About Dave's PhD!
NB: The following is a detailed report on what my thesis is about, how I intent to research it, and a note on sources etc.
There is no abstact as the thesis is only now being written up.
NB: The following is a detailed report on what my thesis is about, how I intent to research it, and a note on sources etc.
There is no abstact as the thesis is only now being written up.
(1) Historiography review and problems.
(2) Explanation of the topic and amendments to it.
(3) A methodological overview.
(4) Theoretical issues and assumptions.
(5) Sources.
(6) Conclusion.
(1) Historiographical review and problems.
I would like to begin by briefly explaining the historiographical context and problems that gave rise to the questions to be addressed in my thesis. I first consulted a wide range of secondary sources in order to gauge the main themes that permeate Queensland historiography, and in particular, sources that deal with this state's economic history. There is, however, no detailed economic history of Queensland to consult, no one satisfactory compilation of vital statistics, and generally the secondary sources dealing with Queensland's economic development, are less than comprehensive and are based on a too narrow empirical foundation. Indeed, the full utilisation of archival sources is also uncommon and this tends to undermine some economic historical interpretations. In essence my historical imagination was alerted to a number of historiographical oversights, in terms of the relationships between economic development, patterns of urbanisation, and the ideological underpinnings of the political economy. I wasn't satisfied with the depth and scope of research conducted into the sectoral dynamics of the Queensland's economic development. Apart from Glen Lewis , John Laverty, and couple of other historians, the most satisfactory models of analysis of the dynamics of economic development and social formation, have come from the work of industrial and economic geographers, (such as Linge, Burnley, Powell, and Logan) and to some degree from industrial sociology. Related to this general lack of close empirical analysis of economic relations, is a concern to investigate the interaction of material relations with patterns of social formation, in particular urbanisation and decentralisation, and the ideologies that informed them. The obvious location for assessing these issues falls into the sphere of the political economy. That is, the role assumed by the state in the direction and processes of economic development and material relations.
The general historiographical consensus suggests a common belief in the exceptionalism of Queensland's economic dependency on primary production, and the relative underdevelopment and unsophisticated nature of Queensland's secondary industries which reflected a continuity of a popular and political support for agrarian development. For mine there are a number of issues that require closer examination. First is the lack of recognition historians have ascribed to the important role played by secondary industries in the economic development of Queensland. For instance the statistics demonstrate a rapid expansion in urbanisation and in the manufacturing sector in Queensland during the 1890s and the first decade of the twentieth century. Why, if so many obstacles stood in the way of industrialisation, (especially in view of the dominant agrarian ideology), did the manufacturing sector grow so strongly over this period? Patterns of urban intensification may supply some important clues to this developmental paradox. Another is the origins of the cleavage between the political popularity of agrarian ideology and the actual patterns of urbanisation and failure closer settlement schemes. The historiography has largely failed to adequately explain the dynamics of change in the sectoral composition of Queensland's economic base. This, I feel, reflects a reliance on base statistics and the purpetuation of historical assumptions, whereas a more intense consideration of the immense sectoral statistical detail is actually required. In my opinion the economic significance of the secondary industry sector in Qld during the first three decades of this century, has been understated historiographically. Similarly, the impact of internal and external political, financial and ideological forces that effectively marginalised early Labor government plans to encourage the development of secondary industries, needs to be more fully addressed.
It is these discrepancies in Queensland's historiography that have prompted the topic I have chosen to research.
(2) Explanation of the topic and amendments to it.
My original working title was: A sociohistorical assessment of the effects of industrial development on social formation and the dynamics of labour politics in Queensland, 1900-1930. This encapsulated my interest in the social and economic processes associated with industrialisation and urbanisation, and the manner in which the labour movement responded, industrially and politically, to contemporary material relations. This interest stems from previous research undertaken while studying at the University of Newcastle, culminating in my honours thesis entitled; Towards the Wage-Earners Welfare State?: The Establishment of the NSW State Government Dockyard and Engineering Works, Walsh Island, 1913-1918. An Industrial, Political and Labour History. My initial interest in a Queensland PhD topic was inspired by the apparent ideological cleavage between NSW and QLD labourites, as regards the relative importance ascribed to industrial development as an agent of modernity. The NSW labourists adopted a two pronged strategy for economic development that simultaneously addressed the need to encourage primary and secondary industries and made provision for the associated infrastructure required for rapid urban and rural intensification. In Qld industrialisation was marginalised, across the political spectrum, as a structural mode for economic and social change. The agrarian dream ruled supreme and the overwhelming bulk of government economic development policy was directed towards agricultural settlement schemes, while urban industries and infrastructure were largely marginalised as a potential base of wealth and social formation.
To fully assess the issues I had in mind one had to begin by compiling the quantitative and qualitative sources necessary to construct an economic history for the period under review. From this empirical foundation one could assess the dominant aspects of Queensland's political economy and ideological motives of governmental economic development policy and practice, and the urban and rural demographic patterns. This shift in focus has led me to revise my topic which is now entitled: An historical assessment of economic development, manufacturing and the political economy of Queensland, 1900-1930. This topic encompasses first, the need to analyse the main currents of Queensland's economic history for the period. Secondly, to assess the interrelationship between changing economic structures and the patterns of social formation and the broader palate of political motivations, expressions and responses rather than limiting the analysis to that of the labour movement. Essentially the revised topic allows me to address the historiographical gaps in Queensland's economic history and to demonstrate the complex interplay between patterns of industrial development (across all sectors), urban and rural environments, and the ideology of political expression, policy and practice.
A brief discussion of the methodology utilised in my research effort would be instructive at this point.
(2) A methodological overview.
While my thesis will be primarily a work of economic history, the methodological frame work utilised is inter-disciplinary, drawing upon historical, sociological, geographical and economic practices, utilising a broad range of source materials and methods, to develop a historical interpretation that is at once empirically based and theoretically informed. The sources consulted include the usual orthodox body of textual or literary sources, and the available extensive statistical data, cartographic, photographic, and other quantitative sources. These sources and methods will be used first, to develop a sophisticated profile of the Queensland economy over the period, with a complimentary, though less extensive, profile for the period 1859-1900 to provide the necessary continuity and context. This involved compiling a computerised quantitative data base of general economic, industrial, political and social statistics in order to analyse patterns of industrial development, urbanisation, rural intensification and decentralisation. Indeed, a great deal of my research effort has been directed towards identifying useful statistical series, assembling them from various sources, checking the compatibility of the statistical methodologies used in their compilation, making allowances for discrepancies therein, and finally pulling together series that demonstrate reliability in the continuity of the data. Perhaps all this ditch digging is why deep statistical analysis is somewhat under utilised in historical practice? Moreover, the extensive consultation of public and private sector primary sources also allows one to assess the political, economic and social actions and ideologies of some of the social actors and organisations involved in the political economic discourse. This adds another useful interpretive perspective to the quantitative element.
Ultimately the strength of my thesis relies on the accuracy, depth and scope of my statistical analysis. All else flows from, through, and is anchored to it. A close review of the relevant Queensland historiography was undertaken simultaneously with the statistical research, (and entered onto its own data base) providing the necessary historical context to evaluate this data. Added to this are the analytical models and techniques drawn from human, economic and industrial geography and demography that provide methodological practices for the incorporation of environmental and geo-morphological factors in this economic historical discourse. In essence I will compare and contrast the quantitative data with the qualitative sources, to test the relative validity of existing historical assumptions by illustrating inconsistencies or indeed in confirming them.
I would like now to examine the theoretical issues that inform this methodology and briefly discuss the interpretive tools utilised in my research.
(4) Theoretical issues and assumptions.
The research programme for this thesis has been undertaken with a number of theoretical perspectives in mind, and the incorporation of others discovered as part of this process. No single theory dominates this interpretive process. The temper of my historical analysis is strongly influenced by a belief in the importance of humankind's struggle over material conditions as a motivating agency driving the historical dynamic. This is not to place a too heavy emphasis upon material relations alone, rather, material relations have become a more potent agency in the development of societal relations since the onset of the industrial age. The economistic perspective of my interpretation draws on, what I believe to be, the valid interpretive components to be found in the schools of thought centred around the concept of the political economy. My own interpretation treads a fine line here. While I accord material relations a prominence of place, it alone is not, of course, the sole arbiter of historical action. This interpretation should not be labelled economic determinism, rather it recognises that the structure of material relations relies entirely upon a myriad of interrelated factors to give it form, function, meaning and purpose. Human motivations are many and complex, the material needs and wants may provide the engine, the environment and labour the fuel, but these alone cannot drive history. As mentioned previously consideration of the dynamics between geography and economics is important, for example in the utilisation of industrial location, and urban formation theories. The crux of the issue here is that my interpretation of this period in Queensland's history will have a distinctly economistic bent, one tempered however by the simultaneous recognition of the interaction and interdependence of a wide variety of non-economic factors.
Ideological assumptions and perceptions are some of the more important concepts informing the interpretive framework of this thesis. The theoretical implications of this to the current study are centred on the cleavages between the degree of hegemony exercised in the political economy by the pastoral and mercantile elite, with the populist agrarian yeomanry ideal demonstrated among the ranks of organised labour and the general population, and the lonely but not infrequently espoused ideals of the believers in industrial development. The Queensland identity was more ruralist than most, yet demographically it was, as intensely urbanised and decentralised as it was agrarian. Here the contradiction is compelling. Nowhere was the political drive for rural development so strong and the reluctance of the urbanites to partake in closer settlement so contradictory. The yeomanry ideal was sacrosanct and the political view of the urban ruralist reigned supreme running rough shod over the dissenting voices who saw industrialisation as the path to their nirvana. The Queensland rural developmental ethos must be considered against the broader logic of modernity, (as experienced in Europe , North America, and in NSW and Victoria) which required a transition from an agrarian to an industrial society, where industrial development was understood as the vehicle with which to gain the mantle of modern nation statehood.
Clearly there a number of theoretical questions to address here. The main theoretical themes to be investigated and the concepts involved are quite complex. However, one thing is certain, the theoretical analysis of historical action must be multidimensional, the monocausal metanarrative explanations overextend the emphasis on structural considerations.
(5) Sources: (Secondary & Primary)
The variety and depth of sources consulted as part of this research effort are considerable. In terms of Secondary sources, apart from the body of published and unpublished Queensland and Australian historiography, numerous works were consulted that relate to broader themes such as global economic history, industrial history, economic, geographic, political, sociological and historical theory, methods of statistical analysis, data management, economic systems and market analysis, industrial relations, and various bibliographic and other reference works.
The vast body of primary sources can be divided into four broad sections with corresponding sub-divisions. Firstly, Official Governmental sources; subdivided into Parliamentary, Executive, & Departmental records. Second, Institutional & Organisational sources; subdivided into Civic Organisations, Trade Unions, Employer Bodies & Industry Groups, Company Records and so on. Third, Personal sources, private papers, mss, letters etc. And lastly, the Artefactual; the physical remnants, photographic, drawings, maps and similar.
Of the Official Government sources the Queensland Parliamentary Debates & the Queensland Parliamentary Papers, The Statistics of the State of Queensland, and also the Queensland Industrial Gazette (QIG) are the most important. Various Commonwealth (and to a lesser degree other State Government) documents have been consulted including various Parliamentary Debates & Papers, Census Reports, Yearbooks, ABS Reports, and Departmental Papers and so forth. A vast body of Qld departmental records are slowly being sifted through at the QSA. The range of material here is diverse and includes departmental correspondence, reports, press cuttings, statistical summaries, returns & other documents, maps, and so on.
The other three areas (Institutional & Organisational); (Personal); & (Artefactual) comprise an eclectic body of evidential material consisting mainly of extensive consultation of the contemporary press, particularly the Courier, Worker, Daily Standard, Daily Mail, and other regional and interstate newspapers and periodicals, almanacs and directories, minute books, conference/convention reports, correspondence, mss, plans, photographs, and the like. This material has been found in various repositories including the Fryer & John Oxley Libraries, The QSA, Australian Archives (Bris, Syd and Canberra), Mitchell Library (State Library of NSW), The National Library, Butlin Archive (ANU), and local and regional libraries, historical associations and museums.
(6) Conclusion:
In concluding thi discussion I want to reiterate that my research methodology and interpretive framework is directed towards developing a structuralist economic history. This thesis will be based on sound empirical foundations, but will avoid the rigid confines of the more traditional economic determinist history. It will do so by incorporating a broad and eclectic body of sources, methodologies, and theoretical perspectives in order to give an account of the complex interactive modes of agency that inform the historical dynamic. In my opinion the discipline of economic history has not paid sufficient attention to Queensland history, nor has economic analysis in the general body of Queensland historiography been as rigorous and encompassing as it could be. This is not meant to be so much a criticism of what has been written so far, but rather a concern for what has yet to be assessed and interpreted. Thus far my research indicates a number of historical problems that my thesis will address. First, I argue there has been an historiographical understating of the economic importance and sectoral dynamics of Qld's secondary industries . Secondly, there has been a lack of historical consideration apportioned to studying the effects of the interplay between urbanisation and decentralisation on the industrial geography of Queensland. Thirdly, the identification of an inherent contradiction between the closer settlement ideal and the reality of urban and rural development. And fourthly, demonstrating that the overtly agrarian focus of the Labor party in Qld was also accompanied by an attempt to engage in the establishment of a heavy industry base. This strategy was usurped by the political and economic intervention local and foreign pastoral and capital interests. However, in contrast to their NSW counterparts, the failed scheme to establish a state steel industry in Qld was primarily concerned with asserting fiscal flexibility and control over rural infrastructure development. In short, my research will rectify, at least partially, these historical oversights and demonstrate a more contradictory and complex pattern of economic, political and social relations than is currently presented in Queensland's historiography.
David Cameron
© 1997 david.cameron@mailbox.uq.edu.au
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