School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemP. R. Stephensen and Transnational Fascism: From Interwar Adoption to Postwar Survival and Transmission( 2021)This thesis examines Percy Reginald ‘Inky’ Stephensen (1901 – 1965), Australian author, publisher, authors’ agent, and political activist, in relation to the transnational fascist phenomena of the twentieth century. It challenges previous characterisations of Stephensen as an Australian nationalist first and a fascist second, who retired from political activism after the war. It utilizes the historiographical frameworks of transnational fascism and historical network analysis to position Stephensen within the history of fascism: first as it spread over the globe in the interwar period through complex multidirectional processes of transfer, adoption, adaptation, and recontextualization; and then in the survival of fascism, and its transmission to new generations of actors, through marginalized mutually-re-enforcing subcultural networks after 1945. Fascism as it emerged in Europe deeply resonated with Stephensen’s nationalist vision of a racially homogenous white Australia, and his desire for a cultural and political revolution that would rescue European culture from the decadent liberal-democratic forces that were driving its decline. Australia’s history as a British colony, in particular the violent process of colonization, complicated fascist understandings of violence for Stephensen, but Hitler’s self-declared war against a racial Jewish-Communist enemy became a foundational component of Stephensen’s support for the White Australia Policy. After Stephensen’s release from internment, he played a significant role in the survival and transmission of fascism in Australia by providing emotional and ideological encouragement, validation, and support for like-minded actors, and serving as a conduit for material, information, and ideas in an internationally-connected extreme-Right network that existed in the political margins. Stephensen remained committed to the cause he had adopted prior to internment, and demonstrated an ability to edit his message for different post-war audiences, without compromising his belief in an international Jewish-Communist conspiracy that posed an existential threat to white nations. This thesis contributes to understanding not only the impact that fascism had in Australia, but also the processes by which fascism spread in the interwar period and survived in a hostile post-war environment.
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ItemCommunicable Knowledge: Medical Communication, Professionalisation, and Medical Reform in Colonial Victoria, 1855-66( 2020)This thesis examines the process of medical professionalisation in colonial Victoria from 1855-66. During this eleven-year period the medical profession of colonial Victoria were able to create Australia’s first long lasting medical societies and medical journal, found the first medical school, and receive legislative support of their claims to exclusive knowledge of medicine. The next time an Australian colony would have these institutions created would not be for another 20 years. This thesis examines these developments through a framework of communication, primarily from the medical community itself. Communication was central to the process that resulted in the creation of the above listed institutions. Here communication is examined as the driving force behind the two processes of professionalisation: the internal, community creating and boundary forming aspect; and the external process through which the community gains external recognition of their claims. For Victorian practitioners during the period of this study the internal process drives the creation of the societies, the journal, and the medical school, whereas the external process is typified by the campaign for ‘Medical Reform’ that sees the community engage in agitation for legislative backing of their conception of medicine as science over other alternate medicines. Communication was not isolated within the colony. As such the place of the Victorian medical community as a node within transnational networks of knowledge exchange is examined. As Victoria was better integrated into these networks than its colonial neighbours, an examination of the involvement of said flow of information in the creation of professional communities is considered an important part of this analysis. Behind these processes of community creation, I trace a thread of disunity sparked by professional differences. Highly publicised arguments over differences in medical opinion play out in the colonial press. This comes to a head at the end of the period of study. Despite their focus on communication the medical community ignores the role their public conduct plays in this process. The end result is that, while they were able to create these lasting institutions, their public conduct saw the public’s opinion of them stay low through to the end of the century.
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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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ItemA holding situation : volunteering in the post-social order( 2001)The following is an empirical study of volunteers who work in a humanitarian capacity for a local volunteer-run programme called the Open Family Youth Bus. The study questions what motivates and sustains a commitment of this kind from the point of view of the people who engage in it, outlining the repertoire of meanings that volunteers draw on to make sense of their work. At the same time, it is an analysis of humanitarian volunteer work as a social phenomenon, a particular response to certain contemporary social problems, imbricated in current processes of structural change that redefine the responsibilities of everyday social subjects to address these problems. By exploring Open Family volunteers particular approach to helping others, this thesis interprets some of the complex configurations of inequality in the contemporary social imagination and illustrates the shape and scope of popular perceptions of "doing something" about it.
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ItemState, trauma, subjectivity and the Port Arthur massacre( 1999)The role of government in the field of disaster response and recovery has expanded in recent years to incorporate the social and emotional recovery of individuals and communities. This paper reflects on the many players and processes inherent in an event such as a disaster and draws upon theories of subjectivity that further inform the process of recovery. A consideration of the different conceptualisations of the subject in psychology and social theory highlights the inadequacy of the psychological model in attending to the trauma of disaster victims. This paper draws on general disaster research, and anecdotal material from the experiences of individuals affected by the Port Arthur Massacre, to argue that it is 'social' rather than 'psychological' responses that generate for affected subjects, more successful integration of traumatic events. Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration with its duality of individual and society, and an emphasis on social order, ontological security, routine and the knowledgeable and active agent informed by practical consciousness, provides a useful theory of human subjectivity and social relations from which to undertake a psychosocial consideration of disaster response and recovery. This is further enriched through the theories of subjectivity offered by Cash and Weinstein that account for the role of unconscious processes in the maintenance of social order through the influences of ideology.
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ItemEthics and survival( 1999)
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ItemWriting about women in the history of science : a study of women workers at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in the 1930s and 1940s( 1993)This thesis is both an historiographical discussion of the position of women in the history of science, and an exercise in the writing of the history of women in Australian science. It considers some broad questions about writing the history of science in an Australian context such as: What limitations might there be in the kinds of accounts which celebrate the national growth of science in Australia? Are any groups excluded from these accounts? If so why? What construction of the scientist and of the institution of science dominate such histories? Parallel to these questions the thesis is also concerned with historiographical questions about contemporary feminist approaches to the writing of the history of science, and what contradictions and challenges lie in these accounts, and how these differences can be explained. The study explores which approach appears the most helpful in elucidating the reasons why women are absent both from the history and apparently the institution of science in Australia. Through an examination of women workers at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), during the 1930s and 40s, prior to the Council's transformation to an organisation (CSIRO), the thesis highlights the contradictions in the way women were perceived by the Council, the ways in which their working lives were negotiated and compromised due to their gender, and the ways the women adapted to these limitations. As a full examination of every aspect of the working lives of women at the CSIR would be too large a project, the work concentrates on two points of conflict which help to reveal the various issues faced by women working at the Council, and, more significantly, help to broaden the way in which the women themselves are perceived by the historian. The two sites of conflict around which the discussion in this thesis is based are the marriage bar, which was in force under the Public Service Act from 1922 to 1966, and its impact on the careers of women scientists at the CSIR, and the application for equal pay by women employed in the professional and the assistant classifications at the CSIR during the Second World War which was presided over by the Women's Employment Board (WEB). Both these conflicts, one long-term, the other influenced by the specific conditions of the war, highlight not only how women workers at the CSIR were treated but also the fact that the women were not a homogenous group. The marriage bar certainly affected the lives of all women workers at the Council, but this account will concentrate on the impact it had on the working lives of the women in professional classifications. The WEB case on the other hand reveals that to concentrate only on those women is to ignore an important aspect of the debate about the role and participation of women in science. The WEB case highlights the concerns of that part of the CSIR workforce which is not only ignored in 'great men accounts of the history of science, but also in some feminist histories as well. By looking at the broad spectrum of women working at the Council, this study hopes to challenge some of the ways in which the history of science of organisations such as the CSIR have been written and to add to feminist historical discourse about science and women working in science.
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ItemThe Professional Engineers Cases : origins, conduct and outcomes( 1986)The forty-year lead-up to the commencement of the Professional Engineers Case in 1959, following the formation of the institution of Engineers, Australia, in 1919, was characterised by a continuous search for the status and reward appropriate to a profession. Engineers were predominantly in the employ of State governments, and the Commonwealth Government also grew in importance as a major employer. The dominant factor in the control of the profession therefore was governmental corporate patronage. Engineers were represented industrially by a large number of organisations, and their inadequate salaries were fixed within structures preserving relativities with other less qualified and non-professional occupations. Engineers were powerless to achieve enhancement of their salaries, and hence of their status, even though there was strong support from leading engineers throughout Australia. Through the imaginative determination of new leaders who emerged with the formation of the Association of Professional Engineers, Australia, in 1946, engineers were able to develop a new approach to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission for a fundamental evaluation of the work and the salary levels of engineering as a national employee profession. Despite fierce opposition mainly from the States, the situation of government corporate patronage was substantially modified by the achievement of Federal salary awards.
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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.