Review of 'Speaking Out: Stopping Homophobic and Transphobic Abuse In Queensland'

Speaking Out documents the outcomes of the largest ever study to examine homophobic and transphobic abuse and reporting in Queensland, Australia. It reports the results of a quantitative survey on victimisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people and how this victimisation is reported to police. Follow-up qualitative interviews and focus groups were also conducted with LGBTIQ people to examine the impact of this abuse and the reporting to police. This research is timely as we can sometimes assume LGBTIQ victimisation is a historical problem and may be settled by the idea that relations with police are in good shape. This book clearly demonstrates that we have some way to go before we can be assured these issues have been resolved...

Coming to belong : a narrative analysis of international students’ experiences in an Australian university

This thesis reports on an interview study with 17 international students about their experiences of coming to belong in an Australian university. All used English as an additional language (EAL). The students’ narratives of ‘coming to belong’ are conceptualised through the theory of Bourdieu, in particular the concepts of field, capital, habitus and legitimation; and the methodological premises of critical realism’s layered ontology. The literature review argues that access to and accrual of a range of capital is critical to successful adaptation to a new educational system. This, and processes of legitimation by others in the fields, affects the senses of belonging for students of various linguistic backgrounds, of different countries of origin, studying from primary to higher education in diverse parts of the world. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and email dialogues at three points during the students’ first year of study in Australia. The analysis shows how the students’ empirical experiences were ordered in terms of narrative structure—orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution and coda—and highlight the emotions generated by the sequence of events. The findings show that EAL international students sought new field positions through legitimation in multiple senses across (sub-)fields. They also show that academic, social and linguistic legitimacy granted by others produced a spectrum of belonging: in the centre, at the margin, and/or to meaningful intercultural encounters. This study makes a contribution to the growing literature around the experience of international students in higher education, and to empirical literature using Bourdieu to understand educational relations.

Mental health and well-being in resident mine workers : out of the fly-in fly-out box

Objective: To explore psychosocial issues perceived to impact the mental health and well-being of resident (non-fly-in fly-out) mine workers at a local mine in regional Queensland. Design: A descriptive qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Setting: The research was conducted on-site at an opencut coal mine in regional Queensland. Participants: Ten miners (nine men) currently employed in workshop, production or supervisory roles. Main outcome measures: Self-reported issues affecting psychological well-being. Results: Participants’ occupation and the surrounding context appeared to have both positive and negative influences on their well-being. Overall findings could be grouped into four key themes: (i) the importance of relationships; (ii) the impact of lifestyle; (iii) work characteristics; and (iv) mental health attitudes. While not without strains on mental health, in general, participants reported that their current situation was superior to their previous mining jobs. This was attributed to close relationships among locally recruited workers, respect for management practices and rosters that allowed adequate sleep recovery and family time between shifts. Conclusions: This study is the first to examine mental health and well being in non-fly-in fly-out mining populations. It suggests that while some issues appear inherent in the mining occupation, personal and organisational support can help workers have a more positive workplace experience. Further work looking at more extensive comparisons over various mining contexts will greatly assist in the development of programs and support structures for rural and regional mine workers.

Ageing out of place: health and well-being needs and access to home and aged care services for recently arrived older refugees in Melbourne, Australia

Recently arrived older refugees in resettlement countries are a particularly vulnerable population who face many risks to their health and well-being, and many challenges in accessing services.This paper reports on a project undertaken in Victoria,Australia to explore the needs of older people from 14 recently arrived refugee communities, and the barriers to their receiving health and aged care. Findings from consultations with community workers and service providers highlight the key issues of isolation, family conflict and mental illness affecting older refugees, and point to ways in which policy-makers and service providers can better respond to these small but deserving communities.

Fish out of water : refugee and international students in mainstream Australian schools

In this paper, the authors combine Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of hysteresis (the ‘fish out of water’ experience) with the discourse historical approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a theoretical and analytical framework through which they examine specific moments in the schooling experiences of one refugee student and one international student, both enrolled in post-compulsory education in Australian mainstream secondary schools. We examine specific moments – as narrated by these students during interviews – in which these students can be described as ‘fish out of water’. As such, this paper takes up the concerns of researchers who call for an examination of the lived geographies and the everyday lives of individual students in mainstream schools. We find that our students’ habitus, conditioned by their previous schooling experiences in their home countries, did not match their new Australian schools, resulting in frustration with, and alienation from, their mainstream schools. However, we also note that schools, too, need to adapt and adjust their habitus to the new multicultural world, in which there are international and refugee students among their usual cohort of mainstream students.

Hanging out is hard to do : Methodology in non-avatar environments

Ethnography is now a well-established research methodology for virtual environments, and the vast majority of accounts have one aspect in common, whether textual or graphic environments – that of the embodied avatar. In this article, I first discuss the applicability of such a methodology to non-avatar environments such as Eve Online, considering where the methodology works and the issues that arise in its implementation – particularly for the consideration of sub-communities within the virtual environment. Second, I consider what alternative means exist for getting at the information that is obtained through an ethnographic study of the virtual environment. To that end, I consider the practical and ethical implications of utilizing existing accounts, the importance of the meta-game discourse, including those sources outside of the control of the environment developer, and finally the utility in combining personal observations with accounts of other ethnographers, both within and between environments.

MediaClub : learning and hanging out with friends

MediaClub is an after-school digital literacy activity for Year 4-7 students at Waterford West State School. Since it began in 2010, as part of the URL project, the club has provided approximately 18 students from the school each term with a structured program of media production opportunities. Here we describe the aims and organisation of the club and student experiences and outcomes.

Slithering snakes, angry men and out-group members : what and whom are we evolved to fear?

The preparedness theory of classical conditioning proposed by Seligman (1970, 1971) has been applied extensively over the past 40 years to explain the nature and "source" of human fear and phobias. In this review we examine the formative studies that tested the four defining characteristics of prepared learning with animal fear-relevant stimuli (typically snakes and spiders) and consider claims that fear of social stimuli, such as angry faces, or faces of racial out-group members, may also be acquired utilising the same preferential learning mechanism. Exposition of critical differences between fear learning to animal and social stimuli suggests that a single account cannot adequately explain fear learning with animal and social stimuli. We demonstrate that fear conditioned to social stimuli is less robust than fear conditioned to animal stimuli as it is susceptible to cognitive influence and propose that it may instead reflect on negative stereotypes and social norms. Thus, a theoretical model that can accommodate the influence of both biological and cultural factors is likely to have broader utility in the explanation of fear and avoidance responses than accounts based on a single mechanism.

The inclusion lottery : who's in and who's out? Tracking inclusion and exclusion in New South Wales government schools

The last few decades have witnessed a broad international movement towards the development of inclusive schools through targeted special education funding and resourcing policies. Student placement statistics are often used as a barometer of policy success but they may also be an indication of system change. In this paper, trends in student enrolments from the Australian state of New South Wales are considered in an effort to understand what effect inclusive education has had in this particular region of the world.

Out of sight, out of mind/out of mind, out of site : Schooling and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a diagnostic term now indelibly scored on the public psyche. In some quarters, a diagnosis of “ADHD” is regarded with derision. In others it is welcomed with relief. Despite intense multi-disciplinary research, the jury is still out with regards to the “truth” of ADHD. Not surprisingly, the rapid increase in diagnosis over the past fifteen years, coupled with an exponential rise in the prescription of restricted class psychopharmaceuticals has stirred virulent debate. Provoking the most interest, it seems, are questions regarding causality. Typically, these revolve around possible antecedents for “disorderly” behaviour – bad food, bad tv and bad parents. Very seldom is the institution of schooling ever in the line of sight. To investigate this gap, I draw on Foucault to question what might be happening in schools and how this may be contributing to the definition, recognition and classification of particular children as a particular kind of “disorderly”.

Going out and the search for originality in China

Can China improve the competitiveness of its culture in world markets? Should it focus less on quantity and more on quality? How should Chinese cultural producers and distributors target audiences overseas? These are important questions facing policy makers today. In this paper I investigate how China might best deploy its soft power capabilities: for instance, should it try to demonstrate that it is a creative, innovative nation, capable of original ideas? Or should it put the emphasis on validating its credentials as an enduring culture and civilisation? In order to investigate these questions I introduce the cultural innovation timeline, a model that explains how China is adding value. There are six stages in the timeline but I will focus in particular on how the timeline facilitates cultural trade. In the second part of the paper I look at some of the challenges facing China, particularly the reception of its cultural products in international markets.

Seriously playful : the uses of networked spoof videos in China

This thesis examines online spoof videos in China. It shows the relationship between user-created content and change and how such videos are impacting on social memory. In the West, we are witnessing two outstanding trends in media. On the one hand, media are turning more "demotic" (Turner, 2006) and "participatory" (Jenkins, 2006), whereby lay audiences use popular media for identity formation, representation and association, reconfiguring the media and cultural landscape, and rendering invalid the old paradigm based on the dichotomy of audience and author, creator and consumer, expert and amateur. On the other hand, in both mainstream media and user-creation online there is a trend towards "silly citizenship", with comedy, send-ups and spoofs that used to reside in the margin propelled to the central stage in both pleasure and politics (Hartley, 2010), as is shown in the rising popularity of the Daily Show, Colbert Report, and spoof videos in elections ,e.g. the 2008 presidential election in US (Gray, Jones, & Thompson, 2009; Tryon, 2008). User generated content—and spoof subcultures—is now much a debated phenomenon in China. However, with different political (one party rule and censorship) and cultural (media regarded mainly as instrument for education and social stabilization instead of a critical fourth estate) configurations, will the social and cultural impacts of the two trends in the West be as the same in China? If not, what will be the specificities in the China context? The project starts with a historical review of popular culture and user-created content in China, before turning to spoof videos and looking at how they are produced and shared, travel and diffused on the Internet, and how the communities and sub-cultures forming and emerging around spoof videos are changing the overall cultural landscape in China. By acting as a participant observer in online video sharing sites and conducting face-to face as well as online interviews, I identify lead users and creators of spoof videos and the social networks emerging around them. I call these lead users "skill hubs" and their networks "liquid communities", foregrounding the fact that their appeal doesn’t come from their amicable personality, but rather from their creative skills; and that the networks surrounding them are in a permanent flux, with members coming and going as they see fit. I argue that the "liquidness" (Bauman, 2000) of these communities is what makes them constantly creative and appealing. Textual analysis of online videos, their comments and derivatives are conducted to tease out the uses that that can be made of spoof videos, namely as phatic communication, as alternative memory and as political engagement. Through these analyses I show that spoof videos constitute not only a space where young generations can engage with each other, communicate their anger and dissatisfaction, fun and hope, and where they participate in socio-cultural and political debates, but also create a space where they can experiment with their new skills, new ideas, and new citizenship. The rise of spoof videos heralds the beginning of a trend in popular culture in contemporary China towards the "canonization of the jester" and the dethroning of the establishment. I also argue that a historical perspective is needed to understand the current surge of use creativity and user activism in China, and that many forms of popular media we experience today have their antecedents in various stages of Chinese history. The entrenched "control-resistance" binary is inadequate in interpreting the rich, flux and multilayered Internet space in China.

Marking out the pitch : Defining the soccer fiction genre

The fiction of football, or soccer as it is commonly known in both the US and Australia, has a long and deep history. Despite this, there is still academic uncertainty as to whether it qualifies description as a distinct fictive genre. This paper seeks to address this question. It brings a genre analysis approach to the football fiction canon. Starting with definitions of what constitutes football fiction and genre, the paper goes on to distinguish and aggregate common trends, tensions and divergences and identify emerging and popular movements within football fiction. The paper will then assess football fiction’s status as a discrete genre.

Finding out about children's meaning making through drawing together

When I was seven I worked on a science project about caterpillars and moths. I was completely immersed in this project, fascinated by caterpillar body markings, the rhythmical, semi-circular pattern caterpillars adopt to eat leaves, their spiral construction of the chrysalis, and their transformation into moths or butterflies. I demonstrated my fascination, my research and study through carefully executed and detailed drawings. I could read and write well, but I wasn’t as interested in writing and produced a half-page summary to support my visual work.

Bailing out the FEG : is the Fair Entitlements Guarantee (formerly GEERS) approaching its own fiscal cliff?

This article discusses what recent statistics and public reports reveal about the funding of GEERS (now the FEG) and its bottom line. The article examines (1) whether there has been a “blowout” in the scheme which guarantees the recovery of employee entitlements in liquidations and (2) what might be done to put the scheme on a firmer fiscal footing.