Urban Futures & Social Change Abstracts

Third Milestone Review, School of Media and Communication, Social Change

The professional wrestling scene in Melbourne once served as a vibrant cultural hub for Southern European migrants to Australia, providing a meaningful opportunity for community connection and sense of belonging. Contemporarily, however, the local independent wrestling scene struggles to generate mainstream attention and offers dwindling fan experiences. The current exegesis and accompanying creative work capture the unique perspective of a contemporary wrestling fan and son of second-generation Italian migrants with strong ties to the early professional wrestling scene in Melbourne, presenting a historical contrast between expressions of community, fandom, and nationalism. Conducting interviews and collecting archival footage, this project explores what insights the development of an autoethnographic documentary about Melbourne’s professional wrestling community can provide on local migrant experiences and the role of wrestling in shaping national identity. Further, the intersection of fandom and nationalism, the value of collective spectatorship and sport as ritual, and the importance of authentic and respectful representation of migrants in the media are discussed, with particular reference to Benedict Anderson’s writings on ‘imagined communities’. This project addresses the paucity in literature on the rich history of professional wrestling in Australia, particularly with regards to its cultural significance as a site of connection and belonging for Italian and Greek migrant communities. It provides methodological insights on subjectivity in documentary, and the importance of adapting to community rejection and turning to one’s own experiences when conducting autoethnographic research. 

Third Milestone Review, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, Urban Futures

This research investigated the impact of high-density housing, particularly apartments, on public transport use in Melbourne through a mixed-methods approach. 

First, analysis of household travel survey data revealed that apartment residents had a higher public transport mode share than those in separate housing, even after controlling for access and service frequency. 

Second, an apartment resident survey (n=400) showed that frequent users were more likely to be male, renters, and have lower car ownership. The built environment played a relatively minor role, while mode choice and residential self-selection were significant predictors, especially for train use; attitudes and perceptions had mixed effects. 

Third, qualitative findings (20 semi-structured interviews) showed that apartment residents engage with public transport in their everyday lives. While many self-selected into apartment living for travel and non-travel reasons, their behaviour was shaped by both practical and subjective experiences of service quality. Attitudes were largely formed through pragmatism and necessity, with decisions influenced by long-term circumstances, service attributes, and ongoing appraisals. 

Apartment development policies should extend beyond infrastructure proximity to emphasise user-centred factors, including service quality and conditions for active mobility. Public transport policies should make this mode more convenient and affordable than private cars through effective fares, safer and more comfortable services, and restrictions on car use and parking. Travel decisions reflected not only accessibility but also life circumstances, service attributes, and personal appraisals. These findings call for integrated policies that improve service quality, reduce car reliance, and address lived realities.

Third Milestone Review, School of Media and Communication, Social Change

‘The Poet’s Essay: On the Poetry to Essay Pipeline’ explores my practitioner’s journey from poetry to essay, conceived as a movement i) from ‘obscurity’ to ‘clarity’, and ii) from hiding to showing the self in writing. The lyric essay is a wily term that describes something seemingly new, yet ‘lyricism’ is innate to the essay in its earliest forms (D’Agata). Discourses celebrating the ‘lyric essay’ often describe the allure of ‘the poetic’ as a loosening, intoxicating tool for essayists, expanding the field of possibility. I intervene by moving in the opposite direction, seeking clarity, sobriety, contracting my field of possibility. What results is a productive failure to transition to the essay (perhaps naively) conceived as communicative and self-expository. I present four ‘poet’s essays’, which yearn for clarity but ultimately remain ‘poetic’. Across four exegetical chapters, I discuss four facets of these ‘poet’s essays’. ‘Intuition’ and ‘channeling’ are methods I carry over from poetry to essay; ‘rawness’ or ‘immediacy’, and the act of ‘making space’ in writing are two aspects of my thinking thru the essay form in comparison with poetry. I narrate this practice-led research journey thru an ‘autoethnographic’ framework, studying myself in my context, and foregrounding the ‘small’ (Lukacs), ‘partial’ (Dillon) and playful perspective of the essayist.

Confirmation of Candidature, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, Social Change

In Vietnamese universities, CEFR-aligned benchmarks and quality assessment requirements intensify pressures on speaking assessment, making teacher agency central to balancing accountability and learning. This qualitative interpretivist single-site case study investigates how teachers exercise agency in co-designing and moderating an individual-turn speaking rubric for a B1-level general English course at a public university.

The study involves six to ten teachers with four phases: (1) a preliminary survey and document analysis to establish existing practices; (2) a co-design workshop to develop an analytic rubric; (3) a moderation session using consented re-take audio clips to refine criterion bands and rationales; and (4) individual interviews exploring enablers, constraints, and perceived rubric effectiveness. The data, including workshop discussions, interview transcripts, documents, and a rubric change log, are analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis with abductive reasoning, framed through Priestley et al.’s (2015) ecological agency dimensions related to iterational, practical-evaluative, and projective, and Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory.

The expected outcomes include a co-constructed, contextually evaluated B1 speaking rubric with text-based anchors and rationale notes, moderation documentation, a comprehensive description of teacher decision-making and explanatory vignettes, an ecological perspective on how teachers negotiate fairness and practicality in resource-constrained contexts, and their perceived effectiveness of the co-designed rubric. The study highlights ethical rigor through voluntary participation and confidentiality. The findings are intended to support rubric implementation and offer transferable insights for similar higher education settings.

Confirmation of Candidature, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, Urban Futures

The rapid growth of offshore wind energy presents a significant opportunity for Australia to transition toward a low-carbon economy. However, while the environmental and economic dimensions of offshore wind projects have been widely studied, their social impacts remain underexplored, particularly in the Australian context. This research addresses that gap by developing a multi-criteria decision-making framework for social value assessment to systematically evaluate the social benefits and risks associated with offshore wind development. The study employs a multi-phase mixed-methods approach. First, a comprehensive literature review identifies existing frameworks, indicators, and methodologies used for measuring social value in infrastructure and renewable energy projects. This is complemented by semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, including government agencies, developers, Indigenous organisations, regional authorities, and independent experts, to refine and expand relevant social value indicators. A questionnaire survey will then be conducted to prioritise these indicators and determine their significance from diverse stakeholder perspectives. Building on these findings, a multi-criteria decision-making framework will be developed. Finally, the model will be validated through focus group discussions with experts and stakeholders. The expected outcome is a robust and transferable framework that integrates stakeholder input and social indicators into the planning and decision-making process. This framework will assist policymakers, developers, and communities in navigating complex social challenges, fostering transparency, and enhancing public trust. Ultimately, the research aims to ensure that offshore wind projects deliver equitable and sustainable social value alongside environmental and economic benefits.

Third Milestone Review, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, Urban Futures

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in classrooms is gaining attention due to high occupant density and its adverse impacts on children’s health. Predictive modelling, such as artificial neural networks and Long Short-Term Memory, offers opportunities to improve IAQ. However, the lack of IAQ monitoring data in Australian schools limits model development, and current models often overlook certain pollutants (e.g., NO2) and their influencing factors (e.g., classroom density and activities). This research aims to evaluate IAQ in schools across Victoria and develop predictive models that capture these dynamics.  

Quantitative methods were used to investigate the relationship between IAQ and its influencing factors based on data collected from four schools. This research collected (i) indoor and outdoor air quality data using calibrated low-cost sensors (LCSs), (ii) windows and doors opening using digital switching devices, and (iii) classroom schedules. Predictive models were developed within a transfer learning framework, where fine-tuning with limited data improved generalisation and interpretability. Model outputs were further examined through performance metrics, weight analysis, and sensitivity analysis to identify IAQ patterns. 

Calibration of LCSs showed good measurement for particulate matter but limited accuracy for gaseous pollutants. The fine-tuned models show improved accuracy and consistency, with environmental variables (e.g., humidity) having the strongest influence in site-specific models, while outdoor pollutants are important in seasonal models. 

This study advances understanding of IAQ in schools and provides evidence to guide policies that promote healthier learning environments for students and educators. 

Second Milestone Review, School of Media and Communication, Social Change

Satan has been a mainstay in cinema, and in the twenty-first century Satan has often been subversively deployed as a symbol to comment on female bodily autonomy. This thesis illuminates how the symbol of Satan continues to move beyond religious ideologies and, via these cinematic representations, frequently operates as a form of social commentary regarding female agency and bodily autonomy in popular culture. While there are comprehensive scholarly studies around key influential films like  Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski 1968) and The Witch (Eggers 2015) exploring Satan and female bodily autonomy, there is limited scholarly research addressing how  Satan operates as a transgressive force in contemporary cinema across a transnational body of films, with many of the films analysed in this thesis not addressed in extant research. The thesis integrates textual analysis of key films and sociocultural research around the contexts of their release, and will explore horror films from the 1970s and the twenty-first century that hold Satan as a key figure in relation to female agency, female friendship, motherhood and queerness. It will consider how socio-cultural tensions and social changes impact the way Satan is constructed and also how viewers read the presence of Satan onscreen. Finally, this thesis will argue that Satan is not simply a binary symbol of good vs evil, but a catalyst of change in modern horror.

Confirmation of Candidature, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, Urban Futures

In today’s cognitively demanding work environments, maintaining alertness is critical to both employee health and performance. Among office workers, sleep deprivation, often caused by long working hours and occupational stress, as well as mental fatigue, resulting from sustained engagement in demanding tasks, are known to impair alertness. Declines in alertness in work settings have been associated with diminished job performance, impaired information processing and decision making, increased error rates, and a heightened risk of depression and burnout. Supporting alertness therefore can be essential not only for enhancing organizational outcomes, but also for employee’s health and well-being.

Lighting in office spaces is one of the indoor environmental factors increasingly recognized for its potential impact on workers’ health and productivity. For decades, lighting design was primarily focused on meeting visual requirements necessary for performing everyday tasks. However, growing evidence indicates that, beyond supporting vision, light entering the human eye also influences health and well-being through non-image forming effects, including circadian entrainment, and acute enhancements of alertness and performance.

Despite this evidence, research examining the effectiveness of light in enhancing alertness within real-world settings remains limited. The majority of existing studies have been conducted in controlled laboratory settings, which do not fully capture the complexities of everyday life. With a focus on office environments, this study contributes to the emerging body of field-based research by investigating the relationship between light exposure and alertness among office workers during their working hours.

Third Milestone Review, School of Media and Communication, Urban Futures

This thesis explores the potential of ‘ergodic film’ - film-based texts defined by their requirement of non-trivial viewer effort - and aims to establish them within disciplinary study to advance both practice and scholarship. Although ergodicity, conceptualized as a “machine for the production of variety of expression” (Aarseth 1997), transcends mediums, its application to cinematic forms remains significantly underexplored. This research asks how experiments in medium specificity and formal expectations can create ergodic film experiences that challenge cinematic limitations. It aims to clarify nontrivial effort in cinematic contexts; critique interactive film to propose a functional framework for ergodic cinema based on user agency and formal qualities; and legitimise ergodic film as a distinct creative and scholarly practice.

Adopting a dual theorist-practitioner approach, this work integrates relevant ideas from ludology, cinema, screen media theory, and digital textuality. It advocates a functional perspective by actively building and testing ergodic cinema as a working system. This approach moves beyond historical "unproductively sectarian discourse" (Eskelinen 2001) and conceptual ambiguities, leveraging a digital native perspective to foster interdisciplinary harmony and practical understandings of this emergent artform.

Third Milestone Review, School of Media and Communication, Social Change

Marketers and advertising agencies are required to have a thorough understanding of their customers. Understanding customers' attitudes may lead to successful advertising campaigns and marketing strategies that effectively influence consumers' opinions about purchasing particular products. The aim of this study is to explore how advertising may be used to shape consumer attitudes and behaviours to combat the issue of food waste related to ugly food. According to Shao et al. (2020), the term "ugly food" refers to vegetables and fruits with unusual shapes, colours, or sizes that are often discarded, resulting in a substantial quantity of food waste. This research consists of two key phases: first, a comprehensive literature review examining the potential influence of advertising on reducing ugly food waste. The second phase involves administering an online questionnaire to households, focusing on their perceptions of ugly food. The outcomes of these stages promise to provide valuable insights for the marketing and advertising industry, offering a deeper understanding of target audiences and their responsiveness to advertising strategies in the context of food waste reduction.

Confirmation of Candidature, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, Social Change

Inclusion, participation, health, and wellbeing are critical determinants of child development and lifelong outcomes. For children with disabilities, substantial inequities persist in these determinants, subsequently shaping their developmental opportunities. Addressing these systemic inequities requires an examination of the social determinants of health, including the neighbourhood-built environments in which children grow, develop, and participate. Although neighbourhoods are increasingly recognised as important developmental contexts, evidence remains limited regarding how specific built environment features influence health and wellbeing outcomes for children with disabilities. This study aims to address a critical evidence gap by examining how neighbourhood-built environments influence healthy child development among children with disabilities.

This PhD project adopts a multi-phase design with a quantitative focus. Phase One involves a scoping review to synthesise fragmented evidence across disciplines, identifying current knowledge and gaps. Phase Two will validate the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) for children with disabilities to ensure the methodological robustness of subsequent analyses. Phase Three consists of a large-scale quantitative analysis of the linked AEDC–Built Environment dataset, which combines population-level child development outcomes with objectively measured neighbourhood-built environment indicators. Analyses will include descriptive statistics and multilevel regression modelling.

Situated within the ARC Future Fellowship Building Better: Neighbourhoods to Benefit Children with Disability (ARC FT230100131), this research combines evidence synthesis, measure validation, and advanced quantitative analyses to generate empirical evidence that can inform equitable planning, policy, and inclusive urban design for children with disabilities.

Confirmation of Candidature, School of Media and Communication, Social Change

As algorithmic personalisation becomes embedded in journalism, news organisations face increasing pressure to reconcile technological innovation with editorial values. While recommender systems promise relevance and engagement, they often prioritise commercial metrics over civic outcomes such as pluralism, transparency, and editorial integrity. Despite growing interest in personalisation, existing research remains fragmented, leaving a gap in understanding how these systems are shaped by institutional logics and newsroom design.

This PhD project addresses that gap by investigating how civic values can be embedded into the development and implementation of personalised news systems. It offers a multi-dimensional analysis across three interlinked studies: (1) a comparative review of personalisation strategies in public and commercial media organisations in Australia, (2) a user-centred exploration of audience expectations around trust, agency, and civic relevance in personalised news, and (3) a participatory design approach into how newsroom structures and workflows can support civic-oriented personalisation.

Planned case studies include public service media organisations in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, specifically ABC, BBC, and NPO. These provide a comparative lens on editorial innovation and institutional values. By integrating perspectives from systems, users, and institutions, this research contributes new knowledge about the organisational, editorial, and civic dimensions of personalisation. It responds to calls for more reflexive, participatory, and geographically diverse studies of AI in journalism, and offers a framework for designing ethical, democratic, and public interest aligned news technologies.

Third Milestone Review, School of Education, Social Change

The global shift in mathematics education from the traditional-transmission to the contemporary-constructivist approaches has challenged teachers’ beliefs and practices. Consequently, Bhutan initiated several curriculum reforms and conducted professional development for teachers. Besides these efforts, mathematics has remained one of the least well-performed subjects in the country. Research by Aldahmash et al. (2021) concluded that the reflective practices in the mathematics classroom in Saudi Arabia have led to improvement in student learning and helped teachers shift their beliefs and practices. Thus, this study investigates the Bhutanese secondary mathematics teachers’ reflective practices, exploring their effect on their beliefs and classroom practices, and the impact of professional learning. 

A survey was conducted with 215 secondary mathematics teachers, followed by case studies involving four Year 8 mathematics teachers (one female and three males) from four schools in Bhutan. PD was conducted for all the teachers in the case schools. Qualitative data was gathered through pre- and post-lesson semi-structured interviews, lesson observations of those teachers and their notes on their lessons.  

Findings suggested that while teachers expressed more constructivist views, their classroom practices remained predominantly traditional, uncovering the gap between the espoused and enacted beliefs. The result further suggests that the reflective practices can facilitate the transformation of teachers’ beliefs and practices in line with the constructivist principles and foster sustained professional learning. These findings will contribute to the global literature on mathematics teachers’ reflective practice and will contribute to professional learning for mathematics teachers in Bhutan, enabling them to enact the new mathematics curriculum.