Priority Area: Equity & Inclusion

Respect, support, fairness, and diversity are key requirements for thriving societies. We need bold actions to ensure these values are deeply embedded in our workplaces, support systems, are accessible to everyone and extend to all forms of life, human and non-human. Responding to this need, the Research Themes will bundle their energy and resources throughout 2022 and 2023 to progress work that falls inside the broad Priority Area of Equity & Inclusion. How research at WSU relates to this Priority Area is outlined here for each of our four Research Themes.

Education & Work

Our quest is to address all forms of exclusion and marginalisation, disparities, disadvantage, and inequities in access and participation in education and work. To achieve this, our research examines its causes (social economic, political, and ideological) and develops deeper insights and new ways to address, reframe and transform culture, policy and practice to create positive change. Failing systems often perpetuate inequity and lack of inclusive practices, so we seek to influence systemic change and drive improved social outcomes through research-informed and evidence-based practices in education and work.

Access and affordability of education and related socio-cultural drivers are topics of our co-designed work. Researchers examine how access to digital technology influences literacy, disrupts cultural norms and empowers gender and sexual identities. Our forward-looking research has been exploring future models of work, youth and wellbeing, life-long learning and the power of language with the purpose of improving opportunities and access to participate in education and work. The growing impact and influence of the research affiliated with our theme is evidenced through the University’s worldwide leadership in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Environment & Sustainability

Our theme is critical for, and relies upon, equity and social inclusion. Ultimately, the environment is a common resource, owned by nobody and needed by all. This creates tension because competition for the use of common resources undermines their integrity, as we see with climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss and land clearing. Used cooperatively, environmental commons can thrive and be available for all future generations of people, plants, animals, and cultures. But cooperation requires equitable access and utilisation, or competition is created which likely leads to destruction.

Through our research, we contribute to policy by justifying the need for resilient natural systems and equitable access to those systems. For example, our researchers focus on enhancing the resilience of agricultural and natural systems to ensure the availability of food and natural resources for all people within and across generations. Our research on transitioning economies and community economies spans across all United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and ensures that communities vulnerable to economic change can be safely and equitably housed and can be included in the economy of the future.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Theme has a strong research focus to understand and reduce health inequities in those that are most affected by disease, illness, disability, and poor wellbeing. For example, we work with: those that have physical or mental health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cancer, depression and dementia; those with particular social and demographic characteristics that potentially increase risks related to poor health and wellbeing. These demographic groups can include women, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and particular community groups such as Indigenous, culturally, and linguistically diverse, asylum seeker, migrant, and homeless people.

Our research spans from bench-top laboratory-based work through to community-based translational research to shape new policy and practice. We deliver innovative solutions to reduce inequities and encourage inclusion, such as through sport, music-therapy, and community-based peer support. We create new technologies, designed to be appropriate to all users, leveraging the impartiality of data and devices to reduce inequity in healthcare. WSU researchers related to this Priority Area collaborate across multiple industry sectors, from transport to sport, agriculture to education, working in a range of organisational settings, such as workplaces and schools, and with existing community groups, policy makers and healthcare providers to successfully deliver equity and inclusion focused projects.

Urban Living Futures & Society

The Equity and inclusion Priority Area aligns strongly with the United Nations Sustainability Goals #10 ‘Reduced Inequality’, #5 ‘Gender Equality’, and #3 ‘Good Health and Well-Being’. In this priority area we explore many of the social aspects of urban modernity, not forgetting that the cities can only exist by virtue of their relationships and supply chains with areas of food production.

With a growing, diverse and ageing population, Western Sydney faces unique challenges of integration for aged and linguistically diverse communities to maintain social inclusion. In creating solutions to ensure communities flourish, Western researchers employ cross-disciplinary expertise and an intersectional lens to address many complex problems of urban living in contemporary Sydney, especially those that encompass economic, political, social, cultural and environmental dimensions.