Thesis Title: Subtitle

Publications included in this thesis

No publications included

Contributions by others to the thesis

No contributions by others.

Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree

None

Acknowledgements

Writing this thesis - as with many theses - has been a bumpy journey. While I have spent a lot of time writing by myself, I have also been surrounded, supported and encouraged by many excellent people.

I would firstly like to thank the School of Social Science at The University of Queensland for supporting this project with both financial and practical resources.

Considerable thanks are also owed to my patient supervisors Dr Peter Walters and Dr Lynda Cheshire. Thank you for your critical eyes, great suggestions and the long loan of several books I still need to give back. You have both opened my eyes to new ways of examining the familiar. Thank you for putting up with me and sticking with this thesis.

To the participants: thank you for sharing your perspectives with me and helping generously in the production of this research.

To my co-conspirators, Jackie Laughland-Booy, Sophie Hickey, Amy MacMahon, Laura Cox, Renee Zahnow, Sari Mangru, Kevin O’Brien and Toby Miles-Johnson: you have patiently read my work, listened to my ideas and anxieties and dispensed excellent advice and caring in so many ways. Thanks also go to the many other fellow PhDers in my orbit who have laughed, commiserated and drank with me: Andrew Clarke, Alex Gearin, PJ Holtum, Gillian Paxton, Chris Lovell, and Rohan Fenwick. I am smarter for knowing you all.

My friends outside the university (you know who you are) thank you for never or rarely asking about my thesis and providing me with the space to decompress and not think about work. Special thanks to Rachel McGovern - your friendship has kept me sane - and to Zarinah H. for helping me find my way.

Last but not least, to Mum and Dad for the many acts of kindness and love that have helped me stay the course. Without you I don’t know if all this would have been possible.