Chieftainship and social change in the Trobriand islands: A new theory of leadership and sub-state political dynamics for the Pacific. Australia's closest neighbours to the north and east are Pacific nation-states where in many instances 'chieftainship' has been a dominant locus of social organisation and change from pre-colonial times to the present. While these systems in their modern forms have appeared to outsiders as 'weak', 'unstable' or 'failing', the real problem is that they have been p ....Chieftainship and social change in the Trobriand islands: A new theory of leadership and sub-state political dynamics for the Pacific. Australia's closest neighbours to the north and east are Pacific nation-states where in many instances 'chieftainship' has been a dominant locus of social organisation and change from pre-colonial times to the present. While these systems in their modern forms have appeared to outsiders as 'weak', 'unstable' or 'failing', the real problem is that they have been poorly understood by social scientists, policy-makers and others. This research will develop a more accurate theory of the dynamics of Pacific chieftainship that will enhance Australia's understanding of its neighbours and the effectiveness of our policies and approach to the region. Read moreRead less
Indigenous Diaspora: a new direction in the ethnographic study of the migration of Australian Aboriginal people from remote areas. This project relates directly to current policy debates about the future of Aboriginal populations in remote Australia and proposals for encouraging mobility between homeland centres and distant jobs and education. It seeks to understand the process and the social and cultural implications of the urbanisation of remote Aboriginal people. As such, it addresses the pri ....Indigenous Diaspora: a new direction in the ethnographic study of the migration of Australian Aboriginal people from remote areas. This project relates directly to current policy debates about the future of Aboriginal populations in remote Australia and proposals for encouraging mobility between homeland centres and distant jobs and education. It seeks to understand the process and the social and cultural implications of the urbanisation of remote Aboriginal people. As such, it addresses the priority goal of understanding and strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric to help families and individuals lead healthy, productive and fulfilling lives (Research Priority 2). It will also provide a model for the extension of existing anthropological research on remote Aboriginal communities.Read moreRead less
Imagining the Asian Child: Towards an Anthropology of New Asian Childhoods. This innovative study will be of both popular and scholarly interest. The future of childhoods is a key concern in Australia and globally, with growing anxieties about a number of related issues: declining birthrates, ageing populations and allegedly rising welfare burdens, youth crime, and children's experiences in families. Asian and family studies are both acknowledged scholarly strengths in Australia: the project, ....Imagining the Asian Child: Towards an Anthropology of New Asian Childhoods. This innovative study will be of both popular and scholarly interest. The future of childhoods is a key concern in Australia and globally, with growing anxieties about a number of related issues: declining birthrates, ageing populations and allegedly rising welfare burdens, youth crime, and children's experiences in families. Asian and family studies are both acknowledged scholarly strengths in Australia: the project, drawing on the principal investigator's expertise in both fields, will place regional developments in a global context, and will appeal to a range of social scientists and cultural theorists interested in comparative studies of family and childhoods.Read moreRead less
The Western Nation-State, Cultural Pluralism and the Transnational Circulation of Political Emotions in the Shi'a Lebanese Diaspora. At its most general level, this research aims to expose and explain the importance of emotions in the formation of all cultures. In so doing it opens the way for a more complex understanding of some of the invisible but important forces that shape intercultural relations within culturally plural nations. It will thus open the possibilities for ameliorating and refi ....The Western Nation-State, Cultural Pluralism and the Transnational Circulation of Political Emotions in the Shi'a Lebanese Diaspora. At its most general level, this research aims to expose and explain the importance of emotions in the formation of all cultures. In so doing it opens the way for a more complex understanding of some of the invisible but important forces that shape intercultural relations within culturally plural nations. It will thus open the possibilities for ameliorating and refining government policies concerned with the management of pluralism. At a more particular level, the research hopes to produce critical knowledge about diasporic Arab Muslim cultures that will ameliorate the thorny relations these cultures have today with western governments.Read moreRead less
Sentiments of the City: An Ethnography of Transformations in Urban Life and Intimate Relations in India. Australian scholarship has a long and illustrious history of intellectual engagements with India. Through exploring two specific sites of the momentous changes taking place in Indian cultural and social life, viz. those in the spheres of intimacies and urban life, this project will reinvigorate this history. It will also add to our understanding of the effects of globalization upon a major -- ....Sentiments of the City: An Ethnography of Transformations in Urban Life and Intimate Relations in India. Australian scholarship has a long and illustrious history of intellectual engagements with India. Through exploring two specific sites of the momentous changes taking place in Indian cultural and social life, viz. those in the spheres of intimacies and urban life, this project will reinvigorate this history. It will also add to our understanding of the effects of globalization upon a major -- and increasingly important -- Asian country. The findings will be of interest to anthropologists, historians, urban studies scholars, and scholars interested in changing ideas of gender and power in the current era.Read moreRead less
Relatively Speaking: Kinship Matters in Vanuatu. Where the absence of state welfare makes reliance on kin a necessity, the same obligations are seen by Aid donors in the Pacific as inhibiting economic advancement and civil probity.An understanding of whether or not transformations and/or continuities in the field of kinship,marriage and gender are implicated in the future development of a nation like Vanuatu in which Australia invests considerable aid and the stability of which is consequential ....Relatively Speaking: Kinship Matters in Vanuatu. Where the absence of state welfare makes reliance on kin a necessity, the same obligations are seen by Aid donors in the Pacific as inhibiting economic advancement and civil probity.An understanding of whether or not transformations and/or continuities in the field of kinship,marriage and gender are implicated in the future development of a nation like Vanuatu in which Australia invests considerable aid and the stability of which is consequential in the region, demonstrates a clear national interest in this project.Read moreRead less
Inequality, Identity and Future Discounting: A Comparative Ethnographic Approach to Social Trauma in Aboriginal Australian Communities. Via fieldwork in Aboriginal communities, this study examines the extent to which psychosocial processes of identity serve as a mechanism whereby social inequality becomes personal and community disadvantage. We focus on Aboriginal perspectives, their experiences and accounts of social traumas. The study's significance lies in the persistence of differentially hi ....Inequality, Identity and Future Discounting: A Comparative Ethnographic Approach to Social Trauma in Aboriginal Australian Communities. Via fieldwork in Aboriginal communities, this study examines the extent to which psychosocial processes of identity serve as a mechanism whereby social inequality becomes personal and community disadvantage. We focus on Aboriginal perspectives, their experiences and accounts of social traumas. The study's significance lies in the persistence of differentially high negative social indicators in Aboriginal communities. Its originality lies in conceptualizations of future discounting as a dimension of identity and of identity as a process critical to well-being. Outcomes include further understanding of the relationship between inequality,identity and well-being.Read moreRead less
Managing Modernity : Capitalism, Globalisation and Governance in Melanesia. Australia's relations with its closest neighbours in the Pacific have been significantly reassessed as a consequence of the 'war on terror'. The goals of community development and national participation in global projects in Melanesian nation states have become linked to the issue of national security in the region. By revealing the significant impediments to and positive vectors for stability in Melanesian states, this ....Managing Modernity : Capitalism, Globalisation and Governance in Melanesia. Australia's relations with its closest neighbours in the Pacific have been significantly reassessed as a consequence of the 'war on terror'. The goals of community development and national participation in global projects in Melanesian nation states have become linked to the issue of national security in the region. By revealing the significant impediments to and positive vectors for stability in Melanesian states, this research will provide better understandings of a region that is increasingly depicted as subject to corruption, violence and the failure of democracy. Read moreRead less
Sisters and Sojourners: Stories of Rural Women in Urban China. A large increase in unofficial rural to urban migration has been one of the most significant aspects of social change in China in the last two decades. This project aims to advance our understanding of this phenomenon through a study of rural Chinese women's experiences of migration to the city, and in particular, the effects of migration upon their sense of identity, worldview and relationships with others. The project will involv ....Sisters and Sojourners: Stories of Rural Women in Urban China. A large increase in unofficial rural to urban migration has been one of the most significant aspects of social change in China in the last two decades. This project aims to advance our understanding of this phenomenon through a study of rural Chinese women's experiences of migration to the city, and in particular, the effects of migration upon their sense of identity, worldview and relationships with others. The project will involve ethnographic fieldwork, centring on the collection and analysis of rural migrant women's life stories. It will result in the publication of a book and three scholarly articles.Read moreRead less
Australian Western Desert Kinship and Land Tenure Systems. The project aims to investigate the relationship between kinship and land tenure in Aboriginal Australia in the region between the NT/WA-border and Wiluna and Kalgoorlie following three aspects of group identification and differentiation.
Formal aspects: investigation of kinship terminologies and land tenure systems among the various groups; analysis of the semantic shifts of terms in space according to the diffusion of social categorie ....Australian Western Desert Kinship and Land Tenure Systems. The project aims to investigate the relationship between kinship and land tenure in Aboriginal Australia in the region between the NT/WA-border and Wiluna and Kalgoorlie following three aspects of group identification and differentiation.
Formal aspects: investigation of kinship terminologies and land tenure systems among the various groups; analysis of the semantic shifts of terms in space according to the diffusion of social categories. Pragmatic aspects: analysis of alliance strategies and kin-network in relation to places of birth and ?regional group? membership. Dynamic aspects: examination of the impact of migration and settlement on terminologies, alliance strategies, and land tenure systems.Read moreRead less