Discretionary Time: A New Method of Cross-National Welfare Comparison Focusing on Freedom. Cross-national comparisons of welfare regimes and their gender divisions explore issues of income and employment. Those bring liberation of a sort, but they do not exhaust people's freedom and autonomy. This Project will explore how paid and unpaid labour responsibilities interact, impinging on people's discretionary time and thus autonomy. A new measure of 'discretionary time' will be developed and its ....Discretionary Time: A New Method of Cross-National Welfare Comparison Focusing on Freedom. Cross-national comparisons of welfare regimes and their gender divisions explore issues of income and employment. Those bring liberation of a sort, but they do not exhaust people's freedom and autonomy. This Project will explore how paid and unpaid labour responsibilities interact, impinging on people's discretionary time and thus autonomy. A new measure of 'discretionary time' will be developed and its usefulness for cross-national comparisons illustrated through analysis of time use data from Australia, Finland, Canada and Sweden. Different ways of targeting social assistance to the most time-pressured groups in society will be examined for policy lessons from abroad.
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Sampling Gay Men: Testing Methodological Alternatives in a Minority Population. This project will systematically assess the efficacy and appropriateness of five separate techniques for the recruitment of gay and homosexually active men in Australia. The project will use the data from the Australian Study of Health and Relationships to assess the representativeness of the samples obtained. Using theoretical considerations of the inter-relationship of identity, attraction and practice, the suitabi ....Sampling Gay Men: Testing Methodological Alternatives in a Minority Population. This project will systematically assess the efficacy and appropriateness of five separate techniques for the recruitment of gay and homosexually active men in Australia. The project will use the data from the Australian Study of Health and Relationships to assess the representativeness of the samples obtained. Using theoretical considerations of the inter-relationship of identity, attraction and practice, the suitability of recruitment strategies for research projects addressing key elements of gay men's health will be assessed. As a by-product of the sampling exercise, a description of the key health concerns of gay and homosexually active men will be developed. Read moreRead less
Multidimensional unfolding: the latitude of acceptance and the structure of the single peaked response process in a multidimensional space. The latitude of acceptance and the operational function that structures the single peaked response process have only recently been understood as central to unidimensional models for the measurement of attitude, preference and choice. They have been neglected in multidimensional models. This project will formalise these two central components in a multidimens ....Multidimensional unfolding: the latitude of acceptance and the structure of the single peaked response process in a multidimensional space. The latitude of acceptance and the operational function that structures the single peaked response process have only recently been understood as central to unidimensional models for the measurement of attitude, preference and choice. They have been neglected in multidimensional models. This project will formalise these two central components in a multidimensional space. The operational function governs the relationship between any item-person distance and the latitude of acceptance defines a multidimensional hyper-sphere within which the more positive response is more likely. The project will articulate and operationalise these models for a range of typical response formats from ranking to pairwise preferences.Read moreRead less
Childhood and Modernity: Indian Children's Perspectives. This research, to be carried out in partnership with Indian institutions and scholars, will contribute to better public understanding of children's perspectives, rights, and social roles in India in an era of rapid change and globalisation. The focus on visual methods and collaboration with children will advance the methodologies of childhood research and produce knowledge valuable for a range of disciplines, from anthropology to history t ....Childhood and Modernity: Indian Children's Perspectives. This research, to be carried out in partnership with Indian institutions and scholars, will contribute to better public understanding of children's perspectives, rights, and social roles in India in an era of rapid change and globalisation. The focus on visual methods and collaboration with children will advance the methodologies of childhood research and produce knowledge valuable for a range of disciplines, from anthropology to history to cognitive science. The information gained will provide insights into the next generation of Indian adults, contributing to Australia's growing ties with India and the Asia-Pacific region.Read moreRead less
Understanding the Spatial and Social Drivers of Employment Transitions. This project reconsiders significant changes in the Australian labour market by utilising new conceptual tools based on temporal and spatial dimensions of productive activities and employment. The analysis provides an understanding of the socio-economic and spatial drivers of job and employment transitions and how they vary across Australia. The outcomes will be a new hierarchical model of labour market regions for assessin ....Understanding the Spatial and Social Drivers of Employment Transitions. This project reconsiders significant changes in the Australian labour market by utilising new conceptual tools based on temporal and spatial dimensions of productive activities and employment. The analysis provides an understanding of the socio-economic and spatial drivers of job and employment transitions and how they vary across Australia. The outcomes will be a new hierarchical model of labour market regions for assessing the social impact of employment transitions in regions, localities and remote areas providing evidence to inform region-specific policy. The innovative statistical methodology to enhance current analytical models of spatial variation in employment transitions will contribute significantly to international research. Read moreRead less
Poor Women and Lonely Men: Examining Gendered Social Inclusion and Connection in Australia. This project directly supports the national research priority goal of 'strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric' (as part of Promoting and Maintaining Good Health). Inclusive societies reap many benefits (economic, education, crime, health etc), and information revealed about relevant gendered patterns will help build social inclusion and connection in Australia by informing inclusive strategi ....Poor Women and Lonely Men: Examining Gendered Social Inclusion and Connection in Australia. This project directly supports the national research priority goal of 'strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric' (as part of Promoting and Maintaining Good Health). Inclusive societies reap many benefits (economic, education, crime, health etc), and information revealed about relevant gendered patterns will help build social inclusion and connection in Australia by informing inclusive strategies and policies. The project also supports the national research priority goal 'ageing well and productively', by informing policy-contexts of specific disadvantage, such as amongst those ageing alone. The project will also add to broader understandings about the links between social inclusion, connection and wellbeing.Read moreRead less
Assessing and enhancing the quality of longitudinal survey data. Australia has begun investing heavily in the collection of population-wide longitudinal survey data. Most of that effort has focused first on collection and dissemination and second on analysis, with scant attention paid to the quality of data collected. This is unfortunate given that longitudinal surveys exhibit many problems (e.g., attrition, panel conditioning, and seam effects) that are not relevant in more ubiquitous cross-sec ....Assessing and enhancing the quality of longitudinal survey data. Australia has begun investing heavily in the collection of population-wide longitudinal survey data. Most of that effort has focused first on collection and dissemination and second on analysis, with scant attention paid to the quality of data collected. This is unfortunate given that longitudinal surveys exhibit many problems (e.g., attrition, panel conditioning, and seam effects) that are not relevant in more ubiquitous cross-section of surveys. Without adequate resources devoted to these methodological issues, the quality of substantive research will be questioned and interest from potential users decline. Maximizing the investment being made in longitudinal data thus requires a complementary investment in methodological research.Read moreRead less
The Connected Home: probing the effects and affects of domesticated information and communication technologies. Australia is a major consumer of ICTs, and the contemporary Australian home now plays the role of 'communications node' in global as well as local networks. This project investigates the effective use of these domestic communications technologies, the affects of this use on the household, how information and communication technologies shape the home, and how the home shapes the technol ....The Connected Home: probing the effects and affects of domesticated information and communication technologies. Australia is a major consumer of ICTs, and the contemporary Australian home now plays the role of 'communications node' in global as well as local networks. This project investigates the effective use of these domestic communications technologies, the affects of this use on the household, how information and communication technologies shape the home, and how the home shapes the technologies. The study's findings will provide important information to government and non-government agencies concerned with social connection in contemporary Australian suburbs, and will provide important information to communications service providers, and to designers and manufacturers of domestic ICTs.Read moreRead less
Everyday Incivilities. The study aims to provide the best available evidence on the seriousness of everyday incivilities between strangers in public places as a social problem in Australian society. This will involve gathering self-report data from socially diverse Australians for the purpose of exploring social group differences in (i) the type and prevalence of everyday incivilities experienced, and (ii) the social and psychological costs of exposure to everyday incivilities. The information ....Everyday Incivilities. The study aims to provide the best available evidence on the seriousness of everyday incivilities between strangers in public places as a social problem in Australian society. This will involve gathering self-report data from socially diverse Australians for the purpose of exploring social group differences in (i) the type and prevalence of everyday incivilities experienced, and (ii) the social and psychological costs of exposure to everyday incivilities. The information gathered will be used to identify high risk social groups and public places, and serve as a basis for developing programs for reducing everyday incivilities.Read moreRead less
Being 'fat' in today's world: A socio-cultural investigation of overweight and obesity. What does it feel like to constantly struggle with your weight? Over 60% of Australians are overweight or obese, and many of these have battled with their weight for most of their adult lives. In an innovative approach to obesity, researchers at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Canberra and Deakin University are investigating the poignancy of experience of living with obesity ....Being 'fat' in today's world: A socio-cultural investigation of overweight and obesity. What does it feel like to constantly struggle with your weight? Over 60% of Australians are overweight or obese, and many of these have battled with their weight for most of their adult lives. In an innovative approach to obesity, researchers at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Canberra and Deakin University are investigating the poignancy of experience of living with obesity in Australia. The aim of the study, which also includes a review of how obesity is represented by Australian newspapers, will use narratives to provide public health, health promotion and media strategies which resonate with the lived reality of obese and overweight people.Read moreRead less