Collaborating institution, Monash University, Australia
ARC - DP130100283
'Cosmopolitan encounters in contemporary Australia'
$404,478 AUD
Originally awarded in 2013 to Ian Woodward and Zlatko Skrbis
Project Description:
The idea of cosmopolitanism has been at the forefront of innovations in the the contemporary social sciences. In this project, the researchers empirically investigate cosmopolitan encounters, which refer to people's everyday experiences and reactions to encounters with cultural difference. Based on interviews with a broad gallery of Australians, this rich qualitative study offers unique leverage to understand shifting patterns of engagement with cultural difference in a range of Australian communities. It will be the first major empirical social scientific project in Australia to benefit from a systematic application of the framework of cosmopolitan research.
Project Aims:
The aims of this project are to:
* Use the framework of cosmopolitan studies to investigate the nature and meaning of encounters with cultural difference in Australian communities.
*Utilise the concept of the cosmopolitan encounter to cut through complex and unresolved issues in the extant literatures on the sociological relationship between cosmopolitanism and globalization
* Understand the way different groups within Australia understand and respond to key global events, institutions and processes and how this identification affects their affiliations of local and national belonging.
* Analyse the way these understandings and responses are patterned, both in terms of their internal, discursive structure and also in terms of their location within types of Australian communities.
* Assess the ways and means citizens in a range of Australian communities possess and express characteristically cosmopolitan behaviours and outlooks.