School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemArchaeologies of Anti-Capitalist Utopianism(Arena Printing and Publications, 2006)In Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Fredric Jameson anticipates the emergence of “cognitive mapping” of a new and global type’ and explains this as a code-word for class consciousness ‘of a new and hitherto undreamed of kind’. This paper explores Jameson’s concept of ‘cognitive mapping’ to suggest that, at the end of the 1990s, the world witnessed the first glimmerings in radical political practice of precisely such mapping in the efforts of the anti-capitalist/anti-corporate globalisation movement. The utopian dimension to this movement is explored through examination of the declared aims in its rhetoric and the euphoric responses to its potential by its participants. The practical significance of utopian extremism in political agitation is then investigated through consideration of the impact of the anti-capitalist/anti-corporate globalisation movement on the institutions and systems it confronted.
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ItemContesting the injuries of class(Informa UK Limited, 2006-01-01)
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ItemBeyond appearances: Perspectives on identity in later life and some implications for method(OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, 2005-05)Two areas of controversy are examined in this article, arising from contemporary debate on identity in later life. The first centers on whether adults are essentially similar regardless of age or whether different stages of life confer different life priorities. The second addresses the management of self in later life, with special attention being given to alternative interpretations of the relationship between interior and exterior experience. An increasing awareness of diversity in life-course patterns suggests that issues concerning uniformity, distinctiveness, and the uses of masquerade in intergenerational contexts should be revisited. Here, the influence of simple and complex states of mind is examined as a factor in intergenerational power, and the expression of agency in later life is discussed. These issues not only propel us forward in our understanding of gerontological phenomena, they also point to potential sources of research bias associated with specifically intergenerational contexts. Finally, suggestions are made with respect to research training.
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ItemThe Biographical Approach - A Better Way to Understand Behaviour in Health and Illness?(Cambridge University Press, 2005)
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ItemRisk, Affect and Emotion(Freie Universität Berlin, 2006)
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ItemBeing around and knowing the players: Networks of influence in health policy(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2006-05)The accumulation and use of power is crucial to the health policy process. This paper examines the power of the medical profession in the health policy arena, by analysing which actors are perceived as influential, and how influence is structured in health policy. It combines an analysis of policy networks and social networks, to examine positional and personal influence in health policy in the state of Victoria, Australia. In the sub-graph of the influence network examined here, those most widely regarded as influential are academics, medically qualified and male. Positional actors (the top politician, political advisor and bureaucrat in health and the top nursing official) form part of a core group within this network structure. A second central group consists of medical influentials working in academia, research institutes and health-related NGOs. In this network locale overall, medical academics appear to combine positional and personal influence, and play significant intermediary roles across the network. While many claim that the medical profession has lost power in health policy and politics, this analysis yields few signs that the power of medicine to shape the health policy process has been greatly diminished in Victoria. Medical expertise is a potent embedded resource connecting actors through ties of association, making it difficult for actors with other resources and different knowledge to be considered influential. The network concepts and analytical techniques used here provide a novel means for uncovering different types of influence in health policy.
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ItemRepresenting Australia - Race, the media and cricket(SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2006-03)Sport and representations of sport in the media are key sites for political and social struggles around race and nation. In order to explore how meanings of race are constructed in a sporting context, we undertook a discourse analysis of Australian print media coverage of two incidents of alleged racial vilification in sport. In one, Australian cricketer Darren Lehmann was suspended for racially vilifying the Sri Lankan team. In the other, Pakistani cricketer Rashid Latif was accused of racially vilifying an Australian cricketer. Our research suggests the following: first, there was strong condemnation of racial vilification; second, despite this, print media representations reflect a white versus black divide in world cricket; third, a Lehmann as victim/reverse racism theme emerged. We conclude that race is being mobilized as a potent but contested symbol of both inclusion and exclusion within Australia.
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ItemIssues in the school-to-work transition - Evidence from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth(SAGE Journals, 2005)The purpose of this article is to examine how accurate pessimistic accounts of the school-to-work transition are, given the substantial decline in unemployment since the 1991/93 recession. This examination is limited to young people who did not go to university, a group which is more likely to be experiencing problematic school-to-work transitions. The analyses use data from the first eight waves of data from the 1995 Year 9 cohort in the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) project. In the years after leaving school, an increasing majority are in full-time work and there is considerable movement into full-time work from part-time work and unemployment. Furthermore, each year full-time workers show increases in job status and earnings. Only a small minority of non-university bound youth have problematic school-to-work transitions. These analyses also suggest that the policy emphasis on increasing participation in vocational education is misplaced. Except for apprenticeships and then only among males, vocational education does not appear to promote full-time employment.
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ItemCross-national differences and accounting for social class inequalities in education(Sage Publications, 2005)This article focuses on two questions relating to social class inequalities in education: cross-national differences and the contribution of material, cultural and school factors in accounting for the relationship. These questions are addressed using the EGP measure of occupational class and student performance in reading literacy in 30 countries. The pattern of cross-national differences is more closely associated with indicators of modernization and the organization of the school system, rather than indicators of overall societal inequality and economic development. Both material and cultural factors contribute to the relationship between class background and student achievement with cultural factors marginally more important overall. In countries with highly tracked school systems, schools mediate the relationship in that children from lower class backgrounds are more likely to attend lower performing schools. However, the inverse is not true: school differences in student performance are only partially accounted for by class background and other socioeconomic factors.