Children, childhood and the contemporary media

This chapter investigates and critiques the idea of the sexualization of children in the contemporary media with a focus on recent events in Australia. It begins by commenting about aspects of Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of children in Australia (Rush & La Nauze, 2006a) and then investigates relevant literature about consuming bodies to provide a frame for discussing consumer culture, children and childhood. Following this, the sexualization of children in the contemporary media is explored from the perspective of moral panics and the discourses of neoliberal tolerance and intolerance. The chapter concludes that although the idea of children being sexualized in contemporary media is contested, there can be no simple explanations and that a multiplicity of factors need to be taken into account that exist outside of media discourses.

Sustainable infrastructure project planning : progress in contemporary decision support tools

Most infrastructure project developments are complex in nature, particularly in the planning phase. During this stage, many vague alternatives are tabled - from the strategic to operational level. Human judgement and decision making are characterised by biases, errors and the use of heuristics. These factors are intangible and hard to measure because they are subjective and qualitative in nature. The problem with human judgement becomes more complex when a group of people are involved. The variety of different stakeholders may cause conflict due to differences in personal judgements. Hence, the available alternatives increase the complexities of the decision making process. Therefore, it is desirable to find ways of enhancing the efficiency of decision making to avoid misunderstandings and conflict within organisations. As a result, numerous attempts have been made to solve problems in this area by leveraging technologies such as decision support systems. However, most construction project management decision support systems only concentrate on model development and neglect fundamentals of computing such as requirement engineering, data communication, data management and human centred computing. Thus, decision support systems are complicated and are less efficient in supporting the decision making of project team members. It is desirable for decision support systems to be simpler, to provide a better collaborative platform, to allow for efficient data manipulation, and to adequately reflect user needs. In this chapter, a framework for a more desirable decision support system environment is presented. Some key issues related to decision support system implementation are also described.

Compliance, peritoneal dialysis and chronic kidney disease : lessons from the literature

Poor patient compliance with peritoneal dialysis (PD) has significant adverse effects on morbidity and mortality rates in individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD). It also adds to the resource burdens of healthcare services and providers. This paper explores the notion of PD compliance in patients with CKD with reference to the relevant published literature. The analysis of the literature reveals that ‘PD compliance’ is a complex and challenging construct for both patients and health professionals. There is no universal definition of compliance that is widely adopted in practice and research, and therefore a lack of consensus on how to determine ‘compliant’ patient outcomes. There are also multiple and interconnected determinants of PD compliance that are context-bound, which healthcare professionals must be aware of, and which makes producing consensus of measuring PD compliance difficult. The complexity of the interventions required to produce even a modest improvement in PD compliance, which are described in this paper, are significant. Compliance with PD and other treatments for CKD is a multidimensional, context-bound concept, that to date has tended to efface the role and needs of the renal patient. We conclude the paper with the implications for contemporary practice.

The utilisation of skilled immigrants and skilled Refugees in countries of destination

about 82 million immigrants in the OECD area; and worldwide, there are about 191 million immigrants and displaced persons, and some 30-40 million unauthorised immigrants. Also according to recent OECD report, little in-depth research has been carried out to-date to help decision makers in government, business, and society at large, to better understand the complexities and wider consequences of future migration flows. Literatures have also indicated that the lack of a skilled population in muchneeded occupations in countries of destination have contributed to the need to bring in skilled foreign workers. Furthermore, despite current global financial crisis, some areas of occupation are in need of skilled workers such that in a job-scarce environment jobs become fewer and employers are more likely to demand skilled workers from both natives and immigrants. Global competition for labour is expected to intensify, especially for top talent, highly qualified and semi-skilled individuals. This exacerbate the problems faced by current skilled immigrants and skilled refugees, particularly those from non-main English speaking countries who are not employed at optimal skill level in countries of destination. The research study investigates whether skilled immigrants are being effectively utilised in their countries of destination, in the context of employment. In addition to skilled immigrants, data sampling will also include skilled refugees who, although arriving under the humanitarian program, possess formal qualifications from their country of origin. Underlying variables will be explored such as the strength of social capital or interpersonal ties; and human capital in terms of educational attainment and proficiency in the English Language. The aim of the study is to explain the relationship between the variables; and whether the variables influence the employment outcomes. A broad-ranging preliminary literature review has been undertaken to explore the substantial bodies of knowledge on skilled immigrants worldwide, including skilled refugees; and to investigate whether the utilisation issues are universal or specific to a country. In addition, preliminary empirical research and analysis has been undertaken, to set the research focus and to identify the problems beyond literature. Preliminary findings have indicated that immigrants and refugees from non-main English speaking countries are particularly impacted by employment issues regardless of their skills and qualifications acquired in their country of origins; compared with immigrants from main-English speaking countries. Preliminary findings from the literature review also indicate that gaps in knowledge still exist. Although the past two decades have witnessed a virtual explosion of theory and research on international migration, no in-depth research has been located that specifically links immigrants and refugees social and human capitals in terms of employment outcomes. This research study aims to fill these gaps in research; and subsequently contribute to contemporary body of knowledge in literatures on the utilisation of skilled immigrants and skilled refugees, specifically those from non-main English speaking countries. A mixed methods design will be used, which incorporates techniques from both quantitative and qualitative research traditions that will be triangulated at the end of the data collection stage.

The Australian Parliament: a gendered organisation

This study, drawing on interviews with 13 male and 15 female members of the Australian parliament, has two aims. The first is to contribute to knowledge about the nature of the Australian parliament, an institution which has seldom been subjected to gender analysis. This is particularly pertinent given the significant increase in women's representative status over the past decade. The second of the paper's aims is to demonstrate the efficacy of contemporary gender and organisational theory, particularly work on men and masculinities, for investigating questions related to women's involvement in politics. The paper draws on Joan Acker's (‘Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations’, Gender and Society, 4, 1990, 139–58; ‘From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions’, Contemporary Sociology, 21, 1992, 565–9.) notion of ‘gendered organisations’ to interrogate the data.

Mapping social enterprise in Australia : conceptual debates and their operational implications

In the last ten years, there has been growing interest in social enterprise by governments, the not for profit sector and philanthropy in Australia The drivers of this interest have been variously understood to be: increasing demands for innovative responses to social and environmental problems; pressures on non-profit organisations to diversify their income sources; and increasing emphases by government on the role of civil society actors in partnering around social policy agendas. Whatever its genesis, very little is known about the scale and scope of the emerging social enterprise sector. In order to research the scope of the sector, an important first step involves understanding just what social enterprise is, and how it may be operationalised. This paper presents the findings from the first stage of a national research project conducted by the authors in conjunction with a new social enterprise development company. The purpose of the project was to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the social enterprise sector in Australia. In this paper, we focus on the definitional debates arising from our workshop discussions, what these mean for understanding contemporary discourses of social enterprise, and their implications for research, policy and practice.

Modernising charity : steps to an alternative architecture for common law charity jurisprudence

This chapter addresses the question, how can the common law concept of charity law be modernised? There are difficulties with the present jurisprudential conception. The focus of the chapter is not on those difficulties, however, but rather on the development of an alternative architecture for common law jurisprudence. The conclusion to which the chapter comes is that charity law can be modernised by a series of steps to include all civil society organisations. It is possible if the ‘technical’ definition of charitable purpose is abandoned in favour of a contemporary, not technical concept of charitiable purpose. This conclusion is reached by proposing a framework, developed from the common law concept of charities, that reconciles into a cohesive jurisprudential architecture all of the laws applying to civil society organisations, not just charities. In this section, first the argument is contextualised in an idea of society and located in a gap in legal theory. An analogy is then offered to introduce the problems in the legal theory applying, not just to charities, but more broadly to civil society organisations. The substantive challenge of mapping an alternative jurisprudence is then taken in steps. The final substantive section conceptualises the changes inherent in a move beyond charities to a jurisprudence centred on civil society organisations and how this would bring legal theory into line with sectoral analysis in other disciplines.

Creative pedagogies and the contemporary school classroom

This chapter explores the ‘creative pedagogies’ of imaginative teaching and learning and the development of creative capacities in formal schooling. It considers how educational policies enable and constrain creative thinking as students learn through play and experimentation. The chapter outlines two classroom based case studies involving creative media technologies in Queensland, Australia. It argues that Queensland’s ‘open’ system of curriculum development enabled the two schools to implement transdisciplinary ‘rich tasks’ for the students. However, there are constraints related to the social mediation of creativity and the influence of high stakes testing in foregrounding ‘value’ and ‘purpose’ in learning.

Democracy, participation and convergent media : case studies in contemporary online news journalism in Australia

The shift from 20th century mass communications media towards convergent media and Web 2.0 has raised the possibility of a renaissance of the public sphere, based around citizen journalism and participatory media culture. This paper will evaluate such claims both conceptually and empirically. At a conceptual level, it is noted that the question of whether media democratization is occurring depends in part upon how democracy is understood, with some critical differences in understandings of democracy, the public sphere and media citizenship. The empirical work in this paper draws upon various case studies of new developments in Australian media, including online- only newspapers, developments in public service media, and the rise of commercially based online alternative media. It is argued that participatory media culture is being expanded if understood in terms of media pluralism, but that implications for the public sphere depend in part upon how media democratization is defined.

Democracy, participation and convergent media : case studies in contemporary online news journalism in Australia

The shift from 20th century mass communications media towards convergent media and Web 2.0 has raised the possibility of a renaissance of the public sphere, based around citizen journalism and participatory media culture. This paper will evaluate such claims both conceptually and empirically. At a conceptual level, it is noted that the question of whether media democratization is occurring depends in part upon how democracy is understood, with some critical differences in understandings of democracy, the public sphere and media citizenship. The empirical work in this paper draws upon various case studies of new developments in Australian media, including online-only newspapers, developments in public service media, and the rise of commercially based online alternative media. It is argued that participatory media culture is being expanded if understood in terms of media pluralism, but that implications for the public sphere depend in part upon how media democratization is defined.

Mapping the territory of economic risk

It is widely contended that we live in a „world risk society‟, where risk plays a central and ubiquitous role in contemporary social life. A seminal contributor to this view is Ulrich Beck, who claims that our world is governed by dangers that cannot be calculated or insured against. For Beck, risk is an inherently unrestrained phenomenon, emerging from a core and pouring out from and under national borders, unaffected by state power. Beck‟s focus on risk's ubiquity and uncontrollability at an infra-global level means that there is a necessary evenness to the expanse of risk: a "universalization of hazards‟, which possess an inbuilt tendency towards globalisation. While sociological scholarship has examined the reach and impact of globalisation processes on the role and power of states, Beck‟s argument that economic risk is without territory and resistant to domestic policy has come under less appraisal. This is contestable: what are often described as global economic processes, on closer inspection, reveal degrees of territorial embeddedness. This not only suggests that "global‟ flows could sometimes be more appropriately explained as international, regional or even local processes, formed from and responsive to state strategies – but also demonstrates what can be missed if we overinflate the global. This paper briefly introduces two key principles of Beck's theory of risk society and positions them within a review of literature debating the novelty and degree of global economic integration and its impact on states pursuing domestic economic policies. In doing so, this paper highlights the value for future research to engage with questions such as "is economic risk really without territory‟ and "does risk produce convergence‟, not so much as a means of reducing Beck's thesis to a purely empirical analysis, but rather to avoid limiting our scope in understanding the complex relationship between risk and state.

Michel Foucault's 'the birth of biopolitics' and contemporary neo-liberalism debates

Neo-liberalism has become one of the boom concepts of our time. From its original reference point as a descriptor of the economics of the ‘Chicago School’ or authors such as Friedrich von Hayek, neo-liberalism has become an all-purpose concept, explanatory device and basis for social critique. This presentation evaluates Michel Foucault’s 1978–79 lectures, published as The Birth of Biopolitics, to consider how he used the term neo-liberalism, and how this equates with its current uses in critical social and cultural theory. It will be argued that Foucault did not understand neo-liberalism as a dominant ideology in these lectures, but rather as marking a point of inflection in the historical evolution of liberal political philosophies of government. It will also be argued that his interpretation of neo-liberalism was more nuanced and more comparative than more recent contributions. The article points towards an attempt to theorize comparative historical models of liberal capitalism.

Reclaiming China's former soft power

The discussion begins with a discussion of soft power and creativity in contemporary China. The article then examines three development trajectories: territory, technology and taste. The third section examines the effects of taste in more detail through examples of China's creativity in art, philosophy and technology primarily in three key periods, the Western Zhou, Han, and Song The principal argument is that while China’s cultural authority was established on deep Confucian roots, its international influence, and its creativity, is indebted to periods of openness to ideas.

Enhancing security and continuity management at international airports

Operators of busy contemporary airports have to balance tensions between the timely flow of passengers, flight operations, the conduct of commercial business activities and the effective application of security processes. In addition to specific onsite issues airport operators liaise with a range of organisations which set and enforce aviation-related policies and regulations as well as border security agencies responsible for customs, quarantine and immigration, in addition to first response security services. The challenging demands of coordinating and planning in such complex socio-technical contexts place considerable pressure on airport management to facilitate coordination of what are often conflicting goals and expectations among groups that have standing in respect to safe and secure air travel. What are, as yet, significantly unexplored issues in large airports are options for the optimal coordination of efforts from the range of public and private sector participants active in airport security and crisis management. A further aspect of this issue is how airport management systems operate when there is a transition from business-as-usual into an emergency/crisis situation and then, on recovery, back to ‘normal’ functioning. Business Continuity Planning (BCP), incorporating sub-plans for emergency response, continuation of output and recovery of degraded operating capacity, would fit such a context. The implementation of BCP practices in such a significant high security setting offers considerable potential benefit yet entails considerable challenges. This paper presents early results of a 4 year nationally funded industry-based research project examining the merger of Business Continuity Planning and Transport Security Planning as a means of generating capability for improved security and reliability and, ultimately, enhanced resilience in major airports. The project is part of a larger research program on the Design of Secure Airports that includes most of the gazetted ‘first response’ international airports in Australia, key Aviation industry groups and all aviation-related border and security regulators as collaborative partners. The paper examines a number of initial themes in the research, including: ? Approaches to integrating Business Continuity & Aviation Security Planning within airport operations; ? Assessment of gaps in management protocols and operational capacities for identifying and responding to crises within and across critical aviation infrastructure; ? Identification of convergent and divergent approaches to crisis management used across Austral-Asia and their alignment to planned and possible infrastructure evolution.