Cycle Aware: Driving with Bikes. This project focuses on the education and training required by drivers to interact safely with cyclists. It uses two ontologically diverse methodologies to examine how Australian drivers become cyclist aware and the education and training necessary to foster safe driver–cyclist interactions. The project aims to provide a critical knowledge base for state and territory driver education policies and a cycle-aware module for learner drivers. These outcomes are inten ....Cycle Aware: Driving with Bikes. This project focuses on the education and training required by drivers to interact safely with cyclists. It uses two ontologically diverse methodologies to examine how Australian drivers become cyclist aware and the education and training necessary to foster safe driver–cyclist interactions. The project aims to provide a critical knowledge base for state and territory driver education policies and a cycle-aware module for learner drivers. These outcomes are intended to reduce cyclist road trauma and on-road tensions between cyclists and drivers, and to improve opportunities for active travel to tackle the growing issue of inactivity.Read moreRead less
In it to win it: an interdisciplinary investigation of sports betting. This project aims to better understand how young adults use, communicate about and experience mobile phone sports betting applications. Gambling generates significant health and social harms in Australia. Yet there is little research on the use of betting apps, even though sports betting is the fastest growing segment of the gambling market. This project intends to examine how use of sports betting apps is becoming establishe ....In it to win it: an interdisciplinary investigation of sports betting. This project aims to better understand how young adults use, communicate about and experience mobile phone sports betting applications. Gambling generates significant health and social harms in Australia. Yet there is little research on the use of betting apps, even though sports betting is the fastest growing segment of the gambling market. This project intends to examine how use of sports betting apps is becoming established as everyday social practice normalising problem gambling. The findings will enhance understanding of the social contexts of sports betting, and inform gambling policy and programs leading to better health and social outcomes.Read moreRead less
Twenty-first century urban renewal: rethinking Australian planning and building regulations and their effects on the life of the city. This project compares legislative, regulatory and financing approaches to large scale urban renewal projects in Germany, Canada and Australia. It assesses their varying capacities to enable socially diverse uses of inner cities, and will advise on ways of reducing the place-based social divisions that are increasing as Australian cities expand.
Governing Climate Futures: The Social and Political Ramifications of Climate Modification. In light of the slow progress of international climate negotiations momentum has been developing behind a range of proposed strategies for manipulating climatic systems. Collectively referred to as ‘geoengineering’, current projects include technologies designed to reflect sunlight away from the Earth and techniques for directly removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Though these techniques may prove ....Governing Climate Futures: The Social and Political Ramifications of Climate Modification. In light of the slow progress of international climate negotiations momentum has been developing behind a range of proposed strategies for manipulating climatic systems. Collectively referred to as ‘geoengineering’, current projects include technologies designed to reflect sunlight away from the Earth and techniques for directly removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Though these techniques may prove to be a cost effective response to global warming, the deployment of these technologies will pose significant social, political and diplomatic challenges. This project will document the international development of geoengineering and will provide critical insights into the wider social and political ramifications of these developments.Read moreRead less
Living with Urban Heat: Becoming Climate-Ready in Social Housing . This project aims to address liveability in rapidly warming cities by focusing on the role that social practice plays in complementing technical and infrastructural cooling solutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge about equitable heat adaptive practices. It does so by working with culturally diverse social housing residents using an innovative blend of participatory action research and transition design. Expected ....Living with Urban Heat: Becoming Climate-Ready in Social Housing . This project aims to address liveability in rapidly warming cities by focusing on the role that social practice plays in complementing technical and infrastructural cooling solutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge about equitable heat adaptive practices. It does so by working with culturally diverse social housing residents using an innovative blend of participatory action research and transition design. Expected outcomes of this project include practical, low-cost cooling strategies that can be implemented now, along with increased social input into planning for the hotter urban future. This should provide significant benefits, such as enhanced civic capacity to generate society-wide climate readiness. Read moreRead less
Mapping the effect of social enterprise on regional city disadvantage. This project aims to explore how social enterprises affect wellbeing and community capacity in disadvantaged areas of regional cities. Governments increasingly invest in social enterprise to benefit individuals and places. This project will use a spatial methodology to map where and how benefits are realised. To date, robust evidence about how social enterprise affects disadvantage is lacking, partly due to inadequate researc ....Mapping the effect of social enterprise on regional city disadvantage. This project aims to explore how social enterprises affect wellbeing and community capacity in disadvantaged areas of regional cities. Governments increasingly invest in social enterprise to benefit individuals and places. This project will use a spatial methodology to map where and how benefits are realised. To date, robust evidence about how social enterprise affects disadvantage is lacking, partly due to inadequate research methodology. This project expects to provide web-based design tools and applications to assist regional city communities and councils in the development of social enterprises that can help disadvantaged people and places.Read moreRead less
Social geographies of youth action in India. This project aims to examine the nature and effectiveness of pre-figurative action among youth in north India. Over the past decade, social movements have risen in which young people try to prefigure their desired better society, while “being the change you want to see in the world” to try to alter social life is common. This project will examine how young people’s efforts to “be the change” in education, health, infrastructure and work might be chang ....Social geographies of youth action in India. This project aims to examine the nature and effectiveness of pre-figurative action among youth in north India. Over the past decade, social movements have risen in which young people try to prefigure their desired better society, while “being the change you want to see in the world” to try to alter social life is common. This project will examine how young people’s efforts to “be the change” in education, health, infrastructure and work might be changing the social landscape. It expects to contribute to scholarly and public understanding of youth and development in Australia and globally.Read moreRead less
Liberalism, Youth, and the Practice of Politics in India. This project investigates the role of youth in India in challenging or defending notions of equality and freedom. The project will generate new knowledge on liberalism, youth, and political practice using an innovative approach to data collection termed project ethnography and deploying interdisciplinary methods. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced capacity in Indian studies in Australia, new interdisciplinary collaborations ....Liberalism, Youth, and the Practice of Politics in India. This project investigates the role of youth in India in challenging or defending notions of equality and freedom. The project will generate new knowledge on liberalism, youth, and political practice using an innovative approach to data collection termed project ethnography and deploying interdisciplinary methods. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced capacity in Indian studies in Australia, new interdisciplinary collaborations around the topic of youth agency, the development of theory related to liberalism and youth, and a refined set of methods applicable to youth research. Benefits would include greater India literacy in Australia, better knowledge of youth action globally, and an enhanced knowledge base for policymakers.Read moreRead less
Investigating voluntary and involuntary intergroup contact . Extensive research suggests that interactions between people of opposing groups - intergroup contact - reduce prejudices and improve social cohesion. Yet these benefits may not be realised if intergroup contact is actively avoided, passively received, or mandated. Drawing from social psychology and human geography, this project aims to establish the conditions under which voluntary contact occurs and how voluntary (vs. involuntary) int ....Investigating voluntary and involuntary intergroup contact . Extensive research suggests that interactions between people of opposing groups - intergroup contact - reduce prejudices and improve social cohesion. Yet these benefits may not be realised if intergroup contact is actively avoided, passively received, or mandated. Drawing from social psychology and human geography, this project aims to establish the conditions under which voluntary contact occurs and how voluntary (vs. involuntary) intergroup contact shapes diversity experiences and impacts social attitudes, trust, and civic participation. With data from multiple settings and participant populations, this project has the potential to inform interventions and policies that deliver harmonious, healthy and productive communities.Read moreRead less
Economic, political and cultural brokers in remote Papua New Guinea. This project aims to understand the role of brokers in shaping flows of knowledge and wealth at in resource frontiers in Papua New Guinea; the intent is to investigate the demands that brokers service, their positioning, and the tensions they mediate. The project plans to generate new knowledge by studying cultural, political and economic brokers in a region where encounters with church, state and corporations are comparatively ....Economic, political and cultural brokers in remote Papua New Guinea. This project aims to understand the role of brokers in shaping flows of knowledge and wealth at in resource frontiers in Papua New Guinea; the intent is to investigate the demands that brokers service, their positioning, and the tensions they mediate. The project plans to generate new knowledge by studying cultural, political and economic brokers in a region where encounters with church, state and corporations are comparatively recent. Expected outcomes include contributions to the scholarly literature on brokerage, and building capacity of PNG researchers. This should provide significant benefits, informing better management of processes that threaten viability of development projects, legitimacy of the state, and stability of communities.Read moreRead less