Dr Amanda McLeod

Williamson Postdoctoral Fellow

Room 220, 149 Barry Street
T: 8344 3803
E: amcleod@ unimelb.edu.au

Dr Amanda McLeod, BA (Hons), PhD Monash, is a Williamson Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian Centre. She is an historian and writer with a particular interest in social, consumer and commercial history. With an academic background in philosophy and history, Amanda has focused on business ethics, social and economic responses to affluence and abundance, democracy and consumer protection. She has researched and taught across a range of disciplines such as law, business and economics, medicine, management, international studies and the humanities.

Amanda’s first book, Abundance: Mass Consumption in Postwar Australia, was published by Australian Scholarly in early 2007. Abundance explores the attempts to define, understand, influence and protect the consumer in postwar Australia. It exposes the reciprocal relationship between marketers and consumers. Previous accounts have given only fleeting attention to the relationship between buyers and sellers and seldom considered the inner histories of both the marketing industry and the consumer protection movement.

Amanda’s current research focuses on the history of the (post-industrial) self-sufficiency in Australia since 1970. In examining the historical development of self-sufficiency in Australia in response to consumer capitalism, the study explores the experiences of the participants and interrogates the notion of self-sufficiency as a social, political and economic movement. The project is an examination of Australian experiences of self-sufficiency and the forces driving its adoption. It will also examine the philosophical positions that are held to constitute and drive self-sufficiency and examine the circumstantial differences between the experiences of participants over time. The project will explore the socio-economic, socio-cultural and/or ecological issues associated with the social and demographic changes across rural and urban Australia.

She has also been commissioned to write a history of Consumer Affairs Victoria which will be published in 2009 (tentatively titled: A Fair Deal).

Amanda publishes a Blog: Getting Away from the Joneses in which she explores ideas around mass consumerism and consumer capitalism: www.gettingawayfromthejoneses.blogspot.com

She lives on a couple of acres in the Yarra Ranges east of Melbourne, Australia with her husband Jamie, son Owen, their cats, a couple of chooks (a milking goat is on order).

Memberships

• Australian Historical Association
• International Australian Studies Association
• Professional Historians Association of Victoria

Publications

Books

• Amanda McLeod, Abundance: Buying and Selling in Postwar Australia, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2007. ISBN: 1 74097 048 9

Articles

• Amanda McLeod, ‘Rethinking Consumerism’, Living Ethics, 71, Autumn 2008
• Amanda McLeod, 'Quality Control: The Philosophical Origins of the Australian Consumers Association', Business History 50: 1, January 2008
• Amanda McLeod and Chris Nyland, ‘The Cold War and the Scientific Management of the Consumer Interest’, Business History 49: 5, September 2007
• Amanda McLeod, ‘Be an Ethical Consumer: Acting on Good Intentions’, Grass Roots, 179, February/March 2007
• Amanda McLeod, ‘Mushroom Records’, Encyclopaedia of Melbourne, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• Amanda McLeod, ‘Pelaco’, Encyclopaedia of Melbourne, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• Amanda McLeod, ‘Ten Pin Bowling’, Encyclopaedia of Melbourne, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• Amanda McLeod, ‘Recommendations to Prohibitions’, Philosophy For Business, http://www.isfp.co.uk/businesspathways/, 8(30) May 2004.
• Amanda McLeod, ‘The Lady Means Business: Marketing to the Electrical Appliance Consumer during the 1950s and 1960s’, Melbourne Historical Journal, December, 2003.

Reviews

• Amanda McLeod, Review of Alison Bartlett, Breastwork: Rethinking Breastfeeding, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2005, API Review of Books, No 40, January 2006: http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/reviews/jrbview.cgi?n=0868409693&issue=40
• Amanda McLeod, 'Keeping up with the Joneses', Review of Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss, Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough, Allen & Unwin, 2005, Australian Book Review, August, 2005.
• Amanda McLeod, Review of Liz Ross, Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!, Melbourne: Vulgar Press: 2004, API Review of Books, No 31, March 2005: http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/reviews/jrbview.cgi?n=0958079498.
• Amanda McLeod, Review of Michael Webber and Sally Weller, Refashioning the Rag Trade: Internationalising Australia’s Textile, Clothing and Footwear Industries, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2001, API Review of Books, No 24, June 2004: http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/reviews/jrbview.cgi?n=086840540X.
• Amanda McLeod, Review of Fred Brenchley, Allan Fels: A Portrait of Power, John Wiley, 2003, Eras, www.arts.monash.edu.au/eras, No 6, November 2004.