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Australian Research Council Grants

User Driven Interventions in the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm: Analysing Structural Barriers and Capacity Building Among Drug User Organisations

Funding Period: 2013-2015

Investigator: Dr Christopher Smith

Administering Organisation: Deakin University

Project Summary: This project argues that although Australia's consumer-centred approach to harm reduction has been widely praised, consumer participation remains limited in countries such as Britain and Canada. Entailing an international comparative analysis of these three sites, this project focuses on building capacity and reducing structural barriers among drug user organisations.

Shared Belonging in Australia: Public Space and Intercultural Relations in Suburban Darwin

Funding Period: 2013-2015

Investigator: Dr Michele Lobo

Administering Organisation: Deakin University

Project Summary: This project aims to develop a multi-layered and multidimensional understanding of public spaces in suburban Darwin, a Larrakian city. In particular it seeks to respect and value insights from people who have experienced dispossession and displacement such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and racialised migrants.

Islamic Religiosity and Challenge of Political Engagement and National Belonging in Multicultural Western Cities

Funding Period: 2013-2015

Investigators:

Professor Fethi Mansouri
Dr Michele Lobo
Professor Bryan Turner

Administering Organisation: Deakin University

Project Summary: This project will investigate how participation in Islamic religiouspractices strengthens attachments to the western cities where Muslims have chosen to live. It will contribute to global, national and local policy outcomes that focus on the challenges of accommodating minority religions in diverse western cities.

Cyber-Racism and Community Resilience

Funding Period: 2012-2015

Investigators:

Professor Andrew Jakubowicz
Associate Professor Gail Mason
Dr Ana-Maria Bliuc
Dr Yin C Paradies
Dr Nasya Bahfen
Professor Kevin Dunn
Ms Victoria Erlichster
Ms Allison Henry.

Partner Organisations:

Victorian Health Promotion Foundation
Australian Human Rights Commission
Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia

Administering Organisation: University of Technology, Sydney

Project Summary: Racism has become a significant source of social stress, facilitated through the internet, undermining community cohesion. This project will document perpetrators' creation of racist content, internet users' exposure to cyberracism, the capacity of regulation to manage the impact, and how social media can help communities to resist cyberracism.

Intercultural Understanding in Primary and Secondary Schools

Funding Period: 2012-2015

Investigators:

Professor Christine Halse
Alfred Deakin Professor Fethi Mansouri
Associate Professor Colin Arrowsmith
Associate Professor Julianne Moss
Dr Ruth Arber
Dr Nida Denson
Dr Naomi Priest
Dr Robert S Webster

Partner Organisations:

Together for Humanity Foundation Ltd
Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
Pukunui Technology
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

Administering Organisation: Deakin University

Project Summary: What facilitates or impedes intercultural understanding in children, adolescents and schools? How can this be addressed? How can we know what makes a difference? This project answers these questions at the individual, school and national level using a novel cultural systems approach and methodological and technological innovations.

Measuring the Destruction of Heritage and Spikes of Violence in Iraq

Funding Period: 2012 - 2014

Investigator: Dr Benjamin Isakhan

Project Summary: This project addresses the relationship between heritage destruction and violence in Iraq since 2003. Employing an innovative methodological approach,the project is expected to generate new understandings of the complex inter- relationship that exists between the destruction of cultural heritage and sharp upsurges in terror and violence.

Religion and Political Thought

Funding Period: 2012 - 2014

Investigators:

Associate Professor Marion Maddox
Associate Professor Roland Boer
Dr Christopher Hartney
Dr Geoffrey Boucher
Dr Matthew Sharpe

Administering Organisation: Macquarie University

Project Summary: Why do so many Australian political leaders increasingly profess religious belief, while the public becomes more secular? What does this mean for our politics? Religion and Political Thought (RAPT's) interdisciplinary, rigorous analysis contributes both to a large international project (Asia, Europe and North America), and to developing an Australian tradition of political theory.

Using Museums to Counter Racism and Increase Acceptance of Diversity Among Young People

Funding Period: 2012 - 2014

Investigators:

Dr Yin Paradies
Dr Naomi Priest
Dr Emma Kowal
Associate Professor Margaret Kelaher
Professor Fethi Mansouri
Dr Moya McFadzean
Ms Carolyn Meehan
Ms Linda Sproul

Partner Organisations:

Museum of Victoria
Victorian Health Promotion Foundation

Administering Organisation: Deakin University

Project Summary: Although little is known about the topic, racism is a significant issue for young Australians. This project will reveal how high school students and their teachers understand racism, diversity and identity. It will also determine how museum programs can reduce racism and increase acceptance of diversity among high school students and their teachers.

Addressing Race-Based Discrimination in Australia: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Funding Period: 2012 - 2013

Investigators:

Dr Yin C Paradies
Associate Professor Margaret Kelaher
Professor Alan Shiell
Professor Eric T Vos
Associate Professor Anthony D LaMontagne
Dr Marion Frere

Partner Organisations:

Australian Human Rights Commission
VicHealth

Administering Organisation: Deakin University

Project Summary: This project is designed to produce sustainable benefits to Australian society through the provision of important data needed to promote investment in strategies to address race-based discrimination. This will benefit both the lives of individuals experiencing race-based discrimination, including those from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It will also benefit society as a whole through promotion of social cohesion and community connectedness and the economic benefits resulting from increased productivity and workforce participation and reduced burden on health, social and welfare systems.

Ethnic Discrimination in the Private Rental Housing Market

Funding Period: 2011 - 2013

Investigators:

Professor Kevin M Dunn
Dr Heather MacDonald
Dr Yin C Paradies
Dr Rae Dufty

Administering Organisation: University of Western Sydney

Project Summary: Paired testing protocols, as used in North American and Europe, will be used for the first time in Australia to test for ethnic discrimination in the allocation of private rental housing. This will fill a significant gap in current knowledge, and provide an evidence for policy action and remedies.

An Exploration of the Frequency, Outcomes, Enablers and Constraints of Bystander Anti-Racism

Funding Period: 2011 - 2014

Investigators:

Dr Yin C Paradies
Professor Kevin M Dunn
Professor Bernard Guerin
Dr Anne Pedersen
Dr Scott Q Sharpe
Dr Maria H Hynes

Partner Organisations:

Australian Human Rights Commission
Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission
Victorian Health Promotion Foundation

Administering Organisation: Deakin University

Project Summary: Bystander anti-racism involves ordinary people speaking up and taking prosocial action when witnessing racism. This project will develop empirical understandings of this underexplored, yet potentially powerful, form of anti-racism, including its frequency, the outcome of action, and factors that enable and constrain bystander anti-racism.

The Democratization of the Rising China through Deliberative Democracy

Funding Period: 2009 - 2013

Investigator: Professor Baogang He

Project Summary : This project falls within the Research Priority 4: Safeguarding Australia. Its benefits include strengthening Australian leadership in deliberative democracy, developing deliberative democratization in China which is vital for the security and fundamental interest of Australia, and offering new strategies of deliberative democratization for the international democracy-promotion community. It will contribute to a balanced and sophisticated understanding of Chinese democratization; enhance cooperation between Australian researchers and their counterparts in China; and contribute to global democracy-promotion activities by developing a new field of deliberative democratization.

Australian Diasporas and Brain Gain: Exploring Current and Potential Transnational Linkages

Funding Period: 2009 - 2012

Investigators:

Associate Professor DL Ben-Moshe
Professor GJ Hugo
Associate Professor LV Baldassar
Dr TA Joiner
Dr S Francis
Mr O Andreevski

Partner Organisations:

Victorian Multicultural Commission
Australian Vietnamese Women's Welfare Association
Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues
Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia
COASIT Italian Historical Society
Italian/Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre
Council for International Trade and Commerce SA Inc

Administering Organisation: Deakin University

Project Summary: The research will investigate current and potential future roles of diasporas in both Australia and overseas in facilitating trade and investment. The study will examine their political, cultural and kinship ties with homelands and map the geography of seven diasporas in Australia. This will provide new data that describes the character, motivations and movements of diasporas in Australia. Data analysis will determine the current and potential role diaspora play in adding value to Australian society through 'brain gain' and 'circulation' versus 'brain drain'. Findings will inform migration and social policy aimed at maximising benefits of migration.

Australia's Asian Futures: A Cultural History, 1972 to the present

Funding Period: 2009 - 2011

Investigator: Professor David Walker

Project Summary : Relations with Asia are vital to Australia's prosperity and security. This project places in historical context evolving understandings of what the 'region' has meant to Australians from the 1970s to the present. It will clarify the processes by which Australia has adapted to Asia, and points of resistance to engagement. By examining the representations of politicians, journalists, Asianists, and travel writers, this study will seek to explain how threats to security have been perceived over time, and the interplay between popular and elite representation. An analysis of how threats from political Islam have been understood will inform a wider history of threat perceptions extending from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

Social Networks, Belonging and Active Citizenship among Migrant Youth in Australia

Funding Period: 2009 - 2012

Investigators:

Professor Fethi Mansouri
Professor Zlatko Skrbis
Dr Steve Francis
Ms Carmel Guerra

Collaborating/Partner Organisations:

The Australian Red Cros
The Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues

Project Summary : This project will focus on youth from three Australian migrant communities at the centre of recent debates about migrant integration, intercultural conflict and social cohesion. It will investigate the role of formal and informal networks in creating among migrant youth a sense of belonging to the mainstream society. The project redresses a critical gap in popular and official understandings of the social fabric of Australia and will provide benchmark data for improved government and community services in the area of migrant youth. It will examine and assess the role of social networks in informing young people's sense of belonging and active participation in the community of citizens.

Social Glue - The contribution of sport and active recreation to community wellbeing*

Funding Period: 2008 - 2010

Investigators:

A/Prof R Hoye(La Trobe)
Dr MG Nicholson(La Trobe)
Dr KM Brown

Partner Organisation: Victorian Health Promotion Foundation

Administering Institution: La Trobe University

Project Summary: Australian federal, state and local governments allocate more than $4,094 million per year to the provision of sport and recreation services, facilities and programs which service more than 5 million regular participants. This funding is, in part, based on the premise that involvement in sport and recreation develops community wellbeing through the facilitation of social inclusion and connectedness. This research will contribute to the development of policies and practices that will enhance the capability of sport and active recreation organisations to contribute to community wellbeing.

*Research team no longer affiliated with the Centre

Local Governance, Multiculturalism and Active Citizenship: The Case of Arab-Muslim Diaspora in the West

Funding Period: 2007 - 2010

Investigators:

Associate Professor Fethi Mansouri
Professor Sue Kenny
Professor David Walker

Project Summary: This project will advance our understanding of the best practice approaches towards the management of intercultural relationships within multicultural communities. It will generate international benchmark data on the management of multicultural spaces and will lead to a range of practical policies for local city councils, NGOs and state governments. The findings will form a robust empirical basis for understanding the optimal way of formulating government-NGOs partnerships in the successful implementation of culturally responsive policies. The study will also result in the development of effective policy responses aimed at enhancing active citizenship, social cohesion and intercultural understanding.

Deliberative Democracy and Citizenship: A Study of Deliberative Polling and Participatory Budgeting in China

Funding Period: 2006 - 2008

Investigators:

Associate Professor Baogang He
Professor Geoff Stokes

Administering Institution: University of Tasmania

Project Summary: The result of this research will enhance Australian democracy-promotion activities overseas, foster Chinese learning from Australian deliberative democratic experiences, as well as benefiting Australian governmental agencies such as AusAID and Australian NGOs working in this field. The project will also strengthen cooperation between Australian researchers and their counteICGrts in China. The lessons learned from this Chinese experiment can be used to improve the quality of citizen participation and to develop more effective means of public participation and consultation in Australia. The project will contribute to the Australian government's dialogue approach to human rights issues in China since 1989.

Western Theory of Deliberative Democracy and Chinese Practice of Participatory and Deliberative Democracy

Funding Period: 2004 - 2006

Investigator: Associate Professor Baogang He

Administering Institution: University of Tasmania

Project Summary: This project is aimed to study how various participatory and deliberative institutions are pursued and promoted by peasants and residents in local governance in China. It is the first study that builds a bridge between Western theory of deliberative democracy and Chinese deliberative practice, adding to our knowledge of local participatory institutions in local China, contributing to a better design of, and improvement of, these institutions, and developing lessons and policy implications that will be broadly applicable not only to most parts of China, but also to other developing countries and beyond.

Capacity-building in Indonesian Islamic NGOs*

Funding Period: 2004 - 2007

Investigators:

Dr Greg Barton
Associate Professor Sue Kenny

Project Summary: This study aims to understand and monitor forms and applications of capacity-building in progressive Islamic/Muslim NGOs in Indonesia, over a four year period, in the context of profound social, economic and political change, in order to better understand how best to strengthen such groups and to assist them to become more effective. It will significantly increase our understanding of the complex cultural issues that influence these groups in their efforts to professionalise, build capacity and contribute to civil society. It will identify areas in which Western misunderstandings of Muslim culture and society have limited the effectiveness of capacity building programs.

* Research team no longer affiliated with the Centre.

The challenge of managing cultural diversity in education: the case of Arab-Australian youth

Funding Period: 2004 - 2007

Investigators:

Dr Fethi Mansouri
Dr Michael Leach
Ms Dalal Smiley

Partner Organisations:

Brencorp Foundation
Victorian Arabic Social Services (VASS)

Project Summary: This project investigates the challenges posed by cultural diversity in multicultural schools. It will focus specifically on students from Arabic-speaking background (ASB) attending secondary schools in the Northern and Western regions of Melbourne. The study will assess whether individual students' attitudes and the schools' structures and pedagogical ideology impact upon ASB students' achievements. In using focus group discussions and attitudinal surveys, the study will also test the cultural appropriateness of such methodological procedures. The study's proposed multi-dimensional model will be tested in order to determine the optimal social environments and inter-ethnic relations needed to successfully fulfil the potential of multicultural education.

Analysing Testimonies of Jewish Holocaust Survivors*

Funding Period: 2003 - 2005

Investigators:

Dr MC Langfield
Ms PJ Maclean
Dr PD Monteath

Partner Organisation: Jewish Holocaust Centre

Project Summary: Holocaust Jewish migrants to Australia, and how video mediates these experiences. Significant conceptual advances will be made in the study of memory, Holocaust and immigration history, class and identity debates, gender analysis, oral and video history and the theory of testimony. A team of experienced CIs will analyse a broad sample of videos, while the APAI will concentrate on studying a single episode. The JHC will act as industry partner.

* Research team no longer affiliated with the Centre.

Trade Unions, Globalisation, and Networked Computers

Funding Period: 2003 - 2005

Investigators:

Dr Andrew Vandenberg
Professor Geoff Stokes

Partner Organisation: Australian Council of Trade Unions

Project Summary: This project undertakes a qualitative study of Australian unionists' usage of networked computers and their potential for increasing trade union membership and participation, and promoting productive diversity in workplaces. At a time of declining unionisation, these issues have become urgent and give rise to key research questions about email and the Internet in trade union organisation and communication with members. The project promises to provide broader theoretical insights into union responses to deregulated labour markets and the globalisation of the economy. The results will be useful to other political and social organisations, as well as government policy makers.

Comparative dimensions of active citizenship: an analysis of indicators of inclusivity and exclusivity in civil society

Funding Period: 2002 - 2005

Investigators:

Dr Sue Kenny,
Dr Kevin Brown,
Associate Professor JA Onyx,
Professor TW Burke

Project Summary: Active citizenship is a key concept in debates around the nature of civil society and the changing forms of citizenship. To date, grounded studies of the concept have been few. The project's significance lies in its focus on developing indicators of active citizenship. This enables the empirical charting of active citizenship. The comparative aspect to the project will heighten our ability to understand these processes in Australia in relation to other countries.

New Trends in Foundation Formation

Funding Period: 2002 - 2003

Investigators:

Dr Sue Kenny
Dr Kevin Brown
Ms E Cham

Partner Organisation: Philanthropy Australia

Project Summary: The encouragement of philanthropic giving is a current priority of governments globally. The creation of foundations is one strategy for expanding philanthropic activity, with profound implications for public policy and existing foundations. Working with Philanthropy Australia, this study will explore the concept of charitable foundations and recent trends in foundation formation such as the development of 'community owned? enterprises and pressures on business to become more 'socially responsible'. The study will produce data of vital importance to informed policy making and to the effectiveness of philanthropic foundations.

Economic and social rights of asylum seekers in Australia: Challenges for Community Associations

Funding Period: 2002 - 2004

Investigators:

Dr Fethi Mansouri
Dr Sue Kenny
Dr Kevin Brown
Ms Dalal Smiley

Partner Organisation: Victorian Arabic Social Services (VASS)

Project Summary: This project will investigate the contribution of a community association providing humanitarian assistance to newly-arrived refugees holding Temporary Protection Visas (TPV). The project will assess the capacity of non-government organizations (NGOs) in delivering basic social services and identifying areas of immediate concern. The anticipated outcomes of the project are: (a) the establishment of effective models of best practice in the delivery of social services by a NGO, (b) the potential for partnership between such an organization and the State in developing social policy, and (c) the contribution to theoretical examination of the role of civil society in the new Globalisation era.