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Paper short abstract:

This paper theorizes contested and lived futures in the context of Central Queensland's coal and gas towns. It develops frameworks to better understand how communities account for contingency and direct their actions towards a desired future.

Paper long abstract:

Through ethnographic evidence taken from a small town in central Queensland's Bowen Basin, this paper explores the complexity of contested futures around coal and coal seam gas in the region, both in the contested content of envisioned futures (mining versus agriculture, for example) as well as the various ways in which these futures are 'lived.' By lived futures I mean the ways in which people's future consciousness motivates and informs their actions in the present, and the frameworks for dealing with contingency they utilize in the present in order to direct their actions towards a desired future, without ignoring the role of the past in the crafting of futures. I have identified three distinct forms that lived futures take: hope, planning, and speculation (cf Weszkalnys 2014). 'Hope' represents a lived future that rests on affect, connections to place, or concepts of fate or higher power (Crapanzano 2003; Miyazaki 2004). 'Planning', rests on the assumption that the future can be controlled through the proper foresight and policy (Adams et al. 2009). Finally 'speculation' believes that future risks can be managed, but maintains an element of uncertainty and risk through which profit can potentially be generated (Reith 2004).

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Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the gender and dynamics of gaze among children during the school hours recess time games. It explores the gender contestation and use of multiple gazes and negotiations among children while playing games.

Paper long abstract:

The playground is a space where gender relations are practiced (Paechter and Clark, 2007). The paper is drawn out of one of the chapters in my thesis. It focuses on children's games, the playground and the dynamics of gaze during recess time. As a space, the playground is quite often open and less supervised by the schoolteachers and administrative staff members, unlike a classroom. The playground allows students to play certain games and have fun during the recess/break amidst their studies. Girls and boys play games that manifest their limitations as well as their freedom (Karsten, 1998, Sebba, 1994, Karsten, 2003).

I am arguing that these games do reflect fun and freedom, but the games also manifest gendered aspects of children's lives. There is a clear gender contestation going on between girls and boys on the playground while playing games. Boys and girls don't reveal their agency, but also show how the boys maintain their male gaze and enjoy the larger space of the playground. At the same time, girls are not just silent or sidelined by the actions of the boys, but they negotiate and resist to some extent that allows them to participate in the games on the playground. Throughout these 30 minutes of recess, multiple gazes interact to reflect the level of power among girls and boys. Overall, this paper contributes to the wider literature on gaze/s (Foucauldian and Post-Foucauldian) and its various dynamics.

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Paper short abstract:

Using observations and interviews conducted in Bogota in 2015, this paper analyses the Bogota, Colombian community and the considerable reform the city and its citizens have undergone in relation to the LGBT population, after High Court rulings and changes in Government Policy.

Paper long abstract:

In many developed countries significant reforms in LGBT rights have been driven by changes in popular attitudes, alongside political activism which has often led to law and policy reform. Colombia provides an interesting example of a counter trend, where High Court rulings and changes in government policy have seen to drive community changes in attitudes towards LGBT. This paper conducts a historical analysis of Colombian law and policy toward LGBT issues, and compares the literature of the historical analysis with recent ethnographic research analysing the Bogota environment. Observations were conducted in Bogota from January - May 2015, throughout the Bogota music scene and interviews were conducted with various LGBT stakeholders about the change in their experience and the treatment of the community post law and policy change. The paper concludes that the Bogota community has come a long way in the last two decades, becoming a more accepting community which can be largely attributed to the change in Government Policy and National High Court decisions although there is still discrimination within and between the Bogota and LGBT community. These findings provide an example of how morals, laws and policy can influence the population and create positive change within society; suggesting that a top-down governmental approach can be highly influential to the population.

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Paper short abstract:

High crime rates and the legacy of apartheid reduce opportunities for interracial social interaction in Johannesburg South Africa. This paper explores how gentrification projects, although problematic, may contribute to social democratisation by providing spaces for engagement with racial others.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on ethnographic research undertaken in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2014. It explores how gentrification projects in Johannesburg may contribute to the de-racialisation of South African society. Decades of institutionalised state racism created a society in which racial categorisations determined every aspect of life. Despite apartheid's demise some twenty years ago racial categorisation continues to inform many aspects of ordinary citizens' lives and the urban and social landscape remains indelibly marked with its imprint. It is particularly reflected in the continued existence of extreme socioeconomic inequalities. Contemporarily, high rates of violent crime have resulted in extensive fortification of the city and suburbs and the almost complete withdrawal from public spaces by middle-class (mainly white) residents. The thesis examines the physical and perceptual consequences of these practices by exploring how heightened fear of crime has reduced opportunities for racial interaction and increased white fear of strangers.

In this urban context, gentrification in Braamfontein, an inner city mixed commercial and residential suburb, is explored. The critique of gentrification as an inherently exclusionary neoliberal practice that frequently operates to displace the poor and disenfranchised and increase socioeconomic inequity is accepted. However, I argue that in contemporary South Africa certain gentrification projects may provide physical spaces and social opportunities for city inhabitants' engagement with urban spaces and racial others unobtainable elsewhere. Despite the uncertainty of outcome and ambiguity of investors' motivations, this engagement across racial and social barriers may potentially contribute to the evolution of a non-racial, democratised society.