Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australia – Social policy'
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1
Paris, Chris. "Social theory and housing policy." Phd thesis, Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/130120.
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Petersen, Alan R. "Alcohol, social policy and the state in Australia." Thesis, Petersen, Alan R. (1987) Alcohol, social policy and the state in Australia. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 1987. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/51301/.
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This thesis examines policy and policy-making in the area of alcohol abuse and drink-driving in Australia. It aims to challenge dominant ideologies about alcohol abuse and to show how these ideologies inform and constrain social action. The thesis develops a specific theoretical analysis to account for approaches to policy-making by the state and to show, in particular, how these have become manifest in the development of a policy on drinking and driving in the state of Victoria. The most general and distinguishing feature of policy development in the alcohol area, it is contended, is the influence of medical ideology which sees social problems as arising from within the individual and also, most recently, in a philosophy which defines problems as the outcome of faulty life-styles. The major part of the thesis is concerned with showing how the focus on alcohol abuse is bound-up with 'individualization', and especially 'medicalization', of the problem of road traffic accidents and how this process has served to divert attention from an examination of the structural changes needed to overcome this problem. In conclusion, the thesis maps an alternative plan of action on alcohol-related problems. This plan will assist policy-makers. social workers and others working with the victims of alcohol abuse to exploit the 'contradictions' emerging within the late capitalist state.
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Orchard, Lionel. "Whitlam and the cities : urban and regional policy and social democratic reform." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 1987. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09pho641.pdf.
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Lapham, Angela. "From Papua to Western Australia : Middleton's implementation of Social Assimilation Policy, 1948-1962." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2007. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/270.
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In 1948, after twenty years in the Papuan administration, Stanley Middleton became the Western Australian Commissioner of Native Affairs. State and Federal governments at that time had a policy of social assimilation towards Aboriginal people, who were expected to live in the same manner as other Australians, accepting the same responsibilties, observing the same customs and influenced by the same beliefs, hopes and loyalties. European civilization was seen as the pinnacle of development. Thus both giving Aboriginal people the opportunity to reach this pinnacle and believing they were equally capable of reaching this pinnacle was viewed as a progessive and humanitarian act. Aboriginal cultural beliefs and loyalties were not considered important, if they were recognized at all, because they were seen as primitive or as having being abandoned in favour of a Western lifestyle.
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Vicary, Adrian Robert. "Social work and social policy in Australia from welfare state to contract state /." [Bedford Park] : Flinders University of South Australia, 1998. http://books.google.com/books?id=RkVHAAAAMAAJ.
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Neylan, Julian School of History & Philosophy of Science UNSW. "The sociology of numbers: statistics and social policy in Australia." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of History and Philosophy of Science, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/31963.
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This dissertation presents an historical-sociological study of how governments of the modern western state use the language and techniques of quantification in the domain of social policy. The case material has an Australian focus. The thesis argues that by relying on techniques of quantification, governments risk introducing a false legitimacy to their social policy decisions. The thesis takes observed historical phenomena, language and techniques of quantification for signifying the social, and seeks meaningful interpretations in light of the culturally embedded actions of individuals and collective members of Australian bureaucracies. These interpretations are framed by the arguments of a range of scholars on the sociology of mathematics and quantitative technologies. The interpretative framework is in turn grounded in the history and sociology of modernity since the Enlightenment period, with a particular focus on three aspects: the nature and purpose of the administrative bureaucracy, the role of positivism in shaping scientific inquiry and the emergence of a risk consciousness in the late twentieth century. The thesis claim is examined across three case studies, each representative of Australian government action in formulating social policy or providing human services. Key social entities examined include the national census of population, housing needs indicators, welfare program performance and social capital. The analysis of these social statistics reveals a set of recurring characteristics that are shown to reduce their certainty. The analysis provides evidence for a common set of institutional attitudes toward social numbers, essentially that quantification is an objective technical device capable of reducing unstable social entities to stable, reliable significations (numbers). While this appears to strengthen the apparatus of governmentality for developing and implementing state policy, ignoring the many unarticulated and arbitrary judgments that are embedded in social numbers introduces a false legitimacy to these government actions.
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Wood, Chris. "Social capital, ideology and policy in the UK and Australia." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.546478.
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Boothe, Katherine. "Pharmaceutical programs and social policy development: comparing Canada, Australia and the UK." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26266.
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Canada is the only OECD country that provides broad public health benefits but lacks a universal, nation-wide system for funding prescription drugs. This puzzle cannot be explained by the literature on national health insurance, which suggests that the tendency to consider all health services as a single policy has missed an important source of cross-national variation. How can we explain the lack of a major pharmaceutical program in Canada, in light of the country’s own extensive health system and the experience of almost all other welfare states? More generally, why do some countries adopt universal, comprehensive pharmaceutical programs, while others do not?
To answer these questions, the study compares Canada to the UK and Australia using a process-tracing approach, and finds that the range of services in a country’s public health system is determined by the earliest decisions about how to approach policy development. Where institutional, ideological and electoral conditions allowed for large-scale change and all services were introduced simultaneously, countries tended to maintain the full scope of services. But where institutional barriers, ideological dissensus and low issue salience made radical change difficult, health programs were introduced incrementally, and policy development tended to stall after the first priority. Although incrementalism was initially less politically risky, it was also inherently limiting. Barriers to the introduction of services increased over time, and services that were initially lower priorities (such as pharmaceuticals in Canada) were pushed off the public agenda. In investigating this phenomenon, I provide specific mechanisms by which a more limited “path” of policy development becomes “dependent,” and argue that we must consider not only the role of ideas in policy making, but also the role of ideas over time. The study also investigates the implications of the approach to policy development for subsequent policy outcomes. It finds that factors that support the simultaneous adoption of a full range of health services also make it more difficult to retrench these services later on.
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Wilding, Derek. "AIDS and pro-social television : industry, policy and Australian television drama." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1998. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/36314/6/36314_Digitised%20Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis examines the intersection of popular cultural representations of HIV and
AIDS and the discourses of public health campaigns. Part Two provides a
comprehensive record of all HIV related storylines in Australian television drama
from the first AIDS episode of The Flying Doctors in 1986 to the ongoing narrative
of Pacific Drive, with its core HIV character, in 1996. Textual representations are
examined alongside the agency of "cultural technicians" working within the
television industry. The framework for this analysis is established in Part One of
the thesis, which examines the discursive contexts for speaking about HIV and AIDS
established through national health policy and the regulatory and industry
framework for broadcasting in Australia. The thesis examines the dominant liberal
democratic framework for representation of HIV I AIDS and adopts a Foucauldian
understanding of the processes of governmentality to argue that during the period of
the 1980s and 1990s a strand of social democratic discourse combined with
practices of self management and the management of the Australian population. The
actions of committed agents within both domains of popular culture and health
education ensured that more challenging expressions of HIV found their way into
public culture.
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Ptanawanit, Surapone, and Surapone Ptanawanit. "Crucial Factors in teh Development of Social Security in Thailand in Comparison with Australia." University of Sydney. Social Work, Social Policy and Sociology, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/487.
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Rich people in Thailand are enjoying higher shares in income transfer than their poor counterparts. This strange phenomenon implies the malfunction of the Thai social security system. Studies on the relationship between social security development and social, economic and political factors are also very limited. These evident constraints are the rationales for this study. A comparative study was chosen because the justification of social security problems would be more objectively valid if r000esearch findings were compared with external criteria. In addition, comparative analysis would clearly pinpoint possible factors that influenced social security development in Thailand. Like many comparative studies, this investigation did not expect only to identify possible influential factors, but it also intended to learn how the modern social security system could be established in a more developed country. However, the findings would be more adaptable if they were transferred from a country that was economically and culturally close to Thailand. By these reasons, Australia, instead of other Western countries, was more appropriate to be the case for comparison. After reviewing theoretical and empirical literature, the research methodology was designed. Basically, the study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods in analysing data gathered from Thailand and Australia. Comparative evidence shows many problems in social security provisions in Thailand. Relatively narrow coverage, low quality and quantity of benefits and services, higher financial burdens borne by people, and marginal welfare rights are the important indications of the severity of the problems. Many factors are responsible for the existence of these problems. The problematic system of social security was partly the legacy of historical development. The effects of historical roots are intensified by many contemporary factors. Undesirable social values, volatile economic growth, late industrialisation and the defeat of socialism are the four major factors that account for the undeveloped social security system. The influences of the four major factors are supported by another four less crucial ones. These supporting factors comprise the elite�s agenda, workers� power, weak non-governmental organisations and population growth. The findings in both Thailand and Australia similarly indicate that religious institutions and colonial influence do not produce significant effects upon social security development. The comparative findings provide valuable guidelines for the suggestions of system development. Several findings help extend existing theoretical explanations of social security development as well. The study recommends comprehensive operational strategies for the improvement of Thai social security. The study made its final suggestion on the importance of applied research based on Western knowledge and experiences for the improvement of Thai social security.
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Fleming, Brian James. "The social gradient in health : trends in C20th ideas, Australian Health Policy 1970-1998, and a health equity policy evaluation of Australian aged care planning /." Title page, abstract and table of contents only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phf5971.pdf.
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Gray, Jan. "The framing of truancy : a study of non-attendance policy as a form of social exclusion within Western Australia." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2000. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1347.
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Truancy is a product of socially constructed knowledge. The final product of this knowledge provides insight into the defining features of current societal beliefs, values and fears, becoming a powerful framing influence for definitions of acceptable patterns of school attendance and behaviour. In this sense, the perceived incidence of truancy within a community has far more impact on the creation and enactment of public policy associated with young people who do not regularly attend school than the incidence itself. This does not deny the incidence of truancy, nor the empirical data indicating correlates of truancy, illiteracy, crime, poverty and unemployment. Truants do exist. How these students and actions are perceived, however, and the consequences for all stakeholders (both personal and public) are constructed through the particular perceptions of youth, school nonattendance, and crime. The focus of this study was to identify the ways in which cultural factors have influenced popular and academic constructions of truancy, and subsequent creation and enactment of public policy associated with truancy. A model was developed for identifying the framing influences for public policy associated with any socially defined construct, directing the identification of three defining cultures for the framing of truancy. Ethnographic methods were used to 'read' the culture of compulsory education through the interactions and decision making processes within stakeholding institutions in Western Australia. Four education districts were included in the study, with a particular focus on inter-agency processes within one of these districts. Participation in and observation of the whole gamut of policy in practice within an education district allowed a demystification of the policy and practice associated with students who both reject or are rejected by the school system. Access to district databases provided non-attendance data for 30,000 students over the eighteen month period of the study. Less than two per cent of students were defined as chronic truants, of whom a disproportionate number were Aboriginal students. The proportion of students defined as at educational risk through chronic truancy was remarkably similar to the proportion of students excluded from their education through behaviour management processes, including the disproportionate number of Aboriginal students defined as violent and abusive. Although there was little indication of a gender difference in truancy patterns (except for the over representation of adolescent Aboriginal girls), the suspension and exclusion data show an overwhelming proportion of boys defined as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder reported by female teachers as evidencing major behaviour problems. Three cultures were identified as the major influences on the current framing of public policy associated with non-attendance. These cultures reflect community beliefs in punitive measures, a systemic reluctance to take responsibility for pedagogical and resource issues and perceptions of difference based on ethnicity and student behaviour. Such a framing of public policy associated with re-integration of recidivist offenders inevitably perpetuates a culture of social exclusion. There seems little chance for change in the production of public policy associated with these students within current community (and institutional) constructions of difference, responsibility and social justice. Re-framing cultures built on foundational beliefs, powerful public perceptions and images to reflect mediation, natural justice and cultural awareness is an enormous task for any community. However, such a shift in the framing influences for the creation of public policy would encourage the enactment of current legislative and regulatory frameworks associated with non-attendance to reflect inclusion and equity.
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Andrew, John Chapman. "A Framework for Energy Policy Evaluation and Improvement Incorporating Quantified Social Equity." Kyoto University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/217191.
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Kyoto University (京都大学)0048
新制・課程博士
博士(エネルギー科学)
甲第20016号
エネ博第339号
新制||エネ||68(附属図書館)
33112
京都大学大学院エネルギー科学研究科エネルギー社会・環境科学専攻
(主査)教授 手塚 哲央, 教授 宇根﨑 博信, 准教授 MCLELLAN Benjamin
学位規則第4条第1項該当
14
Backhouse, Peter. "Medical knowledge, medical power : doctors and health policy in Australia /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1994. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phb126.pdf.
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Parsons, Kelly. "Constructing a national food policy : integration challenges in Australia and the UK." Thesis, City, University of London, 2018. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/19680/.
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Calls for an integrated food policy to tackle the new fundamentals of the food system have been regularly made by academics, policymakers, the food industry and civil society for over a decade in many countries but, despite some changes, much of the old policy framework remains entrenched. This gap raises questions about why policy innovation has proved so difficult. This study responded to that research problem through a qualitative, interpretivist comparative study of how two countries attempted to improve their policy integration, via two specific policy integration projects: the UK’s Food Matters/Food 2030 process (2008-2010) and Australia’s (2010-2013) National Food Plan. It applied a conceptual framework fusing historical institutionalism and the public policy integration literature, focusing on the policy formulation stage. Fieldwork was conducted in both countries, including interviews with key informants; and publically-available documents about the policy projects and broader policy systems were analysed. The findings suggest the two policy projects represent a food policy shift from single-domain ‘policy taker’, towards multiple domain ‘policy maker’, but both fell short of what might be classed as ‘integration’ in the literature. The research identifies how tensions between domains are sidestepped, and makes broader propositions around how multiple values and goals co-exist in this contested policy space, and the need for improved value agreement capacity. It also highlights a general lack of focus on integration as a process. It explores how the legacy of historical fragmented approaches, plus political developments and decisions around institutional design, and a more general trend of hollowing out of national government, impact on how integrated food policy can be formulated in a particular country setting. It therefore proposes an emerging ‘institutionalist theory of food policy integration’, conceptualising the dimensions of integration, and multiple institutional influences on integration attempts.
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Xie, Shaohua. "Links between devolution and changes in curriculum policy : a case study of year 8-10 social studies curriculum in Western Australia since 1987." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1998. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/975.
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This study investigates the links between devolution and Year 8-10 Society and Environment (SAE) curriculum policy in Western Australia (WA) since 1987. It explores whether changes to the structure within which SAE resides, the process through which curriculum decision making occurs, and the content of SAE are consistent with the principles and practice of devolution. An attempt is made in the study to determine whether these changes would have occurred anyway, even if devolution had not been introduced. The investigation is based on a radical humanist model of social inquiry, As such, it uses a critical theory conceptual framework to inform a qualitative research paradigm. Two sources provide qualitative data for the study, namely, interviews and documentary material. The interview material comes from discussions with twenty six senior education officers, school staff, academics and other stakeholders. The documentary material includes key system-wide policy documents, Year 8-10 curriculum frameworks, guidelines and syllabi, and relevant school level publications. Generally, the analysis of data gained from those two sources support the claims made by critical theorists about the impact of devolution upon curriculum policy. More specifically, the findings show that in WA, since 1987, state curriculum development has contributed to a reinforcement of social control, a widening of social inequality and an intensification of the school's role as an agent of narrowly defined economic interests. These links are shown to be consistent with the critical theory argument that devolution is underpinned by corporate managerialism and that it involves not only a decentralisation of responsibility but also a recentralization of power. The study concludes by suggesting that the implications of WA's experience of devolution for China depend largely on whether China's context and needs are examined in terms of a consensus model or a critical theory model of society.
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Winkworth, Gail. "All hands on deck : government service delivery, partnership and participation : Centrelink : a case study / Gail Winkworth." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2004. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28030.
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This thesis seeks to understand how government service delivery agencies can develop more individualised solutions for citizens through new kinds of relationships or ‘social partnerships’ across sectors. Specifically it examines how Centrelink, the Australian Government’s largest service delivery agency is working across other government, the not-for—profit and business sectors to reduce social exclusion and to increase participation opportunities for people on income support.
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Visessuvanapoom, Vinit. "State and economy in Thailand: the possibility of establishing a developmental state." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2006. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28173.
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This dissertation addresses the question of whether the Thai state is already a
developmental state or could readily become one early in the 21St century. To begin with it identifies the two principal conditions that have to be satisfied, namely commitment to develop and state capacity to influence development. The latter of ‘which in turn depends on the state’s general authority (legitimacy) and its general regulatory capacity. The focus of the dissertation is on the particular capacities that can be said to characterise a developmental state in the present era. These particular capacities are, first, the particular capacities providing the basis of industry policy as identified in the analyses of the earlier formation of developmental states by Chalmers Johnson and his successors and, second, certain complementary capacities which are required to meet the challenges of the twenty—first century. The body of the dissertation is an examination of whether, and to what extent, the particular capacities exist within Thailand or could readily be brought into existence. The dissertation further examines the commitment to development in Thailand through an examination of contemporary Thai polity and specifically the state’s ability, under a Thaksin administration in particular, to govern conflicts within the Thai polity in a manner consistent with broad development. It is recognised that insofar as the state’s capacity to influence development also depends on its general authority (the legitimacy of the state), that authority also is sensitive to its ability to govern conflict resolution. The dissertation ends by speculating about how different the commitment to development might be under another Democrat-led administration. The overall conclusion of the dissertation is that, while the Thai state does indeed possess critical capacities for the pursuit of industry policy, other essential capacities - fundamental and complementary
— as well as legitimacy and commitment to development are weak and not obviously being strengthened. That being the case, it would only be wishful thinking to say that Thailand is already a developmental state.
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Brankovich, Jasmina. "Burning down the house? : feminism, politics and women's policy in Western Australia, 1972-1998." University of Western Australia. School of Humanities, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0122.
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This thesis examines the constraints and options inherent in placing feminist demands on the state, the limits of such interventions, and the subjective, intimate understandings of feminism among agents who have aimed to change the state from within. First, I describe the central element of a
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Arthurson, Kathy. "Social exclusion as a policy framework for the regeneration of Australian public housing estates /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09pha791.pdf.
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Sendziuk, Paul 1974. "Learning to trust : a history of Australian responses to AIDS." Monash University, School of Historical Studies, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/9264.
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De, Matos Christine, University of Western Sydney, of Arts Education and Social Sciences College, and School of Humanities. "Imposing peace and prosperity: Australia, social justice and labour reform in occupied Japan, 1945-1949." THESIS_CAESS_HUM_De Matos_C.xml, 2003. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/480.
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Historiography tends to seek patterns of inevitability, attempting to explain a decided course rather than incorporating other evident, though unfulfilled possibilities. In the case of historiography on the Allied Occupation of Japan, this is particularly obvious. Occupation scholarship appears absorbed by the overarching US presence in Japan during this period, reflects the dominant paradigm of the Cold War and when it does venture past the US remains focused on the US-Japan dichotomy. Australia also participated in the Occupation, also held a vision for a Pacific future and developed a relationship with Japan. Often the Australian perspective did not coincide with that of the US especially on the terrain of ideological and historical experiences and interpretations. The potential for conflict between the two nations’ approaches to post-surrender Japan is particularly evident in labour reform policy and issues of social and economic justice – the focus of this thesis. Australian policies towards labour reform under the Chifley Labor Government are examined in this thesis within the context of the Australian labour movement’s historical legacy, Orientalism and racial stereotypes, the Cold War, US hegemony, idealism and pragmatism and overall Australian policy towards Occupied Japan as a dual-paradigm structure. This thesis investigates attempts to turn labour reform polices and ideals into practice, via the diplomatic control machinery established for the Occupation namely the Allied Council for Japan and Far Eastern Commission and as articulated by Australian government representatives including Dr H.V. Evatt, William Macmahon Ball, Patrick Shaw and Sir Frederick Eggleston. The thesis contests the predominant simplistic harsh peace label given to Australian policy in the current literature. By examining Australian policy towards Occupied Japan from a micro perspective, what emerges is a more complex foreign policy mosaic to which the research in this thesis is a contributionDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Malavaux, Claire. "Cultivating indifference : an anthropological analysis of Australia's policy of mandatory detention, its rhetoric, practices and bureaucratic enactment." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0120.
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This thesis is based on a particular domain of anthropological inquiry, the anthropology of policy, which proposes that policy be contemplated as an ethnographic object itself. The policy I consider is Australia's refugee policy, which advocates the mandatory detention of
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Schindeler, Emily Martha. "A genealogy of the problematic of homelessness and the homeless in Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2010. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/32068/1/Emily_Schindeler_Thesis.pdf.
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The homeless have been subject to considerable scrutiny, historically and within current social, political and public discourse. The aetiology of homelessness has been the focus of a large body of economic, sociological, historical and political investigation. Importantly, efforts to conceptualise, explain and measure, the phenomenon of homelessness and homeless people has occurred largely within the context of defining “the problem of the homeless” and the generation of solutions to the ‘problem’. There has been little consideration of how and why homelessness has come to be seen, or understood, as a problem, or how this can change across time and/or place. This alternative stream of research has focused on tracing and analysing the relationship between how people experiencing homeless have become a matter of government concern and the manner in which homelessness itself has been problematised. With this in mind this study has analysed the discourses - political, social and economic rationalities and knowledges - which have provided the conditions of possibility for the identification of the homeless and homelessness as a problem needing to be governed and the means for translating these discourses into the applied domain. The aim of this thesis has been to contribute to current knowledge by developing a genealogy of the conditions and rationalities that have underpinned the problematisation of homelessness and the homeless. The outcome of this analysis has been to open up the opportunity to consider alternative governmental possibilities arising from the exposure of the way in which contemporary problematisation and responses have been influenced by the past. An understanding of this process creates an ability to appreciate the intended and unintended consequences for the future direction of public policy and contemporary research.
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Wansbrough, Ann. "Speaking together: a methodology for the National Council of Churches' contribution to public policy debate in Australia." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2000. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/27798.
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Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Sydney University. Ann Wansbrough
March 1999
The National Council of Churches in Australia has undertaken, in its constitution, to speak out on
matters affecting oppressed people and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and more generally
on issues related to justice, peace and integrity of creation. This thesis offers a possible
methodology for investigating the issues, as the basis for speaking with one another as churches,
with the poor and oppressed, and with the policy-makers. The focus is on issues related to
economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights in the international human rights instruments.
Part 1 examines the criteria that a methodology must meet if it is to be consistent with the NCCA
constitution. The rest of Part I is devoted to the policy context. Chapter 2 looks at some of the
issues being examined by church agencies. Two case studies in the Appendix look in more detail
at two specific questions. Chapter 3 examines the public policy process. Chapter 4 looks at the
international human rights instruments that Australia has ratified, and what mechanisms in
Australia are used to implement those rights.
Part II has separate chapters on the traditions of the Orthodox, Anglican, Roman Catholic and
Uniting Churches, as well as the international and Australian ecumenical tradition. These chapters
attempt to deal faithfully with the different approaches of the different traditions, while asking a
common set of questions of each. What does this tradition see as the role of the church in the
public arena? What is the attitude of the church towards human rights? Does the church adopt a
critical attitude towards its own life as well as the life of the world (does it have a sense of selfsuspicion)?
What does the church say about its methodology for thinking about what it should say
and do? What methodology is implicit in actual documents about public policy issues? Case
studies in an appendix supplement these chapters by examining over 30 examples of church
documents dealing with public policy issues. A number of common themes emerge which provide
the basis for the methodology proposed in Part III.
Part III begins with the ethics of public policy debate. What is required to debate policy issues in
an ethical manner in a pluralist society? The final three chapters (11-13) are devoted to the
methodological proposal. Chapter 11 proposes a hermeneutic circle that is an elaboration of that
proposed by Juan Segundo. His circle was for liberating theology; the elaboration in the thesis is
for policy work in the light of theology. Chapter 1 1 also looks at the appropriateness of using such
a circle for ecumenical work. The methodology is not dependent on the validity of Liberation
Theology, since it is based on the analysis of church traditions in Part 11. Discussion of the
methodology begins with a recognition that there are many competing realities in pluralist
Australia. The methodology gives priority to the reality experienced by those whose human rights
are violated or at risk in public policy: Indigenous people, the poor, and so on. The role of the
church is to provide and promote an alternative discourse. The rest of the chapter looks at the
methodology required to provide that alternative: ideological suspicion and critique. It includes an
examination of the nature of ideology. Three elements of ideological critique are discussed:
human rights analysis, structural analysis (the analysis of power relations in the policy process)
and policy analysis (the validity of policy proposals). Some suggestions are made about the types
of questions required to move from abstract methodology to concrete method. An appendix
provides more detailed examples.
Chapter 12 looks at theological suspicion and analysis. There are three tasks. First, to recognise
and critique the way theological concepts have been appropriated into the dominant discourse to
give it legitimacy. The second task is to recognise that ideological ideas sometimes become
incorporated into theology in a way that undermines its integrity. So there must be critique of
theology itself. The churches need a sense of self-suspicion, as some of their documents
acknowledge. The third task is to renew the theological tradition in the light of questions of
justice. In this task there is substantial help available from those biblical scholars who use a
“double hermeneutic”, that is, who in their scholarly study of Scripture bring reality and tradition
into dialogue, to discover elements of the tradition that have been neglected or not fully
understood in the past.
Chapter 13 looks at the outcome of the process. It suggests that the contextualised process of
chapters 11 and 12 needs to lead to middle axioms (i.e. general directions, policy principles,
criteria). The thesis thus draws together the two major strands of ecumenical method historically:
middle axioms and contextualisation. Middle axioms provide the criteria for evaluating public
policy and for suggesting alternatives. The point of the whole process is action. In this way the
hermeneutic circle becomes praxis. The methodology is a circular process, so that the various
parts interact and understanding is deepened over time. A brief fourth appendix discusses some
questions arising from the thesis itself, such as “Is it possible to talk about method?”
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Stehlik, Daniela Anna. "Making the invisible visable : an analysis of the Home and Community Care Program : a socialist-feminist perspective." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1991. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1118.
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As the population of Australia ages, social policy and human service practice in the field of aged care is increasingly important and relevant. The Home and community Care (H.A.C.C.) Program was established in 1985 by the Labor Government as a response to a demand for more community services for the frail aged and was designed to reduce the incidence of institutionalisation by increasing home care services. In this way the Home and Community Care Program is seen as linchpin in the Federal Government's initiative to create an efficient and cost-effective aged care policy to contend with the future growth of Australia's ageing population. This thesis argues that there are several assumptions intrinsic to the H.AC.C. Program that are potentially jeopardising and undermining its usefulness. These assumptions are based on familial ideology and nostalgic conceptualizations of 'the community’ and 'the family'. In addition, these assumptions also involve stereotypic attitudes to women as primary carers and nurturers that ignore, to a great degree, the needs of women themselves. These assumptions, combined with an increasingly neo-conservative view about a reduction in the role of the State and a corresponding increase in family responsibility in welfare, have major implications for Australian women. This socialist-feminist analysis argues that women who are providing care for aged spouses or relatives are doing essential, hard and stressful work, work which is unpaid and often unacknowledged, and that the Australian welfare system is now structured around the invisible labour of such women. Consequentially, the assumption that a social policy program such as H.A.C.C. makes, that is, that there will always be women who care, requires further analysis. This research has revealed that such assumptions have implications for the future development of social policy for the aged in Australia and on the future roles of women in this country. Particular questions which this thesis addresses include, firstly, who actually provides care? Empirical research indicates that the majority of care is provided by one individual, usually the spouse, daughter or daughter-in law. Secondly, what are the assumptions underlying the development and implementation of Home and Community Care social policy in relation to the social construction of caring? Such assumptions are found to include, that the H.A.C.C. Program is premised upon an erroneous concept of the 'community' and consequentially 'community care' and that traditional 'family' and familial values are a precondition to H.A.C.C. service delivery. A socialist-feminist critique offers a deeper analysis of such assumptions by disclosing that the Home and Community Care policies assume that service delivery can be best undertaken by extending the traditional domestic role of women, thus utilising them as an unpaid, or poorly paid, labour force. This analysis also discloses the explicit rejection of the informal service system as having any real economic significance but rather being viewed as ‘complementary’ to the formal service system. Finally, there are future implications of such assumptions for women as primary carers, services users or paid staff within the H.A.C.C. Program which require urgent cognisance in order to develop a future aged care policy in Australia that avoids exploitation of women.
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Cullerton, Katherine B. "An exploration of the factors influencing public health nutrition policymaking in Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2017. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/109095/1/Katherine_Cullerton_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis was an exploration of the factors that influence nutrition policymaking in Australia which resulted in strategies that could be used by poorly-resourced health organisations to gain traction in public health nutrition policymaking. Insight into these strategies was gained through a social network analysis exploring the power of interest groups and their influence on nutrition policy in Australia and in-depth interviews with these key influencers.
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Doh, Daniel. "Towards active ageing: A comparative study of experiences of older Ghanaians in Australia and Ghana." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2017. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2010.
Full textAbstract:
Population ageing has become a central feature of the 21st century, as most countries search for economically viable strategies to support and manage their ageing populations to live in a dignified way. In 2002, the World Health Organisation (WHO) proposed the active ageing policy framework to guide countries to develop policies that promote the quality of life for their older people. However, the interpretation and application of the active ageing model in the literature and policy discussions are inconclusive on the most important elements that promote the quality of life of older people. The discussions have largely focused on health promotion and economic aspects of the model without much attention to other aspects. In addition, there are questions about the extent to which the active ageing model is adaptable to different contexts. The lack of consensus among researchers and policy actors on the meaning of active ageing, and its application to different contexts has resulted in calls for the need for studies that explore active ageing from the perspectives of older people themselves.
This thesis presents findings from a study that examined the meaning of active ageing from the lived experiences of older Ghanaians living in Ghana and Australia, and compared the findings theoretically and conceptually with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) active ageing model. The study also investigated the extent to which research participants’ socio-cultural and political contexts influenced their respective experiences and the meaning they ascribed to active ageing, and the factors that contributed to their perceived quality of life at old age. The study was designed as an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) in combination with a comparative case study situated within the life course theoretical framework. The study drew on an in-depth qualitative data collected from 30 older Ghanaians, comprising 15 who were living in Ghana and 15 who were living in Australia.
Two key findings emerged from this research. First, experientially, active ageing is multidimensional and comprises social interaction, activity, health, independence, work and employment, spirituality, happiness, and public safety. However, social interaction—which included strong family support systems, friendship networks and community activities—emerged as the single most significant experiential meaning of active ageing, and was considered critical for quality of life at old age. Despite the importance of social interaction for research participants’ quality of life, comparatively, the study found that social interaction is subsumed under the participation pillar of the WHO’s active ageing model, which is not particularly well understood or developed by policy makers compared with the pillar of health. In addition, there were notable variations in participants’ experiential meaning of active ageing between respondents in Ghana and Australia, reinforcing how different policy contexts shape people’s experiences.
Second, the study found four types of quality of life from the typologies of quality of life at old age created in the data using a matrix of high and low levels of social interaction and access to essential social policy services. The types of quality of life in the matrix were optimum agers, happy poor agers, disconnected agers and destitute agers. The data showed that acquiring, creating and maintaining a high level of social interaction together with the development of knowledge, useful skills and personal initiatives in a favourable social, economic and health policy environment are likely to lead to optimum ageing.
The overall contribution of this thesis relates to the need for active ageing stakeholders to contextualise the WHO’s active ageing model based on the perspectives and experiences of older people within their respective socio-cultural and political contexts. In addition, population ageing policy makers may need to consider taking steps to strengthen older people’s family systems, while creating opportunities for them to deepen their social networking and communal living. The study shows the usefulness of creating avenues for older people’s continuous engagement in activities that allow social interaction. Finally, the study also illustrates how optimum ageing occurs as a culmination of life course events, making it imperative for social policies to facilitate sound human capital development, as they have implications for income and the creation of assets needed to fuel social interaction.
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Zampini, Giulia Federica. "Morality play : a comparative study of the use of evidence in drug and prostitution policy in Australia and the UK." Thesis, University of Kent, 2016. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/54392/.
Full textAbstract:
The idea of evidence-based policy has gained increasing prominence. Much research exists on the subject, particularly tackling the evidence-based policy turn and, subsequently, its critique. A plethora of studies have identified the shortcomings of the evidence-based policy ideal and challenged its supposed linearity. This project aims to provide an understanding of the way in which evidence is utilized in policy, and contribute to this debate by enacting an innovative research design. I am proposing a 2x2 comparative approach, which looks at the use of evidence across two domains, drug and prostitution policy, across two countries, Australia and the UK. A case-based qualitative comparative approach has the potential to offer a certain depth while at the same time providing the opportunity for analytic generalisation. I argue that evidence can be a prime focus for analysis of the policy process, and that through its lenses one can appraise deeper theoretical and epistemological questions about the state in late modern capitalism, the relationship between knowledge and ideology, science and politics, science and values, reason and emotion. The labelling of prostitution and drug policy as morality policies exposes the nature of these domains as morally and politically antagonistic, whilst providing opportunity to reflect on the role of morality in filtering understandings of evidence and shaping policy positions.
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Lindquist, Anthea Clare. "The impact of socioeconomic position on outcomes of severe maternal morbidity amongst women in the UK and Australia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3ec55671-e8b8-42c6-a777-fb7667b33e6e.
Full textAbstract:
Aims: The aims of this thesis were to investigate the risk of severe maternal morbidity amongst women from different socioeconomic groups in the UK, explore why these differences exist and compare these findings to the setting in Australia. Methods: Three separate analyses were conducted. The first used UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS) data to assess the incidence and independent odds of severe maternal morbidity by socioeconomic group in the UK. The second analysis used quantitative and qualitative data from the 2010 UK National Maternity Survey (NMS) to explore the possible reasons for the difference in odds of morbidity between socioeconomic groups in the UK. The third analysis used data from the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection (VPDC) unit in Austra lia to assess the incidence and odds of severe maternal morbidity by socioeconomic group in Victoria. Results: The UKOSS analysis showed that compared with women from the highest socioeconomic group, women in the lowest 'unemployed' group had 1.22 (95%CI: 0.92 - 1.61) times greater odds associated with severe maternal morbidity. The NMS analysis demonstrated that independent of ethnicity, age and parity, women from the lowest socioeconomic quintiJe were 60% less likely to have had any antenatal care (aOR 0.40; 95%CI 0.18 - 0.87), 40% less likely to have been seen by a health professional prior to 12 weeks gestation (aOR 0.62; 95%CI 0.45 - 0.85) and 45% less likely to have had a postnatal check with their doctor (aOR 0.55; 95%CI 0.42 - 0.70) compared to women from the highest quintile. The Victorian analysis showed that women from the lowest socioeconomic group were 21% (aOR 1.21 ; 95% CI 1.00 - 1.47) more likely and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women were twice (aOR 2.02; 95%CI 1.32 - 3.09) as likely to experience severe morbidity. Discussion: The resu lts suggest that women from the lowest socioeconomic group in the UK and in Victoria have increased odds of severe maternal morbidity. Further research is needed into why these differences exist and efforts must be made to ensure that these women are appropriately prioritised in the future planning of maternity services provisio n in the UK and Australia.
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Soldatic, Karen Maree. "Disability and the Australian neoliberal workfare state (1996-2005)." University of Western Australia. Graduate School of Education, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0190.
Full textAbstract:
Australia, like other Western liberal democracies, has undergone extensive social policy restructuring as a result of neoliberalism. While neoliberalism had its genesis with Australian Labor governments during the 1980s, it secured the status of orthodoxy under the radical conservatism of the Liberal Coalition government (1996 - 2007). Under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard a widespread campaign was instigated to advance neoliberal social policy measures across all spheres of social life, leading to the dismantling of rights for a diverse range of social groups including women, refugees, people with disabilities and Indigenous Australians. The restructuring of social provisioning with the intensification of neoliberalism was largely driven by workfare a key domestic social project of neoliberal global restructuring. The thesis examines the Australian experience of workfare and the primary areas of contestation and struggle that emerged in this environment for the Australian Disability Movement during the peak period of workfare restructuring for 'disability' (1996 2005). The thesis draws on the work of critical disability theory to discuss the bivalent social collective identity of disability as it cuts through the politics of recognition and the politics of distribution. From here, the thesis engages with sociological work on emotions, bringing together theories of disgust and disability. The thesis demonstrates that there is a synergy between disability and disgust that informs the moral economy of disability; framing, shaping and articulating able-bodied disabled relations. Drawing on the policy process method the research involved extensive qualitative interviews with members of the Australian Disability Movement, disabled people involved in workfare programs, service providers and their peak organisations, families, as well as the policy elite charged with the responsibility of disability workfare restructuring. Additionally, the study incorporated a range of documents including parliamentary Hansards, key policy texts, government media releases, and publicly available information from disability specialist services and the disability movement. The analytical centrality of policy processes highlighted the strategic interrelationship between macro-structural policy discourses and practices and the role of policy actors as agents, including those collective agents engaged in mediating disability social relations. Three dominant themes emerged from the analysis of the data: movement politics, representation and participation; emotions and processes of moralisation; and finally, the role of temporality in inscribing (disabled) bodies with value. Each of the findings chapters is dedicated to explicating these mechanisms and the effects of these discourses and practices on disabled people involved in workfare programs and the disability movement's struggles for respect, recognition and social justice.
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Bozinovski, Robert. "The Communist Party of Australia and proletarian internationalism,1928-1945." Full-text, 2008. http://eprints.vu.edu.au/1961/1/bozinovski.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The theory and practice of ‘proletarian internationalism’ was a vital dimension of the modus operandi of communist parties worldwide. It was a broadly encompassing concept that profoundly influenced the actions of international communism’s globally scattered adherents. Nevertheless, the historiography of the Communist Party of Australia has neglected to address sufficiently the effect exerted by proletarian internationalism on the party’s praxis. Instead, scholars have dwelt on the party’s links to the Soviet Union and have, moreover, overlooked the nuances and complexity of the Communist Party’s relationship with Moscow. It is the purpose of this thesis to redress these shortfalls. Using an extensive collection of primary and secondary sources, this thesis will consider the impact of a Marxist-Leninist conception of proletarian internationalism on the policies,tactics and strategies of the Communist Party of Australia from 1928-1945. The thesis will demonstrate that proletarian internationalism was far more than mere adherence to Moscow, obediently receiving and implementing instructions. Instead, through the lens of this concept, we can see that the Communist Party’s relationship with Moscow was flexible and nuanced and one that, in reality, often put the party at odds with the official Soviet position. In addition, we will see the extent of the influence exerted by other aspects of proletarian internationalism, such as international solidarity, the so-called national and colonial questions and the communist attitude towards war, on the Communist Party’s praxis.
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Belcher, Helen Maria. "Resisting the Welfare State: An examination of the response of the Australian Catholic Church to the national health schemes of the 1940s and 1970s." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/712.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis extends and refines a growing body of literature that has highlighted the impact of Catholic social principles on the development of welfare state provision. It suggests that Catholic social teaching is intent on preserving the role of the traditional family, and keeping power out of the hands of the state. Much of this literature, however, is concerned with European experience (Esping-Andersen, 1990; Castles, 1993; van Kersbergen, 1995). More recently Smyth (2003) has augmented this research through an examination of the influence of Catholic social thought on Australian welfare policy. He concludes that the Australian Church, at least up to the 1970s, preferred a 'welfare society' over a 'welfare state', an outlook shared by the wider Australian community. Following the lead of Smyth, this thesis extends the insights of the European research through an examination of Catholic Church resistance to ALP proposals to introduce national health schemes in the 1940s and the 1970s. These appeared to satisfy the Church's commitment to the poorest and most marginalised groups in the community. Why, then, did the Australian Church resist the proposals? The thesis concludes that there are at least two possible ways of interpreting Catholic social teaching – a preconciliar interpretation that minimises the role of the state, and a postconciliar interpretation that allows for an active, albeit limited, state. The adoption of either is informed by socio-political factors. The thesis, then, concludes that the response of the Church in the 1940s and the 1970s was conditioned by socio-political and historical factors that inclined the Australian Catholic Church towards a conservative view of welfare.
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Belcher, Helen Maria. "Resisting the Welfare State: An examination of the response of the Australian Catholic Church to the national health schemes of the 1940s and 1970s." University of Sydney. School of Sociology and Social Policy, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/712.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis extends and refines a growing body of literature that has highlighted the impact of Catholic social principles on the development of welfare state provision. It suggests that Catholic social teaching is intent on preserving the role of the traditional family, and keeping power out of the hands of the state. Much of this literature, however, is concerned with European experience (Esping-Andersen, 1990; Castles, 1993; van Kersbergen, 1995). More recently Smyth (2003) has augmented this research through an examination of the influence of Catholic social thought on Australian welfare policy. He concludes that the Australian Church, at least up to the 1970s, preferred a �welfare society� over a �welfare state�, an outlook shared by the wider Australian community. Following the lead of Smyth, this thesis extends the insights of the European research through an examination of Catholic Church resistance to ALP proposals to introduce national health schemes in the 1940s and the 1970s. These appeared to satisfy the Church�s commitment to the poorest and most marginalised groups in the community. Why, then, did the Australian Church resist the proposals? The thesis concludes that there are at least two possible ways of interpreting Catholic social teaching � a preconciliar interpretation that minimises the role of the state, and a postconciliar interpretation that allows for an active, albeit limited, state. The adoption of either is informed by socio-political factors. The thesis, then, concludes that the response of the Church in the 1940s and the 1970s was conditioned by socio-political and historical factors that inclined the Australian Catholic Church towards a conservative view of welfare.
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Mcallister, Ashley Joanne Helen. "Australian and Ontarian approaches to disability income support design and mental illness: A comparative study." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/13791.
Full textAbstract:
Mental illness is becoming the leading cause of disability in high-income countries, and the features of mental illness – early average age of onset, episodic nature and lack of diagnostic tests – pose challenges when designing eligibility criteria for disability income support (DIS) programs. Yet there is limited evidence about the process of designing these programs. The aim of this thesis is to contribute knowledge on how DIS policy is designed, especially in regard to mental illness. This thesis is a comparative case study between Australia and Ontario (Canada) applying constructivist grounded theory. 45 semi-structured interviews were conducted with five types of informants involved in the design or assessment of DIS – advocates, legal representatives, physicians, policy insiders and researchers. Analysis followed the steps of grounded theory including transcript coding, detailed memo-writing and diagraming. Findings revealed that the informants were concerned about the process of making sure only suitable people are given disability income support. A conceptual model was developed to explain this process involving two stages: i) establishing the gate and ii) gatekeeping, and explores the challenges associated with each stage. Findings show that most of the challenges are related to the gatekeeping stage due to the difficultly of interpreting DIS eligibility criteria. This thesis specifically explores three of these challenges: physicians making judgements about eligibility; expecting applicants to ‘perform’; and the notion of an ‘ideal type’ of disability. There was little variation in this process between Australia and Ontario. The thesis demonstrates the need for specific focus on mental illness in this process.
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Merkes, Monika, and monika@melbpc org au. "A longer working life for Australian women of the baby boom generation? � Women�s voices and the social policy implications of an ageing female workforce." La Trobe University. School of Public Health, 2003. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au./thesis/public/adt-LTU20051103.104704.
Full textAbstract:
With an increasing proportion of older people in the Australian population and increasing health and longevity, paid work after the age of 65 years may become an option or a necessity in the future. The focus of this research is on Australian women of the baby boom generation, their working futures, and the work-retirement decision. This is explored both from the viewpoint of women and from a social policy perspective. The research draws on Considine�s model of public policy, futures studies, and Beck�s concept of risk society. The research comprises three studies. Using focus group research, Study 1 explored the views of Australian women of the baby boom generation on work after the age of 65 years. Study 2 aimed to explore current thinking on the research topic in Australia and overseas. Computer-mediated communication involving an Internet website and four scenarios for the year 2020 were used for this study. Study 3 consists of the analysis of quantitative data from the Healthy Retirement Project, focusing on attitudes towards retirement, retirement plans, and the preferred and expected age of retirement. The importance of choice and a work � life balance emerged throughout the research. Women in high-status occupations were found to be more likely to be open to the option of continuing paid work beyond age 65 than women in low-status jobs. However, the women were equally likely to embrace future volunteering. The research findings suggest that policies for an ageing female workforce should be based on the values of inclusiveness, fairness, self-determination, and social justice, and address issues of workplace flexibility, equality in the workplace, recognition for unpaid community and caring work, opportunities for life-long learning, complexity and inequities of the superannuation system, and planning for retirement. Further, providing a guaranteed minimum income for all Australians should be explored as a viable alternative to the current social security system.
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Bozinovski, Robert. "The Communist Party of Australia and proletarian internationalism,1928-1945." Thesis, Full-text, 2008. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/1961/.
Full textAbstract:
The theory and practice of ‘proletarian internationalism’ was a vital dimension of the modus operandi of communist parties worldwide. It was a broadly encompassing concept
that profoundly influenced the actions of international communism’s globally scattered adherents. Nevertheless, the historiography of the Communist Party of Australia has
neglected to address sufficiently the effect exerted by proletarian internationalism on the party’s praxis. Instead, scholars have dwelt on the party’s links to the Soviet Union and have, moreover, overlooked the nuances and complexity of the Communist Party’s relationship with Moscow. It is the purpose of this thesis to redress these shortfalls. Using an extensive collection of primary and secondary sources, this thesis will consider the impact of a Marxist-Leninist conception of proletarian internationalism on the policies,tactics and strategies of the Communist Party of Australia from 1928-1945. The thesis
will demonstrate that proletarian internationalism was far more than mere adherence to Moscow, obediently receiving and implementing instructions. Instead, through the lens of
this concept, we can see that the Communist Party’s relationship with Moscow was flexible and nuanced and one that, in reality, often put the party at odds with the official Soviet position. In addition, we will see the extent of the influence exerted by other aspects of proletarian internationalism, such as international solidarity, the so-called national and colonial questions and the communist attitude towards war, on the
Communist Party’s praxis.
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Prout, Sarah. "Security and belonging reconceptualising Aboriginal spatial mobilities in Yamatji country, Western Australia /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/23030.
Full textAbstract:
"December 2006".Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Department of Human Geography, 2007.
Bibliography: p. 284-307.
Introduction -- Case-study area profile and methodology -- A walkabout race?: contemporary Aboriginal mobilities in Yamatji country -- State service provision and Aboriginal mobilities -- Security and belonging: re-conceptualising Aboriginal mobilities -- Security and belonging and the mainstream economy -- The ties that bind: negotiating security and belonging through family -- Conclusion.
This dissertation explores contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices in Yamatji country, Western Australia, within the context of rural service provision by the State government. The central themes with which it engages are a) historical and contemporary conceptualisations of Aboriginal spatialities; b) the lived experiences of Aboriginal mobilities in the region; and c) the dialectical, and often contentious, relationship between Aboriginal spatial practices and public health, housing, and education services. Drawing primarily on a range of field interviews, the thesis opens up a discursive space for examining the cultural content and hidden assumptions in constructions of 'appropriate' models of spatial mobility. In taking a policy-oriented focus, it argues that the appropriate provision of basic government services requires a shift away from overly simplistic assumptions and discourses of Aboriginal mobility. Until the often subtle practices of rendering particular Aboriginal mobilities as irrational, deviant, and/or mysterious are challenged and replaced, deep-colonising practices in rural and remote Australia will persist. --The thesis reconceptualises contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices in Yamatji country based upon an examination of dynamics and circumstances that undergird Aboriginal mobilities in the region. With this empirical focus, it argues that Aboriginal spatial practices are fashioned by the processes of procuring, cultivating and contesting a sense of security and belonging. Case study material presented suggests that two primary considerations inform these processes. A post-settlement history of contested alienation from family and country (both sources from which belonging and security were traditionally derived), and a changing engagement with mainstream social and economic institutions, have produced a context in which security and belonging are iteratively derived from a number of sources. Contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices therefore take a complex variety of forms. The thesis concludes that adopting the framework of security and belonging for interpreting contemporary Aboriginal mobilities provides a starting point for engaging more effectively and intentionally with dynamic Aboriginal spatial practices in service delivery policy and practice.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
x, 320 p. ill., maps
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Moran, Anthony F. "Imagining the Australian nation settler- nationalism and Aboriginality /." Click here for electronic access to document, 1999. http://dtl.unimelb.edu.au/R/U1L2H28HB18MC24L4CL743PII8DUPUQSDYN9NGAGLBXL8YA8BU-00451?func=results-jump-full&set_entry=000013.
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Byrne, Graeme. "Schemes of nation : a planning history of the Snowy Mountains Scheme." Phd thesis, Department of Art History and Theory, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/11445.
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Jennings, Reece. "The medical profession and the state in South Australia, 1836-1975 /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1998. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09MD/09mdj54.pdf.
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Fisher, Karen Raewyn Social Policy Research Centre Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences UNSW. "Whose values shape social policy?: policy process limits to economic rationalism: Australian coordinated care policy 1994 to 2001." 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/40783.
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This thesis addresses a significant gap in Australian social policy literature about the relationship between the impact of economic rationalism on social policy and interest representation during policy implementation. Michael Pusey, for instance, argues that economic rationalism displaces social values in social policy. However, other theorists, such as Robert Alford and Rod Rhodes, caution that policy often changes when it is implemented. With a foundation in Weberian social theory about participant values, the analytical framework incorporates three institutional policy implementation concepts to capture the dynamic characteristics of the policy process. These are: policy stages to describe policy change over time; structural interests of policy organisations; and policy networks within which participants act. The thesis tests this framework to explain the impact of values of economic rationality in the Australian coordinated care policy. The policy attempted to coordinate the care of people with chronic care needs, using a funds pool, case managers and care plans. The research methods are interviews with policy participants; analysis of public documents; and participant observation as an evaluator in one trial. Data about the policy process from 1994 to 2001 are analysed with a critical interpretive approach. The study reveals that central agency officials acted primarily on values of economic rationality. In contrast, health agency officials acted primarily on organisational values. The transfer of responsibility for the policy process from a central agency to the health agency after the policy statements reinforced health provider organisational interests, rather than either the rationalist interests of central agencies or the social interests of consumer groups. The policy consequently changed away from economic rationality. The policy process in the planning, implementation and revision stages was in no sense an instrumental application of the values of economic rationality apparent in the policy statements stage. Neither, however, did social values predominate in any policy stage. The study argues that insights from policy implementation research can refine the literature on economic rationalism. This research further advances policy network theory. It recognises that understanding which organisation is responsible for the policy, at various policy stages, advances our understanding of whose values shape social policy.
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Loxton, Edwina A. M. "Assessing and managing social impacts resulting from forest policy changes." Phd thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150049.
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Changes in access to natural resources impact the people and communities reliant on those resources for their livelihood. Australia's Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs), signed between 1997 and 2001, aimed to rebalance the productive use and conservation of commercially valuable public native forests. They resulted in reduced access to these forests for wood production, along with other changes, and were accompanied by mitigation strategies intended to assist those most impacted to adjust to the changes - particularly forestry businesses, their employees and rural communities. Despite the significance of the RFAs to Australian forest policy, little ex-post facto (after the fact) social impact assessment (SIA) has been conducted to monitor social impacts and evaluate the mitigation strategies. I conducted an ex-post facto SIA, investigating the social impacts experienced by members of the native forest industry in upper north-east New South Wales and south-west Western Australia as a consequence of RFAs and associated changes. While other groups were also affected, I focused on these groups due to the complexity of analysing social impacts and a focus on in-depth, rather than broad, analysis. I interviewed owners of, and workers employed by, forestry businesses affected by the RFAs; government employees responsible for industry management and regulation; and representatives from industry, community and environmental groups. I used an adaptive theory approach, encouraging an iterative process of data collection and analysis in conjunction with critical review and modification of current theory. Research findings are presented as four papers. The first two papers analyse the social impacts experienced by participants in the two case study regions. In each case, social impacts manifested both as a result of the policy negotiation process and the final outcomes of that process, beginning prior to the completion of the RFAs and evolving over time. Social impacts were experienced cumulatively, and included tangible (physical) and intangible (symbolic or psychological) elements. These results highlighted the multiple interacting factors that influenced how people experienced and responded to the RFAs and associated changes, including personal factors, the provision of mitigation strategies, and additional changes in the forest industry. The implications of the findings for SIA theory and practice are analysed in the third and fourth papers. The third explores the complex nature of cumulative social impacts that result from multiple policy processes and the influences of external factors and individuals' responses. It draws on results from the Western Australian case study to present a framework for the assessment and management of cumulative social impacts, adapted from a framework developed for the mining sector. The fourth paper evaluates the mitigation strategies implemented in the two case study regions, and identifies implications for designing, implementing and monitoring future mitigation strategies. These four papers contribute to understanding the complexity of social impacts and provide lessons for those involved in negotiating and introducing change, and assessing, managing and monitoring social impacts. Acknowledging this complexity and the consequent difficulty of predicting social impacts encourages ex-post facto SIA as a critical learning opportunity, the results of which contribute to SIA theory and practice.
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Arthurson, Kathy (Kathryn Diane). "Social exclusion as a policy framework for the regeneration of Australian public housing estates." 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09pha791.pdf.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-332) Concerned with the utility of the concept of social exclusion in Australian housing and urban policy. The question is explored through comparative analysis of the inclusionary strategies that comprise Australian housing authorities' "whole of government" approaches to estate regeneration, on six case study estates, two each in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.
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Bar{u00F3}n, R. Juan David. "Contemporary social policy : an analysis of economic and social disadvantage in Australia and Colombia." Phd thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150635.
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Tan, Michelle. "An analysis of economic problems related to social policy issues in Australia." Phd thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150111.
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Orchard, Lionel. "Whitlam and the cities : urban and regional policy and social democratic reform / Lionel Orchard." Thesis, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/18575.
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Kamp, Alanna. "Invisible Australians : Chinese Australian women's experiences of belonging and exclusion in the White Australia Policy era, 1901-1973." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:53060.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis moves beyond patriarchal accounts of Chinese Australian settlement and experience in the White Australia Policy era (1901-1973) by providing an analysis of the presence and lived experiences of Chinese Australian women in this historical period. Through a historical geography approach that is deeply rooted in postcolonial feminist epistomologies, this research aimed to understand the lived experiences of Chinese Australian women as remembered and told from their own perspectives, while also providing a revised account of their demographic characteristics as officially recorded in government records. Qualitative data for this research were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with nineteen Chinese Australian women who lived throughout the White Australia Policy era, while quantitative demographic data were collected from historical census records for the period between 1911 and 1966.
This research makes substantive contributions to Chinese Australian research as well as feminist historical geography in Australia more broadly. By illustrating the presence of Chinese Australian women throughout the period, this research challenges androcentric accounts of the ‘bachelor society’ of Chinese Australian men, patriarchal understandings of Chinese migration, and ethnocentric understandings of national identity and belonging in the White Australia Policy era. By presenting an examination of Chinese Australian women’s lived experiences across a range of spaces and social contexts (e.g. home, school, work, and neighbourhood) and with acknowledgement of their various subject positions as gendered, classed, and racialised individuals, this research also brings to light the diversity and complexity of Chinese Australian women’s lives in regards to identity, maintenance of ‘traditional’ Chinese culture, and experiences of belonging and exclusion. The postcolonial feminist approach utilised therefore provides an alternative lens through which to examine Australia’s Chinese past and move towards a more inclusive understanding of Chinese Australian communities and experiences in White Australia. This research also highlights one way in which postcolonial and feminist research can be conducted when research ‘subjects’ lie outside the researcher’s own class, racial and privileged position.
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Jayasuriya, Kanishka Chittapriya. "Politics, economics and welfare : a comparative study of social expenditure in Australia and Canada." Phd thesis, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/123989.
Full textAbstract:
This study presents an analysis of the determinants of
social expenditure in Australia and Canada within a
comparative perspective. Its objectives are two-fold: first,
to review and examine the key economic, social and
political factors influencing outlays of public expenditure;
second, to carry out an empirical evaluation of competing
explanations of the link between party and policy.
The core research problem of the study is a test of two
models portraying the role and function of political parties
and policy. One model termed the ’structural’, highlights
the importance of socio-economic constituencies of parties in
moulding party objectives; and the other, the ’strategic
actor' model stresses the importance of strategic
incentives in shaping policy objectives. The analysis of the
association between political party structures and policy
outputs is undertaken with reference to social expenditure,
and permits an evaluation of these competing models in
accounting for policy outcomes. Differences in party
structure and organisation in Australia and Canada provide
the basis for an empirical test of these two models within a
’similar systems' design.
Methodologically a distinctive feature of the study is
the use of a subset of quasi-experimental designs, the
multiple-interrupted time-series design, to examine the
differential impact of key political variables such as type
of ’administration’ on policy outcomes.
Initially, the economic determinants of expenditure are
identified, paying heed to the effects of the international
economic environment on policy. The latter are especially
relevant in the economies of both countries as they are
heavily dependent on the export of primary commodities. The
political influences on expenditure outlays studied pertain
to political administration and political competition. Both
sets of influences are also subject to empirical examination.
The major empirical findings of the study are threefold.
First, it shows that international economic movements
as reflected in expenditure changes are more apparent for
Canada than Australia. This is largely because of key
economic institutions such as the Arbitration system in
Australia which served to insulate domestic income from the
adverse effects of external forces. Expenditure was not
needed to the same degree as in Canada to stabilise
fluctuations in income. Secondly, the influence of
’administration’ on policy outcomes is evident in both
countries. An explanation of this is offered in terms of a
’turnover model' of party functioning where the strategic
incentives for parties in government are seen as the principal determinants of policy priorities. Finally, there
is strong evidence that the factor of political competition,
or more specifically inter-party competition, present in both
countries is a significant factor in explaining expenditure
and policy outcomes.
In terms of the core research problem identified
earlier, the findings lend strong support for the strategic
actor conception of party rather than the structural
perspective. This finding has important implications for the
study of party and policy-making. It suggests that
consideration of party strategies should be of crucial
analytical interest. From a broader systematic perspective,
the issues examined in this study, shows that despite obvious
differences in political systems of Canada and Australia,
there are marked similarities especially in the way political
factors such as political competition and government
administrations influence policy.
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Arthurson, Kathryn Diane. "Social exclusion as a policy framework for the regeneration of Australian public housing estates / Kathy Arthurson." Thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/21768.
Full textAbstract:
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-332)x, 332 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm.
Concerned with the utility of the concept of social exclusion in Australian housing and urban policy. The question is explored through comparative analysis of the inclusionary strategies that comprise Australian housing authorities' "whole of government" approaches to estate regeneration, on six case study estates, two each in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001