A case of community safety : displacing complex ‘social’ problems in Fortitude Valley

Public dialogue regarding the high concentration of drug use and crime in inner city locations is frequently legitimised through visibility of drug-using populations and a perception of high crime rates. The public space known as the Brunswick Street Mall (Valley mall), located in the inner city Brisbane suburb of Fortitude Valley, has long provided the focal point for discussions regarding the problem of illicit drug use and antisocial behaviour in Brisbane. During the late 1990s a range of stakeholders in Fortitude Valley became mobilised to tackle crime and illicit drugs. In particular they wanted to dismantle popular perceptions of the area as representing the dark and unsafe side of Brisbane. The aim of this campaign was to instil a sense of safety in the area and dislodge Fortitude Valley from its reputation as a =symbolic location of danger‘. This thesis is a case study about an urban site that became contested by the diverse aims of a range of stakeholders who were invested in an urban renewal program and community safety project. This case study makes visible a number of actors that were lured from their existing roles in an indeterminable number of heterogeneous networks in order to create a community safety network. The following analysis of the community safety network emphasises some specific actors: history, ideas, technologies, materialities and displacements. The case study relies on the work of Foucault, Latour, Callon and Law to draw out the rationalities, background contingencies and the attempts to impose order and translate a number of entities into the community safety project in Fortitude Valley. The results of this research show that the community safety project is a case of ontological politics. Specifically the data indicates that both the (reality) problem of safety and the (knowledge) solution to safety were created simultaneously. This thesis explores the idea that while violence continues to occur in the Valley, evidence that community safety got done is located through mapping its displacement and eventual disappearance. As such, this thesis argues that community safety is a =collateral reality‘.

Experiences of a walking intervention in a University community : Qualitative perspectives

Background: This study explored the experiences of university employees that participated in a walking intervention that encouraged individuals to walk more throughout their workday. The 10-week program was comprised of 5 phases (i.e. baseline, anticipating barriers, short planned walks, longer planned walks and maintenance) and utilized a pedometer diary and an online website for logging steps. The pedometer diary included “action plans” for addressing barriers and planning walking and the online dashboard provided graphical outputs that allowed participants to visualize whether they were reaching or exceeding their step targets. Methods: A subsample of 12 academic and administrative employees from the study completed open ended questionnaires at the end of the study. The questions focused on capturing the major themes of benefits/mediators and problems/moderators of the program and were assessed using phenomenological approaches. Results: Participants found a raised consciousness of physical inactivity throughout the work day. They also found it useful to have a graphical display of physical activity patterns, but found time constraints and lack of managerial support to be the primary barriers/moderators of the program. Those most likely to withdraw from the program experienced technical difficulties with objective monitors and the online website. Conclusions: Findings highlight the value in being involved in a group forum and provide insights into the challenges of supporting such programs within the workplace.

Mining work, family and community : a spatially-oriented approach to the impact of the Ravensthorpe nickel mine closure in remote Australia

While changes in work and employment practices in the mining sector have been profound, the literature addressing mining work is somewhat partial as it focuses primarily on the workplace as the key (or only) site of analysis, leaving the relationship between mining work and families and communities under-theorized. This article adopts a spatially oriented, case-study approach to the sudden closure of the Ravensthorpe nickel mine in the south-west of Western Australia to explore the interplay between the new scales and mobilities of labour and capital and work–family–community connections in mining. In the context of the dramatically reconfigured industrial arena of mining work, the study contributes to a theoretical engagement between employment relations and the spatial dimensions of family and community in resource-affected communities.

Relationships between maternal feeding and child weight in younger Australian children – Findings from the NOURISH obesity prevention trial

Studies show that in 3-11 year-olds, parental feeding style is directly associated with child weight [1] and also moderates the association between feeding practices and weight [2]. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine these relationships in younger children. Data from 331 of 698 first-time mothers of healthy term children (151 boys, mean age 24±1 months) enrolled in the NOURISH RCT included (a) measured child weight, (b) self-reported feeding styles and controlling feeding practices, and (c) maternal and child covariates. ANCOVA compared mean child weight-for-age z-score (cWAZ) across 4 feeding styles. Regression examined the associations between cWAZ and 5 controlling feeding practices. Moderated multiple regression analysis was planned to examine effects of feeding style on relationships between feeding practices and cWAZ. Feeding style (indulgent = 38.6%, authoritarian = 35.8%, authoritative = 13.1%, uninvolved = 12.5%) was not independently associated with cWAZ. However, ’pressure to eat’ was negatively associated with cWAZ (�=-0.131, p<0.05) higher pressure associated with lower cWAZ. Given feeding style was not associated with cWAZ, moderation analysis was not performed. Contrary to findings in older children, cWAZ in 2-year-olds was not associated with maternal feeding style. However, the negative association between child weight and pressure feeding found in 6-11year-olds [2] appears to hold in toddlers. Educating mothers about potentially detrimental long-term effects of pressure feeding in early childhood, may be more practical and effective in promoting healthy weight than targeting the less concrete concept of feeding styles. References: [1] Hughes, Appetite, 2005;44:83-92. [2] Hennessy, Appetite, 2010;54:369-377.

A view from the edge of the forest : recent progress in understanding the relationships of the insect orders

Research over the last two decades has significantly increased our understanding of the evolutionary position of the insects among other arthropods, and the relationships among the insect Orders. Many of these insights have been established through increasingly sophisticated analyses of DNA sequence data from a limited number of genes. Recent results have established the relationships of the Holometabola, but relationships among the hemimetabolous orders have been more difficult to elucidate. A strong consensus on the relationships among the Palaeoptera (Ephemeroptera and Odonata) and their relationship to the Neoptera has not emerged with all three possible resolutions supported by different data sets. While polyneopteran relationships generally have resisted significant resolution, it is now clear that termites, Isoptera, are nested within the cockroaches, Blattodea. The newly discovered order Mantophasmatodea is difficult to place with the balance of studies favouring Grylloblattodea as sister-group. While some studies have found the paraneopteran orders (Hemiptera, Thysanoptera, Phthiraptera and Psocoptera) monophyletic, evidence suggests that parasitic lice (Phthiraptera) have evolved from groups within the book and bark lice (Psocoptera), and may represent parallel evolutions of parasitism within two major louse groups. Within Holometabola, it is now clear that Hymenoptera are the sister to the other orders, that, in turn are divided into two clades, the Neuropteroidea (Coleoptera, Neuroptera and relatives) and the Mecopterida (Trichoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera and their relatives). The enigmatic order Strepsiptera, the twisted wing insects, have now been placed firmly near Coleoptera, rejecting their close relationship to Diptera that was proposed some 15years ago primarily based on ribosomal DNA data. Phylogenomic-scale analyses are just beginning to be focused on the relationships of the insect orders, and this is where we expect to see resolution of palaeopteran and polyneopteran relationships. Future research will benefit from greater coordination between intra and inter-ordinal analyses. This will maximise the opportunities for appropriate outgroup choice at the intraordinal level and provide the background knowledge for the interordinal analyses to span the maximum phylogenetic scope within groups.

Biodiversity–productivity relationships in small-scale mixed-species plantations using native species in Leyte province, Philippines

In this study, we investigate the relationship between tree species diversity and production in 18 mixed-species plantations established under the Rainforestation Farming system in Leyte province, the Philippines. The aim was to quantify productivity in the mixed-species plantations in comparison to the monocultures, and identify key drivers of productivity including environmental conditions, stand structural characteristics and surrogate measures of biodiversity, i.e. species richness, Shannon’s diversity index and functional groups. We found that monocultures had a much higher productivity than mixtures of the same and other species. In the mixtures, biodiversity and productivity did not have a simple relationship. Instead the proportion of exotic and native species, and the proportion of fast-growing species had a marginally significant positive effect on stand productivity, but no significant relationship was found with species richness or Shannon’s diversity. Instead stand structural characteristics such as density and age were the strongest drivers of increased productivity. Production levels within the mixed-species plantations varied significantly between sites. Overall, we found that the productivity of mixed species plantations was driven more by the characteristics of species present and stand structural characteristics then by simply the number and abundance of species, which suggests management practices are key for balancing multiple objectives to meet sustainable development needs.

Water–rock interactions : an investigation of the relationships between mineralogy and groundwater composition and flow in a subtropical basalt aquifer

A holistic study of the composition of the basalt groundwaters of the Atherton Tablelands region in Queensland, Australia was undertaken to elucidate possible mechanisms for the evolution of these very low salinity, silica- and bicarbonate-rich groundwaters. It is proposed that aluminosilicate mineral weathering is the major contributing process to the overall composition of the basalt groundwaters. The groundwaters approach equilibrium with respect to the primary minerals with increasing pH and are mostly in equilibrium with the major secondary minerals (kaolinite and smectite), and other secondary phases such as goethite, hematite, and gibbsite, which are common accessory minerals in the Atherton basalts. The mineralogy of the basalt rocks, which has been examined using X-ray diffraction and whole rock geochemistry methods, supports the proposed model for the hydrogeochemical evolution of these groundwaters: precipitation + CO 2 (atmospheric + soil) + pyroxene + feldspars + olivine yields H 4SiO 4, HCO 3 -, Mg 2+, Na +, Ca 2+ + kaolinite and smectite clays + amorphous or crystalline silica + accessory minerals (hematite, goethite, gibbsite, carbonates, zeolites, and pyrite). The variations in the mineralogical content of these basalts also provide insights into the controls on groundwater storage and movement in this aquifer system. The fresh and weathered vesicular basalts are considered to be important in terms of zones of groundwater occurrence, while the fractures in the massive basalt are important pathways for groundwater movement.

Through the viewfinder : using multimedia techniques to engage Latino youth in community planning

This chapter reviews common barriers to community engagement for Latino youth and suggests ways to move beyond those barriers by empowering them to communicate their experiences, address the challenges they face, and develop recommendations for making their community more youth-friendly. As a case study, this chapter describes a program called Youth FACE IT (Youth Fostering Active Community Engagement for Integration and Transformation)in Boulder County, Colorado. The program enables Latino youth to engage in critical dialogue and participate in a community-based initiative. The chapter concludes by explaining specific strategies that planners can use to support active community engagement and develop a future generation of planners and engaged community members that reflects emerging demographics.