Using the perspectives of individualism-collectivism, Social Cognitive Theory and other concepts such as gay community attachment, this study focused on issues of homosexual identification, disclosure and sexual risk practices in relation to cross-cultural differences among gay Asian and Caucasian men in Sydney. Mostly recruited from gay social venues, 19 gay Asian men participated in exploratory focus groups discussions, another 201 gay Caucasian and 199 gay Asian men completed an anonymous questionnaire, and a further 10 gay Caucasian and 9 gay Asian men took part in in-depth one-to-one interviews. The major findings were: gay Asian men tended to experience conflict, in being both gay and Asian, related to individualism and collectivism; the gay Asian and Caucasian men differed in various aspects of homosexual practice, but shared certain sexual traits and practices; self-efficacy in safe sex and gay community attachment were key factors associated with gay men???s sexual risk practices (???risk??? being defined as unprotected anal intercourse with any casual partners or with a regular partner whose HIV status was not concordant with the participant???s). This study provides evidence that the inclusion of individualism-collectivism, social cognitive variables and gay community factors in the examination of homosexual identity and practice among men of different cultural backgrounds holds promise. It further suggests that educational programs to encourage safe sex will continue to yield benefits from increasing individual awareness, confidence and ability to effectively deal with situations that could pose risks of HIV transmission.

The thesis looks at how the poets Sepamla, Serote, Gwala and Mtshali (SSGM) make concerted efforts to demonstrate how different forms of social activities have sought to whitewash black people in believing myths about themselves. These myths were perpetuated by the government of apartheid policies and its related bureaucratic organs like the education system. The fallacies were also communicated through biased literature and denigrating terminologies. The study analyses how the selected poems of SSGM set out to conscientize black people to realise how they had unconsciously accepted certain behaviours. This had led them to compare themselves to the “privileged cultures” and to strive to be identified with those who were in power and those who were despised and were therefore powerless. The main aim of this study is to demonstrate how the poetry of Sepamla, Serote, Gwala and Mtshali exposed the extent to which black people had been psychologically subjected to internalising negative views of who they were. From the title of the thesis we note a claim that conscientization was the motive behind the poetry of Sepamla, Serote, Gwala, and Mtshali. This claim was discerned from the poetry that was analysed. It was also deemed fit to verify this through structured interviews and questionnaires that were arranged and conducted with the poets. However the interviews did not include the late Sepamla who had been called to higher service by the time the research was conducted. The researcher’s interactions with the poets confirmed the claim that conscientization was indeed the motive behind their poetry. Aspects of peoples’ lives which had been targeted as tools for disempowering black people were experienced in the form of racism, apartheid policies, Bantustan institutions, and laws, demeaning terminologies, cultural superiority, and prejudiced beliefs, arts, music, literature, theatre and sport. An analysis of the poetry under review led to the conclusion that the poetry of SSGM was not protest poetry as some scholars had claimed. The aim of the poetry was not to instigate any militancy against oppressors but to make black people aware of their identity and to affirm them in their resistance against cultural hegemony. The study makes use of Marxist theories and specifically cites those aspects which relate to the tools used to analyse the poetry of SSGM. Georg Lukacs’s viewpoint that literature reflects the social reality of its time is applied to some of the selected poetry. Eagleton and Althusser talk about the formalization of literature which makes ideology to become visible to the reader. Gramsci says the task of producing and disseminating ideology is performed by organic intellectuals. Writers are regarded as organic intellectuals. In spite of the limiting circumstances the four black writers whose poetry is being considered, managed to conscientize people around issues that needed to be opposed or rejected. This study is significant in so far as it exposed how poetry of black selected writers conscientized people and indirectly contributed to the liberation of the oppressed in South Africa. It is suggested that further studies are undertaken to re-assess the role of literature written by the black writers during the apartheid regime. A special attention must be given to those literary works that were banned and reasons for such action by those who were hell bent on subjugating black people. One of the challenges encountered during the research was that some of the books were out of print. However, a thorough and persistent search did result in the final access to those books which were not easily available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

New Zealand expatriate artists working in England, Europe and North Africa in the early twentieth century painted a wide variety of market scenes. The subject features in the oeuvre of Frances Hodgkins, Maud Sherwood, Sydney Lough Thompson, Maude Burge, Owen Merton, Robert Procter and John Weeks and made a significant contribution to their artistic development. Like their contemporaries in the artists’ colonies and sketching grounds of England and Europe, New Zealand artists were often drawn to traditional rural and fishing villages and sought to capture the nostalgia of the ‘old world.’ Early exploratory works by New Zealand expatriates have often been dismissed merely as nostalgic visions of colonials, without any real artistic merit. This research offers a re-evaluation of these works, recognising their value as transitional works which illustrate New Zealand expatriate artists experimenting with early modernist trends, as well as revealing prevalent contemporary tastes among the New Zealand public. This study offers a comprehensive examination of the market theme and highlights the aspirations and achievements of New Zealand expatriate artists. This is reflected in both their choice of subjects and in the way in which these were depicted. A key finding of this research is that New Zealand expatriate artists developed a distinctive response towards the market subject. The vibrant atmosphere and activity of the market and colourful views of canvas booths, awnings and costume provided the perfect means of expression for these artists to explore a variety of painterly concerns and techniques, among them plein-air and impressionist painting, watercolour techniques and a modern treatment of colour and light. The hypothesis of a ‘female gaze’ is explored with specific reference to depiction of the market subjects by Frances Hodgkins and Maud Sherwood. Placed within a wider art historical context of images of female market vendors, their market works offer an original interpretation of the female milieu of the European market. Finally, the expatriates’ vision of the exotic and colourful markets in North Africa and Egypt is investigated. They offered an alternative response to more traditional Orientalist interpretations and their Maghrebian explorations were the catalyst for key stylistic developments in colour and form.

This study investigates the characteristics of and the interrelationships between disease, disability, service use and social support in a random sample of 647 community dwellers aged 75 years and over. The two broad objectives of the study are: to examine the physical aspects and manifestations of health by investigating disease and disability and the interrelationships between these two factors, and; to examine the social aspects of health by investigating service use and social support and the interrelationships between these two factors. Given the dramatic population ageing in Australia, particularly in the very old age groups, the health, well-being and quality of life of older Australians are of paramount importance and will be well into the future. The proportion of the population with diseases and disabilities increases significantly with age. As the physical aspects of health are manifested with increasing age the social aspects of health also become increasingly important. Older adults, particularly those in advanced old age, are disproportionately high users of health and community services. Despite the high use of services in this age group, far more older adults living in the community rely on their families, friends and neighbours for social support and many older adults use a combination of formal services and informal social support. Little is known about people aged 75 years and over living in the community in Australia. In particular, significant knowledge gaps exist with regard to the relationship between disease and disability and that between service use and social support. The characteristics of social support in this group of older adults are also largely unknown. The papers presented in this thesis are based on data collected in The Sydney Older Persons Study (SOPS). This is a large longitudinal multidisciplinary project which began in 1991 in order to investigate the health and service use patterns of people aged 75 years and over living in the community in the Central Sydney Health Area. The initial sample consisted of two groups: first, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) selected census districts with probability proportional to size and 9271 households were door-knocked to obtain a random sub-sample of the general community (n=320, response rate 73%); second, community-living veterans and war widows residing in the Central Sydney Health Area were selected at random from a list provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain a veteran/war widow sub-sample (n=327, response rate 82%). Respondents participated in both an interview conducted by a social scientist and a medical assessment performed by a medical practitioner with experience in geriatric medicine. An informant was sought for each respondent and this informant participated in a phone interview conducted by a social scientist. The first paper in this thesis investigates the characteristics of diseases (neurodegenerative, systemic and psychiatric) including their prevalence and association with age. The second paper extends the first by examining the nature of the relationship between disease and disability and in particular which individual diseases and groups of diseases have the greatest impact on disability. The third paper expands the analysis in the second paper by focusing in greater detail on the relationship between disease and disability. The contribution of clinically-diagnosed individual diseases and groups of diseases to three different measures of disability (clinician-rated, informant-rated or proxy and self-report) is investigated here. The fourth paper examines the possibility of disease and disability being the major predictors of service use and social support. It focuses on the determinants of service use and social support using Andersen's behavioral model. The fifth paper investigates the characteristics of social support, in particular gender differences and the socio-demographic variables associated with social support. This is an important research area because lower levels of social support have been found to predict mortality, disease and lower levels of well-being. Finally, the sixth paper links the major themes of the fourth and fifth papers by investigating the relationship between service use and social support. This paper tests Cantor's 'hierarchical-compensatory' mechanism, which predicts a negative association between service use and social support, and the 'bridging' mechanism which predicts a positive association between these two factors. Thus it assesses the extent to which demands for service use and for social support are made together or in a compensatory fashion for respondents of equal disease and disability. The presented work demonstrates that neurodegenerative diseases [dementia, cognitive impairment, parkinsonism, instability (gait ataxia), immobility (gait slowing) and motivation loss/behaviour change] have the largest and most significant increases with age of all disease groups. Therefore the hypothesis made in paper one that neurodegenerative diseases will come to dominate the health care needs of older adults, particularly when combined with population ageing, is supported. Further, results of papers two and three indicate that neurodegenerative diseases result in greater levels of disability, lending credence to the finding that it is these neurodegenerative diseases that are of central importance to the future of the health care needs of older adults of advanced age. While systemic diseases play an important role in disability, the neurodegenerative diseases are under-recognised by self-report and yet are most strongly associated with severe disability. A major recommendation of this study is that assessments and diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases be included in disability assessments. With regard to the social aspects of health, the fourth paper finds that disease and disability are the main predictors of service use and social support. The fifth paper highlights important gender differences in social support and also finds that lower levels of social support are associated with increased age, male gender, single marital status and lower socioeconomic status. Because it is widely accepted that social support is protective against adverse health outcomes and low levels of wellbeing, these groups of older adults are at risk of poorer health and wellbeing. Finally the sixth paper fills some knowledge gaps with regard to the relationship between service use and social support. It shows that with regard to IADL (instrumental activities of daily living) services and IADL social support, Cantor's 'hierarchical-compensatory' mechanism (negative correlation) applies but with regard to medical services and both ADL (activities of daily living) and IADL social support the 'bridging' mechanism (positive correlation) is supported. These complex interrelationships between disease, disability, service use and social support are summarised schematically in a model. In light of significant population ageing, substantial resources in the form of medical and community services and social support from carers, family, friends and neighbours will need to be devoted to older adults with diseases, in particular neurodegenerative diseases, and to those with disabilities. Given the increasing importance of disease, disability, service use and social support in very old age, it is crucial that knowledge and understanding of these factors and their interrelationships be advanced in order to better allocate and sustain resources and to ultimately improve the health, well-being and quality of life of very old adults.

The Douglas Summerland Collection is a fictional "monographically based history"1. In essence this research is concerned with the current debates about history recording, authenticity of the photograph, methods of history construction and how the audience digests new 'knowledge'. The narrative for this body of work is drawn from a small album of maritime photographs discovered in 2004 within the archives of the Port Chalmers Regional Maritime Museum in New Zealand. The album contains vernacular images of life onboard several sailing ships from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the DH Sterling and the William Mitchell. Through investigating the'truth' systems promoted by the photograph within the presentations of histories this research draws a link between the development of colonialism and the perception of photography. It also deliberates on how 'truth' perception is still a major part of an audience's knowledge base. 1. Anne-Marie Willis Picturing Australia: A History of Photography, Angus & Robertson Publishers, London. 1988:253

Using the perspectives of individualism-collectivism, Social Cognitive Theory and other concepts such as gay community attachment, this study focused on issues of homosexual identification, disclosure and sexual risk practices in relation to cross-cultural differences among gay Asian and Caucasian men in Sydney. Mostly recruited from gay social venues, 19 gay Asian men participated in exploratory focus groups discussions, another 201 gay Caucasian and 199 gay Asian men completed an anonymous questionnaire, and a further 10 gay Caucasian and 9 gay Asian men took part in in-depth one-to-one interviews. The major findings were: gay Asian men tended to experience conflict, in being both gay and Asian, related to individualism and collectivism; the gay Asian and Caucasian men differed in various aspects of homosexual practice, but shared certain sexual traits and practices; self-efficacy in safe sex and gay community attachment were key factors associated with gay men???s sexual risk practices (???risk??? being defined as unprotected anal intercourse with any casual partners or with a regular partner whose HIV status was not concordant with the participant???s). This study provides evidence that the inclusion of individualism-collectivism, social cognitive variables and gay community factors in the examination of homosexual identity and practice among men of different cultural backgrounds holds promise. It further suggests that educational programs to encourage safe sex will continue to yield benefits from increasing individual awareness, confidence and ability to effectively deal with situations that could pose risks of HIV transmission.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Critical and Cultural Studies, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 310-325. / Introduction -- School violence: a brief overview -- What's in a name?: constructing an institutional identity in an educational market -- The discipline of gentlemen -- Parent consumers: tactical manoeuvres and institutional strategies -- Making the papers: Trinity in the news -- Games of truth: "everyone has their spin" -- Conclusions. / This study integrates sociological theories of social class with poststructuralist theories of subjectivity, representation and consumption, to consider the complex ways in which the representational practices of institutions and individuals are implicated in the production of violence in schools. This work draws particularly on a case study of incidents of sexual violence which occurred at an elite private school in Sydney during 2000, in which four students were charged with a range of offences committed against younger peers over a period of months. The assault incidents received widespread media coverage and sparked intense public debate, in response to which a media strategies consultant was engaged by the school to liaise with members of the press. This study demonstrates the extent to which the interrelationships between systems of signification (in particular, written and visual texts) and other social systems, (for example, families, schools, and political economy) function in the constitution of subjectivities and the production of meaning, and takes as its focus the interrelationship and functioning of texts, discursive practices and social practices which pertain specifically to the assault incidents described above. Data are derived from a range of sources and genres, including promotional materials, personal and general correspondence, media reports, and interviews, necessitating a variety of qualitative analytic methods. Informed by critical post-structuralist theory, in particular the work of Bourdieu, Foucault, and de Certeau, this work considers questions pertaining to the operation of power within social institutions, with particular emphasis on the constitutive function of discourse. The analysis extends current conceptualisations of school violence through a post-structuralist interrogation of, and linking of violence to, educational consumption, which has predominantly been theorised according to sociological or economic models. The argument is made that the market ideologies which pervade contemporary social and educative practice, together with the representational practices and disciplinary regimes of schools, function in the constitution of social subjects who occupy multiple ambiguous subject positions in the patriarchal hierarchies which characterise the power relations and institutions under consideration, thus implicating institutions in the production of violence. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / vii, 325 leaves

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2004. / Title from electronic document (viewed 15/6/10) Presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Western Sydney, 2004. Includes bibliography.

This interdisciplinary project offers new insights into the reclamation history of two of the most controversial and contaminated sites in Canadian history: the Sydney tar ponds and coke ovens and the Athabasca oil sands. It argues that Canada’s natural resource-dependent economy, combined with jurisdictional uncertainty, created a hesitant, fragmentary site cleanup regime, one that left room for different ideas about landscapes to shape and even distort reclamation’s goals and processes. In the absence of substantive reclamation standards and legislation, researchers struggled to accommodate the unique challenges of the oil sands during the 1960s and 1970s. Ambitious goals for reclamation faltered, and even the most successful examples of oil sands reclamation differed significantly from the pre-extraction environment; reclamation was not restoration. Planners envisioned transforming northeastern Alberta into a managed wilderness and recreation nirvana, but few of these plans were realised. The Sydney tar ponds experience suggests that truly successful reclamation cannot exist unless past injustices are fully acknowledged, reparations made, and a more complete narrative of contamination and reclamation constructed through open deliberation. Reclamation, after all, does not repair history; nor can it erase the past. Effective oil sands reclamation, then, requires a reconsideration of the site’s past and an acknowledgement of the perpetuated vulnerabilities and injustices wrought by development and reclamation.

New Zealand-born architect Joseph Fearis Munnings (1879-1937) is largely forgotten in the country of his birth. Considering the importance of his public works in Bihar and Orissa, India (1912-1919) and his prominence as a school architect in New South Wales, Australia (1923-1937), recognition of his architectural achievements is long overdue. This thesis takes as its premise the notion that early twentieth century architecture in colonial New Zealand, India and Australia was British, the rationale expounded by G. A. Bremner in Imperial Gothic– Religious Architecture and High Anglican Culture in the British Empire (2013). My thesis argues that, considering Munnings’ colonial upbringing and English training, the styles he employed reflected his and his clients’ identity as British. It explores the extent to which Munnings adapted British styles, by incorporating features appropriate for colonial conditions. Drawing upon the work of Ian Lochhead on the achievements of Samuel Hurst Seager, my thesis considers the role played by Seager in mentoring Munnings and guiding his philosophy of architecture. Peter Scriver’s papers, ‘Edge of empire or edge of Asia’ (2009) and ‘Complicity and Contradiction in the Office of the Consulting Architect to the Government of India, 1903-1921’ (1996), also inform my analysis of Munnings’ work in India. To enable an analysis of Munnings’ work, this study divides his career into chronological stages: Early experiences and training, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1879-1903 Architectural training, London, England, 1903-1906 Partnership with Hurst Seager and Cecil Wood, Christchurch, 1906-1909 Work with Leonard Stokes, London, 1909 Responsibilities and achievements, India, 1910-1918 Contributions and achievements, New Zealand, 1919-1923 Partnership with Power and Adam, Sydney, Australia, 1923-1937. This thesis, the first comprehensive study of Munnings’ career, illuminates the extent of his architectural legacy in India, his significant contribution to school architecture in New South Wales, and asserts his place as an architect of the British Empire.