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The 8th Conference of the Asia Pacific Sociological Association, "Asia Pacific Region: Societies in Transformation" 19-21 November 2007

 

CAPSTRANS members will have a strong presence at the Annual Conference of the Asia Pacific Sociological Association. This year's conference, entitled, "Asia Pacific Region: Societies in Transformation, is being held from the 19th to the 21st of November 2007, at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Penang, Malaysia.

 

This conference aims to explore the various dimensions of the rapid social transformation of the Asia Pacific. Rapid globalization, coupled with economic liberalization and financial deregulation, has opened-up the economics of the Asia Pacific region. Increasing wealth generation is heralded as a sign of great personal and notional success, while large numbers of people remain marginalised in poor paying a insecure jobs. Youth are under extreme pressures in terms of successful education and gaining secure employment. The media glorifies the consumer revolution, and we see increasing use of new technologies which are changing forever the very fabric of work, family life, health and culture in the countries of the Asia Pacific. The region is seemingly now more integrated, with unprecedented levels of tourism, migration, and economic and cultural linkages. But, are the nations of the region, and their populations, becoming more divided, united or are they fundamentally unchanged over the past two decades?

 

UoW's Deputy Director of CAPSTRANS, Dr Tim Scrase is on the Conference organising committee, with CAPSTRANS Wollongong also representing two additional members and four Postgraduate presenters;

Bon voyage Linda and Pam!

 

Professor Linda Connor and Associate Professor Pam Nilan will be representing CAPSTRANS Newcastle at the Asia Pacific Conference, presenting the following papers:

 

Linda Connor (with Nick Higginbotham and Sonia Freeman) "Hunter Valley localities, environmentalism, and the Asia-Pacific coal economy"

 

The latest Asian economic boom has had a down-side for rural residents of the Hunter Valley in NSW, Australia. The demand for energy resources to fuel the coal-fired power stations that support factories in China and other growing Asian economies means open-cut coal mines have become a highly profitable prospect for Australian and multinational companies, and have brought significant new wealth into all levels of the economy. However, many new mines are under development in the relatively densely inhabited area of long term rural settlement defined by the fertile and coal-rich catchment of the Hunter River. This paper explores the ways in which environmentalist discourses have become an important, contradictory and contested element of the tactical practices focused on mining of residents, industry and government in the Hunter Valley. Local practices incorporate increasingly globalised perspectives that parallel the transnational growth of coal production and combustion in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Pam Nilan "Media and Culture in Indonesia: Youth Trends"

 

Using some data from a 2007 research project, this paper addresses Islamic media as an example of contemporary youth culture trends in Indonesia. Local Indonesian media culture offers all kinds of directions for consumption as visible identity. Any bus rider in rush-hour Jakarta, will witness soberly-clad young women with all parts of the body covered except hands and face sitting beside heavily made-up young women in hipster jeans and clinging shirts, with dyed hair and high heels. Moreover, they are often colleagues, even friends. Young men wearing the iconic Muslim cap, wispy beard, and flowing shirt and pants mingle at rush hour with other young Indonesian men of the same age dressed American 'gangsta' style, or sporting the latest European suit and tie. Such mediated variations in the appearance and personal style of Indonesian young people signal new connections, new desires and new directions, as contemporary youth identities are being reworked.

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS HEDDA!

 

Current PhD candidate and CAPSTRANS postgraduate, Ms Hedda Askland has recently been awarded the School of Humanities and Social Science Publication Prize for 2007. In order to qualify for this prestigious award, applicants are required to have their work published in an internationally recognised journal (see link below). Hedda will be awarded $300 at the upcoming NUPSA dinner to be held at the Bella Vista at 7pm on 26th October 2007.

 

Askland, Hedda Haugen (2007) 'Habitus, Practice and Agency of Young East Timorese Asylum Seekers in Australia' Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology Volume 8, Number 3, pp.235-249. [Winner of School of Humanities and Social Sciences Postgraduate Award for Excellence 2007]  Available here

 

 

CAPSTRANS success in latest Australian Research Council round

 

On the 26 September 2007, The University of Newcastle received a record $10.3 million from the Australian Research Council under the highly competitive Discovery Projects Scheme. While eighteen of the 31 projects which received funding were secured by the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Barney Glover, stated "We are particularly pleased that 20 per cent of the Discovery Projects funded, totalling approximately $1 million, are in the fields of humanities, social sciences and education."

 

 

This includes two major grants awarded to CAPSTRANS,

 

To discover more about our exciting new research at CAPSTRANS, as well as ongoing research projects, please click on the above links.