School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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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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    Staff 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
    White, Kathryn Louisa ( 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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    Legitimacy, authority and global governance institutions: a case study of the International Monetary Fund
    Cole, Natalie ( 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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    Beyond police victimisation: diverging narratives in the experiences of Victoria’s GLBTI population
    Lamb, Jessica ( 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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    Attraction and christian conversion from 1842 to 1862 in the New Hebrides
    Nolan, Patric Cean ( 2001)
    Conversion to Christianity was remarkably rapid on Aneityum but almost non-existent on Tanna during the period from 1842, when white missionaries first came to Tanna, until 1862, when the second white mission to Tanna was finally rejected. Tannese resistance to conversion makes it clear that New Hebrideans were not passive under missionary. direction. On Aneityum, epidemics of European diseases ravaged the island before the white missionaries arrived and during the time that conversion occurred, but on Tanna only during times when missionaries were resident. On Tanna, missionaries stressed the wickedness of non-Christians as the cause of epidemics, and other scourges, that they said were induced by God, and this reinforced a Tannese interpretation that the missionaries were magicians manipulating their relationship with God to inflict their malice on the people, whereas on Aneityum the missionaries stressed the goodness of a God who would recompense Aneityumese in heaven for the sorrows they experienced in their earthly lives. On both islands, Polynesian missionary teachers were crucial to the conversion process because they prepared the way for the white missionaries. The white missionaries were Presbyterians on both islands, and although they followed different Presbyterian traditions, this cannot suffice as an adequate reason for the different outcomes on the two islands There were slight differences in political structure on the two islands, but again these were insufficient to explain the difference, because local leaders on neither island were influential - community decision making was by consensus, with leaders merely implementing community resolutions. The movement towards Christianity on Aneityum begun among the women and young people, with the local leaders last to convert. Finally, there is not sufficient evidence that attitudes to spirits were significantly different on the two islands. I will argue that converts were people attracted to Christians, and, furthermore, that the different conversion outcomes on the two islands were influenced by the characters of the different Christian missionaries who presented themselves to the islanders.
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    The militarization of humanitarian assistance : an emerging crisis
    Ragland, Richard J ( 2005)
    Military forces are ramping up their involvement in 'humanitarian' action and in doing so are creating operational and ethical problems for humanitarian organisations and professionals who operate in an otherwise politically neutral environment. Using the current Afghanistan conflict (2001-2005) as a case study, the research focuses on the evolving nature of civil-military relations in peace-building operations, and how these relations became changed and altered after the Bush administration's newly declared war on terror. The study begins by seeking an understanding of how and why the military expanded their war effort to include the direct financing of "humanitarian" interventions. The result points to the need to better understand the military's current methods and ethos to `win the peace' and win the hearts and minds of the people. In turn, the study leads to the identification of a new military paradigm that is making its way into military doctrine. This expanded doctrine is leading to the possible amalgamation of government departments that will enable the military to lead nation-building missions around the world. It will also support the simultaneous execution of combat operations (destructive phase) with their nation-building operations (constructive phase). In Afghanistan, the US military's new multi-pronged strategy was manifested through the resurrection of a similar strategy used in Vietnam. Now called Provincial Reconstruction Teams, the military is using this tool to undertake armed `nation-building' activities. By choosing to operate in the arena normally occupied by NGOs and UN relief and development agencies, the military is grossly disturbing the neutral, non-partisan character of their work by, among other things, blurring the lines that distinguish civilian efforts from the politically motivated war effort. The research looks at how the military's intrusion affects the working environment and development approach of the humanitarian community. The study includes the position of the United Nations who are mediators between humanitarian agencies and the military, but are non-the-less challenged by this new military paradigm. By exploring the military's motivation for their new course of action and comparing it with the response from the humanitarian sector, the research identifies a number of key problems and conflicts, that have affected the relief and reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. As a result, an emerging crisis is identified and it's potential to exacerbate human suffering in new post-conflict environments is emphasised. The analysis concludes by identifying de-conflict options, recommending policies to the international community, and suggesting a way forward.
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    Consuming Asianness in Australia : identity, capital and class
    Smith, Naomi ( 2004)
    In this thesis I aim to investigate the consumption of 'Asianness' in Australian society. I account for the actions of individuals and groups who, during the Keating era of government, acted upon the Keating rhetoric of engagement with Asia by exhibiting a desire for 'Asianness'. I use the term 'Asianness' to include all goods and knowledge that have, or are informed by, a distinctly Asian identity, including Asian art, spirituality, design, fashion, food and business practice. I argue that the consumption of 'Asianness' by such individuals and groups is a means to attain distinction; it is a marker of identity which has particular meaning and currency in Australian society. I investigate this phenomenon by firstly providing a genealogy of the idea of Asia in the Australian national psyche. Australia's relationship with Asia at the beginning of the nineteenth century was dominated by a mood of fear and hostility. However, amongst some members of the population an interest in Asia was exhibited. It is this dichotomy of fear and desire which is the hallmark of Australia's relationship with Asia. I argue that the idea of Asia at the turn of the century and beyond played an integral role in the construction of the Australian nation. It is important to document the history of the relationship between Asia an Australia before moving on to examine the shift in Australia's attitudes towards Asia during the Keating era. No longer feared or hated, Asia was perceived as desirable in a variety of ways. It is the refashioning of attitudes towards Asia, and therefore Australian identity, by the Keating government which is detailed in chapter two. I argue that under the discourse of multiculturalism in the 1990s 'Asianness' was conceived as a commodity to be consumed by the Australian public. Through a number of examples from national broadsheets and magazines I detail the pervasiveness of this consumption in everyday life. In answering the question of who consumes 'Asianness' in Australian society and why? I have found the work of Pierre Bourdieu to be instructive. Bourdieu allows us to explain why certain people consume particular goods and the motivation behind such consumption choices. I argue that the consumption of 'Asianness' is an activity which is indicative of a particular group in Australian society; the cosmopolitan class. Termed 'cosmo-multiculturalists' by Ghassan Hage (1998), this group of Australians came to prominence during the Keating era. It is through the consumption of 'Asianness' that this group distinguishes itself from others.