Changing approaches to gender and development in rural China. Harmonious and cooperative relations with China are crucial to Australia's economic and cultural development and to security in the region. By contributing to Australian understanding of Chinese society, this project will enhance such relations. Knowledge gained through this project will also enhance Australian development projects in China, and more generally, contribute to development projects focusing on gender and development in A ....Changing approaches to gender and development in rural China. Harmonious and cooperative relations with China are crucial to Australia's economic and cultural development and to security in the region. By contributing to Australian understanding of Chinese society, this project will enhance such relations. Knowledge gained through this project will also enhance Australian development projects in China, and more generally, contribute to development projects focusing on gender and development in Asia and elsewhere. In addition, the contributions of the project to research and postgraduate training in Chinese studies, gender studies and development studies will benefit Australia by raising the international profile of Australian institutions within these disciplines.Read moreRead less
Muscling Up: Australian men, sexualisation and body image enhancment. Australian men are under increasing pressure to appear fit, with psychologists and others identifying body dissatisfaction, depression, and illegal supplement use as evidence of a 'crisis'. However, no research has explored men's emotional and physical investments in injunctions to be 'healthy', or relatively new opportunities in consumer culture for men to style the body. This qualitative project aims to explore men's motivat ....Muscling Up: Australian men, sexualisation and body image enhancment. Australian men are under increasing pressure to appear fit, with psychologists and others identifying body dissatisfaction, depression, and illegal supplement use as evidence of a 'crisis'. However, no research has explored men's emotional and physical investments in injunctions to be 'healthy', or relatively new opportunities in consumer culture for men to style the body. This qualitative project aims to explore men's motivations for engaging in body image-enhancing practices. It expects to provide insight that will benefit those engaged in advocating healthy lifestyles to men.Read moreRead less
Contact zones: activism, art and media in Italy, 1994-2006. This project will generate knowledge about recent activism, social change and contemporary art practices in Italy; it will add to Australia's international reputation as a centre of research on contemporary Italy; it will assist in facilitating cultural relations between Australia and Italy as already established in cultural and scientific bilateral agreements.
Women's NGOs, the United Nations and expanding civil society: a feminist critique, with reference to four UN member countries. Feminist non-governmental organisations have placed women's human rights concerns on the international agenda, but they are also increasingly expected to tailor themselves both to international bureaucracy and a domestic political role by becoming primary providers of what has become known as "social capital". Human rights remain important for women, but new strategies ....Women's NGOs, the United Nations and expanding civil society: a feminist critique, with reference to four UN member countries. Feminist non-governmental organisations have placed women's human rights concerns on the international agenda, but they are also increasingly expected to tailor themselves both to international bureaucracy and a domestic political role by becoming primary providers of what has become known as "social capital". Human rights remain important for women, but new strategies are needed to ensure government accountability for transforming the rhetoric of women's rights into reality. This project will examine these issues as faced by feminist NGOs in Australia, France, Pakistan and Haïti, to identify issues in common and suggest strategies for furthering the international feminist human rights project.Read moreRead less
The Cultivation of Middle-Class Taste: Reading, Tourism and Education Choices in Urban China. In urban China, high-income professionals and consumers have enormous influence on the development of élite education, travel, and cultural pursuits, but also on the stability of the Party-State. Their choices will materially affect Australian economic strategy, and will impact the socio-political character of the entire region. This project works to support Australian understanding of the tastes, aspir ....The Cultivation of Middle-Class Taste: Reading, Tourism and Education Choices in Urban China. In urban China, high-income professionals and consumers have enormous influence on the development of élite education, travel, and cultural pursuits, but also on the stability of the Party-State. Their choices will materially affect Australian economic strategy, and will impact the socio-political character of the entire region. This project works to support Australian understanding of the tastes, aspirations and national priorities of this new formation: the Chinese middle class. The approach and outcomes of the research will enhance Australia's global position in innovative, relevant Asian scholarship, support good economic strategy, and provide an accurate socio-cultural lens through which to engage with Chinese and regional futures.Read moreRead less
The time of our lives: Time equity and the balancing of market and non-market production in the modern Australian population. This project will yield new information relevant to the national social inclusion agenda and the research priority goal of understanding and strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric to help families and individuals live healthy, productive, fulfilling lives. Through a multilayered analysis of gender, class, life course stage, time allocation and the connection ....The time of our lives: Time equity and the balancing of market and non-market production in the modern Australian population. This project will yield new information relevant to the national social inclusion agenda and the research priority goal of understanding and strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric to help families and individuals live healthy, productive, fulfilling lives. Through a multilayered analysis of gender, class, life course stage, time allocation and the connections between them, it will demonstrate links between various forms of social and economic participation and identify how they could be distributed more evenly. This knowledge is important to inform policy to better enable young people to become independent, families to both earn a living and care well for their children, and older people to be productive and socially engaged.Read moreRead less
Anti-Consumerism in the Contemporary West. This project will investigate contemporary critiques of Western consumption emanating from within Western societies themselves. Divided into three interconnecting research themes, the project will offer a selective review of recent media and intellectual commentary on the consequences of consumption, a brief documentation of recent ?anti-consumption? activism in Europe, North America and Australasia, and an Australian-based ethnographic exploration of h ....Anti-Consumerism in the Contemporary West. This project will investigate contemporary critiques of Western consumption emanating from within Western societies themselves. Divided into three interconnecting research themes, the project will offer a selective review of recent media and intellectual commentary on the consequences of consumption, a brief documentation of recent ?anti-consumption? activism in Europe, North America and Australasia, and an Australian-based ethnographic exploration of how people limit consumption activities within contemporary everyday life. The project will culminate in a book-length study, representing one of the first attempts to fully document how a ?Western consumerism? is currently being challenged by intellectuals, social movement activists and ?consumers? themselves.Read moreRead less
Work-life tensions: Time pressure, leisure and well-being among dual-earner parents in Australia. Empirical studies of work-life tensions, especially for women, have rarely considered how individuals actually experience time pressures.
The main aim of this project is to examine the hypothesis that well-being is positively related to reduced time pressure, more leisure and greater control over time schedules.The project will use an innovative time-use sampling method to examine this hypothesis ....Work-life tensions: Time pressure, leisure and well-being among dual-earner parents in Australia. Empirical studies of work-life tensions, especially for women, have rarely considered how individuals actually experience time pressures.
The main aim of this project is to examine the hypothesis that well-being is positively related to reduced time pressure, more leisure and greater control over time schedules.The project will use an innovative time-use sampling method to examine this hypothesis for parents in dual-earner households.
The project will also investigate relationships between women's time use, life course experience and measures of physical and mental well-being through being nested within the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.
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Addressing the deficit in men's participation in paid care work. This project aims to address the chronic and ongoing underrepresentation of men in front line, low paid occupations in the Health Care and Social Assistance Sector by exploring how men already employed in the sector overcome the barriers to participating in such jobs. Utilising a qualitative methodology, this project expects to generate new theoretical and practical knowledge in the areas of critical studies of men and masculinity ....Addressing the deficit in men's participation in paid care work. This project aims to address the chronic and ongoing underrepresentation of men in front line, low paid occupations in the Health Care and Social Assistance Sector by exploring how men already employed in the sector overcome the barriers to participating in such jobs. Utilising a qualitative methodology, this project expects to generate new theoretical and practical knowledge in the areas of critical studies of men and masculinity and labour market transitions. Expected outcomes include producing a better understanding of men in the low paid care work labour market. This should provide significant benefits in relation to tackling the serious current and projected shortages of personal and aged/disability carers in the coming years.Read moreRead less
The History of an Urban Chinese Factory Community in Transition. Changes over the past five decades at a Chinese state-owned industrial enterprise and its adjoining residential compound will be explored largely through in-depth oral histories by a collaborative team of Australian and Chinese researchers; and the implications for China's ongoing economic and urban social transformation will be addressed. This will be the first study of its kind, and the University of California Press, a leading p ....The History of an Urban Chinese Factory Community in Transition. Changes over the past five decades at a Chinese state-owned industrial enterprise and its adjoining residential compound will be explored largely through in-depth oral histories by a collaborative team of Australian and Chinese researchers; and the implications for China's ongoing economic and urban social transformation will be addressed. This will be the first study of its kind, and the University of California Press, a leading publisher in this field, is keen to publish a book based on the study.Read moreRead less