Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Modern Australia'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Modern Australia.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Modern Australia.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Ahmad, Abu Umar Faruq. "Law and practice of modern Islamic finance in Australia." View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/38404.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Business, School of Law, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.
2
Smith, Zena Diane. "Modern witchcraft in suburban Australia: how and what witches learn." Thesis, Curtin University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/383.
Full textAbstract:
Existing anthropological research and discussion related to contemporary Wiccan and Witchcraft practice is growing and indeed has been explored by anthropologists and other writers from the northern and southern hemispheres. However, there has been limited discourse on how and what Western Australian Wiccans and Witches learn. This ethnographic research fills that gap by exploring, in two separate sections, how Wiccans and Witches have developed relevant skills in a social learning structure and what ritual practice they have learnt as a result. The thesis proposes that the current theories of learning and ritual fail to adequately describe the social processes and outcomes observed.In the first section, focusing on how the participants learn, I argue that cognitive, behavioural and humanist learning theories as well as the most relevant social learning theory, Communities of Practice, fail to explain adequately the holistic learning processes with which the Wiccans and Witches are engaged. Instead I propose a new and complementary theory of learning that I identify as 'Whole Person’ theory that more effectively describes the holistic and intuitive nature of learning the research participants undertook.In the second section I go further to show that the existing theories of ritual fail to explore and consider ritual as a product or outcome of learning and instead focus heavily on ritual either as a process contributing to and reflecting the social order in which it takes place or they describe the structure of ritual. This research shows that ritual can be both a process of a social group as well as a product and an end result of learning and social interaction. The ethnographic materials presented extend our understanding of both learning and ritual.
3
Greenwood, David Robert. "The foliar physiognomic analysis and taphonomy of leaf beds derived from modern Australia rainforest." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1987. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phg8165.pdf.
Full text
4
Li, Zhifu (Tiger). "Dancing with the Dragon: Australia's Diplomatic Relations with China (1901-1941)." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/18400.
Full textAbstract:
By using little known primary sources in Chinese and English, this thesis will discuss Australia’s diplomatic relations with China, between 1901 and 1941. In March 1909, Liang Lanxun, China’s first consul-general arrived in Melbourne, Australia. Liang’s mission was to promote trade between China and Australia and as well to study the racial relations between Chinese and Australians. In 1921, Edward Little was appointed as Australia’s first trade commissioner in Shanghai, China. In 1929, the Chinese consulate moved from Melbourne to Sydney, due to the fact that Sydney had become the centre of the Chinese communities in the Oceania. I suggest that the Great Depression and the Second World War (Japan's expansion in the Pacific) forced Australian policy-makers to reconsider Australia’s geo-political position in the world. This is the first detailed research that treats Chinese diplomats in Australia and Australian diplomats in China between 1901 and 1941 as key historical subjects. In this thesis, I argue that Chinese diplomats used trade as a tool to fight against the White Australia policy between 1909 and 1941. I further argue Australia was more intertwined and connected with Asia, in this period than the existing literature suggested.
5
Wright, Christopher. "The rise of modern labour management : the formalisation of employment and work relations in Australian manufacturing industry, 1940-1972." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1990. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/26295.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis analyses the development of labour management practice in Australian manufacturing industry, focussing in particular on the period from the 1940s to the beginning of the 1970s. In so doing, the thesis aims first, to fill a gap within existing Australian research over the role of the employer in workplace industrial relations, and second to contribute to broader theoretical debates about management control of the labour process.
The post Second World War period was one of substantial change for Australian management. Industry grew rapidly, and with such growth there evolved an increasing sophistication in management techniques. A managerial ethos developed, represented by the establishment of professional bodies, the publication of management journals, and the provision of management education. Australian industry also became increasingly aware of overseas developments. Multinational firms and management consultancies, with established links to American and British industry, disseminated and introduced new management practices.
6
Loh, Shi Lin. "Irradiated Trajectories: Medical Radiology in Modern Japan." Thesis, Harvard University, 2016. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493463.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation examines the history of modern Japan via a study of rentogen, or X-rays, in medical practice. Conventional milestones in Japan’s encounters with nuclear science all date from 1945: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that same year, the Bikini Atoll fallout incident in 1954, the construction of nuclear power plants from the late 1950s onwards, and most recently, the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in 2011. All these events produced hibakusha – the Japanese term for survivors of nuclear-related accidents, or people suffering the effects of exposure to ionising radiation.
In contrast, this project locates the first hibakusha in an earlier period, revealing a history of radiation exposure in Japan before the atomic bombings. It reaches into the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to find Japanese bodies exposed through the development of radiology. In modern Japan, as in Western Europe and America, X-rays constituted the first source of ionizing radiation that produced victims of burns, cancers, and deaths. This study highlights the political, social and cultural impact of modern Western medicine on Japanese society from the Meiji period onwards, showing how electric-powered machines and Western expertise came to define medical practice in the emergent field of radiology.East Asian Languages and Civilizations
7
McCabe, Margaret. "Directors' perceptions of best practice in corporate governance in Australia." Thesis, Curtin University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2479.
Full textAbstract:
In this study directors of public listed companies around Australia gave their perceptions of best practice in corporate governance. A qualitative methodology within the constructivist paradigm was used along with a questionnaire thus making it a linked study. Mechanisms to assist in demonstrating rigour in the research process were developed and implemented as part of the research. The findings presented a description of best practice in corporate governance and a definition of corporate governance. Emerging from the findings was a model of best practice that was consistent with complex adaptive systems theory. Stakeholder theory was seen to provide the mechanism for developing activities that support the best practice model.
8
McCabe, Margaret. "Directors' perceptions of best practice in corporate governance in Australia." Curtin University of Technology, Graduate School of Business, 2002. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=16227.
Full textAbstract:
In this study directors of public listed companies around Australia gave their perceptions of best practice in corporate governance. A qualitative methodology within the constructivist paradigm was used along with a questionnaire thus making it a linked study. Mechanisms to assist in demonstrating rigour in the research process were developed and implemented as part of the research. The findings presented a description of best practice in corporate governance and a definition of corporate governance. Emerging from the findings was a model of best practice that was consistent with complex adaptive systems theory. Stakeholder theory was seen to provide the mechanism for developing activities that support the best practice model.
9
Carson, Susan J. "Making the modern : the writing of Eleanor Dark." Thesis, The University of Queensland, 1999. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/21029/1/CARSON_DARK_THESIS_PDF_%282%29.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation examines the published and unpublished work to date by Australian author Eleanor Dark (1901-1985). It discusses quite divergent aspects of Dark's work, ranging from her engagement with modernist writing styles to her interest in ecology and, in so doing, offers quite diverse perspetives on Australian women's writing in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
In this discussion, I consider Dark as a transitional author who deployed differing narrative modes, from realism to modernism, but also as an itnellectual writer who undertakes an ideological enquiry into her vision of an Australian 'nation.' In this study, I trace the ways in which Dark's writing has been eclipsed by a confluence of political machinations, literary critical strategies and, so some extent, the perceptions permitted by Dark herself. The dissertation calls attention to the tensions and ambivalences associated with creative aspiration in a period of accelerating change. In this examination certain feminist and cultural studies stragegies take precedence. The study endeavours to extend existing Dark criticism by focussing on the connections between, on the one hand, her varied writing techniques and thematic interests and, on the other, the wider perspectives of a newly-constituted nation's engagement with modernity.
10
Majchrowicz, Daniel Joseph. "Travel, Travel Writing and the "Means to Victory" in Modern South Asia." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467221.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation is a history of the idea of travel in South Asia as it found expression in Urdu travel writing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Though travel has always been integral to social life in South Asia, it was only during this period that it became an end in itself. The imagined virtues of travel hinged on two emergent beliefs: that travel was a requisite for inner growth, and that travel experience was transferable. Consequently, Urdu travel writers endorsed travel not to reach a particular destination but to engender personal development, social advancement and communal well-being. Authors conveyed the transformative power of travel to their readers through accounts that traced out their inner journeys through narratives of physical travel, an ideal echoed in an old proverb that re-emerged at this time: “travel is the means to victory.”
This study, which draws on extensive archival research from four countries, represents the most comprehensive examination of travel writing in any South Asian language. Through a diachronic analysis of a wealth of new primary sources, it indexes shifting valuations of travel as they relate to conceptualizations of the self, the political and the social. It demonstrates that though the idea of beneficial travel found its first expression in accounts commissioned by a colonial government interested in inculcating modern cosmopolitan aesthetics, it quickly developed a life of its own in the public sphere of print. This dynamic literary space was forged by writers from across the social spectrum who produced a profusion of accounts that drew inspiration from Indic, Islamic and European traditions. In the twentieth century, too, travel writing continued to evolve and expand as it adapted to the shifting dimensions of local nationalisms and successive international conflicts. In independent India and Pakistan, it broke new ground both aesthetically and thematically as it came to terms with the post-colonial geography of South Asia. Yet, throughout this history,Urdu travel writing continued to cultivate the idea that the journey was valuable for its own sake.Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
11
Gentry-Sheehan, Linnea 1948. "Gold and silver in the making of early modern Japan, 1550-1737." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278526.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the significance of gold and silver in the process of political consolidation and socioeconomic change in Japan from 1550 to 1737. I argue that the role of precious metals in the transformation of early modern Japan demands reassessment for several reasons: (1) control of the gold and silver mines had a significant impact on the ability of the warring overlords to consolidate their rule; (2) possession of gold and silver was indispensable to the establishment of the Tokugawa hegemony, a stable polity that lasted for 260 years; (3) gold and silver facilitated Japan's rapid commercialization; (4) gold and especially silver drew Japan into the dynamic system of international trade, which constituted the newly emerging world system of economic interdependence; and, (5) Japan's withdrawal from the world market system in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was related to the large losses of silver due to exports and the decline in mining production.
12
Nelson, David Gordon. "Law and order in the making of early modern Japan seventeenth-century Kanazawa castle town administration /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3278457.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2007.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-10, Section: A, page: 4432. Adviser: Richard Rubinger. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 19, 2008).
13
Johnson, Christopher. "Modern and historical data identify sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) habitat offshore of south-western Australia." Thesis, Johnson, Christopher (2013) Modern and historical data identify sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) habitat offshore of south-western Australia. Masters by Coursework thesis, Murdoch University, 2013. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/31750/.
Full textAbstract:
The distribution and use of pelagic habitat by sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) is generally poorly understood in Western Australia. However, a variety of data are becoming available via online portals where records of historical expeditions, commercial whaling operations, and modern scientific research voyages can now be accessed. Crowdsourcing these online data allows collation of presence-only information of offshore animals such as sperm whales and provides a valuable tool to help augment areas of poor research effort and fill in the gaps. Four data sources were examined, the primary one being the Voyage of the Odyssey expedition, a five-year global study of sperm whales and ocean pollution. From December 2001-May 2002, researchers surveyed 5200 nautical miles off Western Australia including historical whaling grounds off Albany and the Perth Canyon, an area previously known for pygmy blue whale distribution, using acoustic techniques and obtained 57 tissue biopsies. To augment areas not surveyed by the RV Odyssey, historical Yankee whaling data, commercial whaling data, and citizen science reports of sperm whale sightings were used. Using Maxent, a species distribution modeling tool, we found that the submarine canyons off Albany and Perth provide important habitat for sperm whales. Recent management measures implemented by the Australian government in this region were evaluated with respect to the sperm whale distribution model and only 1.8% of their predicted habitat occurs within a designated IUCN marine protected area restricting offshore activities.
14
Pagès, Anais. "Biogeochemical cycles (C, N, S, P and Fe) of modern and ancient microbialites (Western Australia)." Thesis, Curtin University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/53047.
Full textAbstract:
This PhD study focused on organic, inorganic and isotopic geochemical studies of modern stromatolites from Shark Bay, Western Australia (WA) and ancient stromatolites from the Pilbara, WA. In this project, the characterisation of microbial communities, biogeochemical cycles and influence of environmental conditions on microbial mat functioning were investigated. In addition, the preservation pathways of biosignatures in microbialites through time were explored, providing a better insight into the evolution of early-life.
15
Liando, Nihta V. F. "Foreign language learning in primary schools with special reference to Indonesia, Thailand and Australia /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARM/09arml693.pdf.
Full text
16
Tynan, R. W. "Stocking limits for South Australian pastoral leases : historical background and relationship with modern ecological and management theory." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2000. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AS/09ast987.pdf.
Full text
17
Patel, Dinyar Phiroze. "The Grand Old Man: Dadabhai Naoroji and the Evolution of the Demand for Indian Self-Government." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467241.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation traces the thought and career of Dadabhai Naoroji, arguably the most significant Indian nationalist leader in the pre-Gandhian era. Naoroji (1825-1917) gave the Indian National Congress a tangible political goal in 1906 when he declared its objective to be self-government or swaraj. I identify three distinct phases in the development of his political thought. In the first phase of his career, lasting from the mid-1860s until the mid-1880s, Naoroji posited the “drain of wealth” theory, which argued that British colonialism was dramatically impoverishing India by siphoning off its resources. Naoroji embedded a political corollary into his economic ideas, arguing that empowering Indians through political reform was the only way to stop the drain. As early as 1884, Naoroji declared that the ultimate objective of such reform was Indian self-government. Naoroji contended that the best chance for achieving political reform lay through influencing the British Parliament. In the second stage of his career, beginning in 1886, Naoroji took up this task by contesting a parliamentary seat. He constructed a broad alliance among various progressive British leaders—Irish home rulers, socialists, and women’s rights activists—and relied upon them and Indian allies to win election to the House of Commons in 1892. In Parliament, Naoroji pushed for the implementation of simultaneous civil service examinations, which he envisaged as the first step toward Indian self-government. Naoroji’s time in the Commons, however, was brief and disappointing, and in the third and final phase of his career, beginning in 1895, he radicalized considerably. He propounded his views on Indian poverty with renewed force while strengthening his ties with socialists and anti-imperialists in Britain and abroad. Concluding that imperialism was inherently economically exploitative, Naoroji declared that only swaraj could stop the drain of wealth.History
18
Nishiyama, Hidefumi. "Race, biometrics, and security in modern Japan : a history of racial government." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/77741/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is an historical study of biopolitical relations between racism and biometric identification in Japan since the late nineteenth century to the present day. Adopting Foucault’s historical method, it challenges progressive accounts of the history of racism and that of biometrics. During the nineteenth century, practices of biometric identification emerged as constitutive of the knowledge of race wherein imperial power relations between superior and inferior races were enabled. Progressive accounts proclaim that colonial practices of biometrics were not scientific but politically intervened, which has since been discredited and replaced by a ‘true’ science of biometrics as individualisation. Contra progressivist claims on postraciality, the thesis concretely historicises the ways in which subjectification and control of race is conducted through the interplay between the epistemic construction of race and the technology of identification in each historical and geographical context. It analyses three modalities of racial government through biometrics in Japan: biometrics as a biological technology of inscribing race during Japanese colonialism; biometrics as a forensic technology of policing former colonial subjects in post-WWII Japan; and contemporary biometrics as an informatic technology of controlling a newly racialised immigrant population. The thesis concludes that despite a series of de-racialising reforms in the twentieth century, biometrics persist as a biopolitical technology of race. Neither racism nor biometrics as a technology of race is receding but they are continuously transforming in a way that a new mechanism of racial government is made possible. Race evolves, it is argued, not in the sense of social Darwinism but because the concept of race itself changes across time and space wherein a new model of racism is empowered. The thesis contributes to existing literature on the biopolitics of security and biometrics by extending the scope of analysis to a non-Western context, explicating historical relations between racism and biometrics, and problematising biometric rationality at the level of racialised mechanism of knowing and controlling (in)security. It also makes contributions to Foucaultian studies by advancing the analysis of biopolitical racism beyond Foucault’s original formulation and by offering a critique of rationality in the field of biometrics.
19
Whitehouse, Denise Mary 1947. "The Contemporary Art Society of NSW and the theory and production of contemporary abstraction in Australia, 1947-1961." Monash University, Dept. of Visual Arts, 1999. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8387.
Full text
20
Eroglu, Sager Zeyneb Hale. "Islam in Translation: Muslim Reform and Transnational Networks in Modern China, 1908-1957." Thesis, Harvard University, 2016. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493376.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation investigates Chinese Muslim (Hui) intellectual currents from the late Qing dynasty to the early years of the Communist Republic, 1908–1957. By analyzing a vast number of Muslim reformist journals, Chinese translations of Islamic sources, and diaries/memoirs of intellectuals who were connected to other zones of the Islamic world, I examine the process by which reformists sought to redefine Chinese Muslim identity and revive “true principles of Islam”—both in negotiation with the Chinese state and in conversation with local and transnational intellectual currents. In particular, this dissertation considers the ways in which intellectuals struggled to “awaken” Chinese Muslims so as to transform their past identity as Muslim subjects of the Qing Empire into “politically conscious and active” citizens of the Chinese Republic. Chinese Muslims were defined either as a religious community or an ethnic group (minzu), and this debate occupied the minds of reformist intellectuals in this period, the topic of the first two chapters. How it was settled would determine the political, social, and religious status of the Muslim community in China, where definitions of nation and ethnicity/race were constantly reassigned. Debates concerning Muslim integration into China hinged on their connection to the global Muslim community (umma). Newly introduced technologies of travel and communication, such as the steamship and print, facilitated Chinese Muslims’ participation within transnational and cross-confessional networks. I argue that it was through the selection, appropriation, and adaptation of ideas from the prominent centers of the Islamic world that these intellectuals navigated a path of integration in the Chinese context that did not put their distinct Muslim identity at risk. From these diverse sources, they were determined to find solutions to the challenges they faced in China—whether posed by the hegemonic discourse of the Nationalist Party or the iconoclastic New Culture Movement. In successive chapters, I focus on the intellectual connection of Chinese Muslims to the Kemalist secularism of Turkey, the Ahmadi movement of India, and Egyptian reformist currents. Thus, I demonstrate how a seemingly “peripheral” Muslim community in the Far East participated in complex transnational networks at a critical moment of transformation.Inner Asian and Altaic Studies
21
Thomson, Jonathan Wyville. "From aestheticism to the modern movement: Whistler, the artists Colony of St. lves and Australia, 1884-1910." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2003. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B29293479.
Full text
22
Buchtmann, Lydia, and n/a. "Digital songlines : the adaption of modern communication technology at Yuendemu, a remote Aboriginal Community in Central Australia." University of Canberra. Professional Communication, 2000. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060619.162428.
Full textAbstract:
During the early 1980s the Warlpiri at Yuendemu, a remote Aboriginal community in
Central Australia, began their own experiments in local television and radio production.
This was prior to the launch of the AUSSAT satellite in 1985 which brought broadcast
television and radio to remote Australia for the first time. There was concern amongst
remote Aboriginal communities, as well as policy makers, that the imposition of mass
media without consultation could result in permanent damage to Aboriginal culture and
language. As a result, a policy review 'Out of the Silent Land' was published in 1985 and
from that developed the Broadcasting in Remote Aboriginal Communities Scheme
(BRACS) which allowed communities to receive radio and television from the satellite.
BRACS also provided the option to turn off mainstream media and insert locally
produced material.
This study of the Warlpiri at Yuendemu has found that, since the original experiments,
they have enthusiastically used modern communication technology including radio, video
making, locally produced television, and, more recently, on-line services. The Warlpiri
have adapted rather than adopted the new technology. That is they have used modern
communications technology within existing cultural patterns to strengthen their language
and culture rather than to replace traditional practices and social structures. The Warlpiri
Media Association has inspired other remote broadcasters and is now one of eight remote
media networks that link to form a national network via the National Indigenous Media
Association of Australia.
The Warlpiri have actively adapted modern communication technology because it is to
their advantage. The new technology has been used to preserve culture and language, to
restore, and possibly improve, traditional communications and to provide employment
and other opportunities for earning income. It appeals to all age groups, especially the
elders who have retained control over broadcasts and it also provides entertainment.
23
Williams, Court. "Sensitive skin." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2008. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28932.
Full textAbstract:
The work being considered for examination will be my gallery installation Affliction.
Consisting of approximately six hundred digitally printed and hand constructed three
dimensional models, it will be installed on the gallery floor as a part of the Postgraduate
Degree show at Sydney College of the Arts (Tuesday December 9th through to Wednesday
December 17th).
My masters project explores the isolation and dislocation experienced in the urban
environment and situates un-commissioned street art as a construct that potentially
generates modes of plurality through immediate encounter, collaboration and intervention.
My work explores the inter-activity of street art. This is done through a reading of Nicolas
Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics - a theory of art that takes as its theoretical horizon
the realm of human inter-actions in social spaces. 1 demonstrate the inter-activity of street
art through a discussion of my work as well as the work of three other street artists.
In doing so, 1 also draw attention to the virtual characteristics of the anonymous urban
environment by locating street art as a virtual representation of the art world, the street
artist as an avatar and the city surface as an online blog.
24
chu, danwei. "Perceptual Gaps in Modern US-Sino Relations As Portrayed by the Western Media." Thesis, Boston College, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/466.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis advisor: Rebecca NedostupAs my friends and I look forward to graduating this 2004, we are burdened with the task of carrying ourselves as delegates and agents of our respective societies. The challenge is even more exhaustive in the sense that the global landscape has been significantly altered as such so that we now live in a world which runs on a new breed of geopolitics; theories of interdependence perpetually interlock nation states in enduring fellowships of cooperation. Keeping this and the lessons that we've learned (both in the classroom and otherwise) in mind, there is an urgency to prevent and avoid future mass conflicts and ensure peaceful change. While this remains a worthy objective, the scope and complexities of modern-day world politics demands an understanding of a much wider range of issues. Moreover, new conceptual frameworks and theories are required to improve our understanding and assist in the development of better policies and practices. By human nature there naturally exists self-imposed obstacles and boundaries, which threaten to hinder progress. A more sophisticated knowledge and thorough education become essential countermeasures to safeguard growth and development. Within the realm of a research paper, the investigation and analysis of this subject can hardly be brought to a satisfactory conclusion within a reasonable amount of time. Therefore I choose to concentrate on the mechanisms, which shape the relationship between two highly visible, dominant and powerful global antagonists: the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. With the end of the Cold War era and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States was solidified as the most potent contender in the international arena. This title endured relatively undisputed and has remained fairly unchanged for the next decade thereafter. Interestingly enough though it was during this same period that China was concurrently grabbing headlines with its rapid development in many sectors. Analysts, professionals and experts are all in concurrence when they predict that by the first half of the 21st century this traditional Asian powerhouse will have met or surpassed the United States in stature and influence. It is reasonable, and accurate, to assume that US-Sino relations will have an unparalleled influence within the spectrum of international cooperation politically, culturally, and economically. Presently nations are vigilantly forming implicit alliances as they conceptually allocate themselves in favorable positions for the resurrection of a bipolar global infrastructure. From my delimited personal experience, I have unfortunately discovered a significant number of my peers are ignorant of these developing trends and the implications of this interrelationship. The purpose of this thesis is to converse with an audience comprised of individuals similar to those that I have met in these past four years, namely: intelligent and educated young Americans who are simply not informed of the nature, potential and circumstances surrounding US-Sino relations and policy. In this light, I intend to further specify the concentration of this study largely on the relationship that western media has with US-Sino relations. There will be a special emphasis and focus on the modern issue of human rights and trade. Furthermore, the bulk of the analysis will be limited within the timeframe of the three most recent American presidencies: George Bush (1989-1993), Bill Clinton (1993-2001), and George W. Bush (2001-present). The purpose of the first chapter is to give the reader a solid idea of the general issues that have plagued US-Sino relations in recent modern history. Again from personal experience it has come to my attention that the average American student has a narrow education concerning US-Sino relations often pervaded with misconceptions, which are not compensated for in personal readings. This recess of knowledge is particularly apparent concerning all episodes and trends that took place prior to the birth and maturation of our generation; mainly everything that took place before the early post-Cold war era of the 1980's. I feel that in order to have a solid grasp of current US-Sino relations, one must construct a respectable appreciation and foundation of knowledge concerning the historical events that took place from 1971 to the present.After this brief history lesson the thesis will explore the composite components that make up the media. It is from these resources that most college students in American draw their first and sometimes, only, impression of US-Sino relations. This section attempts to create a framework by which the media is broken down into its fundamental and more understandable elements. It is necessary to analyze the fabrics of the media; from the concept of self-perception, stereotypes, propaganda, and interest groups to the purpose that it serves as a median by which images of diplomatic-strategy are marketed. In short, the second chapter attempts to place the western media in a comprehensible light, enough so that the reader may continue with the remainder of the thesis with enough insight to make educated judgments. The dilemma between trade incentive and democratic moral ground is the key example that this thesis will use to illustrate the behavior of the mass media and the manners in which it can exert pressure on policy-making. Thus, a more mature understanding of the human rights debate is required. The third chapter explores the human rights issue in depth; tracing the evolution of the issue through contemporary history whilst highlighting this narrative with headlines from the press and mass media. The third chapter will additionally explore economics and trade relations in a similar manner using samples taken from primary sources. Finally, the core debate concerning these two issues will be scrutinized, analyzed and illustrated with headlines and proper examples from the media. In this realm analysis will naturally require some elements of subjective interpretation to hold any meaning. It is my hope that my audience will be able to walk away with that cultivated and deeper understanding not only of the media's capacity in shaping US foreign policy towards China but also the misleading conclusion that are often drawn from such a habit. It is important to keep in mind that perceptual gaps whether based on diverging cultures, histories, ideologies or all three, can be dangerous mental barriers. Because a significant portion of this thesis will also be concentrating on the manner in which lucrative trade and investment potential more often than not edge out the human rights concerns in modern US-Sino relations debates, the moral of the story will have to be interpreted by the reader him/herself. However, due to the fact that these issues, as well as the periphery issues that surround it, are so new and in a state of constant re-evolution, the fluidity of the subject makes it fairly difficult to draw conclusions. Moreover, it is also rather problematic to make firm stances and opinions either for one side or the other but I will write briefly on my own thoughts and opinions. Thus, ultimately I write this thesis in hopes to raise the issue of US-Sino cooperation into the consciousness of the young American mindset by providing an intelligent background upon which they may draw their own summations while being conscious of the influential ideas propagated by the media and the press around them
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: College Honors Program
25
Hardwick, Carole. "The dissemination and influence of Willem M. Dudok's work in the climate of modernism in architecture in Australia, 1930-1955." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/18154.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis studies the role of the European modem architect, the Dutchman Willem Marinus Dudok, in the dissemination of certain aspects of the concepts of architectural modernism in Australia from 1930 to the mid-1950s, and examines the manner in which his works and ideas were actually transferred. The thesis establishes the significance of Dudok's role in the Australian architectural context. An introductory discussion of European architectural modernism is presented so that Dudok's position can be understood in relation to it. This is followed by an examination of Dudok's professional life and architectural works. His buildings are analysed according to general principles and specific characteristics, all of which are illustrated by examples. Dudok's standing as an important modem architect is supported by a study of his relationship to European modern architecture, including prior and contemporary Dutch architecture. The connections between Dudok and Frank Lloyd Wright and their respective architectures are briefly investigated. Australian modernism is discussed in broad terms to establish the cultural context within which modem architecture evolved in that country. The development of modem architecture is described by examining the architectural debate conducted at the time of its emergence, and by an analysis of modern buildings. Architects, from both the public and private sectors, whose buildings demonstrate an understanding of the principles and Ill practice of modern architecture are identified and their work is examined for any evidence of Dudok's intluence. The thesis also examines the vehicles through which such Australian architects became aware of Dudok's architecture and demonstrates that these were many and diverse. Three significant means are identified: first, photographs of Dudok's architecture and articles about it in Australian and overseas professional and popular journals; second, the experiences of those Australian architects who travelled to the Netherlands specifically to look at Dudok's architecture; third, the awareness of his work that existed among Australian architects working in the United Kingdom. Of particular note was the role of the Architectural Association in London in informing Australian architects about Dudok. This thesis suggests that many modem buildings designed and built in Australia during the period 1930 to the mid-1950s displayed characteristics in their built form that can be directly sourced to Dudok's architecture. It concludes that Dudok had a widespread influence on modern buildings in Australia during the 1930s and 1940s, and his intluence remains evident in occasional buildings designed during the early 1950s.
26
Knezevic, Nina. "Interpreting the autobiographical archive." Phd thesis, Sydney College of the Arts, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/13893.
Full text
27
Ren, Wei. "The Writer's Art: Tao Yuanqing and the Formation of Modern Chinese Design (1900-1930)." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17465116.
Full textAbstract:
The dissertation examines the history of modern design in early 20th-century China. The emergent field of design looked to replace the specific cultural and historical references of visual art with an international language of geometry and abstraction. However, design practices also, encouraged extracting culturally unique visual forms by looking inward at a nation’s constructed past. The challenge of uniting these dual, and seemingly contradictory, goals was met in a collaborative book cover design project between Lu Xun (1881-1936), China’s most influential modern writer, and Tao Yuanqing (1893-1929), a painter who transformed ancient motifs into a transnational vocabulary of modern design.
As the title suggests, the dissertation provides a history of modern Chinese design in four chapters, with the Lu Xun-Tao Yuanqing collaboration at its core. The investigation begins with the moment of culmination, wherein Lu Xun and Tao Yuanqing’s intersubjective dynamic allowed for evocative yet inscrutable book cover designs to be created. In the new medium of design, the writer’s anxiety regarding the inadequacy of language converged with the artist’s desire for ambiguity in art. The critical analysis then moves back to earlier instances of design and examines how the history of design in China was inflected by the World Exposition, Japan, art education, and commercial art. The inquiry finally moves forward to the discussion of Tao Yuanqing’s art and design’s relationship with a range of discursive fields in aesthetics and literary criticism, including modern notions of beauty, childlikeness, empathy, the native soil movement, cosmopolitanism, symbolism, and ambiguity in art. This part reveals how Tao Yuanqing’s innovations ironically endorsed while simultaneously subverting contemporary interpretive efforts.History of Art and Architecture
28
Nieuwenhuis, Marijn. "Producing China : the politics of space in the making of modern China." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2013. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/60419/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis entails an analysis of the relationship between space and politics in the construction and legitimisation of modern China. The thesis argues that the production of space has since the onset of modernity in China, in itself very much a spatial process, played a substantial yet, largely unexplored and academically unacknowledged role in both the construction of the nation state and the legitimisation of political ideologies. I wish to show that the production of modern space has since the mid-17th century played an increasingly vital role in the abstract concretisation and the everyday diffusion of the geographic imagination of the Chinese nation state. The state, in other words, legitimises its existence through the reification of space. This thesis contributes to a historical and spatial understanding of the role of geographies of power in creating an alternative understanding of what China is and how it is (re-)produced spatially. Such an understanding problematises the realised abstraction of the Chinese nation state and politicises the production and representation of space in China. The thesis thus questions notions of Chinese essentialism, Chinese history, Chinese architecture and other expressions of state spaces. The position that this thesis takes is that the production of space gives form and meaning to the political. The thesis looks at a variety of spatial techniques of power by analysing the politics of cartography, urban planning, architecture and other forms of production of space. By emphasising the politics of space, this thesis is a work of political geography on the subject of modern Chinese state space. This thesis comprises six chapters, an introduction and a conclusion.
29
Waldmann, Anna. "Desiderius Orban: an Australian romantic." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1987. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/26267.
Full textAbstract:
Desiderius Orban (1884-1986) was born in Hungary. He had been a successful painter and teacher in his country of origin and came to Australia in 1939 as a mature and formed artist. He gained recognition in the Sydney art circles relatively soon after his arrival, had a large number of exhibitions, took part in numerous competitions, became a member of various art groups. Orban published three books and ran an art school from 1941 until his death in October 1986. In an unpublished autobiography written in 1965, Orban commented about his artistic career:
I always had doubt of my achievements. From nature I am sceptical towards my ability. I feel that my progress was a slow but a steady one. From the beginning my intellect played more important part than my emotions. On the other hand nearly all of my paintings have a romantic hint. This contradiction puzzled me a lot. I tried to fight against this romanticism without any success. Apparently my subconscious and my conscious mind disagree.
In his teaching and writings Orban pursued the idea that a creative mind is a mind free of prejudice. In his paintings however, he was unable to flee from the restrictions of conventionalism until the 1960s Orban's desire to translate his creed into artistic terms was hindered by technical limitations. In Orban, the distinction between aesthetic thought and method of expression had produced a constant struggle that resulted in decades of influential romantic teaching and accomplished rather than distinguished middle-of-the-road painting. The denouement of this struggle was achieved in the latter part of his lit when Orban abandoned his semi-illusionist methods. Orban's threefold career as a painter, writer and teacher, was intertwined and has to be viewed in the context of Hungarian and Australian art and thinking, as well as politics and perceptions.
30
Haller, Christian. "Application of Modern Foraminiferal Assemblages to Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction: Case Studies from Coastal and Shelf Environments." Scholar Commons, 2018. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7627.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of paleoenvironmental studies is to reconstruct characteristics of the past environment from fossil assemblages preserved in sedimentary strata. Thus, studies of modern surface assemblages, quantitatively correlated to the environmental parameters, are required before reliable interpretations can be made. For this dissertation, two different techniques were applied in two case studies: a reconstruction making use of a benthic foraminiferal transfer function from the intertidal marshes in the eastern Mississippi Sound, Alabama/Mississippi, and a qualitative reconstruction of ocean current activity on the Western Australian shelf.
Modern salt-marsh foraminifera were collected from Grand Bay, Pascagoula, Fowl River, and Dauphin Island across several elevation transects and different salinity regimes. Cluster analysis yielded nine dead biofacies and five live assemblages from Open Estuarine to Upland Transition. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated a strong relationship between distributions of dead biofacies and elevation. Both dissolution of calcareous species in the organic marsh sediment and the long-term accumulative nature of the dead assemblage favored the use of non-estuarine dead assemblages. A Weighted Average-Partial Least Squared transfer function was applied to the surface data and yielded a Root Mean Squared Error of Prediction (RMSEP) of 0.14 m, which represents 33% Mean Range of Tide at Grand Bay and 39% at Dauphin Island. The transfer function was applied to two sedimentary cores from Grand Bay and two from Dauphin Island, which revealed disparate developments between the regions during the last 1,900 years. While both Dauphin Island cores indicated relative sea-level trends aligned with other Gulf of Mexico studies, Grand Bay was likely impacted by a river avulsion event disconnecting Grand Bay from fluvial sediment influx, and by the erosion of a protective headland, Grand Batture Island. Sediments spanning the last ~100 years contained increased abundances of low marsh foraminifera likely associated with coastline erosion, which was most prominently displayed by a lithology shift towards grey silt in the Dauphin Island cores.
Surface carbonate sediments from Western Australia’s Northwestern Shelf and Carnarvon Ramp were collected from 127–264 m water depth. Foraminiferal assemblages changed between 127 m and 145–264 m due to rapidly decreasing water temperature in the thermocline, and loss of sufficient light for support of “larger” benthic foraminifera. Latitudinal differences were likely caused by three factors: (1) limited influence of the warm Leeuwin Current to support tropical taxa at the sampled depths, (2) reduced habitat diversity on the narrow Carnarvon Ramp compared to surrounding shelves, and (3) differing water-mass characteristics. The gathered information was used to interpret the assemblages from a Carnarvon Ramp core (total depth 300 m), providing insight into the activity of the warm, surficial Leeuwin Current for the last 3.54 My (Pliocene). Abundant infaunal taxa were inferred to indicate low oxygenation, increased supply of organic matter, and high sea-surface productivity during the absence of the Leeuwin Current above the coring site. Dominance of epifaunal species signified higher oxygenation at the sediment-water interface when upwelling of nutrient-rich waters was effectively suppressed by the Leeuwin Current. Around 1.14 Ma, waning of hypoxic conditions was initiated until a more substantial change was marked at 0.91 Ma. Suspension-feeding sponges became common sediment constituents during a Leeuwin Current flow optimum at ~0.6 Ma. The epifaunal taxa dominance persisted on the modern shelf, yet short episodes of infaunal peaks were likely caused by lateral shifts and fluctuating influence of the Leeuwin Current during more intense glacial cycles.
31
Kwon, Shinyoung. "From colonial patriots to post-colonial citizens| Neighborhood politics in Korea, 1931-1964." Thesis, The University of Chicago, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3595935.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation explored Korean mass politics through neighborhood associations from the late 1930s to 1960s, defining them as a nationwide organization for state-led mass campaigns. They carried the state-led mass programs with three different names under three different state powers -Patriotic NAs by the colonial government and U.S. occupational government, Citizens NAs under the Rhee regime and Reconstruction NAs under Park Chung Hee. Putting the wartime colonial period, the post liberation period and the growing cold war period up to the early 1960s together into the category of "times of state-led movements," this dissertation argued that the three types of NAs were a nodal point to shape and cement two different images of the Korean state: a political authoritarian regime, although efficient in decision-making processes as well as effective in policy-implementation processes. It also claimed that state-led movements descended into the "New Community Movement" in the 1970s, the most successful economic modernization movements led by the South Korean government.
The beginning of a new type of movement, the state-led movement, arose in the early 1930s when Japan pushed its territorial extension. The colonial government, desperate to reshape Korean society in a way that was proper to the Great East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere and wartime mobilization, revised its mechanism of rule dependent on an alliance with a minority of the dominant class and tried to establish a contact with the Korean masses. Its historical expression was the "social indoctrination movement" and the National Spiritual General Mobilization Movement. Patriotic NAs, a modification of Korean pre-modern practice, were the institutional realization of the new mechanism. To put down diverse tensions within a NA, patriarchal gatherings made up of a male headman and male heads of household were set up.
Central to their campaigns—rice collection, saving, daily use of Japanese at home, the ration programs and demographic survey for military drafts—was the diverse interpretation of family: the actual place for residence and everyday lives, a symbolic place for consumption and private lives, and a gendered place as a domestic female sphere. The weakest links of the imperial patriarchal family ideology were the demands of equal political rights and the growing participation of women. They truly puzzled the colonial government which wanted to keep its autonomy from the Japanese government and to involve Korean women in Patriotic NAs under the patriarchal authority of male headmen.
The drastic demographic move after liberation, when at least two million Korean repatriates who had been displaced by the wartime mobilization and returned from Japan and Manchuria, made both the shortage of rice and inflation worse. It led the U.S. military occupational government not only to give up their free market economy, but also to use Patriotic NAs for economic control—rice rationing and the elimination of "ghost" populations. Although the re-use of NAs reminiscent of previous colonial mobilization efforts brought backlash based on anti-Japanese sentiment, the desperation over rice control brought passive but widespread acceptance amongst Koreans.
Whilst renaming Patriotic NAs as Citizens NA for the post-Korean War recovery projects in the name of "apolitical" national movements and for the assistance of local administration, the South Korean government strove to give it historical legitimacy and to define it as a liberal democratic institution. They identified its historical origins in Korean pre-modern practices to erase colonial traces, and at the same time they claimed that Citizens NAs would enhance communication between local Koreans and the government. After the pitched political battle in the National Congress in 1957, Citizens NAs got legal status in the Local Autonomy Law. The largest vulnerability to Citizens NAs lied in their relation to politics. While leading "apolitical" national movements as well as assisting with local administration tasks, they were misused in elections. Consequently, they were widely viewed as an anti-democratic institution because they violated the freedom of association guaranteed by the Constitution and undermined local autonomous bodies. In the end, they lost their legal status in Local Autonomy Law, with Rhee regime collapsed.
When Park Chung Hee succeeded in his military coup in 1961, he resuscitated NAs in the name of Reconstruction NAs for the "Reconstruction" movement with the priority being placed on economic development. However, civilians were against the re-use of NAs, with the notion that the governments politically abused them. Finally, the arbitrary link between state power and the NAs waned throughout the 1960s, passing its baton to the "New Community Movement" which began in 1971and swept through Korean society until the 1980s. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
32
Orbach, Dan. "Culture of Disobedience: Rebellion and Defiance in the Japanese Army, 1860-1931." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467476.
Full textAbstract:
Imperial Japanese soldiers were notorious for following their superiors to certain death. Their enemies in the Pacific War perceived their obedience as blind, and derided them as “cattle”. Yet the Japanese Army was arguably one of the most disobedient armies in the world. Officers repeatedly staged coups d’états, violent insurrections and political assassinations, while their associates defied orders given by both the government and high command, launched independent military operations against other countries, and in two notorious cases conspired to assassinate foreign leaders.
The purpose of this dissertation is to explain the culture of disobedience in the Japanese armed forces. It was a culture created by a series of seemingly innocent decisions, each reasonable in its own right, which led to a gradual weakening of the Japanese government’s control over its army and navy. The consequences were dire, as the armed forces dragged the government into more and more of China in the 1930s, and finally into the Pacific War. This dissertation sheds light on the underground culture of disobedience that became increasingly dominant in the Japanese armed forces, until it made the Pacific War possible.
Using primary sources in five languages, it follows the Army’s culture of disobedience from its inception. By analyzing more than ten important incidents from 1860 to 1931, it shows how some basic “bugs” programmed into the Japanese system in the 1870s, born out of genuine attempts to cope with a chaotic and shifting reality, contributed to the development of military disobedience. The culture of disobedience became increasingly entrenched, making it difficult for the Japanese civilian and military leadership to cope with disobedient officers without paying a significant political price. However, every time the government failed to address the problem, it became more acute. Finally, disobedient military officers were able to significantly influence foreign policy, pushing Japan further towards international aggression, limitless expansion, and conflict with China, Britain and the United States.History
33
Ohren, Dana M. "All the Tsar's men minorities and military conscription in Imperial Russia, 1874-1905 /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3203866.
Full text
34
Kao, Chia-li. "Imperialist ambiguity and ambivalence in Japanese and Taiwanese literature, 1895-1945." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3345077.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Comparative Literature, 2008.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Oct. 5, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-02, Section: A, page: 0570.
35
Nishiyama, Takashi. "Swords into plowshares civilian application of wartime military technology in modern Japan, 1945-1964 /." Connect to this title online, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1104324814.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 246 p.; also includes graphics (some col.) Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-242).
36
McManus, Stuart Michael. "The Global Lettered City: Humanism and Empire in Colonial Latin America and the Early Modern World." Thesis, Harvard University, 2016. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493519.
Full textAbstract:
Historians have long recognized the symbiotic relationship between learned culture, urban life and Iberian expansion in the creation of “Latin” America out of the ruins of pre-Columbian polities, a process described most famously by Ángel Rama in his account of the “lettered city” (ciudad letrada). This dissertation argues that this was part of a larger global process in Latin America, Iberian Asia, Spanish North Africa, British North America and Europe. It is thus a study of the “global lettered city,” known to contemporaries as the “republic of letters,” from its rapid expansion in the sixteenth century to its reordering in the Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions with a particular focus on the function of its key scholarly-literary practice, classicizing rhetoric and oratory as revived by renaissance humanists.
This dissertation is divided into five chapters. In Chapter 1, I argue that renaissance humanism and classical rhetoric played a pivotal role in shaping and diffusing the political ideology of the global Spanish Monarchy. As the centerpieces of multisensory Baroque rituals regularly celebrated in urban centers, such as Mexico City, Lima, and Manila, classicizing orations and sermons bolstered the Spanish Monarchy through appeals to Greco-Roman imperial models and Christian humanist ideas of virtue. In the same vein, in Chapter Two, I argue that classical rhetoric was an instrument of global spiritual conquest on the Jesuit route from Rome to Japan.
This dissertation then treats some less well-known applications of humanism and the classical rhetorical tradition, cultural practices that also served to undermine or even directly oppose European imperial ambitions. In Chapter 3, I examine the role of late-humanist eloquence and erudition in the expression of a local “Mexican” identity. In Chapter 4, I show that late-humanism served to build community in Benjamin Franklin’s quarter of the “global lettered city.” Finally, in Chapter 5, I examine the role of post-humanist classicizing rhetoric in the articulation of radical political and social ideas in Age of Revolutions. In preparing this global history, I have examined primary sources in thirteen countries.History
37
Wheeler, Jenny, and n/a. "An Australian experience of modern racism: the nature, expression and measurement of racial prejudice, discrimination and stereotypes." University of Canberra. Human & Biomedical Sciences, 2001. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060427.134111.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis aimed to investigate the changing nature, expression and
measurement of contemporary racist attitudes, discriminatory behaviours and racial
stereotypes in an Australian context. The first principal aim of this thesis was to
further establish the psychometric properties of the Symbolic Racism Extended Scale
(Fraser & Islam, 1997b). Study 1 revealed good psychometric properties for the
Symbolic Racism Extended Scale as a measure of symbolic (modern) racist attitudes
in Australian populations. The study also found support for incorporating modern
racism items within a 'social issues' questionnaire format to reduce reactivity
concerns associated with self-report measures.
The second principal aim of this thesis (Studies 2 and 3) was to explore the
nature, prevalence and potential sources of contemporary racist attitudes, and
associated discriminatory behaviours, in an Australian context. Study 2 detected a
sizeable proportion of modern racist attitudes in both the University and ACT
Secondary College student samples. The nature of modern racist attitudes in the
population samples maintained clear consistencies with key tenets of contemporary
theories of racial prejudice. Overall the study provided further empirical evidence of
the nature, tenets and potential socio-demographic sources of modern racist attitudes
in Australian populations.
Study 3 explored modern racists' discriminatory behaviours in conditions of
low racial salience. In an employment-hiring task, high and low prejudiced
participants (university undergraduates) revealed significantly different employment
hiring preferences for an Aboriginal applicant. In providing Australian empirical
evidence of modern racists' discriminatory behaviours, the study also discussed
methodological implications for future Australian research investigating the
discriminatory behaviours of modern racists.
The third principal aim of this thesis was to provide further analysis of the
measurement of contemporary racist attitudes, specifically to examine concerns
pertaining to the measurement of racial attitudes through implicit techniques. Implicit
free-response measurement of Australian racial stereotypes in Study 4 revealed that
high and low prejudiced participants (as measured by the SR-E) were equally
knowledgable of the cultural stereotypes of Aboriginals, Asians and immigrants.
Cultural knowledge of the implicit stereotypes was found to be predominantly
independent of prejudicial beliefs, lending support to concerns (Devine, 1989; Devine
& Elliot, 1995) that implicit measures of racial prejudice may actually be measuring
an individual's cultural knowledge of the primed racial group, rather than his or her
prejudicial beliefs.
The fourth principal aim of this thesis was to investigate the content of
Australian racial stereotypes. Study 4 revealed the implicit content of the cultural
stereotypes of Aborigines, Asians and immigrants to be predominantly negative in
nature. In response to the predominantly negative content of the Aboriginal cultural
stereotype, Study 5 investigated whether the recategorising of ingroup boundaries and
disconfirming information, relating to Aboriginal Australians, observed in the recent
Sydney Olympic Games would result in changes to the content of the cultural
stereotype. The study found significant decreases and increases in the negative and
positive traits respectively reported as being part of the cultural stereotype of
Aborigines, two weeks following the Sydney Olympic Games.
Together, the five studies contributed to empirical research on the changing
nature, expression and measurement of contemporary racist attitudes, discriminatory
behaviours and racial stereotypes in Australian populations. A number of theoretical
and practical implications of the present findings for Australian prejudice research are
addressed and discussed. Furthermore, a number of practical recommendations for
future research are identified to further investigate the modern nature of racist attitudes in Australian populations.
38
Roche, Judith D. "The role of the artist at the beginning of the twenty-first century: An exploration of dialectical processes in art and science with particular reference to biologically based art." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2005. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1571.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the role of the artist at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It focuses on the interaction between art and science in an exploration of the dialectical processes that may occur in that interaction. Researchers have recently developed techniques in stem cell technology and genetic modification that offer remarkable potential and bring possible advantages and disadvantages for scientists and the wider community. In response to these new technologies, scientists and artists have developed collaborative projects and, in some instances, artists have moved from the studio to the science laboratory to create work called sci-art, bio-art, or moistmedia. This new inter-disciplinary activity affords prospects of dialectical processes: it crosses many boundaries and disturbs some existing conventions and practices, and, for the artists involved, the access to innovative materials has moved their work into areas of new skills and concepts. The extent to which traditional artists and those with collaborative sci-art practices contribute to the debate on important social and cultural issues forms part of this study. The research data was gathered during semi-structured interviews with scientists and artists, of whom three scientists and five artists are involved in sci-art collaborations. Proposed dialectical processes identified in the data are outlined throughout the document. A discussion about the ways in which contemporary art and artists are located within the current social and cultural environment; the status accorded visual art education today; and the manner in which commentators and other members of the public regard the elements and functions of art, forms the initial framework. This is followed by an overview of biologically based art practices, worldwide, that provides a background for a discussion of sci-art collaborations. These collaborations are initiated by a wide range of individuals and organisations and, according to the participants, the intentions of the originator or funding body have the potential to influence the outcome of the collaboration. The research explores possible conflicts of interest between the parties involved in these interactions, and any perceived implications for creative freedom. This study also examines current attitudes towards the notion of creativity in science and art, the avant-garde, and the relevance of philosophy and theory in art practices. It discusses the extent to which technology influences the creative process, and highlights issues that augment, interrogate or philosophise about the role of the contemporary artist. The research found that, although the notion of Snow’s ‘two cultures’ still has supporters, there are more similarities than dissimilarities between scientists and artists. Although some instances of Hegelian dialectical processes were identified, the data residing in many of the participants’ responses called for a more post-structuralist, non-linear approach to the dialectic as described by Jervis (1998), Janesick (2000) and others. In this way, the data drew attention to many complex issues and tensions that emanate from the interaction between art, science, technology, government and commerce, and the interaction between artists and the culture and society in which they live at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
39
Tzavaras, Annette. "Transforming perceptions of Islamic culture in Australia through collaboration in contemporary art." Faculty of Creative Arts, 2008. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/120.
Full textAbstract:
My creative work investigates the negative space, the ‘in between space’ that leads to new knowledge about other artists and other cultures. The fundamental and distinctive elements of Islamic pattern in my paintings in the exhibition Dialogue in Diversity are based on my own experience of misinformation as well as rewarding collaboration within a culturally blended family.This research explores the continuity of the arabesque and polygon. I experiment with the hexagon and its geometric shapes, with its many repeat patterns and the interrelatedness of the negative space, or the void indicative of the space between layers of past and present civilizations that are significant fundamentals in my paintings.The thesis Transforming perceptions of Islamic culture in Australia through collaboration in contemporary art traces the visual history of Orientalist art, beginning with a key image of Arthur Streeton, Fatima Habiba, painted in 1897 and contrasts Streeton’s perception with that of important Islamic women artists working globally such as Emily Jacir who participated in the Zones of Contact 2006 Biennale of Sydney.A core element of my research is working with emerging artists from Islamic backgrounds in Western Sydney. The February 2007 exhibition Transforming Perceptions Via . . . at the University of Wollongong brought together artists from east and west.By adopting the Islamic pattern in my paintings, I hope to strengthen the interaction between the Christian and Muslim interface in Australian contemporary society. My work contemplates the human aspects of relationships and responsibilities within the cross cultural spectrum.
40
Anderson, Jay Lachlin. "Life Writing and Rural Queer Studies: Queerying the Spatialisation of Modern Sexual Identities in Australia and Six Hundred Something Kilometres." Thesis, Curtin University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/83185.
Full textAbstract:
This research thesis explores significant criticisms levelled by academics of rural queer studies— the spacialisation of modern LGBTIQ+ identity, politics and academia and a metronormative narrative that (re)produces it. Through the practice-led research methodology of Dallas Baker’s “queer life writing,” I argue that creative writing can resist the demands of metronormativity by employing what Scott Herring refers to as a “rural stylistics” and attempt to provide examples of contemporary Australian writers who have done so.
41
WANG, XIAOXUAN. "Saving Deities for the Community: Religion and the Transformation of Associational Life in Southern Zhejiang, 1949-2014." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:23845455.
Full textAbstract:
My dissertation examines the post-1949 transformation of religious and
organizational culture in rural Ruian County of the Wenzhou region, Zhejiang. It explores
the diversified adaptation patterns adopted by rural religious organizations in order to
preserve, reinvent and even expand themselves in the volatile sociopolitical environment
of post-1949 China. Based on hitherto unexploited government documents collected from
local state archives, memoirs, historical accounts of religious organizations, as well as
extensive oral interviews with Ruian residents, I demonstrate that, rather than following a
linear and uniform decline that conventional wisdom suggests, religious organizations
took divergent paths in Ruian during the Maoist era. The level of religious activities in
Ruian and many regions of Zhejiang exhibited fluctuations over time rather than a linear
downward movement. The Maoist period, I argue, was both destructive and constructive
for religion. By stripping religious organizations of their traditional leadership and
economic foundation, Maoist campaigns inadvertently accelerated the organizational
reinvention of Chinese religions. Even more far-reaching, the Cultural Revolution
dramatically stimulated a quick rise of Protestantism vis-à-vis other religions and
fundamentally reshaped the religious landscape in parts of China, making China no
exception to the global trend of religious resurgence, despite its isolation at the time.
Religion in today’s China and related phenomena, in particular the uneven distribution of
religious revival, the development patterns of rural organizations, and state-religion
relations, cannot be fully explained without reference to the Maoist legacy.East Asian Languages and Civilizations
42
Krumrey, Brett Alan 1968. "Japanese written language reforms during the Allied Occupation (1945-1952): SCAP and romanization." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278364.
Full textAbstract:
This paper discusses the Romaji Movement and its role in the reform of the Japanese written language during the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952). Past analyses concerning the Romaji Movement have suggested that romanization failed due to conspiracies against it and have neglected to consider other alternatives being pursued by the Japanese government. This paper will take a closer look at the Americans who supported romanization, their motivations for doing so, and the development of SCAP policy towards language reform. Since simplification, not romanization, was the preferred objective of both the American and the Japanese governments, this paper goes on to examine alternative methods to simplification which, in the end, proved to be highly successful.
43
Bryant, Gai. "Cuban Folkloric and Traditional Music Styles: rumba, danzón, punto libre and bolero adapted for Jazz Big Band in Australia using Modern Compositional Techniques." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/15760.
Full textAbstract:
This research has focused on the adaptation and interpretation of Cuban folkloric styles of rumba, danzon, punto libre and bolero. The dearth of commercial recording during the troubled years of Gerardo Machado's presidency (1925-1933) and the revolution of 1959 made it necessary to source archival recordings of rumba and punto libre as well as conduct interviews with living Cuban musicians and musicologists in order to research these folkloric genres. Whilst numerous recordings of danzón and bolero for large ensemble exist no texts were found regarding the orchestration of these styles across a standard jazz big band. This research investigates music and dance elements specific to each style and supports the orchestration of nine compositions for standard jazz big band using these elements. Experts in this field such as Rebeca Mauleón and Larry Crook have presented examples of rhythmic layering, call and response and improvisation inherent in these styles, but do not address the ways that instrumentation, tag lines, tempi, breaks and song forms in rumba, danzon, punto libre and bolero can be effectively adapted for large jazz ensemble. My finding is that big band composers including Lalo Schifrin ('LatinJazz Suite') have not employed the richness and complexity of the true folkloric elements of Cuban music styles in their arrangements. To fill this gap in current compositional knowledge my orchestrations and compositions respectfully draw from the elements that I have discovered through my research. A rigorous analysis of Cuban music styles in English accompanied by scores, recordings with examples of phrasing and the distribution of rhythmic and melodic material across the ensemble has been offered with this thesis.
44
Souliman, Victoria. "“The remoteness that pains us” — National Identity, Expatriatism and Women’s Agency in the Artistic Exchanges between Australia and Britain in the 1920s and 1930s." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/21336.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the cultural and artistic influence of Britain in Australia, or the Britishness of the Australian character, from the years directly following the end of World War I until 1941. Australia during this period was often described as an isolated, or a “quarantined”, culture characterised by its delay in accepting modernism. Despite Britain ceding more independence and autonomy to its dominions at the time, Australia sought to maintain its cultural and imperial bond, identifying exclusively with Britain in a number of ways. For instance, many Australians still considered Britain to be “Home”, while London continued to attract expatriate artists from Australia. In the words of Australian art historian Daniel Thomas, Australia developed a “bi-hemispheric Anglo-Australian cultural identity”, which was marked by nationalism, conservatism and masculinism. This thesis examines the artistic exchanges between Australia and Britain in the 1920s and 1930s, shedding light on the complexities of cultural identification. It considers in particular the fact that such nationalistic historiography of Australian art has denied women’s agency in defining Australian art and identity. The national collections of British art, as well as the mechanisms of the circulation of modern British art in Australia, are closely examined to demonstrate the dualism of Australian cultural identity and the marginalisation of women within this history, not only as artists but also as art patrons. This thesis discusses the experience of Australian expatriates in England, considering how they sought to integrate into the British art scene. In doing so, it brings to the fore the significance of expatriatism as a concept that shaped both Australian and British art historiographies. Finally, it conceptualises the achievements of two Australian expatriate women, Edith May Fry and Clarice Zander, who, as exhibition curators, played a crucial role in disseminating modernism in Australia and defining Australia’s cultural identity during the interwar period. The aim of this thesis is thus to demonstrate the mechanisms through which Australia sought to represent its national character in art, as it strove to maintain its identification with Britain.
45
Wang, Xueliang 1956. "Taiwan and the Bush administration's Mainland China policy, January 1989-December 1992." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278339.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis divides Taiwan's impact on the Bush administration's Mainland China policy into three stages. The first period was from January 1989, when George Bush entered the White House, to June 3, when the Tiananmen Massacre took place in Beijing. The second period was from June 1989 to July 1991. The third period was from July 1991 to the end of 1992. Through examining the Bush administration's Mainland China policy, this thesis argues that Taiwan's impact on the administration's China policy evolved a tract from unimportant to important in the years between 1989 and 1992. It further argues that Taiwan has become an independent factor, whose China policy was not under the control of the United States. Sometimes it undermined American Mainland China policy.
46
Martin, Rachael. "Historical mine sites as modern-day sources of contamination : Measurement and characterisation of arsenic in historical gold mine wastes to identify the potential for mobility and human exposure." Thesis, Federation University Australia, 2017. http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/${Handle}.
Full textAbstract:
Centuries of metalliferous mining activities have resulted in a legacy of contamination throughout the world. Unremediated mine wastes and tailings, as well as contaminated soils, water and sediments, represent ongoing sources of environmental degradation and human exposure, long after mine closure and abandonment. Despite global concern over these contaminant sources, there remain uncertainties surrounding the nature of human exposure to mine wastes and their toxicologically relevant characteristics. As urbanisation expands into areas proximal to abandoned mine sites, an understanding of the human-contaminant interface at this boundary is critical for assessing the potential health risks. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the importance of particle size as a factor governing the distribution of metals and metalloids in historical gold mine wastes in regional Victoria, Australia, with an emphasis on arsenic as a contaminant of potential concern. By characterising those particle size fractions that are relevant to dust mobilisation and human exposure, this thesis examines the human-contaminant interface using a multi-pathway approach. In particular, this thesis focuses on the potential for exposure via inhalation of mine waste particulates. The outcomes of the studies presented in this body of work demonstrate that historical gold mine wastes in regional Victoria represent a source of readily ingestible and inhalable particulates characterised by extremely elevated levels of arsenic (and other contaminants) well above their bulk (in situ) concentrations. Although lung bioaccessibility testing and mineralogical analyses revealed that most of the arsenic in inhalable dust has been naturally immobilised, the lung-soluble fraction should be considered when undertaking risk assessments for chronic exposure. This thesis provides a framework for the development of targeted management strategies for unremediated historical gold mining wastes in regional Victoria. The findings suggest there is a need for environmental regulations to shift from generic guideline values to exposure-specific guidelines that more accurately reflect the human health risks posed by historical mine sites. This thesis has emphasised the notion that in order for remedial action to accurately match the level of risk, the sourcepathway- receptor linkage must be evaluated using a systematic size-resolved approach.Doctor of Philosophy
47
Pennay, Amy. "Exploring the micro-politics of normalised drug use in the social lives of a group of young 'party drug' users in Melbourne, Australia." Thesis, Curtin University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1942.
Full textAbstract:
Young people today live in what some scholars and commentators have defined as a 'post-modern' era, characterised by globalisation, the internet, mass media, production and consumption. Post-modernity has seen a change in the way young people live. Along with career, finance and success, young people today place greater emphasis on leisure, identity, relationships and health. There is some evidence to suggest that other factors, such as family, community and location, have become less important for young people living in the new millennium (Giddens 1991; Beck 1992).In post-modern times, there has been a significant increase in western countries in the use of 'party drugs', including ecstasy and methamphetamine, among 'ordinary' young people in social and leisure-oriented contexts. In the mid-1990s, in response to this rise in drug use, a team of UK researchers developed a theoretical framework in which they argued that the use of some illicit drugs had become 'normalised' (Parker, Aldridge et al. 1998). The proponents of the normalisation thesis suggested that drug use was no longer linked with deviant, pathological or subcultural behaviour, and had become a normal feature of the day-to-day worlds of many young people.This thesis explores the concepts of post-modernity and normalisation as they relate to the culture and practices of a group of young people in Melbourne, Australia, who called themselves the 'A-Team'. The A-Team was a social network of around 25 people who were 'typical', „mainstream‟ and 'socially included' individuals (Hammersley, Khan et al. 2002; Harling 2007), who participated in work and study, and who did not engage in any illicit activity other than drug use.I argue that theories of post-modernism and normalisation emphasise too strongly macro-level changes and do not adequately appreciate the complexity of social process and the cultural meanings negotiated within and through the practices of individuals and groups. For example, while theories of post-modernity have shed light on the way in which lives are structured at the macro level, they less adequately account for the way that young people continue to make and re-make meaning and identity from enduring social relationships and particular social contexts.In response to an increasingly globalised and disconnected world, A-Team members found continuity and stability within the group. They remained 'modern' in their adherence to their social community; however, the form of community they sought took a very post-modern form. They experimented with self-expression and identity outside the confines of traditions such as marriage, family and career, but they did not drift between groups and social spaces in their search for self. They were selective with whom and where they performed their desired identities. The A-Team practiced a form of 'differentiated' post-modernism, which presents a more complex picture of how young people are responding to macro-level social, cultural and economic changes.Throughout this thesis I describe the multiple ways in which A-Team members attempted to manage their use of alcohol and party drugs within their „normal‟ suburban lives. In particular, I highlight the ways in which they engaged with discourses of 'normal' and 'abnormal' drug use and 'acceptable' and 'unacceptable' drug use. I also describe the ways in which they engaged with discourses of moderation and excess, and the desire for both self-control and 'controlled loss of control' (Measham 2004a). These discourses arose as a consequence of a range of competing tensions that the A-Team consistently managed. These tensions included the search for bodily pleasure, identity and the desire for intimate social relationships, experiences of drug-related harm and significant critiques of specific forms of drug use from group members, and from non-drug using friends and family.In highlighting these discourses and competing tensions, I argue that although the normalisation thesis has significantly advanced understandings of young people's drug use, it does not adequately appreciate the way that young people must negotiate the 'micro-politics' of normalised drug use, a concept recently outlined by Swedish sociologist Sharon Rodner Sznitman (2008). Rodner Sznitman argued that normalisation is an ongoing process shaped by unique social and cultural micro-politics. Rodner-Sznitman suggested that young drug users engage in practices of 'assimilative normalisation' – by attempting to manage their 'deviant' or stigmatised behaviour – and 'transformational normalisation' – by attempting to resist or redefine what is considered to be 'normal' with respect to illicit drug use and drug users.I describe how A-Team members engaged in practices of assimilative normalisation by concealing their drug use from disapproving friends and family, severing ties with some non-drug using friends, repeatedly attempting to cease or reduce their drug use, drawing on notions of 'controlled' and 'moderate' use as the most acceptable form of drug use, and justifying their drug use as a temporary feature of young adulthood. I also show how some A-Team members engaged in transformational normalisation by rejecting the need for moderate or controlled forms of consumption, attempting to redefine the boundaries of socially acceptable drug-using behaviour and by offering an alternative reading of ecstasy as a drug that enables the performance of an intoxicated self.This research shows that there are many competing social and cultural forces that shape the way that young people use drugs and understand their use. It is essential that we develop a greater understanding of young people's drug use and not interpret their drug using practices through frameworks that rely on macro-level cultural and/or attitudinal shifts. Young recreational drug users face a multitude of issues when attempting to manage their drug use amidst the competing demands of relationships, sport, work, finances and career. These issues and the responses adopted by young drug users are likely to vary between groups, between cultures and between types of drug use.
48
Price, Alun John. "Cultures Of Practice Within Design: An Exploration Of The Differences And Similarities Between Photography And Painting As Representational Practices." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2014. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1451.
Full textAbstract:
Contemporary designers and photographers face many challenges as the profession rapidly develops. This is especially the case in in the Western Australian context. A review into the recent history of the Western Australian design profession is evidence that designers and photographers are consistently shifting between commercial and self-expressive practice. However, the urge to keep up with technological advancement has masked conscious development of this shift, which is a key to self-realisation and improvement for a designer and photographer. This lack of conscious questioning limits holistic development in design practice. This research reflects on myself as a designer developing a response to the significant convergence of media that developed during my career. The research led to an understanding of the development of design as a practice and its connections to art, especially painting. This exploration of the differences and similarities between photography and painting, as representational practices that impact upon the values of a practitioner, seeks, in part, to understand photography using paint.
This research is a broad investigation that sets out to reveal aspects of these relationships, and to raise questions that will form the basis of more in depth studies.
49
Ticehurst, Laura. "Modern Dating Rituals in Australia, 1940-1970." Thesis, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1433470.
Full textAbstract:
Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)This research maps out a history of romantic rituals in Australia from 1940 to 1970. In doing so, it analyses changing conventions as modern forms of ‘dating’ replaced ‘calling’ throughout Australian society, bringing romantic behaviour into the public eye. It also investigates the construction of these conventions, and situates them clearly in a social, political and economic context. There is a particular focus on the tension between the regulation of dating behaviour as a precursor to marriage and subversion of these norms and expectations, and how these varied among different groups of Australians. Dating regulations were used as a form of attempted containment by various authorities, including governments, churches, the medical establishment, and legal institutions. However, dating could also be experienced as an act of escape and pleasure: as a site of resistance (in a Foucauldian sense) to seemingly inescapable discursive power. For some, this rebellion was a necessity as much as a choice, as many individuals were explicitly excluded from the accepted norms of dating behaviour. Gay men and lesbian women were not able to marry or publicly date their partners, and the social and romantic lives of Aboriginal Australians were subject to surveillance and intervention by state and federal governments. For European migrants to Australia in the post-war period, romance and marriage were inextricably tied up in the act of migration and were taken very seriously. This work explores the discourse around dating as it varied due to gender, age, sexuality, and race, represented through these groups’ own experiences of, and often resistance to, the rituals of dating in Australia in the mid-twentieth century.
50
Chen, Xiang-Yang. "Lake Amadeus, Central Australia : modern processes and evolution." Phd thesis, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/109327.
Full textAbstract:
Lake Amadeus, a large saline piaya 120 km long and up
to 12 km wide, forms a major feature of arid Central
Australia. Surrounded by stabilized dunefields, it has
been selected here as the site for a range of historic and
process oriented studies.
The Amadeus piaya is today a groundwater controlled
system of a type largely unrepresented by detailed studies
elsewhere in Australia. Moreover, it lies in an area from
which Late Cenozoic environmental data remain sparse.
With its associated variety of stabilized gypsum and
quartz dunes associated with saline sedimentary facies, it
provides sensitive indicators of past arid depositional
events.
Analyses of the stratigraphic and chronologic record
are supplemented by detailed studies of modern hydrologic,
chemical and sedimentary processes. These provide the
framework controls within which interpretations of the
past record are reconstructed.
Field work was carried out during winter and spring
seasons in 1984, 1985 and 1986. Four 15m cores and more
than 20 short cores up to 1.7m long were taken. Across
the piaya and its marginal land, groundwater, shallow
stratigraphy and sediments were studied by piezometers,
trenches and auger holes. Evaporation was measured with a
method of sediment blocks. Palaeomagnetism and
thermoluminescence dating methods were used to establish
the piaya chronology. Thin section, chemical, mineral and texture analyses help in evaluation of the sedimentary
facies assemblage.
The Cenozoic sediments are divided into two major
units: Uluru Clay in lower part and the overlying Winmatti
Beds. The Uluru Clay sequence, at least 60m thick,
overlies Proterozoic dolomitic limestone. Of uniform
lithology, it consists of clay horizons with minor
intercalated gypsum. The Clay was deposited in a shallow
lacustrine and fluvial enviroument with periodical saline
and frequently dry conditions. The basal Uluru Clay is
estimated to be over 5 Ma old. The transition from
Tertiary to Quaternary, coincident with the Gauss/Matuyama
palaeomagnetic boundary, occrred within the uniform Uluru
Clay sequence.
The Winmatti Beds comprise the top several metres of
basin sediments. The beginning of Winmatti Beds coincides
probably with Jaramillo subchrone (0.91 Ma). The
appearance of gypsum-clay laminae, thick gypsum sands and
aeolian quartz, characteristic of the Winmatti Beds, marks
the onset of a new sedimentary and climatic environment.
In this the dominance of saline groundwater marks the
first development of a groundwater discharge playa system.
The association with aeolian deposits signals the
dominance for the first time of major aridity.
On the landward margin, two rings of gypseous dunes
and associated quartz dunes represent facies equivalent of
arid units in the playa. The older gypseous dune possibly
formed soon after the Uluru Clay. The younger gypseous
dune is correlated with a gypseous clayey sand layer within the Winmatti Beds. The gypseous dunes were
deposited by deflation of near-shore gypsum accumulating
in the groundwater seepage zone during a period of high
watertable.
The hydrologic and climatic history since the younger
gypseous dune formation is correlated broadly with events
identified in Southern Australia. The younger gypseous
dune formed around 45 to 60 Ka B.P. (TL dates), when a
high regional watertable was associated with a wetter
climate. A period of regional dune activation followed
the younger gypseous dune formation resulting in an
aeolian sand deposit in the playa and the thick quartz
sand mantle on the gypseous dunes. This represents a
drier and windier period which may correlate with the low
water level period of 25 to 16 Ka in Southern Australia.
The deposition of shallow water gypsum layer, which
comprise marginal terraces and low terrace islands,
represents a relatively high water level period. This may
correlate with the relatively high water levels of
Holocence time in Southern Australia.
The chronology and stratigraphy predating the younger
gypseous dune remain unclear. They are complicated by
major breaks in the depositional record. Groundwater
bevelling, deflation and soil formation help explain the
hiatuses and low rates of deposition.
A new surface feature is identified which has both
morphologic and stratigraphic expression. Termed GYPSUM
GROUND it comprises a large area of the playa surface. A
brown undulating salt encrusted surface developed over a nearly pure layer of sand-sized gypsum lies some 40 cm
above the local watertable and above the level of periodic
annual flooding. Thin section and detailed sedimentologic
studies establish this as a degradational remnant of a
previously more extensive gypsum sand associated with a
high watertable environment equivelant to the deposition
of gypsum marginal terraces and low terrace islands.
The gypsum ground, now largely independent of
groundwater evaporative processes, is one of three
morphologic and sedimentary units recognized as
characterising the modern playa surface. The other two at
lower surface altitude, salt flat and sulphide lowland,
are controlled by a combination of groundwater and surface
interactive processes.
Evaporation pattern for the playa surface are divided
into two types. One represents a very low rate from the
encrusted surface (El phase); the other is a much higher
evaporation phase after the crust is dissolved by rain (E2
phase). Evaporation of the El phase is estimated to be of
the order 70mm/y. Since all rain water is not totally
evaporated during the E2 phase, this value (El) can only
be used as an upper limit for net evaporation, the
difference between the total evaporation and the rain
water on the surface. The quantity of rainfall not
evaporated during E2 phase (therefore a recharge
component) seems to be significant compared to the annual
El evaporation. Therefore, the net evaporation and
discharge rate may be very low, consistent with a very low
salt concentration rate in the system. This evaporative regime provides new insights into the
question of evaporite formation in a context where the
absence of salts seems anomalous when considered in the
light of present processes.
The playa lacks any substantial salt deposits (other
than gypsum and glauberite), either on the surface or in
the sediment column, eventhough it has been experienced
saline conditions. The surficial salt crusts are commonly
1 cm thick and never exceed 5 cm although the watertable
remains in the capillary fringe and the groundwater is
highly saline (250g/l). The total quantity of dissolved
salts in the groundwater pool are less than expected from
present processes considering the long existence of the
saline phase.
The thin salt crusts on the surface today are
ephemeral being subject to periodic dissolution and
reformation. Crusts cannot develop to a significant
thickness because of combined low net evaporation,
leaching by.rainfall, possible downward ionic diffusion
associated with groundwater body unsaturated with respect
to sodium chloride.
Groundwater salinity has probably never exceeded
chloride saturation due to a combination of processes
including slow chemical concentration rates, processes of
groundwater body expansion, past salt loss through
deflation and salt leakage by deep groundwater outflow
during early Quaternary or even Tertiary time.
The priciple of simplistic uniformitarian
interpretations is once more called into question by these studies. In its Quaternary hydrologic history, the
groundwater discharge playa, today delicately balanced
between discharge and recharge regime, has sometimes
existed as a prolonged groundwater recharge zone as
evidenced by fossil soils with vegetative biotubule
remnants. Thus the present hydrologic processes are not
representative of past regimes emphasizing the dangers of
using modern processes as analogues for past regimes.
The data confirm that Lake Amadeus has rarely operated
as a true surface water lake since Tertiary time. The
groundwater processes and history demonstrated here
provide a new basis for understanding playa systems both
here and in comparable arid to semi-arid regions of low
relief elsewhere in the world.