Norms, Reasons & Values. Social norms often come adrift from the reasons and values that they are supposed to serve. Strengthening Australia'a social and economic fabric (a National Research Priority) requires understanding how norms work and revising them in changing circumstances. This project explores such ideas in relation to crucial issues-democracy, terrorism (another NRP), historical injustice and sexuality-and interjects practical suggestions into the public debate over how norms ought ....Norms, Reasons & Values. Social norms often come adrift from the reasons and values that they are supposed to serve. Strengthening Australia'a social and economic fabric (a National Research Priority) requires understanding how norms work and revising them in changing circumstances. This project explores such ideas in relation to crucial issues-democracy, terrorism (another NRP), historical injustice and sexuality-and interjects practical suggestions into the public debate over how norms ought be revised. It also furthers Australia's world standing in political science and philosophy and, by enlisting international scholars to help explore these issues, focuses the intellectual firepower of the world on problems of national importance to Australia.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101866
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$324,557.00
Summary
Building back better: Participatory governance in a post-Haiyan world. 'Building back better' has become a global mantra for countries recovering from disasters. This project aims to examine how this principle can be extended from rebuilding disaster-resilient physical infrastructure to rehabilitating institutions of participatory governance to ensure the inclusive and empowering character of recovery efforts. Through a multi-sited ethnography in cities worst hit by the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in th ....Building back better: Participatory governance in a post-Haiyan world. 'Building back better' has become a global mantra for countries recovering from disasters. This project aims to examine how this principle can be extended from rebuilding disaster-resilient physical infrastructure to rehabilitating institutions of participatory governance to ensure the inclusive and empowering character of recovery efforts. Through a multi-sited ethnography in cities worst hit by the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, a theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded analytical toolkit that gauges the democratic quality of post-disaster reconstruction will be developed. The project aims to generate insights into the precise ways in which participatory governance can also be 'built better' in a post-Haiyan world.Read moreRead less
Rethinking climate justice in an age of adaptation: capabilities, local variation, and public deliberation. This project aims to produce recommendations, designed by citizens and stakeholders, for climate adaptation policies in three regions of Australia. These recommendations will be based on a definition of climate justice that incorporates basic needs and resources to be protected, as identified by potentially impacted communities.
Realising Democracy Amid Communicative Plenty: A Deliberative Approach. The ever-increasing volume of political communication (especially online) challenges democracy and effective policy making. The aim of this project is to examine whether, how, why, and to what effect discourse flows within and between different sites in the new politics of communicative plenty. This research applies the idea of deliberative democracy, which puts meaningful communication between citizens and policy makers at ....Realising Democracy Amid Communicative Plenty: A Deliberative Approach. The ever-increasing volume of political communication (especially online) challenges democracy and effective policy making. The aim of this project is to examine whether, how, why, and to what effect discourse flows within and between different sites in the new politics of communicative plenty. This research applies the idea of deliberative democracy, which puts meaningful communication between citizens and policy makers at the heart of effective governance. It develops a deliberative analysis of controversy surrounding coal seam gas in Australia, using qualitative and 'big data' techniques to collect information. The knowledge generated is expected to inform efforts to put deliberative democracy into practice, as well as more effective environmental governance.Read moreRead less
A Meta-study of democratic deliberation: advancing theory and practice. This project aims to reconcile conflicting findings and develop the first comprehensive account of defensible claims about political deliberation. The project will analyse and synthesise results from available studies of deliberation. Source material and findings will be compiled in a publicly-available database to facilitate standardisation and enhancement of future research in the field. This will provide significant bene ....A Meta-study of democratic deliberation: advancing theory and practice. This project aims to reconcile conflicting findings and develop the first comprehensive account of defensible claims about political deliberation. The project will analyse and synthesise results from available studies of deliberation. Source material and findings will be compiled in a publicly-available database to facilitate standardisation and enhancement of future research in the field. This will provide significant benefits, such as settling important questions that remain among deliberative democrats and, more practically, facilitate potential avenues for democratic reform.Read moreRead less
Automatic Authorities: Charting a Course for Legitimate AI. Public and private actors are increasingly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to exercise power over citizens, who are increasingly unsure whether to accept that power. AI faces a crisis of legitimacy. This project aims to use technically- and empirically-grounded philosophy to make Australia a global leader in the study and design of legitimate AI. The project expects to launch and make fundamental progress in a new field: the Politica ....Automatic Authorities: Charting a Course for Legitimate AI. Public and private actors are increasingly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to exercise power over citizens, who are increasingly unsure whether to accept that power. AI faces a crisis of legitimacy. This project aims to use technically- and empirically-grounded philosophy to make Australia a global leader in the study and design of legitimate AI. The project expects to launch and make fundamental progress in a new field: the Political Philosophy of AI. Expected outcomes include new strategies shared with industry and government partners for designing and deploying legitimate AI systems. Expected benefits include the opportunity to enjoy the public and private efficiencies enabled by AI, without compromising our freedom and equality.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100811
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$366,036.00
Summary
Justifying war. This project will develop a comprehensive new account of the ethics of war. Radically departing from the current philosophical orthodoxy in its focus on the distinctively collectivist dimensions of war's morality, it will offer a new take on both the positive reasons that justify warfare and the constraints on starting, fighting and ending wars.
Political normativity and the feasibility requirement. Commonsense says that claims about how social and political life ought to be arranged must not make infeasible demands. This project will investigate this piece of commonsense and explore its implications for a number of pressing issues, such as climate change, multiculturalism, political participation, inequality, historical justice, and the rules of war.
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL140100154
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,616,265.00
Summary
Deliberative worlds: democracy, justice and a changing world. Deliberative worlds: democracy, justice and a changing world. In an increasingly complex world the processes of achieving fair, effective and equitable solutions to major problems are under challenge. Deliberative democratic methods, where informed citizen groups are used to make decisions, have been used in many countries to develop effective policy responses to a range of problems. This research will develop the understanding of del ....Deliberative worlds: democracy, justice and a changing world. Deliberative worlds: democracy, justice and a changing world. In an increasingly complex world the processes of achieving fair, effective and equitable solutions to major problems are under challenge. Deliberative democratic methods, where informed citizen groups are used to make decisions, have been used in many countries to develop effective policy responses to a range of problems. This research will develop the understanding of deliberative democratic processes and test their applicability and capacity to address issues such as global justice and environmental governance in settings of deep cultural difference. The knowledge gained will inform political theory and contribute to world-wide efforts to solve international policy problems.Read moreRead less
Australian political rhetoric: the role of public speech by elected representatives in contemporary Australian politics. What is the public benefit of the endless rituals of rhetorical claim and counter-claim performed by members of parliament? This project demonstrates that rhetoric is central to politics, through detailed case analysis of the performative side of Australian parliamentary politics. Good rhetoric, when we have it, makes for good politics.