Between colliding worlds, the inherent ambiguity of special policy agencies for Aboriginal and women's issues in Canada and Australia

grantor: University of TorontoThis dissertation explores the inherent contradictions surrounding institutional linkages between governments and social movements, by focussing on Canadian and Australian government units for women's and aboriginal policy, such as the Ontario Women's Directorate and the Western Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs. These units are referred to as "special policy agencies." I argue that these agencies interact with two distinct external environments or "worlds"--the world of public administration and the permanent bureaucracy, and the world of social movements and activists--and that the values, characteristics and expectations of these two worlds differ sharply from one another. These differences create contradictory pressures on special policy agencies, leading to inherently ambiguous identities. This ambiguity creates conflicts and misunderstandings, but also allows agencies to play boundary-spanning roles between the two worlds, linking tightly-organized public administration with fluid movements, to a greater degree than other state structures. The dissertation examines these boundary-spanning roles through several case studies of agencies. In turn, the case studies are organized around three variables affecting agencies' roles--political change, relations with other public servants, and the "new public management." I argue that special policy agencies are not just one of many interchangeable battlegrounds between social movements and the state, nor simply attempts by governing authorities to neutralize or dominate social movements. Instead, special policy agencies are best understood as shifting and ever-changing terrains of struggle, which provide valuable ground for studying the complex and evolving relationships between social movements and public administrators.Ph.D