Understanding a changing Australia: Ordinary people's politics. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material (to be collected) to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. In particular it will focus on: how individual Australians construct their sense of moral community, their expectations of the role of government, and how they have negotiated the shift from an expli ....Understanding a changing Australia: Ordinary people's politics. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material (to be collected) to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. In particular it will focus on: how individual Australians construct their sense of moral community, their expectations of the role of government, and how they have negotiated the shift from an explicitly white, British national identity to a multicultural one, their understandings of settler-indigenous relations. It will integrate these responses with analysis of their life histories and characteristic political ideologies.Read moreRead less
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
The role of development agencies in shaping national identity in Thailand. The study will provide much needed research on a country that has an important bilateral relationship with Australia. More specifically, the role of development agencies in the shaping of national identity is little understood. Given the increased role that such agencies play in the reconstruction of nations, this is a timely study. My study, based on intense fieldwork and extensive use of Thai language documents, will of ....The role of development agencies in shaping national identity in Thailand. The study will provide much needed research on a country that has an important bilateral relationship with Australia. More specifically, the role of development agencies in the shaping of national identity is little understood. Given the increased role that such agencies play in the reconstruction of nations, this is a timely study. My study, based on intense fieldwork and extensive use of Thai language documents, will offer an analysis of this role. Understanding how Thai national identity has adapted to change is an important component of Australian cross-cultural literacy, and important in understanding the future direction of Thai politics. 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
Understanding a Changing Australia. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. An APD Fellow will focus on changes in people's understandings of indigenous issues in these decades, and the project as a whole will include a comparison of metropolitian and rural/regional responses. The project will integrate participants' r ....Understanding a Changing Australia. This project will use a body of interview material collected in the late 1980s supplemented with new material to investigate how Australians have made sense of the social and political changes of the past two decades. An APD Fellow will focus on changes in people's understandings of indigenous issues in these decades, and the project as a whole will include a comparison of metropolitian and rural/regional responses. The project will integrate participants' responses to the changes of the past two decades with analysis of their life histories and characteristic political ideology.Read moreRead less
Australian Responses to Refugees, 1901-2005. Determining appropriate responses to refugees is a definitive political concern in contemporary Australia. However, conceptual and historical analysis is lacking of the global context and genealogy of Australia's current policy. This project will analyse Australian reactions to refugees from Federation to the present. It is hypothesised that positions on refugees have been integral to the constitution of Australian national identity. Using an innovati ....Australian Responses to Refugees, 1901-2005. Determining appropriate responses to refugees is a definitive political concern in contemporary Australia. However, conceptual and historical analysis is lacking of the global context and genealogy of Australia's current policy. This project will analyse Australian reactions to refugees from Federation to the present. It is hypothesised that positions on refugees have been integral to the constitution of Australian national identity. Using an innovative combination of theory (relating to nationhood), cultural reading and archival research, this project will explore the complex interaction between government policy, humanitarian concerns, and the culture of security considerations. The project will inform public and policy debate.Read moreRead less
A Colonial and Conceptual History of Asymmetric Warfare and Security. War and terrorism feature prominently in popular, political and scholarly perceptions of Australia's colonial past and its geopolitical future. Our understanding of what constitutes war and terrorism emerged from a long colonial and conceptual history of Western international and political thought. The national and community benefits of this program of research derive precisely from its ability to link the uniqueness of Austra ....A Colonial and Conceptual History of Asymmetric Warfare and Security. War and terrorism feature prominently in popular, political and scholarly perceptions of Australia's colonial past and its geopolitical future. Our understanding of what constitutes war and terrorism emerged from a long colonial and conceptual history of Western international and political thought. The national and community benefits of this program of research derive precisely from its ability to link the uniqueness of Australia's colonial history to its global context, and to use both to provide new insight into current debates on terrorism and security that are integral to Australia's capacity to interpret itself to the rest of the world.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE110100136
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$140,000.00
Summary
The Saulwick Age poll archive: a national facility of authoritative records mapping a generation of social change at the end of the 20th Century. This research facility will be of national significance for all who are interested in social and political change in Australia during the latter period of the 20th Century. The Saulwick Age poll archive will provide insights into Australian society which will be unmatched by information from other resources and will be open to all users from school stu ....The Saulwick Age poll archive: a national facility of authoritative records mapping a generation of social change at the end of the 20th Century. This research facility will be of national significance for all who are interested in social and political change in Australia during the latter period of the 20th Century. The Saulwick Age poll archive will provide insights into Australian society which will be unmatched by information from other resources and will be open to all users from school students to tertiary researchers.Read moreRead less
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.
Resistance, recognition and reconciliation in Australia - lessons from South Africa and Northern Ireland. This project examines resistances to reconciliation in Australia, South Africa and Northern Ireland. The project compares efforts toward reconciliation in these conflictual societies to contribute to knowledge on how to live with conflictual political, psychological and jurisdictional claims in light of efforts toward Australia's Constitutional Amendment.