Hawke Research Institute initiatives
Update Newsletter Number 7
July 2004
- Working papers
- Hot topics
- Putting the sustainability back into societies
- Eco-social Sustainability of the Murray-Darling Basin Research Network
- Research Centre in Child Protection
- International Collaborations
- Selected Projects
Working papers
The Hawke Research Institute has published three new online working papers. Paper number 25 by Prof Rhonda Sharp and Sanjugta Vas Dev draws lessons from a project conducted in the Marshall Islands that attempted both to analyse the gender impacts of budgets and also to promote gender equity through budgetary and policy change. Paper number 26 by Ass Prof Bruce Johnson analyses the ‘micropolitical strategies’ of school leadership teams dealing with local school reform, and managing to pursue consensual, respectful strategies rather than the ‘controlling politics’ of new managerialism. Paper number 27 by Dr Stephen McKenzie discusses definitions of ‘social sustainability’, the emerging common research agenda of the Hawke Research Institute, and asks what sort of definition would be most useful for the purposes of research collaboration.
Hot topics
The Hawke Policy Website continues to present the latest research on
social and public policy coming out of UniSA in a form that is attractive
and accessible for policy makers, stakeholders and researchers.
The latest section of the site is ‘Hot topics’. Here UniSA researchers give
short responses to hot social issues. We have covered boys in school,
footballers and sexual assault, single-parent families, supporting the aged,
and whether we should have more babies. The page is sometimes controversial
and always fascinating, and is designed to make UniSA research immediate and
relevant for the media and the public.
Putting the sustainability back into societies
The Hawke Research Institute has adopted ‘sustainable societies’ as a
common research agenda. But there are many definitions of sustainability and
many ways of applying the term to the social sphere. The institute has begun
to explore some of the current thinking about sustainability among its
members in order to develop some common ground for future research
collaboration. An initial step was Stephen McKenzie’s working paper Social
sustainability: towards some definitions. The paper provided a framework for
discussions of the social sustainability agenda. It argued that we should
consider why we need a definition of sustainability, and what sort of
definition will be most useful for the purposes of research collaboration.
The next step was ‘Putting the sustainability back into societies: starting
the conversation’, a forum on 17 June presented by the Division of
Education, Arts and Social Sciences with the Hawke Research Institute.
Researchers from many different schools and a range of interests gave their
version of what sustainability is and how to get there. The speakers offered
perspectives from their research on education, youth culture, ageing, design
and conflict management. The forum included vigorous debate about just how
useful the concept of sustainability is. Researchers from the Division of
Business and Enterprise are also beginning to seek out common ground on
sustainable societies, so it looks like the conversation will continue for
some time.
Eco-social Sustainability of the Murray-Darling Basin Research Network
The Hawke Research Institute is leading an innovative, cross-disciplinary research network on social and environmental sustainability. It seeks to develop a series of interdisciplinary models of best practice, using the Murray-Darling Basin as a major case study. Members are drawn from university and government research centres across Australia, and their expertise includes areas as wide as social policy, resource management, Indigenous studies, art and applied mathematics. Some of the members recently met for a workshop on the Murray River at Banrock Station and Kingston-on-Murray. They are planning a symposium on water justice in early 2005.
Research Centre in Child Protection
A Research Centre in Child Protection is being established within the Hawke Research Institute. Brendan Nelson, Minister for Education, Science and Training officially launched the centre on 19 March 2004, promising government funding of $10m over 10 years. A Chair of Child Protection will be appointed to lead a research program in child protection and to promote the application of research findings in professional practice. The centre will be multi-disciplinary, working with staff and students in education, psychology, social work and social policy, Indigenous studies, journalism and the health sciences. It will also engage with all professional areas that involve work with children. The centre will initiate important research, analyse local and national trends and policies, develop targeted training programs, and build partnerships with service delivery agencies.
International collaborations
Sweden
In May the Hawke Research Institute hosted Karina Nilsson and Mattias Strandh (and their baby Jonas) from the Sociology Department of the University of Umeå, Sweden. They both continued work on their current research projects. Mattias is examining long-term returns on human capital investments in three countries. Karina is studying how changes in men’s and women’s opportunities to combine work and family influence family formation and childbirth in different regions. They also put their academic interests in family and social policy into practice, as they each conduct their research every second day, taking turns looking after baby Jonas while the other is working. Their visit was part of the ongoing partnership between the Hawke Research Institute and the University of Umeå.
Finland
Professor Anja Heikkinen from the Faculty of Education, University of
Jyväskylä, Finland visited in April. Her visit was jointly hosted by the
Hawke Research Institute and the Centre for Research in Education, Equity
and Work. Her presence provided the opportunity for an energetic workshop on
27 April with Women in Adult and Vocational Education SA (WAVE), the Hawke
Research Institute, the Australian Education Union (SA) and TAFE SA Access &
Equity. ‘Women, work and training: towards an agenda for SA’ was attended by
85 women, including policy makers, activists, unionists, educators and
researchers. It focused on relationships between research and policy in the
area of women, work and vocational education and training. Participants
discussed ways to develop an agenda for women in South Australia that could
improve women’s position in work, careers, and vocational education and
training. Anja spoke on ‘Women, work and training: paradoxes in the global
and local redivision of labour from a gender perspective’.
While Anja was here she also signed a Memorandum of Understanding between
the Hawke Research Institute and the Faculty of Education at the University
of Jyväskylä.
India
Professor Alison Mackinnon and Associate Professor Adrian Vicary
represented the Hawke Research Institute at a combined Hawke Research
Institute/Indian Council for Social Science Research one-day symposium on
sustainable societies at the India International Centre in New Delhi on 19
January. The symposium was attended by about 50 researchers from academia
and NGOs and was a direct outcome of the MOU between the Hawke Research
Institute and the ICSSR signed in late 2003. Professor Mackinnon facilitated
discussion on the topic ‘Women’s organisations and sustainable societies’.
Professor Vicary led discussions on ‘Participatory democracy and sustainable
societies’. The ICSSR is keen to pursue research collaborations with UniSA
and a joint steering group will be established.
The symposium followed the 2nd International Conference of the Indian
Association for the Study of Australia held in New Delhi on 15–17 January
2004. Associate Professor Vicary, Professor Mackinnon and Professor Jennifer
McKay all presented papers at the conference. There is considerable interest
in Australian studies in India, with work being undertaken in Australian
literature and in studies of Indigenous writing and history as well as
issues of social policy. It was salutary for Australian participants to see
Australia viewed through an Indian lens, and to attend lively performances
by Indian drama students of plays such as ‘Brilliant Lies’ and ‘Stolen’.
Selected Projects
Playing for life: the everyday music practices of marginalised youth as strategic pathways to agency, employment and socioeconomic inclusion
This project is led by Hawke Fellow Dr Gerry Bloustien, Dr Margaret Peters and postdoctoral fellow Dr Sarah Baker. Popular music is emotionally and culturally important to marginalised youth, often providing strategic pathways to employment and socioeconomic inclusion. This project is the first comparative international project to explore how marginalised youth in post-industrial societies engage with popular music, and how they develop their music and technological skills by using local cultural resources outside of formal schooling. The researchers will join with community-based organisations to identify how young people use music to develop a sense of agency. The youth will also become co-researchers in the project, using journals, music production, video and tape recordings.
Youth- and gender-sensitive public expenditure management in the Pacific
Professor Rhonda Sharp led this two-year project working with the governments of Samoa and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, funded by the Asian Development Bank. In Samoa the research team piloted a people-centred approach to developing government budgets, focusing on youth. In the Marshall Islands a gender-sensitive budget exercise centred on the issue of teenage pregnancy. The project aimed to raise awareness of the impact of budgets on youth and women and the importance of considering their interests in developing budgets, to promote government accountability, to build the capacity of NGOs to advocate for women and youth, and to allow significant local ownership and control of the project.
Urban renewal from the inside out: students and community involvement in re-designing and re-constructing school spaces in a poor neighbourhood
A cross-disciplinary team of researchers led by Professor Barbara Comber (Director, Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning Cultures) in collaboration with Ridley Grove R–7 School has won a Myer Foundation Grant for 2004. Co-researchers from UniSA are Dr Helen Nixon (School of Education), Stephen Loo (Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design) and Dr Jackie Cook (Communication, Information and New Media) with consultant architect and educator Dr Kenn Fisher. The project is designed to assist the school community to symbolically and materially link the preschool and the primary school spaces by designing a garden and/or a structure that connects the two. The aim is to make this space aesthetically pleasing and to enhance the safety and the comfort of the children, their families and their teachers who use it. Teachers and children will work with architecture and communication/journalism students to design the garden/structure and to record the processes of design, consultation and change.