Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0211327

Funded Activity Summary

Foregrounding the suburban backyard: using hybrid spaces to develop new environmental theory for more effective management of human landscapes. Although human influences now pervade all Earth processes, environmental ideals of pristine past landscapes without people continue to dominate. The project addresses the challenge of managing environments for hybridity, change and human presence, rather than timeless purity. I will undertake the first in-depth ethnographic study of the suburban backyard, Australia's most hybrid ecosystem. I analyse how categories of environmental belonging - indigenous/introduced, wild/tame, hybrid/pure - are differentially applied to people, other species and landscapes, in policy and popular culture. This contributes to new theories of long term human-environment interactions and effective management of human landscapes. Outcomes will include books and museum exhibitions.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-03-2002

End Date: 31-12-2005

Funding Scheme: Discovery Projects

Funding Amount: $250,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Social And Cultural Geography | Environmental Management And Rehabilitation | Sociology And Social Studies Of Science And Technology | Human Geography

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

Studies in human society | Environmental policy, legislation and standards not elsewhere classified |

Other Keywords

Environmental Management And Rehabilitation | Environmental policy, legislation and standards not elsewhere classified | Human Geography | Social And Cultural Geography | Sociology And Social Studies Of Science And Technology | Studies in human society | Understanding Australia'S Past

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