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      Australian attitudes towards innovation, work and technology: Towards a cultural explanation

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            Abstract

            Australia, despite its G20 status, has not been performing as well in innovation in high-technology sectors as its educational levels and sustained growth would suggest. Australia has found it difficult to emerge from an economy based on resources and agriculture to a services economy based on knowledge and the application of technology. Several reasons have been put forward over the years. This study considers one reason that has not been considered in any detail – culture and national identity. In this paper, we look closely at a number of artefacts of popular culture from the late 1800s to the present day (such as art, poetry, song and film). These continue to underpin Australia's national identity, despite the multicultural and multiethnic nature of modern Australia. This study argues that the current Australian attitude to work, technology and innovation is strongly rooted in the egalitarian and anti-authoritarian ethos associated with what has been termed the 'Australian legend' or the 'pioneer legend'. A national discourse with emphasis on hyper-masculine hard work as opposed to education and innovation has favoured policies to assist the resource and agricultural sectors of the economy, rather than sectors capable of creating greater value.

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            Author and article information

            Contributors
            Journal
            10.2307/j50022063
            prometheus
            Prometheus
            Pluto Journals
            0810-9028
            1470-1030
            1 March 2021
            : 37
            : 1 ( doiID: 10.13169/prometheus.37.issue-1 )
            : 54-68
            Affiliations
            [ 1 ]Faculty of Business, Law and Arts, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Queensland
            [ 2 ]Public Policy, Griffith University, Brisbane
            [ 3 ]School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Brisbane
            [ 4 ]Faculty of Business, Law & Arts, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Queensland
            [ 5 ]Faculty of Business, Law and Arts, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Queensland
            Article
            prometheus.37.1.0054
            10.13169/prometheus.37.1.0054
            25fee346-bd78-48a3-91ef-a4e8feeb4f06
            © 2020 Pluto Journals

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History
            Custom metadata
            eng

            Computer science,Arts,Social & Behavioral Sciences,Law,History,Economics

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