Program Overview

Introduction to the C-SERC Doctoral Program

The Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre (C-SERC) at the University of Technology Sydney offers a doctoral program focused on exploring the complex relationships between climate change, society, and the environment. This program is designed to foster a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of these elements and how they impact public health, food security, and sustainability.

Research Areas

The C-SERC Doctoral Program encompasses a wide range of research areas, including:

• The art and cultural continuum of urban Aboriginal agriculture
• Bio-politics of climate change governance
• The Blue Economy in West Africa: livelihoods of small-scale fisheries
• Climate change and civil conflict
• Climate Movement Strategy
• Climate scepticism in the media
• Environmental movements: bridging the north-south divide
• Feminist Energy Democracy
• Goro nickel mine: An environmental experiment in New Caledonia
• The Imitation Economy
• The impact of coral reef restoration projects on coastal communities in the Philippines
• Implications of Fisheries Governance for Livelihood and Well-being: Current Perspectives from Ghana's Small-scale Fisheries
• Mining the high frontier
• New Environmental Knowledge: Large Dam in Northeast India
• Policy disconnections in the regulation of sustainable seafood in Australia
• Political ecology of illegal marine wildlife trade in Palawan, the Philippines
• Social legitimacy of decarbonisation of energy
• The Sustainability of the Global Food System: A Case Study on Australian Wheat and Indonesian Instant Noodles
• The Weather Diaries
• Wind farm development in Australia and Taiwan
• Comparative analysis of social media use and practice among selected Philippine and Australian media organizations in reporting natural hazards-induced disasters
• Smallholder Farmers' Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climatic Heat Stress in Northern Ghana
• The politics of knowledge valorization and communication: How did the "economic turn" come to dominate biodiversity discourse between the Stockholm Conferences?

Research Projects

C-SERC is involved in various research projects, including:

• Aboriginal land and economic activity
• Blue economy
• Circular economy opportunities for fisheries and aquaculture in Australia
• Coal Rush
• Coastal livelihood transitions and China's Belt and Road Initiative
• Commonwealth fisheries Indigenous engagement strategy
• Decarbonising electricity
• Democracy and global energy transition
• Developing cost-effective socio-economic monitoring for inland recreational fisheries in NSW
• Developing social and economic monitoring and evaluation systems in Indonesian tuna fisheries
• Disruptive Technology
• The Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecologies 2021
• Handbooks for fisheries managers to address the social dimensions of seafood production in Pacific Island countries
• Heat in the Streets
• Heat at Work: United Workers Union
• Institutional effectiveness and political economy of coral reef restoration in the Philippines
• Monitoring framework for social and economic development contributions from Pacific tuna industries
• Scaling up community based sea cucumber culture in Vietnam and the Philippines
• Surfacing urban wetlands in two urban renewal sites in Sydney

The Sustainability of the Global Food System: A Case Study on Australian Wheat and Indonesian Instant Noodles

This project examines the commodity chain of Australian wheat and Indonesian instant noodles to analyze the sustainability of the global food system. It considers how geopolitical tensions, economic contraction, environmental disasters, and social inequality affect public health through food production and consumption. The research uses a holistic and political economy framework to explore interlinkages between food, the environment, society, government, and local and international factors.

Abstract

The study investigates how competing priorities of climate change and food security are centered in the investigation of global interdependencies, demonstrated through Australia's export of wheat to Indonesia for instant noodle production. It challenges a siloed approach to sustainability in the wheat industry, instead using a holistic framework to explore complex relationships and contribute to debates and policy-making on sustainability, climate justice, and food sovereignty.

Meet the Researcher

Elna, the researcher, has lived in several countries and identifies as a global citizen. She is passionate about food justice and has interests in international politics, history, and geography. Elna enjoys various forms of art and music genres, practices creative writing, meditation, martial arts, and yoga.

Supervisors

• Professor James Goodman (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences)
• Dr. Hamish Robertson (Faculty of Health)

Publications

Elna has published several papers, including:

• "Discovering positionality through time and space – A story of food sustainability from Australian wheat fields in the time of Indonesian instant noodles"
• "Manufactured Vulnerabilities – Unsustainable wheat production in Australia and instant noodles consumption in Indonesia"
• "The Taste of World Crises from Indonesian Instant Noodles"
• "The Dark Side of Global Staple Trade in the case of Australian Wheat & Indonesian Instant Noodles"