Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Dept. of Media, 2007. / Bibliography: leaves 281-305. / Introduction -- Advertising, branding & consumerism: a literature survey -- Methodology: from Barthes to Bushells -- A taste for tea: how tea travelled to and through Australian culture -- Class in a tea cup -- A tale of two brands -- Thrift, sacrifice and the happy housewife -- 'He likes coffee SHE likes tea' -- 'Is it as good?': Bushells beyond Australia -- 'The one thing we all agree on' -- Conclusion. / Since its introduction in 1883, the Bushells brand of tea has become increasingly identified with Australia's national identity. Like Arnott's, QANTAS and Vegemite, Bushells has become a part of the nation's cultural vocabulary, a treasured store of memories and myths. This thesis investigates how Bushells acquired this status, and the transformation by which an otherwise everyday item evolved from the ordinary to the iconic. In short, through Bushells, I will demonstrate the cultural logic of branding. -- Bushells is ideally suited for an historical analysis of branding in Australia. Firstly, tea has been a staple of the Australian diet since the time of the First Fleet. So, it proves a fitting example of consumer processes since the early days of White settlement. From this, I will consider the rise of an environment sensitive to status, and therefore conducive to branding. In the late nineteenth century, Bushells was challenged to appeal to the burgeoning corps of middle class consumers. To this end, the brand integrated those ideals and associations that turned its tea into one that flattered a certain sensibility. Secondly, having established its affinity with a particular market group, the middle class, Bushells was well positioned to track, acknowledge and incorporate some of the most dominant trends of the twentiethcentury; specifically, the rise of a particular suburban ideal in the 1950s, and changing conceptions of gender, labour and technology. Finally, in the last two decades, Bushells has had to concede decisive shifts in fashion and taste; as Australia's population changed, so too did tea's place and prominence in the market. This thesis thus canvasses all these issues, chronologically and thematically. To do this, I will contextualise Bushells' advertisements in terms of the contemporary conditions that both informed their content, and underpinned their appeal. -- Considering the breadth and depth of this analysis, I argue that in the case of Bushells there is a cultural logic to branding. As brands strive for relevance, they become screens off which major societal processes can be identified and examined. As such, I will show that, in its address to consumers, Bushells broached some of the most significant discourses in Australia's cultural history. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / v, 305 leaves ill

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2006. / "December 2005". / Bibliography: leaves 327-357. / Characteristics of ritual abuse discourse -- A plethora of theorists (and of differences between them) -- Defining ritual abuse: differences, disputes and bad faith -- Allegations, investigations and trials -- Abuse accomodation and recovered memories -- Moral panic and witch hunt -- Witch craze -- Outsiders, accusations and obligations -- Accusations of ritual abuse in Australia -- Witches and pedophiles -- Conclusion. / Allegations of "ritual abuse" were first made in North America in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was claimed that an extremely severe form of sexual and physical child abuse was being perpetrated by Satanists or the devotees of comparably unorthodox religions. Perpetrators were often supposed to be invloved in other serious criminal activities. Allegations were subsequently made in Britain, Holland, Australia and New Zealand. The thesis examines the bitter debates that these claims provoked, including the dispute about whether ritual abuse "really happens". -- The thesis also contributes to the debate by providing some anthropological insights into why these strange and incredible claims were made and why they were accepted by certain therapists, officials, journalists and members of the public. It is argued that the panic over ritual abuse was a panic about what anthropologists know as "witchcraft" and the thesis makes this argument through an analysis of the events (mainly discursive events) of the panic. The thesis in particular takes up Jean La Fontaine's argument about the similarities between accusations of ritual abuse and those made against "witches" in early modern Europe and in non-Western societies. The similarities between the kinds of people typically accused of perpetrating ritual abuse and those accused of practising witchcraft are considered, with a special emphasis on those cases where accusations were made by adult "survivors" and where alleged perpetrators were affluent and of relatively high social status. The thesis examines how supposed perpetrators of ritual abuse were denied the social support properly due to them and how accusations--and the persecution that followed--achieved certain political, professional and personal ends for survivors and their supporters. -- The thesis also considers similarities between "crazed" witch hunting and the recent spread of the panic about ritual abuse throughout much of the English-speaking West. The peculiar panic about witch-like figures that occurred in Australia -- especially in NSW--is examined. The thesis shows how, at a time when Australians had become very sceptical about claims of ritual abuse, activists were able to incite and affect the latest of a succession of homophobic panics in Australia. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 357 leaves ill

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of Modern History, 2003. / Bibliography: p. 417-478. / Introduction: breeding and feeding -- The medical man: sex, science and society -- Confined: women and obstetrics 1880-1899 -- The kindest cut? The caesarean section as turning point -- Reproduction in decline -- Resisting reproduction: women, doctors and abortion -- From obstetrics to paediatrics: the rise of the child -- The breast was best: medicine and maternal breastfeeding -- The deadly bottle and the dangers of the wet nurse: the "artificial" feeding of infants -- Surveillance and the mother -- Mothers and medicine: paradigms of continuity and change. / The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw profound changes in Australian attitudes towards maternity. Imbibed with discourses of pronatalism and eugenics, the production of infants became increasingly important to society and the state. Discourses proliferated on "breeding", and while it appeared maternity was exulted, the child, not the mother, was of ultimate interest. -- This thesis will examine the ways wider discourses of population impacted on childbearing, and very specifically the ways discussions of the nation impacted on medicine. Despite its apparent objectivity, medical science both absorbed and created pronatalism. Within medical ideology, where once the mother had been the point of interest, the primary focus of medical care, increasingly medical science focussed on the life of the infant, who was now all the more precious in the role of new life for the nation. -- While all childbirth and child-rearing advice was formed and mediated by such rhetoric, this thesis will examine certain key issues, including the rise of the caesarean section, the development of paediatrics and the turn to antenatal care. These turning points can be read as signifiers of attitudes towards women and the maternal body, and provide critical material for a reading of the complexities of representations of mothers in medical discourse. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 478 p

[Truncated abstract] Wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum L.), an outcrossing annual plant, is one of the most widespread and successful colonising weeds in the Australian wheat belt. It was introduced accidentally during the latter part of the 19th century, apparently independently through the major ports of southern Australia. The widespread success of wild radish, and therefore the likelihood of distinct populations, gives us the opportunity to study the colonizing process with adaptation in annual outbreeding species, and to explore their genetic diversity. The aims of this thesis were to study the genetic diversity of wild radish and to investigate which factors are important in its success. After an initial review of the literature (chapter 2), the thesis describes experiments where genetic variation between and within populations was compared at 55 sites in transects across the wheat belt and high rainfall zones of temperate Western Australia (chapter 3). In chapter 4, variation in life history traits was compared with variation in AFLP molecular markers. The role of seed dormancy in the survival of the species was examined in chapter 5, and variation in the oil content of seeds and their fatty acid composition was examined in chapter 6. Finally, the results were discussed in chapter 7 with special reference to the adaptive value of outcrossing in annual weeds. The results suggest that wild radish has evolved to fit the Australian environment. However, measurement of 14 morphological and phenological characters showed that in most cases within site variation was much greater than that between sites. Most of the variation between sites was associated with geoclusters, a name given to zones of similar environmental conditions in regard to rainfall and temperature. Thus plants from areas with high rainfall and low temperature produced longer, wider pods with more segments, heavier seeds and flowered later than plants from more arid areas.

[Truncated abstract] BACKGROUND This thesis explored the relationship between social capital, sense of community and mental health and wellbeing; and factors that may influence these within the environments in which people live. Area variations in health are well documented and are mirrored in emerging evidence of geographic and neighbourhood variations in social capital. Little is known, however, about the specific facets of the impact of local physical environment on social capital; or about the mechanisms by which these are linked with each other, and with health determinants and outcomes. Despite the recent proliferation of social capital literature and growing research interest within the public health realm, its relationship to mental health and protective factors for mental health have also been relatively unexplored. AIMS The overall aim of this thesis was to explore the potential associations between social capital, health and mental health, and neighbourhood environments. In particular, the thesis considered whether the physical attributes and street network design of neighbourhoods are associated with social capital or particular dimensions of the social capital construct. It also examined the relationship between social capital and demographic and residency factors and pet ownership ... CONCLUSION The combined use of qualitative and quantitative research is a distinguishing feature of this study, and the triangulation of these data has a unique contribution to make to the social capital literature. Studies concerned with the measurement of social capital to date have tended to focus on dimensions pertaining to people’s involvement, perceptions and relationship with others and their community. While these constructs provide insight into what comprises social capital, it is clear that each is in turn influenced by a range of other factors. Elucidating what fosters trust and neighbourly interactions in one community and not in another, and by what mechanisms, is one of many research questions unanswered in the published literature to date. The consideration of measures of social capital that relate to the physical environment is therefore of relevance to the growing research and public policy interest in identifying what might build or restore social capital in communities.

This thesis explores the concept of entrepreneurship. It aims at answering the question: does the Austrian view provide a comprehensive framework for the analysis of entrepreneurship? For this purpose the problem is separated into three main objectives: to trace its development, to describe its foundations and to explain its principal features. In order to achieve these objectives, the study is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 outlines the historical origins of the Austrian School. Chapter 2 describes the uniqueness of the individual as the foundation of Austrian economic theory. Chapter 3 explains how individuals act in a society. Chapter 4 covers the idea of the market as a process. Chapter 5 analyzes the role of the entrepreneur. Finally chapter 6 presents some case studies from the IT industry. The thesis concludes that the Austrian school provides a fully comprehensive framework for the development of the concept of entrepreneurship. / Economics / M.A. (Economics)

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published_or_final_version / abstract / Ecology and Biodiversity / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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