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This paper examines the use of the concept of cultural genocide to understand one particular episode in Australian legal ,political and social history, the removal of Aboriginal children from their families, mostly during the 20th century. After outlining the approach of Australian courts to the idea of cultural genocide, the paper examines the construction of the UN Genocide Convention, particularly the clause concerning the forcible removal of children, which illustrates the underlying instability of the boundary between a cultural and a physical understanding of genocide. It then explores how this instability was manifested in the development of early 20th century Australian legislation concerning the 'protection' of Aborigines, indicating the underlying racially-oriented coerciveness of conceptions of Aboriginal 'welfare', and concludes by reflecting on the wide range of ways in which the concept of genocide can and should be used, especially in capturing the experience of Indigenous peoples under settler-colonialism., INTRODUCTION The Spaniards, with the help of unexampled monstrous deeds, covering themselves with an indelible shame, could not succeed in exterminating the Indian race, nor even prevent it from sharing [...]

Abstract So far there have usually been only two answers to the question of what to do with dichotomies in sociology, either embrace them or attempt to synthesize them. However, [...]

This paper argues for the integration of a greater awareness of reproductive conduct into sociological theory and research. Instead of conceiving the relationship between demography and sociology as one where sociological concepts are used to illuminate demographic concerns, the paper works towards the development of a demographic perspective in sociological understandings of modern society and its historical development. The argument will be for the notion of the 'reproductive self', with a greater emphasis on understanding human identity as stretching over time and generations, rather than as self-contained, timeless and autonomous. The paper will show that such a conception of human identity enables us to improve our understanding of a range of theoretical issues, including the relation between social structure and action and the rationality of human action, as well as revealing the historical roots of a number of long-term trends which are usually treated as changes typical of the second half of the twentieth century. Key words: demography, fertility, modernity, reproduction, self.

The concept 'social control' has been criticised from a variety of quarters in recent years, particularly by historians and historical sociologists. However, it remains in common usage in sociological studies of welfare, deviance and social control. This paper shows, first, how this reliance on the concept of social control is rooted in a wider-ranging argument in social and political theory concerning the liberal-democratic fusion between the state and civil society, and that the lack of resolution of this argument is the foundation of the persistence of the concept social control in other areas of social inquiry, despite its repeated 'falsification'. Second, the paper highlights the main arguments against the use of 'social control' in explaining social order, in particular the misunderstanding of class, culture and power which its use encourages, and the paper will conclude with a discussion of alternative ways of conceptualising the operation of power in contemporary societies.

THE SOCIOLOGICAL REVOLUTION: FROM THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE GLOBAL AGE Richard Kilminster London: Routledge, 1998, xiv + 221 pp., $139.95 (hardback). This is an ambitious book, aiming to establish the [...]

The forcible removal of indigenous Australian children was carried out in the name of civilization and was represented as bringing benefits to Australian Aborigines. The aim was to annihilate Aborigine culture. Aborigines were initially slaughtered by Europeans hungry for land, and were then seen as a dying race. Fear then emerged about the impact of a growing mixed-blood population, and the possible disappearance of whites into a black population. Societies can become more barbaric when they seek to become more civilized, There was a trend away from forcible removal during the 1970s, when greater emphasis came to be placed on the human rights of Aborigines.