Agency, contingency and census process
The Indigenous Enumeration Strategy (IES) of the Australian National Census of Population and Housing has evolved over the years in response to the perceived ‘difference’ of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Its defining characteristics are the use of locally recruited, mostly I...
I tiakina i:
| Kaituhi matua: | |
|---|---|
| Hōputu: | Online |
| Reo: | Ingarihi |
| I whakaputaina: |
ANU Press
2021
|
| Ngā marau: | |
| Urunga tuihono: | 458796 |
| Ngā Tūtohu: |
Kāore He Tūtohu, Me noho koe te mea tuatahi ki te tūtohu i tēnei pūkete!
|
| _version_ | 1869514679207854080 |
|---|---|
| author | Morphy, Frances |
| author_browse | Morphy, Frances |
| author_facet | Morphy, Frances |
| author_sort | Morphy, Frances |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | The Indigenous Enumeration Strategy (IES) of the Australian National Census of Population and Housing has evolved over the years in response to the perceived ‘difference’ of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Its defining characteristics are the use of locally recruited, mostly Indigenous collector interviewers, and the administration of a modified collection instrument in discrete Indigenous communities, mostly in remote Australia. The research reported here is unique. The authors, with the assistance of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, were able to follow the workings of the IES in the 2006 Census from the design of the collection instrument to the training of temporary census field staff at the Northern Territory’s Census Management Unit in Darwin, to the enumeration in four remote locations, through to the processing stage at the Data Processing Centre in Melbourne. This allowed the tracking of data from collection to processing, and an assessment of the effects of information flows on the quality of the data, both as input and output.
This study of the enumeration involved four very different locations: a group of small outstation communities (Arnhem Land), a large Aboriginal township (Wadeye), an ‘open’ town with a majority Aboriginal population (Fitzroy Crossing), and the minority Aboriginal population of a major regional centre (Alice Springs). A comparison between these contexts reveals differences that reflect the diversity of remote Aboriginal Australia, but also commonalities that exert a powerful influence on the effectiveness of the IES, in particular very high levels of short-term mobility. The selection of sites also allowed a comparison between the enumeration process in the Northern Territory, where a time-extended rolling count was explicitly planned for, and Western Australia, where a modified form of the standard count had been envisaged.
The findings suggest that the IES has reached a point in its development where the injection of ever-increasing resources into essentially the same generic set and structure of activities may be producing diminishing returns. There is a need for a new kind of engagement between the Australian Bureau of Statistics and local government and Indigenous community-sector organisations in remote Australia. The agency and local knowledge of Indigenous people could be harnessed more effectively through an ongoing relationship with such organisations, to better address the complex contingencies confronting the census process in remote Indigenous Australia. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-32358 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | ANU Press |
| publisherStr | ANU Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-323582025-01-21T23:05:04Z Agency, contingency and census process Morphy, Frances population statistics aboriginal australians Census Chief financial officer Community Development Employment Projects Darwin Northern Territory Fitzroy Crossing Western Australia Indigenous Australians Northern Territory Wadeye Northern Territory Yolngu thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology The Indigenous Enumeration Strategy (IES) of the Australian National Census of Population and Housing has evolved over the years in response to the perceived ‘difference’ of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Its defining characteristics are the use of locally recruited, mostly Indigenous collector interviewers, and the administration of a modified collection instrument in discrete Indigenous communities, mostly in remote Australia. The research reported here is unique. The authors, with the assistance of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, were able to follow the workings of the IES in the 2006 Census from the design of the collection instrument to the training of temporary census field staff at the Northern Territory’s Census Management Unit in Darwin, to the enumeration in four remote locations, through to the processing stage at the Data Processing Centre in Melbourne. This allowed the tracking of data from collection to processing, and an assessment of the effects of information flows on the quality of the data, both as input and output. This study of the enumeration involved four very different locations: a group of small outstation communities (Arnhem Land), a large Aboriginal township (Wadeye), an ‘open’ town with a majority Aboriginal population (Fitzroy Crossing), and the minority Aboriginal population of a major regional centre (Alice Springs). A comparison between these contexts reveals differences that reflect the diversity of remote Aboriginal Australia, but also commonalities that exert a powerful influence on the effectiveness of the IES, in particular very high levels of short-term mobility. The selection of sites also allowed a comparison between the enumeration process in the Northern Territory, where a time-extended rolling count was explicitly planned for, and Western Australia, where a modified form of the standard count had been envisaged. The findings suggest that the IES has reached a point in its development where the injection of ever-increasing resources into essentially the same generic set and structure of activities may be producing diminishing returns. There is a need for a new kind of engagement between the Australian Bureau of Statistics and local government and Indigenous community-sector organisations in remote Australia. The agency and local knowledge of Indigenous people could be harnessed more effectively through an ongoing relationship with such organisations, to better address the complex contingencies confronting the census process in remote Indigenous Australia. 2021-02-10T12:58:18Z 2013-11-05 00:00:00 2020-04-01T14:57:11Z 2007 book 458796 OCN: 234317759 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/33826 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/32358 eng CAEPR Monograph open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33826/1/458796.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33826/1/458796.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33826/1/458796.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33826/1/458796.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33826/1/458796.pdf ANU Press 10.26530/OAPEN_458796 10.26530/OAPEN_458796 975ba519-3ce2-4517-95bf-b847729fbcf1 Canberra open access |
| spellingShingle | population statistics aboriginal australians Census Chief financial officer Community Development Employment Projects Darwin Northern Territory Fitzroy Crossing Western Australia Indigenous Australians Northern Territory Wadeye Northern Territory Yolngu thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology Morphy, Frances Agency, contingency and census process |
| title | Agency, contingency and census process |
| title_full | Agency, contingency and census process |
| title_fullStr | Agency, contingency and census process |
| title_full_unstemmed | Agency, contingency and census process |
| title_short | Agency, contingency and census process |
| title_sort | agency contingency and census process |
| topic | population statistics aboriginal australians Census Chief financial officer Community Development Employment Projects Darwin Northern Territory Fitzroy Crossing Western Australia Indigenous Australians Northern Territory Wadeye Northern Territory Yolngu thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology |
| topic_facet | population statistics aboriginal australians Census Chief financial officer Community Development Employment Projects Darwin Northern Territory Fitzroy Crossing Western Australia Indigenous Australians Northern Territory Wadeye Northern Territory Yolngu thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology |
| url | 458796 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT morphyfrances agencycontingencyandcensusprocess |