Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Pro-Environmental Binning Behaviour Of National Park Visitors: A Cross-Cultural Study, Kourosh Esfandiar

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The growing importance of people’s pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) in relation to reducing their negative impacts and/or increasing their positive impacts in natural areas has attracted considerable research interest. Visitor engagement in pro-environmental activities is one of the key elements in maintaining and improving a national park’s ecological and biological resources. These resources are often the main components of tourism products developed in nature-based destinations.

A specific concern for many national park managers is the generation of litter by visitors. A PEB to solve the problem of litter management in national parks is binning i.e. putting litter in a bin. As …

Meeting Place An Exhibition – And – Locating The Country: An Australian Bricoleuse’S Inquiry An Exegesis, Annette Nykiel

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This practice-led PhD research investigated alternate forms of articulation to relate stories of place-making, as narrative or object, and added threads to the complex meshwork and herstory of the Country. The research was conducted in ‘The Country’, of the north-eastern Goldfields and Yalgorup Lakes in Western Australia. These two non-urban sites provided unique experiences of the bush, local people’s stories and understandings of time. The research investigated the implications of non-urban spaces as studios in relation to the concepts of place, time and narrative.

This research was, in part, experiential and drew on an absorbed embodied awareness of notions of …

Encroaching On Freedoms? Values Related To Freedom And Readiness To Accept Social Marketing Activities In Australia And Japanese Students, Kaoru Nosaka

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Do Australian and Japanese university students feel that social marketing is encroaching on their freedoms or empowering them? For example, how do they react to social marketing messages such as ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ and ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’? Social marketing activities include advocating for environmental change, laws, and regulations as well as making recommendations to individuals to change behaviours to promote the good of society; however, some people believe that such activities are attempts to control people, infringing upon their individual freedom. While behavioural models and theories have recognised the influence of an individual’s predisposition towards a recommended behaviour (such …

A Study Of Intercultural Discourse Between Mainland Chinese Speakers Of English And Anglo-Australians, Leng Hui

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Intercultural communication between mainland Chinese speakers of English and Anglo-Australians is receiving ever-increasing attention in many fields. These fields include intercultural communication. English language teaching, education and business. This study approached the intercultural communication between mainland Chinese speakers of English and Anglo-Australians from a cognitive perspective by applying the theoretical framework of cultural linguistics. The intercultural discourse produced by mainland Chinese speakers of English in the context of them interacting with Anglo-Australians was analysed. The analysis was made by employing key concepts such as schemas, cultural schemas, discourse scenarios and discourse indexicals. A body of 39 audio-taped conversations between mainland …

Keeping The Money Under The Soap : Constructions Of The English And English Migrants In Australian Nationalist Texts, Ann Rule

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Where does an Englishman hide his money?' 'I don't know. Where does an Englishman hide his money?' 'Under the soap'. This thesis interrogates representations of ‘Englishness’and by extension, English migrants, in a variety of Australian cultural texts, including film, television, newspapers and academic publications. Underlying this investigation are two major research questions: What are the factors informing the ambivalent place accorded 'Englishness' in Australian cultural texts? and What can this form of investigation tell us about Australian culture and associated national myths? I have attempted to reinterpret these national myths through the texts/ narratives of Englishness and class. One of …

Kodak's Worst Nightmare Super 8 In The Digital Age: A Cultural History Of Super 8 Filmmaking In Australia 1965-2003, Keith Smith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This project charts the extraordinary history of the Super 8 film medium, a popular amateur home movie format first introduced in 1965 and largely assumed to have disappeared with the advent of home video technologies in the early 1980's. Kodak's Worst Nightmare investigates the cultural history of the Super 8 medium with an emphasis on its (secret) life since 1986. lt asks how (and why) an apparently obsolete consumer technology has survived some 35 years into a digital future despite the emergence of technologically-advanced domestic video formats and Eastman Kodak's sustained attempts since the mid-80s to suppress, what is for …

A Study Of The Cultural Appropriateness Of Service Delivery Models In The Australian Mental Health System, Mong L. Connell

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study is an attempt to examine the cultural appropriateness of the mental health system in relation to the Vietnamese refugee community in Australia. Culture and mental health, as widely acknowledged in the field of transcultural psychiatry, are closely linked. No aspect of the diagnosis or treatment methods can be justified without reference to the cultural traditions of the mental health system and the client. In a country like Australia, where multiculturalism is a dominant feature of the society, the need is even greater in incorporating culture into every aspect of the mental health system, if it desires to provide …

Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Politeness For The Customer In Spoken Aspects Of Service In The Restaurant In Australian English And Japanese, Chieko Imaeda

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In listening to members of different cultures, it is possible to feel bad, even while recognising that the speaker is trying to speak politely. Sometimes we do not feel very comfortable with someone else’s speech, even though their expressions might be very polite with the choice of specific linguistic forms to show a high level of formality such as terms of address and specific types of formulaic expression such as ' I (don 't) think ... ' or ' I (don't) believe' . The speaker may be intending to speak politely in a considerate way. But the hearer's reaction may …

Perceptions Of Web Site Design Characteristics: A Malaysian/Australian Comparison, R. Laupase

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The study compared the perceptions of Malaysians, representing Asian culture, and Australians, representing Western culture, for four Web design characteristics (atmospherics, news stories, signs, products and services), as part of the Integrated Internet Marketing model. Under controlled laboratory conditions, two groupings of thirty subjects evaluated eight Web sites in the retail and services sectors located equally in Malaysia and Australia. This study hypothesised that the predominant culture would not be generalised to another culture. Significant differences found for Web design characteristics were typically for one site only and not across all sites. In other words, consistent differences did not eventuate. …

Refugee Settlement: Acculturation, Ethnic Identity, Ethnicity And Social Network Development, Monique Keel

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Refugees arriving in Australia undergo a number of settlement processes including adaptation and acculturation, social support and network development, and an exploration of their ethnic identity. This research examines the settlement processes of mixed marriage refugees from what was Yugoslavia who arrived in Perth, Western Australia in the early to mid 1990's. A mixed marriage is one where the couple are from different ethnic backgrounds. This research has two main aims. The first aim is to examine the processes of acculturation and adaptation, the development of social support networks, and ethnic identity, within the refugees. These processes provide a framework …

"Family" As Constructed By Adoptees After Making Contact With Their Birth Families, Adrianne Moloney

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Legislative changes during the 1980s and 1990s opened confidential adoption files of the past enabling many adoptees and relinquishing parents to establish contact. This study examines the way in which the meaning of family is constructed by adoptees who have made contact with their birth relatives, and how these constructions were altered after contact. The ways in which biological and social definitions of family are constructed and contested in these settings is explored. Sociological definitions of family are discussed and the gap between ideal notions of 'family' and the lived experience of 'family' is explored. The study focuses on the …