Hawke Research Institute
The Hawke Research Institute working papers were published from 2000 to 2008. They showcase the work of University of South Australia researchers and visiting scholars relating to the institute's themes. Papers 1–10 and 12–21 can be ordered in hard copy (free of charge) from Kate Leeson, the Hawke Editor. All papers can be viewed here using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Veena Poonacha
Abstract
This is the story of a village that has been left behind by India's economic
transformation, where the poor must struggle with environmental disaster,
dispossession and overpriced food and fuel. But with some help from a
government-funded poverty-alleviation program, some of the village women
have been able to take control of their working lives and increase their
income. They have been able to use the cattle dung that is poisoning their
village as a source of income. This paper discusses the successes and
shortcomings of the program, and the further reforms that are needed to
improve the lives of these women.
Rakhee Bhattacharya
Abstract
Rapid economic development and globalisation are polarising the societies of
developing nations. India's recent economic reforms have caused what has
been hailed as an economic miracle, but it has only increased income
inequality. The majority of Indians have been untouched by modernisation,
the knowledge economy and the IT boom, but they are still a strong electoral
force. Also, social tensions and even violence will increase if the gap
between rich and poor continues to widen. India cannot afford to continue on
its current economic path. It needs a number of reforms in economic policy,
administration and education to give capitalism a 'human face' and to make
the most of India's immense human capital.
Nancy A Naples
Abstract
This paper considers how to generate political strategies that facilitate the
development of broad-based coalitions across differences. To do this it is
necessary both to link local organising to international efforts and to
translate strategies developed internationally to benefit local movements. The
paper concludes that intersectional feminist praxis provides a valuable
framework for cross-border activism of many kinds. Intersectional feminist
praxis can guide activists and scholars to recognise the borders around us and
the functions they serve, and to discern which ones need to be challenged.
Julian Sefton-Green
Abstract
This paper offers a description of and a contribution to a theory about the
sector of out-of-school (non-formal) educational provision for young people.
Focusing particularly on arts and culturally based activities, it surveys
the forms and structures of such provision and explores how it is used in a
range of policy contexts, especially those aiming to redress social
exclusion and promote economic regeneration. This is contextualised within a
consideration of how out-of-school education could form part of the overall
ecology of education provision offered to young people in the community. It
draws on examples of study, research and evaluation from around the world.
It is aimed at education administrators, academics, researchers,
practitioners and social policy makers, and attempts to offer a coherent
overview of a crucial but neglected part of what should constitute the
educational sector in the global, post-industrialised world.
Daniel Baldino
Abstract
September 11 has revived the impetus to advance democracy
and foster freedom around the globe. The repressive nature of closed,
unaccountable regimes has been cited as a breeding ground for instability and
terrorism. A number of western governments have argued that meeting human rights
goals and advancing democratic rule would increase the potential of citizens to
resolve differences through discussion, compromise and the ballot box rather
than through the use of violence. Yet in referring to the moral and strategic
aims of democracy promotion and the likelihood of achieving counter-terrorism
goals, external actors such as Australia and the US must not oversell their
ability to export democracy abroad. A more productive and less parochial mix
involves a detailed appreciation of local circumstances and harsh realities.
While advancing democracy remains a worthy foreign policy goal, it will often
take a protracted period to judge whether the use of external power and foreign
assistance can bring peace and democracy or indeed ameliorate the conditions
that breed terrorism.
Simon Robb
Abstract
This paper explores some of the limits of the idea of sustainability and
sustainability writing. It wrestles with what could be described as the dark
side of sustainability. It invokes those things that haunt sustainability:
destruction, failure, anxiety, waste. This paper presents the monsters of
sustainability in terms of a style of writing. It argues, in its own way,
for a necessary relationship with the monsters of sustainability. It
displays the aesthetic and intellectual waste of sustainability, found at
the time of sustainability, and in the darkness of an unsustainable place.
Simon Robb
Abstract
How the social can be imagined in a time of terror is the subject of this
paper.
Sustainable societies are dependent on a utopian imagination that entails the visualisation of hope and desire. Sustainable societies also need to acknowledge and negotiate with the failure, waste and melancholy that is equally present in the utopian imagination. In times of crisis however the state seeks to control radical forms of social imagining. One point where imagination and the laws of the state coincide is in definitions of treason. Treason has sometimes, historically, been defined as a criminal imagining, an imagining of the death of the king. When the state imagines itself to be threatened, historically, embracing social waste and ruin becomes a problem to be criminalised. There is a suppression of failure and waste in the social imagination of the state that wages war on terror. There is an inability to imagine the social in a comprehensive way, in a way that allows for ambiguity, enchantment, sacrifice and destruction. There is a danger in the social imagination that refuses to look at the disaster and ruin that are its necessary companions. Between sacrifice and treason are the apparently modest proposals of a social sustainability that neither idealises nor attempts to annihilate these extreme affiliations.
JaneMaree Maher and Jo Lindsay
Abstract
Critical accounts of working mothers emphasise
conflict, guilt and career disruptions. Yet the labour market participation
rates of employed mothers continue to increase. There is emerging evidence
that women are developing new models for combining paid work and mothering.
These models focus on transferable skills and the integration of necessary
labour. Focusing on guilt may limit our understandings of how women
themselves are reforming their mothering and employment, and may limit our
capacity to produce policies to support them.
Stephen McKenzie
Abstract
This paper explores current and potential relationships between religious
belief, global ethics and social sustainability. It argues that work towards
achieving sustainability (theoretical and active) must begin to take into
account that the majority of the world's population are adherents to a
religious belief of some kind. All major religions contain ideas about the
responsibilities of the individual toward the environment and toward other
people, and agendas for achieving sustainability are currently running
parallel to these ideas. While religious belief has frequently been studied
with respect to environmental sustainability, work on religion and
sustainable societies is limited by the lack of methodological tools with
which to explore the relationship. The paper provides an overview of current
research, and suggests a comparative methodology for a research project into
religion and sustainability policy.
Emily Potter
Abstract
Scholars in the eco-humanities contend that the greatest impediments
to environmental change at a time of ecological crisis are cultural, and yet
the fictional stories that circulate in our society are often considered
ecologically disengaged. This paper responds to suggestions that
contemporary Australian fiction, in particular, is failing to take up these
concerns. It suggests that the kind of representations that are familiar in
environmental discourse – of a world condemned to environmental decline and
looming catastrophe – restrict the role of fiction in an environmental
ethics. If we look outside this paradigm, however, the possibilities for
Australian literature as a site of ecological engagement open up.
Susan Greenfield and panellists (Kate Leeson, ed.)
Abstract
There are some differences between women's and men's brains, both in the
structure and the chemicals present, but the differences between
individuals can be even greater. In any case, it is difficult to draw
any conclusions about which physical or chemical differences cause which
behaviours, or indeed which learned behaviours cause which differences
in the brain. In this paper Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield
discusses gender and the brain with panellists from South Australian
universities, the public service, a union and an Aboriginal cultural
institute. The discussion covers gender, race and culture, management
styles, institutionalised sexism and racism, learning styles, the future
of work and dementia. It concludes with thoughts on how to make
workplaces more inclusive and effective, and how to create policy
through a 'gendered lens'. We need to decide what sort of society we
want, Susan argues, before we can ask scientists to help provide it.
Stephen McKenzie
Abstract
Since the emergence of widespread concerns over environmental
degradation in the 1960s, a great deal of work has been put into the
concept of environmental 'sustainability'. More recently, economic and
social sustainability have been adopted as additional and interrelated
concerns. Sustainability is now a broad multi-focal agenda, and terms
such as 'triple bottom line' and 'sustainable development' are being
used interchangeably. As a result, 'sustainability' is in danger of
carrying so many implications and nuances that in order for it to be
properly understood it must be defined whenever it is used.
The Hawke Research Institute at the University of South Australia is adopting 'sustainable societies' as a common research agenda. This working paper explores some of the current thinking around social sustainability and attempts to provide a framework for future discussions of the social sustainability agenda within the institute. The paper focuses on social sustainability as distinct from environmental or economic sustainability, as previous all-encompassing definitions of sustainability that include all three aspects have been too broad to be usefully applied in specific contexts. It also argues the need for a careful evaluation of the process of defining social sustainability. In order for such a process to be fruitful we should consider why we need a definition (or definitions), and what sort of definitions will be most useful for the purposes of research collaboration.
Bruce Johnson
Abstract
This paper outlines research into the micropolitical strategies used by
five school leadership teams in the South Australian School-Based
Research and Reform Project. The research results challenge many of the
orthodoxies of educational managerialism. For example:
The paper analyses local school reform initiatives through a micropolitical frame. Micropolitical knowledge and insight are critical to the development of school practices that use the 'positive politics' of negotiation, collaboration and conflict resolution to address issues of local concern in schools, rather than the 'controlling politics' of new managerialism.
Rhonda Sharp and Sanjugta Vas Dev
Abstract
Gender-responsive budgets are an important strategy for scrutinising
budgets' contribution to gender equality. They use a variety of tools to
assess the impact of government expenditure and revenue on the social
and economic position of men and women. In the past, though, most
initiatives have focused on the gender analysis of budgets, not on
actually changing the budget decision-making process.
This paper examines a project undertaken in the small Pacific country of the Republic of the Marshall Islands that sought to combine gender budget analysis with promoting change in the budget decision-making process. The paper outlines the methodological approach underpinning the initiative, discussing its evolution, implementation and outcomes. It concludes with the lessons other such programs can learn from this initiative. These include the importance of promoting local ownership of projects that are initiated externally, for example by allowing local participants to shape a proposal to suit the local context. It also discusses the importance of fostering the involvement of civil society. Above all it explains how the project attempted to bridge the gap between a gender analysis of budgets and the promotion of budgetary and policy change.
Margi Prideaux
Abstract
Environmental management has traditionally taken place within the bounds
of the nation-state, with no obligation to consider neighbouring
countries or the world as a whole. Many issues cannot be adequately
addressed in this context. For example, the conservation of marine
mammals requires the protection of critical habitat beyond state
jurisdictions. States, international organisations and global civil
society need to work together in each region to create flexible regional
regimes to meet the needs of ocean species. This paper discusses the
principle of ecosystem-based management and the concept of regional
regimes to show how global civil society can lead the way in species and
ecosystem protection.
Susan Himmelweit and Maria Sigala
A revised version of this paper has been published as Susan Himmelweit and Maria Sigala, 'Choice and the relationship between identities and behaviour for mothers with pre-school children: some implications for policy from a UK study', Journal of Social Policy, vol 33, no 3, 2004, pp 455–478.
Abstract
This paper reports on the findings and policy implications of a study
that used both qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate
mothers' decision making with respect to the interlinked issues of the
care of their preschool children and their own employment. Mothers were
found to have both internal and external constraints to their decisions.
In the three areas of finances, childcare and working time both personal
identities and external circumstances limited mothers' choices. However,
neither external circumstances nor identities were fixed. Behaviour and
identities therefore adjusted to each other, creating feedback effects
at both the individual and the social level.
While the constraints of identity limit the direct effectiveness of some policies, positive feedback enhances the long-term effectiveness of others. In particular, the 'policy multiplier', the ratio of indirect to direct effects, is likely to be greater for enabling policies that lift existing constraints than for coercive polices that impose new constraints on mothers' behaviour. The paper examines the implications of such feedback effects for developing policy that expands the choices available to mothers in the short-term, reduces the costs of motherhood and meets the government's long-term objectives of reducing child poverty and increasing employment.
Jane Kenway, Elizabeth Bullen and Simon Robb
Abstract
This paper reveals some of the ways in which education and education
policy are changing under the pressures of globalisation, and some new
issues that this places on the education agenda. It brings together
ideas from several disciplines to shed light on the multi-dimensional
ways in which education is being reshaped, and it focuses on some subtle
links between economic, political and cultural globalisation that have
not figured much in educational discussion. We look at both the
integrating aspects of globalisation and the fragmenting and tribalising
aspects, and the competing pressures that they are creating. We also
discuss some responses of nation-states to such pressures, with a
particular focus on hybridising responses.
National education systems are under pressure from all sides: from above and below, from the rich and the poor, from consumers and protestors. But perhaps the most pressure comes from globalism and consumerism. Many of the hybridised educational forms that have arisen in nation-states as a result of such pressures serve the global and labour elite. We conclude that education for participation in a global knowledge economy does not necessarily support inclusion in a global knowledge society.
ISBN 0 86803 820 2
Jennifer McKay
Abstract
The early Europeans perceived water and land in Australia in ways that
led them to over-allocate and overuse water. As a result of this
misperception Australians as a whole need to devise new policies to
ensure that water allocation is within principles requiring
environmental, social and economic sustainability. This will involve
reduction of water allocations to growers and significant changes to
pricing structures for urban users and industry. Environmental factors
need to be measured and hard choices need to be made.
ISBN 0 86803 819 9
Ian North
Abstract
The Aboriginal art revolution of the last three decades is the singly
most significant art movement in recorded Australian art history. This
paper is a meditation on the process of coming to terms with the
implications of the revolution. This has occasioned a new cultural
condition in Australia, which therefore requires a name. How shall the
non-Indigenous speak of it? How may we imagine its future and, with it,
our own? This paper attempts to sketch a new cultural condition with art
at its core and justice as its guide.
ISBN 0 86803 818 0
Deborah Bird Rose
Abstract
This paper takes up the challenge of our position in 'new world' settler
societies and seeks a decolonising form of situated justice that brings
reconciliation between settlers and Indigenous people together with
reconciliation with nature. The paper examines a case study of a fight
for a forest in New South Wales. It is a story of an Aboriginal sacred
site, of reconciliation, and of alternatives to the status quo that
exist in contested places such as forests. It shows us how to imagine
alternative futures, and thus how we might work step by step toward
decolonisation.
ISBN 0 86803 817 2
Susan Feiner
Abstract
This paper demonstrates the connection between the inner logic and the
concerns of the Hebrew bible, and the central market metaphor of
contemporary mainstream economics. They have overlapping concerns, they
both establish taboos that are essential to 'right living', and both the
bible and public policy seek to sustain the existing social/sexual
order. As a result, the market of mainstream economics resembles the
biblical figure 'Yahweh'. This explains the staying power of mainstream
economics: consumers of mainstream economics are seduced by the hidden
likeness to sacred text.
ISBN 0 86803 816 4
David Wilkinson
Abstract
The impact of settler presence and activity on Aboriginal health status
has been profound. In common with similar impacts in other settled
countries worldwide, the dislocation and disruption of a 'traditional'
way of life, coupled with immersion in an inherently unhealthy 'settled'
way of life, has meant Aboriginal people now experience very poor health
status. This paper examines the extent and magnitude of this
differential, its causes and, most importantly, what can be done to
address it.
ISBN 0 86803 815 6
Mbulelo Vizikhungo Mzamane
Abstract
The 'African renaissance' is one of the latest buzzwords to come out of
South Africa, and it now plays an important part in ANC policy. The
phrase suggests that Africans are continuing to rise out of slavery,
colonialism, segregation and neo-colonialism and into liberation. This
paper traces the history of the liberation struggles of people of
African descent worldwide. It then examines South African President
Thabo Mbeki's vision for a truly liberated Africa of the future.
This working paper is an abridged version of a much longer paper that Mbulelo Mzamane wrote while he was a visiting scholar at the Hawke Research Institute in 2001. The longer version is available here in Word (224 kb).
ISBN 0 86803 814 8
Glen Lehman
Abstract
This paper explores the liberal logic that is used to promote
globalisation, and relies on Charles Taylor's communitarian
republicanism to consider how it might be possible to moderate some of
its more obvious adverse global effects. More particularly, the article
explores liberal and communitarian proposals for reform of global
governance beginning with Kant's famous argument for perpetual peace.
This argument is then extended through communitarian arguments to create
moral progress and understanding in the world order. The purpose of this
theoretical exercise is to create a dialogue concerning how we might
moderate adverse effects of globalisation on communities.
ISBN 0 86803 813 X
Rohana Ariffin
Abstract
Migrant workers from the poorest Asian countries are being drawn to
Malaysia in search of employment. Most of these workers are women and
many find employment as maids. These domestic workers are not covered by
employment or social security legislation, and they are vulnerable to
exploitation and abuse from their employers. This paper calls for action
from unions and NGOs to ensure that decent conditions of work are
provided for all Malaysian workers.
ISBN 0 86803 812 1
Howard Harris
Abstract
This paper defines ethics as the very practical activity of applying
one's chosen values in daily life, thus making an understanding of
ethics an essential requirement for any managers, winemakers, engineers,
accountants, lawyers or marketers who are trying to live up to the hopes
of their professions. The paper describes several factors to be taken
into account when nurturing the careers of managers and other business
professionals and when designing professional and ethics material for
inclusion in training and development programs. In doing so it shows
that corporate ethical practice can be a competitive advantage in global
markets.
ISBN 0 86803 811 3
Ed Carson and Ben Wadham
This paper has been published as 'Regionalism and contractualism: when principles collide' in Just Policy, no 24, December 2001, pp 3–11.
Abstract
New public sector management principles promote a search for efficiency
and effectiveness in service delivery through, first, implementing
principles of subsidiarity and, second, the creation of quasi-markets in
the public sector. By considering developments in employment services in
South Australia, this paper explores the tension between the regulatory
demands of a public choice model of compulsory tendering and a state
objective to build regional corporate identities by building up social
capital in the regions. The paper argues that this tension highlights a
systematic and structural inconsistency in the neo-liberal project.
ISBN 0 86803 810 5
Gerald McBride
Abstract
Over the past century our society has experienced ecological decline and
the loss of a sense of community under the influence of increasing
individualism and short-term, market-based economic values. In contrast,
the Kaurna people maintained rich social lives and ecological
sustainability over tens of thousands of years, due to their commitment
to the principle of reciprocity with others, the environment and the
Dreaming. We have much to learn from the Kaurna wisdom as we search for
an ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable path for our
future.
ISBN 0 86803 809 1
Wendy Seymour
Abstract
Technology offers the potential to free people with a disability from
dependence and immersion in interventionist/therapeutic regimes of the
past by enabling them to participate more fully in society and to take
an active and creative role in their own embodiment. In order to
facilitate this process, a clearer understanding of the perceptions of
risk and apprehension that these people experience is essential.
Determining the nature and extent of such fears will facilitate
techno-cultural participation, and offer people with a disability a
stronger sense of citizenship.
ISBN 0 86803 808 3
Rick Sarre, Meredith Doig and Brenton Fiedler
Abstract
Setting legal and administrative rules to control the risk of corporate
irresponsibility, either by legislation or by organisational guidelines
and policies, may be necessary, but it is not sufficient, to establish
and entrench corporate accountability. In this paper, the authors
demonstrate how corporate entities can and should develop a 'culture' of
corporate social responsibility in order to reduce the risks associated
with irresponsible practices. Corporate social responsibility principles
and initiatives can be delivered by a range of facilitators, including
governments, industries and regulatory bodies. They can also be used for
the purpose of enhancing corporate governance. The authors illustrate
the manner in which corporate social responsibility initiatives can and
should become fundamental tools of risk assessment and risk management
in modern corporate practice.
ISBN 0 86803 807 5
Nicholas Procter
Abstract
The mental health of refugee populations is influenced by global
catastrophic events, by emotional connections with former homelands, and
by local conditions and events. Health and human service workers who
work with refugees must therefore take local and global contexts into
account, and should recognise the importance of promoting tolerance
locally. The case study used in this paper is the experiences of Serbian
Australians during the Balkan conflict, and how they managed the
interplay between homeland events, media reports, cultural identity and
mental health issues.
ISBN 0 86803 806 7
Margaret Brown, Justin Beilby and Eric Gargett
Abstract
This study explores the issues that South Australian general
practitioners must consider when introducing advance directives to their
patients. There is a lack of information available to assist people to
make complex decisions about their dying. General practitioners could
assist older patients to understand their choices and how advance
directives might enable them to maintain some control, autonomy and
dignity as they face death.
ISBN 0 86803 805 9
Lois Bryson and Alison Mackinnon
Abstract
This paper provides a summary of key points to emerge from the research
papers presented at the workshop 'Population, gender and reproductive
choice: the motherhood questions', held in Adelaide in February 2000.
The paper includes perspectives from a range of disciplines, including
demography, economics, history, psychology and sociology. It sets out
recommendations for policy on issues such as improving women's family
formation choices, valuing children as a 'public good', improving child
care arrangements, recognising the needs of carers, promoting education
about and access to contraception, and promoting equitable and
family-friendly workplaces.
ISBN 0 86803 804 0
Debra King
Abstract
Corporate reputations are valuable, contributing both to a corporation's
wealth and its competitive advantage. They are also, however, extremely
vulnerable to the vagaries of stakeholder activists. In effect,
reputation has been politicised: a crucial element in the battle over
corporate behaviour around social justice, workplace reform,
environmental sustainability and community development. While most of
the research on corporate reputation is located in business and
management, this paper delineates a greater role for the social
sciences. With corporations increasingly seeing themselves as both the
agents and the site of social change it is necessary to challenge the
assumptions behind their strategies, to politicise their behaviour and
question their goals. To this end, this paper examines whether corporate
reputations are likely to be a useful lever for bringing about
sustainable social change.
ISBN 0 86803 803 2
Anne Hawke
Abstract
In a recent draft report on Australia's gambling industry, the
Australian Productivity Commission found that, on balance, gambling has
a positive impact on Australia's economy. This paper analyses the
economic benefits and costs of gambling in Australia, while also
acknowledging that it is very difficult to assign a monetary value to
social and personal costs. It concludes that, if the position of
'problem gamblers' (those addicted to gambling) is included in the
analysis, gambling may well be an economic burden to our society.
ISBN 0 86803 802 4
Rhonda Sharp
This paper has been published in Spanish under the title 'Economíca y politíca de la auditoría de presupuestos gubernamentales según sus efectos de género' in Investigación Económica, no 236, April–June 2001, pp 45–76.
Abstract
There has been a growing interest by researchers, governments,
international agencies and women's organisations in analysing government
budgets for their economic and social impacts on women and men, and on
different groups of women and men. This has been fuelled by several
factors, including evidence of growing inequalities as a result of
globalisation, economic restructuring and government policy responses, a
discourse of government transparency and accountability which has
facilitated auditing and monitoring strategies, and feminist critiques
of conventional macro-economics. This paper traces the development of
gender-sensitive budget audits and their distinguishing features. It
discusses the economic and political rationales for these exercises and
the insights that are beginning to emerge from them. It concludes that
realising the potential of these exercises to scrutinise government
activities for their gender and class impacts requires contesting both
orthodox economic ideas and policies and conventional budgetary
politics.
ISBN 0 86803 801 6
Claire Woods
Abstract
The university is in ruins, suggests Bill Readings, and to dwell in the
ruins of the university at the turn of the millennium means, inter alia,
reconfiguring disciplinary spaces and creating new groupings of
knowledges in response to the forces of economic globalisation. This
raises interesting questions about the nature of knowledge and the
construction of disciplinary knowledges and the possibilities for a
dynamic interdisciplinarity in the 'new humanities'.
This paper is the text of Claire Woods' inaugural professorial lecture. It explores the place of the territory of communication and writing within the current university context. Where do the theoretical and pedagogical concerns fit specifically into the University of South Australia but more generally into the academy? How have we made this territory in practice? How have we grouped knowledges to create a project in communication and writing? What and whose footprints are on this territory?
ISBN 0 86803 800 8
Marjorie Griffin Cohen
Abstract
At the end of February 2000 a new round of World Trade Organisation
negotiations began, focusing on trade in services. The WTO has
identified a number of 'barriers' to free trade in education services
which it aims to eliminate. These include the existence of government
monopolies, restrictions on recruiting foreign teachers and substantial
government subsidies for local institutions. Eliminating these
'barriers' would require substantial changes to the public higher
education system, including a reduction in public funding and a
requirement that it pursue 'commercial objectives'. These negotiations
are proceeding with very little public scrutiny, leaving higher
education in Australia vulnerable to external commercial pressures.
