We develop a new formalism for the treatment of gravitational backreaction in
the cosmological setting. The approach is inspired by projective techniques in
non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. We employ group-averaging with respect
to the action of the isotropy group of homogeneous and isotropic spacetimes
(rather than spatial averaging), in order to define effective FRW variables for
a generic spacetime. Using the Hamiltonian formalism for gravitating perfect
fluids, we obtain a set of equations for the evolution of the effective
variables; these equations incorporate the effects of backreaction by the
inhomogeneities. Specializing to dust-filled spacetimes, we find regimes that
lead to a closed set of backreaction equations, which we solve for small
inhomogeneities. We then study the case of large inhomogeneities in relation to
the proposal that backreaction can lead to accelerated expansion. In
particular, we identify regions of the gravitational state space that
correspond to effective cosmic acceleration. Necessary conditions are (i) a
strong expansion of the congruences corresponding to comoving observers, and
(ii) a large negative value of a dissipation variable that appears in the
effective equations (i.e, an effective "anti-dissipation").Comment: 36 pages, latex. Extended discussion on results and on relation to
Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi models. Version to appear in PR