How do we know what works: ethics and evidence in surgical research. This project will make surgery safer for patients by improving our understanding of evidence in surgery. We will look at the question "what works" in surgery. The resources we develop will help practitioners and regulators to better navigate and manage the complex ethical and practical challenges in this field.
Involving children in social research: balancing the risks and benefits. There is a growing consensus that children's involvement in social research is important, but considerable uncertainty remains around children's inclusion in research on 'sensitive' issues, reflecting concerns about how to balance children's protection with their participation. Key to this are deeply embedded assumptions and beliefs about children and childhood, especially concerning notions of capacity, agency, vulnerabili ....Involving children in social research: balancing the risks and benefits. There is a growing consensus that children's involvement in social research is important, but considerable uncertainty remains around children's inclusion in research on 'sensitive' issues, reflecting concerns about how to balance children's protection with their participation. Key to this are deeply embedded assumptions and beliefs about children and childhood, especially concerning notions of capacity, agency, vulnerability, dependency and the like. This project aims to better understand and address the tensions between the protection of children and their participation in research, and to explore how ethics committees, parents, other gatekeepers and children themselves manage and navigate these tensions.Read moreRead less
Support or sales? Medical device representatives in Australian hospitals. Medical device representatives provide crucial support to clinicians using complex medical equipment. However, their obligation to maximise sales conflicts with their support role. Increasing uptake of devices potentially impacts patient safety and healthcare costs, making it important to understand the involvement and influence of device representatives. The proposed research will investigate the ethical and legal impacts ....Support or sales? Medical device representatives in Australian hospitals. Medical device representatives provide crucial support to clinicians using complex medical equipment. However, their obligation to maximise sales conflicts with their support role. Increasing uptake of devices potentially impacts patient safety and healthcare costs, making it important to understand the involvement and influence of device representatives. The proposed research will investigate the ethical and legal impacts of device representatives in Australian hospitals, leading to new knowledge and innovative ethical and legal analyses of their activities. Benefits include a policy framework, new standards for managing device representatives’ interactions, and clarity about ethical and legal obligations of clinicians and institutions.Read moreRead less
The Perception and Production of Timing in Speaking and Other Actions. The planned research seeks to develop a theoretical account of the mechanism that controls the initiation of spoken utterances and their unfolding in time, both when spoken in isolation and when spoken in rhythmic contexts. It uncovers the relationship between the perception of speech and its production, and also aims to discover whether the mechanism that controls speech timing is a general property of action or is unique t ....The Perception and Production of Timing in Speaking and Other Actions. The planned research seeks to develop a theoretical account of the mechanism that controls the initiation of spoken utterances and their unfolding in time, both when spoken in isolation and when spoken in rhythmic contexts. It uncovers the relationship between the perception of speech and its production, and also aims to discover whether the mechanism that controls speech timing is a general property of action or is unique to speech. This work has implications for our understanding of the on-line mechanisms that control speaking and other kinds of action, and thus our understanding of disorders of these human capabilities.Read moreRead less
The expanding disciplinary scope of research ethics committees: an inquiry into need and resistance. Do ethics committees have a bias toward quantitative and clinical research methods? Using a mixed methods approach, this project will systematically study whether ethics committees fail to understand and evaluate qualitative research methods; and whether some disciplines are more resistant to ethics review than others.
Intelligence and national security: ethics, efficacy and accountability. This project aims to generate an ethically informed set of practice and policy guidelines for viable security intelligence collection and analysis of electronic data by liberal democracies. In the context of global terrorism and the resurgence of technologically sophisticated authoritarian states, effective intelligence collection and analysis of electronic data is crucial for the national security of liberal democratic sta ....Intelligence and national security: ethics, efficacy and accountability. This project aims to generate an ethically informed set of practice and policy guidelines for viable security intelligence collection and analysis of electronic data by liberal democracies. In the context of global terrorism and the resurgence of technologically sophisticated authoritarian states, effective intelligence collection and analysis of electronic data is crucial for the national security of liberal democratic states. Yet intelligence agencies in Australia, United States, European Union and so on, are not only under pressure to perform, but must also meet a variety of ethical challenges, notably privacy constraints and democratic accountability. This project will contribute to Australia's national security policy making environment, and to privacy and broader human rights debates, by providing an evidenced based, ethically informed set of practice and policy guidelines for viable national security intelligence practice in liberal democracies.Read moreRead less
News and Community Conflict: examining the role of journalism in local conflict and conflict resolution. The project will place Australia at the leading edge of research on news and conflict. It will contribute an evaluation of the local possibilities for news and conflict resolution to wider international debates on the media in wartime. The research will benefit the Australian journalism profession, journalism educators, policymakers and organisations involved in addressing local level and int ....News and Community Conflict: examining the role of journalism in local conflict and conflict resolution. The project will place Australia at the leading edge of research on news and conflict. It will contribute an evaluation of the local possibilities for news and conflict resolution to wider international debates on the media in wartime. The research will benefit the Australian journalism profession, journalism educators, policymakers and organisations involved in addressing local level and intercommunal conflicts. An accessible report will provide case studies, strategies and recommendations for the media's role in situations of conflict. By developing a complex, cultural understanding of news audiences and news impacts the research will contribute to processes of change and improvement within the Australian news media.Read moreRead less
The Responsibilities of the Affluent to Address Global Poverty. Australia is a wealthy country surrounded by less developed countries. This project will serve as a guide to a morally defensible Australian foreign policy and in particular as an aid for policy makers working on foreign assistance, international trade, and environmental policy. It is important to observe that in order to safeguard Australian national security it is prudent to address the issue of global poverty. Although terrorists ....The Responsibilities of the Affluent to Address Global Poverty. Australia is a wealthy country surrounded by less developed countries. This project will serve as a guide to a morally defensible Australian foreign policy and in particular as an aid for policy makers working on foreign assistance, international trade, and environmental policy. It is important to observe that in order to safeguard Australian national security it is prudent to address the issue of global poverty. Although terrorists and other threats seem seldom to be motivated by considerations of fairness, sympathy with and support for their actions seems often rooted in the perception that they are acting on behalf of the poor and impoverished.Read moreRead less
The Normative Value of Unified Agency. We aim to provide a philosophical account of the normative value of agency by showing (1) how those interpersonal relations which are a central source of value structures our agency, and (2) how our morally valuable engagement in social institutions enables agency. Through reflection on cases of psychopathology, we will present an analysis of the essential normativity of agency by examining what happens when agency breaks down. Our findings will have implic ....The Normative Value of Unified Agency. We aim to provide a philosophical account of the normative value of agency by showing (1) how those interpersonal relations which are a central source of value structures our agency, and (2) how our morally valuable engagement in social institutions enables agency. Through reflection on cases of psychopathology, we will present an analysis of the essential normativity of agency by examining what happens when agency breaks down. Our findings will have implications for standard theoretical accounts in moral psychology and for social and legal policy relating to the treatment of those with psychiatric disorders.Read moreRead less
Evidence-based community standards for ethics in advertising. The primary social benefit of this project is the development of evidence-based standards representing community views on acceptable practices in advertising, providing a basis on which to lobby for improvements in regulation. Such improvements will contribute to the ability of consumers to make informed choices about product purchase and behaviour change. This project also has economic benefit for commercial and social advertisers in ....Evidence-based community standards for ethics in advertising. The primary social benefit of this project is the development of evidence-based standards representing community views on acceptable practices in advertising, providing a basis on which to lobby for improvements in regulation. Such improvements will contribute to the ability of consumers to make informed choices about product purchase and behaviour change. This project also has economic benefit for commercial and social advertisers in Australia, enabling them to: pre-test potential advertisements to ensure that they comply with community standards; develop advertisements which are better suited to their target audience(s); better forecast the effects of appeals on advertising outcomes; and reduce complaints to the ASB and other bodies.Read moreRead less