Urbanising Western China: Nation-building on the Sino-Tibetan frontier. This project aims to explore urbanisation as a key part of the Chinese Communist Party's policies in Tibet and the novel opportunities it affords for Tibetan identity, language, and culture. An international, multidisciplinary team will combine analysis of key government texts, interviews with government officials and ethnic minority elites, as well as observations of daily life amongst urban Tibetans. The project will produ ....Urbanising Western China: Nation-building on the Sino-Tibetan frontier. This project aims to explore urbanisation as a key part of the Chinese Communist Party's policies in Tibet and the novel opportunities it affords for Tibetan identity, language, and culture. An international, multidisciplinary team will combine analysis of key government texts, interviews with government officials and ethnic minority elites, as well as observations of daily life amongst urban Tibetans. The project will produce new understandings of the challenges of governing diversity in China, and will benefit Australia by exploring a fundamental aspect of the changing social fabric of our region’s dominant power.Read moreRead less
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.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100603
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$357,773.00
Summary
Making resource investment responsible in mainland southeast Asia. This project aims to provide an enhanced understanding of resource investment and its effects in Southeast Asia. The project will study Chinese resource investment in the neighbouring region's poorest countries, Myanmar, Lao and Vietnam, to produce new data and policy understanding of how investment in the extractive industries can potentially benefit the sustainable development of host countries. This project endeavours to speak ....Making resource investment responsible in mainland southeast Asia. This project aims to provide an enhanced understanding of resource investment and its effects in Southeast Asia. The project will study Chinese resource investment in the neighbouring region's poorest countries, Myanmar, Lao and Vietnam, to produce new data and policy understanding of how investment in the extractive industries can potentially benefit the sustainable development of host countries. This project endeavours to speak to Australia's strategic interests as a key investor in the region, and the policy priority of understanding the nexus between resource extraction, community rights and environmental justice. Findings are expected to inform future policy making in this area, improve business conduct and strengthen regional resource governance.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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