School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemThe borders of nationalism( 2008)Given the primacy of the nation state the nationalism debate remains contentious. With interstate ties becoming stronger, unique regional pacts being formed and globalisation bringing us ever closer, a number of salient questions arise. Much research has been conducted into nationalism, addressing in particular a number of empirical matters. This paper considers the ethical permissibility of moderate nationalism, under a modified form of Gewirth's Principle of Generic Consistency. In the spirit of the work of Sidgwick (1874) the paper acknowledges that individuals observe conflicts in basic principles. The paper contends that a departure from a posited ideal is permissible in pursuit of a functional end state. The paper establishes the functional polity formed under a moderate nationalism as not merely permissible but desirable when compared with other select social architectures because it operates as a superior co-ordination point. The paper contends that nationalism beyond the moderate form offers little additional benefit to group co-ordination, as much of what is afforded is supererogatory. The paper argues that nationalism beyond the moderate form is unjustifiable. The paper asserts that the social architecture established under moderate nationalism, may encourage greater intra-state prosperity and wellbeing than a minarchist state architecture. The paper also responds to a number of contemporary accounts of Nationalism that infer that nationalistic partiality is a fait accompli purporting that much of this work is founded in reductionist and overly simplistic definitions of rationality. The most significant proposition of this paper is that moderate nationalism is more desirable than minarchist structures and immoderate nationalism because it best enables the subsequent satisfaction of universalist ends, a notion 1 term functional universalism.
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ItemMorality of politicians in a democracy( 2008)This thesis argues that one way of understanding the morality of politicians is from the perspective of their role morality, which is derived from their representative role in a democracy. The thesis argues that politicians' role morality is to advocate for their constituents in a way that upholds democratic values and the institutional arrangements required to give effect to democratic values. The thesis sets out the values underlying a democracy and argues that the traditional view of the nature of representation, as either a delegate and/or a trustee, does not provide an adequate understanding of the role of the representative. The delegate and/or trustee model assumes some form of `contactual' arrangement between representative and citizen whereas representation in a democracy is more like an ongoing relationship where citizens continue to exercise their sovereignty through an active interrelationship with their representatives. This way of viewing the role of the democratic representative places a greater responsibility on the political representatives to see their role as facilitating citizens' self government through an open, deliberative process in the Parliament. It is difficult to determine how well politicians uphold democratic values because of the competitive views as to how democratic values ought to be translated into institutional form. In order to see how well politicians are fulfilling their role morality of upholding democratic values, some other sort of criteria are required which may help in making such assessments and which do not rely on partisan views. Two sets of criteria are developed - one set is derived from the deliberative nature of representation and the other set is embedded in the idea of institutional accountability. These sets of criteria are applied in three different stories in order to assess the action of politicians but also to point to areas for practical reform which may support politicians to fulfil their role morality.
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ItemSpectacular! Spectacular!: Cole's book arcade, Melbourne: 1863 to 1927( 2008)This thesis will investigate Cole's Book Arcade, which operated in Melbourne's Bourke Street from 1863 to 1927. Cole's Book Arcade provides a case study with which to interpret social and cultural practices occurring in the context of Melbourne's retail and entertainment environment during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cole's Book Arcade was a product of its time and location. The thesis argues that the Arcade is an example of how Melbourne's citizens experienced modernity and leisure in the city during this historic period. It is necessary to define the boundaries of this case study. The thesis will also employ the definitions and practicalities of public history to examine the place of the Cole's Book Arcade story within The changing face of Victoria exhibition at the State Library of Victoria. The notions of cultural landscape, modernity, leisure, the New-World city, urban history and material culture will be employed to consider the significance of the entertainment and entrepreneurial environment of Cole's Book Arcade. Since the early settlement of colonial Melbourne, Bourke Street had been a popular destination for city dwellers to find entertainment. By the late nineteenth-century, modern cultural landscapes were emerging within New World cities. E.W. Cole was an entrepreneur who tapped into the commercial interests of a general public who embraced the popular leisure activities with shopping as their focus. This case study of Cole's Book Arcade will provide the historical record with greater knowledge of the personalities and places responsible for motivating these processes and outcomes.
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ItemWith my needle: embroidery samplers in colonial Australia( 2008)This thesis examines a group of more than one hundred needlework samplers stitched in the Australian colonies during the nineteenth century. It uses them as documents of social history to examine the lives of individual girls and women during that time, and to trace changing expectations of girls, especially in the later decades of the century. Although there are many individual stories that can illuminate certain aspects of Australian history such as migration, settlement, and death and mourning, these samplers are most useful as documents in the examination of girls' education and the social expectations transmitted through the education system. It addresses the contradiction between the sampler's continuing presence in girls' schooling and the increasing irrelevance of the skills embodied in it. The thesis argues that needlework samplers retained their place in girls' education well into the twentieth century because of their significance as symbols of feminine accomplishment. They were physical expressions of a definition of respectability that was based on the `feminine ideal' of the nineteenth century and allayed anxiety about girls' involvement in formal schooling.
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ItemBeyond the book: reshaping Australian public history in the Web 2.0 environment( 2008)With digital media and the web becoming increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives, few historians have considered in depth the impact that this is having on the ways that history is represented and communicated in the public sphere. This thesis is an examination of how the practice of public history in Australia is being reshaped in the Web 2.0 environment. In the context of new media theory, public history practice is considered in relation to identifiable changes in the ways the web is used and understood. The public historian’s concern with interpreting the past to a public audience means that changing social practices and information patterns are pertinent to their work. This thesis highlights the ways in which different forms of history are being produced, distributed and consumed on the web. It focuses on the potential role of the web user as an active producer of personal and creative interpretations of the past and on how experimental public history practices in the Web 2.0 environment have emerged in response to changing audiences. This study argues that the rise of Web 2.0 is reflected by personalised, ubiquitous, democratic and innovative public history practices on the web. Through an in depth analysis of The Powerhouse Museum collection search and YouTube as case studies, this thesis shows how increased participation, the proliferation of user-generated content, social networking and existing practices by users in the Web 2.0 environment reshapes public history. This thesis goes beyond conceiving of the web as a site of historical source material, both digitised and born-digital, to an understanding of the value of participatory media and informal communication in enabling the sharing of historical knowledge and materials between and among networks of people on the web.
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ItemSydney Dance Company: a study of a connecting thread with the Ballets Russes( 2009)This thesis addresses unexplored territory within a relatively new body of scholarship concerning the history of the Ballets Russes in Australia. Specifically, it explores the connection between the original Diaghilev Ballets Russes (1909- 1929) and the trajectories of influence of Russian ballets that visited Australia. This thesis addresses unexplored territory within a relatively new body of scholarship concerning the history of the Ballets Russes in Australia. Specifically, it explores the connection between the original Diaghilev Ballets Russes (1909- 1929) and the trajectories of influence of Russian ballets that visited Australia. This study sketches the origins of the Ballets Russes, the impact its launch made on dance in the West, and how it progressed through three distinguishable phases of influence. It summarises the important features of the visits to Australia of Russian ballet companies from Adeline Genee in 1913 to the culturally altering impact of the revived Ballets Russes companies over three extended tours between 1936 and 1940. It charts the formation of viable ballet companies in Australia, commencing with Kirsova in 1939 and Borovansky in 1940, to the Australian Ballet in 1962 and the Sydney Dance Company led by Murphy between 1976 and 2008. Drawing on distinctions between classical and contemporary dance, it attempts to demonstrate the groundwork of example established by the Russian ballet, and, particularly, the revived Ballets Russes visits up to 1940. Data for this thesis was drawn from a personal interview with Graeme Murphy, original documentary research in public collections in Australia, government and Sydney Dance Company archives, newspapers and secondary literature.
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ItemAdhesives for paper 1879-1920: recipes and proprietary products( 2009)This research examines historical recipes recommended for use on paper-based collection from 1870-1920. The historical development of the adhesives industry is presented, including the use of advertising amongst commercial adhesive manufacturers. A review of binders used during the timeframe of interest was performed, to determine whether synthetic polymers may have been in use. Recipes were collected from various contemporary sources, including trade books, patents, journals and newspapers. Ingredient lists were analysed statistically in order to determine common ingredients and formulations. Water-resistant formulations were also identified. These included mixtures of binders, plant resins, linseed oil and/or the use of chemical hardeners such as potassium dichromate, tannic acid and alum. Binders such as casein, egg albumen and even starch and flour are less soluble in water and therefore more difficult to remove. Theories of adhesion and their application to paper substrates are discussed. Physical adsorption and mechanical interlocking are the two most significant adhesion theories that apply to paper. Mechanisms affecting the degree of adhesion on ageing of both adhesive and paper include chain scission, crosslinking, oxidation and interactions with polyvalent metal ions. Results of analysis for known and unknown adhesive samples are presented. Analysis methods investigated include microscopy, solubility testing, chemical spot tests, X-ray fluorescence and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. Binder mixtures, small sample sizes and a lack of reference data were the main barriers to obtaining positive identification of samples. Solubility issues and possible treatment methodologies for insoluble adhesives are discussed. These focus on the use of enzymes, chelating agents, heat and pH adjustment. Regardless of the treatment path chosen, removal of adhesives from paper substrates can be difficult if the adhesive only swells, rather than solubilises, and is inaccessible for mechanical removal.
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ItemAriadne and the poetics of abandonment: echoes of loss and death in 'Heroides' 10( 2009)The Ovidian Ariadne of Heroides 10 self-consciously constructs her persona into the archetype of erotic abandonment. The heroine attempts to re-write her destiny and reverse the loss of Theseus and her unfulfilled desire. But Ariadne cannot change her depiction as abandoned by Theseus. The language employed in her epistle only succeeds in emphasising the erotic loss. The more Ariadne tries to change the master narrative, the more she accentuates the literary echoes of her abandonment. This thesis argues that the intertextual echoes of the heroine should not exclusively be read from Catullus 64, but that Ovid‟s Ariadne writes her epistle in the context of many genres - elegy, epic, tragedy, exilic elegy - which all emphasise loss, death, and erotic disillusionment. My reading of Heroides 10 avoids the interpretations of parody previously read of this particular heroine to argue instead the way Ariadne constructs the governing persona in accordance with the genres of both elegy and epistolography. Ariadne‟s self-representation as an elegiac puella ultimately reflects her traditional literary and artistic image. This disrupts her self-depiction as an erotic object and subsequently her construction of masculine desire. The heroine‟s epistolary gaze and voice self-consciously re-affirm her position as the quintessential abandoned woman, while her poetics continually assert the irreversible end of her relationship and the failure of her words to change her fate. Death is the primary concern of the epistle, in which the request for proper burial replaces the desire for erotic union. Memorialisation and writing become the prime motivation for Ariadne‟s poetics whereby she attempts to reverse Theseus‟ forgetful mind with a concrete monument to the self. The dislocation of Ariadne‟s erotics alongside the failure of epistolarity attests to the failure of her voice in constructing change to her traditional narrative.
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ItemHas Laudan killed the demarcation problem?( 2009)The ‘Demarcation Problem’ is to mark the boundary between things that are scientific and things that are not. Philosophers have worked on this problem for a long time, and yet there is still no consensus solution. Should we continue to hope, or must we draw a more sceptical conclusion? In his paper, ‘The Demise of the Demarcation Problem’, Larry Laudan (1983) does the latter. In this thesis, I address the three arguments he gives for this conclusion. The Pessimistic Induction: From the failure of many specific past attempts at demarcation, Laudan infers that all future attempts at demarcation will fail. For his argument to be fully convincing, Laudan needs to show that each attempt has been a complete failure, and that these failures have never led to progress in the theory of demarcation. I argue that many past attempts at demarcation have only resulted in partial failure, and many of these failures have led to some cumulative progress. So I think we can draw a more optimistic conclusion: future attempts at demarcation may be even more successful than past attempts. The Pseudo-Problem: Laudan argues that the demarcation problem presupposes an ‘epistemic invariant’: something common to all and only the sciences, which makes them epistemically special. But, says Laudan, this presumption is false – so, by definition, the issue is merely a pseudo-problem. I find Laudan’s argument unconvincing. I present reasons for thinking that the demarcation problem does not, in fact, presuppose an extremely simple epistemic invariant. Furthermore, there may still be a satisfactory, moderately complex epistemic invariant to be found. So I do not think any false assumption is presupposed. The New Problem: Laudan argues that we should replace the original demarcation problem with a new demarcation problem. I take this to be the problem of demarcating between well-confirmed and ill-confirmed theories. I argue that scientific status is relevant to the confirmation of theories, so the two problems are closely related. I also argue that science has other purposes; so scientific status indicates other virtues besides well-confirmedness. Thus we do want to know which theories and activities are scientific, because this will help us to decide which theories and activities to pursue. So this new demarcation problem is not a suitable replacement for the original problem. My central question is ‘Has Laudan killed the demarcation problem?’, and my answer is ‘No!’.
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ItemConserving mural paintings in Thailand and Sri Lanka: conservation policies and restoration practice in social and historical context( 2009)This research investigates traditional and contemporary approaches of conserving and restoring mural paintings in Buddhist living heritage places in Thailand and Sri Lanka. These highly symbolic paintings enhancing the walls of Buddhist monasteries or stupas are an important aspect of South and South-East Asia’s legacy. Exploring local historical and social contexts highlights how the general epistemological shift that occurred in Thailand and Sri Lanka in the 19th century, acted on the new values associated with ancient monasteries and merged with longstanding social and spiritual relations people maintain toward these recently labeled living heritage sites. Present heritage management in South and South-East Asia has been strongly influenced by concepts of art history, art and science brought into the region with the colonial empires in the 19th century. Nonetheless, meaningful sites were continually maintained, restored and embellished long before the notion of cultural heritage was assimilated. Their maintenance was rooted in a cosmological and political structure where the notion of merit-making defined the moral and societal status of traditional care-takers, ranging from the donors to the artisans and devotees. Hence, the selection of what to conserve and how to conserve material heritage acted on other rules, which were and still are culturally significant. Damaged Buddhist images or paintings are not suitable for worship. When the humid and hot tropical climate deteriorated paintings every quarter of a century, they were often repainted. These practices inherent to the Buddhist realm, where the acceptance of impermanence is subsumed and where material authenticity or integrity is secondary compared to the transmission of spiritual coherence. These approaches are in conflict with Western conservation ethics forming the foundation of conservation practice in international charters and guidelines. The investigation explores how national policies have compromised between continuing intangible values linked to sacred objects and modern conservation exigencies. Currently more familiar reconstitution and reintegration methods of the mural paintings coexist with the traditional approaches. Furthermore the combined records from countries, where Buddhism plays a significant role, reveal a common approach in conservation of wall paintings rooted in the Buddhist legacy and epistemology. This is particularly noteworthy considering the fact that Theravada Buddhism came from Sri Lanka to Thailand in the 12th century and that there has been a mutual influence in religious and artistic expression throughout the following periods.