BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

Building Resilient Communities Inequality, vulnerable populations and disaster resilience.

Challenge Leader SENIOR PROFESSOR CHRIS GIBSON

As 2019 comes to a close, the east coast of Australia is engulfed in fire and smoke. This comes after unprecedented wildfires earlier afflicted California, and deadly heatwaves struck throughout Europe. Student climate strikes across the world explode in number and scale – a reminder of both the urgency of responding to planetary problems, and the necessity of simultaneously addressing injustice, especially across generations.

Now more than ever we need leadership and interdisciplinary collaborations to address the big picture issues. With such problems in mind, we began this year with energy to unite people on the new Building Resilient Communities challenge. Several teams have already made progress, tackling problems such as antimicrobial resistance, kerbside waste, resilient energy systems at the fringe of grid, and hate discourse via social media.

Especially exciting is the new Olivier Ferrer Fund to support research, which has been established as a special initiative, thanks to a generous donation from two young philanthropists. The donors are looking for bold ideas that will make a tangible difference to vulnerable communities. The goal is to push boundaries and examine core, systemic causes of disadvantage and the climate crisis, and how we can boldly address these issues from different perspectives. This funding will support researchers undertaking impactful global research in the areas of climate action, inequality and injustice, and the politics of refugee and migrant movements in an era of populist nationalism.

We are also delighted to appoint Tasch Arndt to the team, as Research Officer for Building Resilient Communities. Tasch’s background is in socio-ecological research; she holds a Masters degree in Human Geography from the University of Amsterdam. We can’t wait to see our teams’ projects, ideas, and evolving activities throughout 2020.

SMART CITIES FOR UNDERSTANDING LIVING IN LIVERPOOL

Developing urban areas to better accommodate increased population and development growth, while considering the environment, is a key challenge for many regions.

The Smart Cities for Understanding Living in Liverpool project is examining the Liverpool CBD to understand the nature of public spaces, what works well for residents and visitors, and how new spaces can be best emulated.

In 2019, 20 people-counting sensors were deployed throughout the Liverpool town centre to collect data on people’s experiences of green spaces. Researchers also conducted an online survey to understand how residents use and move throughout Liverpool and how they think these spaces can be improved.

The research will be used to help urban planners design and build the most cost effective, user friendly and environmentally sound public spaces possible.

Engineering Medicine and health Social sciences

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

Understanding the complex ways humans interact with each other and with other animals and their environments is essential if we are to transform lives and regions in meaningful ways.

The Collective Intelligence project began with 2018 seed funding to examine the different forms of ‘collective intelligence’ in relatively simple living systems, such as insects, plants and bacteria.

In late 2019, researcher Dr Patrick McGivern was awarded a two-year, $234,000 USD grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation to continue investigating the topic, to understand the agency and intelligent action in these living systems.

Researchers also produced a special edition of the journal Adaptive Behaviour, demonstrating interdisciplinarity with contributions from philosophy, human geography and biological science fields.

MICROFINANCE AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

Microfinance and Women’s Empowerment aims to address challenging questions such as what is meant by women’s empowerment, how should it be pursued and on whose terms.

Microfinance is a loan-based system designed to solve complex issues of poverty and empowerment through simplistic financial intervention. However, research conducted by Dr Farzana Tanima and her team has found that conventional accounting and accountability systems in microfinance organisations are reinforcing structural barriers and in fact, disempowering women.

The project aims to develop a more holistic accounting method and is working with feminist activists in Bangladesh alongside an NGO called Integrated Social Development Effort, an organisation providing microfinance loans to women as well as many other projects working toward women’s rights and gender equality.

Biological sciences Human geography Philosophy

Business Education Finance and accounting Human rights law International development Social sciences