University entrance in Queensland : post World War II challenges to the influence of the University of Queensland

From its inception the University of Queensland determined the assessment procedures that governed its student selection; while initially this determination was absolute, after 1945 challenges to the university's influence resulted in significant gains in influence by other interested groups.

Popular consent and foreign policy choices : war against the Philippines and covert action in Chile

It is usually assumed that US policymakers need to generate popular consent in order to undertake regime change against another state. This article explores the ways in which contextual factors such as the joint democracy effect, popular values and public moods influenced efforts by elites in the United States to generate popular consent for regime change in the Philippines and Chile. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the United States undertook covert action in Chile due to public recognition of the target state's democratic credentials and a public mood opposed to further military ventures. In contrast, the absence of a strong joint democracy effect, a national mood infused with romantic nationalism qua militarism and social Darwinism facilitated efforts by US elites to generate consent for the invasion and occupation of the Philippines. Subsequently, this article contributes to understandings of the domestic-level factors that influence foreign policy decisions.

Post-war migrant built heritage in Melbourne : from assimilation to multiculturalism

If place identities are created by ascribing subjective meaning to sites and buildings it follows that diverse groups will consider place meaning differently. This poses a challenge for the selection and interpretation of heritage sites in plural societies where notions of architectural significance are likely to conflict. Basing heritage policy on the premise of a shared heritage is particularly challenging when the cultural traditions of the past underlie definitions of architectural significance in a more culturally diverse present. This paper presents an introduction to research exploring the inclusion of twentieth century migrant built heritage in Australia. Through selected examples of recently recognised heritage sites in Melbourne, the paper considers how migrant heritage is included and what this reveals about the cultural traditions underlying Australian heritage discourses. The inclusion of migrant places suggests that there is an initial shift in heritage discourses where notions of architectural significance have expanded to include the history of post-war migration. However, the examples raise questions about the nature of cultural inclusivity in heritage frameworks.

Heritage of war

The Heritage of War is an interdisciplinary study of the ways in which heritage is mobilized in remembering war, and in reconstructing landscapes, political systems and identities after conflict. It examines the deeply contested nature of war heritage in a series of places and contexts, highlighting the modes by which governments, communities, and individuals claim validity for their own experiences of war, and the meanings they attach to them.

From colonizing violence in South America to the United States’ Civil War, the Second World War on three continents, genocide in Rwanda and continuing divisions in Europe and the Middle East, these studies bring us closer to the very processes of heritage production. The Heritage of War uncovers the histories of heritage: it charts the constant social and political construction of heritage sites over time, by a series of different agents, and explores the continuous reworking of meaning into the present.

What are the forces of contingency, agency and political power that produce, define and sustain the heritage of war? How do particular versions of the past and particular identities gain legitimacy, while others are marginalised? In this book contributors explore the active work by which heritage is produced and reproduced in a series of case studies of memorialization, battlefield preservation, tourism development, private remembering and urban reconstruction. These are the acts of making sense of war; they are acts that continue long after violent conflict itself has ended.