School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemStaff knowledge, experience and beliefs about mechanical restraint use on people with an intellectual disability: an investigation into the potential facilitators and barriers to implementation of mechanical restraint reduction in disability services( 2019)Introduction Mechanical restraint is used on people with an intellectual disability, commonly in response to behaviours of concern involving harm to self or others. These types of restraint not only have limited effect in changing behaviour, they can prevent a person’s engagement in activities and opportunities to build skills, adversely affect their health and well-being, and the well-being of staff using restrictive interventions. They can represent a breach of a person’s human rights and, in some jurisdictions, a breach of criminal law. Methods A systematic review of the literature regarding disability support staff views on the use of mechanical restraint unveiled two previous papers. Broadly, the papers suggested that staff feel negative emotions such as guilt and sadness towards the use of mechanical restraint. Subsequent to these limited findings, a two-phase study was undertaken. First, an on-line survey was used to establish an understanding of the knowledge and values of disability support staff in respect of the use of mechanical restraint on people with intellectual disabilities across Australian disability services. Secondly, a focus group consisting of experienced disability support staff discussed the main findings of the on-line survey and their perception of the barriers and facilitators to reducing the use of mechanical restraints. Results The survey highlighted, unexpectedly, there may be a positive emotional association for staff who use mechanical restraint. Moreover, the data showed that staff have mixed beliefs in whether restraint use could be eliminated. The focus group discussed topics regarding the practical implications of staff’s emotional responses and their understanding of behaviour theories. Conclusions Disability staffs’ views on the use on mechanical restraint may be both a barrier and facilitator to the reduction and elimination of its use. The positive emotional association to mechanical restraint may be a barrier for staff to initiate change in practice. However, the notion that staff may merely be following the guidance of families or professionals could be a facilitator to mechanical restraint reduction as staff may follow positive behaviour support plans confidently when developed by professionals. Regulation and staff development might provide some solutions for reducing the use of mechanical restraints in disability services. However, organisational culture and operational expectations expressed in agencies local policies and procedures are also factors that need to be addressed. Working with, and importantly, listening to front-line staff could be an important source of information when developing strategies to address issues of organisational culture, policy and procedure. It was also evident that family members and professionals can be persons of influence in the use of mechanical restraint, and strategies to work with these groups appear important.
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ItemLegitimacy, authority and global governance institutions: a case study of the International Monetary Fund( 2018)Global governance institutions play an increasingly important and influential role in global politics. Despite a growing focus in the literature on global governance institutions’ legitimacy, the applicability of both standard conceptions and newer theories of political authority and political legitimacy to these actors remains an unresolved issue. In this thesis I address this shortcoming in the literature by engaging in an investigation of the authority and legitimacy of global governance institutions. I demonstrate the incompatibility of standard conceptions of political authority and legitimacy with the current roles of these actors in the international political order. Drawing on Stephen Perry’s (2013) task-efficacy account of legitimacy and Martha Nussbaum’s approach to social justice, I provide accounts of, and standards for, authority and legitimacy. I contend that the promotion of the condition for subjects’ wellbeing, understood as Nussbaum’s ten capabilities, is a sufficiently good or valuable end to justify public authority. Finally, to test the applicability of the proposed account of legitimacy, I undertake a case study of the International Monetary Fund to investigate the ways real world global governance institutions exercise political authority, establish the usefulness of my proposed definition of legitimacy, measure the IMF’s efficacy and consider areas for reform.
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ItemBeyond police victimisation: diverging narratives in the experiences of Victoria’s GLBTI population( 2017)My research critically engages with the concept of marginality present in discourse on the relationship between GLBTI people and police. By problematising the taken-for-granted categories present in police-GLBTI studies, my research, informed by Hurley’s (2007) critical assessment of marginality, seeks to look beyond the dominant narrative of victimisation in the GLBTI population. This small-scale exploratory study surveyed GLBTI people about their opinions and experiences of Victoria Police. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from a sample of 247 GLBTI Victorians utilising an online survey. The diversity of the participants and responses suggests that the relationship has moved beyond the structured binary of the police and the GLBTI population. This has implications for the current, normative approach to policing GLBTI people which is based on assumptions about a monocultural community with one set of policing needs. Non-binary participants emerged as a minority within the sample, demonstrating a greater frequency of interactions, and less satisfaction with interactions than their peers. My findings challenge normative assumptions about the narrative of victimisation and presence of binarism in discourse surrounding the GLBTI-police relationship.
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ItemThe most vitriolic parliament: evidence of the vitriolic nature of the 43rd parliament and potential causes( 2016)It has been suggested that the period of the Gillard government was the most vitriolic in recent political history. This impression has been formed by many commentators and actors, however very little quantitative data exists which either confirms or disproves this theory. Utilising an analysis of standing orders within the House of Representatives it was found that a relatively fair case can be made that the 43rd parliament was more vitriolic than any in the preceding two decades. This period in the data, however, was trumped by the first year of the Abbott government. Along with this conclusion the data showed that the cause of the vitriol during this period could not be narrowed to one specific driver. It can be seen that issues such as the minority government, style of opposition, gender and even to a certain extent the speakership would have all contributed to any mutation of the tone of debate.
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ItemTo ideology and beyond: a discourse analysis of the climate and energy narratives of Governor Schwarzenegger and Governor Perry( 2015)The legislative arm of the United States’ government, Congress, is more polarised than it ever has been in US political history, often hampering President Obama’s attempts to introduce climate legislation. Indeed, attitudes towards climate change have become a marker of political party identity in the US. Yet despite strong Republican opposition to climate and energy initiatives in Congress, there has been significant action at the subnational level, in two states with Republican governors. Governor Schwarzenegger implemented a cap-and-trade system in California, and Governor Perry oversaw legislation that has made Texas the largest producer of wind energy in the US (California and Texas are also the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the US). This thesis conducts a discourse analysis in order to examine this anomaly in Republican leadership on the issue of climate change, and investigates how, in light of their Republicanism and the backdrop of intense political polarisation, each of these governors have legitimised their respective climate and renewable energy policies.
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ItemThe emergence of poverty entrepreneurs in the aftermath of the troubles in Dublin( 2015)Traditional anthropology research demonstrates how historical processes have led to and continue to affect contemporary society. The ‘Troubles’ in Northern and the Republic of Ireland lasted thirty years from the late 60s to late 90s and still continues to stigmatize Irish society. This thesis captures the lives of a group of people who regularly frequented an Irish pub and adjoining hostel in the North East of the city of Dublin during 2003-2004 that was devastated by drugs, crime, alcoholism and prostitution. It was the impact of the Troubles in the present context that saw the rise of a particular management style. The Management provided mutual aid (Arensberg & Kimball, 1977; Cohen, 2001) to the clientele, creating an empire that operated freely from the garda. The Management were active members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Troubles and continued to hold meetings while I was living there. The Management of O’Reily’s were very protective of loyal participants. Typical notions of law and order were not adhered to, for instance, if a crime took place, the garda was not called. The Management or a member of their empire were drawn upon to rectify justice. An informal economy surfaced because of state distrust. They fostered an empire that operated on the periphery of mainstream Irish society, cultivating legitimate and illegitimate economies. It appeared to be the aftermath of the Troubles that enabled these entrepreneurs to flourish. In an environment where there was little prosperity, poverty entrepreneurs took advantage. The weak and unsuspecting were utilized with purpose. Many in this empire where damaged by the nationalist struggle. Not only did the Troubles unify the empire through mutual aid but isolated their socialization. Many were distrustful of outsiders and as such, people were withdrawn and did not grow. Temporary migrants reified the attitudinal responses typical of the Management such a mutual aid, silence to social problems and protection from outsiders. They were, however, unable to cope in their environment. This thesis will tell their story and detail the culture of poverty characterized that emerged. It describes the conflictual-struggle a damaged society undergoes when rebuilding itself after a violent ethno-nationalist struggle. Often you felt sorry for the perpetrator and the victim, even though you did not necessarily excuse their actions. This empire was emblematic of the humanist struggle for meaning and the constant negotiation and renegotiation of appropriate action that takes place when a community attempts to reestablish normalcy again.
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ItemSearching for salvation: Yassin al-Haj Saleh and the writing of modern Syria( 2015)This thesis introduces the English reader to Syrian dissident intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh (b. 1961). A prolific writer and former political prisoner, Saleh has redefined the role of the public intellectual within the oppressive environment of contemporary Syria. Following Saleh, this thesis will posit the calamitous state of Syria today as the product of authoritarianism, imperialism and theocracy. I focus on his interrogation of the country’s modern politics of cultural production, and suggest that for him, Syria’s salvation lies in nothing short of the revolutionising of the cultural field.
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ItemThe 1969 Conference for Left Action: Marxist theory and practice in Australia's new left( 2014)The 1969 Left Action Conference brought together 800 people of the Old and New Lefts to discuss revolutionary strategies, like “self-management” and “workers’ control” made popular in the French uprising of 1968. The thesis provides a snapshot of a unique period of Australian history. I examine the conference debates to understand theory and practice in 1960s Australia, after tracing the development of a new movement of Marxist radicals. Impatient for revolution, could the new left generation challenge conservative Australia and the Stalinist communist parties? The period 1967-1969 is a window on a radical experience which made a significant contribution to the overhaul of the conservative and repressive ways of 1950s Australia. Marxism revived, alongside a liberatory politics; the key element – anti-Stalinism, anti-domination, anti-manipulation, power and control inspired hope. After the conference new struggles and new debates flourished; an anti-war Moratorium movement united social forces to fight conscription and war and created a new momentum for change. Unfortunately political organisation then fragmented. The thesis draws on the experiences of the time to assess success and failure and the relevance of old and new ideas.
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ItemLove in the Luhmannian world: differentiation and dissonance in the semantics of modern intimacy( 2014)One of the most profitable insights to emerge from the numerous debates which surrounded the decline of modernization theory was the understanding that the various social trends associated with the notion of “modernity” need not converge. In response to a concern that the generalized process concepts which had hitherto governed our understanding of modern society (such as “rationalization,” “individualization,” or “secularization”) painted a unilinear, monological picture of social change insensitive not only to regional differences, but to points of tension and dissonance within specific societies themselves, more pluralistic accounts of modernity attempted to highlight that the institutional characteristics, functional imperatives, and symbolic structures of modern societies may prove incompatible with each other, or may at the very least exist in states of disharmony. Despite this insistence, the sociological study of romantic love has largely continued to operate with a conception of society that minimizes the importance of divergent or conflictual trends. Intimate relations, considered by many to be dependent factors within accounts of social change, are often analyzed in light of broader social patterns without due consideration of the ways in which their own internal logic may contradict this attribution. Acknowledging this deficiency, this thesis seeks to build on the insights of differentiation theory by focusing on the ways in which romantic love may both consolidate and contradict the dominant semantic forms and organizational structures of modern society. In line with the theoretical apparatus of Niklas Luhmann, it seeks to present modern love as a self-referential set of social semantics, to analyze the status of intimate systems within contemporary society, and to explore the ways in which an empirical account of romantic relations may be enhanced by the insights of sociological systems theory. In so doing, it argues that love is a phenomenon which demands a multifaceted, pluralistic, and in many ways paradoxical understanding of modernity itself.
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ItemThe discussion of myth in Dialectic Of Enlightenment: myth and the unfinished task of enlightenment( 2014)My thesis examines the discussion of myth in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s Dialectic Of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Contesting Habermas’ influential reading of Dialectic Of Enlightenment as a ‘totalising critique of reason,’ I argue that Horkheimer and Adorno entwine two concepts of myth into a highly original study of philosophical self-reflection. I call the first concept of myth ‘allegorical’; it stems from aesthetics. I call the second concept of myth ‘anthropological’. In chapter 1 I first provide a brief outline of Dialectic Of Enlightenment and the mainstream Anglophone commentaries on the book. I then argue that the Anglophone mainstream has largely overlooked a concept of self-reflection which is to be found through a detailed examination of Horkheimer and Adorno’s critique of modern reason, a critique which is built, in large part, around the particular theme of myth. In Chapter 2 I unpack Horkheimer and Adorno’s allegorical reading of myth, a reading which treats the figure of Odysseus sailing past the Sirens as an allegory for the ‘myth’ of instrumental reason. Odysseus is here presented as an exemplar of the isolated, alienated subject of the modern world whose ability for thought and reflection is conditioned by the dehumanising instrumental reason of modern industrialised society. In a line of thought that is modelled upon aesthetics, I argue that this reading of myth illuminates a potential for qualitatively new forms of self-reflection and human solidarity. In chapter 3 I present Horkheimer and Adorno’s anthropological reading of myth. Myth in this reading is ‘myth’ seen through the eyes of the modern anthropologist; it is a kind of symbolic support for customs, traditions and kinship bonds of pre- or non-modern cultures. Through an innovative reading of Homer’s Odyssey as documenting the cultural memory of an early stage of settled European civilisation, Horkheimer and Adorno unravel the Homeric memory of traces of this anthropological concept of myth reaching into our species’ distant past. Upon this basis, I argue that Horkheimer and Adorno’s interpretation of the Odyssey becomes a highly original attempt to establish an anthropological underpinning for the concept of self-reflection which is sketched out in the authors’ allegorical reading of myth. Finally, I conclude that Horkheimer and Adorno’s discussion of myth presents a valuable perspective on philosophical self-reflection which has been largely overlooked in the mainstream secondary literature on Dialectic Of Enlightenment.