Fearing going home: Australia's return of rejected asylum seekers, temporary refugees and others from refugee-like situations. Recent changes in government policy, combined with international political developments, mean that increasing numbers of asylum seekers and temporary refugees are being deemed ineligible for protection and removed from Australia or from Australian-run facilities. Notwithstanding the government's assessment that such people do not have protection needs, many live in acute ....Fearing going home: Australia's return of rejected asylum seekers, temporary refugees and others from refugee-like situations. Recent changes in government policy, combined with international political developments, mean that increasing numbers of asylum seekers and temporary refugees are being deemed ineligible for protection and removed from Australia or from Australian-run facilities. Notwithstanding the government's assessment that such people do not have protection needs, many live in acute fear of their pending return. They may indeed be returned to situations of danger, deprivation and desperate poverty. This project aims to research and document the plight of 'returnees' as they face the prospect of repatriation and then, to the extent possible, after they have been repatriated.Read moreRead less
Autonomy, Liberalism and the Right to Culture. The question of whether or on what terms cultural diversity may be reconciled with liberal citizenship and national identity is among the most pressing issues confronting liberal democracies today. Australia, long committed to multiculturalism, faces this challenge daily in its law- and policy-making. This project tackles this question by offering a new way of thinking about the place and import of the core liberal value of individual autonomy. Now ....Autonomy, Liberalism and the Right to Culture. The question of whether or on what terms cultural diversity may be reconciled with liberal citizenship and national identity is among the most pressing issues confronting liberal democracies today. Australia, long committed to multiculturalism, faces this challenge daily in its law- and policy-making. This project tackles this question by offering a new way of thinking about the place and import of the core liberal value of individual autonomy. Now under considerable attack in political theory and from some groups for being "too sectarian", the project defends the importance of autonomy to liberal citizenship, while elaborating its moral and political implications for liberals and cultural minorities alike.Read moreRead less
Communication Across Difference in a Democracy: Australian Muslims and the Mainstream. The relationship between Islam and democracy is of central importance to Australia. In light of the possibility of radical Islamist recruitment within such communities, it is vital to establish the place of these communities in relation to other groups in the context of a liberal democratic society. The debate on the compatibility of Islamic and western values has been very prominent. Our focus on the attitude ....Communication Across Difference in a Democracy: Australian Muslims and the Mainstream. The relationship between Islam and democracy is of central importance to Australia. In light of the possibility of radical Islamist recruitment within such communities, it is vital to establish the place of these communities in relation to other groups in the context of a liberal democratic society. The debate on the compatibility of Islamic and western values has been very prominent. Our focus on the attitudes of Australian Muslims and how they perceive themselves in relation to western values (and how the mainstream perceives Muslims) has implications for policy and social learning across Islamic and non-Islamic communities, and so more productive social and political relationships.Read moreRead less
Democratic Resilience: The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks. The project aims to explain responses to extremist attacks intended to sow division, and why some democracies prove fragile, succumbing to polarisation or exclusion of key groups, while others prove resilient by sustaining integrative, tolerant discourse. The project develops new knowledge through an innovative synthesis of cultural sociology and deliberative democracy to analyse nine cases of responses in the public realm to attack ....Democratic Resilience: The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks. The project aims to explain responses to extremist attacks intended to sow division, and why some democracies prove fragile, succumbing to polarisation or exclusion of key groups, while others prove resilient by sustaining integrative, tolerant discourse. The project develops new knowledge through an innovative synthesis of cultural sociology and deliberative democracy to analyse nine cases of responses in the public realm to attacks. Expected outcomes include a new account of the democratic public sphere, and identification of how meaningful, civil communication whose health is vital to democracy, especially in a multicultural society, can be maintained. Benefits include identification of measures to counter extremist political disruption.Read moreRead less
Community Rule-Making in the Pacific Islands as Regulatory Innovation. Our study investigates the widespread phenomena of ‘community rule-making’ in Pacific Island countries, in which local communities engage in deliberative processes oriented towards development of new normative orders. Occurring largely outside of state-sanctioned authority, such processes may address social problems such as gender based violence, crime and poverty, and frequently occur in the context of other locally-driven ....Community Rule-Making in the Pacific Islands as Regulatory Innovation. Our study investigates the widespread phenomena of ‘community rule-making’ in Pacific Island countries, in which local communities engage in deliberative processes oriented towards development of new normative orders. Occurring largely outside of state-sanctioned authority, such processes may address social problems such as gender based violence, crime and poverty, and frequently occur in the context of other locally-driven attempts at community regeneration. Through collaborative empirical research in PNG, Solomon Islands and Samoa, our project will build an evidence base to better understand the potential and the dangers of community rule-making, and develop ‘responsive hybridisation’ as a new analytical framework to theorise about it.
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Women in Local Government: Understanding their Political Trajectories. This project aims to investigate the chronic under representation of women in Australian politics through a local government lens. It expects to generate new knowledge about barriers to female political representation, their political performance and pathways to higher tiers of elected office. By following men and women councillors across an election cycle, this research seeks to robustly compare and measure women's experienc ....Women in Local Government: Understanding their Political Trajectories. This project aims to investigate the chronic under representation of women in Australian politics through a local government lens. It expects to generate new knowledge about barriers to female political representation, their political performance and pathways to higher tiers of elected office. By following men and women councillors across an election cycle, this research seeks to robustly compare and measure women's experiences of local politics to develop a new framework to map and address obstacles preventing political equity. Expected outcomes include theoretical advances and a 'best practice' guide for achieving parity.This should provide significant public benefits by advancing female participation across all levels of governments.
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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.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101113
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,103.00
Summary
Advancing gender equality through aid: Realising women's empowerment. This project aims to evaluate links between of aid programs and women’s empowerment in Southeast Asia. Women’s empowerment has gained substantial visibility as a global development objective, however progress has been slow. This project offers the first study of the political economy of the design, implementation and evaluation of aid programs for women's empowerment across development institutions, companies and NGOs. Explori ....Advancing gender equality through aid: Realising women's empowerment. This project aims to evaluate links between of aid programs and women’s empowerment in Southeast Asia. Women’s empowerment has gained substantial visibility as a global development objective, however progress has been slow. This project offers the first study of the political economy of the design, implementation and evaluation of aid programs for women's empowerment across development institutions, companies and NGOs. Exploring these dynamics is a key to understanding how aid initiatives can generate successful approaches to empowering women. The project will build on current practices to improve aid programming and place Australia at the forefront of donors’ efforts to advance gender equality.Read moreRead less
Islam and the left in Indonesia and Turkey. This project aims to examine how secular regimes, even after long periods of economic development, give way to a politics based on identity and appeals to religion. This will be done by investigating two major Muslim-majority societies where such transformations have taken place - Indonesia and Turkey. In Indonesia, the focus is on old communist party bases; in Turkey on former radical union strongholds. The expected outcomes will provide a unique lens ....Islam and the left in Indonesia and Turkey. This project aims to examine how secular regimes, even after long periods of economic development, give way to a politics based on identity and appeals to religion. This will be done by investigating two major Muslim-majority societies where such transformations have taken place - Indonesia and Turkey. In Indonesia, the focus is on old communist party bases; in Turkey on former radical union strongholds. The expected outcomes will provide a unique lens for examining the socio-economic conditions that provide fertile ground for transformed articulations of political demands.Read moreRead less
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.