Dangers of the after-dark wonderlands : Part A - A review of the impact of physical environment design on nightclub violence

Nightclubs are businesses. Their business is pleasure; however pleasure has its price. People have become increasingly concerned about the problems of violence in society but why do higher levels of violence occur in nightclubs despite the established patterns of behaviour that dictates how we socialise and act? In response, researchers have focused on identifying social and situational factors that may contribute to violence from a government perspective, focusing on a variety of specific issues ranging from financial standpoints with effective target marketing strategies to legal obligations of supplying alcohol and abiding regulatory conditions. There is little research into specific design properties that can determine design standards to ensure/improve the physical design of nightclub environments to reduce patron violence. To address this gap, this current article aims to understand how people experience and respond to the physical environment of nightclubs and how these spaces influence their behaviour. The first section of this paper examines the background on nightclubs and theories concerning the influence of pleasure. The second section of this paper details the findings of existing studies that have examined the nightlife context and the various factors that influence patron violence. The main finding of this paper is that although alcohol likely plays a contributing role in aggressive patron behaviour, there is evidence that the relationship is moderated by a number of significant factors relating to the characteristics of the drinking environment such as: physical comfort; the degree of overall 'permissiveness‘ in the establishment; crowding; and physical environmental elements most influenced by day to-day management practices such as lighting, ventilation, cleanliness and seating arrangements. The findings from this paper have been used to develop a framework to guide exploratory research on how specific elements of the physical environment of nightclubs have an impact on elevated patron aggression and assault (Koleczko & Garcia Hansen, 2011).

Dangers of the after-dark wonderlands : Part B - A review of the impact of the physical environment design on nightclub violence

Violence in nightclubs is a serious problem that has the Australian government launching multimillion dollar drinking campaigns. Research on nightclub violence has focused on identifying contributing social and environmental factors, with many concentrating on a variety of specific issues ranging from financial standpoints with effective target marketing strategies to legal obligations of supplying alcohol and abiding regulatory conditions. Moreover, existing research suggests that there is no single factor that directly affects the rate violence in licensed venues. As detailed in the review paper of Koleczko and Garcia Hansen (2011), there is little research about the physical environment of nightclubs and which specific design properties can be used to determine design standards to ensure/improve the physical design of nightclub environments to reduce patron violence. This current study seeks to address this omission by reporting on a series of interviews with participants from management and design domains. Featured case studies are both located in Fortitude Valley, a Mecca for party-goers and the busiest nightclub district in Queensland. The results and analysis support the conclusions that a number of elements of the physical environment influence elevated patron aggression and assault.

Indigenous mathematics : creating an equitable learning environment

This chapter examines how a change in school leadership can successfully address competencies in complex situations and thus create a positive learning environment in which Indigenous students can excel in their learning rather than accept a culture that inhibits school improvement. Mathematics has long been an area that has failed to assist Indigenous students in improving their learning outcomes, as it is a Eurocentric subject (Rothbaum, Weisz, Pott, Miyake & Morelli, 2000, De Plevitz, 2007) and does not contextualize pedagogy with Indigenous culture and perspectives (Matthews, Cooper & Baturo, 2007). The chapter explores the work of a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics from the YuMi Deadly Centre who are turning the tide on improving Indigenous mathematical outcomes in schools and in communities with high numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering Design Theme Conference 2008 Conference Proceedings

Proceedings of the Design Theme Postgraduate Student Conference, held 10th September 2008 at Queensland University of Technology.

GPFlow: an intuitive environment for web-based scientific workflow

Increasingly scientists are using collections of software tools in their research. These tools are typically used in concert, often necessitating laborious and error-prone manual data reformatting and transfer. We present an intuitive workflow environment to support scientists with their research. The workflow, GPFlow, wraps legacy tools, presenting a high level, interactive web-based front end to scientists. The workflow backend is realized by a commercial grade workflow engine (Windows Workflow Foundation). The workflow model is inspired by spreadsheets and is novel in its support for an intuitive method of interaction enabling experimentation as required by many scientists, e.g. bioinformaticians. We apply GPFlow to two bioinformatics experiments and demonstrate its flexibility and simplicity.