University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+ University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2017 Occupying the interdisciplinary space: A visualisation of Australia’s economic history field, 1950 – 1991 Claire Elizabeth Finigan Wright University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1 University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. A court may impose penalties and award damages in relation to offences and infringements relating to copyright material. Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong. Recommended Citation Wright, Claire Elizabeth Finigan, Occupying the interdisciplinary space: A visualisation of Australia’s economic history field, 1950 – 1991, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong, 2017. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1/86 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Occupying the interdisciplinary space: A visualisation of Australia’s economic history field, 1950 – 1991 By Claire Elizabeth Finigan Wright A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy From University of Wollongong School of Humanities and Social Inquiry 2017 Declaration This thesis contains no material which has been accepted in whole or in part for a degree or diploma in any other university. I affirm that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, all sources have been acknowledged in the text. Claire Wright 27th July, 2017 i Acknowledgments It takes a village to raise a PhD student. I have been kindly assisted, both in person and remotely, by archivists and librarians at the Universities of Adelaide, Western Australia, La Trobe, Flinders, New England, Melbourne, the Australian National University, the National Library of Australia and the State Library of New South Wales. I have received tuition support and a research stipend from the Australian Government Research Training Program, and I gratefully acknowledge research funding for travel and fieldwork activities from the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Wollongong. I am incredibly grateful to my ‘sources’: the wonderful men and women who agreed to be interviewed for the project. I hope the story I tell does them justice. My work has been greatly supported by the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand (EHSANZ), and my regular hangout – the Asia-Pacific Economic and Business History (APEBH) conference. Thanks also to participants at History of Economic Thought Society of Australia (HETSA), Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations (ADHO) and Sydney Intellectual History Network (SIHN) conferences, and seminars at the University of Wollongong and Western Sydney University. I am grateful to the staff in the Faculties of Business and Law, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Wollongong, who together have developed my skills as a teacher and scholar. This thesis has benefitted from discussion and feedback from Professor Chris Lloyd, Dr William Coleman, Professor David Merrett, Evan Milner, and Dr Ben Maddison, with particular intellectual and emotional investment from Claire Seaman and Miesje de Vogel. My friends and family have been incredibly patient and supportive, despite being coerced into learning more about Australian economic history than they ever really wanted or needed. Special mention should be made of Rebecca Barrow. Her positivity throughout, and help editing this thesis in its final stages, has been wonderful. My greatest debt is to my friend, mentor and supervisor, Professor Simon Ville. Professor Ville has been an extraordinary teacher, perhaps most by significantly by setting an example of a capable and inquisitive scholar. Our work together on various projects has demonstrated the value of trust in collaboration, and the joy that can be derived if this process works well. These projects, along with a firm yet encouraging hand on the tiller of my thesis, has made my training one of the truest forms of academic apprenticeship. Those who read this piece will find Professor Ville’s imprint on every page, just as he has made an imprint on my mind and my heart. Thank you. ii Abstract This thesis examines Australia’s economic history field in the post-WWII decades. It focusses on the way in which social relationships and institutional developments contributed to the development of intellectual traditions, and an academic field over time. Rather than simply examining pioneering scholars, the thesis analyses the oft-neglected ‘community’ in intellectual history. Australian economic history is understood through interconnections – between scholars, texts, ideas, and domains of knowledge. The social and knowledge networks for the field were intertwined, and by examining both, this thesis offers a detailed analysis of the development of this academic community. Social interactions – in the form of geographic proximity or collaboration – have been analysed using social network analysis. This provides an overall snapshot of connections for the field. Oral history interviews complement the social networks, offering a detailed examination of the nature and effect of these social ties. Ideas have been determined through qualitative textual analysis, with differences in approach and interpretation used to determine intellectual traditions. Citation analysis provides a quantitative perspective, examining similarity between authors based on the pieces of knowledge incorporated into their published work. The use of qualitative, quantitative, and visual sources is a pioneering example of the use of digital methods in intellectual history. Australia’s economic history community emerged as a key intersection of the humanities and social sciences in the post-WWII decades. The 1950s and 1960s were characterised by an intellectual movement. Expansion of staff, students, and institutional space led to the development of social interactions and a greater volume of research output. Joint activities and dense ties between scholars at the Australian National University (ANU) were key to the propagation of the orthodox school, with this becoming the dominant intellectual current in Australian economic history. In the 1970s and 1980s, decentralisation of social ties contributed to the ‘spatial placement of ideas’, and several well-developed social and intellectual groups. By analysing the interdependence of institutions, social interactions, and ideas, this thesis highlights the contextual dependence of knowledge in economic history, and provides insights into the operation of this scholarly field over the long run. iii Contents Declaration ........................................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................ ii Abstract ...............................................................................................................................................................iii Contents ............................................................................................................................................................... iv List of tables ..................................................................................................................................................... vii List of figures .................................................................................................................................................. viii Abbreviations .................................................................................................................................................... ix 1. The development of a scholarly community in Australia ........................................................... 1 1.1. Approach and scope ........................................................................................................................... 3 1.2. Thesis structure ................................................................................................................................... 5 Part one: The framework .............................................................................................................................