School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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    Democratic constitutions, disobedient citizens: conflict and culture in Habermas’ political theory
    Field, James Arthur ( 2023-12)
    This thesis reads Habermas’ political theory in light of his arguments about civil disobedience. I argue that the concept of civil disobedience stands in as a model of democratic conflictuality that is otherwise absent from Habermas’ formal political theory. The idea of social conflict within boundaries, formed not by legality but by a democratic ethos, is the basis of what I term ‘disobedient citizenship’, a concept implicit in Habermas’ theory that nonetheless displaces his model of procedural civic patriotism as the cultural centre of democratic politics. I argue that Habermas' central programmatic claim that ‘democracy and the rule of law are internally related’ can be revisited from this perspective. In addition, his writings on religion and interstate relations indicate that the notion of disobedient citizenship is central to spaces of ‘complementary freedoms’ that are constituted by a culture of tolerance, rather than procedural secularism or international law. The thesis argues that both conflict and tolerance are core values in his democratic theory. The thesis therefore presents a critical but sympathetic reading of Habermas’ ‘unwritten monograph’ on political theory. It argues that the modernity of democracy emerges in Habermas’ work not primarily through epistemic or cognitive rationality, but rather through the openness with which the democratic imagination approaches disagreement and conflict, evaluates and sets limits to it.
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    Decoding Discrimination: Unraveling Gender Bias in Semi-Automated Recruitment
    Njoto, Sheilla Marcelina ( 2023-08)
    This thesis examines the complex issue of gender bias in recruitment, focusing on the potential discrimination perpetuated by predictive technologies. It investigates the extent to which semi-automated hiring systems discriminate against women and the use of feminine language in recruitment settings, highlighting the ethical implications and accountability for potential discriminatory outcomes. While previous studies have explored subconscious biases and the effectiveness of anonymizing applicant names (i.e., blind hiring - Goldin & Rouse, 2000), this research goes beyond surface-level indicators to investigate the discrimination arising from subtle cues, feminine indicators and language usage in CVs. The study is grounded in classic sociological perspectives, highlighting scholarly works of Goffman (1998), West and Zimmerman (1987), Correll, Benard and Paik (2007) as well as Acker (1990), and couples them with computational approaches to unbox the algorithms and analyze gender discrimination within the hiring process. It examines how recruitment algorithms replicate prevailing gender biases and scrutinizes the construction of gender in curriculum vitae (CVs) using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. Additionally, the study explores the effects of caregiving gaps in men and women's CVs and examines the interplay between gender composition in occupations and gender bias in semi-automated recruitment processes. The research findings presented in this study yield noteworthy scholarly contributions on several fronts. Firstly, they provide compelling evidence to substantiate the claim that semi-automated hiring systems can exhibit discriminatory tendencies when evaluating CVs, when confronted with gender indicators such as gender-indicating names. This empirical insight serves to underscore the potential biases inherent in such systems and highlights the need for proactive measures to identify, mitigate, and rectify these discriminatory practices. Secondly, the study effectively elucidates and categorizes gendered keywords that algorithms tend to prioritize as predictive markers of gender. This identification and classification of key linguistic elements employed by algorithms offer valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms driving gender-based discrimination within semi-automated hiring processes. Furthermore, the research findings shed light on how susceptible semi-automated hiring systems are, not only to the effects of gendered names, but also to feminine traits. This observation underscores the nuanced nature of discriminatory biases embedded within these systems, extending beyond mere gender identifiers to encompass broader societal expectations and stereotypes associated with femininity. Importantly, the study uncovers how the presence of caregiving roles, traditionally considered feminine responsibilities, can adversely impact job candidates, particularly when observed in men applicants. This reveals the intersectionality between gender, caregiving roles, and employment prospects to illuminate the challenges faced by individuals who do not conform to traditional gender norms and underscores the barriers they encounter in the hiring process. Lastly, the research findings dispel the notion that semi-automated hiring systems inherently discriminate against women and feminine language. Rather, these systems tend to perpetuate and replicate existing gender imbalances observed within occupations characterized by different gender compositions. This insight emphasizes the crucial role of these automated systems in perpetuating societal disparities and underscores the imperative for interventions aimed at fostering more equitable hiring practices.
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    The women on the hill : an ethnographic study of deinstitutionalization
    Johnson, Kelley. (University of Melbourne, 1995)
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    Feels like home : young people's lived experiences and meanings of home
    Chiao, Yuan-Ling. (University of Melbourne, 2008)
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    The status of women in Islam : a case study of Pakistan
    Rashid, Tahmina. (University of Melbourne, 1999)
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    The status of women in Islam : a case study of Pakistan
    Rashid, Tahmina. (University of Melbourne, 1999)
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    Regulating the risks of elder abuse in Australia : the changing nature of government responses
    Naughtin, Gerard Michael. (University of Melbourne, 2008)
    This thesis presents a policy analysis of Federal and State Government responses to elder abuse utilising three data sources, an extensive literature review, analysis of key government documents and interviews with expert stakeholders. Historical, sociological and criminological frameworks are used to explore contemporary responses to the abuse and neglect of older Australians. Modelling undertaken to estimate the current and projected scale of elder abuse predicted that there were 87,000 cases in 2007, that there would be 120,000 by 2017 and 200,000 by 2037. The ageing of the Australian population justifies the development of a more concerted and nationally co-ordinated strategy. Despite considerable contest between prevention and protection advocates, Australian Governments since the mid 1990s have adopted a fairly comprehensive and consistent policy framework involving prevention, investigation and case management, access to justice, legal and financial protections for older people without mental capacity, regulation and sanctions. This thesis argues that these six elements are likely to form the basis of future development and explores the utility of the responsive regulation thesis in such development. Several gaps in existing responses are identified, namely the lack of victim support services, the inadequate funding base, the low level of community and professional education and ambiguities about agency response responsibilities. Reforms needed over the next decade to address these gaps are identified.