School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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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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ItemExperiencing and transcending a liminal condition : narratives of ailing Polish immigrants in Melbourne, Australia( 2004)In addition to facing problems typically associated with (re)location, migrants must often come to terms with changing bodily states due to disability, illness, ageing and other forms of ailments in locations that may be foreign culturally and linguistically. Ailing immigrants experience two forms of disruptions which result in a double condition of sustained liminality: spatial/social and bodily. Using narratives of ailing Polish immigrants to Australia, this thesis explores these disruptions as well as the strategies through which the participants (re)ground their transformed body/selves in new locations. The project is embedded in a constructivist approach which stresses the importance of the participants' subjective experience of spatial/social and bodily (re)locations, their experience of sustained liminality, and of the strategies they use to transcend this doubly liminal state. Theoretical and methodological concepts which guide this work are elaborated and expanded on in the first sections of the thesis. The next section is devoted to exploring the narratives of the ailing Polish immigrants in order to uncover their spatial social and bodily disruptions and uprootings from familiar locations, and their consequent alienation from their changing body/selves. The final section uses the narratives of the participants to reveal the frameworks within which they attempt to transcend the liminal condition of their ailing immigrant bodies in order to make their locations familiar and their transformed body/selves less alien. This project argues that making sense of new locations is a human experience. For the ailing immigrant, however, the experience is problematic because the transformative movements they are subjected to require a continuous effort to (re)locate their selves within monumentally different spatial/social and bodily contexts. (Re)grounding strategies are a way of making sense of the world and of doing away with the subjective alienation from the self. This thesis recognizes the process of (re)grounding as central to the experience of the ailing immigrants, and argues that the end results of (re)grounding strategies, whether successful or not, are in fact less important than the process itself. Through the (re)grounding process, the self becomes familiar, regardless of its spatial/social or bodily location
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ItemA failed innovation?: General practitioners in community health centres( 1993)This paper seeks to examine central policy and practice issues arising out of the presence of doctors in community health centres. The community health program was shaped by the Whitlam era and there were great hopes for its success in delivering new forms of health services. Integral to it was the presence of G.P.'s working from community health centres. The research aims at discovering whether or not community health has successfully incorporated G.P.'s into the program. (From Introduction)
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ItemFrom segregated institution to self-managed community: the contribution of community social work practice towards Aboriginal self-management at Lake Tyers/Bung Yarnda Victoria( 2006)The central purpose of this thesis was to explore the contribution of community social work practice to a process of planned social change orchestrated by the Victorian Government's Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs during 1970-1971. This process aimed to reconstruct the living conditions of the residential Aboriginal population of Lake TyersrBung Yarnda so that the residents became land owners and managers of their physical, economic and social country. The thesis has sought to analyse the planned social change process that included two components - community development and legislation. The study found that legislation provided the necessary conditions to effect the social change sought by the residents, but the Government's grant of communal land title involved management of a corporate organisation, which conferred unexpected accountability standards and demanded new administrative skills of them. The study also found that the transfer of a new social and economic status required different attitudes and standards of behaviour from the residents, Government and the environment. Social change came with a price for all parties but especially the Aboriginal residents of Lake Tyers. The thesis has assessed the engagement of the community social worker, explored the theoretical ideas that guided the community social worker's practice, and analysed the social planning approach used by the Executive of the Ministry. An autobiographical method was used drawing on primary data from the community . social worker's practice records written during the intervention and collected materials. A content analysis of this data, from the perspective of practice ideas then and now, has facilitated the reconstructed account of what happened. Later historical, sociological, psychological, and community social work practice literature concerning the social and economic development of residential Aboriginal populations, was utilised to provide a contemporary contribution to the analysis of the process. The foundation of the study was the integration of a critical social theoretical approach with the qualitative Indigenous methodology of 'decolonizing methodologies' (Smith 1999). Consequently, the central focus has been the Aboriginal residents', and the community social worker's cultural constructions of a social reality formed by colonisation and racial structure. The study found that the process of social change at Lake Tyers in 1970-1971 was primarily agency-controlled by the Ministry's Executive to ensure the Government's goals were realised; and that the process of locality development played a secondary and restricted role. The thesis has argued that past and present community social work practice knowledge has reflected a dominant Western world view. It has suggested that when formulating community development strategies, planners and practitioners have failed to recognise the fundamental importance of Aboriginal social organisation - the primary group relationships of Aboriginal extended kin networks, the under-development of secondary group relationships, and reliance on tertiary relationships with the state. The national Aboriginal land rights social movement and the organised protest over the future of Lake Tyers have been identified as key factors instigating the process of social change. Specific historical, sociological and psychological concepts have been suggested as crucial to gaining insight into the context that created the seriously under-developed economic conditions of the residents of Lake Tyers in 1970. They include the oppressive nature of the Station regime that ensured the people's livelihood depended on tutelage with the state, stultified individual initiative and squashed leadership, protected residents from experiencing separation of home from work place, limited participation in the market economy, restricted interaction with civil society, and inhibited the formation of a racial community or secondary group to promote social needs and cultural interests. The thesis has argued the need to conceptualise an Aboriginal approach to community social work in which the process of social change is controlled, negotiated and directed by an Aboriginal executive management; where social policies are shaped by Aboriginal people identifying their needs from their distinctive experience of colonisation and cultural adaptation; and where the engagement of a non-Aboriginal practitioner has been sanctioned by the Aboriginal executive.
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ItemThe Victorian Boy Scout Movement: a case study of adaptation from Edwardian times to today( 1989)This thesis is an enquiry into the world view of the boy scout association and the way that world view has been adjusted in the light of changing values and societal patterns. The boy scout association has been in existence for some eighty years and it has maintained its strength while almost all other comparable movements have had to disband because of falling membership and insufficient interest. The thesis explores how the association, established in Edwardian times and rooted in imperial middle-class values, has managed the process of adaptation. The thesis is also a case study of scouting in Victoria. The enquiry proceeds by examining three chronological periods selected for their historical significance to the movement. The first is the period from scouting’s inception in Victoria in 1908 until the First World War. The second is the decade 1930 to 1940. Finally is the period from 1967 to 1977. This work does not attempt a detailed historical account of the eras, but pauses to provide only a still shot of the movement at these times. The aim has been to be representative rather than exhaustive in the selection of material. When the movement was established, it was imbued with the spirit of imperialism, militarism and masculinity. It is in terms of these three central concepts that the thinking, values and activities of the movement have been observed to determine how they have survived, rearranged themselves or become something new over the years. This preparatory section will provide a brief sketch of scouting’s ideology, looking specifically at the origins of these three principal elements. (From Introduction)
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ItemSingle mothers in society: a study of the causes and consequences of single motherhood for a Melbourne sample of single mothers who kept their children( 1979)Inspiration for the Study: This study draws its inspiration from two main sources. Firstly, from the experience of a new organisation, the Council for the Single Mother and her Child, through which single mothers have come together in an attempt to help themselves and each other personally, practically and through social action to reform their socio-legal position in society. The increasing self-reliance of women and ameliorating social attitudes to single mothers have disclosed what seems to be a new type of single mother, barely glimpsed in earlier research. This mother may be more likely to remain in the community and keep her baby, and less likely to contact the traditional social service agencies. Such mothers have been visibly active in C.S.M.C. The council has encouraged research into the situation and experience of members so that, as an organisation, it can adapt better to serve its members as a grassroots, participatory, self-help welfare agency, and so it can fill out the picture it presents to the community. The council takes the view that any factual evidence presented is likely to improve the community’s understanding of a stigmatised group. In accord with this policy, C.S.M.C. has made this project possible by allowing the sample to be drawn from its mailing list. Secondly, it was designed to help meet a research need. Most of the research that is influential among Australian social workers is based on overseas evidence, often drawn from 'captive' samples of clients of maternity shelters, public hospitals and adoption or casework agencies, clients who are close to what, as Bernstein pointed out, is an emotional upheaval in any circumstances -- birth. From the perspective of knowledge building, it is desirable that the findings and hypotheses to emerge from this research should be re-examined and tested to see how relevant they may be for a contemporary local sample of single mothers living in the community with their children. Many expectant single mothers and the social workers who counsel them about plans for their own and their babies' futures, feel they have insufficient information about what happens to mothers later, since most of the mothers do not return to the social work agency unless they have problems. Dr. Nan Johns' follow-up study of samples of babies adopted, and babies kept by their natural mothers, is designed to meet this need. It is hoped that the present study will provide useful supplementary evidence. In Australia, there has been no large-scale, comprehensive research on the single-mother population, and in the absence of this, as Meredith and Brotherton have pointed out, there is a need for small-scale, particularised studies to develop a general body of data on the characteristics of single mothers. Other studies in this latter category have drawn their samples from welfare institutions that assist single mothers with problems, such as maternity homes, casework agencies or public hospitals, which cater mainly for low-income patients. The present survey concerns a more varied sample, and it is hoped it will therefore contribute a useful extension of existing research knowledge. (From Introduction)
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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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Item"You can't let your children cry": filicide in Victoria 1978-1988( 1991)Child killers, particularly when the perpetrators are the victims' parents, are stereotypically portrayed as "evil" or "crazy" (Wilson,1985:6). Who other than the "mad" or the very "bad" could slaughter their "innocent" offspring? But are these offenders really so aberrant? The social perception of, and response to, these offenders is largely determined by the offenders' sex. In fact, biological determinism is particularly profound in this area. This is a qualitative study of all officially suspected cases of filicide in Victoria between 1978 and 1988. "Filicide" is a particular type of homicide where parents kill their children. The major focus is a gender analysis. In order to identify the relevant issues, and assess the results of this study with other research in this area, a review of the existing literature is necessary. Contemporary official statistics portray filicide as constituting a relatively small proportion of all homicide in Western societies. This ranges from five percent in North America (Resnick,1969:325;Husain & Daniel,1984:596) to ten percent in England (Campion, Cravens & Covan,1988:1143), and eleven percent in Victoria (Polk & Ranson,1989:12). However, the actual incidence of filicide is elusive due to undetected and unreported cases and forensic problems associated with filicide detection. In fact, filicide may be less likely to be detected than other forms of homicide. These issues are discussed in detail in the Methodology chapter. As filicide forms only a small proportion of detected homicides, this may account for its relative neglect in homicide studies. Filicide is nevertheless a significant problem. It demonstrates the darker side of our culture, as does its social response. (From Introduction)
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ItemThe Ryan case: an analysis of the decision of the Victorian Cabinet to impose the death sentence on Ronald Joseph Ryan, and of the public and mass media protest campaign( 1976)Between the years 1955 and 1972 Victorian politics was dominated not merely by the Liberal Party but by one man, Mr. (later Sir) Henry Bolte. Not since the (co-extensive) era of Sir Robert Menzies on the national scene had the political life of a community so completely been in the shadow of a single politician : as A.F. Davies has put it, for most people politics in Victoria for a long time had meant "Henry Bolte". But Sir Henry Bolte has not merely been the longest serving Premier in our history ; his coming to office in June 1955 marked the beginning of an era of continuity and stability in Victorian politics that had never before been experienced in the State. Before Bo1te came to power in 1955, there had been eighteen Governments since 1924, the longest-serving of which had been the Country Party Minority Government of A.A. Dunstan, which had ruled - with Labor support till July 1942 and thereafter with United Australia Party support - from April 1935 to September 1943. What is more, as A.F. Davies has pointed out, all the Ministries from 1924 to 1952 were either minority Governments or composite Ministries. Moreover, only two of the seven governments between 1924 and 1932 lasted a full parliamentary term, and only two of the twelve governments between 1943 and 1958. With the advent of the Bolte era "the inherent instability of Victorian Cabinets", as it had come to be termed, was at an end. While there has already been a searching political biography of Sir Henry, the politics and style of “the Bolte era" has so far not attracted extensive research. This thesis, then, is a contribution to our understanding of that era by concentrating on the most significant issue of the Bolte premiership : the decision by the Bolte Cabinet in December 1966 to hang convicted murderer Ronald Joseph Ryan. Only twice during his record term of more than seventeen years as Premier did Sir Henry Bolte meet with sustained, hostile public criticism and protest. Both occasions involved a decision to invoke the death penalty. The first involved the decision not to commute the death sentence on Robert Peter Tait for the murder of an elderly woman in Hawthorn in 1961. Following involved legal procedures by Tait's counsel, which culminated in a last minute intervention by the High Court to restrain the Government from proceeding with the hanging, the death sentence on Tait was finally commuted. (From Introduction)
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ItemPunishment and crime: guilt and grandiosity in the life of Ronald Ryan( 1999)This thesis examines the life and crimes of Ronald Joseph Ryan, the condemned man at the centre of the most politically divisive capital punishment case in Australia's history and the last man judicially executed in Australia. Ryan was born Ronald Edmond Thompson in Melbourne in February 1925, the son of impoverished working class parents. His father was a violent, alcoholic miner crippled by miners' phthisis and his mother (who, at the time of the birth, was married to another man) was an alcoholic and sometime prostitute. Ryan's childhood was characterised by early traumatic deprivation, parental abuse and neglect. Following a petty theft at age 11, Ryan was removed from his parents and, by court order, made a ward of state and placed in custodial care at an institution for "wayward and neglected' boys. He absconded from his wardship at age 14 and joined his half-brother, later travelling to Balranald, N.S.W., where he worked as a timber-cutter. The period from age 15 to his mid-20s were relatively productive and law-abiding - he was married in 1950 - but aspects of his personality also became more obvious: his gambling compulsion and certain obsessive compulsive behavioural traits. In 1953, now back in Victoria, Ryan was involved in arson of his rented family home in order to claim insurance monies, although he was subsequently acquitted of the offence. Beginning in 1956, a string of forging and "break-and-enter' offences ensued. When arrested Ryan typically confessed, and later court appearances led to his first brief imprisonment for theft in 1956. Further breaking offences followed in 1959 and 1960, in a period in which he was virtually a professional criminal, and he was eventually prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to 8 ½ years imprisonment. While in prison Ryan appeared strongly motivated toward rehabilitation, successfully undertaking further education. He was regarded by prison authorities as an outstanding, high-achieving model prisoner. Released after serving 3 years, Ryan quickly returned to crime, however, and his offences at times involved violence. A series of shop- and factory-breakings and safe-blowings between 1963 and 1964 saw him convicted and returned to prison for 8 years. In 1965 he escaped from Pentridge prison in Melbourne, during which he shot and killed a pursuing prison officer. Following his recapture, Ryan and his co-escapee, Peter Walker, were tried in the Victorian Supreme Court. Ryan was convicted of murder and Walker convicted of manslaughter. Despite exhaustive legal appeals and unprecedented media and community opposition, Ryan's death sentence was not commuted by the Victorian Cabinet and he was hanged on 3 February 1967. Utilising archival records, primary sources and extensive interviews with his family and contemporaries, the thesis presents a biographical account of Ryan's life. It documents the social conditions of Ryan's childhood and institutionalisation and his later criminal and prison history, but more particularly it seeks - through the evidence of his behaviour and his writings - to elucidate his inner life as a way of understanding the contradictions between Ryan as model prisoner and ambitious professional criminal. The thesis advances a hypothesis about Ryan's criminal personality: grandiose in his phantasied criminal role, a prisoner to obsessive rituals and compulsive gambling for much of his life, driven by a compulsion to confess to his crimes, and prone to hero phantasies and acts of rescue and reparation. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, the thesis explores the extent to which Ryan's criminality can be understood as an expression of his unconscious wish for punishment, as derived 'from a sense of guilt' , and shaped by his narcissistic grandiosity.