Voter behaviour and polarisation: The role of social preferences. This project aims to investigate how peer pressure and other social concerns affect voter participation, vote choice, and political polarisation. It will marry behavioural experimental economics with political economics and make use of complementary experimental methods that will allow for the study of carefully controlled elections, followed by a large-scale real-world test of the results. Expected outcomes include improved under ....Voter behaviour and polarisation: The role of social preferences. This project aims to investigate how peer pressure and other social concerns affect voter participation, vote choice, and political polarisation. It will marry behavioural experimental economics with political economics and make use of complementary experimental methods that will allow for the study of carefully controlled elections, followed by a large-scale real-world test of the results. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of how social media and other social factors, and political institutions such as compulsory voting, distort election representation and outcomes. Major benefits include the ability to advise policies to reduce polarisation and improve political institutions to ensure they reflect true societal preferences.Read moreRead less
Information acquisition and voting behaviour. This project aims to understand citizens’ decisions to acquire information about different policy proposals within a democracy and how such information affects their voting behaviour. Proper democracies rely on the informed participation of their citizens in the political debate and political institutions. The project intends to provide formal theories of information acquisition together with empirical evidence on how voting decisions are shaped by t ....Information acquisition and voting behaviour. This project aims to understand citizens’ decisions to acquire information about different policy proposals within a democracy and how such information affects their voting behaviour. Proper democracies rely on the informed participation of their citizens in the political debate and political institutions. The project intends to provide formal theories of information acquisition together with empirical evidence on how voting decisions are shaped by the quantity and quality of information. Understanding how citizens decide to acquire information would help devise policies to reduce polarisation and improve the quality of the political debate and the democracy.Read moreRead less
Political Conflict, Inefficient Markets, and Food Crises. This project aims to investigate the effect of political conflict on food markets in low- and middle-income countries across Africa and Southeast Asia by utilizing granular data on ethnopolitical conflict, prices, and institutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of conflict studies using an innovative approach that allows eliciting disruptive effects of conflict by examining price relationships in spatially and ....Political Conflict, Inefficient Markets, and Food Crises. This project aims to investigate the effect of political conflict on food markets in low- and middle-income countries across Africa and Southeast Asia by utilizing granular data on ethnopolitical conflict, prices, and institutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of conflict studies using an innovative approach that allows eliciting disruptive effects of conflict by examining price relationships in spatially and temporally connected food and agricultural markets. Expected outcomes of this project include improved techniques to examine market inefficiencies in the wake of political conflict. This should provide significant benefits, such as creating an early warning platform for food crises in times of conflict.Read moreRead less
Women, politics and democracy: political labour in India and Indonesia . This project aims to advance understandings of Asia's two largest democracies through an examination of the pathways and dead-ends to political power for women in India and Indonesia. Research of women's everyday political labour will examine their contributions to generating different forms of power, and their adverse incorporation into political structures. The comparative ethnographic approach will lead to the developme ....Women, politics and democracy: political labour in India and Indonesia . This project aims to advance understandings of Asia's two largest democracies through an examination of the pathways and dead-ends to political power for women in India and Indonesia. Research of women's everyday political labour will examine their contributions to generating different forms of power, and their adverse incorporation into political structures. The comparative ethnographic approach will lead to the development of analytical and conceptual tools to understand democracy across different socio-historical contexts. The project aims to produce policy and practice relevant knowledge to increase the meaningful participation of women in politics in India and Indonesia, with comparative lessons for other countries Read moreRead less
Rethinking collaborative federalism in Australian schooling policy. The governance of schooling in the Australian federation is in flux and undergoing significant contestation, with serious questions being asked about whether national policy arrangements are fit for purpose and decision-making processes are achieving the policy aspirations of collaborative federalism. This project aims to examine how Australian governments engage in collaborative schooling reform by focussing on processes associ ....Rethinking collaborative federalism in Australian schooling policy. The governance of schooling in the Australian federation is in flux and undergoing significant contestation, with serious questions being asked about whether national policy arrangements are fit for purpose and decision-making processes are achieving the policy aspirations of collaborative federalism. This project aims to examine how Australian governments engage in collaborative schooling reform by focussing on processes associated with the formulation of the new post-2023 National School Reform Agreement. The research will engage in ‘real time’ policy analysis, engaging with policy stakeholders to examine collaborative processes centred on the new agreement, and to consider how to improve future national decision-making processes.Read moreRead less
Doing state-building better? Practising ‘hybridity’ in Melanesia. Australia is engaged in programs that draw upon local socio-political practices and institutions to assist its efforts to stabilise and build states in Melanesia, referred to as a ‘hybridity’ approach. Australia has successfully restored stability in its immediate region, Melanesia, but its attempts to build stable liberal democracies have had modest results. This project will advance policy understandings to improve the efficacy ....Doing state-building better? Practising ‘hybridity’ in Melanesia. Australia is engaged in programs that draw upon local socio-political practices and institutions to assist its efforts to stabilise and build states in Melanesia, referred to as a ‘hybridity’ approach. Australia has successfully restored stability in its immediate region, Melanesia, but its attempts to build stable liberal democracies have had modest results. This project will advance policy understandings to improve the efficacy of Australia’s state-building efforts and promote social cohesion and stability in our neighbourhood. This will potentially encourage local self-reliance in Melanesia, reducing dependence on Australia’s development assistance.Read moreRead less
Prerequisite conditions for Indigenous nation self-government. This project aims to produce new knowledge about Indigenous nation building (INB) processes. Based on research that self-governance increases Indigenous socioeconomic and community capacity, this project will collaborate with two Aboriginal communities to investigate factors that impact the transition from 'identifying' to 'organising' as political collectives to enable self-governance. Such knowledge has the potential to directly co ....Prerequisite conditions for Indigenous nation self-government. This project aims to produce new knowledge about Indigenous nation building (INB) processes. Based on research that self-governance increases Indigenous socioeconomic and community capacity, this project will collaborate with two Aboriginal communities to investigate factors that impact the transition from 'identifying' to 'organising' as political collectives to enable self-governance. Such knowledge has the potential to directly contribute to increased wellbeing for Indigenous communities as they define it. It aims to contribute to Australian and international Indigenous governance, political science and Indigenous methodologies literatures. The project could significantly benefit Indigenous peoples, the broader Australian community, Australian governments, and Australian and international INB researchers.Read moreRead less