Clarifying transparency: Chinese aid and trade in Latin America. Consensual understandings of transparency and good governance are crucial to the international accommodation of China's economic rise. Through a quantitative survey and qualitative case studies, this project aims to clarify how these terms generate misunderstandings and hinder potential for dialogue between key U.S., Latin American and Chinese actors.
Constructing the next crisis: ideas, economic policy, and the social limits to reform. For twenty years, even as the world economy has been repeatedly disrupted by crises, efforts at reform have been blocked by economic ideas regarding the virtues of free markets. If these views remain in place, there will be more crises. This research seeks to understand how elite consensus limits debate and how new ideas might enable reform.
Realising socio-economic rights: law and the politics of access to public services in Indonesia. This project seeks to identify the conditions under which justiciable legal frameworks or socio-economic rights are effective in promoting realisation of these rights in developing countries. The empirical focus is on Indonesia during the post-Suharto era and rights related to free basic education, water, and free health care for the poor.
Feasibility in politics: Taking account of groups and institutions. This project aims to research feasibility in politics. Normative political discourse is pervaded by the use of claims about what is feasible and infeasible. The project will examine feasibility practices, the functions they serve, what is required to serve the functions effectively, how actual practices stack up, and how to improve them. It will fuse philosophical and empirical analysis; encompass three salient case studies (imm ....Feasibility in politics: Taking account of groups and institutions. This project aims to research feasibility in politics. Normative political discourse is pervaded by the use of claims about what is feasible and infeasible. The project will examine feasibility practices, the functions they serve, what is required to serve the functions effectively, how actual practices stack up, and how to improve them. It will fuse philosophical and empirical analysis; encompass three salient case studies (immigration, poverty and climate change); and engage practitioners, commentators and ordinary citizens. The project intends to inform the development of just and effective immigration, poverty and climate change policy, reflecting a better understanding of the role of feasibility in politics.Read moreRead less
The Political Economy of Post-Conflict Violence Against Women. Post-conflict and political transitions are major opportunities for advancing women’s rights and participation. Yet an apparent spike in sexual- and gender-based violence against women hinders these opportunities once armed conflict is stabilised or regime change is achieved. This project aims to explain the causes of that violence and its consequences for women’s economic and political participation in different environments. It wil ....The Political Economy of Post-Conflict Violence Against Women. Post-conflict and political transitions are major opportunities for advancing women’s rights and participation. Yet an apparent spike in sexual- and gender-based violence against women hinders these opportunities once armed conflict is stabilised or regime change is achieved. This project aims to explain the causes of that violence and its consequences for women’s economic and political participation in different environments. It will compare post-conflict, political transition and non-conflict countries across two regions, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa, examining the gender inequalities, regional patterns, and global forces that appear to heighten violence against women and hinder women’s participation.Read moreRead less
Global Challenges, Reluctant Publics? The Role of Public Opinion in International Cooperation on Crucial Global Issues. When challenges emerge that demand international cooperation, what is the facilitating or constraining role of public opinion in states’ ability for joint action? Which factors, under what conditions, influence citizens’ attitudes? Can governments or issue activists meaningfully change public opinion about crucial issues? Human society faces a number of major challenges to its ....Global Challenges, Reluctant Publics? The Role of Public Opinion in International Cooperation on Crucial Global Issues. When challenges emerge that demand international cooperation, what is the facilitating or constraining role of public opinion in states’ ability for joint action? Which factors, under what conditions, influence citizens’ attitudes? Can governments or issue activists meaningfully change public opinion about crucial issues? Human society faces a number of major challenges to its environmental, economic, and political wellbeing that are not contained by international borders and may require international cooperation for effective action. Developing and testing new theory, this project aims to address these under-explored issues of the role of opinion in multinational cooperation, and the degree to which opinion is an independent agenda setter.Read moreRead less
The rise of China's currency, from of the rise of the red back. By examining the internationalisation of China’s currency, this project aims to enhance Australia’s capacity to respond to the rise of China and in particular to interpret financial stability and developments in China. China’s promotion of an internationalised profile of its currency stands at the heart of its current financial and economic strategy, and it may have profound implications on the future of the international monetary s ....The rise of China's currency, from of the rise of the red back. By examining the internationalisation of China’s currency, this project aims to enhance Australia’s capacity to respond to the rise of China and in particular to interpret financial stability and developments in China. China’s promotion of an internationalised profile of its currency stands at the heart of its current financial and economic strategy, and it may have profound implications on the future of the international monetary system and the world’s economic and political order. Using an innovative agent-centred institutional framework, the project intends to explore the political and institutional dynamics and internal and external aspects of Beijing’s currency strategy. This may shed light on the current debate on dynamics of institutional change and improve our understanding of China’s policymaking mechanisms.Read moreRead less
State, Class and Islamic Populism: Indonesia in Comparative Perspective. This study will provide a different basis for the assessment of Australian policy responses to Islamic radicalism in Indonesia. It will expose the social foundations of Islamic populism as a particular expression of political Islam and in so doing allow the Australian public and policymakers to understand the complex networks and relationships that generate and sustain Islamic populism, including its radical streams. It wil ....State, Class and Islamic Populism: Indonesia in Comparative Perspective. This study will provide a different basis for the assessment of Australian policy responses to Islamic radicalism in Indonesia. It will expose the social foundations of Islamic populism as a particular expression of political Islam and in so doing allow the Australian public and policymakers to understand the complex networks and relationships that generate and sustain Islamic populism, including its radical streams. It will enable an identification and differentiation of the social forces resisting or advancing democratic governance reforms in Indonesia. With this knowledge, programmes intended to help develop domestic pro-democratic coalitions to stem the rise of radical Islamic groups have a sounder social scientific base.Read moreRead less
Constructing ethnic politics in Indonesia. Exploring political dynamics in provincial Indonesia, this project will address fundamental questions about how ethnicity becomes important in political affairs, and about why political actors choose to emphasise some ethnic identities but not others. It will also help identify the conditions which lead to inter-ethnic cooperation rather than conflict.
Reconciling nations: what can Australia learn from the international experience of democratic dialogue? This project will draw on international experience to explore the capacity for facilitated, democratic dialogue to revitalise the Australian reconciliation process. Using innovative case study research and an original applied theoretical approach, the project will develop new methods for resolving intercultural conflict in Australia.