This roundtable with Caroline Bassett (University of Sussex), Helen Thornham (University of Leeds) and Edgar Gómez Cruz (University of New South Wales) stems from the provocation that automation as an (almost) ontological condition is shaping our ability to intervene in, or ask questions about the (digital) world. Automation is understood through a number of related and trans-disciplinary approaches to the ‘post-digital’ (Cramer); big data (Gitelman, boyd and Crawford), digital ethnography and anthropology (Horst & Miller, Pink et. al., Hine), critical computational studies (Sterne, Clough), science and technology studies (van House, Suchman). It is engaged with the critical and methodological, material and computational issues that emerge from the lived condition of ‘being digital’ particularly in relation to how automation (as forms of expertise and data; as configured systems, infrastructures and interfaces; as disciplined and material bodies) is positioning us in particular ways, and configuring a particular kind of world. More specifically, the discussants are concerned with the methodological and theoretical implications of this conditioning: in what this means for our ability to ask critical questions of automation; in what this means for the broader narrative of digital culture and the methods we utilise for interrogating it in the future. Drawing on expertise from digital media ethnographies (Gómez Cruz), critical software studies (Bassett) and feminist digital ethnography (Thornham), the authors draw on case studies in response to UK government initiatives around the digital economy. These preliminary ideas form the base of a book to be published, with the same title, in 2019 (Palgrave).

Caroline Bassett is Professor of Digital Media at the University of Sussex and Director of the Sussex Humanities Lab. Her research explores digital technology and cultural transformation. She is currently completing work on anti-computing, defined as a popular and critical response to automation, and is collaborating on a project exploring feminist technophile politics. She has published extensively on gender and technology, critical theories of the technological, on automation and expertise, and on science fiction and technological imaginaries.

Helen Thornham is an Associate Professor of Digital Cultures at the University of Leeds, UK. Her research focuses on gender and technological mediations, data and digital inequalities. Her forthcoming book, Gender and Digital Culture: Irreconcilabilities and the Datalogical (2018) explores issues of maternal and female subjectivity through datalogical systems.

Edgar Gómez Cruz is a Senior Lecturer in Media (Digital Cultures) at the UNSW in Sydney. His research covers a wide range of topics related to Digital practices using ethnographic and visual methods. Currently he is carrying out an ethnographic fieldwork with street photographers, focusing on visual interfaces, the right to the city and urban interactions.

Time

(Friday) 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Location

226 Seminar Room

Department of Media and Communications, John Woolley Building (A20) level 2, University of Sydney

Organizer

Media@SydneyDr Penny O’Donnell penny.odonnell@sydney.edu.au

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23apr6:00 pm7:30 pmHumanNature Series: ‘Cultures of Climate’6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Environment Institute

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How do different human cultures give shape and meaning to the idea of “climate”? Join Mike Hulme as he explores some of the many fascinating ways climates are historicized, known, changed, lived with, blamed, feared, represented, predicted, governed and, at least putatively, re-designed.

Understanding these complex climate cultures is, Hulme contends, essential to any adequate understanding of the politics of climate change.

Mike Hulme is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge, UK.

About the Series

From climate change and the sixth mass extinction event, to the pronouncement of a new geological epoch—the ‘Anthropocene,’ the age of humanity—we are increasingly being told that our contemporary period is one of incredible environmental change, and at the same time that human activity is playing an increasingly significant role in shaping the earth and its future possibilities.

In addition to being important scientific and technical challenges, these environmental problems are also profoundly and inescapably social: they are about how we organise our societies and our cities, how we approach questions of ethics and justice, how we find meaning and value in the world. In other words, they concern the deepest dimensions of our human nature, and in so doing perhaps call out for a reconsideration of what it might mean to be human in times like these.

Taking up these important themes, this lecture series will offer a series of talks by leading international scholars in the Environmental Humanities. This emerging, interdisciplinary, field of scholarship draws on the insights of history, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and related disciplines to explore the important roles that the humanities might play in addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our day.

The inaugural, 2018, series includes nine esteemed international and domestic speakers. There is one lecture scheduled each month from February through to October. Further information on each of these speakers and their lecture topics is provided below.

Series Partners

This Lecture Series is jointly funded and coordinated by the Australian Museum, the University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, Western Sydney University, and the University of Sydney. The organising committee for the series is comprised of Thom van Dooren and Astrida Neimanis (Sydney), Emily O’Gorman (Macquarie), Judy Motion (UNSW), and Juan Francisco Salazar (Western Sydney).

Tickets

Tickets for lectures in this series are available to staff and students at partner universities at the reduced rate of $8. Tickets must be purchased in advance online. Please click on “Enter Promotional Code” to apply the discount.

Promotional Code: ENVHUM18

Website: https://australianmuseum.net.au/landing/human-nature

6:00-6:30 Welcome, drinks and refreshments
6:30-7:30 Lecture

In conjunction with this public lecture Professor Mike Hulme will be leading a postgraduate workshop on April 24th at Macquarie University Campus for those working in the Environmental Humanities.
Places are strictly limited, click here for more information on how to apply.

Time

(Monday) 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Location

Hallstrom Theatre

1 William St

Organizer

Sydney Environment InstituteMichelle St Anne +61 2 9351 5445 michelle.stanne@sydney.edu.au anastasia.mortimer@sydney.edu.au

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24apr11:45 am1:30 pmGetting elections right? Electoral reform in democracies & autocracies11:45 am - 1:30 pm Event Organized By: The Electoral Integrity Project

26apr1:00 pm2:30 pmGIR Colloquium | To Arms or to the Streets? State Inclusion and Religious Uprisings1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Event Organized By: Department of Government & International Relations

Event Details

Abstract:

Why do some religious groups resist states with nonviolent means, whereas others take up arms or remain passive? Whereas previous research finds that inclusion of social groups generally decreases the probability of mobilisation, how different levels of inclusion affect regimes, elites and masses differently has not been examined. We develop a formal model of the decision by religious groups to mobilize against the regime and consider how increasing levels of state inclusion affect the propensity to participate in uprisings with violent or nonviolent tactics.

We argue that moderate levels of inclusion provide public goods and create ‘safe spaces’ that increase opportunities for nonviolent mobilization while high levels of inclusion deter nonviolent uprisings by reducing the likelihood of elite defections. High levels of inclusion can provoke mass violent rebellions as dissidents switch to violent tactics which depend less on elite defections to impose costs upon a regime. We test these hypotheses on a dataset of religious groups globally from 1990-2013 and find that moderate state inclusion generally increases the probability of religious participation in nonviolent uprisings and that this effect declines as states and religious groups become more integrated. Inclusion in religious states also appears to increase the likelihood of violent uprisings by large groups. The findings are generally robust to varying data aggregation, fixed effects modelling and batteries of control variables.

About the speaker:

Charles Butcher is an Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on explaining the onset and outcomes of violent and nonviolent resistance campaigns, especially in authoritarian states. His work has been published or is forthcoming at Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, International Interactions, Comparative Political Studies, The Review of International Studies and The Journal of Global Security Studies.

Location: Merewether Room 498, Butlin Avenue, University of Sydney

Time

(Thursday) 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Location

Seminar Room 498

Merewether Building, University of Sydney

Organizer

Department of Government & International Relations

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26apr6:00 pm7:30 pmAustralia's Economic Policy: in whose interest?6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Politics in the Pub

27apr3:00 pm4:30 pmThe future is union: Digital journalists pushback against employment insecurity3:00 pm - 4:30 pm Event Organized By: Media@Sydney

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The future is union: Digital journalists pushback against employment insecurity

While scholarship on the digital transformation of journalism has increased significantly in recent years, digital journalists’ efforts to unionise for improved working conditions and a voice in the workplace have received scant attention. Yet, with problems of ‘churnalism’ and fake news on the rise, it becomes important to study digital journalists’ pushback against employment insecurity and other threats to journalistic autonomy and editorial standards.

This paper draws on three case studies of journalists organising in Australia, Ireland and the United States to examine what digital journalists want from unionisation and what they have achieved so far. It finds decent pay and working conditions are one priority, but so too is strong occupational representation to balance employer prerogative, and guarantee digital journalists get a say in the future of journalism. The paper argues union revitalisation emerges as an important variable in achieving unionised digital workplaces.

Penny O’Donnell is Senior Lecturer in International Media and Journalism at the University of Sydney. Her research interests include work futures in global journalism, comparative media research, and digital transformation of the Australian media landscape. She is a Chief Investigator on the New Beats Project, an ARC-funded study of the aftermath of job loss and re-employment in Australian journalism (LP140100341 and DP150102675). Internationalisation of the project now includes Canadian, Indonesian, and Dutch case studies. Recent publications from the project appear in Journalism Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Journalism Practice, and Australian Journalism Review.

Time

(Friday) 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Location

226 Seminar Room

Department of Media and Communications, John Woolley Building (A20) level 2, University of Sydney

Organizer

Media@SydneyDr Penny O’Donnell penny.odonnell@sydney.edu.au

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28apr10:00 am5:30 pmFeaturedThe 1st China Development Forum10:00 am - 5:30 pm Event Organized By: USYD China Development Society

Event Details

This is the First China Development Forum (CDF) organised by CDS USYD. CDF is a comprehensive forum covering a wide range of topic, including social change in China, Chinese advancing diplomacy as a global power, as well as the economic and trade development. This forum will be divided into three sections and will be conducted by different lecturers.

Section One: Evolution of the Chinese Social Contradiction (At ABS Seminar Room 2003)

In his speech at the 19th Party Congress opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping affirmed the evolution of the “principal contradiction” facing the society, saying it “is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.” Xi’s new formulation is a significant and bold shift from the previous statement made by the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in 1981, who defined the principal contradiction, indicated in the party constitution, as being “between the ever- growing material and cultural needs of the people and backward social productivity”.
Clearly, the current Chinese leadership is emphasizing urgent social issues such as wealth distribution, environmental protection and poverty reduction. Decades of rapid economic growth and urbanization have given rise to problems of massive wealth inequality and severe pollution, which in turn fuel social discontent and even resentment. In particular, the phenomenon of photochemical smog among Chinese metropolises or cities has drawn fierce criticism from the public and sparked protests. The process of urbanization seems irreversible. How has China changed over the years? What are the externalities and implications of urbanization? How can China tackle the various side-effects? This section seeks to provide insightful observations on these questions.

Section Two: Great Power Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics (At ABS Seminar Room 2010)

The great power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, adopted in the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, is influenced not only by the social history of China, but more importantly driven by its international and domestic environment. Externally, China faces an unpredictable international society and ‘Thucydides trap’ with the United States. Internally, China is undergoing a rough period of economic reforms in order to escape from the middle-class trap. Under such circumstances, presenting a friendly and open image to the world is highly favorable to China’s transition into a major power internationally.
Under the new policy, long-standing notions of peaceful co-existence, independence and win-win cooperation are undisturbed. Nevertheless China will be taking a more proactive role in the international arena, which is seen by many as a departure from the ‘keeping a low profile’ (tao guang yang hui) strategy adopted in the Deng Xiaoping era. Scholars have described the rationale behind as a fight for national dignity. Since Xi took office, novel global partnerships such as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the One Belt One Road Initiative have demonstrated China’s commitment to transitioning from a regional power to the projection as a great power. Balancing between a proactive foreign policy and maintaining a friendly and open image to the world will be a huge task for China in the next decade. How do the external and internal factors shape China’s foreign policy and what path will it take in the future? In this section we hope to explore these topics, taking into account Chinese nationalism in the domestic sphere and trend in the international arena.

Section Three: China’s Economy From Export-Oriented to Consumption-Driven (At ABS Seminar Room 2010)

After two centuries of stagnation, China returns as the second largest economy in the world and its success has been widely recognized by economists and the media. Ever since the economic reform and opening-up policy in 1978, China has been experiencing an annual GDP growth of 8% minimum until 2012. Manufacturing and export industry have been playing an indispensable role to the success. They contribute up to 20-35% of the Chinese GDP between 2000 and 2015.
However, the recent slowdown of the economy reflects the adoption of a significantly different economic strategy. The reality reminds us of the necessity of economic transformation in China from an export-oriented economy to a consumption-driven economy. With the rise of the middle class, wage growth undermines China’s global comparative advantage of low labour cost, which gradually deprives China’s role as “the world’s factory”. The increasing purchasing power of China’s middle- income class also means the stimulation of demand for internal consumption and import of goods and services. This section will focus on structural transformation of the Chinese economy, reviewing Chinese economic developments in past few years, and predicting its future economic outlook. All in all it comes down to one question: can China maintain a high-speed economic growth in the long run?

Our lecturers

Session 1:

Professor John Keane, USYD
John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), and Distinguished Professor at Peking University. He is renowned globally for his creative thinking about democracy. He is the Director and co-founder of the Sydney Democracy Network. He has contributed to The New York Times, Al Jazeera, the Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Harper’s, the South China Morning Post and The Huffington Post. His online column ‘Democracy field notes’ appears regularly in the New York- and Melbourne-based The Conversation. Among his best-known books are the best-selling Tom Paine: A political life (1995), Violence and democracy (2004), Democracy and media decadence (2013) and the highly acclaimed full-scale history of democracy, The life and death of democracy (2009). His most recent books are A short history of the future of elections (2016) and When trees fall, monkeys scatter (2017).

Professor Luigi Tomba, USYD
Born and educated in Italy, Luigi is a political scientist with almost three decades of China experience, having visited China for the first time in 1988. He has been teaching and researching Chinese politics and society at the ANU between 2001 and 2017, when he moved to University of Sydney. His work covers many aspects of China’s political and social change, with a particular interest in the consequences of China’s urbanisation on its society and governance. Luigi has also been, for a decade between 2005 and 2015, the editor of The China Journal, one of the best-known international research journal on post-1949 China.

Luigi’s work has always been interested in how governmental discourses become practices of government at the grassroots and in the process affect the legitimacy of the Chinese communist regime. By studying the grassroots manifestation of Chinese Communist Party legitimacy, doubts emerge on the inevitability of China’s democratic transition and new questions emerge on how government is linked to social and economic development.

Associate Professor Salvatore Babones, USYD
A/Prof Babones is the author or editor of ten books and more than two dozen academic research articles. His two main areas of academic research are the political economy of the greater China region and the methodology of quantitative modeling in the social sciences. He also publishes extensively on American social and foreign policy.
Salvatore Babones is interested in understanding the structure of the Chinese, Asian, and global economies. He is currently studying how China’s New Silk Road policies fit into the geoeconomics of the larger world-system. He maintains a strong second research stream on quantitative methodology for the social sciences.

Professor Wanning Sun, UTS
Wanning Sun FAHA is Professor of Media and Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UTS. Her book publications include:
Leaving China: Media, Migration, and Transnational Imagination (2002)
Maid in China: Media, Morality and the Cultural Politics of Boundaries (2009)
Subaltern China: Rural Migrants, Media and Cultural Practices ( 2014)
Mapping Media in China: Locality, Region and Province (2013, with J. Chio)
Unequal China: the Political Economy and Cultural Politics of Inequality (2013, with Y. Guo)
Media and Communication in the Chinese Diaspora: Rethinking Transnationlism (2016, with J.Sinclair)
Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia (2016, with T. Lewis and F. Martin)

Session 2:

Associate Professor Jingdong Yuan, USYD
Associate Professor Yuan specializes in Asia-Pacific security, Chinese defence and foreign policy, and global and regional arms control and non-proliferation issues. A graduate of the Xi’an Foreign Language University, People’s Republic of China (1982), he received his Ph.D. in political science from Queen’s University in 1995 and has had research and teaching appointments at Queen’s University, York University, the University of Toronto, and the University of British Columbia, where he was a recipient of the prestigious Iaazk Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. He is the co-author of China and India: Cooperation or Conflict? (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003) and his publications have appeared in Asian Survey, Contemporary Security Studies, Far Eastern Economic Review, The Hindu, Japan Times, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Nonproliferation Review, South China Morning Post, Washington Quarterly, among others. He is currently working on a book manuscript on post-Cold War Chinese security policy.

Associate Professor Jian Zhang, UNSW
Dr. Jian Zhang is the Deputy Head (Teaching and Administration) of the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Zhejiang University in China and completed his PhD in politics at Murdoch University, Australia. He was awarded an Anthony Mason Fellowship by UNSW in 2006. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Services at Georgetown University, USA and School of East Asian Studies at Sheffield University, UK. Dr. Jian Zhang’s primary research interests are Chinese foreign and security policy, Chinese military modernisation, Asia-Pacific security and Australia-China relations. He is a member of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP).

Mr. Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute
Richard McGregor is an award-winning journalist and author with unrivalled experience reporting on the top-level politics and economies of east Asia, primarily China and Japan. He was the Financial Times bureau chief in Beijing and Shanghai between 2000 and 2009, and headed the Washington office for four years from 2011. Prior to joining the FT, he was the chief political correspondent and China and Japan correspondent for The Australian. His book The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers won numerous awards, including the Asia Society in New York award in 2011 for best book on Asia. His latest book, Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan, and the Fate of US Power n the Pacific Century, was described as “shrewd and knowing” by The Wall Street Journal, and a “compelling and impressive” read by The Economist. He was a fellow at the Wilson Center in 2015 and a visiting scholar at the Sigur Center at George Washington University in 2016. He has lectured widely, in the United States and elsewhere, on Chinese politics and Asia.

Session 3:

Lecturer Wei Li, USYD
Wei Li has worked as a researcher on water conservation and renewable energy for the World Bank, the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection and Renmin University of China. She is a core member of the KPMG/Business School research team and leads the Chinese outbound investors’ survey project. She co-developed the KPMG/University of Sydney database on Chinese outbound direct investment in Australia.

Professor Hans Hendrischke, USYD
Hans Hendrischke is professor of Chinese business and management at the University of Sydney Business School. He leads the Business School’s China Research Network and chairs the Business and Economics Cluster of the University’s China Studies Centre.
Hans lived in China from 1979 working for the diplomatic service and in the finance industry. He speaks and writes fluent Chinese and is a frequent commentator on China business and Australia China business relations in national and international media. His team reports with KPMG on Demystifying Chinese Investment in Australia receive wide international coverage.

Time

(Saturday) 10:00 am - 5:30 pm

Location

Abercrombie Building

University of Sydney

Organizer

USYD China Development Society

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