Society economised: T.R. Ashworth and the history of the social sciences in Australia

Crozier, Michael

doi:10.1080/10314610208596205

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…After an international study tour to familiarize himself with the teaching of social sciences elsewhere, he successfully recommended that sociology at the University of Melbourne be demolished and the contents redistributed (Bourke, 2005(Bourke, [1988Crozier, 2005Crozier, [2002: 126-7).…”

Section: Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociology’s objects, objectivity and objectives

Harley

2012

Journal of Sociology

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In the late 19th and early 20th century steps were taken to establish academic sociology in the USA, England and Australia. In America the project was a success and the discipline was well established by 1945, yet in England and Australia it made nothing like the same progress. In England it struggled against the influential extramural social research movement, while in Australia sociology's case was so poorly managed and presented that it was swamped by other disciplines, especially economics, and did not officially join the university system until 1959. The article examines these three attempts to institutionalize sociology before 1945 in terms of three themes of disciplinary coherence: theorization of 'society' as a broad object, entailing an attempt to locate sociology as the integrative social science; the quest for 'scientific' objectivity; and the practical objective of social reform. While present in all three countries, it was only in America that these themes were organized and presented in such a way as to successfully institutionalize sociology in the academy.

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Section: Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociology’s objects, objectivity and objectives

Harley

2012

Journal of Sociology

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“…It is only to say that this type of work was conducted under the auspices of university departments other than sociology and by other bodies. For example, it was conducted by university departments of agriculture, anthropology, economics/commerce, psychology, social studies, and social work, as well as by church agencies, and the Commonwealth Government (Baldock and Lally 1974;Beilharz 1995: 123; DOI: 10.1057/9781137379757.0004 Bourke 1981Bourke , 2005Connell 2005: 16-18;Crozier 2005;Davison 2005;Encel 2005;Zubrzycki 2005). While American sociology had won the battle for university department 4 status in the late nineteenth century and continued to win it across the country in the twentieth, the process was not always straightforward.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Australian Sociology

Harley¹,

Wickham²

2014

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“…For instance, the rise of economics to pre-eminence among the Australian social sciences since the 1920s is integrally linked to determined efforts of particular Australian economists jockeying for prime position in Australian public policy making in the interwar period (Bourke 1988;Brown 1997;Fleming 1995). While the hard-boiled economists may prefer to ignore this history in favour of a whiggish triumphalism resting on 'rigorous methodology', the reception and proliferation of this methodology cannot be adequately accounted for without reference to the historical background (see Whitwell 1986;Crozier 2000). Equally, an investigation of the identity of Australian political studies would also seem to require an historical dimension, especially given the discipline's methodological eclecticism and low levels of professionalisation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%