Advancing Australia

This entertaining book is the most up-to-date single-volume Australian history available.

Public Theology is a rapidly growing international field of study which focuses on how Christian belief and practice engage with wider social issues. Yet, whilst the ultimate concern of public theology is the well-being of society, this body of theology has largely developed without integrating the thinking of feminist theology and its insights into womens' lives and experience. Public Theology and the Challenge of Feminism argues that public theology risks re-inscribing traditional constructs of public and private, civic and domestic, and uncritical notions of gender and the work and worth of people. The book brings together both theory and case material to expose how public theology has actively downplayed or ignored feminist perspectives and to reveal how constructive feminism can be for the future of public theology.

This book analyses social democratic parties’ attempts to tackle inequality in increasingly challenging times. It provides a distinctive contribution to the literature on the so-called ‘crisis’ of social democracy by exploring the role of equality policy in this crisis. While the main focus is on analysing Australian Labor governments, examples are also given from a wide range of parties internationally. The book traces how a traditional focus on class has expanded to include other forms of inequality, including issues of gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality and explores both the intersections and potential tensions that result. Meanwhile there are new challenges for equality policy arising from a changing geo-economics (the rise of Asia), the legacies of neoliberalism and the impact of technological disruption.

Fourteen academics and writers from the land down under present papers on aboriginal identity, Asians in Australia, Australians in Asia, bi- and multiculturalism in New Zealand, and whiteness, most of which were presented at the 1998 Sydney conference, Adventures of Identity: Constructing the Multic

This volume provides a contemporary reflection on the journey of many former European communities that migrated to Australia in the post-war period and their stories of settlement, assimilation and integration. The chapters provide perspectives from a range of disciplines and approaches across different communities. There are common themes that emerge, as well as unique issues which define these communities.

Between 2016 and 2020 Australia's foreign and security policies were significantly impacted by profound changes in geopolitics and geoeconomics, particularly as great power competition re-emerged between the United States and China. Australia in World Affairs 2016-2020: A Return to Great-Power Rivalry examines Australia's engagement on the international stage in light of these events. The thirteenth volume in the Australia in World Affairs series builds on the history of Australia's foreign policy covered in other volumes to identify patterns of continuity and change. It catalogues the key developments in this period of world history from an Australian perspective. Organised thematically, chapters cover Australia's foreign policy response to climate change, Australia's strengthened ties to the Indo-Pacific region, and its security interests in Southeast Asia. Australia's increasing security dependence on the US in an age of great-power rivalry is evident throughout.

Australian Climate Policy and Diplomacy provides a well overdue critique of existing, and high-profile, publications that convey the ‘greenhouse mafia’ hypothesis, which posits that Australia’s weak policy response to climate change is the result of a menacing domestic fossil fuel lobby. Ben L. Parr argues that the shared government–industry discourse about protecting Australia’s industrial competitiveness has had a more decisive influence in shaping and legitimising Australian climate policy than the direct lobbying tactics of the fossil fuel industry. Parr also reveals how the divergent foreign policy discourses and traditions of Australia’s two major political parties – as internationalist versus alliance-focused – have enabled and constrained their climate diplomacy and domestic policies over time. To demonstrate his argument, he presents a discourse analysis woven into a chronological policy narrative, comprising more than 1000 primary texts (media releases, interviews, and speeches) generated by prime ministers and key fossil fuel lobbyists. Overall, this volume illustrates how domestic forces have and are influencing Australia’s climate policy. In doing so, it also provides a framework that can be adapted to examine climate mitigation policies in other countries, notably Canada and the US. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental policy and governance, and Australian climate change policy and politics more specifically, as well as policymakers and practitioners working in these fields.

From wool and gold to minerals and manufacturing, Trading Nation reviews the history of Australia’s trade and trade policy since Federation. The book tackles a number of key questions which are central to the nation’s future. What is the future of our trade in minerals, agriculture, manufacturing and services? How can trade policy help address our faltering productivity? Is the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations dead and, if not, what can be done to conclude it? What can we expect from new free trade agreements? Is there more we could be doing in trade policy with Europe, India and Latin America? This comprehensive book also looks ahead at the options for Australia’s future trade and trade policy.