The search for family: A history of adoption in Australia. How has Australia cared for its children? This study will fill a significant gap in the nation's self-understanding by explaining the historical factors driving the changing place, meaning and significance of adoption. Whilst participants and practitioners debate its social worth, the policy pendulum is swinging back to an acceptance of adoption. Australian society is in urgent need of an open hearing of the contesting voices, and a bala ....The search for family: A history of adoption in Australia. How has Australia cared for its children? This study will fill a significant gap in the nation's self-understanding by explaining the historical factors driving the changing place, meaning and significance of adoption. Whilst participants and practitioners debate its social worth, the policy pendulum is swinging back to an acceptance of adoption. Australian society is in urgent need of an open hearing of the contesting voices, and a balanced account of the historical impact of adoption. Our project promises both, thus 'understanding and strengthening (a) key element of Australia's social fabric' - the family.Read moreRead less
Respectability and health: private life and the health transition in two capital cities, London and Melbourne, 1850?1980. This study will explore the relationship between the dramatic normative changes that occurred in working-class private life after 1850 and the health transition. Using grass-roots case studies and databases of both London and Melbourne, it will analyse the changing mortality experience of the poor?as infants, young, and older adults?in relation to changes in self-care, self- ....Respectability and health: private life and the health transition in two capital cities, London and Melbourne, 1850?1980. This study will explore the relationship between the dramatic normative changes that occurred in working-class private life after 1850 and the health transition. Using grass-roots case studies and databases of both London and Melbourne, it will analyse the changing mortality experience of the poor?as infants, young, and older adults?in relation to changes in self-care, self-image and family life made possible by the transition in these two mercantilist cities from casualised to regular labour markets. It will then endeavour to relate these findings about life chances among the most disadvantaged to health and social policy for the future.Read moreRead less
Land and life: Aborigines, convicts and immigrants in Victoria, 1835-1985: an interdisciplinary history. This project is an interdisciplinary investigation of dispossession and colonization of southeast Australia. It uses longitudinal cohort studies to produce new findings on the impact of stress, dislocation and economic change on individuals and families across five generations.