School of Geography - Theses
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ItemEveryday hydropolitics: the normalisation of the South-North Water Transfer Project( 2017)No abstract available
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ItemThe drivers of hourly-scale surface changes on shore platforms( 2017)Subaerial weathering is a key process in the formation of shore platforms, with downwearing dominating the semi-horizontal intertidal rock surfaces. Over decadal to millennial scales this downwearing lowers platforms to mean low water spring tide elevations. On daily to hourly timescales, however, swelling at micro-scale (
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ItemClass and disaster risk: a Kensington case study( 2017)There remains a lack of serious theoretical treatment in the residential fire literature for the socioeconomic inequalities in fire risk, vulnerability and preparedness. Implementation of previous work in this field continues to ignore the findings of researchers working on other types of disaster - that constructive engagement with the community is crucial to the success of safety interventions. By taking inspiration from the use of Marxist class analysis in health inequality research, we take a tentative first step into the application of class theory to the question of unequal fire preparedness. We investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status and preparedness in the suburb of Kensington, Melbourne, making use of a quantitative survey instrument followed by semi-structured interviews with a sample subset. The conclusions verify the presence of inequality in preparedness in Kensington, and enable us to confirm that middle-class, homeowning residents possess significant advantages over working class residents in terms of preparedness and access to support networks. They also suggest that elevated class position confers unconscious safety benefits. Possibilities and limitations for community education efforts moving forward are outlined.
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ItemFire politics on the frontier: a political ecology of swidden fire in Palawan's green economy( 2017)The role of fire in swidden agriculture is often overlooked in literature regarding rural livelihoods and agrarian change in Southeast Asia, despite being an integral component of swidden practice. This study aims to fill this gap by describing the varied economic and socio-cultural functions and values of swidden fire and its politically contested nature in forest governance in Palawan Island, the Philippines. Taking a political ecology approach, this study draws on a 'fire politics' framework with insights and methods informed by ethnoecology. In order to examine indigenous Pala'wan uses and perceptions of swidden fire, and the representation and politically contested nature of swidden fire in environmental governance, 23 key-informant interviews with Pala'wan farmers, non-government organisations and government representatives were conducted over three weeks in June 2017. The study found that swidden fire is intimately connected to swidden livelihoods, primarily by providing the most efficient and effective means to produce crops for subsistence. Farmers continue to burn, even as other swidden practices are adjusted in response to landscape change, influenced by green governance that spatially restricts land and pressures farmers to sedenterise agriculture. Other contextual features such as a history of criminalisation of swidden, disjunctures between top-level policies shaped by constructions of the 'kaingin (slash-and-burn) problem', and local policy implementation and understandings of kaingin and are examined. More material characteristics of fire are also considered in examining the persistence and conflicts over swidden and swidden fire. Overall, this study contributes to a growing body of literature on the political ecology of fire, and studies of swidden livelihoods and agrarian change. Such understandings are crucial in engaging broader views on the 'destructive' nature of swidden fire, inherent within global and sub-national interpretations of the 'green economy'.
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ItemForedune geomorphology along Ninety Mile Beach( 2017)Coastal foredunes occur at the boundary between the terrestrial, oceanic and atmospheric systems and therefore have numerous boundary conditions (factors that influence dune development). Dunes provide numerous ecosystem services, primarily protection of the land behind from inundation. Dune morphodynamics are not yet comprehensively understood. Ninety Mile Beach in Gippsland, Victoria provides a unique opportunity to examine dune morphology and its boundary conditions under one continuous stretch of coastline that undergoes a substantial change in orientation. The beach has also been labelled as one of the most vulnerable to climate change in national assessments. Climate change is affecting dune morphology through increased storm activity and sea level rise, therefore understanding the dunal system is increasingly important. This project will analyse and describe foredune geomorphology along this coastline. By measuring dune morphology and the impacts of the boundary conditions of aeolian processes and vegetation. This project aims to create a morphometric model for the foredunes along NMB. This study therefore sets out to explore the morphology of NMB in order to understand its dynamics and provide insights into dune development globally. Varied dune morphology was found along NMB. Coastal orientation and hence wind direction as well as wind velocity were found to be the key drivers of initial foredune development along this coastline with increased onshore and stronger winds leading to dunes greater in area and width. Vegetation controlled morphology was present on three of the eleven sites though no statistically significant correlations were found on this coastline. However, the sites exhibiting vegetation controlled morphology had many stolons present suggesting their importance in stabilising dune morphology along this coastline. NMB dune morphology is dominated by wind. Ultimately, any change in wind regime due to climate change could dramatically effect dune morphology along this coastline.
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ItemLentil as anything: building a commons through labour and hospitality( 2017)This thesis aims to elucidate the practices of the organisation Lentil As Anything. J.K. Gibson-Graham's 'community economies' framework will help highlight the differentiated approaches that this organisation engages in (Gibson-Graham, 200). I elaborate on the research of Gibson-Graham towards an emerging conception of the commons and stress the role that labour and hospitality play in its formation. A qualitative approach to data, drawing on participant observation field methods and semi-structured interviews, was used to examine how labour and hospitality are practiced by the different participants in this organisation. The findings of this thesis highlight how relations of reciprocity are cultivated through different forms of labour and hospitality. It demonstrates how the culture of Lentil As Anything is established through these parameters and how these work to construct and maintain the vision of this organisation. I argue that by drawing on different practices of labour and hospitality this organisation builds a community economy and produces a commons. I conclude this thesis by showing how labour and hospitality practices merge and are reframed towards cultivating new relations and protecting the commons.
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ItemFilming with memory and place: the political cinema of Rithy Panh in post-conflict Cambodia( 2017)This work investigates the ways in which the contemporary Cambodian film-maker Rithy Panh challenges the geography of public memory in post-conflict Cambodia. Current literature on memory and place has been largely focused on processes of site memorialisation. The work of Panh, however, suggests alternative ways in which public memory is created, understood and contested. This research uses film analysis and non-representational theory to enrich understandings of memory and place within a post-conflict context. It argues that Panh's films and film-making show memory through embodied and affecting encounters with space. The medium of film allows the public to understand spaces in an affective form that cannot be solely reduced or contained to representations. This study contributes to understanding the political importance of Rithy Panh's cinematic work, which has yet to be addressed through a geographical lens.
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ItemChina's South to North Water Transfer Project: the institutional response to the operation of the middle route( 2017)As a result of the increasing scarcity of water resources, inter-basin water transfer projects are implemented worldwide because they provide a supply-oriented, production-focus approach of reallocating water resources. China's South to North Water Transfer (SNWT) project is known as one of the world's largest inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) projects, which inevitably requires solid institutional supports in construction and operation stage due to massive economic and social cost. Under China's peculiar Fragmented Authoritarianism structure, the institutional management of the SNWT project is a reflective tool in analyzing the current political changes within the water sector in a contemporary era. However, in contrast to the abundant studies on technical and engineering perspectives of the SNWT project, the institutional responses to the operation of this project remain little understood. Focusing on the operation of the Middle Route of the SNWT project, in this study I adopt a case study approach, supplemented by qualitative methodologies include document analysis and semi-structure interviews to explore current institutional arrangement of the SNWT project and its dynamic working mechanisms. This thesis finds out that although China's political structure is still characterized with Fragmented Authoritarianism features, an increasing level of inter-departmental cooperation and a more market-oriented guiding ideology were found in the institutional arrangement of SNWT Middle Route Project. This essay concludes that the Fragmented Authoritarianism could be overcome by integrated management as a result of efficient interdepartmental cooperation. Yet, there are both old and new institutional problems existing in this newly formed arrangement where further considerations should be addressed.
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ItemMaking Indigenous art installation in Post-Colonial Melbourne: assembling Birrarung Wilam( 2017)Cities are not commonly seen as places made with or for Indigenous people. This assumption has been intensified by the absence and misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the urban environment. The emergence of a number of Indigenous public artworks and commemorative places in urban public spaces has been important to challenge this invisibility and re-assert cultural sovereignty. The processes of making those public Indigenous public artworks often involve both Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. Yet, collaborative practice between Indigenous and non-Indigenous place-making in urban contexts has been given limited consideration. Accordingly, this thesis aims to address this gap by using Birrarung Wilam as a case study, to examine how participants involved in a public collaborative artwork are addressing postcolonial challenges. Alongside analysis of archival documents, the material presented in this thesis is derived from 13 semi-structured interviews with the people involved. Birrarung Wilam sheds light on the ripple effect that an individual project can have on intercultural relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people as well as Indigenous communities. Drawing on assemblage thinking, the findings reveal the importance of the more-than-human in shaping urban post-colonial encounters and show how creativity emerges out of the interface between all participants, humans and non-humans. This research reveals that while interactions between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people occur, they are often structured by bureaucratic procedures which makes them patchy and contingent. Birrarung Wilam embodies the complexity and contradictory nature of representing Indigeneity within a state-based form of recognition, beyond the binary of resistance and containment. The way Birrarung Wilam is apprehended by non-Indigenous participants reveals a challenge to the very system of Western representation that makes Birrarung Wilam possible.
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ItemMagnesium in a sub-aqueous speleothem: a potential paleotemperature proxy?( 2017)No abstract available