4 – 10 September 2023
How would you build a home, plant a garden, drink coffee and care for pets in ways that benefit, rather than diminish our wonderful natural heritage?? ICON Science will present our research that focuses on prioritising, communicating and designing biodiversity-positive actions that we can all engage with everyday. Learn from researchers about the choices you can make to have a positive impact. Register now
Social researchers, working within and across disciplines, contribute to positive change in the world. We engage with diverse communities, businesses, and governments, and work with a range of professionals and practitioners, to ensure our research outcomes make a difference. We co-create, implement, and assess research projects, leading to advances in policy and practice for the betterment of society. How do we approach the design of research practices to foster social change? What are the common pain points, pitfalls, and markers of success in community-engaged research for societal impact? This interactive panel discussion will examine issues related to ethics, co-design practices, the use of social media to engage beyond universities – and much more. Our featured speakers will share success stories and lessons learned during their careers, as part of a facilitated discussion. Panel Facilitator Ms Joann Cattlin, PhD Student, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT Panellists Prof Lisa Given, Director, Social Change Enabling Capability Platform, RMIT Prof Annette Markham, Co-Director, Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT Dr Rebecca Olive, Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT Register now
The climate emergency demands responses from all areas of human activity, including social science. But how have social sciences responded to date and what could and should they be doing? This panel will highlight some of the vital intellectual insights the social science have to offer about the nature of climate change and social responses to it. It will also explore the doing and organising of social science, including examples of initiatives seeking to advance climate change mitigation and adaptation by altering how social sciences engage with other disciplines and wider stakeholders through research and teaching. Facilitated by Prof Lauren Rickards, Director of the Urban Futures Platform at RMIT University, the panel will consist of: Assoc. Prof. Saffron O’Neill, Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environment Social Science (ACCESS) programme, Uni. Exeter, UK Dr Adam Standring, Centre for Environmental and Sustainability Social Sciences, Orebro Uni, Sweden Prof. Wendy Steele, Critical Urban Governance, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT Prof. Noel Castree, Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre, UTS Dr Blanche Verlie, Climate Change Transformations research program, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT Register now
This panel will examine the social dimensions of the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The need to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is clear. So too are many of the technologies that are needed. What demands more attention are the social dimensions of the transition. If neglected, such social complexities stand to derail a successful transition. Conversely, if embraced, they could help turn a mere shift in infrastructure into a much larger, much needed, positive transformation, as emerging experience is demonstrating. This panel draws together industry leaders from across the renewable energy field in Australia to hear about the social dimensions that most frustrate and excite them, the research questions they most want social scientists to address, and how we can better work together across the academy-industry boundary to drive rapid, positive change. Panelists: Michael Anderson (Manager, Sustainability and Carbon, RMIT) Don Webb (Technical Practice Leader – Renewable Energy and Storage, AECOM) Nick Aberle (Policy Director, Clean Energy Council) Jarra Hicks (Director, Community Power Agency) Nicola Willand (Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT).
Cities and communities are grappling with the challenge of providing inclusive and sustainable transport to meet climate, energy and social inclusion challenges. Often transport issues are posed as technical problems but invariably have social dimensions, whether behavioural, institutional or political. Social scientific expertise is thus a key skillset for practitioners working on sustainable transport problems. This session grapples with the complex social science challenges of making transport systems greener, more inclusive and more efficient by bringing together transport practitioners with advanced social science training to reflect on the ways in which social science perspectives can inform sustainable transport policy and practice. The panellists will outline the social scientific aspects of their domain of transport and explain how social scientific training helps improve policy and practice responses. The session will include panellists: Helen Rowe, Transport Program Impact Manager, Climate Works Luisiana Paganelli, Transport Officer, City of Kingston David Ashmore, Executive Associate Transport Advisory, BIS Oxford Economics The session will be chaired by Jago Dodson, Director of the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University. Register now