Editors' introduction : literacy, learning & culture

We come together as editors to prepare an introduction to this international volume at a time of economic turbulence, new uncertainties about the future, and a growing demand on the part of most governments for further alignment of education with the economy. Literacy, in particular, is in the vanguard, for literacy only too frequently is positioned as a proxy for education. What are the purposes of literacy teaching and how is it to be achieved? What counts as literacy in ‘new times,’ in ‘participatory culture’ where people ‘believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another’ (Abrams and Merchant, Chapter 23)? How can everyone be included as critical citizens of the world in whatever definition of literacy we endorse? What fresh perspectives, new ways of thinking, and good ideas for the understanding of literacy are out there? What are the possibilities for the future? An exploration of these kinds of questions and their answers, however tentative, provides us, we believe, with our best defense against the uncertainties of our age. In some respects this is our overall purpose in the volume, to explore our understanding and future possibilities by bringing together critical reviews of the major theories, methods, and pedagogical advances that have taken place in the past 20 years in the field of literacy research at the primary/elementary school level. Each chapter in the volume is newly written for the Handbook while overall the book is intended to be a distillation of key thinking and theory which offers new directions for research in literacy. It aims to revisit current interpretations, make novel connections, frame new possibilities, and encourage researchers to pursue innovative and compelling lines of inquiry...

Mirror, mirror : claiming digital places of the mundane mapping culture

This paper offers a discussion on the “mundane” or quotidian aspects of that software which might at first glance seem to be a fine example of the extraordinary. It looks at game worlds in terms of an ancient human desire to articulate place in the world and pursues a design concept which resonates with this practice in order to enable a more mundane exploitation of such spatial representations: the claiming of place.

Resistance is feral : digital culture, community arts, and the new cultural gatekeepers

The Community Arts sector in Australia has a history of resistance. It has challenged hegemonic culture through facilitating grassroots creative production, contesting notions of artistic processes, and the role of the artist in society. This paper examines this penchant for resistance through the lens of contemporary digital culture, to establish that the sector is continuing to challenge dominant forms of cultural control. It then proposes that this enthusiasm and activity lacks ethical direction, describing it as feral to encompass the potential of current practices, while highlighting how a level of taming is needed in order to develop ethical approaches.

Review : "The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s)", Paul O’Neill (2012)

Paul O'Neill's book, 'The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s)provides a concise overview of how curating has changed art and how art has changed curating. The book is divided into three sections, each dealing with a key transitional development: (1) the historical development of curatorial discourse; (2) the influence of the Biennial phenomenon and, finally, (3) how art and curating have converged since the 1990s. This review discusses the publication as a significant contribution to the development of a curatorial history and discourse.

Innovation & workplace culture in the Australian interactive entertainment industry : the Halfbrick story

A recent success story of the Australian videogames industry is Brisbane based Halfbrick Studios, developer of the hit game for mobile devices, Fruit Ninja. Halfbrick not only survived the global financial crisis and an associated downturn in the Australian industry, but grew strongly, moving rapidly from developing licensed properties for platforms such as Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Playstation Portable (PSP) to becoming an independent developer and publisher of in-house titles, generating revenue both through App downloads and merchandise sales. Amongst the reasons for Halfbrick’s success is their ability to adaptively transform by addressing different technical platforms, user dynamics, business models and market conditions. Our ongoing case-study research from 2010 into Halfbrick’s innovation processes, culminating with some 10 semi-structured interviews with senior managers and developers, has identified a strong focus on workplace organisational culture, with staff reflecting that the company is a flat, team-based organisation devolving as much control as possible to the development teams directly, and encouraging a work-life balance in which creativity can thrive. The success of this strategy is evidenced through Halfbrick’s low staff turnover; amongst our interviewees most of the developers had been with the company for a number of years, with all speaking positively of the workplace culture and sense of creative autonomy they enjoyed. Interviews with the CEO, Shainiel Deo, and team leaders highlighted the autonomy afforded to each team and the organisation and management of the projects on which they work. Deo and team leaders emphasised the collaboration and communication skills they require in the developers that they employ, and that these characteristics were considered just as significant in hiring decisions as technical skills. Halfbrick’s developers celebrate their workplace culture and insist it has contributed to their capacity for innovation and to their commercial success with titles such as Fruit Ninja. This model of organisational management is reflected in both Stark’s (2009) idea of heterarchy, and Neff’s (2012) concept of venture labour, and provides a different perspective on the industry than the traditional political economy critique of precarious labour exploited by gaming conglomerates. Nevertheless, throughout many of the interviews and in our informal discussions with Halfbrick developers there is also a sense that this rewarding culture is quite tenuous and precarious in the context of a rapidly changing and uncertain global videogames industry. Whether such a workplace culture represents the future of the games industry, or is merely a ‘Prague Spring’ before companies such as Halfbrick are swallowed by traditional players’ remains to be seen. However, as the process of rapid and uncertain transformation plays out across the videogames industry, it is important to pay attention to emerging modes of organisation and workplace culture, even whilst they remain at the margins of the industry. In this paper we investigate Halfbrick’s workplace culture and ask how sustainable is this kind of rewarding and creative workplace?

Cytotoxicity testing of burn wound dressings, ointments and creams : a method using polycarbonate cell culture inserts on a cell culture system

We have developed a method to test the cytotoxicity of wound dressings, ointments, creams and gels used in our Burn Centre, by placing them on a permeable Nunc Polycarbonate cell culture insert, incubated with a monolayer of cells (HaCaTs and primary human keratinocytes). METHODS: We performed two different methods to determine the relative toxicity to cells. (1) Photo visualisation: The dressings or compounds were positioned on the insert's membrane which was placed onto the monolayer tissue culture plate. After 24 h the surviving adherent cells were stained with Toluidine Blue and photos of the plates were taken. The acellular area of non-adherent dead cells which had been washed off with buffer was measured as a percentage of the total area of the plate. (2) Cell count of surviving cells: After 24 h incubation with the test material, the remaining cells were detached with trypsin, spun down and counted in a Haemocytometer with Trypan Blue, which differentiates between live and dead cells. RESULTS: Seventeen products were tested. The least cytotoxic products were Melolite, White soft Paraffin and Chlorsig1% Ointment. Some cytotoxicity was shown with Jelonet, Mepitel((R)), PolyMem((R)), DuoDerm((R)) and Xeroform. The most cytotoxic products included those which contained silver or Chlorhexidine and Paraffin Cream a moisturizer which contains the preservative Chlorocresol. CONCLUSION: This in vitro cell culture insert method allows testing of agents without direct cell contact. It is easy and quick to perform, and should help the clinician to determine the relative cytotoxicity of various dressings and the optimal dressing for each individual wound.

Productivism, culture and the challenges of sustainable beef production in Australia

Beef has become an important part of the South Korean diet. Rapid modernization and economic development since the 1960s has led to an increase in meat consumption, especially beef. Indeed, per capita beef consumption per year increased from 0.5kg in 1960 to 8.8kg in 2010, representing an 18-fold increase. The increasing demand for beef in Korea has been met by the development of intensive domestic meat production systems, along with a sharp increase in imports from meat exporting countries, most importantly Australia and the US.

Engraftment outcomes after HPC co-culture with mesenchymal stromal cells and osteoblasts

Haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is an established cell-based therapy for a number of haematological diseases. To enhance this therapy, there is considerable interest in expanding HSCs in artificial niches prior to transplantation. This study compared murine HSC expansion supported through co-culture on monolayers of either undifferentiated mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) or osteoblasts. Sorted Lineage− Sca-1+ c-kit+ (LSK) haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HPC) demonstrated proliferative capacity on both stromal monolayers with the greatest expansion of LSK shown in cultures supported by osteoblast monolayers. After transplantation, both types of bulk-expanded cultures were capable of engrafting and repopulating lethally irradiated primary and secondary murine recipients. LSKs co-cultured on MSCs showed comparable, but not superior, reconstitution ability to that of freshly isolated LSKs. Surprisingly, however, osteoblast co-cultured LSKs showed significantly poorer haematopoietic reconstitution compared to LSKs co-cultured on MSCs, likely due to a delay in short-term reconstitution. We demonstrated that stromal monolayers can be used to maintain, but not expand, functional HSCs without a need for additional haematopoietic growth factors. We also demonstrated that despite apparently superior in vitro performance, co-injection of bulk cultures of osteoblasts and LSKs in vivo was detrimental to recipient survival and should be avoided in translation to clinical practice.

Penal Culture and Hyperincarceration : the Revival of the Prison

What are the various forces influencing the role of the prison in late modern societies? What changes have there been in penality and use of the prison over the past 40 years that have led to the re-valorization of the prison? Using penal culture as a conceptual and theoretical vehicle, and Australia as a case study, this book analyses international developments in penality and imprisonment. Authored by some of Australia’s leading penal theorists, the book examines the historical and contemporary influences on the use of the prison, with analyses of colonialism, post colonialism, race, and what they term the ‘penal/colonial complex,’ in the construction of imprisonment rates and on the development of the phenomenon of hyperincarceration. The authors develop penal culture as an explanatory framework for continuity, change and difference in prisons and the nature of contested penal expansionism. The influence of transformative concepts such as ‘risk management’, ‘the therapeutic prison’, and ‘preventative detention’ are explored as aspects of penal culture. Processes of normalization, transmission and reproduction of penal culture are seen throughout the social realm. Comparative, contemporary and historical in its approach, the book provides a new analysis of penality in the 21st century.

A product of their culture : Using a value systems approach to understand the work practices of journalists

Past approaches adopted by scholars in comparing international news have tended to concentrate on political and economic perspectives, while the role that culture plays in determining news has been somewhat neglected until recently. This article examines the role of culture in the development of journalistic practices and how a value systems approach can be applied to understanding journalism practices across cultures. Specifically, the article compares German and Anglo-American journalism practices with a view to locating differences between these traditions. The study demonstrates that using value systems as developed by Dutch anthropologist Geert Hofstede can be immensely useful in comparing the differences between the two traditions, as well as in understanding how journalists in these traditions report about the world.