Technocratic discourse : a primer

This article describes the linguistic and semantic features of technocratic discourse using a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) framework. The article goes further to assert that the function of technocratic discourse in public policy is to advocate and promulgate a highly contentious political and economic agenda under the guise of scientific objectivity and political impartiality. We provide strong evidence to support the linguistic description, and the claims of political advocacy, by analyzing a 900-word document about globalization produced by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Bernard McKenna, Philip Graham

The ideological context of business : capital

This chapter focuses on the major social ruptures and developments that are most significant in the historical emergence and development of Capital and, more precisely, on those ruptures that highlight the most significant ethical issues upon which Capital, as a form of social organisation, is premised. Capital is most often viewed as a system of relationships between “things”, like land, labour, machinery, money, and so on. But this is to obscure the human relationships within which Capital flourishes.

Comparing "socially responsible" and "sustainable" commercial property investment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to set out to explore the similarities and differences between jargon used to describe future-focussed commercial building product. This is not so much an exercise in semantics as an attempt to demonstrate that responses to challenges facing the construction and property sectors may have more to do with language than is generally appreciated. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual analysis which draws upon relevant literature. Findings – Social responsibility and sustainability are often held to be much the same thing, with each term presupposing the existence of the other. Clearly, however, there are incidences where sustainable commercial property investment (SCPI) may not be particularly socially responsible, despite being understood as an environmentally friendly initiative. By contrast, socially responsible assets, at least in theory, should always be more sustainable than mainstream non-ethically based investment. Put simply, the expression of social responsibility in the built environment may evoke, and thereby deliver, a more sustainable product, as defined by wider socially inclusive parameters. Practical implications – The findings show that promoting an ethic of social responsibility may well result in more SCPI. Thus, the further articulation and celebration of social responsibility concepts may well help to further advance a sustainable property investment agenda, which is arguably more concerned about demonstrability of efficiency than wider public good outcomes. Originality/value – The idea that jargon affects outcomes is not new. However, this idea has rarely, if ever, been applied to the distinctions between social responsibility and sustainability. Even a moderate re-emphasis on social responsibility in preference to sustainability may well provide significant future benefits with respect to the investment, building and refurbishment of commercial property.

Review : Why study the media ?

Silverstone’s Why Study the Media? (hereafter WSM) is a dif� cult book to review, especially in such a short space. The content spans millennia of theoretical, analytical and historical perspectives on our media, but is none the less entirely contemporary and relevant in its focus. Silverstone’s perspective is at times elusive because the book sets out, successfully I think, to answer the question posed in the title. But it does so by raising major questions in media studies, important questions, in a way that does not imply quick and easy answers.

Space and Cyberspace: on the enclosure of consciousness

In this chapter I argue that the global privatisation of elctromagnetic spectrum marks this period as historically unique. I also put forward conceptual categories for understanding the nature of an emergent cybereconomy. They correspond to classical conceptions of property, value and labour, but in no way treat these categories as singular, simple or unproblematic. From a perspective informed largely by Marx’s critique of classical political economy, I frame the creation of a global cyberspace as the enclosure, or “privatisation”, of conscious activity. I argue that a full and formally defined cyberspace, at least as it is currenty conceived of, must prefigure the eventual alienation of human social existence at its most fundamental and definitive level: consciousness.

Modern Times : The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia

Richly illustrated and beautifully designed, Modern Times - The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia reveals how modernism transformed all aspects of Australian culture across five tumultuous decades from 1917 to 1967. The influence of modernism was far-reaching. "Modern Times" looks at all things modern and as diverse as art, advertising, photography, film, fashion, the body, architecture, interiors, recreational sites such as the new swimming pools and fountains, milk bars and auto culture.Modernism embodied the utopian possibilities of the twentieth century. It transformed Australian cities into complex metropolises and offered access to new cosmopolitan cultures. This is the first time that such diverse material has been brought together in one volume.

Application of a continuum theory to vertical vibrations of a layer of granular material

Many interesting phenomena have been observed in layers of granular materials subjected to vertical oscillations; these include the formation of a variety of standing wave patterns, and the occurrence of isolated features called oscillons, which alternately form conical heaps and craters oscillating at one-half of the forcing frequency. No continuum-based explanation of these phenomena has previously been proposed. We apply a continuum theory, termed the double-shearing theory, which has had success in analyzing various problems in the flow of granular materials, to the problem of a layer of granular material on a vertically vibrating rigid base undergoing vertical oscillations in plane strain. There exists a trivial solution in which the layer moves as a rigid body. By investigating linear perturbations of this solution, we find that at certain amplitudes and frequencies this trivial solution can bifurcate. The time dependence of the perturbed solution is governed by Mathieu’s equation, which allows stable, unstable and periodic solutions, and the observed period-doubling behaviour. Several solutions for the spatial velocity distribution are obtained; these include one in which the surface undergoes vertical velocities that have sinusoidal dependence on the horizontal space dimension, which corresponds to the formation of striped standing waves, and is one of the observed patterns. An alternative continuum theory of granular material mechanics, in which the principal axes of stress and rate-of-deformation are coincident, is shown to be incapable of giving rise to similar instabilities.

The language of neofeudal corporatism and the war on Iraq

In this paper we argue that the term “capitalism” is no longer useful for understanding the current system of political economic relations in which we live. Rather, we argue that the system can be more usefully characterised as neofeudal corporatism. Using examples drawn from a 300,000 word corpus of public utterances by three political leaders from the “coalition of the willing”— George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and John Howard—we show some defining characteristics of this relatively new system and how they are manifest in political language about the invasion of Iraq.

Analysing policy values in a knowledge economy

This fascinating handbook defines how knowledge contributes to social and economic life, and vice versa. It considers the five areas critical to acquiring a comprehensive understanding of the knowledge economy: the nature of the knowledge economy; social, cooperative, cultural, creative, ethical and intellectual capital; knowledge and innovation systems; policy analysis for knowledge-based economies; and knowledge management. In presenting the outcomes of an important body of research, the handbook enables knowledge policy and management practitioners to be more systematically guided in their thinking and actions. The contributors cover a wide disciplinary spectrum in an accessible way, presenting concise, to-the-point discussions of critical concepts and practices that will enable practitioners to make effective research, managerial and policy decisions. They also highlight important new areas of concern to knowledge economies such as wisdom, ethics, language and creative economies that are largely overlooked.