The main purpose of this thesis is to critically analyse the convergence of political Islam and neoliberalism in Turkey. By doing so, the research aims to construct a Gramscian historical materialist account as opposed to the mainstream centre-periphery relations approach. The mainstream centre-periphery relations approach takes the state and civil society as antagonistic autonomous entities. This consideration brings us where the Turkish politics are perceived as a terrain of conflict between Islamists and secularists. The centre-periphery relations approach has four shortcomings. First, the state and society are considered separately. Second, the market and the state; and the economy and the politics are considered separately. Third, as considered separately, the theory takes civil society as automatically progressive. Fourth, the social relations of productions are neglected. This thesis argues that the Islamists versus secularists dichotomy is not sufficient enough to explain the complexity of contradictions in Turkish politics because of the given four shortcomings. Therefore, a more complex theory where the antagonism is considered within the class struggle is needed. Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, passive revolution and most importantly the integral state provides a new window in this respect. The Gramscian historical materialism offers a holistic understanding for the relationship between the state and society, the market and the state, and the economy and the political. As part of the hegemonic struggle, civil society can be on either side of the struggle therefore it is not considered as automatically progressive in Gramscian historical materialism. As a historical materialist approach, Gramscianism considers the social relations of production as the crucial element of the analysis. The pre-2002 periods (before the Justice and Development Party came into power) were already researched by Gramscian scholars. Therefore, the neoliberal restructuring in Turkey during the Justice and Development Party era is the focal period of this thesis. There will be a specific focus on the cases of urbanisation, education, and the mass media. The conceptual framework of state-society relations is the analytical basis of this study. Overall, this thesis offers an alternative reading of the rise of political Islam in Turkey.

In the last two decades, against the backdrop of multiple anti-foreign protests in China, among which the anti-Japanese protests were prominent, debates emerged over the rise and meaning of Chinese nationalism. This thesis analyses the nature and formation of China’s nationalism towards Japan, with an emphasis on bottom-up manifestations of nationalism. The analysis compares the anti-Japanese demonstrations and boycotts of 2010 and 2012 triggered by disputes over the contested Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. The current literature on Chinese nationalism is largely dominated by top-down perspectives which neglect the prospect of a nationalism separate from the state. This thesis argues that it is not only that bottom-up and top-down forces coexist, but that they interact in a dynamic and bidirectional process. This interaction, explained through Giddens’ structuration theory and Wendt’s constructivist theory, is significant in understanding how nationalism is shaped. In the detailed analysis of nationalism theories of instrumentalism, along with those of primordialism and ethnosymbolism are used. It is through these lenses that each step of the “nationalism” is studied - from history and triggers of nationalism to popular manifestations, current discussions of nationalism and its effect on China’s domestic and foreign policy. By placing China into the historical context of the last century, it is shown that anti-Japanese feelings in China are the result of embedded memories of war and a need of unifying the nation against Imperial Japan, rather than purely the result of a political machination. History, combined with threat perception and China’s development, led to large anti-Japanese manifestations over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in 2010 and 2012. The authorities employed a number of strategies in order to tone down these events domestically. Through interviews conducted with Chinese academics, researchers, protesters and activists, and discourse analysis applied to state media, it was identified that history, territorial sovereignty, mistrust and reactiveness to Japan’s actions frame the meaning of anti-Japanese nationalism in China. These shared themes brought together a wide spectrum of state and non-state actors, who put aside their dichotomous views over loyalty to the Party-state and loyalty to the nation, and showed their support for the Chinese government. The problematic effects of this type of “unified anti-Japanese nationalism” are that domestically it sets restrictive “standards” for what it means to be a “good nationalist” in China; internationally, it raises serious concerns over China’s foreign policy should a fatal Sino-Japanese accident in the East China Sea occur. The substance of Chinese nationalism may be indicative of the type of international power that China aspires to be and informs the domestic challenges that may influence its external behaviour. By understanding the substance of nationalism, China’s perceptions of itself and “the other”, as well as its intentions home and abroad are captured. Policymakers within China and abroad should not ignore the challenges nationalism poses at the domestic level; they should look into the intricate disputes and negotiations among state and non-state actors, driven not only by economic and political calculations, but by a shared past and emotions that contribute to the internal dynamic of Chinese nationalism.

This study seeks to examine the impact of the EU on Turkish counter-terrorism policies towards the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). It analyses what impact it has had within three distinct periods: the pre-Helsinki European Council (1984-1999) period, the post-Helsinki European Council (1999-2004) period, and the post-Brussels European Council (2004-2013) period. It conceptualizes and empirically investigates the EU’s norm diffusion role by relying on the concept of “Rule Adoption”, and by utilising two norm diffusion mechanisms: the “Conditionality” and the “Socialization” mechanism, and their domestic and EU-level determinants. The thesis argues that when the EU has promoted democratisation in Turkey, it has also implicitly impacted on Turkey’s counter-terrorism policies. It argues for this thesis by generalizing from the following empirical findings: When the EU has provided a credible membership prospect to Turkey, and when the PKK attacks have been at a low-level, then the EU conditionality mechanism has been influential on Turkey’s adoption of EU promoted norms. However, when there has been no membership prospect and high levels of PKK violence, it has been the openness of Turkish political actors that has resulted in rule adoption, in which the social learning of the Turkish political actors has led to the adoption of EU promoted norms as an appropriate way to solve existing terrorism problems.

[Truncated abstract] Background : Triage systems have evolved from battlefield casualty prioritisation tools to integral components of civilian emergency care systems over the last 50 years. There is significant variation in prehospital triage practices in Australia and little research has been undertaken to validate the triage systems used. There is considerable evidence to support the use of the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) for triage in the emergency department setting and the ATS is used ubiquitously for emergency department triage in Australasia ... Conclusions : The findings of this thesis support integrating prehospital ATS allocations with emergency department triage processes. It is concluded that Paramedics apply the ATS similarly to nurses ... Allocations to ATS 1, 2 and 3 and most ATS 4 allocations by paramedics are valid when compared to nurse ATS allocations. Australasian Triage Scale category 5 is used inappropriately by paramedics and should be used rarely, if at all, by paramedics. The reliability of paramedic and nurse ATS allocations is sufficient to warrant a trial of the omission of retriage of ambulance presentations at Perth metropolitan emergency departments. However, early nursing assessment of a small proportion of ATS 3 patients may be required to ensure timely assessment for some mistriaged bone fide ATS 2 patients. Paramedic ATS allocations appear sufficiently reliable and valid to warrant a trial of their use as part of a two-tier trauma team activation system ... The implementation of standardised training between paramedics and nurses based on current Australasian College for Emergency Medicine guidelines is recommended. The implementation of paramedic triage audit, including comparison of paramedic ATS allocations with nurse ATS allocations may improve reliability between paramedics and nurses, and particularly the reliability of ATS 4 and ATS 5 allocations. Prehospital ATS allocations may prove useful in prehospital casemix analysis, the evaluation of prehospital service delivery and for prehospital research. Research opportunities include actual trials of the integration of prehospital use of ATS with emergency department triage and trauma system activation, and the evaluation of the ATS as a prehospital casemix and performance evaluation tool. Research into alternative triage tools to the ATS for use in the prehospital environment and into the impact of standardised triage training is also suggested.

Between 1870 and 1901, seventeen officers from the British army were appointed by the governments of the Australian colonies and New Zealand as commanders of their colonial military forces. There has been considerable speculation about the roles of these officers as imperial agents, developing colonial forces as a wartime reserve to imperial forces, but little in depth research. This thesis examines the role of the imperial commandants with an embryonic system of imperial defence and their contribution to the development of the colonial military forces. It is therefore a topic in British imperial history as much as Australian and New Zealand military history. British officers were appointed by colonial governments to overcome a shortfall in professional military expertise but increasingly came to be viewed by successive British administrations as a means of fulfilling an imperial defence agenda. The commandants as ???men-on-the-spot???, however, viewed themselves as independent reformers and got offside with both the imperial and colonial governments. This fact reveals that the commandants occupied a difficult position between the aspirations of London and the reality of the colonies. They certainly brought an imperial perspective to their commands and looked forward to the colonies playing a role on the imperial stage but generally did so in terms of a personal agenda rather than one set by London. This assessment is best demonstrated in the commandants??? independent stance at the outset of the South African War. The practice of appointing British commandants in Australasia was fraught with problems because of an inherent conflict in the goals of the commandants and their colonial governments. It resembles the Canadian experience of the British officers which reveals that the system of imperials military appointments as a whole was flawed. The problem remained that until a sufficient number of colonial officers had the prerequisite professional expertise for high command there was no alternative. The commandants were therefore the beginning rather than the end of a traditional reliance upon British military expertise. The lasting legacy of the commandants for the military forces of Australia and New Zealand was the development of colonial officers, transference of British military traditions, and the encouragement of a colonial military identity premised on the expectation of future participation in defence of the empire. The study provides a major revision to the existing historiography of imperial officers in the colonies, one which concludes that far from being ???imperial agents??? they were largely marching to their own drum.

Methods were developed for the determination of methylmercury in natural waters and sediments based on steam distillation and aqueous phase ethylation followed by gas chromatography-atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The methods were shown to be free from measurable artefactual methylation of inorganic mercury and offered improved sample throughput over existing methods. Improvements were made to existing methods for the determination of total mercury in biota, sediments and natural waters and dissolved mercury species in natural waters. These methods were applied to the study of mercury cycling in two remote field sites. The cycling of mercury species was studied in Lake Murray in Western Province, Papua New Guinea, which has been historically noted as a region of high mercury concentrations in fish. Concentrations of methylmercury and total mercury in the water column were found to be variable and consistent with non-contaminated lake systems. Concentrations of methylmercury and total mercury in the sediments were also found to be low, except for in the south of the lake, which was influenced by an intermittent supply of water and sediments with elevated mercury concentrations from the Strickland River. Methylmercury concentrations in the sediments were generally higher in the backwater areas due to littoral processes. The low concentrations of methylmercury in the sediments and waters were inconsistent with other systems previously studied in the northern hemisphere, showing a link between high mercury concentrations in fish and high concentrations of methylmercury in waters or sediments. Therefore, the biota of Lake Murray were studied in order to account for the differences between this and other systems. A study was conducted of the stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in biota from Lake Murray to elucidate key food-web interactions. This study revealed that the dominant carbon source for fish in the lake is plankton, although algae and macrophytes may also be involved in the food-web. The methylmercury bioaccumulation factors between trophic levels were similar to those measured in temperate systems of the northern hemisphere. The high concentrations of methylmercury, observed in piscivorous fish, were shown to be a consequence of the complex food-web and the number of trophic levels in the food-chains. The cycling of mercury species was studied in Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder in southwest Tasmania, which has recently been identified as being in a region of high mercury concentrations in trout and eels. The concentrations of total mercury were found to be reasonably uniform in the waters of both lakes, spatially and temporally. The concentrations of methylmercury in the waters were seasonally variable, and were consistently lower in Lake Pedder than in Lake Gordon. Dilution of methylmercury concentrations by precipitation direct to the lake surface, probably accounts for the most of the difference in methylmercury concentrations between the lakes. Owing to the long residence time of water in Lake Gordon, this reservoir mixes inputs of water with varying methylmercury concentrations. Concentrations of total mercury and methylmercury in submerged soils were low and depth profiles of mercury species in the water column did not show evidence of a gradient of mercury concentrations due to releases from the sediments. The concentrations of methylmercury observed in the water column are consistent with the concentrations observed in the fish. A budget of the mercury inputs and outputs to Lake Gordon showed that in-lake processes and sources in the catchment areas both contributed significantly to the concentrations of methylmercury in the lake. The methylation of mercury in Lake Gordon appeared to mainly occur in the surface waters (< 10 m) and was not consistent with processes leading to the methylation of mercury at the oxic/anoxic boundary observed in seepage lakes in Wisconsin. The concentrations of total mercury and methylmercury in bogs in the catchment areas of Lakes Gordon and Pedder, were high and governed by the concentration of organic matter in the sediments. The processes involved in the supply of mercury species from the Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder catchments appear to be similar to those in drainage lakes in the temperate and boreal regions of the northern hemisphere. The formation of the Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder reservoirs appears to have had little impact on the mean annual concentrations of methylmercury released to the downstream environment.

Between 1870 and 1901, seventeen officers from the British army were appointed by the governments of the Australian colonies and New Zealand as commanders of their colonial military forces. There has been considerable speculation about the roles of these officers as imperial agents, developing colonial forces as a wartime reserve to imperial forces, but little in depth research. This thesis examines the role of the imperial commandants with an embryonic system of imperial defence and their contribution to the development of the colonial military forces. It is therefore a topic in British imperial history as much as Australian and New Zealand military history. British officers were appointed by colonial governments to overcome a shortfall in professional military expertise but increasingly came to be viewed by successive British administrations as a means of fulfilling an imperial defence agenda. The commandants as ???men-on-the-spot???, however, viewed themselves as independent reformers and got offside with both the imperial and colonial governments. This fact reveals that the commandants occupied a difficult position between the aspirations of London and the reality of the colonies. They certainly brought an imperial perspective to their commands and looked forward to the colonies playing a role on the imperial stage but generally did so in terms of a personal agenda rather than one set by London. This assessment is best demonstrated in the commandants??? independent stance at the outset of the South African War. The practice of appointing British commandants in Australasia was fraught with problems because of an inherent conflict in the goals of the commandants and their colonial governments. It resembles the Canadian experience of the British officers which reveals that the system of imperials military appointments as a whole was flawed. The problem remained that until a sufficient number of colonial officers had the prerequisite professional expertise for high command there was no alternative. The commandants were therefore the beginning rather than the end of a traditional reliance upon British military expertise. The lasting legacy of the commandants for the military forces of Australia and New Zealand was the development of colonial officers, transference of British military traditions, and the encouragement of a colonial military identity premised on the expectation of future participation in defence of the empire. The study provides a major revision to the existing historiography of imperial officers in the colonies, one which concludes that far from being ???imperial agents??? they were largely marching to their own drum.

This dissertation compares the effects of progressive social reform on income inequality in the Southern Cone of South America, Scandinavia, and Australasia. These regions faced comparable economic challenges at the start of the 20th century, but experienced different trends of income inequality after they introduced progressive policies in this period. Australasia and Scandinavia converged on a downward trend while the Southern Cone remained comparatively more unequal. The dissertation concentrates on three areas that significantly predict inequality in contemporary research: labour markets, education, and taxation and spending policies. Existing explanations usually focus on supply-side aspects of policy reform: wage regulation, and increased taxation and spending on education and social insurance, are thought to bring inequality down in the long-run. These reforms are seen as the outcome of the relative power of working class groups over elites. Despite institutional variation, the three regions enacted progressive policies to address distributional conflict and protect their economies from global risks. I study the demand-side of policy reform; policies faced considerable collective action problems to promote compliance and cooperation in order to work in the long-time and include populations at large. The fact that most people were motivated to comply meant that labour markets generated formality and standard wages, education increased human capital, and spending became stable as the tax base increased in Scandinavia and the Antipodes. The opposite happened in the Southern Cone as social actors tried to link selectively with the state while state officials neglected the material constraints that limited access to welfare and education. Each chapter spells out the conditions through which policy addressed collective action problems to motivate cooperation with wage agreements, sending children to school, and compliance with taxation and spending policies. Behind comparable aggregate numbers in these areas, the underlying social processes differed as Australasians and Scandinavians fostered cooperation between state and social actors, while the Southern Cone did not.