Research
Deakin University
Faculty of Arts
School of Australian and International Studies
School of Literary and Communication Studies
School of Social Inquiry
Faculty of Business and Law
School of Law
Deakin Business SchoolFaculty of Education
School of Scientific and Developmental Studies
School of Social and Cultural StudiesFaculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
School of Health Sciences
School of PsychologyFaculty of Science and Technology
School of Architecture and Building
School of Biological and Chemical Sciences
School of Computing and Mathematics
School of Ecology and Environment
School of Engineering and Technology
Title:UNESCO - Agency of
Cultural Globalisation? Analysis of the Conflict between Universal Values and
Local Cultural Identity in the Asia-Pacific Region
Prof William Logan, Dr MR Askew, DR MC Langfield, DR J Sweet (APD), DR A Smith,
Mr CD Long (APD)
2002: $91,776
2003: $94,450
2004: $94,450
2005: $94,450
Summary:Economic globalisation is accompanied by cultural globalisation.
Whether to accept or attempt to resist this impact on local cultures is a critical
issue for communities and governments throughout the Asia-Pacific region. This
project will identify and evaluate those activities of UNESCO and its associated
bodies, ICOMOS, ICOM and ICCROM, that tend to impose a common stamp on cultures
across the world, as well as the local resistance to those activities. Four
fields covering tangible and intangible culture will be investigated: heritage
places, museums, folklife and heritage education. Outcomes include improved
heritage management; outputs include a book and refereed journal articles.
Summary:Since the economic liberalisation beginning in the late 1980s and the introduction of direct broadcast satellite television in 1991, television in India has become a highly dynamic and self-reflexive agent for an increasingly 'globalised' sensibility. This study seeks to examine the process in which commercial, mass-mediated public culture has been generated. By engaging in an innovative and systematic approach which will integrate direct studies of audiences, program production, modes of commercialisation and the role of the state, the study will provide the basis for a definitive book on this key aspect of Indian media culture.
Title: Comparative dimensions
of active citizenship: an analysis of indicators of inclusivity and exclusivity
in civil society
DR Sue Kenny, DR KM Brown, A/Prof JA Onyx, Prof TW Burke
2002: $25,000
2003: $50,000
2004: $50,000
2005: $35,000
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.
Title: Electronic Health Records: Achieving
an Effective and Ethical Legal and Recordkeeping Framework
DR Danuta Mendelson, Mrs L Iacovino, DR BM McSherry, Mrs MR Paterson
2002: $28,000
2003: $28,000
2004: $23,453
Summary: Health records are essential to efficacious treatment and affect every
individual. They are 'socially critical' communications because the therapeutic
relationship between doctor and patient is based on trust. Without any systematic
ethical and legal safeguards or recordkeeping framework, the application of
new technologies for networking health records lacks social credibility. This
multidisciplinary study will provide a set of principles and standards relating
to authenticity, ownership, access, privacy, and confidentiality of doctor-patient
communications in a networked environment, which, if implements, will benefit
patients and the medical community thus furthering the development of a more
efficacious national health system.
Title: Modelling the Diffusion of Innovation in Marketing Research
Prof Robin Shaw
2002: $50,000
Summary: This project will identify and explain the utilisation of marketing research in Australian organisations. The major (but not exclusive) focus will be the diffusion of Internet-based marketing research innovations. Previous studies of marketing research have been limited, through focussing on only one sector (such as tourism) or aspect of usage, or by using small samples, or by excluding important Internet innovations or managerial evaluations. This project will investigate the diffusion of marketing research across many industrial sectors, over several years. The project will yield "benchmarking" benefits of immediate value, and enduring benefits through the continuing evaluation of innovative research practices.
Title: Young women negotiating
from the margins of education and work: towards gender justice in educational
and youth policies and programs
DR Julie Mcleod, DR JE Kenway, Prof AG Mackinnon, DR A Allard
2002: $40,000
2003: $60,000
2004: $35,000
Summary:Young women who leave school early are the most economically
disadvantaged young people in the labour market. We will investigate the educational,
labour market, biographical and social experiences of these young women, and their
interactions with teachers and youth service providers. We will identify trends,
differences and similarities across rural and urban locations and across generations,
and develop a profile of factors and programs most likely to help these young
women negotiate their post-school lives. The research findings will enrich gender
justice and social theory and contribute to policy and program development in
the education and youth services sectors.
Title: An investigation
of the declining supply of school principals in Australia
A/Prof Jill Blackmore, Prof JM Sachs, Ms P Thomson
2002: $25,000
2003: $40,000
2004: $40,000
Summary: Leadership is
critical when reforming schools for new knowledge economies. Yet international
and Australian anecdotal evidence suggests a declining supply of applicants
for school leadership. This study investigates the existence, extent and nature
of, and explanations for, this paradox across three states and all education
systems against international trends. Its unique contribution lies in its focus
on (i) interactions between institutional structures, cultures and professional
identity, (ii) context and location, (iii) the interplay of gender, race and
ethnic difference. Innovative research methods, both qualitative and quantitative,
will produce evidence to inform policy development on principal recruitment,
selection, induction and professional development.
Title: Teachers Investigate
Unequal Literary Outcomes: Cross Generational Perspectives
(Grant Administered by University of South Australia)
Dr Barbara Comber, A/Prof BR Kamler
2002: $30,000
2003: $50,000
2004: $50,000
Summary:Unequal outcomes in literacy remains the most intractable
problem facing our educational community. This research will investigate both
historical and contemporary literacy practice in terms of its differential effects
on primary school children. It recognises the teacher as the most significant
factor in improving student outcomes and builds teacher researcher communities
to document teaching that makes a difference for 'at risk' children. Its unique
cross generational methodology will make overt links between one generation
of teachers and the next and produce new knowledge about literacy and disadvantage.
Practical applications for teacher education and professional mentoring across
generations will be developed.
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Summary: Plant food products
such as cereal grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes can provide physiological
benefits for consumers, value-adding opportunities for industry, and, ecological
sustainability. This project will examine the factors driving consumer interest
in this area and gauge the extent of industry and mass media influences over
consumer demand.
Major outcomes of the project include greater understanding of consumer use of
these foods, segmentation of the consumer market, novel segmentation instruments,
a stronger basis for communication between industry and consumers regarding plant
foods, and identification of opportunities and barriers to the production and
marketing of novel plant food products.
Title: The language abilities
of young offenders: Missing links in theory and practice
DR Pamela Snow, DR MB Powell
2002: $28,000
2003: $25,000
2004: $25,000
Summary:Young offenders are a complex and challenging population,
with high rates of comorbidity between attentional, learning, and behaviour
problems. Few workers have, however, considered the underlying language processing
and production skills in this population. Available evidence indicates a high
level of vulnerability to language disorders in young offenders. These may contribute
to poor academic performance and failure to develop prosocial skills. This study
will explore language competencies and will describe their relationship to social
skills, patterns of comorbidity, and type of offence (property Vs violent).
Findings will be relevant to theories of juvenile offending and design of prevention/intervention
programs.
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Summary: A reliable model of greenhouse gas emissions for commercial building construction is required. Construction product manufacturing emissions are will known, but those associated with the construction process (representing up to 25% of the energy embodied in construction products) have not been fully elucidated. Commercial building construction requires more energy per square metre than residential building construction, due mainly to lifting of heavy items. The results will be used to develop cost effective strategies for optimising greenhouse gas emissions associated with the total emissions from commercial building construction and operation. This will improve the environmental performance of the Australian construction industry.
Summary: The unusual copper metabolism of sheep represents a significant agricultural problem. They are very susceptible to copper deficiency, but readily accumulate copper to toxic levels in the liver leading to fatal liver failure. We propose to elucidate the reason for the copper accumulation phenotype of sheep. We are focusing on WND, a copper transporter responsible for copper excretion into bile. We discovered a novel form of sheep WND designated WNDb to distinguish it from the normal form, WNDa. The experiments outlined are designed to understand the function of both proteins in the sheep and their role in copper sequestration.
Summary: High-performance computing is moving away from specialised platforms to cheaper clusters and it is expected that clusters will become the mainstream computing platforms for general-purpose applications. One major problem that hinders the application of clusters is the lack of effective scheduling facilities to efficiently allocate system resources to meet the performance requirements of various applications. We shall design a new and innovative job scheduling system to solve this problem. The emphasis will be on practical designs in the context of real operating systems. The successful completion of this research will greatly promote a wide application of clusters.
Summary: The unique estuaries of southern Australia have limited tidal effects and minimal summer river flows, allowing a sandbar to dam their mouths during this period. The high water levels that can result affect landowners so catchment managers artificially break these sandbars. Such practices have had catastrophic effects on the vulnerable estuarine ecosystems. Our project will provide critical elements of models of the dynamics of the artificial opening, allowing managers to predict the vulnerable periods. It combines new applications of state-of-the-art turbulence sensors and water-current profilers with other standard instrumentation in this situation.
Title: Development of ultrafine Grained
Steels
Prof Peter Hodgson
2002: $87,000
2003: $98,000
2004: $88,000
Summary:This project will develop new methods to produce steels with much finer
microstructures, and investigate how these microstructures form. This will markedly
increase the strength and toughness of these steels, which is particularly required
for the pipeline, off shore platform and large construction industries. The
method to be used involves controlling the hot deformation of the steel and
control of the phase transformation during or after deformation. Current work
has shown that it is possible to reduce the grain size from 5 to 1 microns using
quite simple methods.
Title: Modelling and minimising energy consumption in ring spinning
Prof Xungai Wang, DR WB Fraser
2002: $30,000
2003: $56,000
2004: $56,000
Summary:Australia's 4 billion dollar natural fibre production is spun into yarns
via ring spinning mainly. A major drawback of this spinning system is its high
energy consumption. This project will examine, theoretically and experimentally,
the key factors contributing to energy consumption in ring spinning. It will
generate new knowledge on the relationship between yarn hairiness and the air
drag on a rapidly rotating yarn package and on a ballooning yarn, and predict
how this air drag affects the energy consumption during package build-up in
ring spinning. This will lead to ways of minimising energy consumption in this
most important spinning process.
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