https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8630 Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:52:18 GMT 2026-06-09T15:52:18Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8802 Conditionality, Recognition and Indigenous Housing Policy in Australia Habibis, Daphne; Memmott, Paul; Phillips, Rhonda; Moran, Mark This paper draws on ideas of recognition and the intercultural as a way of examining the impact of welfare conditionality on Indigenous housing policy in Australia. The increased application of welfare conditionality has occurred in tandem with „mainstreaming‟ of housing management and provision, and regulation of Indigenous Community Organisations. (ICOs). These developments raise policy and practice questions about the effectiveness of such approaches in achieving desired housing outcomes because of questions about their alignment with Indigenous norms and values. The paper argues that the embedded nature of individuals in their social and cultural locations requires the development of policy paradigms that are adapted to these realities. The idea of a recognition space extends the idea of conditionality to one involving moral relationships of duty and care between the individual, Indigenous formal and informal governance structures and the state and its agents. This can be used to build a framework for the development of flexible and adaptive housing policies that are culturally respectful and address the differences in housing values between tenants and housing agencies. Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8802 2012-12-03T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8789 Using theory to ‘speak back’ to neoliberal performativity: the Northern Territory Intervention and the inventing of a neoliberal subject as a case in point Howard-Wagner, Deirdre The paper reflects on the Northern Territory Intervention as a neoliberal regime governing the conduct of Australia’s Aboriginal population in the Northern Territory. In doing so, it only provides a critical commentary and is formative in its reflection, rather than providing an in-depth substantiation of the theoretical propositions put forward. It is divided into three parts. First, the paper reflects on the critical scholarship analysing the Northern Territory Intervention as a neoliberal phenomenon, discussing broadly the contributions of such theoretical accounts. Second, it adds to this scholarship, which aims to decolonise the discursive dimensions of neoliberal performativity, by briefly considering performativity in the context of failure and exposing the pernicious effects of neoliberal performativity, as well as engaging Aboriginal voices to invert failure. As such, its role is to continue the discussion about (and make a small contribution to this discussion of) how critical scholars are engaging with the theoretical tools of poststructuralism, postcolonialism, critical whiteness studies and a governmentality approach, for example, to ‘speak back’ to the Northern Territory Intervention as a neoliberal phenomenon. Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8789 2012-11-26T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8788 Governing Indigenous Alterity: Towards A Sociology of Australian Indigenous Issues Watson, Virginia In this paper I explore some of the ways in which the notion of liberal governmentality – the idea of governing through freedom – might usefully generate a specifically sociological insight into some of the ways in which Indigenous peoples are currently governed in the Australian context. It will be my argument that although much current research takes the development of Indigenous rights premised on the recognition of Indigenous difference as foundational to liberal governmentality there is a tendency, nonetheless, to continue to regard this mode of governing as continuous with earlier coercive, colonial forms of power. Drawing on some fieldwork I hope to show some of the (small ways) in which rights and freedoms rather than opposing power can in fact be said to be constitutive of new fields of (liberal governmental) power. Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8788 2012-11-26T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8791 Can Theory Disempower? Making Space for Agency in Theories of Indigenous Issues Petray, Theresa Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are often presented by the media and academics as marginalised, dispossessed, and downtrodden. Historical narratives and statistics are used to strengthen this position. While this historical and ongoing reality must be acknowledged in order for meaningful reconciliation to occur, it must not come at the expense of Indigenous agency. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people exercise considerable control over their own circumstances. Activists and other advocates for Aboriginal rights exercise agency “as resistance”, demanding changes to current structures. Other people engage in agency “as project”, adopting different tactics to achieve their goals. These tactics are often productive – creating Aboriginal services, for example – but agency is sometimes expressed in more 'repugnant' ways, such as crime or riots, such as the event following the Palm Island death in custody in 2004. This paper argues that a sociology of Indigenous issues must incorporate agency to ensure that our theories do not deny Aboriginal people a voice. Aboriginal people have the ability to make changes and resist norms, and this should not be ignored in favour of structural causes of dysfunction. Drawing on the work of social movement theory, supplemented by Giddens, Ortner, Cowlishaw, and Scott, I explore the “two faces” of agency and suggest that research which privileges agency should be a key feature in a sociology of Indigenous issues. Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8791 2012-11-26T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8790 Aboriginal Professionals: Work, Class, Culture Lahn, Julie This paper considers the growth of Aboriginal professionals. While the predominant focus in Australian scholarship remains contexts of Aboriginal disadvantage, there is a steadily increasing number of Indigenous professionals in Australia among whom many reside in urban locales. The paper suggests that research involving Aboriginal professionals is needed to contribute to understanding occupational aspirations and social mobility as envisaged among Aboriginal people, in addition to providing a more complete picture of Aboriginal engagements with work. The paper also provides some initial reflection on recent public discussions among Indigenous people concerning notions of an emerging Aboriginal ‘middle class’. The variety of perspectives in relation to this idea and their implications within narratives of Aboriginal identity highlight the importance of research that seeks to theorise the place of culture in individual and intergenerational social mobility. Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8790 2012-11-26T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8792 Children of a dying race: the development story and governing through race McCallum, David Late 19th century interest in new ideas about governing children, combined with the category of race as a core element of state formation, led to new interventions around children’s rights and limits to children’s life trajectories. This paper surveys public representations of early 20th century understandings of the ‘Aboriginal problem’ and notions of a ‘dying race’, and argues that this intellectual production underpins bio-political powers over the management and even continuance of the life of the child. Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/2123/8792 2012-11-26T00:00:00Z