Post-millennial Australian dramaturgies: Changes in Australian dramaturgy and performance since the 2000s

This chapter examines the burgeoning field of dramaturgy in Australian performance and suggests that the growth of the both the profession and the practices of dramaturgy were a result of structural changes arising from the policies of the Howard Government, globalism and economic rationalism, as well as the demographic pressures of generational reform.

Co-creative media : theorising digital storytelling as a platform for researching and developing participatory culture

This paper considers the question, ‘what is co-creative media, and why is it a useful idea in social media research’? The term ‘co-creative media’ is now used by Creative Industries researchers at QUT to describe their digital storytelling practices. Digital storytelling is a set of collaborative digital media production techniques that have been used to facilitate social participation in numerous Australian and international contexts. Digital storytelling has been adapted by Creative Industries researchers at QUT as a platform for researching the potential of vernacular creativity in a variety of contexts, including social inclusion of marginalized and disadvantaged groups; inclusion in public histories of narratives that might be overlooked; and articulation of voices that otherwise remain silent in the formulation of social and economic development strategies. The adaption of digital storytelling to different contexts has been shaped by the reflexive, recursive, and pragmatic requirements of action research. Amongst other things, this activity draws attention to the agency of researchers in facilitating these kinds of participatory media processes and outcomes. This discussion serves to problematise concepts of participatory media by introducing the term ‘co-creative media’ and differentiating these from other social media production practices.

Research Monograph: The role of community and lifestyle in the making of a knowledge city

Our brief is to investigate the role of community and lifestyle in the making of a globally successful knowledge city region. Our approach is essentially pragmatic. We start by broadly examining knowledge-based urban development from a number of different perspectives. The first view is historical. In this context knowledge work and knowledge workers are seen as vital parts of a new emergent mode of production reliant on the continual production of abstract knowledge. We briefly develop this perspective to encompass the work of Richard Florida who has, notedly, claimed: “Wherever talent goes, innovation, creativity, and economic growth are sure to follow.” Our next perspective examines concepts of knowledge and modes of its production to discover knowledge is not an unchanging object but a human activity that changes in form and content through history. The suggestion emerges that not only is the production of contemporary ‘knowledge’ organised in a specific (and new) manner but also the output of this networked production is a particular type of knowledge (i.e. techné). The third perspective locates knowledge production and its workers in the contemporary urban context. As such, it co-ordinates the knowledge city in the increasingly global structure of cities and develops a typology of different groups of knowledge workers in their preferred urban environment(s). We see emerging here a distinctive geography of knowledge production. It is an urban phenomenon. There is, in short, something about the nature of cities that knowledge workers find particularly attractive. In the next, essentially anthropological, perspective we start to explore the needs and desires of the individual knowledge worker. Beyond the needs basic to any modern human household an attempt is made to deduce, from a base understanding of knowledge work as mental labour, the compensatory cultural needs of the knowledge worker when not at work - and the expression of these needs in the urban fabric. Our final perspective consists of two case studies. In a review of the experiences of Austin, Texas and Singapore’s one-north precinct we collect empirical data on, respectively, a knowledge city that has sustained itself for over 50 years and an urban precinct newly launched into the global market for knowledge work and knowledge workers. Interwoven The Role of Community and Lifestyle in the Making of a Knowledge City Urban Research Program 8 through all perspectives, in the form of apposite citation, is that of ‘expert opinion’ gathered in a rudimentary poll of academic and industry sources. This opinion appears in text boxes while details of the survey can be found in Appendix A. In the conclusion of the report we interpret the wide range of evidence gathered above in a policy frame. It is our hope this report will leave the reader with a clearer picture of the decisive organisational, infrastructural, aesthetic and social dimensions of a knowledge precinct.

Discourse and assessment

Many contemporary currents in applied linguistics have favored discourse studies within assessment; there have been calls for cross-fertilization with other areas within applied linguistics, critiques of the positivist tradition within language testing research, and the growing impact of Conversation Analysis (CA) and sociocultural theory. This chapter focuses on the resulting increase in discourse-based studies of oral proficiency assessment techniques. These studies initially focused on the traditional oral proficiency interview but have since been extended to new test formats, including paired and group interaction. We discuss the research carried out on a number of factors in the assessment setting, including the role of the interlocutor, candidate, and rater, and the impact of tasks, task performance conditions, and rating criteria. Recent research has also concentrated more specifically on the assessment of pragmatic competence and on the applications of technology within the assessment of spoken language, including the comparability of semidirect and direct methods for such assessment and the use of computer corpora.

Dismantling the public sector bastion : evaluation capital works

Purpose: The determination of the most appropriate procurement system for a capital works project is a challenging task for public sector clients considering the array of assessment criteria that are considered and the procurement methods that are available. This is particularly pertinent to the Western Australian public sector where they have had a propensity to use traditional lump sum as the default procurement solution despite knowing that the selection of an inappropriate procurement method may lead to cost and time overruns, claims, and disputes’ on projects. This paper presents a six step procurement method evaluation approach that requires public sector agencies to consider in detail an array of options so as to obtain value for money. Design/methodology/approach: A procurement evaluation approach is developed and is examined using a focus group of 12 participants comprising of a public sector client, project team and key stakeholders. The focus group was used to examine the developed approach in the context of a real-life capital works project. Findings: The procurement method evaluation approach was deemed to be pragmatic and enabled decision-makers to re-evaluate outcomes from previous steps in the process. All focus group participants stated the six step process enabled a recommendation that was grounded in reflection and detailed evaluation. Practical implications: The developed procurement approach has enabled the public sector client evaluate the way in which they view procurement method selection and examine how they obtain ‘value for money’. Originality/value: The six step procurement approach makes use of quantitative and qualitative techniques and is reliant on discourse and reflection in making a procurement method recommendation. Consequently, the approach enables public sector clients to account for the complexities often associated with procurement selection.

Justifications in young children’s language in an early childhood classroom

This paper examines the interactional phenomenon of justification as it is produced in young children’s language. A justification provides a reason for one’s position and can be produced in children’s language at an early age. There are various pragmatic reasons for justifications. For example, justifications may be drawn upon by members to compensate for the disruption of the existing social order or to explain something that is possibly questionable. Justifications are also drawn upon to extend or close disputes. This study uses the analytical techniques of conversation analysis and membership categorisation to analyse video-recorded and transcribed interactions of young children (aged 4-6 years) in a preparatory classroom in a primary school in Australia. The focus is an episode that occurred within the block play area of the classroom that involved a dispute of ownership relating to a small, wooden plank. In analysing this dispute, justifications were frequent occurrences and the young participants drew upon justificatory devices in their everyday arguments. As the turns surrounding the justificatory language were examined, a pattern emerged: in each excerpt observed, a justification arose in response to a challenge. This pattern provided the basis for developing a model that helped to discern where, why and what type of justifications occurred in the interaction. To depict this interactional phenomenon, the model of ‘if x, then y’ was used, ‘x’ referring to the challenge or prompt, and ‘y’ referring to the justificatory response. Justifications related to the concepts of ownership and were used as devices by those engaged in disputes to support their positions and provide reasons for their actions. The children drew upon these child-constructed rules as resources to use in disputes with their peers, in order to construct and maintain the social order of the block area in the classroom.

Humanity's retreat to Antarctica

James Lovelock has been one of the most influential and controversial environmentalists of the modern era, and his lastest book, The Revenge of Gaia, is perhaps his most controversial. Lovelock foreshadows a bleak future of drastic temperature increases, due to global warming, with the prospect that only a remnant of humanity might survive in Antarctica. The work also entails an interesting commentary on environmental philosophy and politics. Lovelock (like Lord Taverne)is scathing about the shortcomings of eco-fundamentalism, notably evident with the Greens, and argues that instead what we need is a pragmatic environmentalism to deal with our global challenges.

Sewage disposal and wildlife health in Antarctica

Sewage and its microbiology, treatment and disposal are important to the topic of Antarctic wildlife health because disposal of untreated sewage effluent into the Antarctic marine environment is both allowed and commonplace. Human sewage contains enteric bacteria as normal flora, and has the potential to contain parasites, bacteria and viruses which may prove pathogenic to Antarctic wildlife. Treatment can reduce levels of micro-organisms in sewage effluent, but is not a requirement of the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty (the Madrid Protocol). In contrast, the deliberate release of non-native organisms for any other reason is prohibited. Hence, disposal of sewage effluent to the marine environment is the only activity routinely undertaken in Antarctica knowing that it will likely result in the release of large numbers of potentially non-native species. When the Madrid Protocol was negotiated, the decision to allow release of untreated sewage effluent was considered the only pragmatic option, as a prohibition would have been costly, and may not have been achievable by many Antarctic operators. In addition, at that time the potential for transmission of pathogens to wildlife from sewage was not emphasised as a significant potential risk. Since then, the transmission of disease-causing agents between species is more widely recognised and it is now timely to consider the risks of continued discharge of sewage effluent in Antarctica and whether there are practical alternatives.

Early objective detection of lymphoedema

The aetiology of secondary lymphoedema seems to be multifactorial, with acquired abnormalities as well as pre-existing conditions being contributory factors. Many characteristics bear inconsistent relationships to lymphoedema risk, and the few that are consistently associated with an increased risk of developing the condition, do not alone distinguish the at-risk population. Further, our current prevention and management recommendations are not backed by strong evidence. Consequently, there remains much to be learned about who gets it, how can it be prevented and how can we best treat it. Nonetheless, it is clear that lymphoedema is associated with adverse side effects, which have a profound impact on daily life, and that preliminary evidence suggests that early detection may lead to more effective treatment and lack of treatment may lead to progression. These represent important reasons as to why lymphoedema deserves clinical attention. However, several pragmatic issues must be considered when discussing whether a routine objective measure of lymphoedema could be integrated among the standard clinical care of those undertaking treatment for cancers known to be associated with the development of lymphoedema.

An examination of the knowledge barriers in participatory design and the prospects for embedded research

Participatory design has the moral and pragmatic tenet of including those who will be most affected by a design into the design process. However, good participation is hard to achieve and results linking project success and degree of participation are inconsistent. Through three case studies examining some of the challenges that different properties of knowledge – novelty, difference, dependence – can impose on the participatory endeavour we examine some of the consequences to the participatory process of failing to bridge across knowledge boundaries – syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. One pragmatic consequence, disrupting the user’s feeling of involvement to the project, has been suggested as a possible explanation for the inconsistent results linking participation and project success. To aid in addressing these issues a new form of participatory research, called embedded research, is proposed and examined within the framework of the case studies and knowledge framework with a call for future research into its possibilities.

Troubling Empowerment : A feminist critique of a rural women and communication technology project

Participatory research methodologies and interactive communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly seen as offering ways of enhancing women’s empowerment and rural community development. However, some researchers suggest the need for caution about such claims. This book details findings from an evaluation of a feminist action research project that explored the impacts of ICTs for rural women in Queensland, Australia, in terms of personal, business and community development. Using praxis and poststructuralist feminist theories and methodologies, this innovative study presents a rigorous analysis and critique of women's empowerment and participation. This study demonstrates the value of adopting a critical yet pragmatic approach that takes diversity and difference, power-knowledge relations, and the contradictory effects of participation into account. This is argued to enable the development of more effective strategies for women’s empowerment, participation and inclusion. This book should be of particular interest to researchers, postgraduate students, and others working in the fields of communication, gender, and rural development, and feminist evaluation and ethnography.

Challenging cohesion

Cohesion as a term connotes attraction, unity, and commonness amongst discrete entities. Considering cohesion as a concept is timely with the recent rise of network culture, which comes with both subtle and radical changes in how people connect with, position themselves in relation to, and understand other constituents of society (cf. Varnelis; Castells; Jenkins et al.). Such dis- and inter-connections signify an imminent and immanent epistemological challenge we must confront: how can we understand inherently multi-faceted subjects, components of which are in constant transformation? For researchers, disciplinary complexity is one of the main implications of this situation. While disciplinary integration may be an effective or vital component in pursuit of knowledge (cf. Nicolescu) it may also impart significant conceptual and pragmatic conflicts. What are possible ways to coalesce multiple dimensions of reality that can lead to conceptually cohesive and useful knowledge production? This issue of M/C Journal attempts to answer this question by looking at different perspectives on the notion of cohesion across topical and disciplinary boundaries.

A Review of the "Digital Turn" in the New Literacy Studies

Digital communication has transformed literacy practices and assumed great importance in the functioning of workplace, recreational, and community contexts. This article reviews a decade of empirical work of the New Literacy Studies, identifying the shift toward research of digital literacy applications. The article engages with the central theoretical, methodological, and pragmatic challenges in the tradition of New Literacy Studies, while highlighting the distinctive trends in the digital strand. It identifies common patterns across new literacy practices through cross-comparisons of ethnographic research in digital media environments. It examines ways in which this research is taking into account power and pedagogy in normative contexts of literacy learning using the new media. Recommendations are given to strengthen the links between New Literacy Studies research and literacy curriculum, assessment, and accountability in the 21st century.

An examination of the knowledge barriers in participatory design and the prospects for embedded research

Participatory design has the moral and pragmatic tenet of including those who will be most affected by a design into the design process. However, good participation is hard to achieve and results linking project success and degree of participation are inconsistent. Through three case studies examining some of the challenges that different properties of knowledge - novelty, difference, dependence - can impose on the participatory endeavour we examine some of the consequences to the participatory process of failing to bridge across knowledge boundaries - syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. One pragmatic consequence, disrupting the user's feeling of involvement to the project, has been suggested as a possible explanation for the inconsistent results linking participation and project success. To aid in addressing these issues a new form of participatory research, called embedded research, is proposed and examined within the framework of the case studies and knowledge framework with a call for future research into its possibilities.