Drawing on research and frameworks from sociology, poststructuralist feminist theory, phenomenology, and social constructionism, this thesis offers- perhaps ambitiously- a much needed counter-discourse to the hegemonic cultural narratives of ageing as decline of body/self. It focuses on the experiences of ageing, and on the meaning of dancing, of practicing and retired theatrical dancers, a group who by virtue of their body-based profession face the impact of ageing earlier than most people in western cultures. This thesis critically examines the representation and experience of ageing of dancers in a western context, in which we are aged, gendered, and classed according to hegemonic- albeit historically variable- norms. I argue that dominant cultural discourses of ageing as decline-based and purportedly gender-neutral mask western consumer cultures' understanding of ageing as gendered: that is, as allied with a loss of not only physical but also sexual capital. However, the ambiguity of the 'ageing body' in its efforts to reiterate these norms in performance disrupts and challenges this discourse's cultural construction of gendered body-subjects. The thesis therefore explores how cultural body norms are experienced, enacted and perpetuated, and what possibilities exist for bodily agency in subverting or transforming them. The findings in this study are based on transcribed life history interviews conducted with 30 dancers and former dancers between the ages of 27 and 76, with a background in a range of dance practices. Participants' narratives were grouped into recurrent themes using a grounded approach. It was found that, in contrast to cultural and institutional discourses that maintain that age-related factors such as waning stamina and endurance inevitably result in cessation from dancing, physical ageing per se had less effect on the desire to retire from performing than numerous other factors to do with economic and interest factors in midlife, including 'outgrowing' the authoritarian structure and politics of mainstream dance companies, time poverty due to family demands, or the absence of challenges or peer colleagues. The lack of broad-based support and cultural valorization of independent dance in Australia was also a factor influencing dancers' decision to discontinue their practice. Participants' chosen dance practices were also related to two styles of the dancer's body-self relation, one as a dualistic distinction between body and mind, the other as a more integrated form of embodiment. Embodiment is a third term that serves to deconstruct traditional western dualistic conceptions of body-subjects. I argue that a fundamental dualism underpinning theories such as the 'mask of ageing' in a postmodern consumer context is too limiting in understanding bodily ageing, and therefore, I draw on non-dualistic theoretical orientations through which to reframe the gendered body-self of the mature dancer.

Despite the progress human beings have made in medicine, science and technology, domestic violence continues to occur in many intimate heterosexual relationships. Yet, according to ethnographic accounts of largely indigenous peoples, it is evident that as recently as the twentieth century, there have been societies where domestic violence was absent or minimal. This knowledge prompted an investigation into how discourses of different cultural groups shape men's understandings of masculinity and sense of entitlement to use violence in a heterosexual relationship. The study was qualitative, based upon grounded theory and narrative principles. Men from as many different cultural groups as possible (eg. ethnic, religious, age, and class), who had used violence in an intimate heterosexual relationship, were sought to participate in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Twenty four men agreed to take part. After an analysis of their narratives, by far the most overwhelming discovery was that cultural differences seemed to be eclipsed by the pre-eminence and strength of gendered discourse in keeping with Western patriarchal dictates in regards to masculinity and violence. Androcentric and hegemonic masculinity, and a tolerance of violence, were consistently evident. Based upon the men's conversations, and drawing upon ethnographical accounts to provide the opportunity of a broader outlook and different perspective on the inquiry to hand, it was concluded that violence is a discursive phenomenon and that patriarchal discourse is the font of domestic violence

The major foci of this PhD were to examine factors that influence neophyte applied sport and exercise psychologists' development as service providers. The specific aim of Study 1 was to explore the educational experiences perceived to contribute to service delivery competence from the viewpoints of educators and recent graduates of Australian applied sport and exercise psychology programmes. Graduates (8 females, 8 males, ranging in age from 24 to 46 years) and 11 academics (5 males, 6 females, varying in age from 33 to 52 years) of Australian masters programmes in applied psychology (sport and exercise) were interviewed. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and thematically content analysed. Research credibility was enhanced by data source, analyst, and theoretical triangulation. Participants believed (a) practicing service delivery; (b) interactions among fellow students, teachers, and supervisors; and (d) specific events prior to and outside of training contributed to service delivery competence. Although research and theory was perceived to assist athlete collaboration, they were not as valued as practicing service delivery. The aim of Study 2 was to investigate the intricacies of how athletes and neophyte consultants experienced their working relationships. Trainee consultants (4 females, 3 males, ranging in age from 22 to 32 years) met with an athlete (4 males, 3 females, varying from 19 to 29 years of age) on 3 occasions. After Sessions 1 and 3, I interviewed participants about their relationships with each other. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and thematically content analysed. Research credibility was enhanced via data source, analyst, and theoretical triangulation. Generally, participants formed positive interpersonal bonds with each other during the three sessions. There were variations among the dyads to the extent that clear service ii delivery goals and tasks were negotiated. Across the dyads, some working alliance strains arose but did not prevent the neophyte practitioners and athletes from collaborating. Incidences of transference and countertransference also occurred. The specific aim of Study 3 was to describe and compare novice applied sport and exercise psychologists' and athlete clients' reported in-session self-talk. The individuals from Study 2 also participated in Study 3. Sessions 1 and 3 were videotaped and later watched by participants, who also completed thought listing exercises to reproduce their self-talk. The data were categorized according to six dimensions: time, place, focus, locus, orientation, and mode. Retrospective accounts provided evidence that trainees' in-session self-talk statements were (a) typically present focused, (b) mostly about in-session material, (c) generally about the athletes or themselves, (d) about both internal and external events, (e) almost always related to the sessions, and (f) either neutral or planning statements. The athlete's retrospective accounts provided evidence that their self-talk statements were (a) typically present focused; (b) mostly about in-session material; (c) generally about themselves, and to a lesser extent, the consultants; (d) about both internal and external events; (e) almost always related to the sessions; and (f) largely neutral. The inter-rater reliabilities across the 6 dimensions were above 80%. The specific aim of Study 4 was to gain narrative accounts of applied sport and exercise psychology students' development as service providers during the first two years of their postgraduate studies. The neophyte practitioners (6 females and 3 males, ranging in age from 22 to 32 years) were interviewed three times across years 1 and 2 of their postgraduate studies. Again, interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically content analysed. Research credibility was again enhanced via data source, analyst, and theoretical triangulation. Three illustrative iii case examples were developed to represent three clusters that emerged among the nine students. The findings had parallels with therapist development models proposed by counselling psychology researchers, such as the trainees' anxieties regarding their professional competence, the ways they conceptualised service delivery, and the types of supervision relationships they preferred. The current PhD has extended knowledge about trainee applied sport and exercise psychologists' development and client interactions. The results have similarities with counselling psychology research findings. The findings in this PhD provide some evidence that counselling psychology knowledge can be readily adapted to similar aspects of applied sport and exercise psychology practice. The findings have implications for the training of practitioners, such as the types of working alliances athletes prefer, and the ways that trainees might experience anxiety. The results might also assist educators and supervisors in tailoring their efforts to match trainees' needs.

AS A CONTESTED space Macedonia in the late nineteenth century suffered political, religious and paramilitary incursions made upon the population by the neighbouring nascent states and the disappearing Ottoman empire. Territorial claims were rationalised by ethnographic maps and statistical population data. Interested commentators viewed Macedonia in accordance with government policy and presented their studies as academic and scientific, even though these studies were clearly political in nature. The European Powers maintained their own pretence and acted as patrons of the small Balkan States. Although churches, schools and paramilitary bands were the primary instruments of the Greek, Bulgarian and Serb states, expansion into Macedonia was ultimately achieved by a full military mobilisation when the armies of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia marched into Macedonia in October 1912 and drove out the Ottoman Turks. The territorial division of Macedonia and claims upon the Macedonians have continued to be a matter of contention between the Balkan States into contemporary times. As the new nation of Macedonia began its independent existence in 1991, its citizens sought to understand this history. For lengthy periods Macedonia was colonised by more powerful neighbours, especially the Turks in the Ottoman period to 1912. The very word 'Macedonia' is a contested category, much like any other post-colonial concept. As each of its neighbours has sought to colonise Macedonia, Macedonian history has become overburdened with the representations of these others. There is no essential 'Macedonia' hidden beneath these foreign representations, but there is nonetheless a specific and distinctive history comprised of the everyday life of people in the territory now known as Macedonia. This thesis seeks to recover that everyday life through an examination of the sources relating to a defining period in Macedonian history, the period from 1870 to 1912 - when Macedonia found herself in a disintegrating Ottoman Empire and the 10 territorial ambitions of neighbouring Balkan States (Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia) saw them engage in a fierce competition for the hearts and minds of the Macedonian Christians. This thesis interrogates these sources by using the techniques and strategies of post-colonial scholars. This interrogation reveals, just as surely as the post-colonialists have reinterpreted Western views of Asia and Africa, that views of Macedonia by Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians, Serbs and others are not 'innocent' or 'disinterested'. This thesis argues that, no matter how sophisticated their particular methodology or analysis, these foreign scholars - demographers, historians, anthropologists - brought to their studies of Macedonia late in the nineteenth century an imperial agenda, the ramifications of which continue to influence politics in the region to the present time.

The contention of this thesis is that previous accounts of 1956 and its impact on the Communist Party of Australia, have afforded insufficient attention to the complexities of this period in the Party’s history. The common perception has been that the Party leadership clamped down on attempts by members to generate debate and discussion about the content of Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’ and the uprising in Hungary. The result of this was that members either concurred with the Party’s stance and stayed within its ranks, or they disagreed and resigned or were expelled. This perception is too simplistic and fails to acknowledge the manifold difficulties and uncertainties faced by both the membership and the leadership during this period. In an attempt to illuminate this chapter in the Party’s history, this thesis will argue that 1956 traced a complex path of denial, surprise, limited acceptance and intolerance on the part of the leadership; and shock, disbelief, dismay and, in some instances, indifference on the part of the membership. Chapter 1 introduces the background leading up to 1956 both internationally and domestically. It also surveys the literature that has focused, either wholly or in part, on this period. Chapter 2 details Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’ and the events in Hungary and assesses the international reaction to these events. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the CPA and its leadership. Chapter 3 explores its reaction and approach to dealing with the ‘fallout’ from the speech in the first half of 1956, prior to the Soviet Union releasing its official statement about the speech. Chapter 4 traces the increasing hard line approach subsequently taken by the CPA leadership and its handling of the internal protests about the Soviet action in Hungary. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the diversity of reactions displayed by members. These ranged from those who were troubled by what they learnt of Stalin’s actions but resolved, for a wide variety of reasons, to stay within the Party, to those for whom the revelations proved too divergent from their ideal of communism and either left or were removed from the party.

This thesis is a study of the Great Strike of 1917, arguably the biggest class conflict in Australian history. For over two months up to 100,000 workers confronted an enraged and belligerent combination of conservative state and federal governments, employers, the establishment press and a middle class which was organised against them on an unprecedented scale. The thesis assesses the strike from a ‘history from below’ perspective. In doing so, it challenges the existing historiographic consensus that the strike was doomed to defeat and that the consequences of that defeat were wholly negative. It argues that the leadership of the strike was primarily responsible for defeat and that the failure of leadership was a product of a conservatism inherent in the trade union bureaucracy. This conservatism was, moreover, underlined by the prevailing faith, predominant within official circles of the Australian labour movement at this time, in arbitration as an alternative to industrial confrontation. It analyses the connection between the defeat in 1917 and the revival of the movement in 1919, concluding that anger at the betrayal of the 1917 strike by its official leadership played a significant role in shifting the movement to the left, motivating key sectors of the working class to seek revenge in 1919.

This thesis investigates how musicians who play Irish traditional music, but do not identify themselves as Irish, understand their relationship to Irishness. The research was designed to interrogate frameworks for theorizing the articulation of music, identity and nation, emphasizing the need to understand both music and identity as socially constitutive processes. Writing from the viewpoint that knowledge is embedded in discourse, it argues that certain repertories and styles have been regards as symbolically representing and expressing essentially Irish characteristics mythologized within colonial discourse and inverted within nationalist discourse. These understandings have been extended into the present and reinforced through the commodification of Irish culture. Analyses of participant-observation data in Melbourne, Australia, indicate that young Australian musicians understand Irishness as a citational ethnicity, depoliticized and commodified, while older Australians value more highly the embodied musical performance of musicians from Ireland. Australian musicians who had made 'pilgrimage' to Ireland were relatively confined within a world of summer schools and pub sessions linked to the tourism industry's mythologizing of an 'Ireland of the Welcomes'. Extended fieldwork among Australians and other foreign musicians who had re-located to Ireland found current theorizations of musical community inadequate to account for difference and disharmony in group performances. Foreign musicians' failure to assimilate musically ans socially was attributed to their status as strangers, their tactics and their perception by Irish musicians. While there is no material barrier to foreigners playing Irish traditional music, an exploration of the relationship between music and place in the construction of Irish traditional music concluded that, even where musicians attempt to draw outsiders into this bounded area of Irish culture, the authenticating discourses that define it as essentially Irish impede their success.

The theory and practice of ‘proletarian internationalism’ was a vital dimension of the modus operandi of communist parties worldwide. It was a broadly encompassing concept that profoundly influenced the actions of international communism’s globally scattered adherents. Nevertheless, the historiography of the Communist Party of Australia has neglected to address sufficiently the effect exerted by proletarian internationalism on the party’s praxis. Instead, scholars have dwelt on the party’s links to the Soviet Union and have, moreover, overlooked the nuances and complexity of the Communist Party’s relationship with Moscow. It is the purpose of this thesis to redress these shortfalls. Using an extensive collection of primary and secondary sources, this thesis will consider the impact of a Marxist-Leninist conception of proletarian internationalism on the policies,tactics and strategies of the Communist Party of Australia from 1928-1945. The thesis will demonstrate that proletarian internationalism was far more than mere adherence to Moscow, obediently receiving and implementing instructions. Instead, through the lens of this concept, we can see that the Communist Party’s relationship with Moscow was flexible and nuanced and one that, in reality, often put the party at odds with the official Soviet position. In addition, we will see the extent of the influence exerted by other aspects of proletarian internationalism, such as international solidarity, the so-called national and colonial questions and the communist attitude towards war, on the Communist Party’s praxis.

This thesis examines the settlement experience of the Bosnian Muslims in Victoria. Overall this research exploration takes places against background of the history of the immigration to Australia. The study covers migration patterns of Bosnian Muslims from post World War 2 periods to more recent settlement. The thesis provides contemporary insights on Bosnian Muslims living in a Western society such as Australia. The thesis excavates key issues about Islam and the Muslim communities in Western nations and argues that successful settlement is possible, as demonstrated by the Bosnian Muslim community. By adopting a socio-historical framework about settlement, the thesis reveals the significant, interconnected and complex aspects of the settlement process. Settlement of immigrants takes place within global, historical, economic, political, social and cultural elements of both the sending and receiving countries. Thus any study of settlement must examine theories and concepts on migration, settlement, religion, culture, integration and identity. The purpose for migration, the conditions under which migration takes place, the conditions of immigrant reception are fundamental in the context of Australia. Furthermore, Australia since the 1970s has adopted a policy of multiculturalism which has changed settlement experiences of immigrants. These elements are strongly analysed in the thesis both through a critical conceptual appraisal of the relevant issues such as migration, multiculturalism and immigration and through an empirical application to the Bosnian Muslim community. The theoretical element of the study is strongly supported by the empirical research related to settlement issues, integration and multiculturalism in Victoria. Through a socio-historical framework and using a ‘grounded theory’ methodological approach, field research was undertaken with Bosnian Muslim communities, Bosnian organizations and multicultural service providers. In addition, historical data was analysed by chronology. The data provided rich evidence of the Bosnian Muslims’ settlement process under the various governmental policies since World War 2. The study concluded that the Bosnian community has successfully integrated and adapted to the way of life in Australia. Different cohorts of Bosnian Muslims had different settlement patterns, problems and issues which many were able to overcome. The findings revealed the contributions that the Bosnian Muslim community has made to broader social life in Australia such as contribution to the establishment of multi-ethnic Muslim communities, the Bosnian Muslim community development and building social infrastructure. The study also concluded that coming from multicultural backgrounds, the Bosnian Muslims understood the value of cultural diversity and contributed to the development of Australian multiculturalism and social harmony. Overall conclusion of this research is that the different generations of Bosnian Muslims are well-integrated and operate well within Australian multiculturalism.

The central focus of this thesis is an examination of the first-year university experience as seen through the eyes of students and their parents. Through the thick descriptions of conjoint interviews conducted in eight family homes on three different occasions during the students’ first-year, the thesis offers a narrative of family lives of some Australian university students and thematically demonstrates how university and home life co-exist. The thesis identifies two key narratives in the existing first-year experience literature: the Archetypal and the Alternative student experience narrative. These focus on students who are conventionally categorised respectively as traditional and first-generation students. However, neither of these fully reveals the experiences of the families in this study. In order to give voice to these otherwise silenced narratives, the author has identified two other key narratives present in the interview data: Metamorphosis and Continuity, and two sub-narratives of separation and connection. The significance of these newly identified narratives is threefold. First, they include parents of first-year university students as subjects of inquiry. Second, the narratives reveal the existence and importance of conjoint university experiences, that is, experiences which include both students and parents. Third, the narratives legitimate university students’ decisions to live at home with their parents. Underlying the research is a commitment to moving current analysis of university student experiences beyond a deficit model for university academics’ understandings of first- generation students’ and their parents’ experiences of university and to an acknowledgement and more serious examination of the conjoint nature of students’ and parents’ lives.