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In this paper, I consider John French's biography, Lula and His Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil (2020). French discusses his methodology, which he characterizes as “a social biographical approach”. I argue that this methodology is already in historians’ toolkit. Historians writing biography seem to start with first premises rather than building on what went before. I thus contextualize the methodology, situating French's biography of Lula within more general shifts in approaches to biography.

Coral Lansbury wrote in a number of different registers and genres. Serially, she was an Australian radio script and ‘soaps’ writer, studied in New Zealand as an expatriate, became a Distinguished Professor of English specialising in British Victorian Studies in the USA and then a novelist. As well as boomeranging between writing careers and countries of the Anglosphere, the thrice-married Lansbury experienced widowhood, unmarried motherhood and divorce; she abandoned her child to her husband and later reconciled with her son. Her life reads like a plot from one of her novels. Lansbury was not active in women’s associations or the organised feminist movement. Her radio work, lectures and book tours in which she expounded her ‘crypto’ and, then later, ‘economic’ and ‘conservative-anarchist’ feminism were ephemeral. I argue that she should be repatriated into the history of postwar Australian feminism because, while mercurial and living in the USA, she pursued an expatriate professional strategy successfully and consistently sought to extend women’s vocation through kinds of popular literature. Her work reveals pluralism as much as contradiction.

Measured values of acoustic absorption obtained from standardized reverberation-chamber measurements often differ across laboratories. These discrepancies arise due to non-isotropic sound incidence on the absorbing specimen, diffraction at the sample edges, and differences in the chambers' shapes and dimensions. The present study examines an experimental method for characterizing the distribution of sound incidence on the specimen in the steady state. The methodology relies on a plane wave decomposition (i.e., estimation of the wavenumber spectrum) to determine the magnitude of the sound waves arriving from definite directions onto the absorbing sample. Based on this decomposition, the sound pressure, particle velocity, and sound intensity can be reconstructed in the vicinity of the absorbing specimen. One can distinguish between the incident and reflected components of the sound field, making it possible to characterize the incident energy flows. Measurements with a programmable robotic arm are conducted in a reverberation chamber in two damping conditions (empty and with absorption on the floor). The quantitative accuracy of the method is examined via an estimation of the sample's angle-dependent absorption coefficient, showing good agreement with theoretical predictions. It is anticipated that the proposed method will be of value in explaining the deviations encountered across standardized laboratories.

In the 1970s and 1980s, family history began to flourish within the academy. While demographers were uncovering the aggregate Australian family experience, family-centred community and social histories abounded. More recently ‘collective’ or ‘group’ family histories have appeared. The tide has turned so emphatically that Australian historians are now notable internationally for the extent to which they have researched and written the histories of their own families, a genre known as egohistoire. Similarly, the National Centre of Biography (NCB) at the Australian National University, which hosts the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB), is increasingly concerned with family history. Since 2012 the NCB/ADB has been comprehensively indexing biographical records of Australian families. The meticulous gathering of rich metadata and the process of indexing is supporting the visualisation of relationships through family trees and social network graphs showing spousal relations and family networks. This chapter considers the changing academic landscape which has led the NCB/ADB to provide family history research tools free-to-air and to research family history itself.

International audience; Reverberation-room measurements of absorption coefficients are subject to high uncertainties and irreproducibility across different laboratories. One reason is the lack of a sufficiently isotropic sound field both in steady-state and during the sound field decay. Recently, two different methods - based on the decomposition of the sound field into plane waves - have been proposed for the estimation and analysis of the sound field isotropy in reverberation rooms [Berzborn, 2018; Gover, 2004; Nolan, 2018]. This study compares the two methods based on numerically calculated plane wave sound fields as well as experimental results obtained from array measurements in a reverberation room in different configurations. The room configurations comprise setups with and without hanging panel diffusers and with and without an absorbing sample on the floor. Both methods are compared regarding their suitability in the analysis of reverberation rooms and the required angular resolution for the plane wave decomposition.

A method of evaluating sound field isotropy in decaying reverberant sound fields is presented. The proposed method extends the experimental framework outlined in [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 143(4), 2514-2526 (2018)] and analyzes the decaying sound field in a reverberation room. Spatio-temporal measurements of the sound field are obtained, and a wavenumber decomposition is performed as a function of time, which serves to examine the directional properties of the sound field and its angular symmetry. Experimental results are obtained in a reverberation room in four different configurations (the empty room, with an absorber on the floor, with panel diffusers, and without them). The results demonstrate how isotropy tends to increase or decrease as a function of time, depending on the disposition of the diffusing and absorbing elements. Diffusers are found to effectively redirect the energy in the room, although they do not succeed in generating a uniform incidence on the sample. The proposed approach makes it possible to analyze the specific processes occurring in a reverberation chamber and can provide valuable insights in the process of standardization to verify the directional properties found in each reverberation room.

This study proposes an experimental method for evaluating isotropy in enclosures, based on an analysis of the wavenumber spectrum in the spherical harmonics domain. The wavenumber spectrum, which results from expanding an arbitrary sound field into a plane-wave basis, is used to characterize the spatial properties of the observed sound field. Subsequently, the obtained wavenumber spectrum is expanded into a series of spherical harmonics, and the moments from this spherical expansion are used to characterize the isotropy of the wave field. The analytical framework is presented. The method is examined numerically and experimentally, based on array measurements in four chambers: two anechoic chambers (one with a single source and another with an array of 52 sources), a reverberation chamber, and the same reverberation chamber with a sample of absorbing material on the floor. The results indicate that the proposed methodology is suitable for assessing the isotropy of a sound field.

A method is proposed for measuring the angle-dependent absorption coefficient of a boundary material in situ. The method relies on decomposing a non-uniform three-dimensional pressure distribution, measured in the vicinity of a boundary, into plane-wave components (i.e., via estimation of its wavenumber transform). The incident and reflected plane-wave components at the boundary are separated in the wavenumber domain, from which it is possible to deduce an absorption coefficient for each angle of incidence simultaneously. The technique is used to verify theoretical predictions of the angle-dependent absorption coefficient of an absorbing ceiling, based on in situ measurements in a conventional room.

This work investigates the use of the initial decay time to obtain the Sabine absorption coefficient from measurements conducted in a reverberation chamber. Due to non-uniform distribution of sound absorption in the test chamber, measured energy decay functions exhibit multiple slopes, which cannot be evaluated unambiguously using linear regression as prescribed in the current standard (ISO 354, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2003). As an alternative, this study proposes a Bayesian framework that allows estimating multiple decay parameters, hence capturing more accurately the energy decay features. Measurements are carried out in a reverberation chamber with and without diffusing elements to investigate the influence of diffusers on the absorption coefficient and on the decay process. Measured absorption coefficients of a porous sample are compared to theoretical values estimated with a transfer matrix model. The results show that the Sabine absorption coefficient calculated using the shortest decay time agrees well with the size-corrected theoretical absorption coefficient.

There are two definitions of the inner product of modal spatial functions used in the literature. Both definitions integrate the product of the modal spatial functions over a line, area, or volume. The only difference is that one of the definitions takes the complex conjugate of one of the modal spatial functions before multiplying the modes together. The definitions are the same if the modal spatial functions are real. If the modal spatial functions are complex, only the definition which takes the complex conjugate is an inner product. If the specific acoustic impedance of the boundaries has a real part, then the modes are only orthogonal with the definition which does not take the complex conjugate, although this definition is not strictly an inner product because the modal spatial functions are complex in this situation. However, this definition of "inner product" can be used to calculate the coefficients in the modal expansion of the system response. On the other hand, when it comes to calculating the mean pressure squared and the mean sound intensity, the modal spatial functions cross-products cannot be ignored because the modes are not orthogonal for the definition which takes the complex conjugate.

This study examines the spatial and directional properties of net energy flows in a reverberation chamber. Based on measurements with a spherical array, a method is proposed to estimate the flows of acoustic energy in the volume surrounding the array. The proposed method is used to examine the steady state, early decay, and late decay of the sound field in a reverberation room (both empty and with an absorber on the floor). The results show that the approach is successful in characterizing the spatio-spectral and spatio-temporal properties of power flows in reverberant sound fields, constituting a valuable analysis tool.

As others have shown, for much of the twentieth century, “although to different degrees in different periods and to different degrees in the two countries”, New Zealand and Australia shared a peculiar approach to social protection internationally. In particular, Francis Castles has published widely on the Antipodean “wage earners’ welfare state”. He has also shown, however, that New Zealand and Australia took quite dissimilar paths in refurbishing each welfare state in the last two decades of the twentieth century, significantly over superannuation. Most commentators attribute the distinction to dominant political personalities. New Zealand's Robert Muldoon's “election bribe” in 1975, meant a compulsory paid-work based superannuation system, akin to the one Australia came to develop, was replaced by a universal pension scheme. Australia's Paul Keating implemented the compulsory Australian superannuation scheme in 1992 confirming the trajectory begun in the 1970s. In this paper I put the spotlight on the 1970s corporatism and Australasian industrial cultures to explain the varying New Zealand and Australian superannuation pathways. Such an approach emphasizes multilayered historicity, agency and contingency outside leadership-driven models. It points to variance and its limits rather than convergence, despite, and because of, common origins and welfare foundations.

Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019 : 9-13 September 2019, Aachen, Germany / proceedings editor: Martin Ochmann, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019, ICA 2019, Aachen, Germany, 9 Sep 2019 - 13 Sep 2019; Aachen (2019)., Published by Aachen

Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019 : 9-13 September 2019, Aachen, Germany / proceedings editor: Martin Ochmann, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019, ICA 2019, Aachen, Germany, 9 Sep 2019 - 13 Sep 2019; Aachen (2019)., Published by Aachen

For most of the twentieth century, New Zealanders could cross the Tasman Sea freely to live and work in Australia, with access to citizenship and social welfare benefits, similar to those enjoyed by Australians who moved to New Zealand. Migration was not difficult as the systems were similar. From 2001, however, while Australians living in New Zealand could still gain access to citizenship with social welfare benefits, many New Zealanders moving to live in Australia have been unable to become citizens and, despite paying taxes, cannot receive some social welfare benefits or have rights to permanent residence. Effectively, they are in welfare limbo. Clearly, Australian political processes drove changes to welfare eligibility for New Zealanders living in Australia. This ‘limbo’ raises the question, however, as to whether New Zealand governments could have done more to protect the rights of New Zealanders living in Australia. This intriguing social issue has implications for other similar close nations in th...

Neoliberalism is critical to understanding the experience of working people in the crises of capitalism from the 1970s to the global financial recession of 2008. The literature recognizes that neoliberalism was variously applied and developed unevenly geographically in complex ways. While research has concentrated on the advanced economies, such as the United States and United Kingdom, an antipodean model has also been teased out. New Zealand is recognized as an outstanding example of the late twentieth-century neoliberal experiment. This chapter examines the antipodean responses to the post-1970s economic crisis of capitalism in the light of a longer history of the welfare state. It shows that the response to neoliberalism was complex, involving resistance as well as collusion and collaboration. It begins by exploring the distinct antipodean welfare-state tradition, which is held up to explain opposition to neoliberal ideas, but which New Zealand largely shared with Australia.

Reverberation time measurements are often inadequate in predicting the acoustical behavior of small ordinary rooms, particularly in spaces with non-uniform placement of absorptive materials (such as classrooms, offices, and clinical rooms). On the other hand, numerical predictions depend strongly on the quality of input data (i.e., absorption and scattering coefficients), which are generally inaccurate due to the lack of reliable experimental methods to measure them. This work investigates how spatially distributed measurements can be used to characterize the spatio-temporal properties of the sound field in non-Sabine spaces, and how this information can supplement traditional methods in tasks related to room acoustical design. In this study, measurements are conducted in a classroom with absorbing ceiling using a programmable robotic arm. It is shown that by expanding the measured sound field into an elementary wave basis, it is possible to reconstruct and extract the spatial distribution of sound pressure and energy flows in the room. Additionally, spatio-temporal post-processing enables to characterize the decay process and to assess the dominant directions of sound propagation, leading to a time-dependent analysis of the properties of the sound field.

This presentation will describe the design for a new 384 m3 test chamber that will allow the measurement of the random incidence absorption coefficient, according to ISO 354, the scattering coefficient, according to ISO 17497-1, the diffusion coefficient, according to ISO 17497-2 and the normal incidence low frequency absorption coefficient, according to ISO 10534-2. The rev room design incorporates optimal modal dimensional ratios in accordance with (T. Cox, P. D’Antonio & Avis, J. Audio Eng. Soc. Vol. 52, No. 6 (June 2004)), both boundary and hanging panel diffusers to allow satisfactory diffusivity, in collaboration with the research at DTU. Diffusivity will be verified using a reference absorber, consisting of 100 mm porous absorber with a 100 mm cavity. A sufficiently large reflection free volume is provided in the chamber for diffusion coefficient scale model measurements. The diffusion goniometer and 12 m2 absorber samples are rotated in accordance with test. Scattering coefficient measurements are made according the ISO 17497-2 and the correlation method, using correlated polar responses. A steel and concrete lined low frequency impedance tube measuring 600 mm x 600 mm x 5.8 m long and 7 tons will be used to measure absorption from 25 to 250 Hz.

The exceptionalist debate in labour history has concentrated upon the distinctiveness of a country's labour movement and historical contingency. Some historians are concerned that the current popularity of transnationalism in comparative history achieves exactly the opposite because it tends to flatten and schematize the richness, messiness, complexity, and the individuality of the case study. What would transnational sceptics make then of politicians', political scientists', and sociologists' enthusiasm for the Third Way model, which seems to concentrate upon commonalities and convergence in the political economies of the western world from the 1930s and 1940s? New Zealand appears to be a classic example of First Way under its earliest Labour governments (1939–1949), Second Way under its Fourth Labour governments (1984–1990) and Third Way under its Fifth Labour governments (1999–2008). On closer examination, this view only holds if we adopt a distorted view of 'Old Labour' and, although not considered he...

There is no more imposing figure in the history of Australian anthropology than W.E.H. ('Bill') Stanner (1905-1981). While some of his contemporaries produced more ethnography, none matched his skill and eloquence in describing the life-worlds of Aboriginal people. While others of his age were just as closely involved in arguing for the defensibility of Aboriginal society, none did so with such convincing passion. With these two legacies in mind, anthropologists in the here and now would be hard put to describe Stanner's oeuvre in either/or terms. He is best remembered for his scintillating, sympathetic analyses of Aboriginal myth, ritual and local organisation, together with his trenchant critiques of Durkheim and Freud.

The growing alarm in New Zealand over the development of a visible 'underclass' is underpinned by a wider concern in the face of the country's dramatic relative decline in the postwar period. In the generation after 1945, New Zealand was said to have 'full employment', the third highest standard of living in the world and an enviable record in the area of free education to university level. According to a popular self-image, and a central plank of New Zealand national identity, the country was egalitarian and universally prosperous. The development of an underclass, by contrast, seems to indicate that this former British colony at the edge of empires could not protect itself against the tide of international neo-liberalism. However, the view that an underclass has suddenly appeared does not take into account factors which always prevailed against the notion of social equality and inclusiveness — that, for example, most married women were not in education, employment or training in New Zealand in 1950; or ...

In this article, we question the narrative of a 'diminishing class' of family physicians providing continuity of care. A case-study of general practitioners in Wellington, New Zealand, suggests that there has been less change than many believe. We seek to establish that treatment by traditional family doctors constituted a minority experience. Alternative accounts tend to focus on continuous practices but these probably represent just over a third of the total. Despite this fact, there is a widely held contemporary perception of debased primary care provision. Indeed, general practitioners themselves have contributed to the development of the myth of a twentieth-century demise of continuity of care, and particularly so during the 1960s and 1970s when many were seeking to establish a role as primary providers. Ironically, the myth of the demise of the traditional family doctor has made general practitioners, and many patients, even more discontented with contemporary services than should perhaps be the case.

This article explores the establishment of women factory inspectors in the wake of a common sweating furore in Britain and New Zealand. Sweating reformism was not simply transplanted in New Zealand from the motherland. It is argued that Britons and New Zealanders developed related illusions about anti-sweating which had important implications for the confinement of women's work. In New Zealand female factory inspectors were held to be symbols of successful anti-sweating reform, while in Britain they were celebrated for their investigation and exposure of industrial conditions since here reform was limited. The women themselves knew the limits of their success. And they embodied a contradiction. The rationale for their employment was that women's work was different from men's and female employment needed to be regulated. Female factory inspectors accepted this formula for factory workers but were averse to it being applied to their own employment. In this regard, the female factory inspectors expe...