School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemFeels like home : young people's lived experiences and meanings of home(University of Melbourne, 2008)
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ItemFactors affecting the utilization of post acute care by the elderly in Singapore(University of Melbourne, 2007)
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ItemRegulating the risks of elder abuse in Australia : the changing nature of government responses(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.
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ItemThe many lives of the Goulburn River : sustainable management as ontological work( 2008)In this thesis I consider what it might be to do sustainable management of the Goulburn River, which meanders through the dry plains of northern Victoria, in Australia. This river touches many lives. It is celebrated as the "lifeblood" of local rural communities and the water supply for the "food bowl" of Australia. Economic development, social well-being, natural environment, and cultural heritage: a diverse array of community values and expectations are embodied in the contemporary management of the Goulburn River. The core theme of sustainable management with which I engage in this thesis is the integration of environment and development. Rather than evaluating sustainable management as more or less successful techniques, or as competing discourses, I interrogate sustainable management of the Goulburn River as ontological work. Using a material semiotic analytic, I tell of the many lives of what we call "the Goulburn River". These multiple river realities are emergent in particular orderings of routines, people, materials and narratives of river management and rural life. Through a series of historical narratives about post-settlement relations with the Goulburn River, I distinguish three modes of enacting river: utilitarian, ecological and sustainable. Utilitarian rivers proliferate throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, through an increasing array of rural industries that seek to progress the nation by improving mechanistic, under-utilised and deficient nature. Ecological rivers gain prominence in the late 20th century, amidst concerns that fragile, living, authentic nature is being threatened by human industry and requires protection. Amidst the recent antagonistic interferences between utilitarian rivers and ecological rivers, I identify the emergence of a new mode of enacting and relating rivers, that of sustainability. Utility and ecology are held in tension, I claim, in the contemporary vision for the Goulburn as sustainable or healthy working river. Through case studies of the sustainable management of the Goulburn River's frontages, flows and fish, I explore the ways in which river practitioners negotiate the ontological difference that is enacted in utilitarian and ecological rivers. Sustainable management, I contend, seeks to remake the relation between these river realities, to shift from an adversarial dynamic of competition to a more convivial dynamic of co-existence. Paddock and wildlife corridor; irrigation water and environmental water; trout fishery and native fish habitat: I argue that these utilitarian rivers and ecological rivers are made to intermingle by "cleaving" ontological difference. I distinguish a series of strategies through which these rivers are being drawn together whilst being held apart. This co-ordination and distribution of multiplicities produces ambiguous entanglements of rivers, which are invoked as sustainable or healthy working river. I thus identify sustainable management as holding together utilitarian rivers and ecological rivers in generative tension, thus sustaining ontological difference (albeit to varying degrees). In doing so, I confront the keen critiques of social science scholars about the vagueness of sustainability, and argue that we need to learn ways of living with ontological ambiguity.
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ItemThe ethical foundations of restorative justice( 2008)Restorative Justice offers a promising new approach for dealing with crimes in modern societies. There has been a considerable amount of research on the topic, yet much of this work has been done with limited reference to the discussions in political philosophy and the philosophy of punishment. This neglect means that there are still significant theoretical challenges facing the theory behind restorative justice. This thesis places restorative justice within the larger philosophical context and develops the necessary framework for restorative justice as a theory of criminal justice. The thesis beings by examining traditional justifications for punishment, as given by consequentialists and retributivists. The consequentialist justifications fall prey to empirical questions regarding the effectiveness of punishment in achieving the aim of prevention and theoretical objections to consequentialist theories. Retributivism is able to avoid the problems that face consequentialist theories, but the justification for punishment that it offers fails to prove that punishment is always necessary, and it is particularly problematic in non-ideal societies. Thus, while punishment is permissible in response to crime, it is not an obligation. The first step in the argument for restorative justice is to examine two approaches to desert in responding to crime. The approach advocated treats desert as a fluid and relational concept based on the conception of social justice known as democratic equality. The thesis then identifies three crucial aspects to the accounts of restorative justice that have been given in the literature. These are the theories of personhood and crime that restorative justice relies upon and the role that punishment and retribution play in restorative justice. The thesis argues that reliance on a relational conception of personhood is unnecessary and advocates justifying restorative justice on the basis of the conception of social justice. The thesis then examines traditional theories of crime and compares them to the relational understanding offered by proponents of restorative justice. The relational understanding is advocated based on its ability to provide a single principle of criminalisation that relies upon the more general theory of social justice within liberal egalitarian society. The place of punishment and retribution in restorative justice is then examined. I argue that neither concept is necessarily included or excluded from such processes, but that there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the coerciveness of restorative practices. The thesis concludes by examining the type of system that the theory advocated could support in the current social context. In light of the worries about the coerciveness of restorative proposals and the inappropriateness of a restorative response to all instances of crime a multifaceted system is advocated. This system would treat restoration as the preferred response, while providing responses in situations where restoration is not appropriate and where due process concerns require a more traditional approach. It is argued that such a system would be a significant improvement over current practices and more in line with the conception of social justice as democratic equality.
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ItemModels and consequence( 2008)The conclusion of an argument is a consequence of the premises if the truth of the premises guarantees the truth of the conclusion. This guarantee is often formulated as that the conclusion is true in every model where all the premises are true. Models are used to give precise, mathematical theories of consequence. The use of models has been central in a lot of the recent progress in logic. This thesis is a philosophical investigation into the connection between consequence and models. In this thesis I show that there are two central concerns that any model based theory of consequence must address: (1) What type of theory is it? What are the models intended to be? (2) What form does the theory take? How does the theory use the models in characterising consequence? Two particular types of theory are focussed on in the thesis. Interpretational theories take their models to be interpretations of the language under consideration. Representational theories take their models to represent the world as being a particular way. This distinction draws on the work of Etchemendy in [40]. I show that choices of this nature have significant effects on theories of consequence. On example of this is that nonclassical logics of these different types have different commitments regarding truth gaps and gluts. I also show that there are different subtypes of both interpretational and representational theories which depend how much of a model is considered significant for the interpretation or representation respectively. There are different forms or shapes that a theory can take. Theories which reduce consequence to truth preservation in all models - with no side constraints - suffer from a tendency to produce incorrect results. In [40] Etchemendy shows that this is the case for interpretational theories. I will show that this is the case for any theory with an unconditional form and that it is not primarily due to the theory's type. The most obvious alternative form of theory relies on the condition that the theory only provides an account of consequence if there are sufficiently many models. Conditional theories of consequence do not produce incorrect results in the way that unconditional theories do, but they are not guaranteed to provide any account of consequence.
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ItemConjugal wrongs don't make rights: international feminist activism, child marriage and sexual relativism( 2005)This thesis examines international feminist activism from the late nineteenth century to the present. In particular it focuses on the campaigns against forms of sexual slavery including child marriage. It examines the male sex right as a major cause of sexual exploitation and it investigates claims that similarities between trafficking children into the institutions of marriage and prostitution reflect the power of heteropatriarchy in governing the social model of heterosexuality and the ensuing subordination of women and girls. It argues that challenging sexual exploitation is difficult because of the social acceptance of men’s right of sexual access to women and girls. This thesis examines the ways in which the ideologies of cultural relativism and sexual libertarianism protect the concept of ‘conjugal rights’ in systems of traditional marriage. It introduces the theory of sexual relativism in order to explain how cultural relativism works in relation to child marriage. Sexual relativism as a corollary of cultural relativism is used as a feminist tool of analysis in order to make the male sex right visible and politically accountable. Lesbian historiography is introduced in order to document the role of lesbian experience in the lives and networks of these international activists. The inclusion of lesbian existence in this thesis is a unique approach intended to restore historical accuracy to the lives of women who have been involved in international campaigns against forms of sexual exploitation that include child marriage, child prostitution, incest, and other harmful cultural practices. I discuss how lesbians and spinsters, as unhusbanded women, experienced freedom from domestic duties including child care and the sexual servicing of men. Their ensuing independence enabled them to become involved in political work and by forming networks they were able to discuss and formulate their ideas. I explore the relationship between the personal and political in the examination of these women’s lives. In particular I examine the lesbian existence within the political and friendship networks of interwar feminists such as Eleanor Rathbone, Constance Antonina (Nina) Boyle, Alison Neilans, Cicely Hamilton, Katharine Furse and Margaret Haig. The radical feminist approach to this inquiry is intended to contribute to filling gaps in the knowledge base of feminist history and to broaden the transdisciplinary approach to international scholarship.
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ItemWomen and NGOs' participation in development: partnership and control in India( 2007)This dissertation examines the participation of women and NGOs in a rural development and empowerment project in India. The World Bank initiated Rural Women’s Development and Empowerment Project was funded with the primary objective of working towards women’s economic and social empowerment through the formation of self-help groups. Within the framework of Gender and Development (GAD), women’s development and participation has to fulfil both practical and strategic gender needs in order for them to gain, share and exercise power. In women’s development, the economic cannot be understood apart from the social and the political. Transformative or genuine participation for women involves a process of partnership where one or more forms of power are attained through social capital and the participants are able to surmount structural barriers. Genuine participation can be achieved only through the processes of partnership and control, that is, through the building of equitable relationships among the primary beneficiaries themselves and between the primary beneficiaries and external agents. The incentives to participate and the pattern of participation are influenced by the material expectations and the social reality of women. (For complete abstract open document)
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ItemA promethean legacy: late quaternary vegetation history of Southern Georgia, Caucasus( 2006)This dissertation presents new data on the vegetation history of the Caucasus, a region of high biodiversity and ancient human occupation. The aim of the study is to determine the causes of vegetation changes in Southern Georgia over the past 14,000 years by comparing well-dated pollen and charcoal records to evidence of past climatic change and human activity in the region. Pollen data from semi-arid and mountainous environments are often very difficult to interpret, a consideration which has hampered previous research in Southern Georgia. In this thesis I present a novel method to overcome this problem to allow the reconstruction of past trends in rainfall, temperature, forest cover and land-use. Reconstructed climatic parameters show that the study area’s climate was extremely arid and seasonally variable between 14,000 and 11,500 years ago. Precipitation increased slowly during the early Holocene, such that a rainfall pattern of more or less modern character was established in Georgia between 9000 and 8000 years ago. Conditions then became wetter and warmer during the mid Holocene, reverting to a cooler and drier climates during the late Holocene.
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ItemFederal governance in the European Union( 2007)Since the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1951, the European Union has emerged from a limited economic confederation to a supranational federal polity. There is, however, little work based in federal theory that seeks to understand the European Union as a federation nor the process by which that was achieved. Federal theory gives us two means of understanding federal government – federalism as techne and as telos. Federalism as techne informs us of the institutions and structures involved in federal governance. Federalism as telos provides the ideas, norms and values of federalism. Thus it is possible to speak of the federal idea (telos) and the institutions that embody it (techne).The process of federalisation of the European Union has seen the separation of these strands. Federal ideas do not necessarily lead to federal governance regimes; federal governance outcomes are not necessarily based on federal ideas. The European Union has adopted, over time, federal governance structures due to pragmatic concerns with institutional efficiency, bargain implementation, defection from agreement, and the equality of member states. The institutions created by the member states have themselves contributed to the federalisation process. Rarely has the federalisation process moved forward due to a belief in the value of federation itself.