School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemAustralian new left politics, 1956-1972( 2009)A study of the Australian New Left might not immediately appear pertinent to contemporary society. Adherents of New Right economics have been, until recently, unshakable in their global ascendancy over the past three decades. From Russia to Tanzania, discourses of neo-liberalism have become so deeply entrenched in world politics and trade that they have been adopted by the transitional states of Eastern and Central Europe, along with other less developed countries in the international system, despite the fact that all have very different cultural histories and levels of economic development. There have been few exceptions, with one example Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. The discrediting during the global oil crisis of the mid-1970s of the post-WWII orthodoxy of Keynesian economics, social democracy and the Welfare State has played its role in this paradigm shift. More pertinent to the radical left may be that the legacy of Soviet Communism's 'terrors and errors' still looms large in the consciousness of socialist thought, provoking disagreement over what can be salvaged from the cadaver of Marxist theory. The increasing specialisation and integration of world marketplaces since the 1960s has also led to questions over whether the notion of a working class - so essential to Marx's utopian revolution - still exists at all. The rise of 'identity politics' and the relativism of postmodernist thought, seen as at the cutting edge of academic theory since the 1970s, have represented further challenges to those desiring to rebuff the entrenched global logic of consumer capitalism. Capitalism is the only 'meta-narrative' left uncontested by postmodernists, while other ideologies - such as Marxism, feminism and even the discipline of history - are criticised for their failure to adequately address the realities of difference within the groups (i.e. workers, women) that they focus upon. This thesis re-examines a time when the left commanded a degree of mainstream popularity; when hundreds of thousands of Australians took to the streets to protest against the government, and when, however briefly, Marxist sympathisers constituted respectable numbers in academic circles, to ascertain what lessons, if any, might be learnt for 'socialist humanist' campaigns today. The anti-globalisation campaigns of the past decade and recent concerns regarding climate change represent hope as starting points for contemporary mass radicalism. Recently, I travelled beside a thoughtful and articulate man in his late fifties who had been a student at the University of Western Australia during the early 1970s. He had been acutely aware of radicals at other campuses such as Monash at this time, and laughed dismissively that student activists were still saying the same things nowadays. While my travelling companion was amused that contemporary student radicals continue to subscribe to what he sees as archaic and refuted ideas and philosophies, I believe that this constancy is due to the fact that New Left criticism remains highly applicable today.
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ItemBlack African immigrants in Australia : an exploratory analysis of the impacts of race and class on their lived experiences and adaptation processes( 2005)The primary aim of the present study is to explore the impact of race and class on the lived experiences of Black Africans in Melbourne during their adaptation process as Black immigrants in the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and political context of Australia. Critical ethnography is the methodology for this study. Focussing directly on the everyday lives of Black African immigrants over a twenty-three months period during February 2003 to end of January 2005, the study reveals how racial factors articulate and intersect with class factors in the making and/or shaping of the lived experiences of Black Africans in Melbourne, Australia. The study uses a definition of race that focuses on the demarcation of `races' as socio-historical constructions embedded in power relations that enable the majority to define the identities of racially defined minorities, definitions that serve to reinforce and perpetuate the minority group's inferior social status. The mean age of the participants was 36.9 years (SD = 8.6). The participants were diverse in their manner of immigration, motivations for immigration, and household characteristics. Interviews, participant-observation, and paper-and-pencil tools (survey questionnaires) were the three methods used for data collection. Riesman's narrative analysis (1993) is the framework for analysing the interview data. Quantitative data provided descriptive information on demographic and immigration profiles, socioeconomic and housing characteristics. The orientation of the quantitative component was to obtain a range of pictures of information or knowledge distributed within the population, and not to attempt any generalisation from the participants to the entire population of such immigrants. Findings from the traditional analysis indicated that participants faced immediate issues of survival after they arrived in Melbourne. Findings from the critical analysis revealed that immigration policy, class, imperialism and capitalism are not abstract or concealed issues but rather very real ones that have a direct bearing on these immigrants' experiences and their capacities to adapt. Findings from the critical analysis reveal that Black African immigrants received mistreatment from both white Australians (the dominant group) and non-English speaking Europeans (formerly oppressed groups). This study extends our understanding of immigrants' lived experiences; at the same time, it raises more questions for further investigation. In addition to the substantive contribution, this study also draws attention to several methodological issues pertinent to bilingual immigrant studies.
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ItemThe cultural construction of Alevi female identity( 2002)Anthropologists have discussed extensively issues relating to the relationship between the researcher and the researched community (Abu-Lughod,1988; Bourdieu, 1977; Macintyre, 1990; Dwyer, 1982; Visweswaran, 1996; Shankland, 1996; Moore, 1988; Haraway, 1991) and how this relationship influences the way the data is collected and interpreted. They have increasingly questioned and criticised the notion of absolute objectivity (Ram, 1991) of their own field data. As Rabinow observes, the "data we collect is doubly mediated, first by our own presence and then by the second order reflection we demand from our informants" (1977: 119). Subjectivity is part of the anthropologist's fieldwork experience and is highlighted in the complexities involved in being an ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’ to the research community. The issue of being insider and ‘outsider’ is highly contentious amongst anthropologists. Indigenous anthropologists have argued that their familiarity with the culture enables them to attribute meaning to the social practices of the people they study more readily and accurately than the non-indigenous researcher can. Indigenous researchers, they argue, share the same social and cultural world as their subjects, thereby ensuring that they can interpret things more readily. While there are some obvious advantages in being an 'insider' there are also some complex issues which they encounter that an 'outsider' would not experience. The ‘outsiders’ are able to maintain a social distance with the researched community that 'insiders' perhaps could find difficult (Cassell, 1977). Indigenous insiders can often be in a position where they assume and take certain practices as a given and fail to analyse or document those experiences which they share with the community. While the ability to speak the language of the research community is an invaluable asset this does not exclude indigenous anthropologists from overlooking or even misconstruing the nuances of language (Spradley, 1979) and may mean that they take for granted linguistic peculiarities.
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ItemStolen generations: the forcible removal of aboriginal children from their families: identity and belonging( 2000)Stolen Generations: 'Identity and Belonging' explores the ways in which members of the Stolen Generations have sought to make sense of, and establish their sense of belonging and negotiate their Indigenous identities. In order to appreciate the uniqueness of the Stolen Generation experience and the challenges faced by individuals in forging their places of belonging, understanding the climate and context in which members of the Stolen Generations lived in is vital. Members of the Stolen Generations were confronted with and have had to come to terms with the paradoxes of history. Members of the Stolen Generations were taken away by, and raised in the very cultures and systems that damaged their societies of origin, and which continued to stigmatise Aboriginality as inferior. Within this context of analysis, the research gives attention to the various ways in which Aboriginal individuals in non-Aboriginal care came to their earliest sense of their Aboriginality. This exploration acts as a commentary of the construction of Aboriginality within the wider non-Aboriginal context - the stereotypes, the racism and the ignorance that informed those opinions. The ensuing search for a fuller understanding of what Aboriginality means to those members of the Stolen Generations is a highly complex and challenging one. For those trying to re-establish their ties with their birth families and communities, the years of physical and cultural isolation make it difficult for individuals to unproblematically find their place/s within the Indigenous families and to negotiate their Indigenous identities. Added to this, the experience of finding places of belonging and acceptance are inevitably shaped and determined by the attitudes and responses of the Koori community towards members of the Stolen Generations. The phrase "bringing them home", which in many ways has become synonymous with the issue of the Stolen Generations, carries with it the assumption that those who were 'lost' simply make their way back home, back to a recognizable and pre-existing community that is ready to welcome these individuals with open arms. The present research draws attention to the fact for most, there is no simple and straightforward route 'home'. This research explores the complexity of this journey - giving careful attention to the ways in which this rupture from cultural heritage and family base poses challenges for those trying to find that 'home' or 'belonging place' and intricacies involved in the negotiation of those Indigenous identities.