Pleasure Consuming Medicine : The Queer Politics of Drugs By Kane Race [Review]

The queer studies field works to deconstruct dominant western discourses which cast gay men as hedonistic partygoers. Concurrently it examines the real social ramifications for some gay men for whom partying, illegal drugs and casual sex is an everyday reality. Another reality of gay male culture is HIV/AIDS and the legal prescribed medicines which accompany these conditions. Pleasure Consuming Medicine: The Queer Politics of Drugs explores these realities and the discourses surrounding them. Exploring the embodiments of illegal and prescription drug users, this book problematises the binary between prescription medicine use, where drug use is configured as a matter of consumer choice, and 'illicit' drug use which is heavily policed and condemned. Returning to the gay community it reviews community approaches to safe sex and drug use, and individual practices, to demonstrate alternative approaches to condemning drug usage.

The potential of critical race theory in decolonizing university curricula

This paper critiques our experiences as non-Indigenous Australian educators of working with numerous embedding Indigenous perspectives curricular projects at an Australian university. Reporting on these project outcomes alone, while useful in identifying limitations, does not illustrate ways in which future embedding and decolonising projects can persist and evolve. Deeper analysis is required of the ways in which Indigenous knowledge and perspectives are perceived, and what ‘embedding’ IK in university curricula truly means to various educational stakeholders. To achieve a deeper analysis and propose ways to invigorate the continuing decolonisation of Australian university curricula, this paper critically interrogates the methodology and conceptualisation of Indigenous knowledge in embedding Indigenous perspectives (EIP) in the university curriculum using tenets of critical race theory. Accordingly, we conduct this analysis from the standpoint that EIP should not subscribe to the luxury of independence of scholarship from politics and activism. The learning objective is to create a space to legitimise politics in the intellectual / academic realm (Dei, 2008, p. 10). We conclude by arguing that critical race theory’s emancipatory, future and action-oriented goals for curricula (Dei, 2008) would enhance effective and sustainable embedding initiatives, and ultimately, preventing such initiatives from returning to the status quo (McLaughlin & Whatman, 2008).

Black v Garnock : implications for Queensland conveyancing practice

What was previously established as a fundamental principle, that a judgment creditor may take no interest beyond what the judgment debtor could give, has now been called into question by the decision of the High Court in Black v Garnock [2007] HCA 31. This article examines the implications of the decision of the High Court for conveyancing practice in Queensland. The relevant facts of Black v Garnock [2007] HCA 31 may be briefly stated: The Garnocks and the Luffs, as purchasers, entered a contract to purchase a rural property from Mrs Smith with settlement due on 24 August 2005. On 23 August 2005, a creditor obtained a writ against Mrs Smith from the District Court of New South Wales. No caveat was lodged on behalf of the purchasers prior to settlement (there being no equivalent, in New South Wales, of the Queensland settlement notice mechanism).

Decolonising curricula in an Australian university : re-imagining curriculum through critical race theory

The recognition of Indigenous knowledge in western academic institutions challenges colonial discourses which have informed and shaped knowledge about Indigenous peoples, cultures and histories. Deeper analysis is required of the ways in which Indigenous knowledge and perspectives are perceived, and the processes through which university curricula can accommodate Indigenous knowledge in teaching and learning. To achieve this deeper analysis, and to invigorate the continuing decolonisation of Australian university curricula, this paper critically interrogates the methodology and conceptualisation of Indigenous knowledge in embedding Indigenous perspectives (EIP) projects in the university curriculum by drawing from tenets of critical race theory and the cultural interface (Nakata, 2007). Accordingly, we conduct this analysis from the standpoint that Indigenous knowledge in university curricula should not subscribe to the luxury of independence of scholarship from politics and activism. The learning objective is to create a space to legitimise politics in the intellectual / academic realm (Dei, 2008, p. 10). We conclude by arguing that critical race theory’s emancipatory, future and action-oriented goals for curricula (Dei, 2008) would enhance effective and sustainable embedding initiatives, and ultimately, preventing such initiatives from returning to the status quo (McLaughlin & Whatman, 2008).

Examining the black box between stimulating regions and individual entrepreneurship

This paper seeks to investigate the link between the objective regional opportunity structure (captured by regional data) and individuals’ engagement in different stages in the venture creation process (intention to start a business and engagement in nascent entrepreneurship). We further investigate pathways through which a favourable regional environment could affect entrepreneurial intentions and the propensity to be a nascent entrepreneur. We combine individual level GEM-data for Western Germany with regional level data from the statistical office and use multi-level analysis to test our hypotheses. We find support for our contention that a favourable regional opportunity structure affects entrepreneurial intentions and engagement. As pathways between the region and individual behaviour serve the individual perception of founding opportunities and the individual social capital.

Unlocking black box models of leadership effectiveness: Exploring alternative research and policy metaphors

There is an intimate interconnectivity between policy guidelines defining reform and the delineation of what research methods would be subsequently applied to determine reform success. Research is guided as much by the metaphors describing it as by the ensuing empirical definition of actions of results obtained from it. In a call for different reform policy metaphors Lumby and English (2010) note, “The primary responsibility for the parlous state of education... lies with the policy makers that have racked our schools with reductive and dehumanizing processes, following the metaphors of market efficiency, and leadership models based on accounting and the characteristics of machine bureaucracy” (p. 127)

The moderator effect of cognitive modifiability on a traditional undergraduate admissions test for disadvantaged Black students in South Africa

Contends that South African universities must find admissions criteria, other than high school grades, that are both fair and valid for Black applicants severely disadvantaged by an inferior school education. The use of traditional intellectual assessments and aptitude tests for disadvantaged and minority students remains controversial as a fair assessment; they do not take account of potential for change. In this study, therefore, a measure of students' cognitive modifiability, assessed by means of an interactive assessment model, was added as a moderator of traditional intellectual assessment in predicting 1st-yr university success. Cognitive modifiability significantly moderated the predictive validity of the traditional intellectual assessment for 52 disadvantaged Black students. The higher the level of cognitive modifiability, the less effective were traditional methods for predicting academic success and vice versa.

Qualitative inquiry as transformation and agency : the black sheep and workplace mobbing

This chapter discusses an action research project into the lived experience of the workplace mobbing phenomenon. The action research methodology is based on the exemplarian model (Coenen & Khonraad, 2003) from the Netherlands Group. This model requires positive outcomes for those immersed in the problem to reduce the adversity of their circumstances. The findings challenge the psychological perspective of the existing bullying literature that tends to focus on individual behaviour. This research, undertaken over a three year period with 212 participants, identified the dysfunctional nature of public sector bureaucracies and the power gained through gossip and rumour as some of the key emergent themes to explain the workplace mobbing problem. In addition, resistance, conscientisation, and agency were identified as the key to transformation for those targeted. The discussion focuses on the crystallisation phase of the exemplarian model where the participants identified themselves as the Black Sheep and adopted the motto that “a black sheep is a biting beast” (Bastard, 1565 or 6-1618, p. 90), reflecting a sense of empowerment, individual agency, and a sense of humour in dealing with the serious yet seemingly absurd reality of their situations. The identity of the Black Sheep was consolidated when the group organised a 2 day conference with over 200 attendees to discuss how best to prevent workplace mobbing. This self-affirming action was a proactive step towards metaphorically “biting back” at the problem. A number of positive outcomes were achieved including the conference with over 200 attending leading to national media coverage across Australia and additional interviews with magazines, newspapers, and radio.

Intuitionistic fuzzy Choquet integral operator-based approach for black-start decision-making

Determining the optimal of black-start strategies is very important for speeding the restoration speed of a power system after a global blackout. Most existing black-start decision-making methods are based on the assumption that all indexes are independent of each other, and little attention has been paid to the group decision-making method which is more reliable. Given this background, the intuitionistic fuzzy set and further intuitionistic fuzzy Choquet integral operator are presented, and a black-start decision-making method based on this integral operator is presented. Compared to existing methods, the proposed algorithm cannot only deal with the relevance among the indexes, but also overcome some shortcomings of the existing methods. Finally, an example is used to demonstrate the proposed method. © 2012 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.