SEMINAR: Anthropology & Sociology Seminar Series 2014: Charmaine Lim, PhD Candidate in Anthropology & Sociology and Oliver Laing, PhD Candidate in Anthropology & Sociology/Political Science

Charmaine Lim Title: Imagining Home & Constructing Identity: Transnationalism & Diaspora amongst Filipinos in Australia

As Basch, Glick Schiller and Blanc have argued, “those who must live across borders may come to see themselves as perpetually unauthentic” (1994: 242). The ethnic and racial diversity of the Philippines, along with its history of colonisation and global participation, means that the implications for belonging become pluralised. As factors such as language, ethnicity, race and class coexist and intersect within the individual in the Philippines, one may consider the implications for those who choose to settle in another country. A further complication arises from the dispersal of kinship networks. What happens when the family becomes dispersed, driven by global, macroeconomic and local factors? I argue that diaspora is a suitable framework and approach in the exploration of home, belonging and identity amongst Filipino migrants in Australia, due to the pluralised context of the Philippines and the diversity of Filipino emigration and immigration flows.

Oliver Laing

Title: This isn’t Amsterdam — understanding cycling policy and practice in Perth, Western Australia.

The disadvantages of over-reliance on the private car become more apparent as congestion increases and transportation emissions rise. The literature suggests that cycling may support the development of sustainable cities, and needs to be more vigorously promoted as a widespread form of contemporary urban transport than currently evident. This research project will interrogate cycling policy and its practice in Western Australia. The original empirical contribution will utilise a primarily qualitative approach. The proposed methodology for this study consists of; 1) content analysis of key cycling policy documents; 2) case studies of local cycling implementation, and 3) focus groups with participants from a variety of transport mode preferences. The research will develop a broad theoretical framework informed by critical political economy and the cycling-related mobility, anthropology, public health, planning, and transportation literature. I review the regime of automobility (the private car and the infrastructure that supports it). Thirdly, I discuss aspects of cycling, and the politicisation of transportation choice. Overall, the proposed research will investigate variations in, and understandings of cycling culture, with a specific