Alastair Greig

The limits of housing policy: Home ownership in Australia

Abstract This paper provides an overview of the history of owner occupation rates and policies in Australia, starting from the first Commonwealth census in 1911 and continuing to the most recent in 1991, with particular emphasis on the recent past. The ownership rate grew by only a few percentage points between the 1911 and 1947 censuses, but then increased rapidly from 53 per cent in 1947 to 70 per cent in 1961. However, in spite of extensive promotion of home ownership by the Commonwealth and state governments, ownership rates in Australia have been more or less stable ever since. In a re‐interpretation of Australias experience with owner occupation, we argue that economic and demographic circumstances are much more important than previous policy‐oriented accounts have allowed.

Technological Change and Innovation in the Clothing Industry: the Role of Retailing

Abstract A number of socio-economic and technological factors are pressuring Australian clothing industry companies to alter their long-standing methods of manufacturing. After a brief description of the changing policy environment within Australia over the past two decades, this paper argues that the retail sector is performing a pivotal role in transforming manufacturing practices within the clothing sector. Two examples of retailing influence are examined: the growing awareness of quality control, and the introduction of ‘quick response’ strategies. One conclusion is that industry analysts must broaden their conceptions of industry chains to take account of the role of retailing in promoting technological and organizational change within the clothing industry.

The Boomerang Effect: A Case Study of the Murray‐Darling Basin Plan

In the period from 1997 to 2009 Australia experienced a severe drought, which significantly affected the Murray-Darling Basin. The drought has broken but state governments are still in conflict over water allocations. The establishment of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) in 2007 was intended to address these issues but the management of the Basin remains complicated by constitutional ambiguity. This paper addresses the question of whether it is possible to implement effective policies for the health of the Murray-Darling Basin without the present danger of a drought. We suggest that the MDBA has encountered what Beck refers to as the ‘boomerang effect’. The MDBAs plans seem to have produced new challenges and the Authority might find the Basin is exposed to risks it has created.

Australian housing, technological change and the Fordist regime of accumulation

Abstract Although the concept of Fordism has been used to explain a range of phenomena in Australian post‐war political economy, there have been few attempts to assess its utility within the field of housing provision. This paper is a preliminary attempt to ‘test’ the Fordist model. It distinguishes between two uses of the concept—a narrow ‘productivist’ approach which focuses on the ‘backwardness’ of the housing industry, and a broader ‘societal’ approach which focuses on the interrelationship between dominant production techniques, patterns of consumption and urban form. The first section examines the fate of post‐war visions of Fordist housing. Following this, the paper suggests that the broader use of the concept—derived from the regulation school of political economy—is useful for explaining the coincidence between suburbanisation, mass consumption, mass production and state intervention after the Second World War.

Australian Apparel Retailing Through the Net and Over the Waves

A global consensus appears to be emerging among clothing retail analysts that the key factors that will influence the industry over the next decade are corporate concentration, e-commerce and globalisation. This paper examines these predictions in the light of Australian evidence. First, it argues that Australia already possesses a highly concentrated clothing retail sector. However, the significance of concentration is that it facilitates the dominant role that retailers have been asserting along the clothing commodity chain. Second, it points to the ambiguity of the globalisation thesis in an industry that increasingly relies upon close-to-market intelligence. However, it also argues that retailers have assumed a stronger grip on global clothing commodity chains. Third, it demonstrates that retailers are embracing e-commerce, although its immediate impact upon the clothing commodity chain and upon consumer behaviour remains slight. Yet, if e-commerce does begin to shape communication along the supply chain (or supply web) there is no reason to expect that this will alter existing power relations, despite the rhetoric of trust and shared information flows.

C. Wright Mills and the Concept of ‘Craftsmanship’: Personal Troubles and Public Issues in the Housebuilding Industry

Abstract Recent developments in the field of work organisation have heightened interest in the concept of craft production. These developments, associated with concepts such as flexible specialisation, suggest that contemporary changes in market and production relations—and the crisis of Fordism—are promoting a ‘revival’ of craft forms of production. Although some critics have raised doubts about the empirical veracity of such a revival, there have been few attempts to examine areas of production which have retained a large element of the ‘craft ethos’ throughout the Fordist era. This paper explores the dynamics of change within the Australian housebuilding industry. After defining the concept of ‘craftsmanship’—using the work of C. Wright Mills—we argue that the housebuilding sector still retains much of the flavour of his ‘ideal’ type. The second half of the paper reviews selected data from interviews from a study of tradespeople in the housebuilding sector, and explores the struggle which many tradespe...

Appearing True in the social sciences Reflections on an academic Hoax

In early 2009 Keith Windschuttle, an Australian historian and editor of the conservative journal Quadrant, was caught out having accepted for publication a fraudulent piece of academic research, a hoax which aimed to reveal the hypocrisy of Windschuttle’s public stance on standards of scholarship. Over 10 years after the Sokal affair, the Windschuttle hoax raises in a new way the question of the relationship of social science to the problem of truth. We argue that, through its transgression of the rules and norms of social scientific practice, the hoax can draw our attention to those very rules and norms, affirming our commitment to them. In pursuing this argument, we consider what it means for social science to play its particular ‘language game’, highlighting the similarities and differences between the hoax’s and social sciences’ efforts to ‘seem true’.

Somos hijos de Sandino y Bolívar: Radical Pan-American Traditions in Historical and Cultural Context

This paper provides a comparative history of radical pan-Americanism with the view to examining its potential under contemporary geo-political and socio-economic conditions. Radical pan-Americanism has manifested itself in different ways according to specific national contexts and historical circumstances. It has been inspired by local popular struggles against imperialist power and through the recognition of a shared history. In contrast, hegemonic pan-Americanism has tended to be driven by the interests of powerful states and their strategic interests. We emphasise how radical pan-Americanism has periodically reappeared in response to the prevailing form of hegemonic pan-Americanism. Two historical traditions are examined—the Venezuelan tradition and the Nicaraguan tradition. These examples suggest that the possibilities of uniting local inflections of radical pan-Americanism depend upon the prevailing geo-political climate. We conclude by assessing whether the early twenty-first century is a propitious moment for radical pan-Americanism, or another false dawn.