Nick Osbaldiston
Biographic Data
| ID | 182355 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nick Osbaldiston |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nick |
| FAMILY NAME | Osbaldiston |
| SIGNATURE | OSBALDISTON N |
| AFFILIATIONS | James Cook University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0158-1903 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 86 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Mapping migrants' narratives: A qual-GIS approach to Cairns' urban liveability
This study introduces a novel approach to urban liveability research by combining interviews with participatory mapping techniques. More specifically, the research integrates concepts from geographic information systems (GISs) with episodic narrative interviews to develop a qualitative GIS (qual-GIS) methodology to map and interpret the spatial experiences of recent migrants to Cairns. This qual-GIS approach involves participants annotating ameni…
Expected Versus Experienced Liveability for Amenity Migrants in Cairns, Australia: The Grass is not Always Greener in the Tropics
This study explores Australian amenity migrants' experiences in Cairns, comparing expectations of a tropical paradise with lived realities. Using episodic narrative interviews and Importance-Performance Analysis of liveability indicators, it uncovers discrepancies between idealised imaginaries and actual experiences. Key concerns include housing, safety, jobs, living costs, and challenges in building community connections. The findings highlight …
The Summers Were Getting Hotter’: Exploring motivations for migration to Tasmania away from mainland Australia
In recent times there has been a population turnaround in the island state of Tasmania sparked by an increase in in-migration of mainland urban dwellers. This paper argues that one of the major driving factors of this change is the quest for a new lifestyle in regional/rural life, that incorporates a desire for a temperate climate. As literature in lifestyle migration shows, this quest for a new life does not end once migration is over. Rather, t…
Living in crisis: Introduction to a special section
[Extract] This special section began to take shape sometime in mid-2020. Much of Australia was then in lockdown, we were working from home, national borders were closed, and it was looking increasingly likely that the annual conference for The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) would not go ahead. At the time, the spread of COVID-19 within Australia was very limited, especially compared to much of the rest of the world. Yet the pandemic h…
Lifestyle migration in place: Notes from the field
In this paper we seek to examine the quest for a better way of life through migration, known as lifestyle migration, by positioning place as the a priori condition through which this experience happens. Following the work of Malpas, we argue that lifestyle migration literature has often positioned place in the background, failing to notice how an individual's style of life is enacted through place and because of it. In order to understand the lif…
Gringolandia by Matthew Hayes
Simmel’s Adventure and its Relationship to the Ought of Life
This paper examines Georg Simmel’s essay “The Adventure” in relation to more recent translations of his later philosophy. Using the foundational framework supplied to us by Simmel, the paper attempts to unpack adventures as moments in our life-course which are timeless in their influence on the self. This transcending of time manifests in the present as emotions attached to the experiences of adventures shape our consideration of the “ought”. Bor…
Exploring emotional reflexivity in British lifestyle migration to Australia
In this paper, we explore narratives from interviews with British migrants who had shifted to Australia seeking a better way of life. Framed through the conceptual paradigm of lifestyle migration, we argue in this paper that pivotal to this late‐modern phenomenon is the moment of reflexivity where imagination over life elsewhere collides with present experiences in place. However, using the concept of emotional reflexivity, we argue that these re…
The Social Structures of Global Academia
This chapter introduces the contributions to this volume and also frames them in a global political economy and academia as a global practice. Research by scholars such as Steven Ward have laid the groundwork for understanding how global political economy influences the organisation of academic work, while others have explored how academics work in changing national settings, such as Mary Henkel, Tony Becher and Paul Trowler, and Pierre Bourdieu.…
Social Structures of Global Academia
I love my work but I hate my job'-Early career academic perspective on academic times in Australia
There has been significant interest of late into how academics spend their time during both their working and personal lives. Inspired by research around academic lives, this paper explores the narratives of 25 early career academics in Australian institutions across the country. Like several others, we propose that one of the fundamental aspects of time in academia is that of labour spent doing formal, instrumental and bureaucratic tasks. This i…
Moral barriers between work/life balance policy and practice in academia
Despite the proliferation of work/life balance policies in Australian universities, academic staff continue to report experiences of time pressure, anxiety, and over-work. This paper contributes to the research of academic time and career planning by exploring how early career academics engage with work/life balance policies, utilising a critical reading of Richard Sennett’s work on the corrosion of character in late capitalist economies. We find…
Towards a Sociology of the Coast
This book seeks to understand the coast as a place that has deep significance both historically and sociologically. Using several case studies in Australia, the author uses Max Weber's approach to rat
The Modern Coast: Flinders the Explorer
This chapter moves through into modernity by examining the role of the modern coastal explorer. As Weber does in his work into the Protestant Ethic with Benjamin Franklin, this book uses Matthew Flinders as an exemplary example of the modern coastal explorer’s aims, ambitions and persona. Flinders’ extraordinary life highlights to us how rationalisation impacted upon his quest for scientific advancement. Yet, within his story we also see conflict…
The Noosa Story: Early Modernity Meets Lifestyle
In this first of two chapters examining the coastal place known as Noosa, the focus is on the transition of the coast from a state of exploration to a fully commodified space. Important to the development of Noosa is capitalism’s interest in profit along with the colony’s need for timber. As industry develops in the region, including the discovery of gold inland, Noosa becomes an important transportation hub. It is not until later on however that…
Toward a Critical Sociology of Lifestyle Migration: Reconceptualizing Migration and the Search for a Better Way of Life
This article places under critical and reflexive examination the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of lifestyle migration. Developed to explain the migration of the relatively affluent in search of a better way of life, this concept draws attention to the role of lifestyle within migration, alongside understandings of migration as one stage within the ongoing lifestyle choices and trajectories of individual migrants. Through a focus on two…
Academic work/life balance: A brief quantitative analysis of the Australian experience
In this article, we explore the discourse of work/life balance and how academics experience and understand it. Using survey data from research conducted in 2014, the article argues that the concept of 'life' within the dichotomy of work/life has often assumed characteristics. While we find in our survey work that academics are indeed working longer hours and often sacrificing leisure time for outputs such as publications, it is still widely unkno…
Understanding Lifestyle Migration: Theoretical Approaches to Migration and the Quest for a Better Way of Life
This book draws on social theories to understand lifestyle migration as a social phenomenon. The chapters engage theoretically with themes and debates relevant to contemporary social science such as p
EPortfolios and eGovernment: From technology to the entrepreneurial self
We analyse the electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) in higher education policy and practice.While evangelical accounts of the ePortfolio celebrate its power as a new eLearning technology,we argue that it allows the mutually-reinforcing couple of neoliberalism and the enterprising self to function in ways in which individual difference can be presented, cultured and grown, all the time within a standardised framework which relentlessly polices the li…
The Role of Horror and Dread in the Sacred Experience
In this article we seek to add to the debate/discussion into so called ‘Dark Tourism’. While a plethora of studies analyse this phenomenon through binaries such as authentic/inauthentic, we seek here to approach sites of historical death with a less sceptical view. Rather, like others, we understand tourist engagement with ‘dark’ sites as a source of ritualistic engagement. Using the Australian and New Zealand iconic place of Gallipoli in Turkey …
The Authentic Place in the Amenity Migration Discourse
The amenity migration movement has garnered significant interest across the wider academic community. In recent works, the emphasis on the investigation into this phenomenon has centered on the aesthetic attractiveness, both culturally and environmentally, of regional locations. This article follows this theme and explores the role of place in the amenity migration discourse. Using a theoretical framework emerging from the cultural sociology of S…
Pigs Hearts and Human Bodies: A Cultural Approach to Xenotransplantation
Introduction Animals have a significant presence in human lives, with many human interactions involving animals. This role of animals in social life, however, has largely been ignored and marginalised. In the words of Tovey (197), "to read most sociological texts, one might never know that society is populated by non-human as well as human animals". Human-animal relations are evident in everyday human uses of animals as companions, pets, meat sou…
Toward a Critical Sociology of Lifestyle Migration: Reconceptualizing Migration and the Search for a Better Way of Life
This article places under critical and reflexive examination the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of lifestyle migration. Developed to explain the migration of the relatively affluent in search of a better way of life, this concept draws attention to the role of lifestyle within migration, alongside understandings of migration as one stage within the ongoing lifestyle choices and trajectories of individual migrants. Through a focus on two…
I love my work but I hate my job'-Early career academic perspective on academic times in Australia
There has been significant interest of late into how academics spend their time during both their working and personal lives. Inspired by research around academic lives, this paper explores the narratives of 25 early career academics in Australian institutions across the country. Like several others, we propose that one of the fundamental aspects of time in academia is that of labour spent doing formal, instrumental and bureaucratic tasks. This i…
The Authentic Place in the Amenity Migration Discourse
The amenity migration movement has garnered significant interest across the wider academic community. In recent works, the emphasis on the investigation into this phenomenon has centered on the aesthetic attractiveness, both culturally and environmentally, of regional locations. This article follows this theme and explores the role of place in the amenity migration discourse. Using a theoretical framework emerging from the cultural sociology of S…
Exploring emotional reflexivity in British lifestyle migration to Australia
In this paper, we explore narratives from interviews with British migrants who had shifted to Australia seeking a better way of life. Framed through the conceptual paradigm of lifestyle migration, we argue in this paper that pivotal to this late‐modern phenomenon is the moment of reflexivity where imagination over life elsewhere collides with present experiences in place. However, using the concept of emotional reflexivity, we argue that these re…
The Role of Horror and Dread in the Sacred Experience
In this article we seek to add to the debate/discussion into so called ‘Dark Tourism’. While a plethora of studies analyse this phenomenon through binaries such as authentic/inauthentic, we seek here to approach sites of historical death with a less sceptical view. Rather, like others, we understand tourist engagement with ‘dark’ sites as a source of ritualistic engagement. Using the Australian and New Zealand iconic place of Gallipoli in Turkey …
Moral barriers between work/life balance policy and practice in academia
Despite the proliferation of work/life balance policies in Australian universities, academic staff continue to report experiences of time pressure, anxiety, and over-work. This paper contributes to the research of academic time and career planning by exploring how early career academics engage with work/life balance policies, utilising a critical reading of Richard Sennett’s work on the corrosion of character in late capitalist economies. We find…
Academic work/life balance: A brief quantitative analysis of the Australian experience
In this article, we explore the discourse of work/life balance and how academics experience and understand it. Using survey data from research conducted in 2014, the article argues that the concept of 'life' within the dichotomy of work/life has often assumed characteristics. While we find in our survey work that academics are indeed working longer hours and often sacrificing leisure time for outputs such as publications, it is still widely unkno…
Pigs Hearts and Human Bodies: A Cultural Approach to Xenotransplantation
Introduction Animals have a significant presence in human lives, with many human interactions involving animals. This role of animals in social life, however, has largely been ignored and marginalised. In the words of Tovey (197), "to read most sociological texts, one might never know that society is populated by non-human as well as human animals". Human-animal relations are evident in everyday human uses of animals as companions, pets, meat sou…
The Summers Were Getting Hotter’: Exploring motivations for migration to Tasmania away from mainland Australia
In recent times there has been a population turnaround in the island state of Tasmania sparked by an increase in in-migration of mainland urban dwellers. This paper argues that one of the major driving factors of this change is the quest for a new lifestyle in regional/rural life, that incorporates a desire for a temperate climate. As literature in lifestyle migration shows, this quest for a new life does not end once migration is over. Rather, t…
Mapping migrants' narratives: A qual-GIS approach to Cairns' urban liveability
This study introduces a novel approach to urban liveability research by combining interviews with participatory mapping techniques. More specifically, the research integrates concepts from geographic information systems (GISs) with episodic narrative interviews to develop a qualitative GIS (qual-GIS) methodology to map and interpret the spatial experiences of recent migrants to Cairns. This qual-GIS approach involves participants annotating ameni…
Lifestyle migration in place: Notes from the field
In this paper we seek to examine the quest for a better way of life through migration, known as lifestyle migration, by positioning place as the a priori condition through which this experience happens. Following the work of Malpas, we argue that lifestyle migration literature has often positioned place in the background, failing to notice how an individual's style of life is enacted through place and because of it. In order to understand the lif…
EPortfolios and eGovernment: From technology to the entrepreneurial self
We analyse the electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) in higher education policy and practice.While evangelical accounts of the ePortfolio celebrate its power as a new eLearning technology,we argue that it allows the mutually-reinforcing couple of neoliberalism and the enterprising self to function in ways in which individual difference can be presented, cultured and grown, all the time within a standardised framework which relentlessly polices the li…
The Authentic Place in the Amenity Migration Discourse
The amenity migration movement has garnered significant interest across the wider academic community. In recent works, the emphasis on the investigation into this phenomenon has centered on the aesthetic attractiveness, both culturally and environmentally, of regional locations. This article follows this theme and explores the role of place in the amenity migration discourse. Using a theoretical framework emerging from the cultural sociology of S…
Pigs Hearts and Human Bodies: A Cultural Approach to Xenotransplantation
Introduction Animals have a significant presence in human lives, with many human interactions involving animals. This role of animals in social life, however, has largely been ignored and marginalised. In the words of Tovey (197), "to read most sociological texts, one might never know that society is populated by non-human as well as human animals". Human-animal relations are evident in everyday human uses of animals as companions, pets, meat sou…
The Role of Horror and Dread in the Sacred Experience
In this article we seek to add to the debate/discussion into so called ‘Dark Tourism’. While a plethora of studies analyse this phenomenon through binaries such as authentic/inauthentic, we seek here to approach sites of historical death with a less sceptical view. Rather, like others, we understand tourist engagement with ‘dark’ sites as a source of ritualistic engagement. Using the Australian and New Zealand iconic place of Gallipoli in Turkey …
EPortfolios and eGovernment: From technology to the entrepreneurial self
We analyse the electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) in higher education policy and practice.While evangelical accounts of the ePortfolio celebrate its power as a new eLearning technology,we argue that it allows the mutually-reinforcing couple of neoliberalism and the enterprising self to function in ways in which individual difference can be presented, cultured and grown, all the time within a standardised framework which relentlessly polices the li…
Understanding Lifestyle Migration: Theoretical Approaches to Migration and the Quest for a Better Way of Life
This book draws on social theories to understand lifestyle migration as a social phenomenon. The chapters engage theoretically with themes and debates relevant to contemporary social science such as p
Toward a Critical Sociology of Lifestyle Migration: Reconceptualizing Migration and the Search for a Better Way of Life
This article places under critical and reflexive examination the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of lifestyle migration. Developed to explain the migration of the relatively affluent in search of a better way of life, this concept draws attention to the role of lifestyle within migration, alongside understandings of migration as one stage within the ongoing lifestyle choices and trajectories of individual migrants. Through a focus on two…
Academic work/life balance: A brief quantitative analysis of the Australian experience
In this article, we explore the discourse of work/life balance and how academics experience and understand it. Using survey data from research conducted in 2014, the article argues that the concept of 'life' within the dichotomy of work/life has often assumed characteristics. While we find in our survey work that academics are indeed working longer hours and often sacrificing leisure time for outputs such as publications, it is still widely unkno…
Towards a Sociology of the Coast
This book seeks to understand the coast as a place that has deep significance both historically and sociologically. Using several case studies in Australia, the author uses Max Weber's approach to rat
The Modern Coast: Flinders the Explorer
This chapter moves through into modernity by examining the role of the modern coastal explorer. As Weber does in his work into the Protestant Ethic with Benjamin Franklin, this book uses Matthew Flinders as an exemplary example of the modern coastal explorer’s aims, ambitions and persona. Flinders’ extraordinary life highlights to us how rationalisation impacted upon his quest for scientific advancement. Yet, within his story we also see conflict…
The Noosa Story: Early Modernity Meets Lifestyle
In this first of two chapters examining the coastal place known as Noosa, the focus is on the transition of the coast from a state of exploration to a fully commodified space. Important to the development of Noosa is capitalism’s interest in profit along with the colony’s need for timber. As industry develops in the region, including the discovery of gold inland, Noosa becomes an important transportation hub. It is not until later on however that…
The Social Structures of Global Academia
This chapter introduces the contributions to this volume and also frames them in a global political economy and academia as a global practice. Research by scholars such as Steven Ward have laid the groundwork for understanding how global political economy influences the organisation of academic work, while others have explored how academics work in changing national settings, such as Mary Henkel, Tony Becher and Paul Trowler, and Pierre Bourdieu.…
Social Structures of Global Academia
I love my work but I hate my job'-Early career academic perspective on academic times in Australia
There has been significant interest of late into how academics spend their time during both their working and personal lives. Inspired by research around academic lives, this paper explores the narratives of 25 early career academics in Australian institutions across the country. Like several others, we propose that one of the fundamental aspects of time in academia is that of labour spent doing formal, instrumental and bureaucratic tasks. This i…
Moral barriers between work/life balance policy and practice in academia
Despite the proliferation of work/life balance policies in Australian universities, academic staff continue to report experiences of time pressure, anxiety, and over-work. This paper contributes to the research of academic time and career planning by exploring how early career academics engage with work/life balance policies, utilising a critical reading of Richard Sennett’s work on the corrosion of character in late capitalist economies. We find…
Exploring emotional reflexivity in British lifestyle migration to Australia
In this paper, we explore narratives from interviews with British migrants who had shifted to Australia seeking a better way of life. Framed through the conceptual paradigm of lifestyle migration, we argue in this paper that pivotal to this late‐modern phenomenon is the moment of reflexivity where imagination over life elsewhere collides with present experiences in place. However, using the concept of emotional reflexivity, we argue that these re…
Gringolandia by Matthew Hayes
Simmel’s Adventure and its Relationship to the Ought of Life
This paper examines Georg Simmel’s essay “The Adventure” in relation to more recent translations of his later philosophy. Using the foundational framework supplied to us by Simmel, the paper attempts to unpack adventures as moments in our life-course which are timeless in their influence on the self. This transcending of time manifests in the present as emotions attached to the experiences of adventures shape our consideration of the “ought”. Bor…
The Summers Were Getting Hotter’: Exploring motivations for migration to Tasmania away from mainland Australia
In recent times there has been a population turnaround in the island state of Tasmania sparked by an increase in in-migration of mainland urban dwellers. This paper argues that one of the major driving factors of this change is the quest for a new lifestyle in regional/rural life, that incorporates a desire for a temperate climate. As literature in lifestyle migration shows, this quest for a new life does not end once migration is over. Rather, t…
Living in crisis: Introduction to a special section
[Extract] This special section began to take shape sometime in mid-2020. Much of Australia was then in lockdown, we were working from home, national borders were closed, and it was looking increasingly likely that the annual conference for The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) would not go ahead. At the time, the spread of COVID-19 within Australia was very limited, especially compared to much of the rest of the world. Yet the pandemic h…
Lifestyle migration in place: Notes from the field
In this paper we seek to examine the quest for a better way of life through migration, known as lifestyle migration, by positioning place as the a priori condition through which this experience happens. Following the work of Malpas, we argue that lifestyle migration literature has often positioned place in the background, failing to notice how an individual's style of life is enacted through place and because of it. In order to understand the lif…
Expected Versus Experienced Liveability for Amenity Migrants in Cairns, Australia: The Grass is not Always Greener in the Tropics
This study explores Australian amenity migrants' experiences in Cairns, comparing expectations of a tropical paradise with lived realities. Using episodic narrative interviews and Importance-Performance Analysis of liveability indicators, it uncovers discrepancies between idealised imaginaries and actual experiences. Key concerns include housing, safety, jobs, living costs, and challenges in building community connections. The findings highlight …
Mapping migrants' narratives: A qual-GIS approach to Cairns' urban liveability
This study introduces a novel approach to urban liveability research by combining interviews with participatory mapping techniques. More specifically, the research integrates concepts from geographic information systems (GISs) with episodic narrative interviews to develop a qualitative GIS (qual-GIS) methodology to map and interpret the spatial experiences of recent migrants to Cairns. This qual-GIS approach involves participants annotating ameni…
Sociology (16 works) · Political science (12 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Social science (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Psychology (6 works)