The problem of belonging : Contested country in Australian local history
- Authors: Bongiorno, Frank , Eklund, Erik
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: New Scholar: An International Journal of the Humanities, Creative Arts and Social Sciences Vol. 3, no. 1 (2014), p. 39-54
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- Description: There is a moment in travel writer Bill Bryson’s account of his travels in Australia, Down Under, when he comments on the large number of local histories he encounters in second‐hand bookshops. They ‘never fail to amaze,’ he reports, ‘if only because they show you what a remarkably self‐absorbed people the Australians are. I don’t mean that as a criticism. If the rest of the world is going to pay them no attention, then they must do it themselves surely.’ He continues: ‘There were hundreds of books ... about things that could never possibly have been of interest to more than a handful of people. It’s quite encouraging that these books exist, but somehow faintly worrying as well.’ Bryson doesn’t explain any further why it worries him, but he then goes on to review with genuine admiration a book he found among these volumes (126‐127).
Novocastrian involvement in the One Big Union
- Authors: Eklund, Erik , Belic, Peta
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Radical Newcastle p.
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- Description: The Star Hotel in Newcastle has become a site of defiance for the marginalized young and dispossessed working class. To understand the whole story of the Star Hotel riot, it should be seen in the context of other moments of resistance such as the 1890 Maritime Strike, Rothbury miners lockout in 1929 and the recent battle for the Laman Street fig trees. As Australias first industrial city, Newcastle is also a natural home of radicalism but until now, the stories, which reveal its breadth and impact, have remained untold. Radical Newcastle brings together short illustrated essays from leading scholars, local historians, and present-day radicals to document both the iconic events of the regions radical past, and less well-known actions seeking social justice for workers, women, Aboriginal people, and the environment.
The welfare state at the end of the Long Boom, 1965-1980 : Themes and issues
- Authors: Eklund, Erik , Oppenheimer, Melanie , Scott, Joanne
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The state of welfare : comparative studies of the welfare state at the end of the long boom, 1965-1980 Chapter 1 p. 1-15
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- Description: Forged during the Second World War and the post-war era, the modern Western welfare state was created as a bulwark against the penury associated with the twin repercussions of the First World War and later the Great Depression of the 1930s and the insecurities brought about by the second global war. The state accepted an enlarged commitment to the social and economic well-being of its citizens, propelled by a concern to ensure social stability as much as a commitment to the welfare of individuals. Most Western economies developed a mix of public and private provision of welfare, building on existing initiatives and reaching a new level of scale and maturity in the period 1945 to 1975. In Britain, William Beveridge laid down what his biographer, Jose Harris, has described ‘as a key foundation document for social welfare provision in any modern “mixed economy”, not just in the United Kingdom but also for much of the developed world’ through his 1942 Social Insurance and Allied Services report, otherwise known as the Beveridge Plan.
Forum : Industrial sites and immigrant architectures. A case study approach
- Authors: Pieris, Anoma , Lozanovska, Mirjana , Dellios, Alexandra , Miller-Yeaman, Renee , Eklund, Erik , Beynon, David , Tuffin, Richard
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Fabrications Vol. 29, no. 2 (2019), p. 257-272
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Afterword
- Authors: Eklund, Erik , Fenley, Julie
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Earth and Industry: Stories from Gippsland p. 314-318
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Historical cultures of labour under conditions of deindustrialization, first conference of the European Labour History Network, Turin, 14-16 December 2015
- Authors: Wicke, Christian , Eklund, Erik
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: History Workshop Journal Vol. 82, no. 1 (2015), p. 293-298
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- Description: Deindustrialization is a global phenomenon but its effects have been more intense in some regions than others. The post-industrial age as heralded by Daniel Bell and Alain Touraine is possibly yet to come, but the widespread historical transformations societies have faced already in the second half of the twentieth century, in the course of often localized deindustrialization processes, deserve further attention. The history of deindustrialization is not only an economic history, it is also fundamentally political and cultural and has attracted an increasingly multidisciplinary scholarship in recent years. Prominent scholars in North America, the United Kingdom and Australia such as, for example, Steven High, Sherry Lee Linkon, Tim Strangleman and Laurajane Smith have emphasized the cultural dimension of deindustrialization and shown how representations of collective identity and memory have been transformed under such conditions. Contemporary ‘historical culture’, that is, ‘the practical articulation of historical consciousness’ (Jörn Rüsen) has been shaped in various ways by the historicization of the industrial past. The most illustrative example of such representation since the 1960s has been the construction and maintenance of ‘industrial heritage’ which, according to the International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage, ‘consists of the remains of industrial culture which are of historical, technological, social, architectural or scientific value’. The most paradigmatic region in Europe, where ‘industrial heritage’ has become an ‘authorized’ (though not uncontested) heritage discourse, is the Ruhr in Germany. And this is where the initiative for the foundation of a new network on the history of deindustrialization has begun.
“Developing a community soul” : A comparative assessment of the Australian assistance plan in three regions, 1973-1977
- Authors: Eklund, Erik , Oppenheimer, Melanie , Scott, Joanne
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Politics and History Vol. 62, no. 3 (2016), p. 419-434
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- Description: The Australian Assistance Plan (AAP) was an innovative yet largely forgotten social welfare program from the 1970s. A key platform of the Whitlam Labor government, which established a series of Regional Councils for Social Development across Australia, the AAP reframed citizens’ participation in their communities, stimulated voluntary organisations and volunteering and attempted to transform engagement among all levels of governments and the voluntary sector. Through an analysis of three Regional Council case studies in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, this article focuses on the themes of regionalism and regional distinctiveness in order to assess how questions of regional difference can impact on the development of policy practices. © 2016 The Authors.
Mining in Australia : An historical survey of industry-community relationships
- Authors: Eklund, Erik
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The Extractive Industries and Society Vol. 2, no. 1 (2015), p. 177-188
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- Description: The article sets out to provide an historical survey of the industry–community relationship in the Australian mining industry. The mining industry had a vital role in encouraging population growth, regional development, and industrial diversification. The relationship is understood through three key themes. Firstly, the industry–community relationship was underpinned by geology. Since ore was often found across large areas, mineral ‘regions’ developed. Secondly, the industry–community relationship was specific to particular places in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Mining towns became very distinctive communities that shared economic and social characteristics. Thirdly, the industry–community relationship did not finish at the town limits. The history of the mining industry in Australia offers a strong case for exploring the effects of both global and local impacts. Communities were heavily influenced by local economic and geological realities but as the twentieth century progressed the close geographical relationship between industry and community began to disperse with wider regional and interstate effects. The article posits ‘community’ as a description of a geographically specific social formation, but this final theme moves towards seeing ‘community’ as a wider concept transcending place and geography.
A post-carbon future? Narratives of change and identity in the Latrobe Valley, Australia
- Authors: Holm, Antoinette , Eklund, Erik
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: BIOS - Journal of Biographical Research, Oral History and Life Course Analysis Vol. 2, no. (2018), p. 67-79
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Afterword: Voice and agency from the geographical and academic edge
- Authors: Eklund, Erik
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Educational Researchers and the Regional University Afterword p. 215-16
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Industrial heritage agents, actors and outcomes : regional case studies from Broken Hill and the Latrobe Valley
- Authors: Eklund, Erik , Holm, Antoinette , Reeves, Keir
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Australian Studies Vol. 45, no. 4 (2021), p. 524-542
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- Description: This article considers the comparative standing of industrial heritage in two distinctive Australian regional contexts. With a focus on the agents and actors in the heritage-making process, we outline the development of a case for heritage in the mining town of Broken Hill in far western New South Wales, which gained momentum soon after the local mines began a steady decline in the early 1970s. Broken Hill has, to some extent, adapted its mining and labour heritage to form a viable element of the town’s current identity and economic base, especially by seeing those individual sites as part of a heritage landscape. We also consider industrial heritage in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, a brown coal mining and electricity-generation hub where industrial and mining employment has declined much more recently. Reflecting on these changing political policies and industry privatisation in the early 1990s, we examine the impact on industrial heritage in a region typified by mining and power generation. © 2021 International Australian Studies Association.
'Do you love the town you live in?' : narratives of place from Australian mining towns
- Authors: Eklund, Antoinette , Eklund, Erik
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Vol. 3, no. 7 (2008), p. 53-58
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- Description: This article combines the authors' disciplinary locations in history and literary studies, exploring personal narratives as revealed in oral history from residents of Australian mining towns. These narratives operate as a kind of counter or vernacular history, presenting hidden stories not well represented in Australian national history and culture. We argue that regional vernacular knowledge, borne of local experience and culture some distance from the major cities, is somewhat difficult to access through predominantly city-based, profesional academic networks.
A Living history of Fort Scratchley
- Authors: McIntyre, Julie , Eklund, Erik
- Date: 2008
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- Description: Fort Scratchley has many layers of history. The fort site was part of the lore of the Awabakal people & the site of Newcastles early convict-dug coal mines. It was a major coastal defence installation until its decommissioning in 1972. - See more at: