Research Interests

Amanda's research interests include:

social inequalities in global cities; migration, diversity & the urban commons; elites, think tanks and political influence.

• Urban sociology - especially social inequalities in global cities

• Attachments to and formations of place

• Diversity and the urban commons

• Everyday multiculturalism and 'lived diversity'

• Migration -  and experiences of low wage migrant labourers in Australia and Asia. 

• Craft and work

• Elites, transnational think tank networks and political influence

Amanda has held a number of large Australian Research Council Grants and has extensive experience in advising and undertaking commissioned research for government on issues of diversity and strategies to tackle racism. Amanda has supervised numerous qualitative PhD projects on topics surrounding everyday multiculturalism, migrant workers global cities, and social inequality.

Current projects

Social Resilience, Migrant Integration and Informal Sport in Public Space.
Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2022-2024
CIs:  Amanda Wise, Selvaraj Velayutham & Kristine Aquino

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of public space and leisure in strengthening individual and community well-being. This project investigates the potential of informal sport in fostering social resilience and cohesion in new migrant communities by analysing how social outcomes are shaped by public spaces and built environments of Australia and Singapore. Expected outcomes and benefits include qualitative evidence of the dynamics that contribute to the formation of successful neighbourhoods and communities, related policy and urban planning recommendations and an enhanced capacity to build urban citizenship among Australia's growing and vulnerable multicultural migrant populations.

Delivering Inequality? Wellbeing & Survival in Australia’s Gig Economy  
Australian Research Council Discovery Project- 2023-2025
CIs:  Selvaraj Velayutham, Amanda Wise, Shaun Wilson, Norbert Ebert, Nicholas Harrigan

The food and parcel delivery industry is now a structural feature of the Australian labour market. Little is known about the social consequences of this development for the workforce. especially temporary and long-term migrant workers involved in this industry. This project aims to investigate the risks to safety and wellbeing to migrant cohorts who undertake this work, interrogating the intersecting impact of age, gender, class, and ethnicity and particularly migration status. The project produces major national benefits, such as an enhanced capacity to inform future labour market policies and regulation as well as conceptual innovation in describing the 'everyday survival' strategies of migrant workers in Australia.

Completed projects

Teaching