated. We need more accounts of reconciliation in action. This project will provide cross-cultural comparative accounts of reconciliation processes in Australia, South ....Rethinking Reconciliation and Pedagogy in Unsettling Times. In the context of ?unsettling times', reconciliation processes have the potential to strengthen the fragile network of relationships that holds Australian society together. Unfortunately, the pedagogical potential of reconciliation processes has yet to be adequately elaborated. We need more accounts of reconciliation in action. This project will provide cross-cultural comparative accounts of reconciliation processes in Australia, South Africa and Israel. The project will also develop case study accounts of how reconciliation is represented and pursued in media culture particularly on the world-wide web. The analysis of these accounts will culminate in the development of a theory of pedagogies for reconciliation.Read moreRead less
Recreating Public Space: Poetics in the Production of Public Space. Community health and environmental sustainability are two national goals. 'Recreating Place' proposes that they are interlinked. First, it focuses on the neglected cultural heritage of local communities. Second, it investigates a graphic technique for translating these collective traces and associations into the design of the place. Developing a creative research model, 'Recreating Place' acts locally but thinks globally. Showin ....Recreating Public Space: Poetics in the Production of Public Space. Community health and environmental sustainability are two national goals. 'Recreating Place' proposes that they are interlinked. First, it focuses on the neglected cultural heritage of local communities. Second, it investigates a graphic technique for translating these collective traces and associations into the design of the place. Developing a creative research model, 'Recreating Place' acts locally but thinks globally. Showing that the well-being that springs from poetic repossession of the place through its stories provides the collective motivation to ensure that place's environmental sustainability, it demonstrates how national goals can be met through the poetic re-enchantment of particular locales.Read moreRead less
Reconfiguring intimate life: Gender and sexuality as sites of national redefinition in Australia since 1996. This project opens up current thinking about the nature of change in twenty-first century life in Australia by focusing on issues of gender and sexuality. It draws critical attention to a field of contest and re-negotiation of national identity and belonging, thus far not identified, that has far-reaching effects for the national fabric. It provides opportunities for thinking about sexual ....Reconfiguring intimate life: Gender and sexuality as sites of national redefinition in Australia since 1996. This project opens up current thinking about the nature of change in twenty-first century life in Australia by focusing on issues of gender and sexuality. It draws critical attention to a field of contest and re-negotiation of national identity and belonging, thus far not identified, that has far-reaching effects for the national fabric. It provides opportunities for thinking about sexual and reproductive relationships in ways that can be open to voices, stories and forms of belonging that signal a more generous, sustainable and healthy non-violent future.
The impact of the project will be on professional and scholarly training, teaching and research across a variety of disciplinary areas, as well as public debate. Read moreRead less