LBA Research Groups
Cross Currents Research Group
About
Understanding the process of the transition to democracy in any new nation, especially in a post-colonial context, requires analysis of both national and local political and social developments. This project brings together the disciplinary approaches of Political Science, Anthropology and History in order to enhance our understanding of the turbulent transition of Timor-Leste from a colonised to an independent democratic state. The project adds to our knowledge of the value of applying a combination of approaches to a complex social and political situation. It amplifies both the disciplines of political science and political anthropology, while showing the contemporary relevance of an historical perspective.
The three researchers of this group are:
Conferences
The three researchers of this group have organised two international symposia / conferences in Darwin and one in Dili. The first, in 2006, The Crisis in East Timor: Understanding the Past, Imagining the Future, saw the publication of a volume of scholarly papers of the same name edited by Dr Shoesmith. The proceedings of the second, in 2008, Democratic Governance in Timor-Leste: Reconciling the Local and the National, were translated into a volume edited by Dr Mearns. Papers from the third, held in Dili in April 2010, Locating Democracy: Representation, Elections and Governance in Timor-Leste, are currently being prepared for publication by Dr Farram.
One of the presenters at that symposium was Mr Valentim Ximenes of the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL), who worked in Darwin with the three researchers as a CDU Visiting Research Fellow.
The three researchers were also members of the organising committee for the conference, Nation-Building across Urban and Rural Timor-Leste: Gender, Justice, Peace and Security, Governance and Development, held in Dili in July 2009.
In October 2009, Shoesmith and Mearns, in collaboration with staff from the World Bank (and with support from the Timor-Leste Electoral Commission and the Ministry of State Administration), were involved in the monitoring of suco (village) elections in a number of locations. In the second half of 2010, Mearns and Shoesmith will continue their field research in Timor-Leste. Farram, in the meantime, will continue his research on the history of governance in the various districts of Timor-Leste.
The combined results will be used to analyse the way in which central government policies actually relate to local authority structures and the delivery of services at a local level. The innovative aspect of the study will be to document the relationship between the formulation and enactment of policy in the developing structures of governance and representation in Dili and the practices ‘on the ground’ in the hinterland in a coordinated use of expertise from a range of disciplines.
