Part of Victoria University's Healthy & Inclusive Communities program, the Community Identity Displacement research group is primarily concerned with social justice, with a focus on the societal impacts of social exclusion and displacement.

Community Identity Displacement research

The Community Identity Displacement research group conducts community-based collaborative research into forms of social exclusion and displacement, and the impacts of this upon individuals, groups and communities.

Our research documents resources and strategies that are vital to resilience, resistance, survival and wellbeing.

We partner with communities to develop knowledge, address social issues, and create receptive and nurturing social environments that foster a sense of community, belonging and social justice. Our innovative and culturally responsive research approaches include participatory action research, arts-based research and qualitative and quantitative methods.

Our team is made up of local and international researchers from diverse disciplines, with backgrounds that include:

  • critical community and applied social psychology
  • cultural studies
  • education
  • Indigenous studies
  • social work.

We take an interdisciplinary approach to our research, which includes these topics:

  • African background people negotiating identity and belonging in Australia
  • An evaluation of the Horace Petty public housing estate – A place-based education intervention for highly vulnerable young people
  • Building Resilience Project.
  • Community arts, critical psychosocial accompaniment and Aboriginal empowerment
  • Dialogues of Change - Youth Peer Education through Applied Theatre
  • Evaluation of the Polyglot Theatre Program
  • Pride, Passion and Pitfalls: Working in the Australian Entertainment Industry
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