Australian Social Science Research Articles

‘Of Middle Eastern Appearance’ is a Flawed Racial Profiling Descriptor

Arab Australian communities and social science academics have argued that the racial descriptor ‘of Middle Eastern appearance’ increases anti-Arab racism in Australia. These stakeholders argue this descriptor is heavily racialised, gendered, criminalised and inaccurately racially profiles Arabs as Muslims with a range of phenotypical characteristics. Identifying the flawed nature of this racial profiling descriptor, this article argues that this inaccuracy enables a range of discourses attempting to legitimise and undermine anti-Arab racism. The Cronulla pogrom of 2005 is examined as a case study that details these discourses. Ultimately, this article points out how this descriptor produces a number of paradoxes, limitations and unanswered questions common in attempts to racially profile Arab Australia.

The Intellectual Reception of Bourdieu in Australian Social Sciences and Humanities

In this paper we have chronicled the affordances – and repudiations – of Bourdieu’s sociology in the context of Australian social sciences and humanities. The story of Bourdieu’s incorporation is slow and patchy. It is characterised by indifference or lack of appreciation, as much as it is by adoption or even serious consideration. Few, if any, Australian scholars demonstrate that they had seriously considered Bourdieu’s oeuvre in the 1970s and 1980s. This is despite fertile ground for appreciation of his work in this era, given the extent of research into matters of class, education, and social reproduction within sociology and also the burgeoning discipline of cultural studies. The dominant Australian paradigms in these fields took principally from neo-Marxist models of class developed predominantly in America at the time, while the field of cultural studies was dominated by a mix of the British tradition, semiotics and post-structuralism. We show this pattern to be a function of intellectual networks within and across institutions, of the scholarly training and trajectories of key players within these disciplines and of the traditional historical concerns of scholarship within these fields. All of these things meant that Bourdieu’s oeuvre was likely perceived as exotic, drawing upon relatively arcane traditions such as structuralism, or based upon the deployment of idiosyncratic methods and models which held little resemblance to the US and UK-centric worldview of Australian scholars. Our analysis shows, however, a belated appreciation of Bourdieu’s work across the social sciences and humanities beginning in the late 1990s and beyond, especially within educational studies and investigations into cultural consumption.

Prevention-based approaches to social policy: the case of early childhood development

This article reviews the Australian evidence concerning interventions in early childhood aimed at promoting children’s psychological well-being and preventing social and psychological dysfunction in later life. Two kinds of research are surveyed. One is the Australian social science literature that has emerged in the last twenty years from five major research programs. The other is the evaluation studies that, more recently, have assessed the effectiveness of various early childhood preventive interventions. Together these studies provide an evidentiary platform for reviewing current policy in this field. A full analysis of ‘what works’ would need to include relevant international evidence, which is outside the scope of this article. However, the Australian evidence does support the current policy focus on good parenting programs, while also suggesting that a number of other factors matter in promoting children’s well-being.

Gender and Feminism in the Social Sciences

Feminist scholarship has been central to the success and prominence of the Australian social sciences. The impact and significance of the work of sociologists such as Raewyn Connell and Rosemary Pringle, historians Barbara Caine and Marilyn Lake, philosophers Genevieve Lloyd and Moira Gatens and political scientists Carol Bacchi and Louise Chappell are recognised internationally. But how effective has feminist critique been in reshaping what counts as authoritative knowledge and research excellence in the disciplines? And what is the relationship between the disciplines' varying incorporation of feminist perspectives and their progress towards organisational gender equity goals?

‘Some kind of weird, evil experiment’: student perceptions of peer assessment

This paper explores the attitudes and perceptions of three cohorts of Australian humanities and social science undergraduate students towards peer assessment. It seeks to gain a deeper understanding of local dissatisfaction with peer assessment through an in‐depth analysis of students’ contributions to focus group discussions. Responding to education theorists’ claims that peer and other forms of innovative assessment empower students, the paper concentrates on themes of power evident within students’ narratives. The interpretive framework coheres around four interrelated conceptions of power: sovereign, epistemological, disciplinary and structural. Students were found to support the notion of peer assessment as a formative exercise, yet were highly critical of it as a summative practice. Significantly, some of the students’ dissatisfaction stemmed from broader changes across the higher education sector more generally. The paper draws attention to the need for this to be taken into account when considering assessment as a technology of power and empowerment.

Australian children are not consuming enough long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids for optimal health

ObjectivesTo determine children’s polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intakes, compare these with adequate intake and adjusted suggested dietary targets, and determine if intakes between children of different body weight and physical activity levels differed. MethodsThe necessary data files were obtained from the Australian Social Science Data Archive and were merged for 4486 children 2 to 16 y old, with physical activity data collected only for children 5 to 16 y old. ResultsThe median (interquartile range) PUFA intakes at 2 to 3, 4 to 8, 9 to 13, and 14 to 16 y were 4.7 g (3.1–6.2), 6.0 g (4.4–8.1), 7.1 g (5.3–9.7), and 8.5 g (6.0–11.3), respectively, for linoleic acid; 0.75 g (0.57–1.0), 0.91 g (0.67–1.2), 1.02 g (0.73–1.42), and 1.15 g (0.81–1.62), respectively, for α-linolenic acid; and 56 mg (29–104), 68 mg (37–128), 88 mg (46–159), and 98 mg (49–190), respectively, for long-chain (LC) ω-3 PUFAs. Most children met the adequate intakes for linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid, but only 50% to 60% of children met the adequate intake for LC ω-3 PUFAs. Furthermore, only 6% of children met the adjusted suggested dietary target for LC ω-3 PUFA per day. Comparison of LC ω-3 PUFA tertile intakes showed no differences in intakes in different weight categories and physical activity levels. ConclusionMost Australian children are not consuming enough LC ω-3 PUFAs for optimal health.

Citation analysis and peer ranking of Australian social science journals

Citation analyses were performed for Australian social science journals to determine the differences between data drawn from Web of Science and Scopus. These data were compared with the tier rankings assigned by disciplinary groups to the journals for the purposes of a new research assessment model, Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), due to be implemented in 2010. In addition, citation-based indicators including an extended journal impact factor, the h-index, and a modified journal diffusion factor, were calculated to assess whether subsequent analyses influence the ranking of journals. The findings suggest that the Scopus database provides higher number of citations for more of the journals. However, there appears to be very little association between the assigned tier ranking of journals and their rank derived from citations data. The implications for Australian social science researchers are discussed in relation to the use of citation analysis in the ERA.

Melanesian Kastom and Its Transformations

Editorial Board Note: In 2006, the Discipline Group of Anthropology and Sociology at The University of Western Australia hosted a symposium, ‘Anthropology in the West: 1956–2006’, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the then Department of Anthropology by the late Ronald Berndt and his wife, Catherine, whose contributions to anthropology were a major focus of the symposium. Symposium participants also documented contributions made by UWA staff and students from Anthropology and Sociology within and beyond Australian social science. A notable theoretical focus on kastom in the work of Robert Tonkinson, who in 1984 succeeded Professor Berndt in the Departmental Chair, was the topic of Lamont Lindstrom's paper, published here in a fuller, revised and fully refereed version. We intend to publish further papers from the symposium in later issues of Anthropological Forum. If Ronald and Catherine Berndt are ancestral spirits haunting Anthropology and Sociology at The University of Western Australia some 50 years after the founding of the Department of Anthropology, their student, Bob Tonkinson, still happily with us, is their intellectual descendant and institutional heir. As in the case of the Berndts, issues relating to social change, religion and values, and, in particular, the politics of tradition have loomed large in Tonkinson's career. I trace, in this retrospective essay, the rise to prominence of an anthropology of Melanesian tradition and, more specifically, Tonkinson's contribution, notably his analyses of tradition's ‘symbiotic’ relations with Christianity, its identity functions, its local versus its national significance, and its relations with evolving anthropological theories of culture in a shrinking world. Tonkinson's Vanuatu research, which began among Ambrym Island emigrants, has spanned, over the past forty years or so, many notable transformations: from New Hebrides to Vanuatu; from modernisation theory to world systems and globalisation; and from tradition to kastom.

The Conduct of Concern: Exclusionary discursive practices and subject positions in academia

Drawing on material collected amongst Danish and Australian humanities and social science academics, the article illustrates and problematises a particular and recurring discursive practice amongst academics: ‘the conduct of concern’. Conceptualising the conduct of concern as an exclusionary and de‐legitimising discursive practice, the article offers a (mis)reading of some of the storylines and constructions it could be seen to invoke and reproduce—amongst others, the idea of the autonomous, rational academic subject. The author discusses the conduct of concern, as a particular kind of subject position and positioning, in terms of Donna Haraway's figure ‘the modest witness’. The author suggests that the conduct of concern as a readily available exclusionary discursive practice in academia ‘smuggles in’ and naturalises constructions and positionings associated with the autonomous rational subject, and participates in masking the discourse mobiliser's subjective and political investments. In that way, by appropriating the ubiquitous discursive practice academics might contribute to upholding constructions and practices they otherwise seek to disrupt.

Australian Social Science Data Archive

Australian Social Science Data Archive

Academic Standards, Internationalisation, and the Discursive Construction of "The International Student"

The release in early 2001 of a study of Australian social science academics perceptions of the impact of commercialisation on academic freedom (Kayrooz, Kinnear & Preston, 2001) led to sustained public debate over the issue of academic standards and the internationalisation of higher education in Australia. This debate gave expression to growing disaffection amongst Australian academics with the pressures for increased com mercialisation and entrepreneurialism in their work. In this paper I use the tools provided through the work of Michel Foucault to critically examine the terms of the debate as it was conducted in the public arena. The purpose of this analysis is to explore the ways in which international students were represented in the discourses of academic standards, and the conflation of the alleged decline in academic standards with the internationalisation of higher education, and in particular, with the presence of international students on Australian campuses.

Going Global? Internationalizing Australian Universities in a Time of Global Crisis

L'auteur analyse l'orientation de la politique engagee dans le secteur de l'enseignement superieur en Australie, qui a vu depuis 1980 une augmentation et une croissance exponentielle des inscriptions d'etudiants etrangers. Une analyse critique de cette internationalisation percue egalement comme etant une mondialisation de l'enseignement accompagne cette etude qui ne manque pas de traiter des questions relatives au financement des universites australiennes en comparaison avec d'autres pays anglophones presentant des conditions similaires.

Popular views about Australian identity: research and analysis

Within the Australian humanities and social sciences, the research field of Australian identity has produced a substantial literature. Yet, notwithstanding the impressive array of scholarship on the topic, empirical research and analysis on how contemporary Australians understand and experience Australian identity has existed in a disparate form. Since studies of popular views about Australian identity remain to be integrated, this paper will review social scientific research and analysis in the area for the first time. Three matters will be considered in reviewing these studies. First, I illustrate the contexts in which research on popular views about Australian identity has been conducted. Second, findings from these studies are pooled for the purpose of documenting current empirical knowledge about Australian identity. Third, some problems with existing research are considered and possible directions for future research proposed.

The Resurgence of Applied Anthropology in a Post-Exotic World: An Australian Perspective

As the end of the twentieth century nears, one of the fastest growing areas within Australian social science is applied anthropology. The recent demand for applied anthropologists is, in part, due to the consequences of the Native Title Act and the need for anthropological advice to support land claim submissions. It is also a consequence of Australia's geographic location in Asia and the substantial demand for consultant social scientists in this rapidly developing region of the world. In considering applied anthropology and its future, however, it is important neither to focus exclusively on the present nor to lose sight of a global perspective. Applied anthropology has a substantial and intriguing history, much of it dominated by events in North America. Yet, Australia, as a location, and Australians, as social scientists, have played significant roles in this global story. This article presents a brief history of early, industrial, private practice anthropology in the United States and argues that the...

Establishing an Australian Social Science Data Archive: Progress and Plans

Establishing an Australian Social Science Data Archive: Progress and Plans

Australian Social Science Abstracts. No. I. March, 1946

Australian Social Science Abstracts. No. I. March, 1946

Australian Social Science Abstracts

Australian Social Science Abstracts

Australian Social Science Abstracts

Australian Social Science Abstracts