My research explores the cultural-political contributions of Nursing Informatics (NI) to the profession of nursing in the context of the Canadian health care system, specifically focused on classification systems as cultural artefacts. Adopting Aggers work on cultural studies as critical theory, (Agger, 1992), I challenged positivist assumptions generated within myself, in NI, and through the use of classification systems like the International Classification System Nursing Practice (ICNP®) (2001). My interest was to expose the impact that the application of standardization languages like ICNP® have on the potential political gains to nursing within health care decision-making structures.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis examines the construction processes of language, culture and identities in relation to both the macro level of society and culture, as well as the micro-individual level. It argues that there is a need to understand these constructions beyond discrete notions of language, identities and culture. The thesis mobilises performativity theory to explore how exposure to a variety of practices during the life trajectory has an impact on the construction and performance of language, identities and culture. It shows how a theory of performativity can provide a comprehensive account of the complex process of, and the relationships between, hybridisation (engagement in a range of cultural practices) and monolithication (nostalgic attachments to familiar practices). The thesis also suggests that the deployment of performativity theory with a focus on individual biography as well as larger social-cultural factors may fill a gap left in some other modes of analysis such as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Conversation Analysis (CA). Analysing data from four workplaces in Australia, the study focuses on trans-institutional talk, namely casual conversation in which people from a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds work together. Following the suggestion (Pennycook 2003; Luke 2002) that there is a need to shift away from the understanding that a particular language is attached to a particular nation, territory and ethnicity, the thesis shows how discrete ethnic and linguistic labels such as ‘Japanese’ and ‘English’ as well as notions of ‘code-switching’ and ‘bi-lingualism’ become problematic in the attempt to grasp the complexity of contemporary transcultural workplaces. The thesis also explores the potential agency of subjects at the convergence of various discourses through iterative linguistic and cultural performances. In summary, the thesis provides deeper insight into transcultural performances to show the links between idiosyncratic individual performances and the construction of transcultural linguistic, cultural phenomena within globalisation.

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After the Cultural Revolution officially ended in 1977, China began its reforms from 1978. Although the initial goal of the reforms was to improve the nation's economy, changes soon took place across other fields ranging from politics to culture, from society to the legal system. These changes throughout the 1980s and 1990s had a significant impact on the development of Chinese film. Contemporary Chinese films reflect these changes either directly or indirectly. This thesis studies the development of film in post-Cultural Revolution China to the mid-1990s. The thesis argues that Chinese film experienced a shift of cultural identity from being subject to Chinese tradition to submitting to transnational globalism. The causes of this shift were a combination of China's own reform process and international cultural and financial involvement in the Chinese film industry. In light of some Western cultural theories, such as structuralism, post-structuralism (including deconstruction), psycho-analysis and postmodernism, this thesis examines a series of acclaimed Chinese directors and films. Many of these directors and films are internationally well known either for their cinematic achievements or for the political controversies about their films. They are seen as representative, especially when contemporary Chinese film is assessed from a cross-cultural, global perspective. In a new millennium Chinese cultural policies on film production and censorship are changing. This thesis summarizes how the Chinese film industry in the last two decades has responded to, and from time to time accelerated the country's modernization, commercialization and internationalisation. / http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Tradition-Globalism-Post-Cultural-Revolution/dp/3639111060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236640154&sr=1-1 / Note: A book based on this thesis is published by VDM Verlag (2008) ISBN 3639111060 and available from http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Tradition-Globalism-Post-Cultural-Revolution/dp/3639111060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236640154&sr=1-1

After the Cultural Revolution officially ended in 1977, China began its reforms from 1978. Although the initial goal of the reforms was to improve the nation's economy, changes soon took place across other fields ranging from politics to culture, from society to the legal system. These changes throughout the 1980s and 1990s had a significant impact on the development of Chinese film. Contemporary Chinese films reflect these changes either directly or indirectly. This thesis studies the development of film in post-Cultural Revolution China to the mid-1990s. The thesis argues that Chinese film experienced a shift of cultural identity from being subject to Chinese tradition to submitting to transnational globalism. The causes of this shift were a combination of China's own reform process and international cultural and financial involvement in the Chinese film industry. In light of some Western cultural theories, such as structuralism, post-structuralism (including deconstruction), psycho-analysis and postmodernism, this thesis examines a series of acclaimed Chinese directors and films. Many of these directors and films are internationally well known either for their cinematic achievements or for the political controversies about their films. They are seen as representative, especially when contemporary Chinese film is assessed from a cross-cultural, global perspective. In a new millennium Chinese cultural policies on film production and censorship are changing. This thesis summarizes how the Chinese film industry in the last two decades has responded to, and from time to time accelerated the country's modernization, commercialization and internationalisation. / http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Tradition-Globalism-Post-Cultural-Revolution/dp/3639111060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236640154&sr=1-1 / Note: A book based on this thesis is published by VDM Verlag (2008) ISBN 3639111060 and available from http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Tradition-Globalism-Post-Cultural-Revolution/dp/3639111060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236640154&sr=1-1

This paper takes as its starting point a period before the 1967 Referendum which gave full citizenship rights to Australian Aborigines and the Federal Government a mandate over Aboriginal Affairs. During the 40's and 50's the Aboriginal people of Tasmania, represented by the people of Cape Barren Island, stubbornly resisted the assimilation policies of the day. In briefly examining the thesis of resistance as proposed by Lyndall Ryan in her 1981 edition of The Aboriginal Tasmanians, and the proposition that the Government sought to abandon the Island, the paper draws upon new material. Despite the referendum the State government like the wider community saw little relevance to Tasmania, denying the existence of Aborigines as such, but joining in the CommonwealWState Conferences of Aboriginal Affairs to safeguard State interests, obtain funds to prop up services to the Island, particularly health, and to secure housing finance. Support for the Aboriginal cause, however, was not lacking. The Aboriginal Advancement League based in Devonport, the Communist Party of Tasmania and Abschol, which was to become the Australian Union of Students action group for Aboriginal rights, were to play a role in sensitising the Tasmanian community to Aboriginal issues and in seeking justice for Tasmanian Aborigines. It was Abschol, however, which was to become the dominant non- Aboriginal organisation in the pursuit of Aboriginal rights. In the early '70's the Tasmanian Aboriginal people decided to take over their own destiny. This assertion was led by Rosalynd Langford, a Victorian Aborigine of Tasmanian descent. In 1972 the Aboriginal Information Centre (later the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre) was established. This paper looks at the history of TAC over the next 20 years. It was to become one of the most forceful and successful black political organisations in Australia and we examine the reason for that success. Whilst the figure of Michael, Mansell emerges on the local, national and eventually the international scene, the record would not be complete if it neglected reference to other contributors to the struggle. Neither would the story be complete without reference to the genealogical work of Mollison et al, the whole question of Aboriginality, the reworking of Aboriginal history from the people's perspective, cultural renewal and Aboriginal spirituality. Central to this issue of history and identity is the world wide quest for the skeletal remains of the Van Diemen's Land people and theirreturn to Tasmania, which the paper identifies as a brilliant strategy of unification and consciousness raising, but one full of emotional and spiritual overtones. This paper concludes with an examination .of the struggle for Land Rights in Tasmania. At this point in time some form of Land Rights legislation seems inevitable, although as the story tells, Aboriginal people have had their previous hopes dashed on a number of occasions.* There is, however, a further matter on the Aboriginal agenda; self govenunent. To underestimate these later aspirations is to fail to recognise the power and commitment of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people. * Note: In November 1995 an Aboriginal Lands Bill passed throug-h the Tasmanian Parliament (proclaimed 6 December, 1995), 'transferring certain lands to the Aboriginal people and establishing an Aboriginal Lands trust.

This thesis examines the present status and enduring significance of the story “Scott of the Antarctic.” It critically reviews the story’s century-long history of interpretation and, via literary analysis, considers its meaning for a contemporary audience. It argues that while Captain Robert Scott’s historic hut is being conserved as an icon of the heroic era of Antarctic exploration, the story which gives that hut its meaning is in a less satisfactory condition and is also in need of conservation. In keeping with the twofold nature of its subject—a story which is based on fact—the thesis acknowledges both historiographical and literary critical perspectives. In addition, it draws on a wide range of data: manuscript letters and journals, newspaper and magazine commentary, historical monographs, biographies, literary works and film. The thesis reviews recent scholarly commentary on Scott’s story and identifies a variety of shortcomings. These include the polarized nature of the discussion, heavy uncritical use of a single influential debunking biography and a concomitant neglect of earlier sources. A detailed analytical survey of the story’s interpretation, from its genesis to the present, highlights principal themes and the influence of intellectual fashions. Veneration of the central character has always been accompanied by criticism. But judgements of Scott’s last expedition necessarily lack full knowledge of the circumstances, and many exhibit partisanship, faulty reasoning and the bias of hindsight. Two aspects of the story that have remained surprisingly unexamined are critiqued: the saintly reputation of Lawrence Oates, and the methods and accounts of the other contender for the South Pole, Roald Amundsen. Despite some recent favourable appraisals of Scott, evidence is presented that the character assassination that began in the late 1970s persists today. The final part of the thesis directs attention away from judicial and historical debates, and seeks the story’s deeper resonances through literary analysis. Although the quality of Scott’s writing and the tragic nature of his story are often mentioned, they have previously received scant critical attention. Aspects of the explorer’s literary skill are examined, and comparisons explored between his story and Greek tragedy as described in Aristotle’s Poetics. The discussion locates a large part of the transhistorical meaning of “Scott of the Antarctic” in its tragic qualities, and concludes by considering how the story’s potential has been exploited in imaginative renderings.