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(2021)ThesisThe 1968 Democratic National Convention has long been remembered for the televised images of police clashing with protesters in downtown Chicago while delegates nominated their candidate for the presidential election. Among those gathered in the city were a number of literary and countercultural figures who acted through and against dominant forms of media, cultural, and political power. Playback ’68: Countercultural Media Activism at the 1968 Democratic National Convention focuses on such activities using the case studies of William S. Burroughs’ incendiary “invisible” tape recorder playback, Allen Ginsberg’s chant of Aum, and Abbie Hoffman’s performative approach to “media-freaking.” Employing original research in television, literary, and personal archives, the thesis provides an historical analysis of these seemingly marginal cases as they are manifested on personal, local, and national scales. They are situated within the context of arts and literature, institutional and grassroots forms of media, police and surveillance tactics, union and party politics, and broader activist aspirations leading up to and including the Convention. Playback ’68 specifically investigates how media technologies, techniques, and outlets were repurposed and navigated in this shifting and complex media, cultural and political environment. In doing so, it provides an understanding of a rich historical moment that sits of the cusp of the proliferation and broad possibility of activist media forms that we continue to see today.
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(2021)ThesisHow can we address the fragmentation of inter-and intra-species relationships and the conceptual and material dislocations of humanity from its natural environments, in environmental thinking and practices? In answering this question, this dissertation offers an ubuntu-inspired solution. Ubuntu views humanity as inseparably connected with other beings and located in the environment. I propose that, in rejecting (human and nonhuman) capacities-based approaches to what counts morally, ubuntu provides an alternative vision, one that decolonises ideas and practices that suppress or deny the flourishing of individuals or groups. This dissertation proposes an original, ubuntu-inspired framework, an 'ethico-ecological community', with two integrated themes, relationality and locatedness. Ubuntu provides the primary conceptual insight within which these dual themes are nested. ‘Relationality’ draws our attention to networks of inter-and intra-species interactions involving humans and nonhumans, while ‘locatedness’ prompts us to consider the embeddedness of beings and entities in built and natural environments (cities, forests, rivers, soils, or in some combination: location). Together, the themes animate the dissertation’s arguments that: (a) the environment is not merely a site within which humans live, but is constitutive of human and nonhuman identities and flourishing, and (b) the relationships therein must also be incorporated in an account of human and nonhuman wellbeing. My argument demonstrates that ubuntu helps to redirect our moral gaze beyond more simplistic and insular conceptions of environmental ethics that only address human wellbeing. While ubuntu will be helpful in repositioning the way we think about environmental ethics, I suggest that ubuntu does not offer a one-size-fits-all solution for all the environmental ills we face. Rather, more realistically and cautiously, this dissertation will contribute to scholarship by (1) grounding an argument for environmental ethics in human and nonhuman wellbeing, (2) adapting the idea of sharing central to ubuntu, to highlight the importance of locality—locatedness in the earth environment—in human and nonhuman life, and (3) offering unique themes from ubuntu that diversify our conceptions of environmental wellbeing. This could help expand our moral vocabulary and vision to provide a less fragmentary approach to environmental problems.
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(2021)ThesisThis thesis is an anthropological study of kinship among residents in Reykjavík, Iceland, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Through ethnographic research with families and citizens’ collectives, kinship is explored as the cultures of relatedness developed in response to an economic crisis that turned into a political one. I argue that kin bonds provide affective support to recast the moral landscape after the economic collapse and revelations of corruption among politicians. The backdrop to this thesis is the effect of the crisis on culturally sanctioned ideas about accepted behaviours for the benefit of present and future kin. This is traced through debates over legislating a new constitution drafted after the crisis. While a distinction is often made between the domains of politics and kinship, this thesis engages recent anthropological literature on collective action and protest against the nation-state to illustrate the political utility of affective support and social intimacy among kin networks for rebuilding Iceland’s moral landscape. Kinship is shown to provide the conditions necessary to build this landscape and mount democratic reform. Kinship and politics blend in this context, thereby leading to the development of new shared values, ethics and attitudes for reinstating social equality, which are then channelled into politics through sustained efforts in the public sphere to build recovery and enact lasting reform. Noting Iceland’s peripheral location from the metropolitan centres of Europe and my cultural and geographic position as an Australian anthropologist, this research asks what can be known about crisis and recovery when we look to the margins. With reference to Raewyn Connell’s Southern theory (2007), I join Icelandic scholars in questioning what accounts of the crisis–aftermath nexus outside the global centres of capitalism tells us about the crisis phenomenon. In this context, citizens’ collectives comprising kin networks are shown to be revitalising national politics, demonstrating kinship’s enduring appeal for social organisation and belonging when leaders are seen to fail in their elected responsibilities.
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(2021)ThesisThis study has been undertaken to gain a new understanding of the relationship between housing density and liveability. Through a critical examination of various concepts of density, a holistic theoretical framework of density has been proposed and tested via a case study, that is, the housing history of Shanghai between 1843 and 1949 is analysed and interpreted from a density perspective. There are numerous misconceptions about density as revealed in the surveyed literature of architecture and urban planning. High density, as a method of measuring efficiency and the sustainability of urban environment, has become the dominant goal in urban development according to the modern mindset. Such a mindset has led to misconceptions about density, such as understanding it in a singular, quantitative and linear way. Perceptions that human beings have in relation to density are ignored, making density difficult to use as an effective reference to guide the shaping of liveable urban environments. It is therefore necessary to propose a holistic theoretical framework of density that integrates physical density and perceived density. From the perspective of density, Shanghai's urban housing history is a story of western urban planning and architectural concepts that have been grafted and adapted and then finally developed into a unique urban environment. Shanghai's distinctive topographic and socio-cultural context is an important background behind the development of a diverse and integrated living environment. This study explores ways of shaping urban fabric and housing through re-enacting the living environment of Shanghai from 1843 to 1949. The study includes two steps. Firstly, the concepts of physical density and perceived density are respectively correlated to parti and poché used in the École des Beaux-Arts’ architectural education to propose a new theoretical framework of density. Secondly, physical and social conditions of the living environment in Shanghai between 1843 and 1949 are re-enacted from the macro to the micro scale following the structure of the street-system, street-blocks and block-plans. Corresponding to these three levels, the findings from the case studies consist of three parts. First, the street system, inherited from the spatial morphology of the agricultural era, formed appropriately sized blocks that balanced the vitality of the streets and the stability within the blocks. Second, the remarkable diversity of urban plots converted from pre-divided agricultural land, facilitated the appearance of mixed uses and varied building forms within a single block to meet the needs of different groups of residents. Finally, different forms of boundaries were used as effective architectural strategies to purposefully manipulate perceived density and thus improved the liveability of urban environments. These findings describe the fitting relationship between living environment and ways of living so that the influence of density on liveability is elucidated. The findings of this study reveal that the density of a liveable environment is not an absolute value. Liveability is closely related to both physical density and how it is perceived. The housing history of Shanghai from 1843 to1949 shows that residents of certain quarters of Shanghai during that period developed a fitting relationship between their ways of living and the living environment within a specific socio-cultural context. This relationship and its vernacular and agricultural roots are an important reference for the purposeful shaping of perceived density and consequently the creation of a liveable environment. This thesis makes contributions to both theoretical and practical properties of density. The theoretical framework integrating physical and perceived density provides a new perspective for urban housing history studies and can be used as an effective reference for achieving a balance between economic efficiency and liveability in contemporary urban design and administration.
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(2022)ThesisThis study was conducted to increase our understanding of residents’ place attachment within residential outdoor environments in urban China. There were three aims for this study: to investigate how residents develop place attachment within residential outdoor environments through their experiences of these settings; to examine the role of the physical environment in residents’ place attachment within residential outdoor environments; and to identify the relationship between the Chinese socio-cultural context and place attachment, adding the evidence in the Chinese context to the existing literature on place attachment that mainly focuses on the Western context. Place attachment as an affective bond between people and place has a positive impact on people’s health and well-being. Residential areas are important places in people’s everyday life and there is a large body of research on residential attachment. Residential outdoor environments have been proven to play a role in residential place attachment, but the mechanics of place attachment within residential outdoor environments are not known. This study investigates residents’ experience of the outdoor environments to which they are attached to identify the significant physical characteristics and social dimensions that may contribute to place attachment. Residential neighbourhoods in urban China have witnessed great change over the last forty years due to rapid urbanisation and currently there are two typical residential models in urban China: one, mid-rise apartment blocks with unrestricted street patterns built before 2000; the other, high-rise towers in gated communities built in the past 20 years. Residential outdoor environments are traditionally designed to provide opportunities for physical activities and social interaction, but aestheticization of outdoor environments has become a major selling point and an important indicator for evaluating the quality of newly built settlements in China. This dilemma has put great pressure on landscape urban design to provide quality residential outdoor environments. This study used a comparative case study of the two residential models in Qingdao, China, and three methods were used: semi-structured interviews with 20 adult residents for each case, 40 in total; a questionnaire with the participants involved in the interviews; and participant observation of outdoor environments. Theories of place attachment, social ecological perspective, and urban open space studies provide the conceptual framework for this study. The findings reveal that place attachment within residential outdoor environments can be rooted in social ties and can also stem from the physical attributes of the environment. For the former, residents can ascribe attachment to the place through lengthy person-environment interaction or because of environmental beauty and distinctiveness. For the latter, residents can be attached to the place that symbolises their social group or where they have important personal memories. The findings also identify the key attributes of the physical environment that contribute to place attachment. The relationship between the Chinese socio-cultural context and place attachment is also identified in terms of the physical characteristics as well as social dimensions. This study makes theoretical contributions to place attachment theory. It throws light on the understanding of the role and functions of the physical environment in place attachment and increases our understanding of how place attachment manifests in the Chinese context. It also provides design recommendations for landscape architects and planners to create and construct supportive residential outdoor environments in urban China, which has practical implications.
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(2022)ThesisThis thesis addresses language maintenance and shift (LMS) in the Blang community in China. Drawing on interdisciplinary theories including the sociology of language, the social psychology of language and linguistic anthropology, this research examined Blang people’s language practices, their attitudes towards the complex ecology of Blang, Putonghua, the Yunnan dialect, and English. These attitudes inform the research about their perceptions of Blang vitality and their motivations for maintaining Blang for future generations. The study used a qualitative approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with 61 participants representing three generations. The study was also informed by ethnographic observations during fieldwork in the Township of Blang Mountain, Southwest China. The numerical data on language practices was analysed using descriptive statistics, and the discursive data on language perceptions was analysed through thematic analysis. The data analysis identified that the Blang language has been undergoing language shift. This shift was found to have been mediated by social structures that provide limited affordance for the use of Blang in public domains. Blang people’s ideological beliefs about the reduced utility of Blang have further marginalised the language. However, the findings also revealed that language shift did not occur in a uniform pattern in the community, and it was contingent on individual agency. Blang people deployed their agency to either adapt to or resist structural constraints through different linguistic practices, which resulted in varying degrees of LMS. In addition to the interplay between structure and agency, there were contests between parental and child agency. Blang youth responded to the parental agency in varied ways through negotiating their family language policy and their own language preferences. The findings support theories of LMS which recognise that language shift has variation within speech communities. This study provides empirical evidence for the benefit of using qualitative approaches to the study of LMS to have a deeper understanding of structure and agency at play. This study also draws attention to the unequal power relations between languages and calls for language policies which support minority groups to maintain their language.
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(2022)ThesisIn recent years, in light of educational changes such as pedagogical shifts, technological development and educational reforms, language teachers are increasingly being expected to develop their own language learning and teaching materials. However, there are very few empirical studies investigating language teachers’ experiences as materials developers, with the exception of studies by Carabantes and Paran (2022) and Banegas, Corrales and Poole (2020). This study draws upon the ecological perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and the concept of trajectory from the theory of Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1999) to understand language teachers’ experiences while they are playing the role of materials developers in China. The study employs a multimethod approach, and consists of two stages. In the first stage I interviewed 15 language teachers who had developed or were developing materials, to gain a broad understanding of their experiences influenced by different layers of context. In the second stage I focused on language teachers’ developmental trajectories from a chronological point of view by interviewing four language teachers who were developing a textbook in a materials development group, as well as collecting their WeChat conversations with me and their personal documents related to developing the textbook. The findings show that language teachers who were playing the role of materials developers encountered challenges in relation to three levels of context (the macro, meso and micro levels), and that to cope with these challenges they employed various strategies involving both personal and contextual resources. The study concludes that language teachers who develop materials gain professional development through excising their agency to learn (de Laurentiis Brandão, 2018) and respond to the challenges they experience. The findings enrich our understanding of language teachers’ professional development while they are playing the role of materials developers by highlighting the interplay between the individual teachers and different layers of context, and between their past, present and future identities. The study offers implications for language teacher professional development, for language teachers as materials developers, and for materials development.
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(2022)ThesisThis thesis explores how Iranian filmmakers have applied elements from Persian culture to the horror genre. Although horror films have not often been present in the rich Iranian cinematic tradition due in part to strict censorship laws following the 1979 revolution, I argue that a small group of directors has made productive and provocative use of the genre. The four chapters consist of close readings of horror films: I examine Fereydoun Jeyrani’s Parkway (2007), Mohammad Hossein Latifi’s Girls’ Dormitory (Khoabgah-e Dokhtaran, 2004), Shahram Mokri’s Fish and Cat (Mahi va Gorbeh, 2013), and Mani Haghighi’s Pig (Khuk, 2018). The close readings are guided by the following research questions: How do themes and concepts from Persian culture and history (cinematic and otherwise) interact with Western generic conventions in Iranian horror cinema? What does the use of concepts from Persian culture in horror films contribute to an understanding of the genre worldwide? How does the generic lens of horror contribute to new understandings of contemporary Iranian cinema? The two chapters on Parkway and Girls’ Dormitory comprise the first section of the thesis, entitled ‘Popular Shocks.’ This section focuses on two films with relative success at the domestic box office but little popularity with international audiences. In contrast, the second section, entitled ‘Frights at the Festival,’ discusses Fish and Cat and Pig, which did receive releases and critical attention at Western festivals. These festivals have long been important sites for the distribution of Iranian films to international audiences. Whereas festival films and popular cinema have usually been discussed separately in scholarship, I show how a focus on horror allows for a bridging of the gap between popular cinema and festival films, since Iranian filmmakers have used the genre to produce noteworthy films in both categories. The films discussed in the two sections also highlight how the particularities of the Iranian context facilitate reconsideration of the strengths and limitations of widely discussed theorisations of horror. I argue that these films exemplify the unique exchange between Persian cultural traditions and the tropes and aesthetics of the horror film.
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(2022)ThesisThis thesis contributes to the growing international commitment to countering transnational terrorism. It undertakes an empirical investigation of the language of violent extremism by using a forensic linguistic lens, innovatively combined with the Appraisal and Affiliation frameworks from Systemic Functional Linguistics. These frameworks offer tools for understanding the discursive nature of the language of extremism, including how terrorists attempt to incite violence and threaten their audiences through their evaluative language, and how they position key social bonds in their discourse. The study involved a specialised corpus of 20 terrorist public statements produced by four terrorists from two of the most lethal, transnational terrorist ideologies: jihadism and far-right extremism. The aim was to explore the patterns of a set of discursive features that mark a violent extremist’s language and to investigate two aspects of threat – or alternatively alarming, aggrieving and intimidating content – in these statements: incitement to violence and communicated threats. The forensic findings regarding the authors’ features that mark their extremist language showed relatively frequent discursive themes, conceptual burstiness, and repeated, attitudinally loaded lexical items. The authors’ ‘appraisal signature’ (i.e. evaluative style) revealed their underlying ideological schemas, moral reasoning, and enactment of (dis)affiliation when inciting violence and expressing threats. The analysis of the incitement texts identified two main affiliation strategies: COMMUNION, aimed at forging alignments around shared bonds with potential incitees, and ALIENATION, aimed at legitimating disalignments with negatively evaluated outgroups. In the threat texts the disaffiliation strategies identified had three discursive functions: ethical manipulation, deontic retribution, and the boulomaic function. The mixed method approach adopted in this study has the key benefit of enhancing our understanding of the attitudinal and moral positioning that occurs in terrorist incitement and threat texts. It also has a number of potential applied uses in establishing suspect engagement in terrorist activity, classifying terrorist texts, terrorism justification, and providing a diagnostic for examining the performance of personal and relational identities.
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(2022)ThesisFollowing the 1857-1858 Mutiny and its expression of Indian hostility to British rule, the British response included the formal transition of power, in 1858, from the British East India Company to the Crown. A significant increase in the size of the British population - driven by an increase in the number of British soldiers stationed in India - accompanied this shift in governance. The Mutiny, for the first time, required British authorities and the British public to deal with a significant number of British widows. These women were a stark visual reminder of personal and national vulnerability and of Britain's military failure. The subsequent four decades saw the consolidation of, and the growth in opposition to, British authority in India, and the fashioning of Britain's imperial narrative. Articulations of the purpose of British rule of India focused on Britain's advanced status, its strength (economically, legally, politically, educationally, and morally), and on the benefits India, in turn, would derive from British rule. The success of the narrative required the British in India to exemplify this purpose, status, and strength. This thesis argues that British women widowed in India between 1860 and 1900 were emblematic of the vulnerability, failure, and cost of Britain's presence in India. The fact of their widowhood and their behaviour while in India could tarnish, if not threaten, Britain's narrative of superiority by their critique of British rule, and by their indigence, lack of industry or immorality. An analysis is made of the cultural expectations of widows and the manner in which fiction, advice manuals, consolatory literature and policy marked the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and set the parameters to 'manage' widows. This is complemented by close research of the experiences of a cohort of 260 British women widowed in India between 1860 and 1900. The exploration of the interplay between societal expectations and the ways in which widows accepted, accommodated, adapted, or exploited these expectations illuminates our understanding of gender in British imperialism. This study concludes that while a few widows openly challenged societal expectations and conventions, or simply operated outside them feeling little obligation to model imperial behaviour, most widows found elements of the conventions sufficiently useful and elastic to forge lives of purpose and meaning.