Academic literature on the topic 'Thesis (PhD) – University of Western Sydney, 2015'

Climate change induced sea-level rise (SLR) is on its increase globally. Regionally the lowlands of China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and islands of the Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos are among the world’s most threatened regions. Sea-level rise has major impacts on the ecosystems and society. It threatens coastal populations, economic activities, and fragile ecosystems as mangroves, coastal salt-marches and wetlands. This paper provides a summary of the current state of knowledge of sea level-rise and its effects on both human and natural ecosystems. The focus is on coastal urban areas and low lying deltas in South-East Asia and Vietnam, as one of the most threatened areas in the world. About 3 mm per year reflects the growing consensus on the average SLR worldwide. The trend speeds up during recent decades. The figures are subject to local, temporal and methodological variation. In Vietnam the average values of 3.3 mm per year during the 1993-2014 period are above the worldwide average. Although a basic conceptual understanding exists that the increasing global frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones is related with the increasing temperature and SLR, this relationship is insufficiently understood. Moreover the precise, complex environmental, economic, social, and health impacts are currently unclear. SLR, storms and changing precipitation patterns increase flood risks, in particular in urban areas. Part of the current scientific debate is on how urban agglomeration can be made more resilient to flood risks. Where originally mainly technical interventions dominated this discussion, it becomes increasingly clear that proactive special planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery are important, but costly instruments. Next to the main focus on SLR and its effects on resilience, the paper reviews main SLR associated impacts: Floods and inundation, salinization, shoreline change, and effects on mangroves and wetlands. The hazards of SLR related floods increase fastest in urban areas. This is related with both the increasing surface major cities are expected to occupy during the decades to come and the increasing coastal population. In particular Asia and its megacities in the southern part of the continent are increasingly at risk. The discussion points to complexity, inter-disciplinarity, and the related uncertainty, as core characteristics. An integrated combination of mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures is currently considered as the most indicated way to resist SLR today and in the near future.References Aerts J.C.J.H., Hassan A., Savenije H.H.G., Khan M.F., 2000. Using GIS tools and rapid assessment techniques for determining salt intrusion: Stream a river basin management instrument. 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Jan Braun, born on 15th May 1926 in Łódź, studied classical philology and classical archaeology at the University of Lodz (years 1947–1951). His MA thesis (1951) was devoted to the ethnogenesis of the Etruscans. He also worked as junior assistant at the Department of Classical Archaeology, University of Lodz (from May 1949 do September 1950) and later as junior lecturer at the Department of Classical Philology of the same university (from October 1950 to September 1951). In October 1951, Braun left for Georgia in order to complete his doctoral studies. From there he returned to Poland as PhD, specializing in Georgian and other oriental languages, especially the ancient languages of the Near East. In the years 1955–2002, he worked at the University of Warsaw, initially as assistant professor. In 1970, he became associate professor. In 1991, he received the higher doctoral degree (habilitation), and in 1995 he obtained the position of full professor. He studied the genetic relations of ancient and modern languages, including a suggested Basque-Kartvelian connection. During his habilitation colloquium, he gave an interesting lecture entitled Basic problems of historical-comparative research over the ancient languages of the Mediterranean area (Warsaw, May 28th, 1991), which is presented in Appendix No. 1 (with some comments and bibliographical references). The paper presents Braun’s main fields of research and his achievements made in Łódź (Poland), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Warsaw. According to Braun’s view, suggested as early as 1951, Etruscan represents an external member of the Anatolian languages (deriving from Luwian), so that it belongs to the Indo-European language family. In his opinion, Basque is a western member of the South Caucasian (or Kartvelian) family.

Abstract William Shakespeare’s Othello (1604) displays a critical agenda towards the emerging colonialist discourse of his time and may have encountered, or even been influenced by, African oral literature. This thesis will be probed in this article by comparing Othello with the folktale “The Handsome Stranger” and the Trickster character, well known all across Western Africa, touching lightly on Leo Africanus’s The History and Description of Africa (1550) in the process. In doing so, Othello’s most acknowledged source text, “Un Capitano Moro” by Giovanni Battista Giraldi (1565), will be involved, thus complementing earlier comparative readings of “Un Capitano Moro” and Othello. This postcolonial comparative reading will finally embrace Ahmed Yerima’s adaptation of Othello, entitled Otaelo (2002). In doing so, the article will discuss striking parallels among all four texts, as well as differences and diversions. The latter are, however, not read as counter arguments to the possibility of an encounter; rather, discursive diversions are contextualised historically and trans*textually. Before delving into this analysis, the article will explore both historical probabilities and methodological challenges of reading African oral literature as possible sources of Shakespeare’s Othello, as well as theorise trans*textuality (as related to and yet distinct from Kristeva’s intertextuality and Genette’s transtextuality).This article has developed from two papers, one held in 2015 at a symposium dedicated to Michael Steppat in Bayreuth, who, ever since, accompanied this project with most helpful critical input; I owe him my sincerest gratitude. A second workshop on this topic was held in 2016 in Berlin in the presence of Shankar Raman, Christopher Joseph Odhiambo, and a student research group from Bayreuth with Taghrid Elhanafy, Weeraya Donsomsakulkij, Samira Paraschiv, and Mingqing Yuan. Taghrid Elhanafy dedicates her MA and PhD thesis to comparing Romeo and Juliet with several Arabic and Farsi versions of Layla and Majnun (Cf. Elhanafy 2018). Moreover, this article owes sincere gratitude to a most challenging and expert editing by Shirin Assa, PhD candidate at Bayreuth University, as well as Omid Soltani. Moreover, I wish to thank Dilan Zoe Smida and especially Samira Paraschiv for supporting me while doing research and working on notes and bibliography.

The chef profession is considered a challenging career, with female chefs seeming to be most affected. As such, it is rare to find female chefs occupying the coveted executive chef positions. The aim of this research was to establish if female chefs in Kenya encounter similar challenges to those experienced by female chefs elsewhere.
 Previous research shows that female chefs encounter career challenges in hospitality organisations and hence they struggle to make it as chefs; for example, studies by Druckman [1] and Harris and Giuffre [2,3] in the United States, Murray-Gibbons and Gibbons [4] in the United Kingdom, as well as Zengeni et al. [5] in Zimbabwe. This article poses the important question: how can these challenges be overcome?
 The study sought to make sense of the lived work experiences of Kenyan female chefs. Baum [6] recommends contextualised research methodologies to explore hospitality issues in non-Western countries. Moreover, Adelowo [7] asserts that lived experiences are better expressed through stories. Therefore, a qualitative approach was employed in this study where 15 chefs working in the Kenyan hospitality industry were interviewed [8]. Ten female chefs told stories of their workplace experiences while five male executive chefs recounted their experiences of working with female chefs.
 Despite the different geographical, socio-cultural and economic factors between Kenya and other countries previously studied, female chefs expressed common challenges such as sexual harassment, gender discrimination, unsupportive attitudes towards pregnancy and an unhealthy work environment, as well as hierarchical kitchen structures that they believed discriminated against them. There was an indication of engrained patriarchal attitudes that limit the professional success of potential female chefs. Unfortunately, hospitality employers appeared to support the status quo; that is, a gendering of the chef’s profession that privileges men and penalises women.
 These findings suggest a trend that must worry hospitality employers. The highly competitive career structures and the male domination that discourages women from making a long-term career in the kitchen [2], coupled with stiff competition for scarce hospitality human resources, support the need to retain female chefs. Christensen and Rog [9] stress that employee retention strategies will only work if human resource managers are fully committed to creating a positive workplace culture that treats all employees equally, regardless of their gender or any other dimension of diversity.
 In his study, Orido [8] suggests that the following measures may help to attract and retain female chefs. Firstly, employers should introduce personalised career development plans. For instance, a female chef who has attained postgraduate qualifications ought to be promoted and remunerated accordingly. This will not only retain female chefs but also enable them to further their career aspirations within the hospitality industry. Secondly, female chefs should be given the opportunity to fully participate at all levels of the kitchen hierarchy, thereby acquiring the necessary skills for promotion in the future to executive chef’s positions. Additionally, it will encourage a clear career progression path within the kitchen hierarchy.
 Hospitality employers must ensure that employment opportunities as well as employment terms and career progression are not dependant on a chef’s gender, but on their qualifications and competencies. By investing in female chefs and, most importantly, keeping them safe from bullying at work, the hospitality industry will not only attract, but retain, these talented professionals in satisfying culinary careers.
 If you would like to read the PhD thesis this research is based on you can access it here: http://hdl.handle.net/10292/10626
 Corresponding author
 Charles is a chef and lecturer at Kenya Utalii College, Nairobi, Kenya. His research interests include inhospitable hospitality, culinary arts, human behaviour in the hospitality industry, and indigenous research. He holds a Certificate in Food Production (currently Culinary Arts) from Kenya Utalii College, a BA degree in Hospitality Management from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and a Master of International Hospitality Management (MIHM) from Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.
 Charles Orido can be contacted at: chaloridoh@gmail.com or corido@utalii.ac.ke
 References 
 (1) Druckman, C. Why Are There No Great Women Chefs? Gastronomica 2010, 10, 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2010.10.1.24
 (2) Harris, D. A.; Giuffre, P. “The Price You Pay”: How Female Professional Chefs Negotiate Work and Family. Gender Issues 2010, 27, 27–52.
 (3) Harris, D. A.; Giuffre, P. Taking the Heat: Women Chefs and Gender Inequality in the Professional Kitchen; Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ, 2015. https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=qTaACgAAQBAJ
 (4) Murray-Gibbons, R.; Gibbons, C. Occupational Stress in the Chef Profession. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 2007, 19, 32–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110710724143
 (5) Zengeni, D. M. F.; Tendani, E.; Zengeni, N. The Absence of Females in Executive Chef Position in Zimbabwean Hotels: Case of Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG). Australian Journal of Business and Management Research 2013, 3, 1–18.
 (6) Baum, T. Human Resources in Tourism: Still Waiting for Change? – A 2015 Reprise. Tourism Management 2015, 50, 204–212.
 (7) Adelowo, A. The Adjustment of African Women Living in New Zealand: A Narrative Study; Ph.D. Thesis, Auckland University of Technology, 2012. http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/handle/10292/4601
 (8) Orido, C. O. Challenges Faced by Female Chefs in the Kenyan Hospitality Industry: A Study through an African Oral Tradition of Storytelling; Ph.D. Thesis, Auckland University of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/10626
 (9) Christensen, J.; Rog, E. Talent Management: A Strategy for Improving Employee Recruitment, Retention and Engagement within Hospitality Organizations. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 2008, 20, 743–757.

Sclerosant foam, a mixture of a surfactant liquid and air, is injected directly into varicose veins as a treatment that causes the vein to collapse. This investigation develops a model that will allow the medical specialist to visualise how the sclerosant foam will interact with the blood and behave within the vein. The process is simulated using a multiphase computational fluid dynamics model with the sclerosant foam considered as a two-phase non-Newtonian power law viscosity liquid. The governing multiphase equations are solved using an Eulerian⁠–⁠Eulerian approach coupled with a population balance model to predict the bubble size distribution within the flow field. The computational results demonstrate similar flow characteristics and flow features to an available set of experimental results. The model predicts the mixing layers between the sclerosant foam and the ambient fluid, and the sclerosant liquid and the ambient fluid, as well as the sclerosant liquid coverage on the vein wall and the bubble size distribution within the vein. These quantities are of interest to medical specialists allowing them to assess the treatment feasibility and safety before treating the patients. 
 
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Sharing this article, the act of writing and then having it read, legitimises the point of it – that is, we (and we speak on behalf of each other here) managed to negotiate western academic expectations and norms from a just-as-legitimate-but-not-always-heard female Buginese perspective written in Standard Australian English (not my first choice-of-language and I speak on behalf of myself). At times we transgressed roles, guiding and following each other through different academic, cultural, social, and linguistic domains until we stumbled upon ways of legitimating our entanglement of experiences, when we heard the similar, faint, drum beat across boundaries and journeys.This article is one storying of the results of this four year relationship between a Buginese PhD candidate and an Indigenous Australian supervisor – both in the writing of the article and the processes that we are writing about. This is our process of knowing and validating knowledge through sharing, collaboration and cultural exchange. Neither the successful PhD thesis nor this article draw from authoethnography but they are outcomes of a lived, research standpoint that fiercely fought to centre a Muslim-Buginese perspective as much as possible, due to the nature of a postgraduate program. In the effort to find a way to not privilege Western ways of knowing to the detriment of my standpoint and position, we had to find a way to at times privilege my way of knowing the world alongside a Western one. There had to be a beat that transgressed cultural and linguistic differences and that allowed for a legitimised dialogic, intersubjective dance.The PhD research focused on potential dialogue between Australian culture and Buginese culture in terms of feminism and its resulting cultural hybridity where some Australian feminist thoughts are applicable to Buginese culture but some are not. Therefore, the PhD study centred a Buginese standpoint while moving back and forth amongst Australian feminist discourses and the dominant expectations of a western academic process. The PhD research was part of a greater Indonesian tertiary movement to include, study, challenge and extend feminist literary programs and how this could be respectfully and culturally appropriately achieved. This article is written by both of us but the core knowledge comes from a Buginese standpoint, that is, the principal supervisor learned from the PhD candidate and then applied her understanding of Indigenous standpoint theory, Tuhiwahi Smith’s decolonising methodologies and Spivakian self-reflexivity to aid the candidate’s development of her dancing methodology. For this reason, the rest of this article is written from the first-person perspective of Dr Abbas.The PhD study was a literary analysis on five stories from Helen Garner’s Postcards from Surfers (1985). My work translated these five stories from English into Indonesian and discussed some challenges that occurred in the process of translation. By using Edward Said’s work on contrapuntal reading and Robert Warrior’s metaphor of the subaltern dancing, I, the embodied learner and the cultural translator, moved back and forth between Buginese culture and Australian culture to consider how Australian women and men are represented and how mainstream Australian society engages with, or challenges, discourses of patriarchy and power. This movement back and forth was theorised as ‘dancing’. Ultimately, another dance was performed at the end of the thesis waltz between the work which centred my Buginese standpoint and academia as a Western tertiary institution.I have been dancing with Australian feminism for over four years. My use of the word ‘dancing’ signified my challenge to articulate and engage with Australian culture, literature, and feminism by viewing it from a Buginese perspective as opposed to a ‘Non-Western’ perspective. As a Buginese woman and scholar, I centred my specific cultural standpoints instead of accepting them generally and therefore dismissed the altering label of ‘Non-Western’. Juxtaposing Australian feminism with Buginese culture was not easy. However, as my research progressed I saw interesting cultural differences between Australian and Buginese cultures that could result in a hybridized way of engaging feminist issues. At times, my cultural standpoint took the lead in directing the research or the point, at other times a Western beat was more prominent, for example, using the English language to voice my work.The Buginese, also known as the Bugis, along with the Makassar, the Mandar, and the Toraja, are one of the four main ethnic groups of the province of South Sulawesi in Indonesia. The population of the Buginese in South Sulawesi spreads into major states (Bone, Wajo, Soppeng, and Sidenreng) and some minor states (Pare-Pare, Suppa, and Sinjai). Like other ethnic groups living in other islands of Indonesia such as the Javanese, the Sundanese, the Minang, the Batak, the Balinese, and the Ambonese, the Buginese have their own culture and traditions. The Buginese, especially those who live in the villages, are still bounded strictly by ade’ (custom) or pangadereng (customary law). This concept of ade’ provides living guidelines for Buginese and consists of five components including ade’, bicara, rapang, wari’, and sara’. Pelras clarifies that pangadereng is ‘adat-hood’, a corpus of interlinked ruling principles which, besides ade’ (custom), includes also bicara (jurisprudence), rapang (models of good behaviour which ensure the proper functioning of society), wari’ (rules of descent and hierarchy) and sara’ (Islamic law and institution, derived from the Arabic shari’a) (190). So, pangadereng is an overall norm which includes advice on how Buginese should behave towards fellow human beings and social institutions on a reciprocal basis. In addition, the Buginese together with Makassarese, mind what is called siri’ (honour and shame), that is the sense of honour and shame. In the life of the Buginese-Makassar people, the most basic element is siri’. For them, no other value merits to be more detected and preserved. Siri’ is their life, their self-respect and their dignity. This is why, in order to uphold and to defend it when it has been stained or they consider it has been stained by somebody, the Bugis-Makassar people are ready to sacrifice everything, including their most precious life, for the sake of its restoration. So goes the saying.... ‘When one’s honour is at stake, without any afterthought one fights’ (Pelras 206).Buginese is one of Indonesia’s ethnic groups where men and women are intended to perform equal roles in society, especially those who live in the Buginese states of South Sulawesi where they are still bound strictly by ade’ (custom) or pangadereng (customary law). These two basic concepts are guidelines for daily life, both in the family and the work place. Buginese also praise what is called siri’, a sense of honour and shame. It is because of this sense of honour and shame that we have a saying, siri’ emmi ri onroang ri lino (people live only for siri’) which means one lives only for honour and prestige. Siri’ had to remain a guiding principle in my theoretical and methodological approach to my PhD research. It is also a guiding principle in the resulting pedagogical praxis that this work has established for my course in Australian culture and literature at Hasanuddin University. I was not prepared to compromise my own ethical and cultural identity and position yet will admit, at times, I felt pressured to do so if I was going to be seen to be performing legitimate scholarly work. Novera argues that:Little research has focused specifically on the adjustment of Indonesian students in Australia. Hasanah (1997) and Philips (1994) note that Indonesian students encounter difficulties in fulfilling certain Western academic requirements, particularly in relation to critical thinking. These studies do not explore the broad range of academic and social problems. Yet this is a fruitful area for research, not just because of the importance of Indonesian students to Australia, and the importance of the Australia-Indonesia relationship to both neighbouring nations, but also because adjustment problems are magnified by cultural differences. There are clear differences between Indonesian and Australian cultures, so that a study of Indonesian students in Australia might also be of broader academic interest […]Studies of international student adjustment discuss a range of problems, including the pressures created by new role and behavioural expectations, language difficulties, financial problems, social difficulties, homesickness, difficulties in dealing with university and other authorities, academic difficulties, and lack of assertiveness inside and outside the classroom. (467)While both my supervisor and I would agree that I faced all of these obstacles during my PhD candidature, this article is focusing solely on the battle to present my methodology, a dialogic encounter between Buginese feminism and mainstream Australian culture using Helen Garner’s short stories, to a Western process and have it be “legitimised”. Endang writes that short stories are becoming more popular in the industrial era in Indonesia and they have become vehicles for writers to articulate the realities of social life such as poverty, marginalization, and unfairness (141-144). In addition, Noor states that the short story has become a new literary form particularly effective for assisting writers in their goal to help the marginalized because its shortness can function as a weapon to directly “scoop up” the targeted issues and “knock them out at a blow” (Endang 144-145). Indeed, Helen Garner uses short stories in a way similar to that described by Endang: as a defiant act towards the government and current circumstances (145). My study of Helen Garner’s short stories explored the way her stories engage with and resist gender relations and inequality between men and women in Australian society through four themes prevalent in the narratives: the kitchen, landscape, language, and sexuality. I wrote my thesis in standard Australian English and I complied with expected forms, formatting, referencing, structuring etc. My thesis also included the Buginese translations of some of Garner’s work. However, the theoretical approaches that informed my analysis cannot be separated from the personal. In the title, I use the term ‘dancing’ to indicate a dialogue with white Australian women by moving back and forth between Australian culture and Buginese culture. I use the term ‘dancing’ as an extension of Edward Said’s work on contrapuntal reading but employ it as a signifier of my movement between insider and outsider (of Australian feminism), that is, I extend it from just a literary reading to a whole body experience. According to Ashcroft and Ahluwalia, the “essence of Said’s argument is to know something is to have power over it, and conversely, to have power is to know the world in your own terms” (83). Ashcroft and Ahluwalia add how through music, particularly the work of pianist Glenn Gould, Said formulated a way of reading imperial and postcolonial texts contrapuntally. Such a reading acknowledges the hybridity of cultures, histories and literatures, allowing the reader to move back and forth between an internal and an external standpoint of cultural references and attitudes in “an effort to draw out, extend, give emphasis and voice to what is silent or marginally present or ideologically represented” (Said 66). While theorising about the potential dance between Australian and Buginese feminisms in my work, I was living the dance in my day-to-day Australian university experience. Trying to accommodate the expected requirements of a PhD thesis, while at the same time ensuring that I maintained my own personal, cultural and professional dignity, that is ade’, and siri’, required some fancy footwork. Siri’ is central to my Buginese worldview and had to be positioned as such in my PhD thesis. Also, the realities that women are still marginalized and that gender inequality and disparities persist in Indonesian society become a motivation to carry out my PhD study. The opportunity to study Australian culture and literature in that country, allowed me to increase my global and local complexity as an individual, what Pieterse refers to as “ a process of hybridization” and to become as Beck terms an “actor” and “manager’’ of my life (as cited in Edmunds 1). Gaining greater autonomy and reconceptualising both masculinity and femininity, while dominant themes in Garner’s work, are also issues I address in my personal and professional goals. In other words, this study resulted in hybridized knowledge of Australian concepts of feminism and Buginese societies that offers a reference for students to understand and engage with different feminist thought. By learning how feminism is understood differently by Australians and Buginese, my Indonesian students can decide what aspects of feminist ideas from a Western perspective can be applied to Buginese culture without transgressing Buginese customs and habits.There are few Australian literary works that have been translated into Indonesian. Those that have include Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang (2007) and My Life is a Fake (2009), James Vance Marshall’s Walkabout (1957), Emma Darcy’s The Billionaire Bridegroom (2010) , Sally Morgan’s My Place (1987), and Colleen McCullogh’s The Thorn Birds (1978). My translation of five short stories from Postcards from Surfers complemented these works and enriched the diversity of Indonesian translations of world literary works, the bulk of which tends to come from the United Kingdom, America, the Middle East, and Japan. However, actually getting through the process of PhD research followed by examination required my supervisor and I to negotiate cross-cultural terrain, academic agendas and Western expectations of what legitimate thesis writing should look like. Employing Said’s contrapuntal pedagogy and Warrior’s notion of subaltern dancing became my illegitimate methodological frame.Said points out that contrapuntal analysis means that students and teachers can cross-culturally “elucidate a complex and uneven topography” (318). He adds that “we must be able to think through and interpret together experiences that are discrepant, each with its particular agenda and pace of development, its own internal formations, its internal coherence and system of external relationships, all of them co-existing and interacting with others” (32). Contrapuntal is a metaphor Said derived from musical theory, meaning to counterpoint or add a rhythm or melody, in this case, Buginese and Anglo-Australian feminisms. Warrior argues for an indigenous critique of how power and knowledge is read and in doing so he writes that “the subaltern can dance, and so sometimes can the intellectual” (85). In his rereading of Spivak, he argues that subaltern and intellectual positions can meet “and in meeting, create the possibility of communication” (86). He refers to this as dancing partly because it implicitly acknowledges without silencing the voices of the subaltern (once the subaltern speaks it is no longer the subaltern, so the notion of dancing allows for communication, “a movement from subalternity to something else” (90) which can mark “a new sort of non-complicitous relationship to a family, community or class of origin” (91). By “non-complicit” Warrior means that when a member of the subaltern becomes a scholar and therefore a member of those who historically silence the subaltern, there are other methods for communicating, of moving, between political and cultural spaces that allow for a multiplicity of voices and responses. Warrior uses a traditional Osage in-losh-ka dance as an example of how he physically and intellectually interacts with multiple voices and positions:While the music plays, our usual differences, including subalternity and intellectuality, and even gender in its own way, are levelled. For those of us moving to the music, the rules change, and those who know the steps and the songs and those who can keep up with the whirl of bodies, music and colours hold nearly every advantage over station or money. The music ends, of course, but I know I take my knowledge of the dance away and into my life as a critic, and I would argue that those levelled moments remain with us after we leave the drum, change our clothes, and go back to the rest of our lives. (93)For Warrior, the dance becomes theory into practice. For me, it became not only a way to soundly and “appropriately” present my methodology and purpose, but it also became my day to day interactions, as a female Buginese scholar, with western, Australian academic and cultural worldviews and expectations.One of the biggest movements I had to justify was my use of the first person “I”, in my thesis, to signify my identity as a Buginese woman and position myself as an insider of my community with a hybrid western feminism with Australia in mind. Perrault argues that “Writing “I” has been an emancipatory project for women” (2). In the context of my PhD thesis, uttering ‘I’ confirmed my position and aims. However, this act of explicitly situating my own identity and cultural position in my research and thesis was considered one of the more illegitimate acts. In one of the examiner reports, it was stated that situating myself centrally was fraught but that I managed to avoid the pitfalls. Judy Long argues that writing in the female first person challenges patriarchal control and order (127). For me, writing in the first person was essential if I had any chance of maintaining my Buginese identity and voice, in both my thesis and in my Australian tertiary experience. As Trinh-Minh writes, “S/he who writes, writes. In uncertainty, in necessity. And does not ask whether s/he is given permission to do so or not” (8).Van Dijk, cited in Hamilton, notes that the west and north are bound by an academic ethnocentrism and this is a particular area my own research had to negotiate. Methodologically I provided a comparative rather than a universalising perspective, engaging with middle-class, heterosexual, western, white women feminism but not privileging them. It is important for Buginese to use language discourses as a weapon to gain power, particularly because as McGlynn claims, “generally Indonesians are not particularly outspoken” (38). My research was shaped by a combination of ongoing dedication to promote women’s empowerment in the Buginese context and my role as an academic teaching English literature at the university level. I applied interpretive principles that will enable my students to see how the ideas of feminism conveyed through western literature can positively improve the quality of women’s lives and be implemented in Buginese culture without compromising our identity as Indonesians and Buginese people. At the same time, my literary translation provides a cultural comparison with Australia that allows a space for further conversations to occur. However, while attempting to negotiate western and Indonesian discourses in my thesis, I was also physically and emotionally trying to negotiate how to do this as a Muslim Buginese female PhD candidate in an Anglo-Australian academic institution. The notion of ‘dancing’ was employed as a signifier of movement between insider and outsider knowledge. Throughout the research process and my thesis I ‘danced’ with Australian feminism, traditional patriarchal Buginese society, Western academic expectations and my own emerging Indonesian feminist perspective. To ensure siri’ remained the pedagogical and ethical basis of my approach I applied Edward Said’s work on contrapuntal reading and Robert Warrior’s employment of a traditional Osage dance as a self-reflexive, embodied praxis, that is, I extended it from just a literary reading to a whole body experience. The notion of ‘dance’ allows for movement, change, contact, tension, touch and distance: it means that for those who have historically been marginalised or confined, they are no longer silenced. The metaphoric act of dancing allowed me to legitimise my PhD work – it was successfully awarded – and to negotiate a western tertiary institute in Australia with my own Buginese knowledge, culture and purpose.ReferencesAshcroft., B., and P. Ahluwalia. Edward Said. London: Routledge, 1999.Carey, Peter. True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel. Random House LLC, 2007.Carey, Peter. My Life as a Fake: A NNovel. Random House LLC, 2009.Darcy, Emma. Billionaire Bridegroom 2319. Harlequin, 2010.Endang, Fransisca. "Disseminating Indonesian Postcoloniality into English Literature (a Case Study of 'Clara')." Jurnal Sastra Inggris 8.2: 2008.Edmunds, Kim. "The Impact of an Australian Higher Education on Gender Relations in Indonesia." ISANA International Conference "Student Success in International Education", 2007Garner, Helen. Postcards from Surfers. Melbourne: McPhee/Gribble, 1985.Hamilton, Deborah, Deborah Schriffrin, and Heidi E. Tannen, ed. The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Victoria: Balckwll, 2001.Long, Judy. 1999. Telling Women's Lives: Subject/Narrator/Reader/Text. New York: New York UP, 1999.McGlynn, John H. "Silent Voices, Muted Expressions: Indonesian Literature Today." Manoa 12.1 (2000): 38-44.Morgan, Sally. My Place. Fremantle Press, 1987.Pelras, Christian. The Bugis. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996. Perreault, Jeanne. Writing Selves: Contemporary Feminist Autography. London & Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1995.Pieterse, J.N. Globalisation as Hybridisation. In M. Featherstone, S. Lash, and R. Robertson, eds., Global Modernities. London: Sage Publications, 1995.Marshall, James V. Walkabout. London: Puffin, 1957.McCullough, C. The Thorn Birds Sydney: Harper Collins, 1978.Minh-ha, Trinh T. Woman, Native, Other: Writing, Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1989.Novera, Isvet Amri. "Indonesian Postgraduate Students Studying in Australia: An Examination of Their Academic, Social and Cultural Experiences." International Education Journal 5.4 (2004): 475-487.Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Book, 1993. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books, 1999.Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" In C. Nelson and L. Grossberg, eds., Marxism and Interpretation of Culture. Chicago: University of lllinois, 1988. 271-313.Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. New York: Routledge, 1988.Warrior, Robert. ""The Subaltern Can Dance, and So Sometimes Can the Intellectual." Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 13.1 (2011): 85-94.

Introduction Sydney, Australia has experienced a sustained period of building and infrastructure development. There are hundreds of kilometres of bitumen and rail currently being laid. There are significant building projects in large central sites such as Darling Harbour and Barangaroo on the famous Harbour foreshore. The period of development has offered an unprecedented opportunity for the New South Wales (NSW) State Government to arrest the attention of the Sydney public through kilometres of construction hoarding. This opportunity has not been missed, with the public display of a new logo, complete with pithy slogan, on and around all manner of government projects and activities since September 2015. NSW is “making it happen” according to the logo being displayed. At first glance it is a proactive, simple and concise slogan that, according to the NSW Government brand guidelines, has a wide remit to be used for projects that relate to construction, economic growth, improved services, and major events. However, when viewed through the lens of public, expert, and media research into Sydney infrastructure development it can also be read as a message derived from reactive politics. This paper elucidates turning points in the history of the last decade of infrastructure building in NSW through qualitative primary research into media, public, and practice led discourse. Ultimately, through the prism of Colin Hay’s investigation into political disengagement, I question whether the current build-at-any-cost mentality and its mantra “making it happen” is in the long-term interest of the NSW constituency or the short-term interest of a political party or whether, more broadly, it reflects a crisis of identity for today’s political class. The Non-Launch of the New Logo Image 1: An ABC Sydney Tweet. Image credit: ABC Sydney. There is scant evidence of a specific launch of the logo. Michael Koziol states that to call it an unveiling, “might be a misnomer, given the stealth with which the design has started to make appearances on banners, barriers [see: Image 1, above] and briefing papers” (online). The logo has a wide range of applications. The NSW Government brand guidelines specify that the logo be used “on all projects, programs and announcements that focus on economic growth and confidence in investing in NSW” as well as “infrastructure for the future and smarter services” (30). The section of the guidelines relating to the “making it happen” logo begins with a full-colour, full-page photograph of the Barangaroo building development on Sydney Harbour—complete with nine towering cranes clearly visible across the project/page. The guidelines specifically mention infrastructure, housing projects, and major developments upfront in the section denoted to appropriate logo applications (31). This is a logo that the government clearly intends to use around its major projects to highlight the amount of building currently underway in NSW.In the first week of the logo’s release journalist Elle Hunt asks an unnamed government spokesperson for a definition of “it” in “making it happen.” The spokesperson states, “just a buzz around the state in terms of economic growth and infrastructure […] the premier [the now retired Mike Baird] has used the phrase several times this week in media conferences and it feels like we are making it happen.” Words like “buzz,” “feels like” and the ubiquitous “it” echo the infamous courtroom scene summation of Dennis Denuto from the 1997 Australian film The Castle that have deeply penetrated the Australian psyche and lexicon. Denuto (played by actor Tiriel Mora) is acting as a solicitor for Darryl Kerrigan (Michael Caton) in fighting the compulsory acquisition of the Kerrigan family property. In concluding an address to the court, Denuto states, “In summing up, it’s the constitution, it’s Mabo, it’s justice, it’s law, it’s the Vibe and, no that’s it, it’s the vibe. I rest my case.” All fun and irony (the reason for the house acquisition that inspired Denuto’s now famous speech was an airport infrastructure expansion project) aside, we can assume from the brand guidelines as well as the Hunt article that the intended meaning of “making it happen” is fluid and diffuse rather than fixed and specific. With this article I question why the government would choose to express this diffuse message to the public?Purpose, Scope, Method and ResearchTo explore this question I intertwine empirical research with a close critique of Colin Hay’s thesis on the problematisation of political decision-making—specifically the proliferation of certain tenets of public choice theory. My empirical research is a study of news media, public, and expert discourse and its impact on the success or otherwise of major rail infrastructure projects in Sydney. One case study project, initially announced as the North West Rail Line (NWR) and recently rebadged as the Sydney Metro Northwest (see: http://www.sydneymetro.info/northwest/project-overview), is at the forefront of the infrastructure building that the government is looking to highlight with “making it happen.” A comparison case study is the failed Sydney City Metro (SCM) project that preceded the NWR as the major Sydney rail infrastructure endeavour. I have written in greater detail on the scope of this research elsewhere (see: Richardson, “Curatorial”; “Upheaval”; “Hinterland”). In short, my empirical secondary research involved a study of print news media from 2010 to 2016 spanning Sydney’s two daily papers the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and the Daily Telegraph (TELE). My qualitative research was conducted in 2013. The public qualitative research consisted of a survey, interviews, and focus groups involving 149 participants from across Sydney. The primary expert research consisted of 30 qualitative interviews with experts from politics, the news media and communications practice, as well as project delivery professions such as architecture and planning, project management, engineering, project finance and legal. Respondents were drawn from both the public and private sectors. My analysis of this research is undertaken in a manner similar to what Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke term a “thematic discourse analysis” (81). The intention is to examine “the ways in which events, realities, meanings and experiences and so on are the effects of a range of discourses operating within society.” A “theme” captures “something important about the data in relation to the research question,” and represents, “some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set.” Thematic analysis therefore, “involves the searching across a data set—be that a number of interviews or focus groups, or a range of texts—to find repeated patterns of meaning” (80-86).Governing Sydney: A Legacy of Inability, Broken Promises, and Failure The SCM was abandoned in February 2010. The project’s abandonment had long been foreshadowed in the news media (Anonymous, Future). In the days preceding and following the announcement, news media articles focussed almost exclusively on the ineptitude and wastefulness of a government that would again fail to deliver transport it had promised and invested in (Cratchley; Teutsch & Benns; Anonymous, Taxation). Immediately following the decision, the peak industry body, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, asserted, “this decision shreds the credibility of the government in delivering projects and will likely make it much harder to attract investment and skills to deliver new infrastructure” (Anonymous, Taxation). The reported ineptitude of the then Labor Government of NSW and the industry fallout surrounding the decision were clearly established as the main news media angles. My print media research found coverage to be overwhelmingly and consistently negative. 70% of the articles studied were negatively inclined. Furthermore, approximately one-quarter featured statements pertaining directly to government paralysis and inability to deliver infrastructure.My public, expert, and media research revealed a number of “repeated patterns of meaning,” which Braun and Clarke describe as themes (86). There are three themes that are particularly pertinent to my investigation here. To describe the first theme I have used the statement, an inability of government to successfully deliver projects. The theme is closely tied to the two other interrelated themes—for one I use the statement, a legacy of failure to implement projects successfully—for the other I use a cycle of broken promises to describe the mounting number of announcements on projects that government then fails to deliver. Some of the more relevant comments, on this matter, collected throughout my research appear below.A former Sydney radio announcer, now a major project community consultation advisor, asserts that a “legacy issue” exists with regards to the poor performance of government over time. Through the SCM failure, which she asserts was “a perfectly sound idea,” the NSW Government came to represent “lost opportunities” resulting in a “massive erosion of public trust.” This sentiment was broadly mirrored across the public and industry expert research I conducted. For example, a public respondent states, “repeated public transport failures through the past 20 years has lowered my belief in future projects being successful.” And, a former director general of NSW planning asserts that because of the repeated project failures culminating in the demise of the SCM, “everybody is now so cynical”.Today under the “making it happen” banner, the major Sydney rail transport project investment is to the northwest of Sydney. There was a change of government in 2011 and the NWR was a key election promise for the incoming Premier at the time, Barry O’Farrell. The NWR project, (now renamed Sydney Metro Northwest as well as extended with new stages through the city to Sydney’s Southwest) remains ongoing and in many respects it appears that Sydney may have turned a corner with major infrastructure construction finally underway. Paradoxically though, the NWR project received far less support than the SCM from the majority of the 30 experts I interviewed. The most common theme from expert respondents (including a number working on the project) is that it is not the most urgent transport priority for Sydney but was instead a political decision. As a communications manager for a large Australian infrastructure provider states: “The NWR was an election promise, it wasn’t a decision based on whether the public wanted that rail link or not”. And, the aforementioned former director general of NSW planning mirrors this sentiment when she contends that the NWR is not a priority and “totally political”.My research findings strongly indicate that the failure of the SCM is in fact a vitally important catalyst for the implementation of the NWR. In other words, I assert that the formulation of the NWR has been influenced by the dominant themes that portray the abilities of government in a negative light—themes strengthened and amplified due to the failure of the SCM. Therefore, I assert that the NWR symbolises a desperate government determined to reverse these themes even if it means adopting a build at any cost mentality. As a respondent who specialises in infrastructure finance for one of Australia’s largest banks, states: “I think in politics there are certain promises that people attempt to keep and I think Barry O’Farrell has made it very clear that he is going to make sure those [NWR] tunnel boring machines are on the ground. So that’s going to happen rain, hail or shine”. Hating Politics My empirical research clearly elucidates the three themes I term an inability of government to successfully deliver projects, a legacy of failure and a cycle of broken promises. These intertwining themes are firmly embedded and strengthening. They also portray government in a negative light. I assert that the NWR, as a determined attempt to reverse these themes (irrespective of the cost), indicates a government at best reactive in its decision making and at worst desperate to reverse public and media perception.The negativity facing the NSW government seems extreme. However, in the context of Colin Hay’s work, the situation is perhaps more inevitable than surprising. In Why We Hate Politics (2007), Hay charts the history of public disengagement with western politics. He does this largely by arguing the considerable influence of problematic key tenets of public choice theory that permeate the discourse of most western democracies, including Australia. They are tenets that normalise depoliticisation and cast a lengthy shadow over the behaviour and motivations of politicians and bureaucrats. Public choice can be defined as the economic study of nonmarket decision-making, or, simply the application of economics to political science. The basic behavioral postulate of public choice, as for economics, is that man is an egoistic, rational, utility maximizer. (Mueller 395)Originating from rational choice theory generally and spurred by Kenneth Arrow’s investigations into rational choice and social policy more specifically, the basic premise of public choice is a privileging of individual values above rational collective choice in social policy development (Arrow; Dunleavy; Hauptman; Mueller). Hay asserts that public choice evolved as a theory throughout the 1960s and 70s in order to conceptualise a more market-orientated alternative to the influential theory of welfare economics. Both were formulated in response to a need for intervention and regulation of markets to correct their “natural tendency to failure” (95). In many ways public choice was a reaction to the “idealized depiction of the state” that welfare economics was seen to be propagating. Instead a “more sanguine and realistic view of the […] imperfect state, it was argued, would lead to a rather safer set of inferences about the need for state intervention” (96). Hay asserts that in effect by challenging the motivations of elected officials and public servants, public choice theory “assumed the worst”, branding all parties self-interested and declaring the state inefficient and ineffective in the delivery of public goods (96). Although, as Hay admits, public choice advocates perhaps provided “a healthy cynicism about both the motivations and the capabilities of politicians and public officials,” the theory was overly simplistic, overstated and unproven. Furthermore, when market woes became real rather than theoretical with crippling stagflation in the 1970s, public choice readily identify “villains” at the heart of the problem and the media and public leapt on it (Hay 109). An academic theory was thrust into mainstream discourse. Two results key to the investigations of this paper were 1) a perception of politics “synonymous with the blind pursuit of individual self interest” and 2) the demystification of the “public service ethos” (Hay 108-12). Hay concludes that instead the long-term result has been a conception of politicians and the bureaucracy that is “increasingly synonymous with duplicity, greed, corruption, interference and inefficiency” (160).Deciphering “Making It Happen” More than three decades on, echoes of public choice theory abound in my empirical research into NSW infrastructure building. In particular they are clearly evident in the three themes I term an inability of government to successfully deliver projects, a legacy of failure and a cycle of broken promises. Within this context, what then can we decipher from the pithy, ubiquitous slogan on a government logo? Of course, in one sense “making it happen” could be interpreted as a further attempt to reverse these three themes. The brand guidelines provide the following description of the logo: “the tone is confident, progressive, friendly, trustworthy, active, consistent, getting on with the job, achieving deadlines—“making it happen” (30). Indeed, this description seems the antithesis of perceptions of government identified in my primary research as well as the dogma of public choice theory. There is certainly expert evidence that one of the centrepieces of the government’s push to demonstrate that it is “making it happen”, the NWR, is a flawed project that represents a political decision. Therefore, it is hard not to be cynical and consider the government self-interested and shortsighted in its approach to building and development. If we were to adopt this view then it would be tempting to dismiss the new logo as political, reactive, and entirely self-serving. Further, with the worrying evidence of a ‘build at any cost’ mentality that may lead to wasted taxpayer funds and developments that future generations may judge harshly. As the principal of an national architectural practice states:politicians feel they have to get something done and getting something done is more important than the quality of what might be done because producing something of quality takes time […] it needs to have the support of a lot of people—it needs to be well thought through […] if you want to leap into some trite solution for something just to get something done, at the end of the day you’ll probably end up with something that doesn’t suit the taxpayers very well at all but that’s just the way politics is.In this context, the logo and its mantra could come to represent irreparable long-term damage to Sydney. That said, what if the cynics (this author included) tried to silence the public choice rhetoric that has become so ingrained? What if we reflect for a moment on the effects of our criticism – namely, the further perpetuation and deeper embedding of the cycle of broken promises, the legacy of failure and ineptitude? As Hay states, “if we look hard enough, we are likely to find plenty of behaviour consistent with such pessimistic assumptions. Moreover, the more we look the more we will reinforce that increasingly intuitive tendency” (160). What if we instead consider that by continuing to adopt the mantra of a political cynic, we are in effect perpetuating an overly simplistic, unsubstantiated theory that has cleverly affected us so profoundly? When confronted by the hundreds of kilometres of construction hoarding across Sydney, I am struck by the flippancy of “making it happen.” The vast expanse of hoarding itself symbolises that things are evidently “happening.” However, my research suggests these things could be other things with potential to deliver better public benefits. There is a conundrum here though—publicly expressing pessimism weakens further the utility of politicians and the bureaucracy and exacerbates the problems. Such is the self-fulfilling nature of public choice. ConclusionHay argues that rather than expecting politics and politicians to change, it is our expectations of what government can achieve that we need to modify. Hay asserts that although there is overwhelming evidence that we hate politics more now than at any stage in the past, he does not believe that, “today’s breed of politicians are any more sinful than their predecessors.” Instead he contends that it is more likely that “we have simply got into the habit of viewing them, and their conduct, in such terms” (160). The ramifications of such thinking ultimately, according to Hay, means a breakdown in “trust” that greatly hampers the “co-operation,” so important to politics (161). He implores us to remember “that politics can be more than the pursuit of individual utility, and that the depiction of politics in such terms is both a distortion and a denial of the capacity for public deliberation and the provision of collective goods” (162). What then if we give the NSW Government the benefit of the doubt and believe that the current building boom (including the decision to build the NWR) was not entirely self-serving but a line drawn in the sand with the determination to tackle a problem that is far greater than just that of Sydney’s transport or any other single policy or project problem—the ongoing issue of the spiralling reputation and identity of government decision-makers and perhaps even democracy generally as public choice ideals proliferate in western democracies like that of Australia’s most populous state. As a partner in a national architectural and planning practice states: I think in NSW in particular there has been such an under investment in infrastructure and so few of the promises have been kept […]. Who cares if NWR is right or not? If they actually build it they’ll be the first government in 25 years to do anything.ReferencesABC Sydney. “Confirmed. This is the new logo and phrase for #NSW getting its first outing. What do you think of it?” Twitter. 1 Sep. 2015. 19 Jan. 2017 <https://twitter.com/abcsydney/status/638909482697777152>.Arrow, Kenneth, J. Social Choice and Individual Values. New York: Wiley, 1951.Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2006): 77-101. The Castle. Dir. Rob Sitch. Working Dog, 1997.Cratchley, Drew. “Builders Want Compo If Sydney Metro Axed.” Sydney Morning Herald 12 Feb. 2010. 17 Apr. 2012 <http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/builders-want-compo-if-sydney-metro-axed-20100212-nwn2.html>.Dunleavy, Patrick. Democracy, Bureaucracy and Public Choice. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991. Hauptmann, Emily. Putting Choice before Democracy: A Critique of Rational Choice Theory. Albany, New York: State U of New York P, 1996.Hay, Colin. Why We Hate Politics. Cambridge: Polity, 2007.Hunt, Elle. “New South Wales’ New Logo and Slogan Slips By Unnoticed – Almost.” The Guardian Australian Edition 10 Sep. 2015. 19 Jan. 2017 <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/blog/2015/sep/10/new-south-wales-new-logo-and-slogan-slips-by-unnoticed-almost>.Koziol, Michael. “‘Making It Happen’: NSW Gets a New Logo. Make Sure You Don’t Breach Its Publishing Guidelines.” Sydney Morning Herald 11 Sep. 2015. 19 Jan. 2017 <http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/making-it-happen-nsw-gets-a-new-logo-make-sure-you-dont-breach-its-publishing-guidelines-20150911-gjk6z0.html>.Mueller, Dennis C. “Public Choice: A Survey.” Journal of Economic Literature 14 (1976): 395-433.“The NSW Government Branding Style Guide.” Sydney: NSW Government, 2015. 19 Jan. 2017 <http://www.advertising.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/downloads/page/nsw_government_branding_guide.pdf>.Perry, Jenny. “Future of Sydney Metro Remains Uncertain.” Rail Express 3 Feb. 2010. 25 Apr. 2017 <https://www.railexpress.com.au/future-of-sydney-metro-remains-uncertain/>.Richardson, Nicholas. “Political Upheaval in Australia: Media, Foucault and Shocking Policy.” ANZCA Conference Proceedings 2015, eds. D. Paterno, M. Bourk, and D. Matheson.———. “A Curatorial Turn in Policy Development? Managing the Changing Nature of Policymaking Subject to Mediatisation” M/C Journal 18.4 (2015).———. “The Hinterland of Power: Rethinking Mediatised Messy Policy.” PhD Thesis. University of Western Sydney, 2015.“Taxpayers Will Compensate Axed Metro Losers: Keneally.” Sydney Morning Herald 21 Feb. 2010. 17 Apr. 2012 <http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/taxpayers-will-compensate-axed-metro-losers-keneally-20100221-on6h.html>. Teutsch, Danielle, and Matthew Benns. “Call for Inquiry over $500m Poured into Doomed Metro.” Sydney Morning Herald 21 Mar. 2010. 17 Apr. 2012 <http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/call-for-inquiry-over-500m-poured-into-doomed-Metro-20100320-qn7b.html>.“Train Ready to Leave: Will Politicians Get on Board?” Sydney Morning Herald 13 Feb. 2010. 17 Apr. 2012 <http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/train-ready-to-leave-will-politicians-get-on-board-20100212-nxfk.html>.

The supervision and production of a PhD thesis often presents a potentially interesting tension between PhDs as conforming to disciplinary epistemologies and PhDs as breaking epistemological boundaries. No academic discipline has been left untouched by decolonial thinking in the South African university space since the eruption of radicalized student protest movements in 2015. The Rhodes Must Fall student protest movement, which quickly morphed into Fees Must Fall, precipitated a new urgency to decolonize the university curriculum in post-apartheid South Africa. A new interdisciplinary conversation in the humanities and social sciences began to emerge which challenged established orthodoxies in favour of de-Westernizing, decolonizing and re-mooring epistemological and pedagogic practices away from Eurocentrism. Whether and how that theoretical ferment filtered into postgraduate students’ theses, however, remains to be established. This article deploys a decolonial theoretical framework to explore the tension between epistemic conformity and boundary transgressing in journalism studies by analysing reference lists of PhD theses submitted at three South African Universities three years after the protest movement Rhodes Must Fall. With specific focus on media and journalism studies as a discipline, this article argues that the PhD process represents a site for potential epistemic disobedience and disciplinary border-jumping, and for challenging the canonical insularity of Western theory in journalism studies. The findings appear to disconfirm the thesis that decolonial rhetoric has had a material influence so far on the media studies curriculum, as reflected in reference lists of cited works in their dissertations.

Este artigo fundamenta-se teoricamente à Linguística Sistêmico-funcional de Halliday (2014) e à Pedagogia de Gêneros (Martin; Rose, 2008, 2012) e tem como objetivo apresentar a implementação do Ciclo de Aprendizagem com alunos do sexto ano do Ensino Fundamental em uma escola da rede pública. Buscou-se, dessa forma, evidenciar possíveis formas de aprendizagem explícita do gênero notícias, bem como a escrita autônoma de textos. A metodologia aplicada é estabelecida pelo Ciclo de Aprendizagem com alunos que frequentam o turno inverso para um projeto de letramento, oferecido por uma professora da rede municipal. Apresenta-se a análise da produção de um aluno e discute-se a influência da implementação do Ciclo no letramento dos alunos envolvidos.
 Ah duvido – O que são lendas urbanas. Disponível em: http://ahduvido.com.br/50-lendasurbanas. Acesso em: 11 abr 2016BRASIL. Ministério da Educação/Diretoria de Avaliação da Educação Básica (DAEB). Brasil no PISA 2015. Sumário Executivo, Brasília, DF, 2016BERNSTEIN, B. The structuring of pedagogic discourse. Routledge, 1990.BERNSTEIN, B. Pedagogy, symbolic control, and identity: Theory, research, critique. Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.BUTT, D.; FAHEY, R.; SPINKS, S. & ALLOP, C. Using Functional. Grammar: An Explorer's Guide. NationaL. Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Sidney: Claredon Printing, 2003.EGGINS, S. Introduction to systemic functional linguistics. New York/London: Continuum. 2014.GOUVEIA, C. A. M. Compreensão leitora como base instrumental do ensino da produção escrita. In: SILVA, W. R.; SANTOS, J. S.; MELO, M. A. (org.), Pesquisas em Língua(gem) e demandas do ensino básico. Campinas, Pontes Editores, p. 203-231, 2014HALLIDAY, M. A. K. An introduction to functional grammar. 5a ed. Revisada por MATTHIESSEN, C. M. I. M. London: Edward Arnold, 2014.HALLIDAY, M. A. K.; An introduction to functional grammar. 2ª ed. London E. Arnold, 1994.HALLIDAY, M. A. K. Language as social semiotics. 1978.HALLIDAY, M. A. K.; HASAN, R. Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. 1989.MARTIN, J. R. Grammar meets genre: Reflections on the “Sydney School”. Arts: the journal of the Sydney University Arts Association, 22, 47-95, 2000.MARTIN, J. R.; ROSE, D. Learning to write, reading to learn: Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney School. Equinox, 2012.MARTIN, J. R.; ROSE, D. Genre relations: Mapping culture. Equinox, 2008PAINTER, C. Into the Mother Tongue: a case study of early language development, London, 1984.ROSE, D. Genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the ‘Sydney School’ David Rose Artemeva, N & A Freedman (Eds.) 2015 Trends and traditions in genre studies. Alberta, Canada: Inkshed, 2015a.ROSE, D. New developments in genre-based literacy pedagogy David Rose In C A. MacArthur,S Graham, J Fitzgerald [Eds.] 2015 Handbook of Writing Research, 2nd Edition. New York: Guilford, 2015cROSE, D. Analysing pedagogic discourse: an approach from genre and register. Functional Linguistics, 2014. Disponível em https://www.readingtolearn.com.au/wpcontent/uploads/2016/01/Analysing-pedagogic-iscourse.pdf>. Disponível em 21 abr 2020.ROTHERY, J. Making changes: developing an educational linguistics. Hasan & Williams. 1996, p. 86-123.WHITE P. R. R. Telling Media Tales: The News Story as Rhetoric. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney. 1998.

All history of this area and the general talk and all of that is that 1973 was a turning point and the Aquarius Festival is credited with having turned this region around in so many ways, but I think that is a myth ... and I have to honour the truth; and the truth is that old Dicke Donelly came and did a Welcome to Country the night before the festival. (Joseph in Joseph and Hanley)In 1973 the Australian Union of Students (AUS) held the Aquarius Arts and Lifestyle Festival in a small, rural New South Wales town called Nimbin. The festival was seen as the peak expression of Australian counterculture and is attributed to creating the “Rainbow Region”, an area with a concentration of alternative life stylers in Northern NSW (Derrett 28). While the Aquarius Festival is recognised as a founding historical and countercultural event, the unique and important relationships established with Indigenous people at this time are generally less well known. This article investigates claims that the 1973 Aquarius Festival was “the first event in Australian history that sought permission for the use of the land from the Traditional Owners” (Joseph and Hanley). The diverse international, national and local conditions that coalesced at the Aquarius Festival suggest a fertile environment was created for reconciliatory bonds to develop. Often dismissed as a “tree hugging, soap dodging movement,” the counterculture was radically politicised having sprung from the 1960s social revolutions when the world witnessed mass demonstrations that confronted war, racism, sexism and capitalism. Primarily a youth movement, it was characterised by flamboyant dress, music, drugs and mass gatherings with universities forming the epicentre and white, middle class youth leading the charge. As their ideals of changing the world were frustrated by lack of systematic change, many decided to disengage and a migration to rural settings occurred (Jacob; Munro-Clarke; Newton). In the search for alternatives, the counterculture assimilated many spiritual practices, such as Eastern traditions and mysticism, which were previously obscure to the Western world. This practice of spiritual syncretism can be represented as a direct resistance to the hegemony of the dominant Western culture (Stell). As the new counterculture developed, its progression from urban to rural settings was driven by philosophies imbued with a desire to reconnect with and protect the natural world while simultaneously rejecting the dominant conservative order. A recurring feature of this countercultural ‘back to the land’ migration was not only an empathetic awareness of the injustices of colonial past, but also a genuine desire to learn from the Indigenous people of the land. Indigenous people were generally perceived as genuine opposers of Westernisation, inherently spiritual, ecological, tribal and communal, thus encompassing the primary values to which the counterculture was aspiring (Smith). Cultures converged. One, a youth culture rebelling from its parent culture; the other, ancient cultures reeling from the historical conquest by the youths’ own ancestors. Such cultural intersections are rich with complex scenarios and politics. As a result, often naïve, but well-intended relations were established with Native Americans, various South American Indigenous peoples, New Zealand Maori and, as this article demonstrates, the Original People of Australia (Smith; Newton; Barr-Melej; Zolov). The 1960s protest era fostered the formation of groups aiming to address a variety of issues, and at times many supported each other. Jennifer Clarke says it was the Civil Rights movement that provided the first models of dissent by formulating a “method, ideology and language of protest” as African Americans stood up and shouted prior to other movements (2). The issue of racial empowerment was not lost on Australia’s Indigenous population. Clarke writes that during the 1960s, encouraged by events overseas and buoyed by national organisation, Aborigines “slowly embarked on a political awakening, demanded freedom from the trappings of colonialism and responded to the effects of oppression at worst and neglect at best” (4). Activism of the 1960s had the “profoundly productive effect of providing Aborigines with the confidence to assert their racial identity” (159). Many Indigenous youth were compelled by the zeitgeist to address their people’s issues, fulfilling Charlie Perkins’s intentions of inspiring in Indigenous peoples a will to resist (Perkins). Enjoying new freedoms of movement out of missions, due to the 1967 Constitutional change and the practical implementation of the assimilation policy, up to 32,000 Indigenous youth moved to Redfern, Sydney between 1967 and 1972 (Foley, “An Evening With”). Gary Foley reports that a dynamic new Black Power Movement emerged but the important difference between this new younger group and the older Indigenous leaders of the day was the diverse range of contemporary influences. Taking its mantra from the Black Panther movement in America, though having more in common with the equivalent Native American Red Power movement, the Black Power Movement acknowledged many other international struggles for independence as equally inspiring (Foley, “An Evening”). People joined together for grassroots resistance, formed anti-hierarchical collectives and established solidarities between varied groups who previously would have had little to do with each other. The 1973 Aquarius Festival was directly aligned with “back to the land” philosophies. The intention was to provide a place and a reason for gathering to “facilitate exchanges on survival techniques” and to experience “living in harmony with the natural environment.” without being destructive to the land (Dunstan, “A Survival Festival”). Early documents in the archives, however, reveal no apparent interest in Australia’s Indigenous people, referring more to “silken Arabian tents, mediaeval banners, circus, jugglers and clowns, peace pipes, maypole and magic circles” (Dunstan, “A Survival Festival”). Obliterated from the social landscape and minimally referred to in the Australian education system, Indigenous people were “off the radar” to the majority mindset, and the Australian counterculture similarly was slow to appreciate Indigenous culture. Like mainstream Australia, the local counterculture movement largely perceived the “race” issue as something occurring in other countries, igniting the phrase “in your own backyard” which became a catchcry of Indigenous activists (Foley, “Whiteness and Blackness”) With no mention of any Indigenous interest, it seems likely that the decision to engage grew from the emerging climate of Indigenous activism in Australia. Frustrated by student protestors who seemed oblivious to local racial issues, focusing instead on popular international injustices, Indigenous activists accused them of hypocrisy. Aquarius Festival directors, found themselves open to similar accusations when public announcements elicited a range of responses. Once committed to the location of Nimbin, directors Graeme Dunstan and Johnny Allen began a tour of Australian universities to promote the upcoming event. While at the annual conference of AUS in January 1973 at Monash University, Dunstan met Indigenous activist Gary Foley: Gary witnessed the presentation of Johnny Allen and myself at the Aquarius Foundation session and our jubilation that we had agreement from the village residents to not only allow, but also to collaborate in the production of the Festival. After our presentation which won unanimous support, it was Gary who confronted me with the question “have you asked permission from local Aboriginal folk?” This threw me into confusion because we had seen no Aboriginals in Nimbin. (Dunstan, e-mail) Such a challenge came at a time when the historical climate was etched with political activism, not only within the student movement, but more importantly with Indigenous activists’ recent demonstrations, such as the installation in 1972 of the Tent Embassy in Canberra. As representatives of the counterculture movement, which was characterised by its inclinations towards consciousness-raising, AUS organisers were ethically obliged to respond appropriately to the questions about Indigenous permission and involvement in the Aquarius Festival at Nimbin. In addition to this political pressure, organisers in Nimbin began hearing stories of the area being cursed or taboo for women. This most likely originated from the tradition of Nimbin Rocks, a rocky outcrop one kilometre from Nimbin, as a place where only certain men could go. Jennifer Hoff explains that many major rock formations were immensely sacred places and were treated with great caution and respect. Only a few Elders and custodians could visit these places and many such locations were also forbidden for women. Ceremonies were conducted at places like Nimbin Rocks to ensure the wellbeing of all tribespeople. Stories of the Nimbin curse began to spread and most likely captivated a counterculture interested in mysticism. As organisers had hoped that news of the festival would spread on the “lips of the counterculture,” they were alarmed to hear how “fast the bad news of this curse was travelling” (Dunstan, e-mail). A diplomatic issue escalated with further challenges from the Black Power community when organisers discovered that word had spread to Sydney’s Indigenous community in Redfern. Organisers faced a hostile reaction to their alleged cultural insensitivity and were plagued by negative publicity with accusations the AUS were “violating sacred ground” (Janice Newton 62). Faced with such bad press, Dunstan was determined to repair what was becoming a public relations disaster. It seemed once prompted to the path, a sense of moral responsibility prevailed amongst the organisers and they took the unprecedented step of reaching out to Australia’s Indigenous people. Dunstan claimed that an expedition was made to the local Woodenbong mission to consult with Elder, Uncle Lyle Roberts. To connect with local people required crossing the great social divide present in that era of Australia’s history. Amy Nethery described how from the nineteenth century to the 1960s, a “system of reserves, missions and other institutions isolated, confined and controlled Aboriginal people” (9). She explains that the people were incarcerated as a solution to perceived social problems. For Foley, “the widespread genocidal activity of early “settlement” gave way to a policy of containment” (Foley, “Australia and the Holocaust”). Conditions on missions were notoriously bad with alcoholism, extreme poverty, violence, serious health issues and depression common. Of particular concern to mission administrators was the perceived need to keep Indigenous people separate from the non-indigenous population. Dunstan described the mission he visited as having “bad vibes.” He found it difficult to communicate with the elderly man, and was not sure if he understood Dunstan’s quest, as his “responses came as disjointed raves about Jesus and saving grace” (Dunstan, e-mail). Uncle Lyle, he claimed, did not respond affirmatively or negatively to the suggestion that Nimbin was cursed, and so Dunstan left assuming it was not true. Other organisers began to believe the curse and worried that female festival goers might get sick or worse, die. This interpretation reflected, as Vanessa Bible argues, a general Eurocentric misunderstanding of the relationship of Indigenous peoples with the land. Paul Joseph admits they were naïve whites coming into a place with very little understanding, “we didn’t know if we needed a witch doctor or what we needed but we knew we needed something from the Aborigines to lift the spell!”(Joseph and Hanley). Joseph, one of the first “hippies” who moved to the area, had joined forces with AUS organisers. He said, “it just felt right” to get Indigenous involvement and recounted how organisers made another trip to Woodenbong Mission to find Dickee (Richard) Donnelly, a Song Man, who was very happy to be invited. Whether the curse was valid or not it proved to be productive in further instigating respectful action. Perhaps feeling out of their depth, the organisers initiated another strategy to engage with Australian Indigenous people. A call out was sent through the AUS network to diversify the cultural input and it was recommended they engage the services of South African artist, Bauxhau Stone. Timing aligned well as in 1972 Australia had voted in a new Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam. Whitlam brought about significant political changes, many in response to socialist protests that left a buoyancy in the air for the counterculturalist movement. He made prodigious political changes in support of Indigenous people, including creating the Aboriginal Arts Board as part of the Australian Council of the Arts (ACA). As the ACA were already funding activities for the Aquarius Festival, organisers were successful in gaining two additional grants specifically for Indigenous participation (Farnham). As a result We were able to hire […] representatives, a couple of Kalahari bushmen. ‘Cause we were so dumb, we didn’t think we could speak to the black people, you know what I mean, we thought we would be rejected, or whatever, so for us to really reach out, we needed somebody black to go and talk to them, or so we thought, and it was remarkable. This one Bau, a remarkable fellow really, great artist, great character, he went all over Australia. He went to Pitjantjatjara, Yirrkala and we arranged buses and tents when they got here. We had a very large contingent of Aboriginal people come to the Aquarius Festival, thanks to Whitlam. (Joseph in Joseph and Henley) It was under the aegis of these government grants that Bauxhau Stone conducted his work. Stone embodied a nexus of contemporary issues. Acutely aware of the international movement for racial equality and its relevance to Australia, where conditions were “really appalling”, Stone set out to transform Australian race relations by engaging with the alternative arts movement (Stone). While his white Australian contemporaries may have been unaccustomed to dealing with the Indigenous racial issue, Stone was actively engaged and thus well suited to act as a cultural envoy for the Aquarius Festival. He visited several local missions, inviting people to attend and notifying them of ceremonies being conducted by respected Elders. Nimbin was then the site of the Aquarius Lifestyle and Celebration Festival, a two week gathering of alternative cultures, technologies and youth. It innovatively demonstrated its diversity of influences, attracted people from all over the world and was the first time that the general public really witnessed Australia’s counterculture (Derrett 224). As markers of cultural life, counterculture festivals of the 1960s and 1970s were as iconic as the era itself and many around the world drew on the unique Indigenous heritage of their settings in some form or another (Partridge; Perone; Broadley and Jones; Zolov). The social phenomenon of coming together to experience, celebrate and foster a sense of unity was triggered by protests, music and a simple, yet deep desire to reconnect with each other. Festivals provided an environment where the negative social pressures of race, gender, class and mores (such as clothes) were suspended and held the potential “for personal and social transformation” (St John 167). With the expressed intent to “take matters into our own hands” and try to develop alternative, innovative ways of doing things with collective participation, the Aquarius Festival thus became an optimal space for reinvigorating ancient and Indigenous ways (Dunstan, “A Survival Festival”). With philosophies that venerated collectivism, tribalism, connecting with the earth, and the use of ritual, the Indigenous presence at the Aquarius Festival gave attendees the opportunity to experience these values. To connect authentically with Nimbin’s landscape, forming bonds with the Traditional Owners was essential. Participants were very fortunate to have the presence of the last known initiated men of the area, Uncle Lyle Roberts and Uncle Dickee Donnely. These Elders represented the last vestiges of an ancient culture and conducted innovative ceremonies, song, teachings and created a sacred fire for the new youth they encountered in their land. They welcomed the young people and were very happy for their presence, believing it represented a revolutionary shift (Wedd; King; John Roberts; Cecil Roberts). Images 1 and 2: Ceremony and talks conducted at the Aquarius Festival (people unknown). Photographs reproduced by permission of photographer and festival attendee Paul White. The festival thus provided an important platform for the regeneration of cultural and spiritual practices. John Roberts, nephew of Uncle Lyle, recalled being surprised by the reaction of festival participants to his uncle: “He was happy and then he started to sing. And my God … I couldn’t get near him! There was this big ring of hippies around him. They were about twenty deep!” Sharing to an enthusiastic, captive audience had a positive effect and gave the non-indigenous a direct Indigenous encounter (Cecil Roberts; King; Oshlak). Estimates of the number of Indigenous people in attendance vary, with the main organisers suggesting 800 to 1000 and participants suggesting 200 to 400 (Stone; Wedd; Oshlak: Joseph; King; Cecil Roberts). As the Festival lasted over a two week period, many came and left within that time and estimates are at best reliant on memory, engagement and perspectives. With an estimated total attendance at the Festival between 5000 and 10,000, either number of Indigenous attendees is symbolic and a significant symbolic statistic for Indigenous and non-indigenous to be together on mutual ground in Australia in 1973. Images 3-5: Performers from Yirrkala Dance Group, brought to the festival by Stone with funding from the Federal Government. Photographs reproduced by permission of photographer and festival attendee Dr Ian Cameron. For Indigenous people, the event provided an important occasion to reconnect with their own people, to share their culture with enthusiastic recipients, as well as the chance to experience diverse aspects of the counterculture. Though the northern NSW region has a history of diverse cultural migration of Italian and Indian families, the majority of non-indigenous and Indigenous people had limited interaction with cosmopolitan influences (Kijas 20). Thus Nimbin was a conservative region and many Christianised Indigenous people were also conservative in their outlook. The Aquarius Festival changed that as the Indigenous people experienced the wide-ranging cultural elements of the alternative movement. The festival epitomised countercultural tendencies towards flamboyant fashion and hairstyles, architectural design, fantastical art, circus performance, Asian clothes and religious products, vegetarian food and nudity. Exposure to this bohemian culture would have surely led to “mind expansion and consciousness raising,” explicit aims adhered to by the movement (Roszak). Performers and participants from Africa, America and India also gave attending Indigenous Australians the opportunity to interact with non-European cultures. Many people interviewed for this paper indicated that Indigenous people’s reception of this festival experience was joyous. For Australia’s early counterculture, interest in Indigenous Australia was limited and for organisers of the AUS Aquarius Festival, it was not originally on the agenda. The counterculture in the USA and New Zealand had already started to engage with their Indigenous people some years earlier. However due to the Aquarius Festival’s origins in the student movement and its solidarities with the international Indigenous activist movement, they were forced to shift their priorities. The coincidental selection of a significant spiritual location at Nimbin to hold the festival brought up additional challenges and countercultural intrigue with mystical powers and a desire to connect authentically to the land, further prompted action. Essentially, it was the voices of empowered Indigenous activists, like Gary Foley, which in fact triggered the reaching out to Indigenous involvement. While the counterculture organisers were ultimately receptive and did act with unprecedented respect, credit must be given to Indigenous activists. The activist’s role is to trigger action and challenge thinking and in this case, it was ultimately productive. Therefore the Indigenous people were not merely passive recipients of beneficiary goodwill, but active instigators of appropriate cultural exchange. After the 1973 festival many attendees decided to stay in Nimbin to purchase land collectively and a community was born. Relationships established with local Indigenous people developed further. Upon visiting Nimbin now, one will see a vibrant visual display of Indigenous and psychedelic themed art, a central park with an open fire tended by local custodians and other Indigenous community members, an Aboriginal Centre whose rent is paid for by local shopkeepers, and various expressions of a fusion of counterculture and Indigenous art, music and dance. While it appears that reconciliation became the aspiration for mainstream society in the 1990s, Nimbin’s early counterculture history had Indigenous reconciliation at its very foundation. The efforts made by organisers of the 1973 Aquarius Festival stand as one of very few examples in Australian history where non-indigenous Australians have respectfully sought to learn from Indigenous people and to assimilate their cultural practices. It also stands as an example for the world, of reconciliation, based on hippie ideals of peace and love. They encouraged the hippies moving up here, even when they came out for Aquarius, old Uncle Lyle and Richard Donnelly, they came out and they blessed the mob out here, it was like the hairy people had come back, with the Nimbin, cause the Nimbynji is the little hairy people, so the hairy people came back (Jerome). References Barr-Melej, Patrick. “Siloísmo and the Self in Allende’s Chile: Youth, 'Total Revolution,' and the Roots of the Humanist Movement.” Hispanic American Historical Review 86.4 (Nov. 2006): 747-784. Bible, Vanessa. Aquarius Rising: Terania Creek and the Australian Forest Protest Movement. BA (Honours) Thesis. University of New England, Armidale, 2010. Broadley, Colin, and Judith Jones, eds. Nambassa: A New Direction. Auckland: Reed, 1979. Bryant, Gordon M. Parliament of Australia. Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. 1 May 1973. Australian Union of Students. Records of the AUS, 1934-1991. National Library of Australia MS ACC GB 1992.0505. Cameron, Ian. “Aquarius Festival Photographs.” 1973. Clarke, Jennifer. Aborigines and Activism: Race, Aborigines and the Coming of the Sixties to Australia. Crawley: University of Western Australia Press, 2008. Derrett, Ross. Regional Festivals: Nourishing Community Resilience: The Nature and Role of Cultural Festivals in Northern Rivers NSW Communities. PhD Thesis. Southern Cross University, Lismore, 2008. Dunstan, Graeme. “A Survival Festival May 1973.” 1 Aug. 1972. Pamphlet. MS 6945/1. Nimbin Aquarius Festival Archives. National Library of Australia, Canberra. ---. E-mail to author, 11 July 2012. ---. “The Aquarius Festival.” Aquarius Rainbow Region. n.d. Farnham, Ken. Acting Executive Officer, Aboriginal Council for the Arts. 19 June 1973. Letter. MS ACC GB 1992.0505. Australian Union of Students. Records of the AUS, 1934-1991. National Library of Australia, Canberra. Foley, Gary. “Australia and the Holocaust: A Koori Perspective (1997).” The Koori History Website. n.d. 20 May 2013 ‹http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/essays/essay_8.html›. ---. “Whiteness and Blackness in the Koori Struggle for Self-Determination (1999).” The Koori History Website. n.d. 20 May 2013 ‹http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/essays/essay_9.html›. ---. “Black Power in Redfern 1968-1972 (2001).” The Koori History Website. n.d. 20 May 2013 ‹http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/essays/essay_1.html›. ---. “An Evening with Legendary Aboriginal Activist Gary Foley.” Conference Session. Marxism 2012 “Revolution in the Air”, Melbourne, Mar. 2012. Hoff, Jennifer. Bundjalung Jugun: Bundjalung Country. Lismore: Richmond River Historical Society, 2006. Jacob, Jeffrey. New Pioneers: The Back-to-the-Land Movement and the Search for a Sustainable Future. Pennsylvania: Penn State Press, 1997. Jerome, Burri. Interview. 31 July 2012. Joseph, Paul. Interview. 7 Aug. 2012. 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Panic attacks are highly prevalent in Australia and the Western world, and the burden of illness associated with this condition is considerable. However, current scholarly research on panic is limited, and does not sufficiently reflect the magnitude of the problem. This study makes a contribution to this largely unexplored area by investigating the research questions: What are the lived experiences of employees who have panic attacks, and how do these experiences impact life, in and beyond the workplace? The panic experience was explored through a hermeneutic phenomenological lens, and the methodological guidelines outlined by van Manen were used to inform the data collection and analysis. Interviews were conducted with 18 Australians who had experienced panic attacks during a period of paid employment. A thematic analysis of their narratives led to the development of the phenomenological model, consisting of three overarching themes – ‘Facing Adversity: Living with Panic’, ‘Struggling with Organisational Life: Working with Panic’, and ‘Moving Beyond Adversity’. The study highlighted that despite the perception from others that panic attacks were a trivial and unimportant condition, people with panic experienced real suffering and disadvantage in and around the workplace. Stigma was a genuine concern for participants, and many felt that family members, health professionals, managers and work colleagues trivialised their problems with panic and, in effect, denied their sick role and illness experience. In spite of these challenges, living ‘well’ with panic was possible. Many participants developed resilience and reported that panic attacks were the catalyst that led to positive self-change in their lives. The study has illuminated the unique challenges and support needs of employees with panic, as well as the implications for these individuals, their families, organisations and the wider community. It is proposed that greater awareness of this lived experience has the potential to increase the visibility, acceptance and treatment of people with panic.

This thesis is submitted in accordance to the University of Western Sydney's thesis rules for ‘Thesis as a Series of Papers’. This thesis comprises four lead author and twenty-seven co-authored refereed journal papers published during my candidature. The theme of the papers and thus the thesis is a study supernova remnants (SNRs), in particular ‘young’ SNRs, that is SNRs <2000 years old representing the time of the transition from Supernova to Supernova Remnant. New high resolution Australia Telescope Compact Array radio-continuum observations and multifrequency archival data from various national and international observatories are used. Considered is how the SNRs' multifrequency morphological appearance, polarisation and magnetic field relates to their age, stage of evolution and progenitor star explosion mechanism.

The fundamental question driving this thesis is: Is the ‘Individualisation thesis’, as presented by Beck and Beck-Gernshiem (2002), a useful framework for understanding the historical transformation in family structures, from the predominance of the traditional nuclear family to contemporary ‘families of choice’. An exploration of family work experiences as recounted to me by Australian men who I argue are situated in an archetypal ‘democratic family’, what Russell (1987) referred to as the “reversed-role family” will provide the primary data for interrogating this question. This is because the reversed-role family not only diverges from the traditional model of the family but also challenges traditional ideas of gender on which ideologies of the family are ostensibly built. These families, according to Smith (1998: 139) “contradict conceptual prejudices that we inscribe on female and male bodies…(and) embody a challenge to stereotyped views of men as non-domesticated and non-nurturing”. The appeal of individualisation as presented by Beck and Beck Gernsheim (2002) is understandable. Imagery of the individual cut free from the confined and constrained bonds of ‘tradition’ (which elicits connotations of something passé or out-dated) is an attractive idea. Such imagery is particularly powerful when it comes to the family and gender, since the ideology of the nuclear family has been recognised as being a significant factor in women’s subjugated position within the patriarchal order of things and also men’s ongoing disconnection from family life, particularly family work. The notion that ‘tradition’ is disappearing or becoming less influential though was not found in this study. Certainly at stages the men narratives suggested that they were acting in a non-traditional manner. But these actions had limitations. To push any further would disrupt their overarching sense of who they were as men. I don’t want to imply that ‘tradition’ was left unchallenged though. The large majority of these men entered into a family arrangement which arguably would not be given consideration by most Australian men and for them to do so is an indication that tradition is not sacred or protected from appraisal. What I would argue is occurring is not that ‘tradition’ (both structural and ideological) is dissolving but is being adapted by these men so as to balance up beliefs about their position in their family and their conception of masculinity. Traditional conceptions of family life (based on hegemonic masculinity and the nuclear family model) acted as a base from which the men could explore alternative ideas. Tradition appeared to remain an integral way in which the men understood their position at-home, but there was some flexibility and fluidity with the way in which the men adapted these to suit their ideas of what it meant to be at-home. New ‘knowledge’ played a role, but not in replacing tradition but enabling the men to add layers to it. Moreover, it was not something that was chosen, as such, but rather it implicitly influenced the choices the men made. Fundamentally traditional conceptions of gender permeated the men’s narratives of their experience with being at-home but this was rarely explicitly expressed. The men retained a freedom (some might argue power) to pick and choose their level of participation and wives retained their specialist status as the ‘experts’ of household labour. For those men with children, fathering activities were a primary source of how they positioned themselves in the home. The few instances when the men explicitly referred to their masculinity it was when they were describing masculine work or ‘man time’ which was disconnected to the home. Although I agree with both Mythen (2005) and Skelton (2005) that Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (2002) somewhat exaggerate the dissolution of tradition, the ‘Individualisation’ thesis is not wholly without merit. Despite the fact that discussion and negotiation stalled after transition, the men displayed receptivity to negotiate and adapt, reflective of the dimensions of the ‘democratic family’. Admittedly there appears to be an essentially class influence underpinning this responsiveness, but it is encouraging to witness ideologies of mutual respect, emotional and sexual democracy, and equality penetrating men’s perspectives of not just relationships but also their expectations associated with home life. This is perhaps a particularly positive sign when you consider how strong patriarchal entitlement pervades Australian culture.

One of the fundamental tasks underlying much of computer vision is the detection, tracking and recognition of visual features. It is an inherently difficult and challenging problem, and despite the advances in computational power, pixel resolution, and frame rates, even the state-of-the-art methods fall far short of the robustness, reliability and energy consumption of biological vision systems. Silicon retinas, such as the Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) and Asynchronous Time-based Imaging Sensor (ATIS), attempt to replicate some of the benefits of biological retinas and provide a vastly different paradigm in which to sense and process the visual world. Tasks such as tracking and object recognition still require the identification and matching of local visual features, but the detection, extraction and recognition of features requires a fundamentally different approach, and the methods that are commonly applied to conventional imaging are not directly applicable. This thesis explores methods to detect features in the spatio-temporal information from event-based vision sensors. The nature of features in such data is explored, and methods to determine and detect features are demonstrated. A framework for detecting, tracking, recognising and classifying features is developed and validated using real-world data and event-based variations of existing computer vision datasets and benchmarks. The results presented in this thesis demonstrate the potential and efficacy of event-based systems. This work provides an in-depth analysis of different event-based methods for object recognition and classification and introduces two feature-based methods. Two learning systems, one event-based and the other iterative, were used to explore the nature and classification ability of these methods. The results demonstrate the viability of event-based classification and the importance and role of motion in event-based feature detection.

Bismuth minerals associated with Mo, W, and Sn, are often found amongst the highly acidic deposits of the eastern ranges of Australia (Plimer, 1975; Weber et al., 1978). It is important to gain an understanding of the mobility and dispersion of Bi in the supergene zone and make an assessment of these areas, as they have been the focus for geochemical exploration to develop prospects and mining operations. A review of the literature on bismuth as a pathfinder element, with respect to its ground water and regolith concentrations, uncovered significant documentation including scientific, industrial and government reports, the use of various sampling methods, and the use of assumptions in previous studies due to the information and techniques available at the time (MacDuff, 1971; 1971a; 1971b; 1972; Siegal, 1974; Roes et al., 1979; Levinson, 1980; Plant et al., 1989; Plant et al., 1991; Fiella; 2010). Furthermore, information on the Gibbs free energy of formation values was limited to 3 out of the 65 known bismuth secondary minerals (Clissold, 2007). A study on a range of secondary bismuth minerals in the supergene zone, (Rankin et al., 2001, 2002; Sharpe and Williams, 2004) showed that even though bismuth minerals are considered to be rare, localised areas of Bi concentration are in fact quite common. Examples of this can be found in certain deposits in eastern Australia such as the New England Orogen. Therefore, the geochemical modelling carried out in this thesis has focused on eastern Australia and examines potential impacts on geochemical exploration where Bi has been used as a pathfinder element. Furthermore this work can be been applied to exploration sites around the world where Bi is employed as a pathfinder element. To do this, a rigorous investigation including Bi mineral synthesis, solubility and stabilities was undertaken thus yielding an assessment of the suitability of bismuth as a pathfinder for future geochemical surveys.

Cyanobacteria are well known producers of natural products, many of which display bioactivities with potential pharmaceutical interest. Cyanobacteria are classified into five subsections based on their morphology, of which the Subsection V are considered to be the most morphologically advanced. Recent genome sequencing projects have led to an increase in the number of publically available Subsection V cyanobacterial genomes, however, the secondary metabolite potential of the majority of these organisms remains elusive. The overall aim of this thesis was to increase the knowledge of the secondary metabolite potential of the Subsection V cyanobacteria, through identification and characterisation of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters from whole genome sequences. This thesis builds upon the recent identification and characterisation of the ambiguine (amb) and welwitindolinone (wel) biosynthetic gene clusters, as well as the identification of NRPS/PKS, PRPS and terpene biosynthetic gene clusters from publically available Subsection V cyanobacterial genomes. The aim of this thesis was to demonstrate the diversity and potential of the Subsection V cyanobacteria to produce secondary metabolites from a range of natural product classes. Furthermore, the aim of this thesis was to characterise the early stages of hapalindole biosynthesis through heterologous expression, and characterise the expression of the mycosporine-like amino acid (MAA) gene cluster under UV-A and UV-B radiation. Genome mining for all classes of natural products was performed within the 11 publically available Subsection V cyanobacteria, in addition to two cyanobacterial genomes sequenced in this study, W. intricata UH strain HT-29-1 and H. welwitschii Uh strain IC-52-3. A biosynthetic gene cluster for hapalosin was identified within three Subsection V cyanobacterial genomes, however, hapalosin has previously only been identified within the cyanobacterium H. welwitschii UH strain IC-52-3. In total, 17 complete orphan NRPS/PKS gene clusters were identified from the Subsection V cyanobacteria. Biosynthetic gene clusters for a number of PRPS (including cyanobactin, microviridin and bacteriocin gene clusters), MAAs, scytonemin, hydrocarbons, terpenes and the hapalindole family of natural products were also identified. Genome mining has revealed the diversity, abundance and complex nature of secondary metabolite potential of the Subsection V cyanobacteria.

SMEs in the Western Sydney Region operate in a complex and competitive environment and are an integral part of the community in which they are based. They provide employment in the region and are also significant drivers for the growth, development and maintenance of the Western Sydney economy. It is not known nevertheless the extent to which these SMEs practice environmental and social responsibility (ESR). In order to address this knowledge gap, this thesis investigates the relationship between micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and ESR. More specifically, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods it explores four themes: a) owners/managers’ conceptualisations of ESR; b) patterns of adoption of ESR practices; c) drivers of, and barriers to the implementation of ESR initiatives; and d) the role of relationships between owners/managers and their stakeholder networks in the adoption of ESR practices. The findings of the research revealed that the SME community in Western Sydney is particularly heterogeneous, and that their behaviour and approach to ESR varies according to the size and complexity of the business. For example, while the owners/managers of medium organisations adopted a more instrumental approach to ESR practices (i.e. ESR as a means to an economic end), the owners/managers of the smaller organisations (i.e. micro and small businesses) tended to display a more ethical perspective in relation to ESR (i.e. the ‘right thing to do’). It was found that the smaller organisations were unable to implement formal ESR practices due to factors such as cost, time pressures and lack of knowledge. The findings also demonstrate the centrality of relationships in the SME community, revealing that, where there was a meta-purpose to common good in the relationships between SME owners/managers and their stakeholder network, members of the network were inclined to work together towards ESR practices beyond legislation. Personal relationships seemed particularly important among small and micro SMEs, notably between employees and the local community, where the business was geographically situated nearby key stakeholders. These relationships were generally tied and personal, and shaped by a high level of trust and sense of reciprocity. This research contributes to knowledge in two ways: first it enhances understanding of how SMEs in Western Sydney conceptualise and implement ESR practices. Second, it fosters a better understanding of the role and dynamics of stakeholder social capital (i.e., relationships xi between companies in a stakeholder network) which, it is argued, can to some extent, ensure outcomes associated with ESR. In more practical terms, this research provides valuable data that may be helpful to assist SMEs in dealing more effectively with environmental and social concerns in their dynamic and ever changing business context. By strengthening the relationship ties in their stakeholder network to share knowledge and resources, SMEs can overcome the common barriers to ESR such as: failure to see the economic benefits of environmental protection activities, limited information on ESR, and limited time and resources. The thesis recommends that further research be carried out to assist SMEs in Western Sydney in understanding and dealing with current and future ESR challenges, and also on the extent to which government agencies support them in ESR endeavours. Further studies should also be conducted to compare and contrast businesses of different sizes, sectors and geographical locations to find out how they can contribute to enhance knowledge of the SME-ESR relationship.

Background: Reviews of maternity services in Australia have called for a reduction in interventions and an increase in education and support to increase rates of normal birth. Evidence suggests that selected complementary therapies (CM) are effective during labour to assist with the management of pain, and in decreasing interventions. Antenatal education, in the Australian maternity context, has shifted from its original focus of birth preparation, to a broader focus on overall pregnancy, birth and parenting information. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a complementary therapies antenatal education package: The ‘Complete Birth Study’, to reduce rates of epidural block (EDB) and other outcomes in low-risk first-time mothers (primiparas). Additionally, we explored the experiences of women, partners and midwives in the use and preferences of complementary therapies during birth. Method: This mixed methods study was implemented in two public hospitals in Sydney Australia, reflecting two diverse socio-economic areas. One hundred and seventy one low-risk primiparous women were recruited to the study, and were randomised to receive the Complete Birth Study package plus usual care, or to usual care alone. An RCT of the intervention was conducted, and comprised six CM techniques including: acupressure; yoga; massage; visualisation/relaxation; breathing techniques; continuous partner support; as well as education about normal birth physiology, plus standard antenatal care and compared this with standard antenatal care alone. Birth outcome data were obtained from hospital birth summaries, and women’s sense of control was evaluated using the Labour Agentry Scale and Attitude Toward Birth Questionnaires. Data were analysed using an intention to treat analysis. To examine the selective use, rehearsal and preferences of women and partners in using CM techniques, in-depth interviews were conducted with a sub-group of study participants, 13 women and 7 partners, at six weeks’ post-partum. To examine midwives use and preference for CM techniques, a focus group with 12 midwives at the higher recruiting study hospital was conducted following completion of recruitment. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcribed in-depth interview and focus group data. Results: Birth outcome data showed a significant reduction in rates of EDB as the primary outcome measure. An absolute reduction of 45%, and a relative reduction of 65% (RR=0.35 [95% C.I.: 0.23-0.52], p<0.001) in the EDB rate was demonstrated in the study group compared with the control group. The Complete Birth Study was also effective in significantly reducing secondary outcomes, such as rates of augmentation, length of second stage labour, CS and resuscitation of the newborn, and showing a trend towards reducing instrumental vaginal births and major perineal trauma. This study also provides evidence for an increase in positive attitude towards birth in the antenatal period and increased feelings of agency of control during labour and birth. In characterising the effectiveness of the program and its components through in-depth interviews with women and partners and a focus group with midwives, the overarching theme identified was ‘making sense of labour and birth’. In examining how women, partners and midwives used the CM techniques to make sense of the labour and birth, three major themes were identified: ‘working for normal’, ‘having a toolkit’, and ‘finding what works’. Women and partners identified acupressure, breathing techniques and yoga as the most useful therapies. Conclusions: This mixed methods study provides evidence that antenatal education using CM techniques is an effective and viable method of managing pain during labour, increasing personal control for women, enabling partners and midwives to provide appropriate support, and thereby reducing some medical interventions and increasing the normal birth rate. These significant results demonstrate the effectiveness of providing an independent educational program, using evidence-based practices, and incorporating midwifery and CM philosophies, through the public hospital system. This research provides us with an opportunity to contribute a valuable dialogue to inform evidence-based policy decision-making addressing the specific challenges of current antenatal education and maternity care in NSW.

Axonal degeneration is the final common path in many neurological disorders. It is seen in its pure form in hereditary axonal neuropathies. The hereditary neuropathies are the most common group of diseases. Subsets of neuropathies involving the sensory neuron are known as hereditary sensory neuropathies (HSNs). Hereditary sensory neuropathy type I (HSN-I) (the most common subtype of HSNs) is an autosomal dominant inherited disorder, characterised by the progressive degeneration of the dorsal root ganglion and with onset of clinical symptoms occurring between the second or third decade of life. Heterozygous mutations in the serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT) long chain subunit 1 (SPTLC1) have been identified as the cause of HSN-I. In Paper I, we optimised an isolation method of mitochondria to allow the production of a full and in-depth proteomic profile to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying mitochondrial (dys) function in HSN-I. Paper II, detailed examinations of a small sub-set of proteins that were found to be altered in abundance within harvested mitochondria from HSN-I mutant SPTLC1 cells. Comparison of mitochondrial protein isolates from control and patient lymphoblasts, showed an increased abundance of Ubiquinol Cytochrome C Reductase Core Protein 1, an electron-transport chain protein, as well as the immunoglobulin, Ig Kappa Chain C. In, Paper III, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein lysates from HSN-I patient and control lymphoblasts, were examined leading to identification of changes in expression of five proteins; Hypoxia Up regulated Protein 1, Chloride Intracellular Channel Protein 1, Ubiqutin-40s Ribosomal Protein S27a, Coactosin and Ig Kappa chain C. Further investigations into mitochondrial and ER protein profiles were carried out in Paper IV, which showed a number of proteins that were altered in their relative abundance using membrane and soluble isolation techniques. Further analyses of these identified changes were carried out and replicated in Paper V, which revealed and confirmed the changes in protein expression and abundance of proteins earlier identified in Papers I and II. Changes were identified in V144D mutations, as well as C133W and C133Y mutations. All of which are implicated to be casual of HSN-I. Lipid droplets and alterations of lipid metabolism are hallmarks of a variety autosomal dominant neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Paper VI, revealed significant increases in the presence of lipid droplets in HSN-I patient-derived lymphoblasts, indicating a potential connection between lipid droplet formation and the molecular mechanisms of HSN-I. In conclusion, this study has shown alteration in mitochondrial and ER protein profiles in patient-derived lymphoblasts and in transfected neuronal cells expressing the mutations V144D, C133W and C133Y. This investigation has contributed to the field by identifying protein alterations which has yielded a more detailed and in-depth analysis of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in HSN-I.

Gene delivery or gene therapy involves the coupling of a nucleic acid sequences with a delivery vehicle, such as viruses or lipids, to facilitate uptake into the target cell. During the delivery of the exogenous nucleic acid sequences a number of obstacles are faced. As a result there has been a significant emphasis on developing an understanding of the processes involved. To date most studies have focused on limited time intervals or small regions of the cell, or fixed samples. Developing a realtime, multi-level information approach to characterise the live cell responses to exogenous nucleic acid sequences is expected to underpin optimising Gene Therapy methodology. In addition, it is likely this approach could be applied to drug delivery and enhance our understanding of cellular processing. Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) is one approach to analyse single molecules of extremely low concentration with high spatial and temporal resolution (for example, 600 particles are expected to be within the illumination volume at a given time in a 1 μM solution of a small molecule). Compared to other fluorescence-based approaches FCS measures the spontaneous intensity fluctuations caused by minute changes in particle behaviour, rather than relying on the emission intensity of fluorescence. Fundamentally, FCS has the potential to measure and fully quantify all physical processes occurring in a cell that give rise to fluctuations in the fluorescence signal including mobility and aggregation.