The impacts of industry restructuring. This project aims to shed light on how Australia's workforce and communities will engage with the world of work in a future shaped by new business models and disruptive technologies. Using the closure of the automotive industry as a lens into this topic, the project will provide new insights into how displaced workers find work, use services, relate to others, and reshape their futures. It sheds light on the community-wide impacts of restructuring, providin ....The impacts of industry restructuring. This project aims to shed light on how Australia's workforce and communities will engage with the world of work in a future shaped by new business models and disruptive technologies. Using the closure of the automotive industry as a lens into this topic, the project will provide new insights into how displaced workers find work, use services, relate to others, and reshape their futures. It sheds light on the community-wide impacts of restructuring, providing new perspectives on how local resources and public policies best advance the process of adjustment.Read moreRead less
Local Government and Housing in Australia for the 21st Century. This project plans to analyse survey data, qualitative interviews and detailed case studies to investigate and theorise trends in the relationship between local government and housing supply and demand. It aims to answer a number of questions: What is the role of local government in housing Australians in the 21st century? How have changing economic, social, demographic and political processes affected the interaction between local ....Local Government and Housing in Australia for the 21st Century. This project plans to analyse survey data, qualitative interviews and detailed case studies to investigate and theorise trends in the relationship between local government and housing supply and demand. It aims to answer a number of questions: What is the role of local government in housing Australians in the 21st century? How have changing economic, social, demographic and political processes affected the interaction between local government and housing over the past decades, and what are the likely impacts in the future? How might a reshaped Australian Federation recast the role of local government in this area of social and economic policy? The research aims to consider inner urban, suburban and regional and rural areas; and to contribute to a healthier and more productive Australia by providing local governments with evidence on their role in the housing market and how they can prepare for the future.Read moreRead less
Mapping the effect of social enterprise on regional city disadvantage. This project aims to explore how social enterprises affect wellbeing and community capacity in disadvantaged areas of regional cities. Governments increasingly invest in social enterprise to benefit individuals and places. This project will use a spatial methodology to map where and how benefits are realised. To date, robust evidence about how social enterprise affects disadvantage is lacking, partly due to inadequate researc ....Mapping the effect of social enterprise on regional city disadvantage. This project aims to explore how social enterprises affect wellbeing and community capacity in disadvantaged areas of regional cities. Governments increasingly invest in social enterprise to benefit individuals and places. This project will use a spatial methodology to map where and how benefits are realised. To date, robust evidence about how social enterprise affects disadvantage is lacking, partly due to inadequate research methodology. This project expects to provide web-based design tools and applications to assist regional city communities and councils in the development of social enterprises that can help disadvantaged people and places.Read moreRead less
Who owns the sustainable city? Urban redevelopment, sustainability and the politics of property rights in Australia, Brazil and Chile. Around 15 million people are currently displaced due to urban redevelopment. Such redevelopment is often branded ‘sustainable’, and yet the social injustice caused does not fit sustainability principles. Displacement is driven by the power of private property rights over less-recognised ways of occupying land. This connection between redevelopment and how differe ....Who owns the sustainable city? Urban redevelopment, sustainability and the politics of property rights in Australia, Brazil and Chile. Around 15 million people are currently displaced due to urban redevelopment. Such redevelopment is often branded ‘sustainable’, and yet the social injustice caused does not fit sustainability principles. Displacement is driven by the power of private property rights over less-recognised ways of occupying land. This connection between redevelopment and how different kinds of property rights are recognised is rarely studied and yet is central to the way that rapidly growing cities develop. Using a comparative approach of cities in Australia, Brazil and Chile, this research analyses that connection. This offers a more precise understanding of the role of property rights in city development, and contributes to socially sustainable urban policy.Read moreRead less
The Influence of Context on Player Attitudes to Drugs: Implications for Sport Policy in Australia. This research project will generate evidence about drug use in sport that can be used to both evaluate current policy and better inform the drugs-in-sport debate. In addition it will provide significant benefits to both the collaborating partners and the sport industry in general. Collaborating partners will benefit by being able to contribute to the research project, and having full access to the ....The Influence of Context on Player Attitudes to Drugs: Implications for Sport Policy in Australia. This research project will generate evidence about drug use in sport that can be used to both evaluate current policy and better inform the drugs-in-sport debate. In addition it will provide significant benefits to both the collaborating partners and the sport industry in general. Collaborating partners will benefit by being able to contribute to the research project, and having full access to the results of the research. It is anticipated that the results will directly assist their strategic goals of education, advocacy and harm minimisation. The sport industry will benefit by obtaining a more detailed understanding of how players view drugs-in-sport and in particular how they discriminate between various drug types. Read moreRead less
Animals and urban planning: Indian cities as Zoöpolises. This project aims to examine the everyday realities of selected wild, commensal, and commoditised species living close to humans in six ecologically diverse, rapidly growing, medium-sized cities in India. India’s rapid urbanisation and declining biodiversity have critical global implications, but the complex social dimensions of Indian urban biodiversity are overlooked in current planning. Archival and empirical methods will be utilised, ....Animals and urban planning: Indian cities as Zoöpolises. This project aims to examine the everyday realities of selected wild, commensal, and commoditised species living close to humans in six ecologically diverse, rapidly growing, medium-sized cities in India. India’s rapid urbanisation and declining biodiversity have critical global implications, but the complex social dimensions of Indian urban biodiversity are overlooked in current planning. Archival and empirical methods will be utilised, with outcomes expected to generate new insights into the complex social dimensions of Indian urban biodiversity for global and state urban and biodiversity policies. This will offer an expanded empirical basis for planning that sustains urban biodiversity in cities of the future.Read moreRead less
Sustainability transformation pathways for small to medium enterprises. Our planet is on the brink of environmental disaster: biodiversity loss is at mass-extinction rates, agricultural systems are under strain and pollution is threatening human health. Business enterprises have a crucial role to play in addressing these time-critical issues. This project examines how small to medium enterprises’ (SMEs) capacity for experimentation and innovation enables their adoption of sustainable business mo ....Sustainability transformation pathways for small to medium enterprises. Our planet is on the brink of environmental disaster: biodiversity loss is at mass-extinction rates, agricultural systems are under strain and pollution is threatening human health. Business enterprises have a crucial role to play in addressing these time-critical issues. This project examines how small to medium enterprises’ (SMEs) capacity for experimentation and innovation enables their adoption of sustainable business models to drive sustainable transformations. The research outcomes are critical for understanding and supporting innovative strategies for organising and governing SMEs’ pathways to a sustainable society. The knowledge developed will support business sustainability transformations in Australia and internationally.Read moreRead less
Enabling social innovation for local climate adaptability. Climate variability and change is likely to be felt most acutely at the local scale in Australia. This is where inter/national and State policies are translated into practices to prepare for, and adapt to, anticipated impacts of heatwaves, bushfires and floods. This project will investigate tensions and potentialities between risk-based assessments by local governance agencies and innovations by local groups and Non-Government Organisati ....Enabling social innovation for local climate adaptability. Climate variability and change is likely to be felt most acutely at the local scale in Australia. This is where inter/national and State policies are translated into practices to prepare for, and adapt to, anticipated impacts of heatwaves, bushfires and floods. This project will investigate tensions and potentialities between risk-based assessments by local governance agencies and innovations by local groups and Non-Government Organisations. The research will utilise an innovative mixed-methods approach to investigate and to analyse the strategies and experiments of adaptation practices. It aims to develop new ways of identifying and implementing practical, local, adaptive responses that are contextually relevant, socially innovative and capacity building.Read moreRead less