The politics of Australian yuppies

Although many popular claims are made about the social distinctiveness and political importance of yuppies (young, urban or upwardly‐mobile professionals), there is little firm evidence to support such claims. This paper uses national survey data to identify individuals who might be classified as yuppies, and examines their demographic and social attributes and political orientations. The results show that there are no substantial differences between yuppies on the one hand, and non‐yuppies (young, rural persons or young urban non‐professionals) and people aged 40 and over on the other. Moreover, yuppies tend to be liberal rather than conservative on most issues, economic ones included. These results suggest that claims about the distinctiveness and political importance of yuppies are generally exaggerated.     

The Struggle for Australian History

Dixson, Miriam The Real Matilda: Women and Identity in Australia 1788 to the Present Ferres, Kay (ed.) The Time to Write: Australian Women Writers 1890–1930 Grimshaw, Patricia, Lake, Marilyn, McGrath, Ann and Quartly, Marian Creating a Nation 1788–1990 Summers, Anne Damned Whores and God’s Police Robinson, Portia The Women of Botany Bay     

The language of Australian citizenship

The study of Australian citizenship could no longer be referred to as neglected. Empirical and theoretical studies have shown the development of both the idea and practice to be incremental and ad hoc: a source of inclusion and exclusion. Historians and political scientists have shown how citizenship was developed through studying legislative documents, constitutional devices, common law interpretation, and administrative practice. Whilst many have alluded to the speeches and texts of leaders, in my mind insufficient attention has been placed on the role of political language. My argument aims not only to show how Australian citizenship has been developed but also argues that public political language (with a firm connection to social reality) has, in the absence of legal and official definition and explication, vastly shaped our past and present imaginings of the citizen.     

The Making of an Australian Technoburb

North Ryde in Sydney provides an instructive case study of the emergence in little over a generation of a new suburban activity centre on a greenfield site. While its image is that of a siliconised ‘technopole’, the real significance lies in the evolution of the wider locality into some-thing more akin perhaps to an American ‘edge city’. The notion of the ‘technoburb’ seems the most apposite. The evolution of North Ryde is seen as exemplifying the restructuring of metropolitan areas into multi-nucleated regions, the strategic role of the state in setting certain ground rules for development, the rise of the information economy, the impact of globalisation of economic activity, the dependent nature of the Australian economy, and the gap that can exist between image and reality in an Australian suburban ‘hi tech’ environment.     

澳大利亚福利制度的形成

澳大利亚社会保障和福利制度是自20世纪初澳大利亚联邦成立以来的一项基本国策,福利制度的形成是澳大利亚社会改革和现代化发展的重要内容与特征之一。具有本土化扬弃功能的澳大利亚民族意识使这一移植于英国的“舶来品”植根于澳洲,进而形成适合于澳大利亚社会、拥有澳大利亚特色的社会制度,影响深远。