School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemThe women on the hill : an ethnographic study of deinstitutionalization(University of Melbourne, 1995)
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ItemModernity, racism and subjectivity( 1995-10)Racism, understood as the form of ideology and the set of social practices based on explicit and implicit notions of biologically determined human ‘races’, is a modern phenomenon. Other major forms of social cleavage together with the ideologies which contribute to and support them, such as those which relate to class and gender, have had a complex relationship with racism. Nevertheless racism needs to be distinguished analytically from each of these, and given its due as a relatively autonomous system. Viewed from the perspective of the systematic patterning of social life, it has institutional backing and support. In the modern West especially, it has organised, and it continues to help organise, significant areas of social domain. It has a history, which includes the history of ideas and of representations of the Other, and it is closely tied to economic production and relations. Though it may be that racism is generated primarily at the social and economic levels, it is experienced psychologically, and psychology plays a role in its reproduction. Racism, then, needs to be examined not only in terms of its social structural features, but at the same time in terms of the involvement of subjectivity in its processes.
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ItemSecurity in the hospitality industry( 1995-10)Problems and perceptions of crime and security have grown dramatically in recent decades. Organisations feel the need to protect their investment, their employees and the general public from crime. There are not sufficient public police to provide adequate response and protection to businesses; therefore, private security agents have grown in number as a response to this perceived need. This thesis examines private security and surveillance in the hotel industry. There is a general introduction to contemporary security issues in society. The specific nature of these problems is examined within the context of the hotel industry. These issues are analysed in relationship to recent scholarly literature. Since so little has been written about problems of security in the hotel industry, it was decided to conduct in-depth interviews, using multiple case studies and field observations. The thesis examines issues of security in seven major hotels in Australia. Although there are many alternative ways that security can be organised, this thesis examines the application of a differentiated model of security as contrasted to an imbedded model in which all employees are involved with security procedures.
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ItemSchool closures, alienation and crime: an analysis of the social and economic implications of public secondary school closures in north-west Melbourne( 1995)Between 1992 and 1993 the Victorian State Government announced the closure or amalgamation of more than 255 publicly funded schools around the state (Parents & Friends, 1993; Marginson, 1994: 47). The Coburg/Preston area, located in the inner north-west of Melbourne, lost four public co-educational secondary colleges in the space of a year. 1135 students were affected (Parents and Friends, 1993). Coburg North Secondary College (here on referred to as Coburg Tech) was one of these schools.
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ItemRegulatory strategies for controlling irresponsible behaviour by those infected with HIV( 1995)This thesis examines the selection of suitable options to regulate irresponsible behaviour by those infected with HIV. Whilst regulation of disease transmission has been regarded as the domain of the public health system, in recent years, there has been an increasing use of the criminal justice system to regulate this conduct. Accompanying this increased use have been criticisms that the criminal justice system is an inappropriate regulatory response because it is overly punitive and is problematic from a number of social and legal perspectives. In Victoria, the Health Act 1958, the Crimes Act 1958 the Prostitution Regulation Act and the Summary Offences Act 1966 govern conduct in this field. This study investigated the aims, philosophy and operation of both these systems with a view to determining which system is the most effective regulatory option. Five recent Victorian cases involving irresponsible behaviour were examined. Three of these were dealt with by the criminal justice system and two were regulated using public health provisions, providing a comparison of the regulation of this conduct in practice by both systems. It was found that neither system could deal adequately with all issues involved in the effective regulation of this behaviour. However, the Victorian public health system was better able to deal effectively with more of the critical issues than the criminal justice system, namely, protection of the community from dangerous behaviour, prevention of irresponsible conduct through deterrence, rehabilitation of offenders and avoidance of unnecessary restriction on individual liberty. Additionally, the public health system could deal better with issues of compliance with rules of procedural justice, provision of medical treatment for offenders and victims and maintenance of the health of offenders and victims, efficiency in terms of cost and delay and provision of trained personnel to investigate allegations of irresponsible behaviour and to determine appropriate action to be taken. Whilst the criminal justice system could deal better with the issues of protection of the privacy of offenders and victims and the punishment of offenders, these issues were not of sufficient importance to outweigh the benefits health regulation may bring in terms of protection of the community, prevention of the conduct through deterrence and rehabilitation. Indeed, the educative and non-punitive approach proffered by this system is more conducive to reducing the occurrence of this behaviour and providing remedies for it when it occurs. In light of this study's findings, future research should determine appropriate responses to the behaviour of individuals who have a mental illness and/or intellectual disability and who behave irresponsibly and examine the• practical operation of Victoria's HIV / AIDS Advisory Case Management Panel, particularly the panel's decision-making processes.