Perpetuating Racism: Legal Education, Race and Social Justice

By presenting the results of a content analysis of Australian undergraduate legal education, this paper examines the extent to which issues of race, ethnicity, discrimination, and multiculturalism feature within this component of the moral, ethical, and professional development of legal professionals. It will demonstrate that instead of encouraging a deep, critical and contextual understanding of such issues, legal education provides a relatively superficial one, which has important implications for the role that legal professionals play in overcoming injustices such as institutional racism, and the kinds of social reform that they are likely to undertake.

Situating Design Research within Social Framework

This paper explores the expertise in industrial (product) design and contribution of knowledge generated trough the design research. Within this approach the research is situated within the social structure that constitutes people, activity, context and culture where an artifact is seen to be a mediator for the generation of new knowledge and its application. The paper concludes about the importance of research and practice integration and points out that situating the research around the artifacts, as mediators of knowledge, is transferable to Human-Computer Interaction field and any other area of the design research

From the consciousness industry to the creative industries : consumer-created content, social network markets, & the growth of knowledge

In studies of media industries, too much attention has been paid to providers and firms, too little to consumers and markets. But with user-created content, the question first posed more than a generation ago by the uses & gratifications method and taken up by semiotics and the active audience tradition (‘what do audiences do with media?’), has resurfaced with renewed force. What’s new is that where this question (of what the media industries and audiences did with each other) used to be individualist and functionalist, now, with the advent of social networks using Web 2.0 affordances, it can be re-posed at the level of systems and populations as well.

A systematic review of environmental correlates of obesity-related dietary behaviors in youth

There is increasing interest in the role the environment plays in shaping the dietary behavior of youth, particularly in the context of obesity prevention. An overview of environmental factors associated with obesity-related dietary behaviors among youth is needed to inform the development of interventions. A systematic review of observational studies on environmental correlates of energy, fat, fruit/ vegetable, snack/fast food and soft drink intakes in children (4–12 years) and adolescents (13–18 years) was conducted. The results were summarized using the analysis grid for environments linked to obesity. The 58 papers reviewed mostly focused on sociocultural and economical–environmental factors at the household level. The most consistent associations were found between parental intake and children’s fat, fruit/vegetable intakes, parent and sibling intake with adolescent’s energy and fat intakes and parental education with adolescent’s fruit/ vegetable intake. A less consistent but positive association was found for availability and accessibility on children’s fruit/vegetable intake. Environmental factors are predominantly studied at the household level and focus on sociocultural and economic aspects. Most consistent associations were found for parental influences (parental intake and education).More studies examining environmental factors using longitudinal study designs and validated measures are needed for solid evidence to inform interventions.