Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian social policy'
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1
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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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.
3
Scott, David Malcolm Robert. "Minority activism : trends informing political participation across Australian communities." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2009. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41033/1/David_Scott_Thesis.pdf.
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In the late 1990’s, intense and vigorous debate surrounded the impact of minority communities on Australia’s mainstream society. The rise of far-right populism took the stage with the introduction to the political landscape of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party, whilst John Howard’s Liberal-National Coalition Government took the fore on debate over immigration issues corresponding with an influx of irregular arrivals. In 2001, following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States of America and subsequent attacks on western targets globally, many of these issues continued to be debated through the security posturing that followed. In recent years, much effort has been afforded to countering the threat of terrorism from home grown assailants. The Government has introduced stringent legislative responses whilst researchers have studied social movements and trends within Australian communities, particularly with respect to minorities. In 2008, the Scanlon Foundation, in association with Monash University and various government entities, released its findings into its survey approach to mapping social cohesion in Australia. It identified a number of spheres of exploration which it believed were essential to measuring cohesiveness of Australian communities generally including, economic, political and socio-cultural factors (Markus and Dharmalingam, 2008). This doctoral project report will explore the political sphere as identified in the Mapping Social Cohesion project and apply it to identified minority ethnic communities. The Scanlon Foundation project identified political participation as one of a number of true indicators of social cohesion. This project acknowledges that democracy in Australia is represented predominantly by two political entities representing a vast majority of constituents under a compulsory voting regime. This essay will identify the levels of political activism achieved by minority ethnic communities and access to democratic participation within the Australian political structure. It will define a ten year period from 1999 to 2009, identifying trends and issues within minority communities that have proactively and reactively promoted engagement in achieving a political voice, framed within a mainstream-dominated political system. It will research social movements and other influential factors over that period to enrich existing knowledge in relation to political participation rates across Australian communities.
4
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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Holland, Jack. "Framing the 'war on terror' : American, British and Australian foreign policy discourse." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2010. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3726/.
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In September 2001 several states launched a series of counter-terrorism policies under the banner of the 'War on Terror' that were unprecedented in their scope, intensity and cost. Extensive domestic legislative agendas and surveillance programmes at home were matched by increased military interventionism abroad, most significantly in Afghanistan and Iraq. This thesis is concerned with examining how this 'War on Terror' was possible: how it was conceivable for policy-makers and how it was 'sold' to domestic audiences. More specifically, this thesis considers three principal members of the 'Coalition of the Willing' in Iraq - the United States, Britain and Australia. Aside from adopting similar and overlapping policy responses in the context of a commitment to the 'War on Terror', these three states share a common language, intertwined histories and institutional similarities, underpinned by perceptions of cultural proximity and closely related identities. However, despite significant cultural, historical and political overlap, the 'War on Terror' was rendered possible in these contexts in different ways, drawing on different discourses and narratives of foreign policy and identity. In the US, President Bush employed highly reductive moral arguments within a language of frontier justice, which was increasingly channelled through the signifier of 'freedom'. In the UK, Prime Minister Blair framed every phase of the 'War on Terror' as rational, reasoned and proper, balancing moral imperatives with an emphasised logical pragmatism. In Australia, Prime Minister Howard relied upon particularly exclusionary framings mutually reinforced through repeated references to shared values. This thesis explores these differences and their origins, arguing that they have important implications for the way we understand foreign policy and political possibility. They demonstrate that foreign policy is both discursive and culturally embedded. And they illustrate that foreign policy discourse impacts on political possibility in rendering some policy responses conceivable while others unthinkable, and some policy responses acceptable while others illegitimate. This thesis thus contributes to our understanding of political possibility, in the process correcting a tendency to view the 'War on Terror' as a universal and monolithic political discourse.
6
Goodwin, Alison Elizabeth. "Implementing paid domestic violence leave policies in Australian workplaces: an institutional analysis." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2022. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/29596.
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The first paid domestic violence leave entitlement in Australia was negotiated into an enterprise agreement in 2010. Paid domestic violence leave has since become a standard claim made by unions in bargaining, and all state and territory governments have introduced paid domestic violence leave entitlements for their public sector workforces. Access is set to expand dramatically, with the Fair Work Commission’s recent provisional view in favour of including an entitlement to paid domestic violence leave in Modern Awards, and the recent election of a federal Labor Government on a platform that included legislative support for an entitlement to ten days per year of paid domestic violence leave to be included in the National Employment Standards. To date, there has been limited research on the implementation and management of paid domestic violence leave policies in workplaces. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature, taking a qualitative and institutional approach to understanding the challenges and barriers to effective implementation. The thesis evaluates the ability of key institutional actors in industrial relations – employers, unions, and governments – to pursue social policy alongside more traditional industrial concerns. Findings show that the active presence of strong institutional actors in the workplace are critical to the effective implementation of domestic violence leave policies. Union involvement in implementation and interventionist government regulation of workplace gender equality measures are also found to support accessible and well-managed domestic violence leave policies. At workplaces where institutional presence was weaker, poor implementation undermined the ability of paid domestic violence leave to achieve its policy objectives. The thesis concludes that government regulation of implementation is essential to ensure that paid domestic violence leave policies are implemented successfully as access to the entitlement expands.
7
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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Higgins, Claire Michelle. "New evidence on the development of Australian refugee policy, 1976 to 1983." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c8e5abc0-d906-40b3-861c-8fbd82fcb71d.
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This thesis aims to improve historical knowledge of Australian refugee policy between 1976 and 1983, a unique and transitional moment in the nation’s history and in international refugee movements. The discussion will be based on original evidence drawn from archival records and oral history interviews, and informed by a broad literature which recognises that refugee policy is a product of varied political imperatives and historical context. First, Chapter Three reveals that because the Fraser government could not deport the Indochinese boatpeople who sailed to Australia, it sought to approve their refugee status in order to legitimate its announcements that only ‘genuine’ refugees were being admitted. In doing so, the Fraser government was required to defend the processing of boat arrivals to the public and within the bureaucracy. Chapter Four finds that historical and political considerations informed the Fraser government’s choice not to reject or detain boat arrivals but to instead introduce legislation against people smuggling. The chapter presents new evidence to disprove claims expressed in recent academic and media commentary that the government’s Immigration (Unauthorised Arrivals) Act 1980 (Cth) marked a particularly harsh stance and that passengers on the VT838 were deported without due process, and draws from ideas within the literature concerning the need for states to promote the integrity of the refugee concept. Chapter Five contributes to international literature on refugee status determination procedure by studying the Australian government’s assessment of non-Indochinese. Through a dataset created from UNHCR archives it is found that the quality of briefing material and political considerations could influence deliberations on individual cases. Chapter Six contributes to literature on in-country processing, revealing how Australia’s programme in Chile and El Salvador was a means of diversifying the refugee intake but caused tensions between the Department of Immigration and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
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Spies-Butcher, Ben. "Understanding the concept of social capital: Neoliberalism, social theory or neoliberal social theory?" University of Sydney, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1326.
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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This thesis examines the growing debate around the concept of social capital. The concept has been heralded by many as a means of uniting the social sciences, particularly economics and sociology, and of overcoming ideological divisions between left and right. However, critics argue that the concept is poorly theorised and provides little insight. More radical critics have claimed the concept may be a neo-liberal ‘Trojan horse’, a mechanism by which the atomistic thinking of neoclassical economics colonises social theory. I examine these more radical claims by exploring the origins of the concept of social capital within rational choice economics. I argue that we should differentiate between two types of potential colonisation. The first is a form of methodological colonisation, whereby overly abstract, reductionist and rationalist approaches (which I term modernist) are extended into social theory. The second is a form of ideological colonisation, whereby a normative commitment to individualism and the market is extended into social theory. I argue that the concept of social capital has been the product of a trend within rational choice economics away from the extremes of modernism. In this sense the concept represents an attempt to bring economics and social theory closer together, and a willingness on the part of rational choice theorists to take more seriously the techniques and insights of the other social sciences. However, I argue that this trend away from modernism has often been associated with a reaffirmation of rational choice theorists’ normative commitment to individualism and the market. In particular, I argue the concept of social capital has been strongly influenced by elements of the Austrian economic tradition, and forms part of a spontaneous order explanation of economic and social systems. I then apply these insights to the Australian social capital debate. I argue that initially the Australian social capital debate continued an earlier debate over economic rationalism and the merits of market-orientated economic reform. I argue that participants from both sides of the economic rationalism debate used the concept of social capital to move away from modernism, but continued to disagree over the role of individualism. Finally, I argue that confusion between moving away from modernism, and moving away from market ideology, has led some Third Way theorists to misconstrue the concept as a means to overcome ideology.
10
Spies-Butcher, Ben. "Understanding the concept of social capital: Neoliberalism, social theory or neoliberal social theory?" Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1326.
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This thesis examines the growing debate around the concept of social capital. The concept has been heralded by many as a means of uniting the social sciences, particularly economics and sociology, and of overcoming ideological divisions between left and right. However, critics argue that the concept is poorly theorised and provides little insight. More radical critics have claimed the concept may be a neo-liberal ‘Trojan horse’, a mechanism by which the atomistic thinking of neoclassical economics colonises social theory. I examine these more radical claims by exploring the origins of the concept of social capital within rational choice economics. I argue that we should differentiate between two types of potential colonisation. The first is a form of methodological colonisation, whereby overly abstract, reductionist and rationalist approaches (which I term modernist) are extended into social theory. The second is a form of ideological colonisation, whereby a normative commitment to individualism and the market is extended into social theory. I argue that the concept of social capital has been the product of a trend within rational choice economics away from the extremes of modernism. In this sense the concept represents an attempt to bring economics and social theory closer together, and a willingness on the part of rational choice theorists to take more seriously the techniques and insights of the other social sciences. However, I argue that this trend away from modernism has often been associated with a reaffirmation of rational choice theorists’ normative commitment to individualism and the market. In particular, I argue the concept of social capital has been strongly influenced by elements of the Austrian economic tradition, and forms part of a spontaneous order explanation of economic and social systems. I then apply these insights to the Australian social capital debate. I argue that initially the Australian social capital debate continued an earlier debate over economic rationalism and the merits of market-orientated economic reform. I argue that participants from both sides of the economic rationalism debate used the concept of social capital to move away from modernism, but continued to disagree over the role of individualism. Finally, I argue that confusion between moving away from modernism, and moving away from market ideology, has led some Third Way theorists to misconstrue the concept as a means to overcome ideology.
11
Lehane, John. "The experiences of Western Australian Muslims within the current political and social environment." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2020. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2400.
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The purpose of this research was to examine the experiences of Western Australian (WA) Muslims, within the context of the current Australian political and social climate, with a key focus on how political and social factors, and the vast introduction of Australian antiterrorism legislation, may impact them. Also explored in this inquiry, was how mainstream media and their regular portrayal of Islamic-inspired terrorist attacks, which has at times connected all Muslims to these atrocities, is creating a social division within the Australian community which is difficult to overcome.
A generic qualitative methodology was utilised to best capture the lived experiences of the participants involved in this research, which concluded that the WA Muslims interviewed had all experienced differing levels of prejudice, racism and discrimination from fellow WA residents (Non-Muslims), with a perception that western media (including social media) is largely responsible for this phenomenon.
The implications of this phenomena highlighted the need for Federal and State government to work closer with WA Muslims and to involve them more in the introduction of new anti-terrorism legislation, so that unbiased and non-discriminatory laws can be established. This thesis further highlights the need for media organisations and public figures, to accurately report on Australian Muslims and on the Islam religion itself, and not create links to Islamic-inspired atrocities occurring around Australia and the world, to all the followers of this Islamic faith.
12
Mays, Jennifer. "Australia's disabling income support system : tracing the history of the Australian disability income support system 1908 to 2007 : disablism, citizenship and the basic income proposal." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2012. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/59604/1/Jennifer_Mays_Thesis.pdf.
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The present study examined the historical basis of the Australian disability income support system from 1908 to 2007. Although designed as a safety net for people with a disability, the disability income support system within Australia has been highly targeted. The original eligibility criteria of "permanently incapacitated for work", medical criteria and later "partially capacitated for work" potentially contained ideological inferences that permeated across the time period. This represents an important area for study given the potential consequence for disability income support to marginalise people with a disability.
Social policy and disability policy theorists, including Saunders (2007, Social Policy Research Centre [SPRC]) and Gibilisco (2003) have provided valuable insight into some of the effects of disability policy and poverty. Yet while these theorists argued for some form of income support they did not propose a specific form of income security for further exploration. Few studies have undertaken a comprehensive review of the history of disability income support within the Australian context. This thesis sought to redress these gaps by examining disability income support policy within Australia. The research design consisted of an in-depth critical historical-comparative policy analysis methodology. The use of critical historical-comparative policy analysis allowed the researcher to trace the construction of disability within the Australian disability income support policy across four major historical epochs. A framework was developed specifically to guide analysis of the data. The critical discourse analysis method helped to understand the underlying ideological dimensions that led to the predominance of one particular approach over another. Given this, the research purpose of the study centred on:
i. Tracing the history of the Australian disability income support system.
ii. Examining the historical patterns and ideological assumptions over time.
iii. Exploring the historical patterns and ideological assumptions underpinning an alternative model (Basic Income) and the extent to which each model promotes the social citizenship of people with a disability.
The research commitment to a social-relational ontology and the quest for social change centred on the idea that "there has to be a better way" in the provision of disability income support. This theme of searching for an alternative reality in disability income support policy resonated throughout the thesis. This thesis found that the Australian disability income support system is disabling in nature and generates categories of disability on the basis of ableness. From the study, ableness became a condition for citizenship. This study acknowledged that, in reality, income support provision reflects only one aspect of the disabling nature of society which requires redressing. Although there are inherent tensions in any redistributive strategy, the Basic Income model potentially provides an alternative to the Australian disability income support system, given its grounding in social citizenship. The thesis findings have implications for academics, policy-makers and practitioners in terms of developing better ways to understand disability constructs in disability income support policy. The thesis also makes a contribution in terms of promoting income support policies based on the rights of all people, not just a few.
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Blissett, Edward. "Inside the unions : a comparative analysis of policy-making in Australian and British printing and telecommunication trade unions." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/45549/.
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This thesis consists of a comparative analysis of policy making in Australian and British telecommunications and printing trade unions. It tests empirically the validity of different models of union policy making and behaviour, whilst also assessing the strength of the research hypothesis, that informal micro-political influences inside unions - such as personal friendships, enmities and loyalties - affect union policy making to a greater extent than is acknowledged in the literature. In order to address the subject the following research questions were posed: How, and why, do unions adopt specific policies? What factors explain the different behaviour of similar unions, when faced with comparable policy choices? To ensure that policies of strategic significance were focused upon, three key areas were selected for study: recruitment, amalgamations and union efforts to influence the labour process. As a former senior union officer I realised that trade unions were often loathe to publically disclose those factors which informed their policy making processes. For this reason a qualitative, interview rich, methodology was adopted, which involved a longitudinal study, in which over 220 officers and staff, of the relevant unions were rviewed. The research revealed that policy making in all the featured unions was a rich and complex process, in which occupational, geographical, ideological and personality based factional groups all had a significant influence on policy makers, along with the institutional and political context within which the unions operated. The empirical evidence also showed that micro-political factors, in particular enmities and personal loyalties, along with the individual beliefs, values and ideologies of policy makers, profoundly influenced their policy choices. Finally the research corroborated the assertion that strategic policy choices, made by trade unions, have a significant affect on their success or failure as organisations.
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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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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.
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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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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.
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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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Padolsky, Miriam Elana. "Bringing climate change down to earth science and participation in Canadian and Australian climate change campaigns /." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2006. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3214881.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 21, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-284).
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Williams, J. Gary. "Supervised autonomy : medical specialties and structured conflict in an Australian General Hospital /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1991. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phw7242.pdf.
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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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Sesay, Diana Margaret. "A socially just rationale for an Australian curriculum? : a critical thematic policy analysis of political speeches in education (2007-2010)." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2013. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/62675/1/__qut.edu.au_Documents_StaffHome_StaffGroupH%24_halla_Desktop_Diana%20Sesay%20Thesis.pdf.
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In late 2007, newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd placed education reform on centre stage as a key policy in the Labor Party's agenda for social reform in Australia. A major policy strategy within this 'Education Revolution' was the development of a national curriculum, the Australian Curriculum Within this political context, this study is an investigation into how social justice and equity have been used in political speeches to justify the need for, and the nature of, Australia's first official national curriculum. The aim is to provide understandings into what is said or not said; who is included or excluded, represented or misrepresented; for what purpose; and for whose benefit. The study investigates political speeches made by Education Ministers between 2008 and 201 0; that is, from the inception of the Australian Curriculum to the release of the Phase 1 F - 10 draft curriculum documents in English, mathematics, science and history.
Curriculum development is defined here as an ongoing process of complex conversations. To contextualise the process of curriculum development within Australia, the thesis commences with an initial review of curriculum development in this nation over the past three decades. It then frames this review within contemporary curriculum theory; in particular it calls upon the work of William Pinar and the key notions of currere and reconceptualised curriculum. This contextualisation work is then used as a foundation to examine how social justice and equity have been represented in political speeches delivered by the respective Education Ministers Julia Gillard and Peter Garrett at key junctures of Australian Curriculum document releases.
A critical thematic policy analysis is the approach used to examine selected official speech transcripts released by the ministerial media centre through the DEEWR website.
This approach provides a way to enable insights and understandings of representations of social justice and equity issues in the policy agenda. Broader social implications are also discussed. The project develops an analytic framework that enables an investigation into the framing of social justice and equity issues such as inclusion, equality, quality education, sharing of resources and access to learning opportunities in political speeches aligned with the development of the Australian Curriculum Through this analysis, the study adopts a focus on constructions of educationally disadvantaged students and how the solutions of 'fixing' teachers and providing the 'right' curriculum are presented as resolutions to the perceived problem. In this way, it aims to work towards offering insights into political justifications for a national curriculum in Australia from a social justice perspective.
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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.
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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.
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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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Mcguire, Julianne. "Exploring barriers and enablers in early childhood education and care services to meet Australian infant feeding guidelines." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2020. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/201105/1/Julianne_McGuire_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis studies infant and young child feeding in Early Childhood Education and Care services in Australia, an environment of increasing importance to the child population. It examines policies and practices highlighting the need for visibility, support and collaboration in infant feeding in the first 1000 days to support ongoing health and development. It uniquely gives voice to experience of assessors as well as educators and families in eliciting strategies for increasing awareness and support for optimal infant and young child feeding practices in Early Childhood Education and Care.
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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.
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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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Notley, Tanya M. "The role of online networks in supporting young people's digital inclusion and the implications for Australian government policies." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2008. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/19097/2/Tanya_Notley_Citation.pdf.
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This study examines young people’s internet access and use in nine locations in Queensland, Australia. The primary aim of the research is to assess if internet use supports young people’s social inclusion: that is, if internet use supports young people to participate in society in ways they have most reason to value.
The research findings demonstrate that the digital divide in Queensland – the gap between citizens with and without access to ICTs – continues to inhibit young people’s ability to participate online. This divide is embedded within historic, economic, social and cultural inequalities. To address this, this study proposes that a digital inclusion framework, founded on the concept of social inclusion, offers the Australian federal and state governments an opportunity to extend digital divide policies so that they connect with and complement broader social policy goals.
The research outcomes also illustrate that creative uses of online networks provide a powerful means through which young people can participate in a networked society. While young people’s access to a range of ICTs impacts on their ability to use online networks, gradations of use, social networks and informal learning contexts frequently act as mediators to support effective internet use. This study contends that by understanding the social benefits of young people’s online network use and the role that mediators play in different environments, we can move towards a policy framework that supports equitable opportunities for young people’s digital inclusion.
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Notley, Tanya M. "The role of online networks in supporting young people's digital inclusion and the implications for Australian government policies." Queensland University of Technology, 2008. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/19097/.
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This study examines young people’s internet access and use in nine locations in Queensland, Australia. The primary aim of the research is to assess if internet use supports young people’s social inclusion: that is, if internet use supports young people to participate in society in ways they have most reason to value.
The research findings demonstrate that the digital divide in Queensland – the gap between citizens with and without access to ICTs – continues to inhibit young people’s ability to participate online. This divide is embedded within historic, economic, social and cultural inequalities. To address this, this study proposes that a digital inclusion framework, founded on the concept of social inclusion, offers the Australian federal and state governments an opportunity to extend digital divide policies so that they connect with and complement broader social policy goals.
The research outcomes also illustrate that creative uses of online networks provide a powerful means through which young people can participate in a networked society. While young people’s access to a range of ICTs impacts on their ability to use online networks, gradations of use, social networks and informal learning contexts frequently act as mediators to support effective internet use. This study contends that by understanding the social benefits of young people’s online network use and the role that mediators play in different environments, we can move towards a policy framework that supports equitable opportunities for young people’s digital inclusion.
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Hallam, Adrienne Louise, and n/a. "Globalisation, Human Genomic Research and the Shaping of Health: An Australian Perspective." Griffith University. School of Science, 2003. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040812.114745.
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This thesis examines one of the premier "big science" projects of the contemporary era - the globalised genetic mapping and sequencing initiative known as the Human Genome Project (HGP), and how Australia has responded to it. The study focuses on the relationship between the HGP, the biomedical model of health, and globalisation. It seeks to examine the ways in which the HGP shapes ways of thinking about health; the influence globalisation has on this process; and the implications of this for smaller nations such as Australia. Adopting a critical perspective grounded in political economy, the study provides a largely structuralist analysis of the emergent health context of the HGP. This perspective, which embraces an insightful nexus drawn from the literature on biomedicine, globalisation and the HGP, offers much utility by which to explore the basis of biomedical dominance, in particular, whether it is biomedicine's links to the capitalist infrastructure, or its inherent efficacy and efficiency, that sustains the biomedical paradigm over "other" or non-biomedical health approaches. Additionally, the perspective allows for an assessment of whether there should be some broadening of the way health is conceptualised and delivered to better account for social, economic, and environmental factors that affect living standards and health outcomes, and also the capacity of globalisation to promote such change. These issues are at the core of the study and provide the theoretical frame to examine the processes by which Australian policy makers have given an increasing level of support to human genomic research over the past decade and also the implications of those discrete policy choices. Overall, the study found that globalisation is renewing and extending the dominance of the biomedical model, which will further marginalise other models of health while potentially consuming greater resources for fewer real health outcomes. While the emerging genomic revolution in health care may lead to some wondrous innovations in the coming decades, it is also highly likely to exacerbate the problems of escalating costs and diminishing returns that characterise health care systems in industrialised countries, and to lead to greater health inequities both within and between societies. The Australian Government has chosen to underwrite human genomic research and development. However, Australia's response to the HGP has involved both convergences and variations from the experiences of more powerful industrial nations. The most significant divergence has been in industry and science policy, where until the mid-1990s, the Australian Government displayed no significant interest in providing dedicated research funding, facilities, or enabling agencies to the emerging field. Driven by the threat of economic marginalisation and cultural irrelevance, however, a transformation occurred. Beginning with the Major National Research Facilities Program of the Department of Industry, Science and Technology, and then the landmark Health and Medical Research Strategic Review, support for human genomic research grew strongly. Comprehensive policy settings have recently been established to promote the innovation, commercialisation, promotion and uptake of the products of medical biotechnology and genomics. As such, local advocates of a broader model of health will be forced to compete on the political and economic stage with yet another powerful new area of biomedicine, and thus struggle to secure resources for perhaps more viable and sustainable approaches to health care in the 21st century.
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Brueckner, Martin. "Openness in the face of systemic constraints on science, public participation, and the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/127.
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The aim of this thesis is to explore the role of science and public participation in environmental policy-making processes in Australia. To this end, I analyse the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process, a recent Australian Federal Government initiative designed to resolve a longstanding dispute over native forest use and management. Theoretically underpinned by an open systems approach, the thesis employs a case study method for the analysis of the RFA process, using data from three distinct sources; interviews, RFA-related literature, and media content. The analysis of the RFA occurs against the historical background to this policy process and in context of contemporary discussions on science and public participation in natural resource conflicts. Interview data is used for the construction of a meta-narrative of the RFA from multiple stakeholder perspectives as a means of learning about the inclusiveness of, and the treatment of science during, the RFA process. The interview data is analysed using an adaptation of discourse analysis, the findings of which are integrated with information derived from the other data sources. This combined data set is then used to inform a systems critique of the Western Australian RFA process in view of gauging its perceived strengths and weaknesses. The analysis reveals a sense of systemic failure in the management of the Western Australian RFA, pointing towards a process and governing structures which constrained opportunities for stakeholder input and deliberation-based decision-making. A range of cultural, socio-political, and personality-based issues are seen to have given rise to constraints, underlying which is found to be an economic rationality subtly driving a systemic closure of political structures and processes. The resultant degree of closedness is shown to have caused an insensitivity of the political apparatus towards community opposition to, and scientific concerns about, commercial forestry, which is understood to have contributed to the social and political rejection of the process and its outcomes. In this thesis I unearth a paradox arising out of the political need to reduce and simplify the complexity inherent in messy socio-ecological affairs but in doing so adding ii complexity due to political over-simplification. The findings suggest that the political process depends on the trimming of complexity for pragmatic reasons but that, at the same time, the politicality of such closure demands deliberative approaches to negotiate the terms of closing so as to attain sustainable process outcomes. This thesis echoes calls from the literature in support of political and scientific pluralism. An opening of political structures and processes is suggested to enable and facilitate active stakeholder participation and decision-making. Similarly, it is argued that science also needs to become more open towards alternative, yet equally valid, modes of knowing and understanding so as to avert threats to its relevance and trustworthiness in political processes dealing with complex socio-ecological problems. Complex problems demand problem solving with requisite complexity. An openness of politics and science and the processes they engage in invites variety of perspective, which in turn increases capacity to deal effectively with socio-ecological messes. Finally, this thesis understands the dominance of economic rationality as a constraint for environmental policy-making, working against notions of openness and plurality and thus precluding trans-formational change in the structure, mode, and outcomes, of political decision-making. For its implicitness this constraint has so far defied needed societal reflection on its implications for science, society, politics, and nature, which is why this thesis stresses the need for explication and for searching pathways towards more balanced rationalities in policy making processes.
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Smith, Lois Anne. "Academic work practices in transnational education : a social practice theory approach to understanding the implementation of assessment-related policy in an offshore campus of an Australian university." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.524771.
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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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Robinson, Geoffrey 1963. "How Labor governed : social structures and the formation of public policy during the New South Wales Lang government of November 1930 to May 1932." Monash University, Dept. of History, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/9164.
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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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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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Orr, Jardine Andrea Frieda. "Remote indigenous housing system : a systems social assessment /." Access via Murdoch University Digital Theses Project, 2005. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20051103.134917.
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Merrington, Shannon E. "Dark networks : criminal collaboration in Australian police forces." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2017. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/103632/1/Shannon%20Elizabeth_Merrington_Thesis.pdf.
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The study aimed to investigate why police officers engage in corruption, the role of trust in facilitating and bonding officers together to allow them to participate in large-scale or serious corruption, and the network structures that result from these relationships. The findings revealed that officers collaborated and operated under a network structure reinforced by a subculture of unwritten rules, codes and acceptance by senior officers. This network was found to be dynamic, shifting in structure, membership and activity, but remained highly clustered and cohesive around a few core actors in the network. Additionally, the corruption network operated on relationships based on collaborations of trust. Officers used trustworthiness attributes, personal experience and third party information to assess whether a fellow officer was trustworthy enough to be a member of the corruption network, which resulted in a ‘pipeline’ of trust.
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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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Dwyer, Anna I. "Understanding police-Indigenous relations in remote and rural Australia: Police perspectives." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/121455/2/Anna_Dwyer_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis examined police and Indigenous relations in rural and remote contexts in Australia which historically and in contemporary times have often been contentious. Using a grounded theory approach, the police participants of this qualitative research provided insight as to how social factors such as ecological, organizational and occupational culture influenced their responses in discrete Indigenous communities. The findings revealed that ecological factors such as community dynamics and Indigenous culture heavily influenced police in how they responded to situations, more so than the influence of organizational and occupational culture. It found that ecological factors played a large role in shaping policing responses in discrete Indigenous communities.
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Nance, Andrew John. "Social/energy policy : an inquiry into the intersection of two policy domains with Australia's national electricity market." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2018. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10045226/.
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The introduction of competition to electricity markets has been a priority of energy policy in Australia for over 20 years. Throughout this process, economic efficiency objectives have had explicit primacy over social or environmental objectives. Neoliberalism, or economic rationalism as it is often referred to in Australia, not only radically changed the provision of electricity from the 1990s but recast the provision of welfare services by transferring many services from provision by government to provision by ‘private welfare agencies’. Energy policy and social policy can therefore be seen to have been placed on similar paths towards market-based provision of service to households. Importantly this has shifted many frontline responsibilities away from governments to energy retailers and community sector organisations. The electricity market’s consumer safety net has been described as a shared responsibility between industry, governments and community sector organisations. This shared responsibility represents the intersection of energy policy and social policy in Australia akin to fuel poverty policies internationally. However, this intersection is ill-defined and not systemically governed. The key role of community sector organisations in particular is rarely formalised. This research represents the first attempt to develop a coordinated national policy framework for the consumer safety net of Australia’s National Electricity Market. The research question that this thesis seeks to answer is: • When considering a consumer safety net for consumers in a liberalised electricity market, what is an appropriate analytical framework for policy and practice that can be used by stakeholders to improve governance and consumer outcomes? • Subsequently, what priorities emerge from this framework that could be advanced through the policy cycle? In response, this thesis provides a comprehensive, structured review and analysis of the relationship between energy policy and social policy at a time when electricity pricing is undergoing significant changes in terms of structures (tariff reform) and upward pressure as a result of climate change policies and the development of a natural gas export industry. - 4 - The theory and practice of public policy analysis is summarised and guides the structure of the thesis. The research argues for a systematic approach based on the pursuit of 5 public policy outcomes that reflect the interaction between household energy bills and energy, climate and social policies: ● Stable and Efficient Pricing AND ● Informed and engaged consumers AND ● Energy consumed efficiently and productively AND ● Robust consumer protections AND ● All households have a capacity to pay their energy bills This thesis provides context in Chapters 1 and 2 then a chapter is dedicated to each of the five policy outcomes. In each case, the research and analysis is presented in four parts that represent key stages of a policy cycle, the way in which public policy evolves over time: a review of the current arrangements; analysis to identify key issues; empirical analysis and; policy formulation. Consequently, priority policy issues are identified, and recommendations made in the concluding chapter.
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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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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
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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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Zufferey, Carole. "Homelessness, social work, socal policy and the print media in Australian cities." 2007. http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/43096.
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The social work response to homelessness emerges from particular historical, sociopolitical and economic contexts. It is influenced by public perceptions of service provision as represented in the print media and by political and policy processes. This research study examines dominant representations of homelessness and social work in the print media, social policy and social work practice. The focus of the thesis is how discourses from the Australian print media, social policy and social work practice co-exist in constructing homelessness as a particular social problem and influence social workers and social work responses to homelessness. Two research studies provide the empirical basis for this thesis. A mixed method approach is used. Firstly, a quantitative content analysis of newspaper articles in three Australian capital cities examines public discourses relevant to the constructions of homelessness, 'homeless people' and service provision. Secondly, a qualitative discourse analysis of interviews with social workers employed in the field of homelessness in inner city Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney explores how social workers make meaning of their identity and responses to homelessness in contemporary practice settings. The social work study highlights the varied and complex contributions of social workers to Australian policy and practice responses to homelessness, which is a new and important contribution to the existing body of research. The theoretical influences on this thesis are social constructionist, feminist, critical and post-modern social work perspectives. These varied approaches enable an analysis of power that incorporates contradictions, complexities and social work resistances (Pease and Fook, 1999).PhD Doctorate
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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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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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Kinmonth, Helen Anne. "The Social Construction of Obesity in an Australian Preventive Health Policy." Phd thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/101770.
Full textAbstract:
In Australia obesity is constructed by governments as a
leading risk factor for major, preventable, non-communicable
chronic disease. To investigate the failure of obesity policy to
stop or reverse the prevalence of obesity in Australia over the
last two decades calls have been made to better theorise obesity
as a problem. Social constructionism is identified as a useful
theoretical approach to analyse entrenched and socially complex
policy problems. Based on social constructionism a Critical
Social Constructionism methodology is created for use in this
thesis and is based on aspects of Bacchi’s critical policy
analysis methodology, ‘What’s the problem represented to
be?’. The Critical Social Constructionism methodology is a
practical and effective tool to critically analyse the policy
problem representation of obesity. A specific example of obesity
policy, the Australian Government Measure Up campaign along with
the historical and broader policy context of that campaign are
analysed. This analysis is assisted by the production of a
schema of obesity representations that differentiates biomedical
and social representations of obesity and by interviews with
experts in obesity and preventive health issues. It is widely
agreed in critical literature that the biomedical paradigm which
was developed in response to acute and infectious diseases
constructs health problems in a reductionist and individualistic
way. The first major conclusion of this thesis is that the
current dominant obesity problem for policy is constructed in a
biomedical model with important underexplored effects. A second
major conclusion holds that changing what the problem is
represented to be from a biomedical representation of obesity to
a social health representation faces extraordinary barriers that
make such a project both impractical and improbable. Therefore
this work explores the possibility of a radical disruption of the
representation of the problem as obesity in policy. Alternative,
‘weightless’ representations of the problem within current
research, public programs and medical practice are described and
proposed for consideration in future policy making aimed at more
effectively reducing the rates of major, preventable,
non-communicable chronic diseases in Australia.
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Porter, Tanja. "Policy debate in the age of social media: the Australian experience." Phd thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/118241.
Full textAbstract:
Public distrust and dissatisfaction with mainstream politics is a concern for many Western democracies. Governments have set great store in the potential for social media to reverse citizens retreat from politics and restore public confidence in policy making. According to the Australian government, the open and participatory character of social media will bring a diversity of citizens’ experiences into policy debates, enriching deliberation on policy solutions, and drive greater responsiveness and accountability from government and the political elite. This thesis investigates the extent to which social media is delivering on these expectations. Departing from the positivist assumptions and quantitative techniques that dominate research about social media in Australian politics, this thesis foregrounds the political context and policy dynamics within which social media is adopted. It examines how and with what strategic aims social media has been deployed by policy actors in three contemporary cases of public policy debate in Australia. These are: (i) the introduction of ‘lock-out’ laws and mandatory sentencing in response to alcohol-fuelled violence in Sydney; (ii) the decision to overhaul arrangements to support disabled Australians, as manifest in the National Disability Insurance Scheme and (iii) the level of personal control over end of life choices and attempts to legislate for voluntary euthanasia. Each of these debates is illustrative of the constant contest between policy actors over the role of contemporary government and the scope of citizen responsibilities and each therefore offer rich empirical insights into the ways social media may be influencing established democratic relations. With insights derived from elite actor communications, policy analysis and digital ethnography, the thesis finds social media being used by policy actors across the political spectrum in highly targeted strategies that both open new and compound existing channels to influence policy debate. For citizens and civil society, social media is facilitating a groundswell of personalised story-telling and mobilisation, while for government and formal political actors, social media enables more precise targeting and wider circulation of political messaging. Although the impact of this activity on policy vii outcomes is highly contingent on the policy relationships at play, the use of social media is largely consistent with government expectations. To assess whether the case evidence points to deepening democratic relationships, as is the express aim of government policy, the thesis draws on concepts from critical theory, namely Jurgen Habermas’ ‘public sphere’ and the normative framework it provides for political deliberation. When the evidence is viewed through this lens, it is apparent that social media also has various deleterious effects. For instance, it tends to amplify what Habermas called the ‘raw’ discourses of our private domain in the public sphere, therein weakening the independence and public-mindedness that underscores the legitimacy of public opinion. The thesis concludes that, rather than contributing wholly positively to citizens' deliberative capacity, social media accentuates long running trends that contribute to the democratic deficit. The juxtaposition of these two conclusions about the impact of social media paves the way for a discussion that provides a modest but significant contribution to the existing scholarship.
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Porter, Tanja Michelle. "Policy debate in the age of social media : the Australian experience." Phd thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/155544.
Full textAbstract:
Public distrust and dissatisfaction with mainstream politics is a concern for many Western democracies. Governments have set great store on the potential for social media to reverse the retreat of citizens from politics and restore public confidence in policy making. According to the Australian government, the open and participatory character of social media will bring a diversity of citizens' experiences into policy debates, enriching deliberation on policy solutions, and drive greater responsiveness and accountability from government and the political elite. This thesis investigates the extent to which social media is delivering on these expectations.Departing from the positivist assumptions and quantitative techniques that dominate research about social media in Australian politics, this thesis foregrounds the political context and policy dynamics within which social media is adopted. It examines how and with what strategic aims social media has been deployed by policy actors in three contemporary cases of public policy debate in Australia. These are: (i) the introduction of 'lock-out' laws and mandatory sentencing in response to alcohol-fuelled violence in Sydney; (ii) the decision to overhaul arrangements to support disabled Australians, as manifest in the National Disability Insurance Scheme and (iii) the level of personal control over end of life choices and attempts to legislate for voluntary euthanasia. Each of these debates is illustrative of the constant contest between policy actors over the role of contemporary government and the scope of citizen responsibilities and each therefore offer rich empirical insights into the ways social media may be influencing established democratic relations. With insights derived from elite actor interviews, policy analysis and digital ethnography, the thesis finds social media being used by policy actors across the political spectrum in highly targeted strategies that both open new and compound existing channels to influence policy debate. For citizens and civil society, social media is facilitating a groundswell of personalised story-telling and mobilisation, while for government and formal political actors, social media enables more precise targeting and wider circulation of political messaging. Although the impact of this activity on policy outcomes is highly contingent on the policy relationships at play, the use of social media is largely consistent with government expectations.To assess whether the case evidence points to deepening democratic relationships, as is the express aim of government policy, the thesis draws on concepts from critical theory, namely Jurgen Habermas's 'public sphere' and the normative framework it provides for political deliberation. When the evidence is viewed through this lens, it is apparent that social media also has various deleterious effects. For instance, it tends to amplify what Habermas called the 'raw' discourses of our private domain in the public sphere, therein weakening the independence and public-mindedness that underscores the legitimacy of public opinion. The thesis concludes that, rather than contributing wholly positively to citizens' deliberative capacity, social media accentuates long running trends that contribute to the democratic deficit. The juxtaposition of these two conclusions about the impact of social media paves the way for a discussion that provides a modest but significant contribution to the existing scholarship.