The politics of 'sustainability': a critical discourse analysis of Victorian Government policy discourse, 1999-2006

Since its emergence during the 1980s the idea of sustainability has come to provide the dominant frame within which environmental policy is debated. Thus, for many ‘sustainability’ represents the best way to address the economic, social and environmental effects of the myriad of environmental issues facing human societies, including biodiversity loss, soil erosion, pollution of waterways, ozone depletion and climate change. There are however, widely divergent views advocated as to what sustainability means, which has important implications for how serious environmental issues are understood to be, why they are important, what has caused them, and what needs to be done to address them. Given the diversity of such views, the consequences for policy making, and the likelihood of effective responses being developed, are self evident. Within this context, this thesis investigates the politics of sustainability, focussing particularly on the way in which it is defined, because of the implications this has for the way in which environmental issues are understood and addressed. Following a review of various approaches to analysing environmental policy (traditional, mainstream, ecopolitical and discursive), Norman Fairclough’s approach to discourse analysis (Critical Discourse Analysis) was identified as having particular merit. Fairclough’s approach avoids the assumption that policy issues exist independently of the way they are framed and offers a perspective on discourse that links the social theoretical concerns of Foucault with the micro level concerns of linguistics. It also provides a means for taking environmental policy analysis in directions that that have attracted relatively limited attraction, namely the detailed analysis of the ideological effects of language on environmental policy. In this thesis Fairclough’s approach is used to explore how three storylines of sustainability (sustainable development, environmentally sustainable growth and transforming society) and their associated discourses shaped environmental policy making in Victoria, Australia, between 1999 and 2006. In undertaking this analysis, I examined the political and institutional context informing policy making (social practice); the contested process of text production (discourse practice), and; the detailed wording of a policy text (textual analysis). A major policy statement on environmental sustainability released by the Victorian Government in 2005 is subjected to detailed analysis. Based on the analysis undertaken, the substantive finding from this research is that rather than moving beyond neoliberalism, the Victorian Government embraced an approach to sustainability that was informed by neoliberalism and (weak) ecological modernisation, which constructs sustainability in ways that limit its importance and constrain the types of responses that could be advocated. In doing so, it drew heavily on notions of natural assets and ecosystems services as ways to make sense of the environment and why it is important. The Victorian Government also highlighted that environmental issues are caused by the cumulative effects of individual choices, and emphasized the importance of individual choice and behavioural change as central features of sustainability, while restricting opportunities for more transformative ideas to be heard. The broader conclusion arising from this research is that approaches to environmental policy that rely on neoliberal and (weak) ecological modern discourses are flawed, because, in commodifying nature, limiting the nature and magnitude of change required, and placing responsibility onto individuals they offer a constrained understanding of the challenge of sustainability and what needs to be done about it. The overall contribution made by this research is an improved understanding of the discursive nature of the politics of sustainability and the influence of neoliberalism and ecological modernisation, the use of a methodology that has attracted relatively limited attention within environmental policy (despite its widespread use in other areas of policy) and the documentation of a period of significant environmental policy reform in Victoria.

Democratizing health : consumer groups in the policy process

This timely book examines the role of consumer organisations in the health policy process. In an age of shifting boundaries between state and civil society, consumer groups are potentially drivers of democratisation in the health domain. Their activities bring new dynamics to relations between service providers, the medical profession, government agencies, and other policy actors. This book is unique in comprehensively exploring the opportunities and dilemmas of this type of activism, including sometimes ambiguous partnerships between consumer groups and stakeholders such as the pharmaceutical industry. These themes are explored within an internationally comparative frameThis book examines the important role of consumer activism within health policy in different national contexts. In an age of shifting boundaries between state and civil society, consumer groups are potentially drivers of democratization in the health domain. The expert contributors explore how their activities bring new dynamics to relations between service providers, the medical profession, government agencies, and other policy actors. This book is unique in comprehensively analysing the opportunities and dilemmas of this type of activism, including ambiguous partnerships between consumer groups and stakeholders such as the pharmaceutical industry. These themes are explored within an internationally comparative framework, with case studies from various countries. work, with case studies from many countries.

Piecing together the puzzle of graduate employment : factors that shape the graduate work expectations of human resource management students

Providing graduates with a set of skills and attributes relevant to their future employment remains a key topic in both higher education policy and research. This paper reports findings from a pilot study of human resource management (HRM) students' perceptions of the graduate work experience. Specifically, it focuses on how these perceptions are shaped, driven by a concern for the uncertainty - and even fear - expressed by the study's participants in relation to their future workplace experiences. The influences of three key factors in shaping participants' expectations are discussed: the graduate recruitment experience, previous work experiences and 'graduate work folklore' from the stories of family and friends. With these influences not always providing students with a realistic picture of their future work experience, we conclude that educators need to improve the opportunities for practical experience and industry knowledge through work placements, stronger links with industry and increased exposure to the practicalities of work within the curriculum.

New scalar politics : implications for education policy

This paper argues that globalisation has implications for research and theory in the social sciences, demanding that the social no longer be seen as homologous with nation, but also linked to postnational or global fields. This situation has theoretical and methodological implications for comparative education specifically focused on education policy, which traditionally has taken the nation-state as the unit of analysis, and also worked with 'methodological nationalism'. The paper argues that globalisation has witnessed a rescaling of educational politics and policymaking and relocated some political authority to an emergent global education policy field, with implications for the functioning of national political authority and national education policy fields. This rescaling and this reworking of political authority are illustrated through two cases: the first is concerned with the impact of a globalised policy discourse of the ‘knowledge economy’ proselytised by the OECD and its impact in Australian policy developments; the second is concerned explicitly with the constitution of a global education policy field as a commensurate space of equivalence, as evidenced in the OECD’s PISA and educational indicators work and their increasing global coverage. The paper indicatively utilises Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ to understand the emergent global education policy field and suggest these are very useful for doing comparative education policy analysis.

The use of public transport in coastal Australia : modes of travel to work and greenhouse emissions

Commuting to work is one of the most important and regular routines of transportation in towns and cities. From a geographic perspective, the length of people’s commute is influenced, to some degree, by the spatial separation of their home and workplace and the transport infrastructure. The rise of car ownership in Australia from the 1950s to the present was accompanied by a considerable decrease of public transport use. Currently there is an average of 1.4 persons per car in Australia, and private cars are involved in approximately 90% of the trips, and public transportation in only 10%. Increased personal mobility has fuelled the trend of decentralised housing development, mostly without a clear planning for local employment, or alternative means of transportation. Transport sector accounts for 14% of Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions. Without further policy action, Australia’s emissions are projected to continue to increase. The Australian Federal Government and the new Department of Climate Change have recently published a set of maps showing that rising seas would submerge large parts of Victoria coastal region. Such event would lead to major disruption in planned urban growth areas in the next 50 years with broad scale inundation of dwellings, facilities and road networks. The Greater Geelong Region has well established infrastructure as a major urban centre and tourist destination and hence attracted the attention of federal and state governments in their quest for further development and population growth. As a result of its natural beauty and ecological sensitivity, scenarios for growth in the region are currently under scrutiny from local government as well as development agencies, scientists, and planners. This paper is part of a broad research in the relationship between transportation system, urban form, trip demand, and emissions, as a paramount in addressing the challenges presented by urban growth. Progressing from previous work focused on private cars, this present paper investigates the use of public transport as a mode for commuting in the Greater Geelong Region. Using a GIS based interaction model, it characterises the current use of the existing public transportation system, and also builds a scenario of increased use of the existing public transportation system, estimating potencial reductions in CO2 emissions. This study provides an improved understanding of the extent to which choices of transport mode and travel activity patterns, affect emissions in the context of regional networks. The results indicate that emissions from commuting by public transportation are significantly lower than those from commuting by private car, and emphasise that there are opportunities for large abatment in the greenhouse emissions from the transportation sector related to efforts in increasing the use of existing public transportation system.

Policy trajectories : treading the discursive path of policy analysis

This paper is concerned with theorising the nature of policy and its production. It takes as its starting point the work of Stephen Ball,1 particularly his writings within the pages of this journal (13(2), 1993)—later reprinted as Chapter 2 in Education Reform (1994a)—as well as his earlier writings in Politics and Policy Making in Education (1990) and Reforming Education and Changing Schools (Bowe, Ball & Gold, 1992). More broadly, the paper is located within a 'new' sociological interest in education policy often referred to as 'policy sociology'2 (Payne, Dingwall, Payne & Carter, 1981; Ozga, 1987, Ball, 1990; Bowe, Ball & Gold, 1992); a concern that is 'rooted in the social science tradition, historically informed and drawing on qualitative and illuminative techniques' (Ozga, 1987, p. 144) and 'united by the conviction that "things", especially policy discourse, must be pulled apart' (Troyna, 1994, p. 71) to determine whose interests they serve.

Beyond caricature : exploring theories of educational policy production and implementation

Since the mid 1980s there has been a growing interest amongst sociologists in the study of education policy, which has coincided with a decline within the tradition of educational administration - having been subsumed by educational management - of 'detailed historical work, or work concerned primarily with politics or policy content' (Olga 1987. p. 138). While in the past other traditions associated with social policy and social administration, government and politics. and the history of education have also been concerned with education policy. most recent and substantive work (for example. Olga 1987 1990. Dale 1989, 1992, Dale & Olga 1991, 1993. Ball 1990, 1993, Bowe, et al. 1992. Lingard 1991,1993)has come "from within the sociology of education. especially from those working within, or influenced by, the 'new' sociology of education, and, especially, those of a Marxist or neo-Marxist persuasion or at least concerned with the relationship of the state to education as a central problem (Olga 1987. p.139)".

How to make the rhetoric of joined-up government really work

"Joined-up' government and 'whole-of-government' approaches have evolved over the past two decades from the simple 'one-stop-shop' concept to much more formal organisational structures mandated at the highest levels. In many cases, the participants in these developments were learning on the job, as they responded to community and political demands for better service delivery and more accountability. This paper looks back at some of those developments and proposes a schema to assess and place policies, strategies and programs.

Getting research into policy : lots of ideas but how do we make it happen? Insights from the policy experience

Evidence and health policy discussions to date have largely focused on the relationship between those generating research evidence and policy decision-makers and how improving this relationship will increase research use in policy development. All too often policy makers are perceived as the problem, not understanding or seeing the importance of research evidence. Policy makers do have a responsibility to source and use available evidence, as do researchers to the sharp and meaningful production and syntheses of policy relevant research evidence. This takes more than improved communication mechanisms between individual researcher and policy makers. Evidence-informed policy making is a science in its own right requiring the development and application of methods that conceptualise, synthesise and exchange research evidence. Policy organisations need to develop as receptor sites for research and its application to day-to-day decision-making, this is a significant program of work if it is to be done well and affect the evidence culture of organisations.

Challenging choices : welfare to work, lived lives and told stories

This examination of the introduction of welfare to work for single mothers exposes the contradictory political rationality of contemporary welfare reform. The thesis contributes to broader understandings of social policy, choice and decision making through exploration of the complex interplay between social structures, individuals’ lived lives and their told stories.

Crossing the line : collusion or collaboration in university group work?

In both policy and practice, collusion is a perplexing area of academic integrity. Students are expected to learn to work collaboratively in university courses, yet are often required to submit assessment tasks as individuals whilst in group-work situations. This paper discusses the tension between 'collaboration' and 'collusion' in group-work and the consequences for crossing the line. Adopting a theoretical framework from Bourdieu's work (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1971; Bourdieu, 1991) on symbolic power, the notion of legitimate voice and intertextuality, this paper outlines the effects on the academic identities of 17 students found 'guilty' of collusion in one Australian university. In addition, 34 staff involved in formal disciplinary procedures were interviewed. The findings indicate that collusion is a fraught notion and not approached systematically across the university, nor with any degree of confidence by staff or students. The delineation between 'acceptable collaboration' and 'collusion' appears to be founded in shifting sands, with negative attitudes towards collaborative tasks being the main lesson learned by students.

In what ways does policy on academic integrity, copyright and privacy need to respond in order to accommodate assessment with Web 2.0 tools?

Increasingly social web technologies, such as blogging and micro-blogging, audio and video podcasting, photo/video, social bookmarking, social networking, wiki writing or virtual worlds are being used as forms of authoring or content creation to support students’ learning in higher education. As Web 2.0 teaching practice is characterised by open access to information and collaborative networks there are both familiar and novel challenges for policy-makers in higher education institutions. The Government 2.0 Taskforce heralded legislative and practice changes necessary because of Web 2.0. We reflect on the qualitative feedback received from innovative higher education practitioners using Web 2.0 to assess student work. This indicates a need for information policy review to accommodate the cultural shift towards information exchange and communication across traditional institutional boundaries. Issues involved when implementing Web 2.0 assessments are identified to highlight requisite areas for policy improvement in higher education, in particular for academic integrity, copyright and privacy policies

Communication as coping; how staff working in public housing use narrative to understand their complex and sometimes challenging work.

This paper describes how ethnographic research was used to explore the communication practices of staff working organisation charged with the provision of low cost housing to some of the very poorest and most marginalised members of society in Victoria, Australia. This paper is concerned with how the narratives of the participants (that is, their ‘stories’) provides a very useful and potent insight into the daily life of staff working with people experiencing ‘multiple and complex needs’. The paper uses vignettes and case studies to illuminate the daily work of staff, sharing with the reader the things they see and hear and describing the complexity of the ‘wicked’ problems they face. More importantly, the research uncovered a number of narrative structures staff employ to understand and respond to these problems.

Food policy development in the Australian state of Victoria : a case study of the Food Alliance

This article explores the development of a food policy body called the Food Alliance and the role of the organization in encouraging the development of food policy that integrates health and ecological issues. The Food Alliance is located within the Australian state of Victoria. A policy triangle is used as a framework to describe and analyse the work of the Food Alliance. Lessons are drawn about effective strategies for influencing integrated food policy. This occurs in a context where food policy typically favours powerful industry and agricultural interests and where relationships between the health and environmental sectors are in their infancy. The implications for planning and organizing a state-wide food policy are explored from the perspective of policy and the ways in which this can be influenced through working with key stakeholders.