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dc.contributor.authorNantsou, Izabella
dc.date.accessioned2025-01-29T02:48:07Z
dc.date.available2025-01-29T02:48:07Z
dc.date.issued2025en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2123/33564
dc.description.abstractThis thesis explores how historical shifts in capitalist accumulation strategies have influenced Australian cultural subsidy. It examines the origins of Australian neoliberalism and its impact on federal arts funding from 1972 to 1997, focusing on the relationship between the state, community arts, and cultural policy. The methodology is historical materialism, guided by Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony, which views the state as integral to capitalism. The first half of the thesis traces the evolution of federal arts funding as a Keynesian economic policy, through its transformation under the Whitlam government, to the destabilisation of the arts council model amid economic crises, and examines how these changes shaped Australia’s federal community arts program. The second half analyses how shifts in accumulation strategies are reflected in community arts through four case studies: Art and Working Life (1982-c1995), an arts program jointly funded by the Australia Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions targeting projects linked to labour culture; Melbourne Workers Theatre (1987-2012), a theatre company dedicated to working exclusively with the labour movement; Creative Nation (1994), Australia’s first federal cultural policy, which entrenched an economic rationalist “creative industries” paradigm into policymaking; and The Essentials (1997), a community theatre production created with emergency services and domestic violence support workers about their experiences under a state-wide restructure by former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett. These case studies are examined in the context of declining organised labour power in Australia, and the rise and consolidation of neoliberalism as the dominant hegemony of advanced capitalism. This thesis finds that the industrial problems of the Australian arts sector result from a structural antagonism between a sector that relies on public funding and the imperatives of the neoliberal state.en_AU
dc.language.isoenen_AU
dc.subjectneoliberalismen_AU
dc.subjecttheatreen_AU
dc.subjectcommunity artsen_AU
dc.subjectcultural policyen_AU
dc.subjectcreative industriesen_AU
dc.subjectaustraliaen_AU
dc.titleThe Subsidy Question: Community Theatre and the Integral Stateen_AU
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.thesisDoctor of Philosophyen_AU
dc.rights.otherThe author retains copyright of this thesis. It may only be used for the purposes of research and study. It must not be used for any other purposes and may not be transmitted or shared with others without prior permission.en_AU
usyd.facultySeS faculties schools::Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences::School of Art, Communication and Englishen_AU
usyd.departmentDiscipline of Theatre and Performance Studiesen_AU
usyd.degreeDoctor of Philosophy Ph.D.en_AU
usyd.awardinginstThe University of Sydneyen_AU
usyd.advisorGinters, Laura


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