Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100559
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,109.00
Summary
People smuggling in Indonesia: causes, pathways and responses . This project investigates political, economic and legal aspects of people smuggling from Indonesia to Australia. Over the last decade, people smuggling networks have grown substantially due to rising demand among asylum seekers and other migrants. Despite prevention campaigns and the criminalisation of people smuggling in Indonesia in 2011, people smuggling networks remain resilient and resistant to anti-people smuggling law enforce ....People smuggling in Indonesia: causes, pathways and responses . This project investigates political, economic and legal aspects of people smuggling from Indonesia to Australia. Over the last decade, people smuggling networks have grown substantially due to rising demand among asylum seekers and other migrants. Despite prevention campaigns and the criminalisation of people smuggling in Indonesia in 2011, people smuggling networks remain resilient and resistant to anti-people smuggling law enforcement. The project produces insights into the embeddedness of people smuggling in illicit local, regional and transnational economies and will develop alternative solutions to curb people smuggling from Indonesia, solutions that are consistent with Australia's obligations in refugee protection under international law.Read moreRead less
Economic growth in China's west: the social basis of enterprise development. This project examines the new economic elites in the ethnic borderlands of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai and is designed to analyse the social basis of enterprise development and its consequences. The project will add to understanding of local social capital formation in the People's Republic of China.
Regional Politics in the Southwest Pacific: From Colonialism and Cold War to the Asia-Pacific Century. In the general context of increasing international attention to Asia-Pacific issues, the project aims to investigate regional politics in the Southwest Pacific from the early post-war period to the present with a focus on identity politics among Pacific Island states and Australia's role in the region. Its significance lies in the identification of important tensions in regional politics arisin ....Regional Politics in the Southwest Pacific: From Colonialism and Cold War to the Asia-Pacific Century. In the general context of increasing international attention to Asia-Pacific issues, the project aims to investigate regional politics in the Southwest Pacific from the early post-war period to the present with a focus on identity politics among Pacific Island states and Australia's role in the region. Its significance lies in the identification of important tensions in regional politics arising from the legacies of colonialism and the Cold War, the Melanesia/Polynesia divide and the advent of new actors. Outcomes include a deeper understanding of regional processes, and the motives, interests, values and expectations which underpin them, to inform scholarly approaches, policy formulation and public discourses.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101522
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$368,000.00
Summary
The politics of torture in Myanmar and Thailand. This project aims to explore how torture occurs in Asian countries of political, economic and strategic importance to Australia. Torture is by many accounts routine practice for police and security forces across Asia. How is torture possible? What role is it playing? By documenting where, when and how torture occurs, this project aims to determine what torture constitutes and analyse the politics that enable it. It is anticipated that information ....The politics of torture in Myanmar and Thailand. This project aims to explore how torture occurs in Asian countries of political, economic and strategic importance to Australia. Torture is by many accounts routine practice for police and security forces across Asia. How is torture possible? What role is it playing? By documenting where, when and how torture occurs, this project aims to determine what torture constitutes and analyse the politics that enable it. It is anticipated that information from the project could be used to develop effective interventions to address torture. The project also anticipates contributing to policy-oriented debate on whether torture can be eliminated, or merely suppressed.Read moreRead less
Rights Defence Lawyers and Constitutionalism in China. Scholars have argued that rights lawyers have played key roles in advancing social and political change in a reforming society through defining and defending citizen rights, developing civil society, and seeking to moderate state power. However, few studies have examined the political roles or aspirations of lawyers in contemporary China. This project aims to demonstrate how Chinese 'rights defence' lawyers have drawn together diverse strand ....Rights Defence Lawyers and Constitutionalism in China. Scholars have argued that rights lawyers have played key roles in advancing social and political change in a reforming society through defining and defending citizen rights, developing civil society, and seeking to moderate state power. However, few studies have examined the political roles or aspirations of lawyers in contemporary China. This project aims to demonstrate how Chinese 'rights defence' lawyers have drawn together diverse strands of social protest to become an articulating voice for constitutional reform. The project aims to make both empirical and theoretical contributions to the world-wide debate on the interaction between rights lawyers, rule of law, social activism and political reform.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100573
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$322,699.00
Summary
Glasnost for Myanmar? Political cultures in transition. Myanmar is a major country in Southeast Asia and has since 2008 made moves towards more democratic government. This project will research and explain this period of transition in terms of political cultures. It will provide guidance on the processes of democratisation underway in a society that has experienced long-term military rule.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101706
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$369,573.00
Summary
Courts, politics and power in Southeast Asia. Are the courts taking over political life in Southeast Asia? This comparative study of high courts in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will examine ways in which these courts have become central to political life in those nations. It will focus particularly on the consequences for democratic rule and the rule of law in society.
Money Politics: Patronage, Political Networks and Electoral Dynamics in Southeast Asia. How does money politics shape electoral competition and outcomes in developing democracies? This project tackles this question by focusing on pork barrelling, spoils, vote buying and related phenomena in the four most important electoral regimes of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Using methods that range from close observation of election campaigns to national surveys, the p ....Money Politics: Patronage, Political Networks and Electoral Dynamics in Southeast Asia. How does money politics shape electoral competition and outcomes in developing democracies? This project tackles this question by focusing on pork barrelling, spoils, vote buying and related phenomena in the four most important electoral regimes of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Using methods that range from close observation of election campaigns to national surveys, the project will analyse how the distribution of material benefits via clientelist and other networks affects political dynamics. By identifying and explaining variations in patronage, the research will cast light on issues critical to the future of democracy, governance and political stability in Southeast Asia and beyond.Read moreRead less
Constructing ethnic politics in Indonesia. Exploring political dynamics in provincial Indonesia, this project will address fundamental questions about how ethnicity becomes important in political affairs, and about why political actors choose to emphasise some ethnic identities but not others. It will also help identify the conditions which lead to inter-ethnic cooperation rather than conflict.
The new politics of ethnicity in regional Indonesia. By examining the role played by ethnicity in local politics in Indonesia, this project will address broad questions about how ethnic identities become mobilised politically and about the conditions that enable inter-ethnic harmony rather than conflict. It will also greatly enhance our understanding of politics in the new democratic Indonesia.