Oil Palm and Agrarian Transition on the Indonesian and Malaysian Frontiers. Challenges to peace and security in Southeast Asia emerge from uneven economic development and agricultural and environmental changes that marginalize vulnerable communities, exacerbate tensions and lead to endemic local level conflicts. This project will explore the linkages between agrarian and environmental change, governance systems and conflict by studying how policy and economic developments are affecting rural co ....Oil Palm and Agrarian Transition on the Indonesian and Malaysian Frontiers. Challenges to peace and security in Southeast Asia emerge from uneven economic development and agricultural and environmental changes that marginalize vulnerable communities, exacerbate tensions and lead to endemic local level conflicts. This project will explore the linkages between agrarian and environmental change, governance systems and conflict by studying how policy and economic developments are affecting rural communities. It will produce a comparative study that will be relevant to policy discussions and scholarship and of interest to donor agencies and practitioners as well as educational institutions and the wider international research community.Read moreRead less
Strengthening economic resilience in Monsoon Asia. Sharing, reciprocity and resource pooling are at the frontline of recovery and relief when economic crisis or disaster hits Monsoon Asia. This research aims to shed light on cases where these economic practices have been innovatively harnessed to diversify livelihoods and build economic resilience. Working with contemporary Asian scholars, practitioners in the disaster field and a data set gleaned from multiple sources, including mid-20th centur ....Strengthening economic resilience in Monsoon Asia. Sharing, reciprocity and resource pooling are at the frontline of recovery and relief when economic crisis or disaster hits Monsoon Asia. This research aims to shed light on cases where these economic practices have been innovatively harnessed to diversify livelihoods and build economic resilience. Working with contemporary Asian scholars, practitioners in the disaster field and a data set gleaned from multiple sources, including mid-20th century tropical geography texts, the project aims to bring to the fore a regional landscape of diverse economic practices across Monsoon Asia. A cross-regional on-line knowledge community is expected to be formed to explore how this asset base might be mobilised towards more effective local development and disaster response.Read moreRead less
Going for gold: safe livelihoods for informal gold miners in South and Southeast Asia. Informal gold mining by the rural poor is transforming contemporary rural Asian economies. This project will focus on the community level, and on mineral-rich tracts in South and Southeast Asia, to explore how the livelihoods of the rural poor are changing in response to high gold prices.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101570
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$363,128.00
Summary
Getting real about risk: using medical records in the geospatial analysis of chronic disease risk in Australia. Crafting an informed response to the alarming rise of chronic disease is the most challenging public health issue in Australia. This project will design a method of producing fine-grained maps of future chronic disease risk directly from the medical records held in general practices. This will involve innovative new techniques in data handling, geocoding, analysis and interpolation to ....Getting real about risk: using medical records in the geospatial analysis of chronic disease risk in Australia. Crafting an informed response to the alarming rise of chronic disease is the most challenging public health issue in Australia. This project will design a method of producing fine-grained maps of future chronic disease risk directly from the medical records held in general practices. This will involve innovative new techniques in data handling, geocoding, analysis and interpolation to create risk surfaces across a metropolitan area and comparisons with built environment and socio-economic data, providing new insights into risk factors. It will be the first such geospatial analysis of real clinical data in Australia, which will pioneer geospatial risk analysis for planning preventative health measures, interventions and policy responses.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102279
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Stressed mobilities: understanding the significance of the commute for city-workers. Commuting stress is a much-vaunted but little-understood part of life in many Australian cities. This project is the first of its kind which grapples with how the stresses and strains of travel to and from work emerge, play out through home and work life, and impact on the longer-term well-being of city workers.
The political ecology of forest carbon: mainland Southeast Asia's new commodity frontier? Spurred by international climate change policies, forest carbon markets are being promoted in mainland Southeast Asia to protect its forests against persisting rates of deforestation. This research examines the implications of this new commodity market for local livelihoods and cross-border forest product trade in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354668
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
Australian City and Regional Network. The Network aims to sponsor, sustain and encourage multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research into problems in and of Australian cities and the reasons for their form and structure. It will develop a national collaborative research training program. The network will develop a communication path between academics, industry and government enabling the development of a more informed exploration of urban development policies. It will also lead to the ident ....Australian City and Regional Network. The Network aims to sponsor, sustain and encourage multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research into problems in and of Australian cities and the reasons for their form and structure. It will develop a national collaborative research training program. The network will develop a communication path between academics, industry and government enabling the development of a more informed exploration of urban development policies. It will also lead to the identification of new economic opportunities for the development of cities and regions.Read moreRead less
Beyond the resource curse: charting a path to sustainable livelihoods for mineral-dependent communities. Over 20 million people in developing countries depend on informal mining for their livelihoods, producing large amounts of mineral commodities. This project challenges the current paradigm on informal mining and aims to improve the livelihoods of these people while enhancing environmental sustainability.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101206
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$368,720.00
Summary
Melanesia's violent environments: Extractive resource industries, agrarian change and conflict in the Western Pacific. Large-scale mining activities were deeply implicated in the armed conflicts on the islands of Bougainville (1989-98) and Guadalcanal (1998-2003). Island Melanesia is now on the brink of a major new mining boom, compelling an urgent reconsideration of the relationships between mining, violence and political fragmentation in this island region. This project will focus on the role ....Melanesia's violent environments: Extractive resource industries, agrarian change and conflict in the Western Pacific. Large-scale mining activities were deeply implicated in the armed conflicts on the islands of Bougainville (1989-98) and Guadalcanal (1998-2003). Island Melanesia is now on the brink of a major new mining boom, compelling an urgent reconsideration of the relationships between mining, violence and political fragmentation in this island region. This project will focus on the role of agrarian change and patterns of socio-economic inequality at different geographical scales, a poorly understood dimension of these relationships. The results will contribute to the development of policy approaches that minimise the risk of further violence, while also offering new theoretical insights into the complex global phenomenon of 'resource conflict'.Read moreRead less
Farmers of the Future: the Challenges of Feminised Agriculture in India. Neoliberal economic policies are fundamentally transforming the social landscapes of rural India, causing a deep agrarian crisis. The agrarian changes accentuate the unequal consequences for poor women and men in relation to: production (labour, tenure); livelihood and food security; access to and ownership of assets such as land and water and access to agricultural innovations and institutions. This multiscalar project inv ....Farmers of the Future: the Challenges of Feminised Agriculture in India. Neoliberal economic policies are fundamentally transforming the social landscapes of rural India, causing a deep agrarian crisis. The agrarian changes accentuate the unequal consequences for poor women and men in relation to: production (labour, tenure); livelihood and food security; access to and ownership of assets such as land and water and access to agricultural innovations and institutions. This multiscalar project investigates the causes and consequences of feminisation of agriculture in India’s transitioning economy in order to understand how gender roles and relations are being re-shaped in communities and households in diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts and agro-ecological areas.Read moreRead less