Technology assessment in Australia: the case for a formal agency to improve advice to policy makers

The pace and reach of technological change has led to calls for better technology policy and governance to improve social outcomes. Technology assessment can provide information and processes to improve technology policy. Having conducted a review of international best practice, we established a set of quality criteria for TA. In effect, good technology assessments are systematic, broad, inclusive and well resourced and are conducted by organisations that are trustworthy and influential. Although not having a formal TA agency, Australia does have a number of recent examples of TA-like activities in the form of ad hoc processes (such as reviews and inquiries) and within other organisations. Drawing on reports, commentaries, discussions and our observations as participants, we have assessed these activities and processes against our quality criteria. Our findings indicate that TA capacity in Australia is fragmented, uncoordinated and variable in quality and impact. We conclude that a formal TA agency could improve Australian technology policy and capacity for technology governance that would be more in line with other nations, notably in Europe.     

Quest for grace: fraternal authority and feminine resistance in colonial Australia

The emergence of feminism in Australia, as elsewhere, was grounded in personal experience. This paper explores the small and private rebellion of one woman against fraternal authority, an episode that took place before women had access to a feminist ideology with which to express their feelings of oppression. It argues that an examination of the tissue of domestic life – in this instance, a tiff about piano-playing – can be read at a number of levels: as a metaphor of inarticulate resistance and as an important precondition for feminism.     

‘Unhomely moments’: Civilising domestic worlds in colonial Australia

This article explores the multiple connections between the colonisation of Australia in the nineteenth century and the formation of domestic worlds as the site for ‘civilising’ children. The affective bonds of family were often regarded as an indispensable element in the nurture and training of children, but where the bonds of ‘natural affection’ seemed to pose an obstacle to the civilising project, they were ruthlessly severed.