A Genealogy of Unemployment

a rcT A Geneulogy of Unemployment: Press Representøtions in South Australia 1890s and 1930s Ivan A. Krisjansen B.A. Hons. B.Ed. (Adelai.d.e) Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduøte School of Educøtion University of Adelaide Møy,7997 Table of Contents Acknowledgements p. u.t, Decløration p- iv Abstract p.v Prefuce p. vt Chapter 7 A Foucauldiøn Method p. I Chapter 2 Microphy sic s of Poverty : Characteristic s p. 35 of Destitution in the l-a.te Nineteenth Century Chapter 3 Unemployment and Domesticity in the South p.78 Australian press Chapter 4 Race and Unemployment: A l-ate Nineteenth p.123 C entury South Australian p ersp ectiv e Chapter 5 Male Unemployment and Liberal Governrnentality p. 164 in the Depression of the Nineteen Thirties Chapter 6 Pres s Repres entations : dome sticity and p.201 Unemployment in the Depression of the Nineteen Thirties Conclusion p.236 Bibliography p.247 ll Acknowledgements I wish to express my appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Trevor Maddock for his support, constructive and incisive criticism, the many hours of useful discussion and the many suggestions and recommendations which have proved invaluable in the writing of my thesis. My thanks also go to other helpful members of staff at the University of Adelaide who have provided helpful suggestions and commentary, and to the librarians at the Mortlock Library. I express my sincere thanks to Barbara Lapins who has been invaluable as a constant source of strength and support in my endeavours. With too many names to mention, I have been fortunate to have had such beneficial support. Declaration I certiff that this thesis does not include any material previously submitted for the degree or diploma in any University. Moreover, to the best of my knowledge it does not contain any material previously written or published by another person unless duly acknowledged. I consent to the thesis being made available for photocopying and loan if accepted for the award of the degree. May,1997 lv Abstrøct This thesis examines the constitution of unemployment during periods of depression in South Australia, in particular, the extreme economic downturns experienced in the eighteen nineties and nineteen thirties. Previous studies have ignored the possibility that the determinate historical conditions established in England by the 1834 Poor Law were transplanted in substantive ways to colonial South Australia. This study follows a trajectory which explores the uncharted ideological and social terrain concerning the impact and signif,rcance of the English regime of thought and practice on the liberal mode of governance in colonial South Australia. That there is a direct parallel with the pattern of events in England is investigated through press representations in periods of severe economic contraction. The symmetry as well the discontinuities in relation to these modalities of thought become a central of concern in this study. The archaeological - genealogical investigation seeks to determine the historical conditions of possibility for the emergence of the workless in terms of gender and race. This understanding of ethical subjectivity is sought in governmental-ethical practices. The kind of political-anatomy and the cultivation of aesthetic styles of existence or conduct are explored in relation to a liberal mode of governance. The multiple processes of discipline by which individuals , in a practice of liberty, gave themselves a particular self-relation, and the mechanisms of individuation which set in motion the ascetic powers of moral experience constitute a key focus of concern in this work. Moreover, the changing ensemble of power-knowledge that constituted 'lines of force' directly impacting on the subjectivity of the unemployed are analysed in terms of culturally defined conditions which organise and support an exercise of normalising closure on social practices. With particular reference to the printing press the study concludes with an assessment of mass mediated culture and liberalgovernmentality. V Preføce This thesis seeks to contribute to a genealogy of the discourses and government of unemployment. The focus is on the forms of practice of liberal governance and the impact of this mode of government on those constituted as members of the unemployed population. The liberal mode of government is understood as 'an historically specific ensemble of discursive, legal, administrative, and institutional practices, which crosses and seeks to co-ordinate dimensions of the state, philanthropy, households, and the economy, with the objective of promoting particular forms of the conduct of life.'r In terms of governance and the 'forms of life' which are promoted by it salient features of English governmentality are explored in a derivative South Australian context. Feminine and masculine subjectivity as well as race relations are analysed in relation to liberal governmentality. The work explores the changing relations between gender and race in connection to social issues of unemployment. The method which is adopted and applied in the research eventalises 'singular ensembles of practices', certain lines of force or diagrams, so as to elucidate them as specifîc regimes of jurisdiction and verification. The thesis explores the multiple processes which constitute unemployment, while also seeking to fulfil the demands of eventalisation, a technique for attempting to understand an event, in this case, unemployment, which is then analysed in its singularity - as a case history which is also open to revision and extension. The event 'serves as a marker for transition, and a means by which self-evidence about the nature of present social arrangements may be breached.' 2 Eventalisation 'defines a method that uses the delineation of an event to pose questions of continuity, rupture and transition, rather than construe events as manifestations or expressions of the structural principles or processes that govern a particular concrete society.' ' This kind of case history analyses the plays of force, strategies and so on, which at a given historical conjuncture establish 'what subsequently counts as being self-evident, universal and necess aÍy.'4 Michel Foucault supplies the theoretical tools for this analysis. Central concepts which inform Foucault's method are elaborated in chapter one. The central features of Foucault's method are discussed in relation to discourse, power and bodies. The VI archaeological-genealogical method is applied to self-proclaimed scientific and humanitarian interests or motivations which appear as self-enclosed truths and give the appearance of universality in certain historical periods. The chapter seeks to demonstrate the unmasking potential of Foucault's critical method and its efficacy in analysing the multiple processes which constitute unemployment in an historical context. The second chapter explores the conflicts and invested interests that produced concrete procedures of normalisation which, in turn, divided and regulated members of the property-less population. The elaboration of a dense field of operative technologies for the manipulation of those subjected to a condition of unemployment is explored in relation to the protean and historical manner in which normalising federations of power develop their operations of discipline and self-enclosed truth. In this chapter conventional histories which focus on the constitution of unemployment and poverty in South Australia are challenged. It analyses the multiple processes which constituted unemployment as governmental-ethical practice, following the impact and significance of the English mode of liberal governance on the regime of thought and practice in colonial South Australia. In this regard the chapter explores an uncharted social terrain. The many connections, encounters, strategies and plays of force which parallel the pattern of events in England are primarily investigated through press representations of unemployment in the eighteen nineties. The central focus is on the programmatic register of an ensemble of force - a dispostif - articulating the culturaþ def,rned conditions which organise and undergird an exercise of normalising closure on those social practices impacting on the unemployed in the colonial depression of the late nineteenth century. A focal point of chapter three is press representations of the late nineteenth century in South Austrata and their relation to social issues connected with the 'woman question'. This chapter challenges honorihc feminist discourse which invokes a mystif,rcatory 'history' in its attempt to reveal feminine subjectivity in relation to the eighteen nineties. The research questions the feminist resurrection of some pristine, naturalised doctrine or experience whereby female subjectivity is crystallised in a history which is highly idiosyncratic and garnished with historical constants and anthropological traits. Further, the work examines patriarchal aestheticism as a matrix of authority and custom, and as a vll political investment of the female body. These social themes are analysed in relation to a micro-regulation of feminine subjectivity which is contiguous with the demands of liberal govefnance. The chapter also considers the apparatus organising the establishment of a stylisation of conduct, and architectural arrangements ordering the individuation of the destitute. The study and development of a set of diverse conflicts and realities leads the research into a

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