The skin of commerce: the role of plastic packaging in the construction of food security, waste and consumer activism in Australia. Plastic packaging has been important to ensuring food security in Australia, however it is also a major waste burden. This project will critically assess new approaches to reducing plastic packaging in food markets and waste streams and will produce key insights into how sustainable food systems can be organised with less reliance on plastic.
From the Tap to the Bottle: an international study of the social and material life of bottled water. Water is a critical resource in Australia yet little is known about water in bottles. This project will be the first comparative study of bottled water marketing, consumption and disposal. It will make a significant contribution to national and international understandings of changing practices in the consumption of drinking water. The research will produce an analysis of the rise of the bottle i ....From the Tap to the Bottle: an international study of the social and material life of bottled water. Water is a critical resource in Australia yet little is known about water in bottles. This project will be the first comparative study of bottled water marketing, consumption and disposal. It will make a significant contribution to national and international understandings of changing practices in the consumption of drinking water. The research will produce an analysis of the rise of the bottle in relation to the tap. Specifically, how various anxieties associated with drinking tap water, in Australia and elsewhere, impact on bottled water consumption. The knowledge produced about bottled water collection, circulation and regulation will contribute to wider debates about sustainable water provision and access to safe water for all.Read moreRead less
From The Laboratory To The Classroom: Validation Of An Innovative Laboratory Model Of Adolescent Impulsivity And Alcohol Use Using A School-based Randomised Controlled Trial
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$399,267.00
Summary
I am a psychologist focused on understanding how different psychosocial approaches to reducing adolescent alcohol use actually work. I will achieve this using a new laboratory model I have developed to determine the “active ingredients” of different interventions. Using a randomised controlled trial, I will then test whether combining these ingredients produces better outcomes in the prevention of teenage drinking.
Reducing The Effects Of Antenatal Alcohol On Child Health (REAACH)
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,497,397.00
Summary
Use of alcohol in pregnancy can affect the developing baby and cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Children with FASD have lifelong brain injury that can lead to poor school performance, poor mental health and trouble with the law. This CRE builds on our strong background in research and community engagement to improve FASD prevention, diagnosis and treatment across Australia.
A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Role Of The Alcohol Dehydrogenase Gene Cluster In Alcohol-related Disorders And Esophageal Cancer Through Deep Resequencing
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$605,323.00
Summary
Excessive alcohol consumption remains a major public health concern in Australia where the burden of mental health disorders is dominated by substance-use disorders. Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) are essential in the breakdown of alcohol in the body and we seek to resequence seven ADH genes with the aim to comprehensively catalogue and identify sequence variants that contribute to risk for consuming excessive quantities of alcohol, alcoholism and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
Population Ageing and National Housing Demand in Australia. This project seeks to determine the likely impact of population ageing on the demand for housing in Australia. A seminal study for the U.S. predicted that the relative demand for, and therefore price of, housing will fall substantially in the next two or three decades due to population ageing. If this were to occur in Australia, it could have a significant impact on personal wealth, the national saving rate, employment and economic welf ....Population Ageing and National Housing Demand in Australia. This project seeks to determine the likely impact of population ageing on the demand for housing in Australia. A seminal study for the U.S. predicted that the relative demand for, and therefore price of, housing will fall substantially in the next two or three decades due to population ageing. If this were to occur in Australia, it could have a significant impact on personal wealth, the national saving rate, employment and economic welfare. This question will be addressed by extending two different types of models - an analytical model of optimal national saving and an econometric model of housing demand.Read moreRead less
Zeroing in on food waste: Measuring, understanding and reducing food waste. By developing a socio-culturally aware public education and social marketing programme to reduce food waste behaviours, the proposal addresses the national research priority area of an environmentally sustainable Australia. Reducing food waste by just 10% would save ~$530 million worth of wasted expenditure on food and reduce food waste in landfill by ~300,000 tonnes per annum, thereby reducing the costs associated with ....Zeroing in on food waste: Measuring, understanding and reducing food waste. By developing a socio-culturally aware public education and social marketing programme to reduce food waste behaviours, the proposal addresses the national research priority area of an environmentally sustainable Australia. Reducing food waste by just 10% would save ~$530 million worth of wasted expenditure on food and reduce food waste in landfill by ~300,000 tonnes per annum, thereby reducing the costs associated with disposal and the release of harmful methane gases. The methodology refined by this project to understand food waste will provide the basis for efficient and sustainable food waste reduction strategies and provide an approach that can be generalised to other waste streams with strong socio-cultural determinants.Read moreRead less
Young people, sex, love and the media. This project aims to discover what young Australians are learning about sex, love and relationships from popular media, as well as the impact that it is having on their behaviour and attitudes towards sexuality and intimate relationships. It will make recommendations about how to promote ethical and safe sexual practices and attitudes.
Television Presenters as Cultural Intermediaries. With significant changes in television programming, especially its preoccupation with everyday life through formats such as lifestyle shows and reality TV, it is important that research maintains its understanding of television's social and cultural function. This project will examine what kinds of ethical and social advice are being presented to the public, how this advice is being given and what the context of such advice is. The hypotheses inv ....Television Presenters as Cultural Intermediaries. With significant changes in television programming, especially its preoccupation with everyday life through formats such as lifestyle shows and reality TV, it is important that research maintains its understanding of television's social and cultural function. This project will examine what kinds of ethical and social advice are being presented to the public, how this advice is being given and what the context of such advice is. The hypotheses investigated will enable hard data to be inserted into debates about the media's role in society, benefiting the industry itself as well.Read moreRead less
Working from home: New media technology, workplace culture and the changing nature of domesticity. New media technologies are often marketed as liberating people from the workplace, providing flexibility in meeting work obligations. Communication technologies in particular make working from home increasingly possible: laptops, mobile phones and PDAs make any space a potential site for paid labour. This research studies the effect of new media technologies on how work is performed, where and by w ....Working from home: New media technology, workplace culture and the changing nature of domesticity. New media technologies are often marketed as liberating people from the workplace, providing flexibility in meeting work obligations. Communication technologies in particular make working from home increasingly possible: laptops, mobile phones and PDAs make any space a potential site for paid labour. This research studies the effect of new media technologies on how work is performed, where and by whom, to gauge their impact on the community more broadly. It also asks whether these new relationships to work raise the prospect of changing traditional attitudes to the work performed in and outside the home by men and women.Read moreRead less