Tania Lewis
RMIT University, Media & Communication, Faculty Member
- Cultural Geography, Cultural Theory, Ethical Consumption, Multiple Modernities, Reality television, Sustainable Lifestyles, and 32 moreDIY culture, Lifestyle & Consumption, Media & Communication, Material Culture, Media and Cultural Studies, Sustainable Development, Consumer Behavior, Continental Philosophy, Identity (Culture), Globalization, Corporate Social Responsibility, Democracy, Neoliberalism, Environmental Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship, Liberalism, Masculinity, Media Communication, Material Culture Studies, Food Security and Insecurity, Cultural Politics, Sociology of Food and Eating, Consumption Studies, Media Studies, Consumer Culture, Celebrity Culture, Television Studies, Cultural Studies, Lifestyle, Food Studies, Ulrich Beck, and Online Influencersedit
- I am the research leader and co-founder of CaféLab, previous Director of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre and ... moreI am the research leader and co-founder of CaféLab, previous Director of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre and a Professor of Media and Communication at RMIT University in inner city Melbourne. My interests mainly revolve around sustainable living/ lifestyles/ post carbon consumption while my empirical research largely draws on video ethnography.
Hailing originally from New Zealand, I spent my school years in Wellington, Liverpool, Perth and Cape Town. My first degree was in medicine and I practiced as a doctor (mainly in psychiatry) in the early 90s. I came to cultural theory in 1993 as a refugee from all things positivistic and completed a fast-tracked honours degree and an MA in a wonderful American Studies department at Canterbury University in NZ where I was exposed to a somewhat unholy mixture of British cultural studies, continental philosophy and American literary and cultural theory and philosophy.
I moved to Melbourne University to do a PhD on the intellectual history of cultural studies (at a time when Lacan reigned supreme but my own interests lay with Foucault and Bourdieu). In the past 12 years post-PhD I have worked primarily as a Research Fellow in an eclectic mix of disciplinary settings from media studies and sociology to critical public health. My research focus, as you'll see from the papers uploaded here, has been similarly eclectic. If you are having difficulty finding the published versions of any of these articles or chapters please feel free to email me.
Cheers and thanks for reading this far!edit
Melbourne has become a striking gastronomic metropolis, known for one of the world’s most acclaimed coffee cultures and an artfully aestheticized, hipster-friendly café scene. The city is also known—at least among global sustainability... more
Melbourne has become a striking gastronomic metropolis, known for one of the world’s most acclaimed coffee cultures and an artfully aestheticized, hipster-friendly café scene. The city is also known—at least among global sustainability and environmental circles—for its grassroots green politics and community-driven alternative food movement (Lewis 2015: 348), a set of concerns reflected in the look, feel, and ethics of many of its celebrated restaurants and cafés. This chapter seeks to critically examine the phenomenon of Global Brooklyn through an ethical and food activism lens. Discussing a wide range of Melbourne cafés, from socially and ethically aware establishments to those adopting social enterprise models, we reflect on the ways cafés increasingly seek to combine profit with notions of “care.”
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Research Interests: Sociology and Ethnography
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Setting the Mood Weirdly, everything feels the same. There’s absolutely no distinction for me between news, work, walking, gaming, Netflix, rock collecting, scrolling, messaging. I don’t know how this happened, but everything has simply... more
Setting the Mood Weirdly, everything feels the same. There’s absolutely no distinction for me between news, work, walking, gaming, Netflix, rock collecting, scrolling, messaging. I don’t know how this happened, but everything has simply blurred together. There’s a dreadful and yet soothing sameness to it, scrolling through images on Instagram, scrolling Netflix, walking the dog, scrolling the news, time scrolling by as I watch face after face appear or disappear on my screen, all saying something, yet saying nothing. Is this the rhythm of crisis in a slow apocalypse? Really, would it be possible for humans to just bore themselves into oblivion? Because in the middle of a pandemic, boredom feels in my body the same as doom ... just another swell that passes, like my chest as it rises and falls with my breath. This opening anecdote comes from combining narratives in two studies we conducted online during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: a global study, Massive and Microscopic Sensemaki...
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Previous research in Melbourne has suggested that informal practices of hard rubbish reuse (or 'gleaning') by households may significantly decrease the amount of landfill. Despite this, many municipal councils throughout Melbourne... more
Previous research in Melbourne has suggested that informal practices of hard rubbish reuse (or 'gleaning') by households may significantly decrease the amount of landfill. Despite this, many municipal councils throughout Melbourne have sought to make gleaning illegal. Those councils, such as Moreland, that have supported personal gleaning, have expressed concerns around managing issues of dumping and 'professional' gleaning. This qualitative study of 15 households in the Moreland Council region aimed to provide more in-depth knowledge of why and how people glean. Building on previous work on the political economy of hard rubbish, we saw a need for a more culturall-inflected understanding of this lifestyle practice in relation to wider consumption practices, cultural perspectives on commodities, and perceived changing norms and values around responsibility and ownership, 'waste' and value, and environmental or ethical consumption. By providing a more complex u...
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With modernization in Asia, lifestyle television has become a popular TV genre that provides emerging middle-class audiences with new codes for life after the collapse of traditional society. Telemodernities: Television and Transforming... more
With modernization in Asia, lifestyle television has become a popular TV genre that provides emerging middle-class audiences with new codes for life after the collapse of traditional society. Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia, at first glance, might be just another addition to a long list of studies about how television has transformed the society into a modern one. However, by exposing readers to the complex roles of lifestyle television as both the front line and the intermediary between tradition and modernization in China, India, and Taiwan, this book distinguishes itself and provides a fascinating and eyeopening account of lifestyle television in East and South Asia. Far from a simple distributor of the Euro-American version of modernity, lifestyle television in the three countries has a much more complicated relationship with modernization projects there. Lewis, Martin, and Sun—with thick description and insightful exposition based on interviews and te...
This report is based on a collaborative project between RMIT and the Environment Protection Authority Victoria entitled 'Environmental Equity - building policy & practice for the EPA'. It draws on qualitative research conducted in... more
This report is based on a collaborative project between RMIT and the Environment Protection Authority Victoria entitled 'Environmental Equity - building policy & practice for the EPA'. It draws on qualitative research conducted in two environmental 'hotspots' in Melbourne - Clayton South and the Brooklyn Region - by a team of researchers at RMIT University. A key aim of the project was to deepen our understanding of the experience of environmental pollution in areas that bear more than their share of the pollution of the Melbourne metropolitan area. We chose to undertake in depth qualitative research to supplement the extensive quantitative research that the EPA already conducts.
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In recent years, Indian TV screens have seen a proliferation of reality shows focused on romance and dating. This essay examines a range of dating formats arguing that such shows offer rich insights into the ways in which contemporary... more
In recent years, Indian TV screens have seen a proliferation of reality shows focused on romance and dating. This essay examines a range of dating formats arguing that such shows offer rich insights into the ways in which contemporary Indian media culture is negotiating and promoting models of gendered individualism and ‘enterprising’ modes of selfhood. Drawing upon data from a study funded by the Australian Research Council on lifestyle and reality TV in South East Asia, our analysis focuses on the complex relationship between the ideals of aspirational modernity and choice-based selfhood promoted by these shows and the realities of ongoing gendered social and economic inequities and the continued cultural potency of religious and familial notions of duty.
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Research Interests: Business and Advertising
The recent rise of lifestyle TV in Anglophone markets reflects the increasing dominance of an individualistic, consumer-driven approach to lifestyle issues in which late modern selfhood is seen as endlessly malleable, a project to be... more
The recent rise of lifestyle TV in Anglophone markets reflects the increasing dominance of an individualistic, consumer-driven approach to lifestyle issues in which late modern selfhood is seen as endlessly malleable, a project to be worked on and invested in (Wood and Skeggs, 2004). Popular-factual programmes offering advice on life skills for surviving and thriving in late modern capitalist culture are also in evidence across Asia. As this chapter will demonstrate, some of these are similar to their Anglo-American counterparts, while others present life advice in ways clearly shaped by distinct local and regional televisual and cultural codes and conventions. We propose, as others have argued in relation to this genre in Western markets (Palmer, 2004; Redden, 2007; Lewis, 2008), that lifestyle-themed shows in Asia may be playing a significant role in modelling particular lifestyle behaviours and, concomitantly, social identities, offering not just consumer advice but life guidance in a period of rapid cultural and social change. This chapter analyses selected examples of life-advice TV in Taiwan and Singapore, looking in particular at the highly feminized subgenre of 'fashion and beauty advice' TV. With a focus on the question of gendered individualization, our analysis examines the contradictions between the ideals of reflexive, choice-based selfhood that are promoted by such programmes, and the structural constraints on this emergent feminine subject in the context of ongoing gendered social and economic inequities.
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Where documents are made available* through records in La Trobe University Research Online they may be regarded as" open access" documents; interested readers may read, download or print them, but they remain protected by... more
Where documents are made available* through records in La Trobe University Research Online they may be regarded as" open access" documents; interested readers may read, download or print them, but they remain protected by copyright, and many are subject to ...
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Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Corporate Social Responsibility, Community Development, Commodity Chains, Corporate Governance, and 15 moreAnarchism, Continental Philosophy, Consumerism, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Culture, Citizenship and Identity, Citizenship And Governance, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Cities, Commodification, Civilisation, Commodity Culture, Consumer Behaviour, Consumption Economics, and consumption sociology
Across Asia, the past three decades have been marked by shared experiences of hyper-accelerated social, cultural and economic transformation. Consumer culture plays an increasing role in countries once dominated by socialism, and... more
Across Asia, the past three decades have been marked by shared experiences of hyper-accelerated social, cultural and economic transformation. Consumer culture plays an increasing role in countries once dominated by socialism, and neo-liberal economic and social policies increasingly are being adopted by authoritarian statist regimes. More and more, governments address their citizens as individualised, sovereign consumers with reflexive ‘choices' about their lifestyles and identities. One of the correlates of these processes of (neo-) liberalisation has been the emergence of new formations of consumption-oriented middle classes with lifestyle aspirations that are shaped by national, regional and global influences. How are everyday conceptions and experiences of identity and citizenship being transformed by rearticulated cultures of modernity across the region? This article draws upon the insights of existing Euro-American research on lifestyle culture and consumption, but extends...
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This article discusses the early findings of a research project examining the role of lifestyle television in Asia. Life-advice programming in East Asia includes a range of ‘popular factual’ formats from cooking and health shows to... more
This article discusses the early findings of a research project examining the role of lifestyle television in Asia. Life-advice programming in East Asia includes a range of ‘popular factual’ formats from cooking and health shows to makeover and consumer advice shows. A growing body of Anglo-American scholarship emphasizes the cultural importance of lifestyle programming, suggesting that the explosion of lifestyle formats at this particular cultural-historical moment connects to broader transformations in western neoliberal states, especially the rise of individualized, consumer-based models of identity and citizenship. Focusing on Singapore, China and Taiwan, this article offers a discussion of the potential of such arguments in these contexts, in light of our findings about the forms of life-advice programming prevalent in these three television industries. In particular, it explores the relevance (or not) of Anglo-American theories of neoliberal selfhood in these sites as read thr...
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Much ink has been spilled on the generalised, global experience of teleconferencing during the COVID pandemic. A line of argument within this commentary speaks to the mental challenge and exhaustion—or zoom fatigue as it is now popularly... more
Much ink has been spilled on the generalised, global experience of teleconferencing during the COVID pandemic. A line of argument within this commentary speaks to the mental challenge and exhaustion—or zoom fatigue as it is now popularly termed—that many experience in attempting to work, learn, and live collectively via interactive screen technologies. In this article we make the argument that “Zoom fatigue” can be explored as a marker of being in a liminal state, betwixt and between one way of being in the lifeworld and another. This article explores the shifting contours, the residual and emergent structures of feeling and practices associated with this new ontology, examining in particular the liminality or state of uncertainty about identity, relations, and ‘being with’, that characterises (post) COVID terrains. The paper fleshes out these everyday, shifting and relational experiences by drawing on two empirical studies: “Massive and Microscopic Sensemaking: Autoethnographic accounts of lived experience in times of global trauma” and “The Shut-In Worker: Working from home and digitally-enabled labour practices.” We analyse vignettes from participants and work with phenomenological and cultural studies concepts to highlight how the interface affordances, practices, and emerging norms around video conferencing and meeting practices are experienced at different registers. We draw on a range of moments of liminality on and ‘behind’ the screen–including people’s experiences of being framed and located through grid layouts, of work interactions characterised by frozen, ‘glitched’ faces, and of people’s experiences of dis-connections, muting and (accidental) unmuting of voices, and the anonymising experience of being hidden behind the screen on the second or third ‘page’ of participants. This paper intends to raise questions more than answer them; instead, our aim is to offer a provocation. How we might leverage this radical ontological shift—including the ‘glitches’ and failures (Nunes 2012) of Zoom culture—to consider how best to use this moment to reimagine and design future ethical platforms for life, work, and learning.
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Mobilities scholarship has paid considerable attention to the forms of presence enabled by air travel in hypermobile organisations (Elliott & Urry, 2010; Strengers, 2015; Storme et al., 2017). However, there has been less focus on the... more
Mobilities scholarship has paid considerable attention to the forms of presence enabled by air travel in hypermobile organisations (Elliott & Urry, 2010; Strengers, 2015; Storme et al., 2017). However, there has been less focus on the absences that these presences simultaneously generate. This chapter develops the concept of ‘absent presences’ enabled through the practices and policies of academic hypermobility. The chapter draws on qualitative interviews with 24 Australian-based academics, alongside a review of university policies that are relevant to air travel. We use these data to explore ‘absent presence’ in academic air travel. First, we suggest that there is an assumption in academia that embodied presence is required for authentic modes of knowledge sharing and networking, primarily at conferences and meetings. Yet this type of presence abroad requires that one is absent from home for extended periods. Second, we show how absent presence exists in academic policies concernin...
The majority of accounts of the formation of British cultural studies have tended to reinforce a rather monolithic interpretation of its historical development. In particular critics have argued that the field’s genealogy tends to be... more
The majority of accounts of the formation of British cultural studies have tended to reinforce a rather monolithic interpretation of its historical development. In particular critics have argued that the field’s genealogy tends to be positioned within a primarily intra-national framework whereby its development is portrayed as being untouched by external forces. In this essay I use the biography of a figure closely identified with British cultural studies, namely the Jamaican-born, British-based intellectual Stuart Hall, to complicate this particular narrativisation of the field. Focusing on Hall’s unique position as an intellectual who has had to continually juggle his blackness, his Britishness and his iconic status within cultural studies, I draw upon this diasporic narrative to construct an alternative reading of the history of British cultural studies.
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A growing interest in environmental issues within the community has seen suburban backyards, streets, houses and curbsides become sites of experimentation around sustainable lifestyle practices. Drawing upon research on various grassroots... more
A growing interest in environmental issues within the community has seen suburban backyards, streets, houses and curbsides become sites of experimentation around sustainable lifestyle practices. Drawing upon research on various grassroots green initiatives around inner urban and suburban Melbourne, this article discusses what the rise of these kinds of lifestyle politics might mean for conceptualizing scale, citizenship, and social change in the contemporary moment. Drawing on social practice theory and its focus on the embodied, habitual and more-than-human elements of everyday practices, I argue that green suburban lifestyle initiatives such as ‘permablitzes’ are transformational in a number of ways and that they embody, materialize and perform broader sets of changes in people’s lives as they seek to switch from practices of consumption to a focus on self-sufficiency and making do. Video-ethnography and photography are some of the ways in which I have sought to capture such enact...
Research Interests: Media and Cultural Studies, Digital Humanities, Participatory Research, Practice theory, Ethnography, and 15 moreDigital Media, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Politics, Green urbanism (Architecture), Environmental Sustainability, Permaculture, Digital Ethnography, Social Practice, Sensory Ethnography, Citizenship, New social movements, Lifestyle, Language Culture and Communication, Social Practice Theory, and Video Ethnography
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stuart Hall’s writing began to take a biographical turn. For readers such as myself, then a mature undergraduate pursuing an American Studies degree in New Zealand, this was somewhat of a revelation. The... more
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stuart Hall’s writing began to take a biographical turn. For readers such as myself, then a mature undergraduate pursuing an American Studies degree in New Zealand, this was somewhat of a revelation. The surprise was not so much Hall’s shift from the somewhat dry prose of structural Marxism to the rather more vital style of a postcolonially inflected poststructuralism, but the fact of Hall’s Caribbean background when I, along with no doubt many other geographically distant readers, had assumed him to be exworking class, British and white. Some seven years later, while wrestling with a PhD on the history of cultural studies at the University of Melbourne, I found myself writing an essay for Arena using the question of Hall’s diasporic identity to explore ‘the relations between knowledge production and cultural identity/location.
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This paper examines cultural studies’ preoccupation with the figure of the organic intellectual and suggests that another figure—that of the celebrity intellectual—might offer a more useful model for conceptualizing the material realities... more
This paper examines cultural studies’ preoccupation with the figure of the organic intellectual and suggests that another figure—that of the celebrity intellectual—might offer a more useful model for conceptualizing the material realities of intellectual practice today. While most cultural studies practitioners do not fall into the category of the celebrity intellectual, I argue that this figure is nevertheless an important one for cultural studies as it represents a kind of indicator of the broader status of expertise and authoritative knowledge in contemporary society. Furthermore, I suggest that, while the notion of the organic intellectual tends to partially function as a means by which cultural studies practitioners disavow the structures of class privilege and mobility that underpin the social location of the intellectual, the celebrity intellectual offers a more pragmatic conception of contemporary intellectual life. In particular, the image of the celebrity intellectual actively foregrounds questions of social location, bringing into sharp focus the dialectical relationship between the figure of the intellectual and the sphere of the popular.
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... Earlier versions of parts of this book have been published as: 'He needs to face his fears ... Tasks that have tended to be associated with the hitherto unpaid and often hidden labour of housework ... role... more
... Earlier versions of parts of this book have been published as: 'He needs to face his fears ... Tasks that have tended to be associated with the hitherto unpaid and often hidden labour of housework ... role not only in teaching the public personal life skills but also, through their focus on ...
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Expert Systems, Gender Studies, Cultural Sociology, Health Communication, and 15 moreExpertise, Celebrity Culture, Cultural Politics, Domesticity, Advice, Citizenship and Identity, Citizenship And Governance, Branding, Cybercultures, DIY culture, Lifestyle, Makeover Culture, Lifestyle Magazines, Lifestyle television, and Celebrity Chefs
Lifestyle television is popular, non-fictional programming that aims to instruct its viewers in everyday life practices, from home decoration and food preparation to fashion, shopping and child-rearing. In recent years, a range of... more
Lifestyle television is popular, non-fictional programming that aims to instruct its viewers in everyday life practices, from home decoration and food preparation to fashion, shopping and child-rearing. In recent years, a range of lifestyle advice programs, and, in particular, ...
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Lifestyle programming–from daytime magazine formats to cooking, gardening and 'DIY'shows–has been a long-running feature of many television schedules around the world. More recently these more traditional forms... more
Lifestyle programming–from daytime magazine formats to cooking, gardening and 'DIY'shows–has been a long-running feature of many television schedules around the world. More recently these more traditional forms of lifestyle television have been boosted by a ...
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The lifestyle expert, a figure whose knowledge is tied to the ordinary and the everyday, has emerged as a major cultural authority in recent times. This article examines the role and status of ‘ordinary experts’, such as Martha Stewart... more
The lifestyle expert, a figure whose knowledge is tied to the ordinary and the
everyday, has emerged as a major cultural authority in recent times. This article
examines the role and status of ‘ordinary experts’, such as Martha Stewart and
Jamie Oliver, in relation to processes of ‘celebritization’ and branding. Linking
these processes to broader shifts around the domestication and privatization of
public culture and citizenship, I discuss the branding of lifestyle advice in the
context of the emergence of informational capitalism and the growing role of the
consumer in providing branded lifestyles with value and meaning. Arguing that
the privatized modes of lifestyle consumption modelled by figures like Stewart and
Oliver have emerged as a pre-eminent site of social relations, communality and
lifestyle ‘activism’, the essay concludes with a discussion of what kind of civic
politics might emerge out of this context.
everyday, has emerged as a major cultural authority in recent times. This article
examines the role and status of ‘ordinary experts’, such as Martha Stewart and
Jamie Oliver, in relation to processes of ‘celebritization’ and branding. Linking
these processes to broader shifts around the domestication and privatization of
public culture and citizenship, I discuss the branding of lifestyle advice in the
context of the emergence of informational capitalism and the growing role of the
consumer in providing branded lifestyles with value and meaning. Arguing that
the privatized modes of lifestyle consumption modelled by figures like Stewart and
Oliver have emerged as a pre-eminent site of social relations, communality and
lifestyle ‘activism’, the essay concludes with a discussion of what kind of civic
politics might emerge out of this context.
Research Interests:
This article examines the role of celebrity chefs and other non-state actors in the heated and highly politicized environment of ethical and sustainable consumption. Focusing on the media campaigns of the two major supermarkets and... more
This article examines the role of celebrity chefs and other non-state actors in the
heated and highly politicized environment of ethical and sustainable consumption.
Focusing on the media campaigns of the two major supermarkets and their attempt
to rebrand themselves through ethical associations with celebrity chefs and animal
welfare groups, the article discusses the complex entanglement between food politics,
discourses of branding, the media and supermarkets in Australia. We suggest that
the mainstreaming of ethical concerns cannot be understood simply as a consumer
movement or indeed purely as an extension of market logics; rather, it is articulated to
and implicated in broader changes in relation to the political and social role and status
of corporate players, non-state actors and questions of lifestyle politics in shaping the
future of food systems, policy and regulation.
heated and highly politicized environment of ethical and sustainable consumption.
Focusing on the media campaigns of the two major supermarkets and their attempt
to rebrand themselves through ethical associations with celebrity chefs and animal
welfare groups, the article discusses the complex entanglement between food politics,
discourses of branding, the media and supermarkets in Australia. We suggest that
the mainstreaming of ethical concerns cannot be understood simply as a consumer
movement or indeed purely as an extension of market logics; rather, it is articulated to
and implicated in broader changes in relation to the political and social role and status
of corporate players, non-state actors and questions of lifestyle politics in shaping the
future of food systems, policy and regulation.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter discusses new temporalities associated with the kerbside sharing and reuse of household hard waste. Sociologist of time Barbara Adam contends that ‘temporality denotes the time in things, events and processes which is... more
This chapter discusses new temporalities associated with the kerbside sharing and reuse of household hard waste. Sociologist of time Barbara Adam contends that ‘temporality denotes the time in things, events and processes which is unidirectional and irreversible: we grow older rather than younger; cars rust; growth is followed by decay’. Temporality, then, seems to mean linearity. But in the contemporary era, time arguably ceases to be linear. As Head et al put it, ‘the Anthropocene appears to be a place and time of spatial and temporal “crossfire” where past and future, local and global are mobilised and come together to create new entanglements which are characterised by uncertainty, loss of control and risk’ (2016, 4). This post teleological era, while challenging, is also, as Urry notes, a space of new possibilities, especially for the construction of personalized temporalities, with two temporal forms key here: (1) there is glacial time, an immensely long temporality tied to environmental issues and on the other hand, the instantaneous time of the ‘throwaway society’(Urry 1994); meanwhile, (2) ‘global gleaning’ practices attest to yet other temporal frames (Lewis and Rauturier, 2019), including circular conceptions of economy and commodity life cycles.
This chapter discusses the findings of video-based ethnographic research undertaken with a wide range of households in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne, with a focus on the role of different temporal frames in shaping people’s relationship and practices with things. Drawing on a wide range of conceptual approaches for understanding household gleaning, the chapter examines the ways in which householders enact and attempt to normalise a range of slow, labour-intensive, trans-generational and anti-consumerist approaches to material objects. We detail how these new temporalities challenge normative frameworks of convenience and ephemerality while involving navigating significant contradictions and stresses in the context of late modern capitalism.
This chapter discusses the findings of video-based ethnographic research undertaken with a wide range of households in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne, with a focus on the role of different temporal frames in shaping people’s relationship and practices with things. Drawing on a wide range of conceptual approaches for understanding household gleaning, the chapter examines the ways in which householders enact and attempt to normalise a range of slow, labour-intensive, trans-generational and anti-consumerist approaches to material objects. We detail how these new temporalities challenge normative frameworks of convenience and ephemerality while involving navigating significant contradictions and stresses in the context of late modern capitalism.
Research Interests:
Melbourne has become a striking gastronomic metropolis, known for one of the world’s most acclaimed coffee cultures and an artfully aestheticized, hipster-friendly café scene. The city is also known—at least among global sustainability... more
Melbourne has become a striking gastronomic metropolis, known for one of the world’s most acclaimed coffee cultures and an artfully aestheticized, hipster-friendly café scene. The city is also known—at least among global sustainability and environmental circles—for its grassroots green politics and community-driven alternative food movement (Lewis 2015: 348), a set of concerns reflected in the look, feel, and ethics of many of its celebrated restaurants and cafés. This chapter seeks to critically examine the phenomenon of Global Brooklyn through an ethical and food activism lens. Discussing a wide range of Melbourne cafés, from socially and ethically aware establishments to those adopting social enterprise models, we reflect on the ways cafés increasingly seek to combine profit with notions of “care.”
Research Interests:
Digital connectivity has become central to the daily lives of billions of people throughout the world. This chapter employs the growing digitization of food as a way of grounding and materializing people's engagements with the digital.... more
Digital connectivity has become central to the daily lives of billions of people throughout the world. This chapter employs the growing digitization of food as a way of grounding and materializing people's engagements with the digital. The first section discusses the role of digital connectivity in relation to lifestyle and consumption. The next section on cultural economies of participation discusses the growing role of ordinary people as key participants in online food cultures in terms of the rise of "prosumerism" via videosharing platforms such as YouTube. The third section turns to questions of food politics and the digital and also the constraints and affordances of digital connectivity in relation to food activism. The final section discusses the growing role of transnational corporate food players in social media space and the limits of data sharing and so-called informational transparency in an era of data monitoring and "big data."
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article examines the growing entanglements between the digital and the world of food while suggesting that food is a particularly generative space through which to understand the evolving but often hidden role of the digital in... more
This article examines the growing entanglements between the
digital and the world of food while suggesting that food is a
particularly generative space through which to understand the
evolving but often hidden role of the digital in our everyday lives.
The article starts by examining food photography on social media
before discussing the role of ordinary people as participants in
online food culture via video-sharing platforms such as YouTube.
Mapping the shift from web 2.0’s dreams of creativity and sharing
to the monetisation of digital food communities, section 3 focuses
on food politics, and ‘the antinomies of connectivity’. The final
section discusses big food players and their use of social media in
an era of dataveillance and big data. It argues that ‘food citizens’
need to have an awareness of the commercial logics that support
the communicative ecologies in which we increasingly engage with
food and lifestyle practices.
digital and the world of food while suggesting that food is a
particularly generative space through which to understand the
evolving but often hidden role of the digital in our everyday lives.
The article starts by examining food photography on social media
before discussing the role of ordinary people as participants in
online food culture via video-sharing platforms such as YouTube.
Mapping the shift from web 2.0’s dreams of creativity and sharing
to the monetisation of digital food communities, section 3 focuses
on food politics, and ‘the antinomies of connectivity’. The final
section discusses big food players and their use of social media in
an era of dataveillance and big data. It argues that ‘food citizens’
need to have an awareness of the commercial logics that support
the communicative ecologies in which we increasingly engage with
food and lifestyle practices.
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Algorithms, Media Studies, New Media, Media and Cultural Studies, and 55 moreDigital Humanities, Digital Literacy, Digital Photography, Digital Media, Online Communities, Community Engagement & Participation, Ethical Consumption, Digital Culture, Sociology of Expertise, Political communication, Everyday Aesthetics, Social Media, Consumer Culture, Facebook, Digital Media And New Literacies, Domestic Space, Environmental Sustainability, Digital Ethnography, Lifestyle & Consumption, Agriculture and Food Studies, Branding, Social Influence, Food Politics, Citizenship, Prosumer, Youtube, Food Studies, Political consumerism, Mass Communication and New Media, Facebook Studies, Arthur and Mary Louise Kroker, Digital Economy, Monsanto, Celebrity, Critical Food Studies, Big Data, Tiziana Terranova, Daniel Miller, Lifestyle, Digital Infrastructure, Dataveillance, Digital Era, Alternative Food Networks, Mark Andrejevic, Food and Politics, Nick Couldry, Zizi Papacharissi, Sharing Economy, Instagram, Brand culture, Politics of Food, Communicative Ecologies, Consumer Right to Know and GMOs, Jose van Dijck, and Digital Food Activism
MARTIN, F. and T. Lewis. “Lifestyle Media in Asia: Consumption, Aspiration
and Identity,” in Fran Martin and Tania Lewis eds., Lifestyle Media in Asia:
Consumption, Aspiration and Identity. London and New York: Routledge,
2016, pp.13-31.
and Identity,” in Fran Martin and Tania Lewis eds., Lifestyle Media in Asia:
Consumption, Aspiration and Identity. London and New York: Routledge,
2016, pp.13-31.
Research Interests:
This article examines the practice of gleaning or waste picking, that is, retrieving, reusing and exchanging disposed consumer goods and/or ‘hard waste’ materials collected from kerbsides and rubbish sites. While the literature has tended... more
This article examines the practice of gleaning or waste picking, that is, retrieving, reusing and exchanging disposed consumer goods and/or ‘hard waste’ materials collected from kerbsides and rubbish sites. While the literature has tended to be divided along geographic lines with waste picking either associated with poor communities in the Global South or understood as anti-consumerism activism in the North, this article reframes gleaning as a set of shared global practices. Discussing a wide array of gleaning activities occurring in urban sites around the world, the key argument made is that the cultural economies, practices and ‘informal’ infrastructures associated with hard waste reuse activities can be seen as modelling different ways of living (with waste), consuming and disposing that offer potential environmental, economic and social benefits. The article argues that waste reuse activities should be viewed as a set of performative practices or routines that enact new models of value and labour and that challenge traditional conceptions of passive commodity consumption and disposal. In so doing, it suggests a need to reconfigure our relationship with and understanding of the life cycles of goods and materials in our lives and to re-materialise our everyday engagements with things as they shift from commodities to waste and back again.
Research Interests: Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Ethical Consumption, Consumer Culture, and 15 moreWaste Management, Informal Economy, Cultural Economy, Consumption and Material Culture, Anti-Consumption, Reuse, Gleaning, Freeganism, El cirujeo (waste-picking), Cultural Values of Thrift, Responsible Consumption, Consumption Culture, Social Practice Theory, Dumpster Diving, and Politics of Austerity
A farmer on a small scale organic farm in rural India uploads images of his latest produce to consumers and retailers via an open source online food hub; a " conscious consumer " in Charlottesville, Virginia uses an app while supermarket... more
A farmer on a small scale organic farm in rural India uploads images of his latest produce to consumers and retailers via an open source online food hub; a " conscious consumer " in Charlottesville, Virginia uses an app while supermarket shopping to look up the ethical credentials of food producers and product ingredients; a business woman on a work trip to Rio de Janiero is " informed " by a travel and food app on her smartphone where and what she might like to eat for breakfast based on GPS technology and her previous preferences. These three diverse examples speak to the changing nature of our engagements with food today in an increasingly digital world. From home cookery to restaurant going, from farming to food politics, the world of food is being quietly colonised by an array of electronic devices, online content and information and communication technologies. Meanwhile the realm of the digital has been invaded by all things food related, from endless food snapshots on Facebook and Instagram to the rise of YouTube cooking and food channels, the fastest-growing genre on the video-sharing service. This digital " turn " in the lives of many people on the planet has unsurprisingly inspired a huge amount of commentary and reflection, some of it celebrating the capacity of technology to connect and empower us, while other accounts offer a more dystopian vision of data control and surveillance, that is, a kind of " drone culture. " Numerous studies have sought to engage with the emergent role of the digital in shaping our everyday domestic lives, interpersonal relations and consumer practices.
Research Interests: Social Movements, New Media, Digital Humanities, Digital Media, Ethical Consumption, and 12 moreSocial Media, Food and Nutrition, Digital Media And New Literacies, Environmental Sustainability, Critical Food Geographies, Food Politics, Political consumerism, Digital Politics, Critical Food Studies, Drones, Socio-economic impact of culture on farmers, and Political Economy of Food agriculture sustainability
https://www.bookdepository.com/Sustainability-Citizenship-Cities-Ralph-Horne/9781138933620 Urban sustainability citizenship situates citizens as social change agents with an ethical and self-interested stake in living sustainably with... more
https://www.bookdepository.com/Sustainability-Citizenship-Cities-Ralph-Horne/9781138933620
Urban sustainability citizenship situates citizens as social change agents with an ethical and self-interested stake in living sustainably with the rest of Earth. Such citizens not only engage in sustainable household practices but respect the importance of awareness raising, discussion and debates on sustainability policies for the common good and maintenance of Earth's ecosystems. Sustainability Citizenship in Cities seeks to explain how sustainability citizenship can manifest in urban built environments as both responsibilities and rights. Contributors elaborate on the concept of urban sustainability citizenship as a participatory work-in-progress with the aim of setting its practice firmly on the agenda. This collection will prompt practitioners and researchers to rethink contemporary mobilisations of urban citizens challenged by various environmental crises, such as climate change, in various socio-economic settings. This book is a valuable resource for students, academics and professionals working in various disciplines and across a range of interdisciplinary fields, such as: urban environment and planning, citizenship as practice, environmental sociology, contemporary politics and governance, environmental philosophy, media and communications, and human geography.
Urban sustainability citizenship situates citizens as social change agents with an ethical and self-interested stake in living sustainably with the rest of Earth. Such citizens not only engage in sustainable household practices but respect the importance of awareness raising, discussion and debates on sustainability policies for the common good and maintenance of Earth's ecosystems. Sustainability Citizenship in Cities seeks to explain how sustainability citizenship can manifest in urban built environments as both responsibilities and rights. Contributors elaborate on the concept of urban sustainability citizenship as a participatory work-in-progress with the aim of setting its practice firmly on the agenda. This collection will prompt practitioners and researchers to rethink contemporary mobilisations of urban citizens challenged by various environmental crises, such as climate change, in various socio-economic settings. This book is a valuable resource for students, academics and professionals working in various disciplines and across a range of interdisciplinary fields, such as: urban environment and planning, citizenship as practice, environmental sociology, contemporary politics and governance, environmental philosophy, media and communications, and human geography.
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Tania Lewis offers the first critical account of the impact of digital information, media, and communication technologies on the topic of food. Lewis critically analyzes how our relationship to food consumption, production, and politics... more
Tania Lewis offers the first critical account of the impact of digital information, media, and communication technologies on the topic of food. Lewis critically analyzes how our relationship to food consumption, production, and politics is being re-mediated through digitally connected electronic devices, practices and content. By drawing together the world of food and the digital, the book speaks to a number of pressing contemporary themes including the tensions around digital engagement in increasingly commercialized spaces; the changing nature of politics in a social media context; the growing naturalization of digital devices and related practices of data monitoring; and the role and impact of digitization on social relations.
At the forefront of critical new research, and written with a student readership in mind, this text is essential for scholars interested in media studies, cultural studies, food studies, and cultural geography.
At the forefront of critical new research, and written with a student readership in mind, this text is essential for scholars interested in media studies, cultural studies, food studies, and cultural geography.
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Digital Humanities, Digital Media, Ethical Consumption, and 15 moreSociology of Expertise, Surveillance Studies, Social Media, Masculinities, Consumer Culture, Culinary Culture, Youtube, Food Studies, Automation, Critical Food Studies, Big Data, Lifestyle, Digital Commons, Sharing Economy, and Instagram
Yoga gurus on lifestyle cable channels targeting time-pressured Indian urbanites; Chinese dating shows promoting competitive individualism; Taiwanese domestic makeover formats combining feng shui with life planning advice: Asian TV... more
Yoga gurus on lifestyle cable channels targeting time-pressured Indian urbanites; Chinese dating shows promoting competitive individualism; Taiwanese domestic makeover formats combining feng shui with life planning advice: Asian TV screens are increasingly home to a wild proliferation of popular factual programs providing lifestyle guidance to viewers. In Telemodernities Tania Lewis, Fran Martin, and Wanning Sun demonstrate how lifestyle-oriented popular factual television illuminates key aspects of late modernities in South and East Asia, offering insights not only into early twenty-first-century media cultures but also into wider developments in the nature of public and private life, identity, citizenship, and social engagement. Drawing on extensive interviews with television industry professionals and audiences across China, India, Taiwan, and Singapore, Telemodernities uses popular lifestyle television as a tool to help us understand emergent forms of identity, sociality, and capitalist modernity in Asia.
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Economic development in Asia is associated with expanding urbanism, overconsumption, and a steep growth in living standards. At the same time rapid urbanisation, changing class consciousness, and a new rural-urban divide in the region... more
Economic development in Asia is associated with expanding urbanism, overconsumption, and a steep growth in living standards. At the same time rapid urbanisation, changing class consciousness, and a new rural-urban divide in the region have led to fundamental shifts in the way ecological concerns are articulated politically and culturally. Moreover, these changes are often viewed through a Western moralistic lens, which at the same applauds Asia’s economic growth as the welcome reviver of a floundering world economy and simultaneously condemns this growth as encouraging hyperconsumerism and a rupture with more natural ways of living. This book presents an analysis of a range of practices and activities from across Asia which demonstrate that people in Asia are alert to ecological concerns, that they are taking action to implement new styles of green living, and that Asia offers interesting alternatives to narrow Anglo-American models of sustainable living. Subjects explored include eco-tourism in the Philippines, green co-operatives in Korea, the importance of "tradition" within Asian discourses of sustainability, and much more.
Table of Contents
1. Sustainability, Lifestyle and Consumption in Asia Tania Lewis 2. From Sustainable Architecture to Sustaining Comfort Practices: Air Conditioning and its Alternatives in Asia Tim Winter 3. Green Marketing and Green Consciousness in India Devleena Ghosh and Amit Jain 4. Relying on Heaven’: Natural Farming and ‘Eco-Tea’ in Taiwan Scott Writer 5. The Urban Wilds: Ecoculture, Consumption and Affect in Singapore Chris Hudson 6. Domestic ‘Eco’-tourism and the Production of a Wondrous Nature in the Philippines Sarah Webb 7. The Greying of Greenspeak? Environmental Issues, Media Discourses and Consumer Practices in China Wanning Sun 8. Building a Green Community: Grassroots Air Quality Monitoring in Urban China Janice Hua Xu 9. Keitai mizu: A Mobile Game Reflection in a Post 3/11 Tokyo, Japan Larissa Hjorth and Fumitoshi Kato 10. Living Co-ops in Korea: Sustainable Living, Communal Labor and Social Economy Sun Jung 11. "Urban Farming in Tokyo: Towards an Urban-Rural Hybrid City" Toru Terada, Makoto Yokohari, and Mamoru Amemiya 12. Farming Against Real Estate Dominance: The Ma Shi Po Community Farm in Hong Kong Kaming Wu
Table of Contents
1. Sustainability, Lifestyle and Consumption in Asia Tania Lewis 2. From Sustainable Architecture to Sustaining Comfort Practices: Air Conditioning and its Alternatives in Asia Tim Winter 3. Green Marketing and Green Consciousness in India Devleena Ghosh and Amit Jain 4. Relying on Heaven’: Natural Farming and ‘Eco-Tea’ in Taiwan Scott Writer 5. The Urban Wilds: Ecoculture, Consumption and Affect in Singapore Chris Hudson 6. Domestic ‘Eco’-tourism and the Production of a Wondrous Nature in the Philippines Sarah Webb 7. The Greying of Greenspeak? Environmental Issues, Media Discourses and Consumer Practices in China Wanning Sun 8. Building a Green Community: Grassroots Air Quality Monitoring in Urban China Janice Hua Xu 9. Keitai mizu: A Mobile Game Reflection in a Post 3/11 Tokyo, Japan Larissa Hjorth and Fumitoshi Kato 10. Living Co-ops in Korea: Sustainable Living, Communal Labor and Social Economy Sun Jung 11. "Urban Farming in Tokyo: Towards an Urban-Rural Hybrid City" Toru Terada, Makoto Yokohari, and Mamoru Amemiya 12. Farming Against Real Estate Dominance: The Ma Shi Po Community Farm in Hong Kong Kaming Wu
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Social Movements, Media Studies, New Media, Media and Cultural Studies, and 24 moreGlobalization, Environmental Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Sustainable agriculture, Sustainable Development, Ethical Consumption, Southeast Asia, Sustainable Urban Environments, Social Media, Interactive and Digital Media, Sustainable Tourism, Green architecture, Environmental Sustainability, Sustainable Architecture, Sustainable Design, Food Security, Citizenship, Organic Farming, Grassroots Movements, Lifestyle, Culture and Modernity, Community participation and engagement, Social aspects of food production and ecological farming systems, and Right to the City, Social Justice, Environmental Grassroots Movements
This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use of digital resources around the world. It contextualises digital and pre-digital ethnographic research and demonstrates how the... more
This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use of digital resources around the world. It contextualises digital and pre-digital ethnographic research and demonstrates how the methodological, practical and theoretical dimensions are increasingly intertwined.
Digital ethnography is central to our understanding of the social world; it can shape methodology and methods, and provides the technological tools needed to research society. The authoritative team of authors clearly set out how to research localities, objects and events as well as providing insights into exploring individuals’ or communities’ lived experiences, practices and relationships.
The book:
Defines a series of central concepts in this new branch of social and cultural research
Challenges existing conceptual and analytical categories
Showcases new and innovative methods
Theorises the digital world in new ways
Encourages us to rethink pre-digital practices, media and environments
This is the ideal introduction for anyone intending to conduct ethnographic research in today’s digital society.
Digital ethnography is central to our understanding of the social world; it can shape methodology and methods, and provides the technological tools needed to research society. The authoritative team of authors clearly set out how to research localities, objects and events as well as providing insights into exploring individuals’ or communities’ lived experiences, practices and relationships.
The book:
Defines a series of central concepts in this new branch of social and cultural research
Challenges existing conceptual and analytical categories
Showcases new and innovative methods
Theorises the digital world in new ways
Encourages us to rethink pre-digital practices, media and environments
This is the ideal introduction for anyone intending to conduct ethnographic research in today’s digital society.
Research Interests:
What do the Fab Five from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the Supernanny and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver all have in common? Lifestyle gurus are increasingly intruding on everyday life, directing ordinary people to see themselves as... more
What do the Fab Five from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the Supernanny and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver all have in common? Lifestyle gurus are increasingly intruding on everyday life, directing ordinary people to see themselves as "projects" that can be "made over" through embracing an ethos of relentless self-improvement. Smart Living argues that they represent a new form of popular expertise sweeping the world. Written in a lively and accessible manner, the book examines this cult of expertise across a range of media and cultural sites and offers the reader a range of critical tools for understanding the recent emergence of this popular international phenomenon. Smart Living is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between popular media culture and contemporary social life.
Research Interests: Sociology, Cultural Studies, Expert Systems, Gender Studies, Ethics, and 64 moreMedia and Cultural Studies, Cultural Sociology, Health Communication, Self and Identity, Television Studies, Expertise, Popular Culture, Critical Pedagogy, Gender and Sexuality, Ethical Consumption, Consumerism, Celebrity Culture, Sociology of Risk, Cultural Politics, Consumption Studies, Sociology of Expertise, Reality television, Domesticity, Advice, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Social Media, The Self, Technologies of the Self, Sociology of Health, Food and Nutrition, Michel Foucault, Neoliberalism, Habitus, Masculinities, Cultural Capital, Pierre Bourdieu, Consumer Culture, Domestic Space, Citizenship and Identity, Public Health, Biopolitics, Citizenship And Governance, Lifestyle & Consumption, Branding, Consumption and Material Culture, Cybercultures, Bourdieu, Youth, Social Expectations and Etiquette in the Victorian Period, Consumer Goods, DIY culture, Ulrich Beck, Women's Magazines, Stardom and Celebrity, Weight Loss, Makeover Television, Lifestyle, Celebrity Endorsement, Makeover Culture, Nikolas Rose, Media and identity, Lifestyle Magazines, Celebrity Politics, Lifestyle television, Reflexive modernity, Self Representation, Celebrity Chefs, Jamie Oliver, and Oprah Winfrey
The past decade has seen an explosion of lifestyle makeover TV shows. Audiences around the world are being urged to ‘renovate’ everything from their homes to their pets and children while lifestyle experts on TV now tell us what not to... more
The past decade has seen an explosion of lifestyle makeover TV shows. Audiences around the world are being urged to ‘renovate’ everything from their homes to their pets and children while lifestyle experts on TV now tell us what not to eat and what not to wear. Makeover television and makeover culture is now ubiquitous and yet, compared with reality TV shows like Big Brother and Survivor, there has been relatively little critical attention paid to this format. This exciting collection of essays written by leading media scholars from the UK, US and Australia aims to reveal the reasons for the huge popularity and influence of the makeover show. Written in a lively and accessible manner, the essays brought together here will help readers ‘make sense’ of makeover TV by offering a range of different approaches to understanding the emergence of this popular cultural phenomenon. Looking at a range of shows from The Biggest Loser to Trinny and Susannah Undress, essays include an analysis of how and why makeover TV shows have migrated across such a range of TV cultures, the social significance of the rise of home renovation shows, the different ways in which British versus American audiences identify with makeover shows, and the growing role of lifestyle TV in the context of neo-liberalism in educating us to be ‘good’ citizens.
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A not-so-quiet revolution seems to be occurring in wealthy capitalist societies - supermarkets selling ‘guilt free’ Fairtrade products; lifestyle TV gurus exhorting us to eat less, buy local and go green; neighbourhood action groups bent... more
A not-so-quiet revolution seems to be occurring in wealthy capitalist societies - supermarkets selling ‘guilt free’ Fairtrade products; lifestyle TV gurus exhorting us to eat less, buy local and go green; neighbourhood action groups bent on ‘swopping not shopping’. And this is happening not at the margins of society but at its heart, in the shopping centres and homes of ordinary people. Today we are seeing a mainstreaming of ethical concerns around consumption that reflects an increasing anxiety with - and accompanying sense of responsibility for - the risks and excesses of contemporary lifestyles in the ‘global north’.
This collection of essays provides a range of critical tools for understanding the turn towards responsible or conscience consumption and, in the process, interrogates the notion that we can shop our way to a more ethical, sustainable future. Written by leading international scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds - and drawing upon examples from across the globe - Ethical Consumption makes a major contribution to the still fledgling field of ethical consumption studies. This collection is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between consumer culture and contemporary social life.
This collection of essays provides a range of critical tools for understanding the turn towards responsible or conscience consumption and, in the process, interrogates the notion that we can shop our way to a more ethical, sustainable future. Written by leading international scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds - and drawing upon examples from across the globe - Ethical Consumption makes a major contribution to the still fledgling field of ethical consumption studies. This collection is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between consumer culture and contemporary social life.
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Globalization, Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, Material Culture Studies, and 39 moreEnvironmental policy, Sociology of Food and Eating, Community Development, Food Security and Insecurity, Commodity Chains, Corporate Governance, Cultural Theory, Sustainable Development, Liberalism, Anarchism, Global Citizenship, Ethical Consumption, Continental Philosophy, Consumerism, Cultural Politics, Consumer Behavior, Neoliberalism, Consumer Culture, Citizenship and Identity, Democracy, Citizenship And Governance, Environmental Sustainability, Lifestyle & Consumption, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Political consumerism, Green Supply Chain Management, Cities, Green Consumerism, Civilisation, Ethical Leadership, Commodity Culture, Responsible Consumption, Social and Political Ecology, Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Human Rights and Corruption, Public Life, The Common Good, Political Theory Esp. Marxism, and Rationalism In Politics and Philosophy
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Research Interests:
This report is based on a collaborative project between RMIT and the Environment Protection Authority Victoria. It draws on qualitative research conducted in two environmental ‘hotspots’ in Melbourne - Clayton South and the Brooklyn... more
This report is based on a collaborative project between RMIT and the Environment Protection Authority Victoria. It draws on qualitative research conducted in two environmental ‘hotspots’ in Melbourne - Clayton South and the Brooklyn Region - by a team of researchers at RMIT University. A key aim of the project was to deepen our understanding of the experience of environmental pollution in areas that bear more than their share of the pollution of the Melbourne metropolitan area. We chose to undertake in depth qualitative research to supplement the extensive quantitative research that the EPA already conducts. Key findings included the fact that while residents live with environmental conditions that may be considered undesirable, they are often strongly attached to their neighbourhoods. Most participants in this study exhibited some level of concern over their health and wellbeing due to their proximity to landfills and pollution-emitting industries. Several of the study’s participants reported some manner of physical symptom. The participants of this study adapted their lives to changing local environmental conditions in a range of ways, often exhibiting significant degrees of resilience. While participants often spoke of ‘complaint fatigue’ when dealing with the current EPA complaint procedure several participants had devised their own way to collect and share data on the environment, including keeping records of their interactions with public authorities. The energy and inventiveness of these individuals could be harnessed, we believe, in ways that would be fruitful for monitoring and improving the quality of the environment, for instance through engaging them as ‘citizen scientists’.
Research Interests: Environmental Education, Place Attachment, Community Resilience, Resilience, Environmental Studies, and 10 moreCommunity Engagement & Participation, Digital Ethnography, Visual Ethnography, Environmental Pollution, Wellbeing, Citizen Science, Visual Research Methods, Citizen participation, Community participation and engagement, and Video-Recording Method
This paper discusses how certain forms of hypermobility-primarily air travel-are embedded in the institutional orientations of Australian universities, and hence, into the professional practices of Australian academics. Academic air... more
This paper discusses how certain forms of hypermobility-primarily air travel-are embedded in the institutional orientations of Australian universities, and hence, into the professional practices of Australian academics. Academic air travel is currently a key component of one's ability to cultivate and maintain 'network capital' (Larsen et al. 2008). Such forms of extended social capital are seen as promoting one's ability to access the most prized elements of the academic career-international collaborations, high-impact journal publications, and research grants. In this sense, a system of 'academic aeromobility' has developed, in spite of the social and environmental implications that regular international & domestic air travel entails. Here, we discuss the results of a review of Australian university sustainability policies, and research & internationalization strategies. We find that the ambitions for universities to reduce carbon emissions by air travel are discordant with broader policies & institutional orientations around international mobility. These findings raise questions of how systems of mobility are developed and maintained in a professional setting, and how existing policies and practices co-evolve and change as part of a globalized research environment. 2 Introduction Air travel is an increasingly central part of the successful academic career. Academic mobility is increasingly viewed as a necessity for forging, cultivating, and maintaining remote collaborations and partnerships. Despite the availability of ways to communicate remotely in real time, such as through video-conferencing, flying is still commonly perceived as a necessity for these endeavours. Yet at the same time, Australian universities are attempting to reduce their environmental impacts and carbon emissions. This may involve a number of measures from individual institutional commitments to broader tertiary sector agreements such as the Talloires Declaration (Talloires Declaration Institutional Signatories List 2016). While some Australian universities have acknowledged that air travel is a source of carbon emissions, generally the policies to reduce these emissions are limited in scope (Glover et al. 2015). Explicit reduction strategies are even less common, but where they exist there is an assumption that the activities for which academics undertake air travel can be substituted by video-conferencing, or can be otherwise 'greened'. Such strategies fail to acknowledge the broad spectrum of practices that air travel facilitates in relation to research, teaching, conference attendance, and other academic activities. University sustainability policies that seek to reduce a university's air travel emissions are also isolated from the broader strategic directions of the university, which are commonly configured toward internationalization-particularly in the Australian context. This impetus to internationalise universities is explicitly bound up in a suite of practices, which necessitate or prioritise air travel, and which academics are expected to participate in to become 'successful'. Contemporary priorities in the academic career place a strong emphasis on the need to connect and build remote and international collaborative relationships with others. The strategic direction of internationalisation has expectations of air travel embedded within it, as we show that both staff and student mobility is emphasised as a desirable and necessary. The systemic nature of this emphasis – not merely the choices of individual academics who choose to fly – can be said to constitute a system of 'academic aeromobility'. The objective of this paper then, is to highlight the competing priorities – between sustainability and internationalisation – of many Australian universities. These priorities are difficult to reconcile because of the nature of air travel as an intensively carbon emitting activity. We argue that proposed solutions to the reliance on air travel must entail challenging global conventions of academic aeromobility as being central to a successful academic career. This could involve finding ways of creating more meaningful interactions through digitally mediated co-presence, or shifting the priorities and practices of academic careers to emphasise more localized connections that do not require air travel to maintain. Methods This paper draws on an analysis of a qualitative review of Australian university websites with respect to two types of policy documentation. Firstly, sustainability