School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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Foucault and Normative Political Philosophy

D'Cruz, Leonard Anthony ( 2023)

This thesis brings Michel Foucault’s work into dialogue with the tradition of normative political philosophy inaugurated by John Rawls. More specifically, it draws on Foucault’s ideas to develop an original approach to normative theorising that emphasises the importance of situated insights in reconstructing our normative political concepts. With this goal in mind, my thesis makes a systematic contribution to two distinct bodies of literature. First, it offers a critical account of Foucault’s underlying methodology. More specifically, it clarifies several controversial methodological questions that are frequently raised with respect to Foucault’s work. These include whether his historicist mode of critique successfully overcomes transcendental philosophy, whether his power-knowledge analytic is supported by a satisfying epistemology, and whether his normative commitments can be reflexively accounted for and then reconciled with his aspiration to develop a rigorous descriptive method. Second, it develops an original approach to normative political philosophy by leveraging these insights into Foucault’s methodology. I refer to my proposed framework as the situated approach to normative political philosophy. This approach conceives of normativity as immanent to power, and thus treats our normative concepts as pragmatic tools that we use to negotiate real contexts of action. In this way, I argue that normative political philosophy needs to become more sensitive to the way our normative standards and processes of justification have been shaped by relations of power. On this basis, I suggest that my broadly Foucauldian approach offers an improvement on both the dominant paradigm of ideal theory as well as the resurgent tradition of political realism. In this way, I attempt to push Foucault’s work towards a more systematic approach to normative political questions concerning distributive justice and state legitimacy. As part of this effort, I will locate the situated approach in relation to recent methodological debates in analytic political philosophy. These debates cover a significant amount of ground, including a) the question of whether ideal theory can guide action; b) whether ideal theory is sufficiently critically reflexive; c) disputes over the nature of political normativity and its relationship to morality; and d) the role that general principles should play in framing specific political situations. With respect to these questions, my goal is to show how the situated approach constitutes an improvement on its main methodological alternatives within normative political philosophy.
Nineteenth-Century Arcades in Australia: History, Heritage & Representation

Davis, Nicole Jacqueline ( 2022)

This thesis explores the social and spatial histories of Australia’s nineteenth-century arcades from their beginning in Melbourne in 1853, with an emphasis on their first half century of development. It explores the retail, leisure and business activities they hosted and the lived experiences of the people who worked and played in these spaces. The thesis explores their current place in the Australian urban imagination and how the historic representation of the arcades shapes our present-day understanding and perceptions of these buildings. The thesis examines how the arcade form was idealised in print and visual culture to represent particular notions of civilisation, progress, modernity, and cosmopolitanism in Australia during the second half of the nineteenth-century. Undertaking close analysis of a wide range of sources, it works to challenge and disrupt nostalgic perspectives that developed during this period and that continue to influence our perception in the present day. It argues that the histories of the arcades in Australia (as elsewhere) are far more nuanced than has previously been understood. Rather than rarefied sites of leisure and pleasure for the middle classes, they were sites where Australians from all walks of life played, worked and experienced the diversity of urban life and what urban life had to offer. The thesis aims to break down dichotomies of metropole and periphery that often characterise Australian urban spaces in juxtaposition to the metropoles of Britain, Europe or North America. To do this, it locates the Australian arcades within a transnational context, seeing them as nodes within global networks of exchange: of ideas, people, and things. Further, it explores the arcades not only of the coastal capitals but also considers those constructed in regional areas with a view to broadening our understanding of what it meant to be urban in this period in Australia.
The Settlement and Mortuary Assemblages from the Earliest Levels at Tell Fara South

Phillips, Paula ( 2022)

The southern Levant, particularly its south-western edge along the Wadi Ghazzeh, has long attracted archaeological interest for the role the region played during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Dedicated excavations over the past hundred years have sought to answer questions about what motivated settlement in and around the string of tell sites that line the Ghazzeh, the cultural, economic and political circumstances that governed their interaction, and the relationships they shared with neighbouring regions. Tell Fara South (hereafter Fara South), was excavated by the British School of Archaeology under the direction of Flinders Petrie and James Starkey between 1927-1931 but the valuable corpus of material related to the Middle into early Late Bronze settlement was only partly published. As a result, the site has often been omitted from discussions on the key activities and events of the MB-LB periods, leaving an arguably critical piece of the puzzle that is the southern Levant at this time, missing for almost a century. The aim of this project is to rectify this situation by re-examining the British School’s work at Fara South, and reconstructing the assemblages from the earliest settlement levels and associated cemeteries. The information derives from the two excavation reports, contemporary journal articles, Petrie’s autobiography and biography, the Corpus of Palestinian Pottery compiled from vessel types found at Tell Jemmeh and Fara South, supporting documentation and the finds themselves, approximately two thirds of which have been located in collections and re-examined. The architectural features and object assemblages have then been compared with other sites to re-assess the place Fara South occupied in the Middle-Late Bronze Age southern Levantine landscape. Key results from this re-examination include a better understanding of the stratigraphic links between the settlement and its four contemporary cemeteries, the nature of the settlement as an important fortress, and the very close relationship it shared with neighbouring Tell el-‘Ajjul. A broad occupational sequence commencing in the earlier part of the MB IIB period is suggested, initially displaying influences from the northern Levant, northern Cyprus and Egypt. A second phase in the later part of the MB IIB, is characterised by a renewed focus on monumental architecture and raised incidences of painted pottery, accompanied by an increasing Cypriot interest in the region. The third phase, dated to the Late Bronze Age, sees the settlement at Fara South continue through the LB I-II but without trace of the often, catastrophic destruction that beset other sites in the area during the MB-LB transition. The monumental six pier gate at Fara South signals a more significant role for the Wadi Ghazzeh settlements, and that it is in this context of strategic and economic importance that the area should be viewed. A network of long distance trade routes connected to sites along this ancient water course, likely extending from the Arabian Peninsula to the Aegean, provides one key element in the explanation for the establishment of settlements in the area, the wealth these sites (particularly Tell el-‘Ajjul) enjoyed during the MB IIB period, and the close relationships brokered with groups in the northern Levant, northern Cyprus and Egypt. Based on the comparative material, a relative sequence for settlement horizons within the region is suggested. This reconstruction lends weight to an early theory put forward by Flinders Petrie in the wake of the Fara South excavations that the beginning of the Hyksos Period and the MB IIB in the southern Levant were contemporary, and that much that followed had its cultural/historical origins in the later part of Egypt’s Dynasty 12 (c. 1830-1800 BCE). The re-assessment dispels previous assumptions that Fara South was of minor significance and instead, highlights this small site played an important role (along with Tell el-‘Ajjul), in this corner of the Eastern Mediterranean world during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages.
Working wood: the state, wood science and industry: Australia, 1918–1949

Dadswell, Gordon Alexander ( 2021)

This study identified the role of three national forest products laboratories and their relationship with other government agencies and specifically, to the Australian timber industry. The laboratories were established with several objectives, including to reduce the importation of timber, develop industry strategies for the use of Australian timbers, identify the properties of Australian woods and minimise problems for the timber industry. A further aim was to implement ‘national efficiency’ (discussed below). The work of the laboratories was based on a common theme: to encourage industries to understand that by using Australian timber, they would help both the nation and their businesses. A major objective of this thesis is to address the ‘doing’ of science in laboratories in conjunction with industry and government Archives from Australia and the United Kingdom were used. Not all of the archives had been opened which suggested that the thesis filled a gap in the history of the Australian wood science. Libraries were also used in Australia and the United Kingdom. A further methodology identified a ‘Triple helix’ between research, industry and government, which focused on collaboration between three organisations whose goals were to conduct research, to develop research outcomes and increase National efficiency. Archival material exposed the frequency of communications between the laboratories and the secondary timber industry. Six stories provided a broad perspective of the research conducted by the laboratories. Time frames of each chapters partially overlapped. The subjects connected across time, and provided depth to the thesis. Using the helix as the framework, the relationship between the laboratories, industry and the national science organisations was identified as collaboration, conflict, innovation, knowledge transfer and networking.
Building a conservation material record: a study of paintings by Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen

Tay, Ann Ann Diana ( 2022)

Despite the growing visibility of prominent figures in modern Singaporean art history, there is limited material knowledge of the art practices of paintings from Nanyang artists such as Georgette Chen (1906–1993) and Cheong Soo Pieng (1917–1983). Scholarly interest in Singaporean artist materials and techniques has focused attention on the study of easel paintings through art historical and technical art history methodologies. There are art material and conservation records, but to compare these studies, the consistency and structure of the data collection make it challenging. In response, this thesis re-assesses the development of accessible documentation methods for studying paintings by considering the type of data to be collected, the structure of the record, and whether it is possible to produce quality insights without solely relying on advanced material analysis. Employing a standard technical art history methodology, a total of 67 artworks from Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen, dated from the 1940s to the 1980s, were examined through a combination of historical and archival sources, visual examination, technical photography, and advanced material analysis. To extend the data and produce quality insights, a robust documentation record was produced where observations were recorded outlining 110 defining properties of each painting, resulting in verifiable data points to be analysed. Differences in access to paintings and availability of archival sources affected the methodologies that could be used to gain insights. This meant that although only eight Georgette Chen paintings were studied, but nevertheless, solid correlations and consistency in canvas preparation and painting techniques were still uncovered. In a more extensive study of 59 Cheong Soo Pieng artworks, where samples were removed and analysed, the data produced improved the depth and quality of the artist’s record. In addition, the data structure of the documentation record enabled datasets to be extracted and visualised through visual graphics to uncover patterns of each artist’s art practice. The datasets from Cheong Soo Pieng provided depth to undertake unsupervised machine learning with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and k-means to uncover relationships from data generated from non-invasive techniques and results from the material analysis. This clustered data on Cheong Soo Pieng’s practice into four clusters, and its characteristics were examined using an interactive Microsoft Power BI dashboard. The methodologies proposed in this study aim to build a material record of Singaporean artists that can accommodate future datasets to build onto. Using the large amounts of text and image-based data produced by this study, machine learning algorithms, including deep learning models, were explored to discover possible future uses to improve efficiencies between text and technical image diagnostics. In light of such a data rich field, the presented methodologies showcase how knowledge discovery can be accessed by employing data science methods that produce evidential, verifiable and quality data through data structure. In doing so, a better understanding of Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen’s practice is produced, contributing to the development of a robust material record and our knowledge about paintings in Singapore and potentially the wider Southeast Asian region.
A History of Australia's Immigrant Doctors, 1838-2021: Colonial Beginnings, Contemporary Challenges

Yeomans, Neville David ( 2022)

Since colonisation in 1788, Australia has been populated by immigrants. Among them, for all this period, there have been practitioners of Western medicine who qualified overseas. This thesis is about them, now termed International Medical Graduates (IMGs). Starting in 1838, when the first colonial medical Acts were promulgated, it explores who those graduates were, from where they came, why they migrated at specific times in response to geopolitical and other events, how were they received and what were their experiences. Their history is integral to the history of medical practice and medical politics in Australia. It has not previously been examined across the longue durée researched here; the purpose has been to better understand the evolving and continuous process of medical immigration, rather than the fragments that constitute the current historiography. The methodology is quantitative and qualitative. First, a prosopography was constructed comprising all IMGs registered in each colony, state, and territory from 1838 to 1984, supplemented by data from a random sample of contemporary IMGs to bridge to the present. From this, the time course, profile of donor countries, and characteristics of successive waves of IMGs has been documented, then linked to causal historical events, including the changing and frequently obstructive medical legislation. Throughout the colonial period and the first half of the twentieth century, nearly all immigrant doctors had trained in Great Britain and Ireland, often motivated by difficulties establishing practice at home and attracted by opportunities in a new land, but with source countries restricted by the Medical Acts. Then, as Australia opened to migrants from the rest of the world in the second half of the twentieth century, so the spectrum of IMGs expanded immensely—approximately, but not completely matching that of the immigrant populations overall. Currently, about 30 percent of the Australian medical workforce was born and trained overseas. A second aim was to understand and learn from the experiences of living IMGs. For this, 87 oral histories were recorded—using criterion-referenced, random, and snowball sampling. Many were negotiating the pathways to medical registration, under the now national regulator, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). The thesis gives them a voice, and illustrates their difficulties and crises—sometimes at the hands of what seems to have been a Kafkaesque bureaucracy. The other pathway for some has been to persuade a specialist college that their overseas qualification is comparable to that of the Australian college. Interviews with college and AHPRA representatives confirm the author’s impression that much has been done recently to improve the fairness of those processes; but the thesis also provides evidence in the oral histories of what appear to be historical and recent injustices. Australia owes much to its IMGs. The thesis allows us to learn from their history during almost two centuries. It concludes with recommendations for how we can still assure the paramount need to protect Australian patients, yet also improve the effectiveness and fairness of our current processes for registering and supporting those who received their medical training overseas.
Pressed for Time: A study of digital journalists' ethical and temporal conundrums

James-Garrod, Caroline ( 2022)

This thesis argues digital print journalists experience social and time ethics pressures due to constant responsibilities to stay connected to mobile work-related online communications. It claims this identifies a social phenomenon – cyber time poverty. It examines its research topic by studying original qualitative data collected from survey questionnaires and interviews of 288 working Australian digital print journalists between 2019 and 2020. It interprets its data using textual and discourse analyses and original concept lenses: its Social Time Ethics Framework (STEF) and its Journalism Applied Ethics Scaffold (JAES). Findings include almost all working digital print journalists (96.4%; n=243) who contributed to its survey are time poor and about 64.9% of respondents meet the definition of cyber time poverty (n=159). When work mobile-communications demands exceed available time, sufferers use various time-saving strategies, most commonly 'giving less time to others' including sources, peers and readers, family, friends, and self (69.8%; n=137). Running late is the next most common time-saving strategy, a tactic used by almost 62% of respondents (61.7%, n=121), while almost 50% block communications with potential or current sources, personal or work peers. Finally, when lacking sufficient time to do ethically good journalism, they are most likely to breach JAES applied ethics ideals by failing to give sources fair opportunity to reply, and/or avoiding or delaying correcting published errors. I conclude digital journalists do, often, suffer cyber time poverty in quests to be morally responsible public interest news reporters, making it typical that sufferers lack opportunity to do ethical journalism. With significant parts of society mistrusting journalists and online information in general, I propose these critical responses: the need to boost digital news literacy; reform online discourse; close the epistemic gap that harms all cyber time poverty sufferers; and prioritise pursuit of original journalism.
Labour Market Justice: Old and New Problems

James, Alastair Gustav ( 2022)

This thesis sets out to analyse normatively significant and in some cases under-theorised labour market phenomena to identify forms of injustice and provide philosophically defensible responses that take seriously the feasibility constraints governing policy proposals. Some chapters engage with longer-standing questions, such as exploitation theory, and workplace hierarchy. These chapters are concerned with enhancing our understanding of these concepts as they apply to contemporary labour markets. Other chapters explore labour market trends that have been less studied so far in philosophy, such as the gig economy, and the relationship between working remotely and discretionary time entitlements. These chapters provide insight into specific forms of unfairness and offer suitable policy mechanisms in response. Part I of the thesis examines some of the contemporary challenges of labour markets. Drawing from both classical and neoclassical approaches towards economics, it provides an overview of intuitive approaches towards labour market justice. Explored are well-known concepts like ‘a just wage’ and ‘exploitation’, which, for the purposes of analysing the subjects under examination in this thesis, are argued to be ill-suited. Separate to these findings, and in response to some of the initial motivations of this project, provided is a theory of exploitation specifically for labour markets. Engaging with recent philosophical literature on exploitation, it explains what makes labour market exploitation distinct from non-exploitation, and provides an account of why this makes labour market exploitation wrong. Part I of the thesis goes on to respond to intuitive worries about exploitation in the gig economy. It diagnoses cases of labour in the gig economy that resemble a rent trap, arguing that, to the extent that gig work does resemble a rent trap, it is unjust and warrants some kind of corrective policy-based mechanism, several of which are proposed. Part II of the thesis moves on to questions surrounding justice within firms. It begins by examining the compatibility of workplace hierarchy and relational equality. Comparing the respective merits and limitations of trust-based modes of organisation, democratically-owned and/or -run firms, as well as the hierarchical firm, it argues that it is preferable that both hierarchical and non-hierarchical governance structures exist. The project goes on to explore problems surrounding the necessary indeterminacy of the employment contract. To limit the extent to which contract indeterminacy subjects workers to the risk of workplace violations, it proposes two corrective policy mechanisms, an ex ante external mechanism, and an internal mechanism to dispose managers more sympathetically towards workers whose labour processes they supervise and oversee. Finally examined is an overlooked problem within the study of discretionary time. The thesis takes as a starting point the fact that there are discrepancies in workers’ discretionary time entitlements, arguing that these discrepancies arise due to the relationship between a worker’s labour and the specific capital they use to do their job. Provided are two contrasting ways to account for these discrepancies in the discretionary time entitlements of workers.
The Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium by Gaius Julius Solinus: A Roman Geography for a Changing World

Piccolo, Giovanni ( 2022)

The Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium is a collection of wondrous facts from various areas of natural science presented within the geographical framework of a description of the known world. Little is known of its author Gaius Julius Solinus, possibly a grammaticus who lived between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century AD. Despite being today largely neglected within the field of Latin literature, the text played a significant role in the transmission of classical geographical and scientific knowledge to Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Since the publication of Theodor Mommsen’s critical edition of the text in the late 19th century, studies on Solinus’ work have largely focused on philological issues concerning the author’s sources and the authenticity of the second redaction of the text. Such approach stemmed from the general view that the text was a mere epitome of its main source, Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, and has not offered a comprehensive assessment as to why and for whom the Collectanea was written. This thesis aims to fill this gap in the research and to answer the question of what the ultimate purpose of this text was. Specifically, the following aspects of the issue are investigated: the cultural, social, and historical reasons that prompted Solinus’ reorganisation of Pliny’s knowledge; the world view that emerges from the prominent space reserved to Rome within the text; and the role of mirabilia, and in particular animal paradoxography, in providing the author with the epistemological support to the world order that his text upholds. The methodology here adopted follows a text-based approach, by analysing those passages of the Collectanea in which Solinus’ tone, choice of words, and deviation from source material can be read as indicative of his authorial autonomy, and thus the reflection of a clear political project. This thesis concludes that a date of composition at the reign of Constantine I (or at least between the end of the third and the first few decades of the fourth century) is consistent with the author’s need to reaffirm the cultural primacy of the city of Rome, at a time in which it was losing its political relevance. It also suggests that the view of Nature that emerges from Solinus’ use of animal paradoxography (and mirabilia in general) is indicative of a ‘deterministic’ Weltanschauung, and is used as the moral justification of a providentially arranged world order with Rome at its centre. This thesis ultimately argues that Solinus’ Collectanea should be read independently from its sources, and that its importance lies in its being one of the most significant reflections of the cultural eclecticism of its time.
The Hummingbird’s Atlas: Mapping Guaraní Resistance in the Atlantic Rainforest during the Emergence of Capitalism (1500–1768)

Stokes, James Cameron ( 2022)

This thesis maps the resistance of Guarani peoples to colonisation in the Atlantic Rainforest of South America during the emergence of capitalism, from 1500 to 1768. As such, it addresses a gap in the existing literature, where the resistance of stateless Indigenous groups has not been sufficiently acknowledged in both environmental histories of the Atlantic Rainforest and global histories of capitalism. The dissertation’s research method draws on archival sources, alongside interviews with contemporary Guarani writers, to make maps and other infographics visualising and analysing this history. In the sixteenth century, Guarani resistance strategies impeded the creation of a silver route through the inland Atlantic Rainforest. The failure of the Spanish to overcome this decentralised resistance network contrasts with the rapid Spanish defeat of the nearby Inca Empire. Coupled with the subsequent Guarani struggle against the yerba mate commodity frontier in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these actions obstructed capital accumulation in Paraguay, hindering local deforestation and ensuring the survival of autonomous Guarani populations. Simultaneously, in the coastal Atlantic Rainforest, appropriated Guarani labour played an important role in the restoration of Portugal’s Atlantic Empire and the opening of the Brazilian gold commodity frontier. The subsequent flow of gold from Brazil to England assisted the development of British capitalism in the eighteenth century. Consequently, the thesis argues that this appropriation of Guarani labour and knowledge should be acknowledged as a contributing factor in the global emergence of capitalism. But this process did not end with a complete victory for the forces of capitalist integration, with Guarani peoples continuing this political struggle to the present day, ensuring that the teko, the Guarani way of life, endures.

School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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