Mining voids and just transition: reimagining post-mining landscapes . This project aims to address the complex problem of how to deal with the long-term legacies of coal mining. Through a combination of ethnographic and Arts-Based Methods, the project will advance insight into how local communities in the Hunter Valley, NSW, experience socio-cultural impacts of environmental disturbance and mining legacies, particularly where final voids are present. It will generate new knowledge into potentia ....Mining voids and just transition: reimagining post-mining landscapes . This project aims to address the complex problem of how to deal with the long-term legacies of coal mining. Through a combination of ethnographic and Arts-Based Methods, the project will advance insight into how local communities in the Hunter Valley, NSW, experience socio-cultural impacts of environmental disturbance and mining legacies, particularly where final voids are present. It will generate new knowledge into potentials for reimagining post-mining landscapes and how such landscapes can support a just transition towards a post-mining future. Expected benefits include advancement of public discourses around mining legacies, research capacity building and theory development to support multi-stakeholder engagement and dialogue.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200724
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$167,200.00
Summary
Australian understandings of infectious disease symptoms in the COVID era. This project aims to study how Australians interpret symptoms of acute infectious diseases and how those beliefs shape their health-seeking behaviour. Using mixed social science methods, the project will document how Australians decide when to seek medical treatment at clinics or hospitals and when to stay at home, how they believe disease spreads and how they decide whether to go to work, school, social commitments, shop ....Australian understandings of infectious disease symptoms in the COVID era. This project aims to study how Australians interpret symptoms of acute infectious diseases and how those beliefs shape their health-seeking behaviour. Using mixed social science methods, the project will document how Australians decide when to seek medical treatment at clinics or hospitals and when to stay at home, how they believe disease spreads and how they decide whether to go to work, school, social commitments, shops, or stay home when unwell, and what they think about government health policy regarding infectious disease in the wake of COVID-19. Humans spread diseases through culturally coded patterns of behaviour, and this project will offer critical public health insights in an era of infectious disease epidemics and pandemics.Read moreRead less
State-building from the perspective of local communities. Notions of society and state originating in Christian belief are universal in the Pacific yet remain largely unaccounted for in development work and theories of state-building. Using the Solomon Islands as a case study, this project seeks to address the question of how people living in so-called "failed states" think about the nature of the state, the sources of its shortcomings and the possibilities of alternative state forms. The projec ....State-building from the perspective of local communities. Notions of society and state originating in Christian belief are universal in the Pacific yet remain largely unaccounted for in development work and theories of state-building. Using the Solomon Islands as a case study, this project seeks to address the question of how people living in so-called "failed states" think about the nature of the state, the sources of its shortcomings and the possibilities of alternative state forms. The project is expected to advance theoretical understanding of state-building and provide evidence for the importance of integrating local belief contexts into international development practice.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101214
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$392,622.00
Summary
Midwives, social recovery and the politics of health in Aceh, Indonesia. This project aims to better enable policy makers to reduce health inequalities. It will address the question of how healthcare workers care for their communities during periods of violence and social recovery, by documenting the experiences of midwives in the Indonesian province of Aceh during a period of conflict (1976-2005) and up to the present. The outcomes are expected to support efforts to reduce Aceh’s high rates of ....Midwives, social recovery and the politics of health in Aceh, Indonesia. This project aims to better enable policy makers to reduce health inequalities. It will address the question of how healthcare workers care for their communities during periods of violence and social recovery, by documenting the experiences of midwives in the Indonesian province of Aceh during a period of conflict (1976-2005) and up to the present. The outcomes are expected to support efforts to reduce Aceh’s high rates of infant and maternal mortality, and to identify new ways to understand and address the complex health inequalities that face many contemporary societies.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100503
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Desire and the political field: decision-making and political moralities from 'culture village' to Vientiane, Laos. This project critically assesses the 'culture village' model of development currently adopted by the Government of Laos. The project seeks to understand the logic of this development model, assess its impacts on the ethnic Katu village residents, and use these insights to develop an analysis of culture and development in modern state and decision making.
Transnational seafood commodity chains and the coastal poor in the maritime frontiers of the Asia-Pacific. This research aims to understand the social mechanisms by which access to the benefits of transnational seafood commodity chains in the Asia-Pacific are gained, maintained and controlled. This project will use a conceptual framework that focuses on key social relations of gender, class and ethnicity, and the key societal changes of land-use change, migration and conservation. This project o ....Transnational seafood commodity chains and the coastal poor in the maritime frontiers of the Asia-Pacific. This research aims to understand the social mechanisms by which access to the benefits of transnational seafood commodity chains in the Asia-Pacific are gained, maintained and controlled. This project will use a conceptual framework that focuses on key social relations of gender, class and ethnicity, and the key societal changes of land-use change, migration and conservation. This project offers a novel research framework for a pressing cluster of economic, environmental and social challenges in the Asia-Pacific, and will inform research and policy for poverty reduction, economic development, environmental management and food security. Read moreRead less
Governing the blue economy in maritime Asia-Pacific. This project aims to examine the drivers, character and effects of Blue Economy governance, a highly influential agenda intended to reconcile economic growth with ocean conservation. Analysis of Blue Economy governance in China and the Philippines seeks to reveal how this agenda is represented, contested and implemented at regional, national and local scales. Expected outcomes include new knowledge concerning the influence and impacts of marit ....Governing the blue economy in maritime Asia-Pacific. This project aims to examine the drivers, character and effects of Blue Economy governance, a highly influential agenda intended to reconcile economic growth with ocean conservation. Analysis of Blue Economy governance in China and the Philippines seeks to reveal how this agenda is represented, contested and implemented at regional, national and local scales. Expected outcomes include new knowledge concerning the influence and impacts of maritime governance in the region. This project has the potential to inform more socially equitable and environmentally sustainable governance outcomes.Read moreRead less
Muslims and Christians: Women, Religious Nationalism and Sustainability in the Asia Pacific Region. This project should provide agencies concerned with national security and immigration with an improved understanding of the impact of religious nationalism on communities and individuals. It should contribute to the effectiveness of Australian overseas aid initiatives, both government and voluntary, by increasing the available knowledge of how communities are sustaining themselves at present. It s ....Muslims and Christians: Women, Religious Nationalism and Sustainability in the Asia Pacific Region. This project should provide agencies concerned with national security and immigration with an improved understanding of the impact of religious nationalism on communities and individuals. It should contribute to the effectiveness of Australian overseas aid initiatives, both government and voluntary, by increasing the available knowledge of how communities are sustaining themselves at present. It should, further, produce findings that make it easier for health, education and welfare agencies to deal sensitively with Muslim communities within AustraliaRead moreRead less
The Western Nation-State, Cultural Pluralism and the Transnational Circulation of Political Emotions in the Shi'a Lebanese Diaspora. At its most general level, this research aims to expose and explain the importance of emotions in the formation of all cultures. In so doing it opens the way for a more complex understanding of some of the invisible but important forces that shape intercultural relations within culturally plural nations. It will thus open the possibilities for ameliorating and refi ....The Western Nation-State, Cultural Pluralism and the Transnational Circulation of Political Emotions in the Shi'a Lebanese Diaspora. At its most general level, this research aims to expose and explain the importance of emotions in the formation of all cultures. In so doing it opens the way for a more complex understanding of some of the invisible but important forces that shape intercultural relations within culturally plural nations. It will thus open the possibilities for ameliorating and refining government policies concerned with the management of pluralism. At a more particular level, the research hopes to produce critical knowledge about diasporic Arab Muslim cultures that will ameliorate the thorny relations these cultures have today with western governments.Read moreRead less
Cultural values, birth and parenting: Reproductive health and Lao socialism. This project aims to provide an anthropology of procreation and parenting through ethnography of the Government of Laos’ Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health rollout as well as everyday reproduction in rural and remote Laos. It expects to generate new knowledge of core values in Laos, including those underpinning official treatment of children as human capital, difference as deprivation, and mother-and-chil ....Cultural values, birth and parenting: Reproductive health and Lao socialism. This project aims to provide an anthropology of procreation and parenting through ethnography of the Government of Laos’ Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health rollout as well as everyday reproduction in rural and remote Laos. It expects to generate new knowledge of core values in Laos, including those underpinning official treatment of children as human capital, difference as deprivation, and mother-and-child biomedical care as universal, as well as the (counter-)values lived in rural and remote practices, knowledge and sentiments. Anticipated benefits include advanced understandings of Lao culture and society, socialism as it articulates with international health and economic agendas, and the anthropology of human flourishing.Read moreRead less