Californian 'John Schools' and the social construction of prostitution

Within political and social arenas, prostitution continues to be a highly contested and debated issue. Generally conceptualised as a ‘problem’ in need of eradication, prostitution is strongly linked to immorality and deviance. The methods of addressing this phenomenon have experienced a shift from focusing predominantly on the sex worker, to directly targeting the clients of commercial sex. Such practices have resulted in the creation of policy initiatives such as ‘John Schools’—diversionary programs for clients, or ‘Johns’ who have been arrested for prostitution offences. The programs aim to educate participants on the various harms and risks associated with such behaviour and claim to offer a means to reduce prostitution by targeting the demand for sexual services. It is evident however, that these programs perpetuate traditional social constructions of prostitution, characterising the act, and the actors, as sexually deviant. This paper examines the curriculum of these programs in order to identify how prostitution is constructed—firstly through the depiction of the victims in the program and secondly through the characterisation of prostitution offenders—and argues that such initiatives merely extend the charge of sexual deviance from the sellers of sex to the buyers,whilst failing to acknowledge autonomy and choice for sex workers and clients.

The economics of awards, status and performance: the John Bates Clark Medal and the Fellowship of the Econometric Society

This thesis investigates whether receiving an important award in academia raises recipients’ subsequent research productivity and status compared to a synthetic control group of non-recipient scholars with similar previous research performance. It examines the case of being awarded the John Bates Clark Medal and becoming a Fellow of the Econometric Society finding evidence of positive incentive and status effects that raise both productivity and citation levels.

Directing democracy : competing interests and contested terrain in the John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership is one of Europe’s largest models of employee ownership and has been operating a form of employee involvement and participation since its formation in 1929. It is frequently held up as a model of best practice (Cathcart, 2013) and has been described as a ‘workers’ paradise’ (Stummer and Lacey, 2001). At the beginning of 2012, the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK unveiled plans to create a ‘John Lewis Economy’ (Wintour, 2012). As John Lewis is being positioned at the heart of political and media discussions in the UK about alternatives to the corporate capitalist model of enterprise, it is vital that more is known about the experience of employee involvement and participation within the organisation. This article explores the ways in which the practice of employee involvement and participation has changed in John Lewis as a result of competing employee and managerial interests. Its contribution is a contemporary exploration of participation in the John Lewis Partnership and an examination of the ways in which management and employees contested the meaning and practice of employee involvement and participation as part of a ‘democracy project’, which culminated in significant changes and degeneration of the democratic structures.

The John Lewis model reveals the tensions and paradoxes at the heart of workplace democracy

Politicians of all parties have been keen to promote the ‘John Lewis model’ of industrial organisation, emphasising its features of employee ownership and workplace democracy. Dr Abby Cathcart’s research into the company shows that management and workers have different visions of what ‘partnership’ means, with ongoing struggle taking place via the organisation’s democratic structures. This, she argues, has stark implications for other organisations with partnership models that are less robust.

Review : "Ghosts...of the Civil Dead" -- John Hillcoat

Synopsis and review of the Australian prison film Ghosts...of the Civil Dead (John Hillcoat, 1988). Drawing heavily from the book In the Belly of the Beast by American author and long-term prisoner Jack Henry Abbott, as well as from the historical and philosophical work of Michel Foucault (the credits include ‘Foucault Authority – Simon During’), Ghosts… Of the Civil Dead is a searing critique of the so-called ‘new generation’ prison system developed in the United States and recently introduced in Australia. Director John Hillcoat and producer Evan English conducted extensive research for the film, including spending time at the National Institute of Corrections, a think tank in Colorado, and visiting numerous institutions like the ‘new Alcatraz’ at Marion Illinois and other maximum security prisons across the United States. Using a mix of professionals and non-actors, including former prisoners and prison guards, the ‘story’ was workshopped during a lengthy rehearsal period with many actual events and experiences of participants incorporated into the film. The end result deliberately blurs the line between American and Australian prison experience to make the political point that what had happened in the US – from where many events and characters, and much of the architecture and design of the prison are drawn – was beginning to happen in Australia. The film emphasises the vicious cycle of institutionalisation, and highlights the role state authorities play in manufacturing, provoking and manipulating violence and fear both in prisons and in wider society as a means to augment policing and surveillance of the population, to oppress the working classes, and to maintain the political status quo...

PV string per-module maximum power point enabling converters

Many grid connected PV installations consist of a single series string of PV modules and a single DC-AC inverter. This efficiency of this topology can be enhanced with additional low power, low cost per panel converter modules. Most current flows directly in the series string which ensures high efficiency. However parallel Cúk or buck-boost DC-DC converters connected across each adjacent pair of modules now support any desired current difference between series connected PV modules. Each converter “shuffles” the desired difference in PV module currents between two modules and so on up the string. Spice simulations show that even with poor efficiency, these modules can make a significant improvement to the overall power which can be recovered from partially shaded PV strings.

Punk’s fairy godfather : Go-Between John Willsteed on Lou Reed

Obituary on the death of Lou Reed, member of The Velvet Underground and acclaimed solo artist.

Review Essay: John Pratt and Anna Eriksson (2013) 'Contrasts in Punishment: An Explanation of Anglophone Excess and Nordic Exceptionalism'

This review essay combines the comments made by David Brown, Russell Hogg and Mark Finanne at the Crime, Justice and Social Democracy: 2nd International Conference July 2013. It is followed by a rejoinder by the two authors John Pratt and Anna Eriksson.

Design, synthesis and spectroscopic characterisation of a focused library based on the polyandrocarpamine natural product scaffold

A focused library based on the marine natural products polyandrocarpamines A (1) and B (2) has been designed and synthesised using parallel solution-phase chemistry. In silico physicochemical property calculations were performed on synthetic candidates in order to optimise the library for drug discovery and chemical biology. A library of ten 2-aminoimidazolone products (3–12) was prepared by coupling glycocyamidine and a variety of aldehydes using a one-step stereoselective aldol condensation reaction under microwave conditions. All analogues were characterised by NMR, UV, IR and MS. The library was evaluated for cytotoxicity towards the prostate cancer cell lines, LNCaP, PC-3 and 22Rv1.

Book review: 'The Cornea' edited by H.E. Kaufman, B.A. Baron, M.B. McDonald and S.R. Waltman.

Parsons' Diseases of the Eye, first published in 1907, is one of the foundation texts of modern ophthalmology. It has seen a new edition at approximately 5-year intervals throughout the century. This latest edition incorporates developments that have taken place within the specialty since the 1984 impression, but remains in a virtually unchanged format...

An Interview with John Rajchman, Department of Art History, Columbia University, on Architecture, Deleuze and Foucault

An Interview with John Rajchman, Department of Art History, Columbia University, on Architecture, Deleuze and Foucault at his apartment, Riverside Drive, New York City, February 10, 2003.

John Andrews : Architecture a Performing Art

The distinguished Australian architect surveys his career and examines how his architectural theories are expressed in his designs.