http://hdl.handle.net/2123/763 2013-05-25T15:29:06Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9099 Title: OECD: Inequality rising faster than ever Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-05-19T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9090 Title: Inequality and growth Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-05-19T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9066 Title: Embodiment Authors: Frow, John Abstract: A critical account of the category of embodiment (draft of a book chapter) 2013-05-06T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9065 Title: Infant embodiment and interembodiment Authors: Lupton, Deborah Abstract: This article brings together a range of research and scholarship from various disciplines which have investigated and theorised social and cultural aspects of infants’ bodies within the context of contemporary western societies. It begins with a theoretical overview of dominant concepts of infants’ bodies, including discussion of the concepts of the unfinished body, civility and the Self/Other binary opposition as well as that of interembodiment, drawn from the work of Merleau-Ponty. Then follows discussion of the pleasures and challenging aspects of interembodiment in relation to caregivers’ interactions with infants’ bodies, purity, danger and infant embodiment and lastly practices of surveilling the vulnerable, ‘at risk’ infant body. 2013-05-06T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9064 Title: Why are luxury car sales growing at record rates — in a recession? Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-05-03T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9063 Title: The Commodification of Patient Opinion: the Digital Patient Experience Economy in the Age of Big Data Authors: Lupton, Deborah Abstract: As part of the digital health phenomenon, a plethora of interactive digital platforms have been established in recent years to elicit lay people’s experiences of illness and healthcare. The function of these platforms, as expressed on the main pages of their websites, is to provide the tools and forums whereby patients and caregivers, and in some cases medical practitioners, can share their experiences with others, benefit from the support and knowledge of other contributors and contribute to large aggregated data archives as part of developing better medical treatments and services and conducting medical research. However what may not always be readily apparent to the users of these platforms are the growing commercial uses by many of the platforms’ owners of the archives of the data they contribute. This article examines this phenomenon of what I term ‘the digital patient experience economy’. In so doing I discuss such aspects as prosumption, the phenomena of big data and metric assemblages, the discourse and ethic of sharing and the commercialisation of affective labour via such platforms. I argue that via these online platforms patients’ opinions and experiences may be expressed in more diverse and accessible forums than ever before, but simultaneously they have become exploited in novel ways. 2013-05-04T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9061 Title: Exploding the debt threshold myth Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-04-26T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9059 Title: "The rich don't always win" - but they usually do Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-04-25T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9058 Title: The squeezed middle: the title says it all Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-04-10T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9047 Title: Ministerial Advisers: How Ministers Shape Their Conduct – A Study of Ministers and Advisers in the Rudd Government Authors: Ashpole, Lynne Abstract: Ministerial advisers have become part of the standard advisory arrangements in Westminster governments, yet there is disagreement about their roles and behaviour. In Australia, some academic work has considered their involvement in scandals like the 2001 children overboard affair and the 1993 sports rorts controversy. However, the focus on exceptional events means advisers’ everyday roles and conduct have not been given sufficient weight and those conclusions are therefore distorted. This paper finds that ministers exert a dominant influence over their advisers’ behaviour and that advisers continue to see themselves as agents of their ministers. Based on interviews with four Rudd government ministers and their advisers, the research shows advisers have strong norms of behaviour and that formal and informal accountability mechanisms operate to constrain their conduct. Advisers are not ‘out of control’ or operating in a ‘black hole of accountability’ as often claimed 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9042 Title: Inequality, greed, and the demise of our better natures Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-04-20T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9029 Title: The Impact of Resale on Entry in Second Price Auctions Authors: Che, XiaoGang; Lee, Peter; Yang, Yibai Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of resale allowance on entry strategies in a second price auction with two bidders whose entries are sequential and costly. We first characterize the perfect Bayesian equilibrium in cutoff strategies. We then show that there exists a unique threshold such that if the reseller's bargaining power is greater (less) than the threshold, resale allowance causes the leading bidder (the following bidder) to have a higher (lower) incentive on entry; i.e., the cutoff of entry becomes lower (higher). We also discuss asymmetric bidders and the original seller's expected revenue. 2013-04-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9022 Title: 'The best thing for the baby': mothers' concepts and experiences related to promoting their infants' health and development Authors: Lupton, Deborah Abstract: Mothers and pregnant women in contemporary western societies are at the centre of a web of expert and lay discourses concerning the ways they should promote and protect the health and development of their foetuses and infants. This article reports the findings from an Australian study involving interviews with 60 mothers. The findings explore in detail four topics discussed in the interviews related to pregnancy and caring for young infants: disciplining the pregnant body; promoting infants’ health; immunisation; and promoting infants’ development. It is concluded that the mothers were highly aware of their responsibilities in protecting their foetuses and infants from harm and promoting their health and development. They conceptualised the infant body as highly vulnerable and requiring protection from contamination. They therefore generally supported the idea of vaccination as a way of protecting their babies’ immature immune systems, but were also often ambivalent about it. The mothers were aware of the judgemental attitudes of others, including other mothers, towards their caring efforts and attempted to conform to the ideal of the ‘good mother’. The emotional dimensions of caring for infants and protecting their health are discussed in relation to the voluntary participation of mothers in conforming to societal expectations. 2011-10-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9021 Title: Fat Politics: Collected Writings Authors: Lupton, Deborah Abstract: This publication is a collection of short articles published by sociologist Deborah Lupton on her blog and The Conversation website dealing with topics relating to the politics of body weight. The articles include discussion of obesity and fat politics, fat activism, the Health at Every Size movement, fat stigma and discrimination, motherhood and children’s body weight, the use of disgust in anti-obesity campaigns and pro-ana websites. 2013-04-08T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9020 Title: Is Monotonicity in an IV and RD design testable? No, but you can still check it Authors: Edwards, Ben; Fiorini, Mario; Stevens, Katrien; Taylor, Matthew Abstract: Whenever treatment effects are heterogeneous and there is sorting into treatment based on the gain, monotonicity is a condition that both Instrumental Variable and fuzzy Regression Discontinuity designs have to satisfy for their estimand to be interpretable as a LATE. Angrist and Imbens (1995) argue that the monotonicity assumption is testable whenever the treatment is multivalued. We show that their test is informative if counterfactuals are observed. Yet applying the test without observing counterfactuals, as it is generally done, is not. Nevertheless, we argue that monotonicity can and should be investigated using a mix of economic intuition and data patterns, just like other untestable assumptions in an IV or RD design. We provide examples in a variety of settings as a guide to practice. 2013-04-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9018 Title: Government exists to serve the people, not the privileged Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-04-04T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9015 Title: The Relationship Between Delegation and Incentives Across Occupations: Evidence and Theory Authors: Prasad, Suraj; DeVaro, Jed Abstract: A large literature, both theoretical and empirical, suggests that delegation of authority and incentives should have a positive relationship. Using data from a large cross section of British establishments, we show that the positive relationship between incentives and delegation that has been consistently documented in the empirical literature masks a stark difference between job types. We classify jobs into two categories: complex jobs include professional, technical and scientific occupations and simple jobs consist of all other occupations with a lower-level code in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. We find that for simple jobs, the relationship between delegation and incentives is positive as has been found in the previous literature, whereas for complex jobs it is negative. To explain this negative relationship for complex jobs, we develop a model where tasks have a risk-return tradeoff and where a single performance measure has to induce both task selection and effort. We find that if tasks vary sufficiently by risk and return and if effort is noisy to measure, then delegation and incentives have a negative relationship. 2013-03-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9010 Title: How inequality corrupts society Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-03-29T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9009 Title: Empathy for Prinz of the “Dark Side” Authors: Mathers, Ananda Abstract: Jesse Prinz has argued that empathy plays no important role in moral judgement, and further that it has a “dark side” which renders it by and large bad for morality. This paper challenges these conclusions and demonstrates that it is possible to meet Prinz’s objections by adopting a conceptualisation of empathy which combines elements of Martin Hoffman’s process-focussed definition of empathy with Michael Slote’s agent-centred approach to empathy’s functional role within morality. Beyond proving resilient in the face of Prinz’s attacks, such a conceptualisation of empathy also displays a degree of explanatory usefulness both within Prinz’s own brand of moral sentimentalism and the moral psychology literature more generally. Far from being bad for morality, empathy would appear to be a useful ally to a robust moral sentimentalism. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9008 Title: Neo-pragmatist accounts of truth: Rorty's "ethnocentrism" and Putnam's "internal realism" Authors: Taylor, Alistair Abstract: This work will discuss a recent series of public exchanges that took place between the two founding figures of neopragmatism, Richard Rorty and Hilary Putnam, regarding truth and its relation to justification. Like the classical pragmatists Peirce, James, and Dewey, both Rorty and Putnam argue that we should refrain from taking the term “true” to denote a successful correspondence between a proposition and a single, fixed, absolute reality. Given this substantial common ground, their exchanges provide a direct insight into a tension that lies right at the heart of neopragmatism. Both attempt to interpret truth as importantly related to the prospect of justification amongst peers, without simply providing a reductive definition of “true” as synonymous with “whatever happens to be the contemporary consensus.” Rorty and Putnam thus attempt to navigate an approach to the notion of truth that avoids the problems associated with “absolute” theories of truth on one extreme, and utter “relativism” about truth on the other. In this essay I will attempt to clarify the points of compatibility and points of departure between Rorty and Putnam’s views by closely examining the debates that occurred between the two. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9006 Title: How inequality is killing the dinosaurs Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-03-08T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9005 Title: The great Cyprus bank robbery Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-03-24T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9004 Title: A Naturalistic Theory of Perceptual Representation Authors: Lees, Adam Abstract: I propose a theory of representation concerning the perceptual events that are posited and studied by the cognitive and neuro-sciences. The theory is intended to help explain relationships between the perceptual and executive systems, and to place metasemantic constraints on future accounts of the semantics of natural languages. I begin by setting out desiderata for the theory. In particular, I intend the theory to be naturalistic at least in accordance with a specified kind of epistemological naturalism, to give priority to explaining the properties of the representing events themselves rather than their contents, to avoid the widespread lack of clarity among similar theories when it comes to identifying contents, to apply to human-like systems with executive functions and language, to be compatible with constraints imposed by natural selection, and to posit narrow contents that are capable of figuring in a certain kind of autonomous causal explanation. The suggested theory for meeting these desiderata is based on a definition of perceptual states by ceteris paribus effects on the motor control system, which contrasts with the orthodox description of tokened perceptual states as carrying information about their external causes. I then propose that the representational content of a perceptual event is specified by the motor control system effects that define the state it tokens, but only when this event affects the executive systems. Intuitively, these representations are constructions out of the behavioural dispositions that are mediated by perceptual events, such that these constructions are used by the executive systems in the trialling of potential behavioural outputs. While this behavioural model theory of perceptual representation satisfies the desiderata, I argue that it warrants scepticism about manifest objects and their properties. I conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of the theory. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9003 Title: Thrown Impossibility: The Ontological Structure of Despair Authors: Hughes, Emily Joy Abstract: This thesis is a phenomenological analysis of the ontological structure of despair. It begins with an analysis of Heidegger’s work on ‘Affectedness’ whereby through the critique given by Ratcliffe it is seen that moods are primordial and condition the way the world can matter to the subject. It then expatiates the phenomenology of despair where despair is ‘lived impossibility as such.’ Explicating the phenomenology of despair then involves subjecting Freud’s essay ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ to a Heideggerian hermeneutic analysis as discussed by Kristeva and Foucault in particular and also Radden more generally. This phenomenology of despair is then drawn into comparison with Heideggerian ‘Anxiety’ and it is concluded that despair is comparable to Heideggerian anxiety when it is subject to a negative existential reduction as put forward by Dreyfus. The final section of this paper then maps the phenomenology of despair onto the temporality of Heidegger’s care structure, ultimately explicating the ontological structure of despair. This involves a close analysis of the radical diminishing of Heideggerian ‘Projection’ or ‘Understanding’ as is reflected in the radical disruption to temporality that occurs in despair, particularly the diminishing of the futural self- the most profound consequence of which is the loss of the capacity to project towards one’s ownmost possibility, that of death. It is argues that death becomes impossible which then means that life itself becomes impossible. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9002 Title: FREE WILL HUNTING: A RECONCEPTUALISATION OF VOLUNTARINESS, DURESS AND NECESSITY USING ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS Authors: Hariharan, Jeevan Abstract: Jurisprudential philosophers concerned with the question of legal responsibility will be familiar with the problematic category of cases where conduct which would otherwise attract liability is committed as a result of threats or dire circumstances. When these situations arise in the context of criminal law, the traditional approach has been to invoke the defences of duress and necessity. As it stands, however, the operation of these concepts seems to be fraught with an underlying difficulty; namely, that the core theoretical basis for duress and necessity overlaps with the principle of voluntariness by relying on common tests such as whether one’s free will is overborne. In chapter one, I outline this problem and its implications, arguing that attempts to circumvent the issue are unsuccessful because they are based on an arbitrary distinction between physical and moral involuntariness. The rest of the thesis is devoted to the claim that a tenable basis for reconceptualisation can be found in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics. In chapter three, I examine Aristotle’s writings on these issues, overcoming difficulties with the texts to develop an Aristotelian theory of voluntary action. In chapter four, I apply these considerations to the current law, demonstrating how an Aristotelian approach better conforms with the underlying rationale for the voluntariness principle and leads to increased clarity for the law relating to duress and necessity. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9001 Title: Metaphysical accounts of modality: A comparative evaluation of Lewisian and neo-Aristotelian modal metaphysics Authors: Chua, David Abstract: In this essay I comparatively evaluate two realist metaphysical accounts of modality: David Lewis’ (1986) genuine modal realism (GMR), and neo-Aristotelian modal realism (AMR) as put forth by Alexander Pruss (2011). GMR offers a reductive analysis of modal claims of possibility and necessity in terms of claims quantifying over concrete worlds and counterparts, and is in this way committed the existence of a plurality of concrete worlds other than the actual world; AMR, on the other hand, offers an analysis of modal claims in terms of claims about the causal powers of existing objects in the actual world, and identifies these powers and powerful properties as the truthmakers for modal truths of possibility and necessity. I consider two objections to GMR; firstly, that it leads to ethical paradoxes, and secondly, that the counterparts it offers as truthmakers for modal claims are fundamentally irrelevant to the de re modal properties of objects. I argue that AMR bears a prima facie advantage over GMR by reason of its avoidance of those two objections, before evaluating two objections faced by AMR itself, namely, that its analysis is not genuinely explanatory, and secondly, that the ontology of powers fails to account for the full range of metaphysical possibility. I argue that AMR has the resources to avoid these objections, that AMR on balance is more attractive, and that therefore AMR is worthy of serious consideration by advocates of GMR. References LEWIS, DAVID K. (1986). On the plurality of worlds. New York, NY, USA: B. Blackwell. PRUSS, ALEXANDER R. (2011). Actuality, Possibility, and Worlds. London: Continuum. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8996 Title: Vouchers Reconsidered - The marketisation of education and prospects for social democratic reform Authors: Rogers, Katren 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8995 Title: 'Never had it so good'? The Concealed Costs of Financial Exposure Authors: Bundey, Freya 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8994 Title: The Political Economy of Neoliberalism and the Occupy Movement Authors: Barry, Matthew 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8993 Title: Freedom and Faith in Neoliberal Capitalism: The Fantasy of the American Dream Authors: Sherab, Domenique 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8992 Title: Aid-for-Trade: the Way Forward for Development? Authors: Petrova, Ioulia Abstract: The failure to eradicate poverty through trade-induced economic growth over a number of decades raises questions about the latest initiative: Aid-for-trade. After examining whether the initiative signifies a new paradigm for achieving development, this thesis employs an empirical analysis of the East Asian region with a particular focus on Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to find no clear relationship between Aid-for-trade flows and measures of development even for individual sectors in these countries. It is concluded that this is due to Aid-for-trade flows being designed to maximise the donor’s economic and political position rather than the recipient’s development. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8991 Title: Money for Nothing, Re-thinking Women's Empowerment and the Accomplishments of Microfinance in Rural Bangladesh Authors: Jahan, Hosna Abstract: Microfinance Institutions often claim that microfinance is useful not only in alleviating poverty but also as a development tool which empowers women. The impacts of microfinance on empowerment have been studied by many, some of whom have reviewed empowerment not only by looking at repayment, but also by examining the women’s well-being. However, other studies suggest that the various dimensions of well-being (such as mobility, political participation and health awareness) are not a direct result of access to credit or income but rather an indirect result of community development programs that are usually run by the microfinance institutions alongside their credit providing facilities. Thus, many studies suggest, while microfinance may be a useful tool to alleviate women out of poverty but empowerment is an issue that needs to be addressed differently. Empowerment, in this view, requires incorporating women’s agency. However, in traditional societies like Bangladesh, the present character of women’s agency is one of the causes of their disempowerment. The existing social structure and the century-long gender disparities distort the view of what women really value. Thus, I argue that empowerment cannot be achieved only via exercising agency, but it needs to question the existing power relations and social structures. On this reasoning empowerment requires critical agency. By examining Bangladeshi women’s identity, social structure and agency this thesis inspects how social structures, existing power relations and agency play out in the context of empowerment. I argue that the microfinance institutions need to challenge the existing social structures and power relations rather than build on them. Moreover, the idea of critical agency needs to be incorporated in their community development programs to play an effective role in women’s empowerment and development. Looking at microfinance institutions in this broader context shows more clearly the limited role they play in the process of women’s empowerment. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8975 Title: Housing Wealth and Household Consumption: New Evidence from Australia and Canada Authors: Atalay, Kadir; Whelan, Stephen; Yates, Judith Abstract: Over the past two decades a number of countries have experienced an increase in house prices at the same time that aggregate consumption has been observed to increase. Alternative hypotheses have been put forward to explain this pattern. In this paper we test these hypotheses by using repeated Household Expenditure Surveys from Canada and Australia to identify the transmission mechanism that links consumption and household wealth. The empirical analysis suggests that neither a direct wealth effect nor a common causal factor is a likely explanation for the observed correlation between wealth and consumption. Rather, indirect factors such as relaxation of credit constraints are more likely explanations. 2013-03-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8956 Title: Britain comes clean on slave fortunes Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-02-27T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8937 Title: The world order is changing, but not how you think Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-02-13T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8935 Title: Arriving, digging, performing, returning: an exercise in rich interpretation of a djanba song text in the sound archive of the Wadeye Knowledge Centre, Northern Territory of Australia Authors: Barwick, Linda; Marett, Allan; Blythe, Joe; Walsh, Michael Abstract: This article covers issues around song language interpretation and documentation in relation to a djanba song in Murriny Patha language composed by Lawrence Kolumboort (djanba 11). Description: Submitted with the permission of the volume editor, Prof. R.M. Moyle. 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8931 Title: Barwick, L. (1994). The Filipino komedya and the Italian maggio: cross-cultural perspectives on related genres of popular music theatre Authors: Barwick, Linda Abstract: The Filipino komedya and the Italian maggio are contemporary traditions of sung popular theatre that use written librettos drawing on European chivalrous verse romances. Their present-day forms, themes and performance practice reflect the intercultural contact and conflict that have characterised their histories. After introducing case studies drawn from the Filipino komedya and the Italian maggio, the paper surveys the history of performance traditions associated with the chivalrous romance, including review of contemporary survivals in a number of performance media, and the use of writing in these and other popular traditions. In order to explain the striking parallels in present-day manifestations of both komedya and maggio, it is necessary to grasp the complex but largely hidden history of dramatic performances that have accompanied the published verse romances. Description: This paper has been archived in PARADISEC as part of collection LB1, "Luna and Burgos (Ilocos Sur) (1993) and Vigan (Ilocos Sur) (1995)". Linda Barwick (collector), Linda Barwick (author), 1994; Article by Linda Barwick on 'The Filipino komedya and the Italian maggio', PDF, http://catalog.paradisec.org.au/collections/LB1/items/ARTICLE 2013-02-12. 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8927 Title: The problem isn’t growth; the problem is inequality Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-02-10T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8925 Title: The Decline of the Self-Employment Rate in Australia Authors: Atalay, Kadir; Kim, Woo-Yung; Whelan, Stephen Abstract: This paper using the Australian panel data(HILDA) investigates the declining trend of self-employment rate in Australia, a pattern observed in a number of other developed countries in the 2000s. We focus on the entry into and the exit from self-employment, treating males and females separately. Our results show that the self-employment rate has declined in Australia because older workers, especially older female workers, remained longer in paid-employment. This finding indicates that although the self-employment rate of older workers is higher than that of younger workers, the gap has decreased in recent years so that the average self-employment rate has declined. In addition, we provide some evidence that industry and institutional changes, such as reforms in tax and pension systems, may have contributed to an increase in the labour force participation of older females, which may explain why the decline of self-employment has been severe for this group. 2013-02-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8912 Title: What's wrong with the "right to work"? Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-01-28T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8903 Title: Australia and the Palestine Question, 1947–1949: A New Interpretation Authors: Yu, Teresa Abstract: By 1947, the conflicting national aspirations of the Arab majority and Jewish minority within Palestine had developed into an intractable problem. The responsibility for the political future of Palestine fell upon the fledgling United Nations and thereby weighed upon the shoulders of all its constituent states. This was a time, however, when the nations of the globe were emerging from the shadow of a world war, and were re-evaluating their construction of foreign policy. In this thesis I utilise the Palestine Question as a prism through which to explore the nuances in the Australian conception of postwar diplomacy. 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8899 Title: To save Social Security, raise the minimum wage Authors: Babones, Salvatore 2013-01-22T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8898 Title: Stochastic stability on general state spaces Authors: Newton, Jonathan Abstract: This paper studies stochastic stability methods applied to processes on general state spaces. This includes settings in which agents repeatedly interact and choose from an uncountable set of strategies. Dynamics exist for which the stochastically stable states differ from those of any reasonable finite discretization. When there are a finite number of rest points of the unperturbed dynamic, sufficient conditions for analogues of results from the finite state space literature are derived and studied. Illustrative examples are given 2012-10-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8897 Title: Limitations of Network Games - a brief discussion Authors: Newton, Jonathan 2011-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8896 Title: Cheap talk and editorial control Authors: Newton, Jonathan Abstract: This paper analyzes simple models of editorial control. Starting from the framework developed by Krishna and Morgan (2001a), we analyze 2-sender models of cheap talk where one or more of the senders has the power to veto messages before they reach the receiver. A characterization of the most informative equilibria of such models is given: it is shown that editorial control never aids communication and that for small biases in the senders’ pref­erences relative to those of the receiver, necessary and sufficient conditions for information transmission to be adversely affected are that the senders have opposed preferences relative to the receiver and that they both have powers of editorial control. It is shown that the addition of further senders beyond two weakly decreases information transmission. 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8895 Title: Coalitions, tipping points and the speed of evolution Authors: Newton, Jonathan Abstract: This study considers pure coordination games on networks and the waiting time for an adaptive process of strategic change to achieve efficient coordination. Although it is in the interest of every player to coordinate on a single globally efficient norm, coalitional behavior at a local level can greatly slow, as well as hasten convergence to efficiency. For some networks, parameter values exist at which the effect of coalitional behavior changes abruptly from a conservative effect to a reforming effect. These effects are confirmed for a variety of stylized and empirical social networks found in the literature. For coordination games in which the Pareto efficient and risk dominant equilibria differ, polymorphic states can be the only stochastically stable states. 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8893 Title: Bronze “Bathtub” Coffins In the Context of 8th-6th Century B.C.E. Babylonian, Assyrian and Elamite Funerary Practices Authors: Wicks, Yasmina Abstract: Central to this thesis are a small number of unique bronze “bathtub” coffins found in 8th–6th century B.C.E. Babylonian, Assyrian and Elamite burial contexts. These fascinating burial containers have not previously been subject to an in-depth analysis, but rather have been treated by archaeologists as little more than convenient receptacles for a body and numerous precious objects deemed more worthy of scholarly interest. This thesis takes the opportunity to narrow this gap in scholarship, by firstly drawing together the available evidence for the excavated coffins, investigating the method and place of their manufacture, and establishing a possible date range for their production and use. Then, to progress towards an understanding of the bronze “bathtub” coffin burials within the broader context of regional funerary practices, they are incorporated into an analysis of Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Elamite mortuary evidence, with a particular focus on burial typology, grave goods and burial location. The use of the bronze “bathtubs” as burial receptacles also demands that they be viewed in light of Mesopotamian and Elamite beliefs about what happens to people upon their death, and what the funerary ritual should involve. This thesis therefore explores the coffins in the context of these beliefs and then, building upon this analysis, considers possible ideological aspects of the coffins with emphasis on motifs, form and material, and why these may have been appropriate in a burial context. Underpinning this study is the principle that mortuary evidence is the product of intentional behaviour and that the bronze coffins, and indeed all burial containers, were not simply incidental to the funerary process. Instead they represent a deliberate choice by the burying group and each would have been the central feature of an emotionally and symbolically charged burial act. One feature of the bronze coffin burials that emerges throughout much of the analysis is their undeniable role in the expression, or even construction, of social rank. This role is consistent across all of the burials, which evidently belonged to individuals (or burying groups) of extremely high-status (measured by wealth). Based on the understanding that the bronze “bathtubs” were used in the construction and maintenance of socio-cultural ideology in Babylonia, Assyria and Elam, the known historical interaction between these three cultures is examined in the final section of the thesis, with a view to establishing the extent to which the coffins can be considered as belonging to a shared funerary practice. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8892 Title: “You only find what you search for:” Approaching the Gymnasion and Theatre at Aï Khanoum Authors: Morris, Lauren Abstract: Many aspects of life at Aï Khanoum, a Hellenistic-era city located in modern Afghanistan, have been explored and problematised in a prolific corpus of research since the site’s excavation by the Délegation archéologique française en Afghanistan in 1964. While areas of administrative, religious and funerary experience continue to be approached in sensitive, nuanced ways, the Gymnasion and Theatre uncovered in this city have not received such treatment. Instead, it is the prevailing view of scholarship that these two structures, emphatically ‘Greek,’ were built in regards to the needs of Greek settlers, and provided for the same people a characteristically Greek life so far from home. In order to disentangle these prevailing interpretations, this thesis seeks to demonstrate the importance of recognising how the Gymnasion and Theatre have been approached in past scholarship and to demonstrate the worth of re-approaching these structures. By critically engaging with the excavation reports of these buildings at Aï Khanoum, this thesis explores the relationship between expectation, evidence and interpretation that underpin such interpretations of the Gymnasion and Theatre in modern scholarship. By demonstrating that this relationship is extremely problematic as Aï Khanoum’s excavators have tended to only ‘find what they search for,’ this thesis demonstrates the value of re-approaching these structures. By critical engagement with a range of archaeological, literary and epigraphic evidence, as well as conceptual frameworks that have been invoked elsewhere to understand the complex nature of intercultural contact in the Hellenistic Far East, new interpretations of these structures can be made which, ultimately, may have broader implications for understanding the nuances of intercultural contact in Central Asia. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8891 Title: An Insight into Life at Geometric Zagora Provided by the Animal Bones Authors: Alagich, Rudolph Abstract: This thesis is a study of the animal bone distribution at the Geometric period settlement of Zagora (ca. 850-700 BC), on the island of Andros. The animal bones were excavated during the 1967-74 University of Sydney excavations and analysed in 1977 by a specialist who compiled a report of her findings. The report is currently in preparation for publication and is the primary source for this thesis. The data it provided was limited but enough could be extracted to identify patterns that permitted a tentative reconstruction of social life and the economy at Zagora. There is a paucity of excavated settlements from the Greek EIA and few of these have published faunal material, an essential element in reconstructing past lifeways. Those preserved settlements from which animal bones have been published are not extensive with good domestic contexts but usually sites of minimal extent. Hence, it has not been possible to conduct an analysis of the spatial distribution of animal bones from such a settlement. Zagora, being an extensive settlement containing mainly domestic structures, is therefore unique and the animal bone report provided the opportunity for such a study to be undertaken. A number of analyses were performed using both statistical and non-statistical methods. Through these it was discovered that there is a relationship between the animal size and the size of the architectural unit within which it was found. Similarly, there appeared to be a relationship between larger architecture and the presence of fish, postulated as being a pelagic species. The patterns observed were interpreted as evidence of ‘special’ meals with a larger than usual number of diners in attendance and hence the need for a larger space to host them. Using the animal bones’ distribution and architectural evidence it is proposed that feasting was an important event at Zagora, conducted at the household level to possibly reinforce bonds of kinship and friendship. The evidence also suggests that the H area could have been inhabited by people of better means than elsewhere in the settlement, particularly by the hypaethral sanctuary. Ideally the animal bones would have been studied in conjunction with associated artefacts, but this was not possible and so this would be something desirable to be performed in the near future. With 21st century excavation techniques, the future Zagora excavations should provide greater granularity in the faunal information obtained from the settlement to allow better precision in subsequent analyses. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2123/8890 Title: The Foundation and Composition of Egypt's Role in the Arab World Authors: Rottinger, Karina Abstract: The choice of topic “The Foundation and Composition of Egypt’s Role in the Arab World” is not purely out of interest. It rises out of the abundance of literature and discourse that places Egypt at the centre of the Arab world with very ambiguous reasoning and seemingly haphazard confusion. This thesis thus seeks to do two things. First it aims to show that through the suspension of material capabilities we can instead focus on the norms surrounding regional powers as well as role conception, which can lead to a better understanding of Egypt’s status in the region which is often ascribed as more political, cultural and social rather than based around military and economics. This research uses certain fixed variables to better understand this; Egypt’s self-conception as a leader, its identity and its absorbing nature. Secondly, it aims to map out, historically, how Egypt’s role has taken different forms and manifested itself differently throughout time. This thesis uses the presidencies of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak as three distinct eras that can provide us an insight into three different ways we can observe Egypt occupying a distinct role in the Arab world. In order to understand how role behaviour is not static, it is posited that it is necessary to recall some of the major political events and how they have acted as catalysts, for more general contextual changes. It is noted however that all the variables cannot be taken into account further research is suggested on this topic. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z