Search

Proposals for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) have a long history, but a surge of interest since the global financial crisis suggests a connection to growing inequality and insecurity. The pandemic intensified interest through the global explosion in the use of cash transfers. This special issue arose from pre-pandemic debates among Australian sociologists connecting global interest around UBI to emerging patterns of inequality and insecurity stemming from Australia's precarious labour market and expensive housing market. Those discussions broadened to reflect on Australia's colonial history and patriarchal economy, and the potential to recognise more diverse contributions and values. Evolving through the Covid crisis, the issue now incorporates the remarkable alternatives that were, briefly, made possible. The articles reflect both scepticism and optimism towards UBI, but all reveal how basic income can provide a useful lens for Australian sociology – a simple tool responding to an increasingly complex society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospitality is popularly regarded as unskilled work and the industry relies on a young labour force. This paper examines the role of youth in the way that the ‘unskilled’ status of hospitality labour is defined and contested by workers. Drawing on qualitative data collected with hospitality workers, the paper creates new connections between theories of affective labour, the politics of skills, and conceptions of youth in relation to work. The paper shows that the capacity to be ‘fun’ and produce affects of enjoyment in hospitality venues is essentialised as an attribute of youth, who are regarded as essentially unskilled. Youth is enacted in the social relations of affective labour, including the requirement to produce affects of enjoyment. The paper shows how theories of affective labour can be developed to consider the materialities of low-wage service employment and demonstrates the significance of youthful subjectivities to social relations of hospitality work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how regulations on hair are constructed and justified in the uniform policies of Queensland high schools. Covering Government, Catholic, and Protestant schools, this paper explores how uniform policy across these sectors deploys the rhetoric of community values and appropriate representation, promoting the idea that uniformity is unity. Drawing on an analysis of 50 uniform policies from Queensland schools, I explore how hair is regulated by such policies and what justifications are provided for this regulation. In doing so, I examine the idea of an imagined, idealised student body and how these regulations impact students’ ability to negotiate with gendered, classed, and racialised constructions of community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societies often respond to a crisis by attributing blame to some groups while constructing others as victims and heroes. While it has received scant sociological attention, 'panic buying' is a critical indicator of such public sentiment at the onset of a crisis, and thus a crucial site for analysis. This article traces dynamics of blame in news media representations of an extreme period of panic buying during COVID-19 in Australia. Analysis reveals that lower socio-economic and ethnically diverse consumers were blamed disproportionately. Unlike wealthier consumers who bulk-bought online, shoppers filling trollies in-store were depicted as selfish and shameful, described using dehumanising language, and portrayed as 'villains' who threatened social order. Supermarkets were cast simultaneously as 'victims' of consumer aggression and 'heroes' for their moral leadership, trustworthiness and problem-solving. This portrayal misunderstands the socio-emotional drivers of panic buying, exacerbates stigma towards already disadvantaged groups, and veils the corporate profiteering that encourages stockpiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the latest decade of Australian sociology PhD completions for differences in the number and quality of research outputs students published during doctoral enrolment. There was no evidence of a statistically significant difference between Go8 PhD students and their non-Go8 PhD counterparts in terms of either the quantity of research publications achieved, or the quality of these publications as measured by high-impact journals. There was also insufficient evidence statistically to conclude that Go8 men and Go8 women differed from one another, or that non-Go8 men and non-Go8 women differed from one another in overall quantity of outputs and publishing in high-impact journals. However, publishing success of men and women, when combined, regardless of whether they were at elite Go8 or non-Go8 institutions, showed gender had a marginally significant effect on publication productivity, men outperforming women, in both publication counts and in publishing in high-impact journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades, there have been increased public debates about rising level of ethnic and religious diversity and their implications for social cohesion and intercultural relations. These contestations are often situated within a diversity governance continuum with two opposing and often extreme poles both in the policy arena as well as the academic literature. The first pole sees diversity as potentially contributing to social fissures and intercultural discord. The second pole highlights the benefits of an acceptance of diversity for cross-cultural awareness and social peace. Using empirical evidence from a multi-year project, this article assesses the key assumptions underlying these oppositional approaches through a study of the provision of social services to multicultural communities and its association with civic engagement and national belonging. Study findings show that access to multicultural services is significantly associated with higher levels of civic engagement among migrants, rather than social exclusion and urban segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tasmanian forestry industry has undergone major transition due to industry readjustments and critique from environmental movements. This article focuses on how Tasmanian forestry workers think and feel about an industry in transition. Through the sociological lens of habitus, it investigates how these workers seek to behave in ways that they see as reflecting moral, ethical, and sustainable behaviour. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews is used to explore how forestry workers continue or alter their everyday practices and how their dispositions, formed in the crucible of the forest, shape these social processes. The article demonstrates that as structural changes transform the lives of workers, the people who live and work in the forest are nonetheless trying to understand, articulate, and respond to the changes in ways that they see as reflecting ethical and sustainable behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociological deployments of Radical Italian theory have offered insight into the changing role of art in light of the generalised valorisation of creativity in post-Fordist societies. Less has been said about the increasingly useful character of art, as exemplified by artistic engagement with interdisciplinary forms of problem solving. This article focuses on the field of practice commonly known as ArtScience. I argue that Lazzarato's theory gains new relevance in this novel field of cultural practice, where material production is an increasingly minor element of artistic labour. I draw on two case studies from artists practising ArtScience in Berlin as speculative provocations for thinking about the ways in which social life today becomes implicated in the production of value, via processes of subjectivation, collaboration and communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scan of social research about rural New Zealand from the 1980s reveals power divisions which have muted the voices of 'others'. Listening to these voices could transform how we manage the economy, sustain the environment and promote social well-being in future. Rural sociological attention in New Zealand has focused on the people and communities associated with land and resource-based assets, with little attention to the rural majority not engaged in primary production. Indigenous voices are also missing. As Jessica Hutchings argues, decisions on economic development, the environment and social services continue to uphold colonial hegemony as the dominant worldview in Aotearoa New Zealand. By being open to the perspectives of people normally ignored and particularly engaging with indigenous approaches, application of capital and power in development can be rethought and structural inequalities addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much envisaging of the future is inherently ableist. Euro-American cultural imaginaries traditionally have emphasised the narrative of medical progress, assuming the end of impairment. Disability is a frequent trope for and in dystopias, whereas more positive or progressive futures ignore the presence and aspirations of disabled people who are frequently excluded from individual and collective endeavours to articulate and shape the future. They are presumed to be in effect ‘futureless’, lacking a future of value, leaving an unoccupied space for existing inequalities and privileges to flourish. This paper brings disability studies and sociology of futures into dialogue and makes the case for creating crip space(s) within sociologies of the future. Foregrounding disability can trouble and enrich sociological engagements with futurity, while analytic perspectives from sociology of futures can inform scholarship in disability studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-anxiety and associated emotions are on the rise. International estimates range from 25–68% prevalence. Australians now regard climate change as their top concern for the future, with some young people reconsidering their intentions to become parents. The emotional sequela from climate change is becoming clearer. How it is conceptualised, responded to, and reinforced within public discourse requires further consideration. This paper presents a multi-method qualitative text and discourse analysis of Australian online news articles published in 2022 reporting on emotions and our ecological future. Drawing on sociological theories of emotions and Foucauldian conceptualisations of discourse, we present insights into the potency of emotions and discourses within online news media. We identify four differing conceptualisations of emotions, interpret what these discourses can do, and conclude with ways in which the public can reclaim agency in resisting discourses that engender passivity in the context of future ecological threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being diagnosed with a life-limiting illness entails a fundamental reshaping of one's relationship with the future. From ‘bucket lists’ of destinations and experiences to ‘flights of hope’ for experimental or specialised medical care, diagnoses of serious illness are deeply entwined with travel in Australian cultural narratives. In this paper, we draw on a thematic analysis of interviews with cancer patients and their carers to ask what meanings are attached to narratives of travel – whether completed or constrained, imagined or interrupted – in the context of a cancer diagnosis. Focusing on narratives of travel draws attention to themes of disruption, resilience, autonomy and living a meaningful life within the precarious timescape of cancer. Through this analysis of time and travel, we examine how normative expectations of how to live with or beyond cancer can produce tensions, particularly in the uncertain but precariously hopeful landscape of precision cancer treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commentators have predicted that Australian male primary school teachers will be extinct within 50 years. Drawing upon sociological ideas about the emergence of 'caring masculinities', this article qualitatively examines popular Australian understandings about male primary school teachers, their importance, why they are declining and whether, and how, this gender imbalance can be addressed. The study analyses data from 541 comments posted in response to nine online media pieces on male primary school teachers in Australia. The article shows that commenters believe men teaching young children experience stigmatised masculine identities but misplace the cause of this as the result of women and anti-feminist 'anti-male bias' rather than the constraining impact of hegemonic masculinity. The article suggests that until more caring and progressive forms of masculinity are culturally and economically valued in Australia we will see little change in the numbers of men entering primary school teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores why women miss out in the transition from the educational system to the labour market. Using nationally representative longitudinal data (2001–18) from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we compare how long after graduation it takes men and women with tertiary qualifications (n = 2030) to achieve key labour market milestones: (1) getting a full-time job; (2) getting a permanent contract; (3) earning an average wage; (4) finding a job that matches their skill level. We find significant gender differences in reaching these milestones, confirming that time is a critical dimension for understanding gendered inequalities in the returns to education. We attribute findings to incompatible 'timescapes' across the institutions of education, family and employment. The more flexible timescape of education allows women to succeed, but the inflexible timescape of employment (particularly when combined with family responsibilities) impedes them from turning educational achievement into labour market progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on satisfaction with work–life balance among doctorate holders is scarce when considering those working outside academia. In this article, we present research on work–life balance among female and male doctorate holders working within and outside academia, and examine how satisfied are they with their work–life balance, and the role of gender and career path in that satisfaction. We study the role of time and flexibility, and whether differences are found in career path among doctorate holders working within and outside academia. The findings, based on open-ended interviews with 32 doctorate holders in Iceland, indicate that the doctorate holders find it difficult to balance their work and family life and feel they are always in a rush. Nevertheless, the academics expressed more complex feelings about their daily lives than those outside academia, especially the women, as their flexible working arrangements allowed them to be always working meant they were always working. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, there is a dearth of research applying the theoretical lens of critical race theory to explore Muslim university students' experiences in higher degree education institutions. The prevailing approach has been to focus on institutional barriers and policies. This article deviates from such studies by framing the analysis in terms of a comparison between Muslim and non-Muslim white students in higher degree education institutions in New South Wales (NSW) Australia in order to operationalize whiteness in Australia's settler colonial society as a central category of analysis. The article seeks to explore how Muslim and non-Muslim students experience and respond to the university as a white institution, considering how Muslim students engage in both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies in response to the university as a white institution, and how white, non-Muslim students experience the normativity, invisibility and hegemony of whiteness in the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the affective dimensions of social media platform TikTok, and its potential as a novel form of political participation among young people. It draws on data from a sample of 24 TikToks focused on the 2019/20 Australian bushfires, as well as seven interviews with young people who create, view and share TikToks. Building on Ash's notion of 'affective design', the article demonstrates how the memetic qualities of juxtaposition, whimsy and humour are utilised to enable escape and/or connection. As young people grappled with the intensity of emotions from the Australian bushfires, TikTok gave them space for the expression of complex affects through humour, whimsy, and juxtaposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young women's risky drinking cultures are pertinent to the world of amateur Australian Football League, yet they have received limited research attention. Drawing on surveys, focus groups, and semi-structured 'scroll-back' interviews, this study provides an in-depth investigation of negotiations of gender and risky drinking in such cultures. A range of intersecting socio-cultural themes were identified, summarised into four overarching elements: drinking as central to initial homosociality; awareness of appropriateness; divergences between women's and men's cultural priorities and alcohol behaviours; and young women's unique cultural prioritisation of collectivity and mutuality. The findings further sociological knowledge on risky drinking and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a deficiency of in-depth explorations of young people's visions of automation and work, and how these relate to popular projections found in the future-of-work debate. This article investigates such expectations, drawing on 62 interviews with Hungarian university students undertaking non-technical majors. Key characteristics of the interviewees' accounts included their malleable and changing nature. Although respondents were aware of the widespread messages of experts about the revolutionary nature of likely changes, they expressed scepticism about the extent of change both regarding the macro level and in relation to their own lives. Interestingly, developments in artificial intelligence were not a factor in these young adults' visions of their careers. The mechanisms and lines of reasoning underlying their expectations – such as a version of optimism bias – are discussed. The study highlights the importance of doing qualitative research on a topic which is dominated by quantitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the literature on basic income and work by articulating the case for disentangling the normative justification of basic income from the structural and temporal imperatives of the capitalist wage relation and the work ethic. It begins with a survey of the major normative justifications of basic income and their respective orientations towards capitalist development and labour markets. Next it presents an argument against tying the justification of basic income to posited labour supply responses based on predicted technological change, the extant empirical evidence from pilots or technical policy simulations. It then addresses the politico-cultural barrier to basic income presented by the wage relation and the work ethic, and critically evaluates the 'exit option' argument for basic income. The article concludes that asserting a right to an ad vitam basic income is an ethically justified and politically astute step towards a necessary decentring of (capitalist) work in basic income scholarship and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of several recent crises, universal basic income has emerged as a serious policy solution. Not only is basic income pitched as a tool to mitigate the effects of a diverse set of emergencies, it has been argued that successive crises have importantly contributed to the surge in media and policy interest in basic income. In this article we critically examine this proposition. We first argue against the inherent functionalism of many accounts and instead propose a political economy framework that ties basic income directly to a series of mechanisms that may explain the opening up of basic income policy windows during recent crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic. It is equally important to carefully distinguish between different types of crises and we argue that two key competing types – cyclical and permanent crises – face a distinctive set of political economy constraints. We illustrate our approach by analysing the prospects of basic income in six distinct crisis events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International studies using the European Social Survey (ESS) reveal higher support for Universal Basic Income (UBI) in poorer countries with less generous welfare systems, and among individuals with lower income and education, and leftist political leanings. We present data from the 2019−20 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes mirroring the ESS question. Australia falls in the middle of European opinion, with 51% supporting a UBI, increasing slightly during the onset of Covid-19. We also find higher support among two different groups: (1) those facing greater 'material' precarity, including younger, low-income, unemployed, suburban renters, and (2) those who have more post-materialist concerns, including Green-left voters and those favouring redistributive values. Unlike in other countries, higher education predicts more support, while homeownership predicts less. The article concludes with challenges to introducing UBI to Australia, including potentially contradictory strategies for different support bases (material vs post-material), ongoing commitments to means-testing, and negative framing in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changes in social security measures introduced by the Australian government during the first wave of Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020. These measures were basic income-like in that they became both more unconditional and adequate for a reasonable standard of living. This was achieved through a significant supplementary payment, suspension of mutual obligation requirements, and the relaxation of eligibility criteria on a range of unemployment-related payments. Through drawing on the results of an online survey, we examine the impacts of these measures and find that they significantly helped to alleviate poverty and improve wellbeing. These gains were not insignificant for the individuals involved, and offer empirical insights into studies of basic income. While seeing the Australian government embrace more generous and basic income-like measures, we also note that during Covid-19 gendered and class inequalities increased. This reminds us that basic income is never a silver bullet and, alongside implementing basic income payments, there also needs to be a concerted effort to restructure economic relations more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Rise of the Robots', the 'Second Machine Age' and 'This Time it's Different' are some of the sweeping headlines that frame contemporary popular narratives of the future of work. It is often claimed that technological change is an accelerating force causing significant disruption to employment, necessitating a universal basic income (UBI) as human labour becomes increasingly redundant. This article interrogates these assumptions and considers how the techno-optimism that fuelled contemporary visions of workplace automation has declined in recent years. Empirical studies of automated workplaces, in particular the warehouse, have challenged simplistic binaries of job destruction or creation. I consider how automation and UBI are not value-neutral tools, but sites of socio-political contest that can challenge or consolidate workplace imperatives of control. In the context of ever-widening power asymmetries between workers and employers, this terrain is particularly fraught. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's remote-focused 'workfare' program (Community Development Program, CDP) has produced overwhelmingly negative impacts, most of which have been borne by its ∼80% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants. The Australian government has announced that CDP will end in 2023, though a replacement policy/program is not yet decided. Here, I bring three public proposals for replacement policies (wage subsidy, Job Guarantee, Liveable Income Guarantee) into conversation with one another, and compare these to the possibilities offered by a basic income. Drawing on documentary evidence, I discuss potential advantages and disadvantages of these alternatives, asking whether they might improve wellbeing and alleviate the harms experienced under CDP-style workfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces how misinformation occurs and is negotiated in What I Eat In A Day (WIEIAD) videos. Data were collected from 84 WIEIAD videos across 59 YouTube accounts. Our discourse analysis demonstrated that misinformation is presented in ways that invoke expertise, scientific credibility and personal experience, making it more difficult to identify and respond to. Our analysis illustrates how misinformation arises in seemingly mundane sites of discourse and argues that identifying and responding to misinformation is not a binary task. The WIEIAD genre demonstrates the complexity of contemporary wellness discourses and their broader role in health and risk management, which results in the (re)circulation of misinformation. The tension between the sensory and the rational in WIEIAD videos highlights the complexities present in how misinformation, wellness and health are entangled on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on Epstein's theorisations of the 'ideal' of sexual health and wellbeing to argue that young people's access to digital sexual health content should not be understood primarily as a process of 'information seeking'. Where digital practices are too narrowly viewed through a lens of information seeking and transmission, there may be an excessive focus on whether sexual health content is 'factual' – overlooking the question of whether it is meaningful in specific cultural contexts. We link contemporary digital sexual health cultures to the complex – and politicised – histories of popular mediated sexual health communication that underpin them. Exploring alternative theoretical frames – including pornographic vernaculars, influencer pedagogies, media as ritual, and situated peripheral learning in digital communities – we conclude that redefining and refocusing dominant understandings of 'good' sexual health content may generate new and productive strategies for engaging with marginal and disaffected digital sexual cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks: 'To what extent can health professional influencers function as health pedagogues, educating their audiences and protecting public health in an era of digital misinformation?' The article teases out that question by applying Content Analysis and Framing Analysis to a selection of TikTok and Instagram posts by Dr Michael Mrozinski, a Scottish general practitioner who is based in Australia. The posts seek to debunk online misinformation and provide facts regarding COVID-19. Mrozinski's social media content exemplifies what the article terms 'public health pedagogy' (PHP) – pedagogy that is informed by public health principles and that is undertaken outside traditional educational institutions. The article also asks: 'How exactly does Mrozinski respond to misinformation actors and to what extent does this diminish the effectiveness of his PHP?' The article investigates whether Mrozinski's hostility towards these actors actually invokes stereotypes of medical experts as elitist and uncaring. Those stereotypes are commonly expounded by misinformation and conspiracy actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the wellness industry, email communication, albeit mundane, remains an essential practice even as wellness entrepreneurs embrace newer digital technologies. Drawing on ongoing insights from a larger Australian digital ethnographic project, I explore how these 'wellness emails' – electronic mail communication (outside of social media) that typically circulate wellness-related content through automated email list subscriptions – promise an always-ready, abundant space for transforming bodies and optimising health. These emails teach alternative bodily temporalities, distinct from the inhospitable biomedical time of mainstream healthcare, yet also employ time-critical marketing tactics and stories to drive attention, where recipients are encouraged both to not miss out on opportunities but also to respect their own 'divine timing'. Such temporal flexibility of wellness culture, and its promise of abundance, contributes to its global expansion, where email offers personal and marketised engagement and, critically, a potential escape from social media censorship and public health scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The everyday practices and socio-cultural identities of migrant youth have become a focal point of contemporary sociological research in Western countries of immigration. This article engages with the concept of transcultural capital to frame the possibilities and opportunities embodied in young migrants' multi-layered identities and cross-cultural competencies in the context of an increasingly interconnected and diverse world. By re-conceptualising diversity and difference as agentic, transformational capitals to be valued, fostered and mobilised, this transcultural approach brings to the fore the multitude of skills, networks and knowledge that migrant youth access and develop through multiple cultural repertoires. Drawing on the narratives of migrant youth in Melbourne (Australia), this article argues that access to different – and not necessarily oppositional – cultural systems opens up a space for understanding the ability of migrant youth to instigate, negotiate and maintain valuable socio-cultural connections in ways that recognise, disrupt and transform social hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyse how domestic violence (DV) is understood and experienced among immigrant Ethiopian women in Melbourne, as well as the different conditions that contribute to their experiences of abuse and their responses to it. To do this, we draw on 20 interviews with participants, 7 of whom experienced intimate partner violence. Demonstrating that immigrant Ethiopian women find themselves in a social context with a set of values and understandings of family and DV that differs from their own, we argue that their responses to DV shows their selective acceptance of these values and state interventions. In exploring these themes, we contribute to the discussion about minority women's voices, values and priorities in relation to violence in the migration context. Our findings also highlight the limitations of mainstream approaches to DV, illustrating the extent to which interventions are constructed through reference to western perceptions of individuality and white feminism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the emergence of global university rankings in the 2000s, East Asian universities have been recruiting academics with doctoral degrees from Western countries to strengthen their competitiveness in the global university league tables. Governments offer scholarships to support students in their overseas doctoral studies and encourage graduates to return. Although much attention is given to researchers with overseas degrees, little is known about their experiences and pre-employment academic productivity. Drawing on a nationwide survey and bibliometric data, this study examines whether and how the institutional prestige of a host university and academic supervision contribute to the academic productivity of government-funded Chinese PhD returnees during their doctoral studies. Results show that supervisors' research support and collaboration positively affect pre-employment academic productivity. However, a university's prestige does not exert such an influence. Moreover, co-authorship with a supervisor is a crucial mechanism in the influence of supervisors' research support on PhD students' productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosopography, otherwise known as collective biography, is a method that has been widely used by historians but is less well known as a sociological research technique. In this article, we review definitions and uses of prosopography, its advantages and limitations. We describe steps in the method with reference to a study of the Beechworth Asylum cricket team in rural Victoria, Australia, and show the extent of members' involvement with activities in the town. Prosopography is shown to be a useful tool for sociological research, while findings of the study add to the limited literature about staff in Australian asylums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship has charted the dramatic social impact of mining booms and busts on local communities. Yet scant research addresses how mining economies shape different professions. This article ethnographically traces the careers of a doctor, a lawyer and a journalist during Western Australia's mining boom in the early 2000s. For vocally opposing a politically popular mining operation due to public health concerns, they were subject to backlash, which led to disillusionment and career changes. Their narratives share a pivotal shift: each expert initially conceptualised their role through a welfarist, liberal-democratic lens, underpinned by a moral imperative to disrupt imbalances of power, fight injustice and 'help people'. Yet the mining boom revealed and exacerbated the neoliberalisation of their respective disciplines, in which profits were maximised, businesses treated leniently and worker protections calculated dispassionately. These stories illuminate the lived experience of neoliberalisation, and the limits of individual professional resistance in a pro-mining political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding social change remains a challenge in the social sciences. This has resonance when considering the continuing significance of gender inequality in Australian society despite decades of political and social reform. Our aim is to elaborate a framework regarding social change which engages with major debates in masculinity studies, with applications beyond gender and masculinity. The potential of favourable spaces for social innovation is explored by outlining a dynamic taxonomy of masculinity and change. This framing of social change is located in a material social context involving specific actors. While popular media accounts of boys' schooling and the specific instance of private boys' schools indicate the maintenance of hegemonic norms upholding masculine dominance, we investigate illustrative instances of Catholic boys' schools committed to gender equality. Yet, constructions of masculinity shift between and/or incorporate hegemonic styles and gender equitable styles, even in situations where gender equality is publicly promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idealisation of rural work, people, and communities is remarkably persistent in Western countries. With the diminishing role of agriculture in national economies and changing values, this agrarian sentiment could be expected to lose currency. Yet, agrarian tropes and narratives remain evident in popular culture, political discourse, and public policy. Flinn and Johnson, in the 1970s, pioneered empirical studies of agrarianism based on a regionally specific and relatively small sample from which they identified five tenets of agrarianism. We sought to develop a survey instrument to explore whether changes in societal values, and in the structures and practices of agriculture, mean these tenets no longer hold. We find that, overall, many of the key elements identified by Flinn and Johnson are still evident. In addition, we have identified three domains of agrarianism: foundationalism, ruralism, and stewardship, that represent some of the historical diversity of agrarian themes and some accommodation with environmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research applied Bourdieusian field theory to explain the forms of resistance exercised by single mothers exposed to the cultural and economic domination of Australian welfare-to-work policy. The mothers were affected by policy changes that reduced their social security benefit income and brought them into the field of activation policies. Unlike other studies focusing on well-being effects, this study focused on understanding resistance, that is, how welfare subjects like single mothers exercise resistance in dominating contexts. Bourdieusian field theory was applied to explain these resistances as a reaction to a social policy reclassification and to identity the enabling resources for it. This article observes the conditions that enabled single mothers to convert individual forms of resistance into collective action. In this respect, Husu's adaptation of Bourdieusian field theory to social movement studies provided insight into how dominating fields like those of activation policy, generate resistances and social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship of residential concentrations of non-Anglophone migrants with socio-economic disadvantage at the suburb (SA2) level. We look at two main Australian gateway cities, Sydney and Melbourne. We use the 'person-counts' of the latest available (2016) Australian Census data, matching them with the socio-economic data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics 'socio-economic indexes for areas' (SEIFA). Our analysis shows that despite decades of careful filtering of migrants for skills and language, socio-economic disadvantage in migrant concentrations persists in the main gateway cities, being more pronounced in Melbourne than in Sydney. The article employs an original quantitative analysis in order to advance the understanding of relationship between ethnicity, socio-economic position and residential location. We seek to contribute to the ongoing scholarly and policy debate about migrant concentration areas in large immigrant-receiving cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the impact of education as the most important human capital endowment in the context of migration, religion, gender and ethnic identity from a demographic perspective. It presents research-based evidence to address such key research questions as whether and how significantly women's education provides equal benefit in the labour market for individuals, based on their migration status, religion, and ethnic identity. The field of this study is the multi-ethnic and multicultural context of Australia with a wide range of ethnic and religious groups of migrants from throughout the world. Preliminary results show that labour market achievement is positively and significantly associated with the educational attainment of individuals, irrespective of their migration status, religious affiliation and ethnicity. However, more comprehensive analysis from comparative perspectives reveals that the positive economic return of education is higher for natives (compared with migrants), for ethnic migrants from developed regions of origin (compared with those from less developed regions of origin) and for non-Muslims (compared with Muslims). The article provides two plausible explanations for these patterns. The first refers to the lack of recognition of overseas qualifications and to the devaluation of foreign education that particularly applies to ethnic migrants from less developed regions. The second relates to disadvantage through structural discrimination against migrants, particularly when their cultural and religious identity, such as Islamic names and dress codes, are distinctively displayed. In sum, this analysis presents further research-based evidence to go beyond the human capital theory in order to explain more appropriately the economic return of women's education in the context of religion and migration from a demographic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the issues limiting prevention of elder abuse in Australia is lack of a strong evidence base to target social drivers of abuse, particularly ageism. This evidence gap is exacerbated by social discourses that perpetuate negative representations of older age as a time of vulnerability and physical decline, often in opposition to people's actual experience of ageing. This article presents findings of the 'OPERA Project', which used co-designed digital storytelling to explore how ageing and ageism are perceived by older people. The project findings indicated that preventing elder abuse requires discursive intervention to combat negative social discourses representing older people, and to frame social acceptance of the inherent complexity of experiences of ageing. Using a social constructionist approach, this article puts forward a 'middle path' through traditional theories of ageing and associated 'positive ageing' discourses, which often problematise ageing itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about the state of Australian sociology have raged for as long as sociology has existed in Australia. Concerns about the discipline's future may be inevitable for a critical, reflexive discipline, but to those entering the discipline, it is neither instructive nor productive to be subjected to lingering disciplinary anxieties. After more than fifty years, it is time to take stock of the differing visions of sociology, and examine the arguments about the health, or otherwise, of Australian sociology. To advance this debate, we consider the signs and benchmarks of a 'successful' sociology as expressed in The Australian Sociological Association magazine, NEXUS, and key writings from Australian sociologists. We suggest that much of the disagreement over the status of sociology derives from the way 'disciplines' and 'success' are defined. Regarding sociology to be an heterogeneous, multi-modal, social institution and practice, we propose a way forward in our efforts to represent ourselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests a new perspective on the political signification of riots, using the 2011 England riots as a case. The sociological literature tends to look for the political signification of riots in the riots themselves. Drawing on Michel Foucault's notion of the dispositive, the article develops a new approach that analyses the optical grids in which riots are made visible as objects for thought and action that can be either political or apolitical. By analysing the case of the 2011 England riots, the article shows how the dispositives that made the riots visible make it possible to ascribe a both obscure and radical political signification to the riots. The article opens up a new line of inquiry about the relation between riots and politics, and allows us to reconsider the political signification of riots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines crime prevention practices in the Torres Strait Region (TSR), where relatively low crime rates challenge the association of discrete Indigenous communities with crime 'problems' and also test other criminological assumptions around crime. Drawing on 27 interviews with justice professionals and social workers in the TSR, we account for the resilience of a 'shame culture' in the region, which provides for a high level of social integration and sustains crime prevention practices, such as cultural mediation. Thus, we argue that while economic indicators such as wealth and employment show high levels of disadvantage in the TSR, indicators of strong social capital provide an explanation for low crime rates. We conclude that social capital is translated into local crime prevention practices that are unique to the TSR and reinforce the importance of cultural continuity and autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to approaching work and family as conflictual roles, a shift towards acknowledgement of the positive interaction between work and family has been detected. This research investigated whether married/cohabiting and divorced/separated parents differ in terms of work–family enrichment, considering their gender and relationship status after separation. Data from 3993 married/cohabiting and 1455 divorced/separated parents from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) database were analysed using regression analysis. The results revealed a complex interplay of relationship status and gender. Single mothers experience more work–family enrichment after a break-up than do mothers with a partner. No differences were found for fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing commentary rarely systematically acknowledges racism in the Australian aged care field. This article begins to address this gap through a detailed focus on the experiences of 30 African migrant women workers, one of the fastest growing groups employed in aged care across Australia. Drawing on data generated through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, we argue that racist micro-aggressions, specifically micro-insults and micro-assaults, were a commonplace experience for this group of workers. Micro-insults and micro-assaults were perpetrated interpersonally, and also drew upon and reinforced colonial discourses about backwardness, inferiority and Otherness. We conclude that for these carers, micro-aggressions have a two-fold effect: they express everyday racism in interaction, and they position African migrant carers as unwelcome and unable to care for and care about clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's history of negative child protection outcomes for children in state care highlights the sustained, systemic nature of serious harm. Situated in emerging conversations on structural challenges and state violence for parents involved in child protection systems, we trace the resources and barriers to responsive and 'just' child protection practice, highlighting how institutions can serve to compound disadvantage and injustice. We argue that addressing challenges such as access to advocacy at the level of the individual is to miss the underlying politics of oppression that serves to keep families marginalised. Instead, we need to rethink how parental rights and responsibilities are best facilitated at institutional levels – what we term institutional justice capital. This requires public conversation about thresholds for child removal, transparent treatment of families, access to mechanisms to challenge the determinations of child protection authorities, and inter-organisational respect and collaboration to support families to navigate complex and multiple systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights a divergence between equivalent cultural practices undertaken by Calabrians in Italy and by individuals originating from Calabria living in Australia. It offers a reflexive framework on identity and authenticity. Previous research on a group of Calabrian-Australian families living in Australia found a widespread feeling among participants that they were 'more Italian' than the Italians who live in Italy. On the other hand, similar claims were made in Italy, during a brief period of fieldwork in Calabria among the 'sedentaries' (those who did not emigrate). Data show differences between the modus operandi of equivalent cultural practices among the participants in Adelaide and in Calabria and a divergence in participants' perceptions of ethnic identity and authenticity. In proposing the terms 'Archetype village' and 'Alter Ego village' to refer respectively to the migrants' village of origin and their community overseas the article examines notions of authenticity utilising socio-anthropological theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a renewal of interest in the writing of national histories of sociology, with dozens of histories recently published in both the global North and South. Despite this, there has been a dearth of discussion about the methods and methodologies appropriate to such a task. Indeed, few histories of sociology, and fewer still national histories of sociology, explicitly address methodology. In this study, we review the literature on histories of sociology from a variety of countries, focusing on how the authors have approached the writing of history, and their implicit use of methods and methodologies. We suggest the use of a content analysis as an additional, though perhaps unusual, method of historiography, and apply this in the case of an Australian history of sociology. Our content analysis reveals both similarities and differences in the Australian approach, indicating the impact of settler-colonialism on Australian sociology and its historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central tenet of the New Economic Sociology is that trust is a central factor in the sound functioning of markets. Previous research has mainly used a national-scale network approach to argue that personal relations generate trust in market relations. In contrast, this article shows, from a comparative perspective, how political structures influence consumer trust. First, using aggregate data, it shows how consumer trust in markets varies across the 28 European Union (EU) member states. Second, it uses regression models to examine the effects of varying levels of political embeddedness on consumer trust, taking consumer policy as a proxy. The results support the view that it is not only personal relations that generate trust in market relations but also political structures. This argument echoes institutional economic sociological approaches, and it adds to them a trust dimension. It furthermore encourages a more finely grained comparative analysis to better account for the effects of social macrostructures on trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is an essential aspect of any society in the world. As such, it has been a topic studied by many sociologists since the origins of the discipline. Today it is one of the most common subjects in sociology, in part because it has been recognised as a crucial environment for the (re)production of inequalities. This article explores the role of education in the (re)production of social inequalities and its potential to challenge such inequalities. In addition, the article presents some of the distinctions between research in the Global South and North, both in geographical and metaphorical terms. Since this article is the introduction to the special issue Education and the Production of Inequalities: Dialogues from the Global South and North, a synopsis of the published articles is presented at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]