Increasing socio-economic inequalities in drug-induced deaths in Australia : 1981-2002

Introduction and Aims: Since the 1990s illicit drug use death rates in Australia have increased markedly. There is a notable gap in knowledge about changing socio-economic inequalities in drug use death rates. Some limited Australian and overseas data point to higher rates of drug death in the lowest socio-economic groups, but the paucity of available studies and their sometimes conflicting findings need to be addressed. Design and Methods: This paper uses data obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to examine changes in age-standardised drug-induced mortality rates for Australian males over the period 1981 – 2002. Socio-economic status was categorised as manual or non-manual work status. Results: With the rapid increase in drug-induced mortality rates in the 1990s, there was a parallel increase in socio-economic inequalities in drug-induced deaths. The decline in drug death rates from 2000 onwards was associated with a decline in socio-economic inequalities. By 2002, manual workers had drug death rates well over twice the rate of non-manual workers. Discussion: Three factors are identified which contribute to these socio-economic inequalities in mortality. First, there has been an age shift in deaths evident only for manual workers. Secondly, there has been an increase in availability until 1999 and a relative decline in the cost of the drug, which most often leads to drug death (heroin). Thirdly, there has been a shift to amphetamine use which may lead to significant levels of morbidity, but few deaths. [Najman JM, Toloo G, Williams GM. Increasing socio-economic inequalities in drug-induced deaths in Australia: 1981–2002.

Departing from the virtual community : a discussion of the ways and means to uncover localised order in online games

This paper is part one of a three part study into the collective regulation processes of players in massive multiplayer online games (MMOG). Traditionally game playing has not been classed as problematic, however with introduction of new media technologies and new ways to play games, certain contexts have become obscure, namely the localised order of ‘playing online’ or how players manage and maintain order between each other as opposed to ‘following the rules’. Principally this paper will examine concepts of ‘virtual community’. These will be illustrated as particularly unhelpful when considering how people conduct themselves in these spaces. Thus, ‘virtual community’ will be seen as critical in implicating various online behaviours as superior to other online behaviours causing obscurity and blurring actions. This obscurity is grounded by strong associations in the virtual community as logic of practise in and of itself; behaviours that fall outside this category become common sense and as such are made invisible for investigation. This paper will draw upon the theories of Basil Bernstein and Pierre Bourdieu to produce a distinction between online behaviours and ultimately make them visible for further investigation. In doing so this paper seeks to form a basis for future research where interaction in these spaces can be identified as belonging to a certain framework to inform the design of online games and applications more effectively.

La raza y la lengua como capital en las escuelas : una propuesta sociológica para las reformas en educación lingüística

Este texto hace un acercamiento sociológico al análisis de la raza y la lengua en la formación de programas de educación en idiomas. Este enfoque usa los modelos de Bourdieu de habitus y campo social, los cuales enmarcan la raza y la lengua como elementos variables en el cambio educativo y pedagógico, que están, a la vez, sujetos a la agenciamiento de profesores y estudiantes. El enfoque sugiere que una política de educación en lenguas para la justicia social puede concentrarse no sólo en el cambio y el desarrollo del sujeto humano, sino también en cambio sistemático de los campos sociales del currículo.

Mental harm, rescuers and the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW)

At common law, a duty of care may be owed to a claimant who suffers nervous shock or pure mental harm due to witnessing, or hearing about, physical injury caused to another due to a defendant’s negligence. “Pure mental harm” is the ‘impairment of a person’s mental condition’ that is not suffered as a consequence of any other kind of personal injury to them. However, as many accidents have the potential to create a wide circle of mental suffering to bystanders, family members or others not physically injured themselves, it has traditionally been ‘thought impolitic that everybody so affected should be able to recover damages from the tortfeasor.’ ‘To allow such extended recovery would stretch liability too far.’ Nevertheless, whilst adopting a restrictive approach to liability, the common law courts have recognised that a defendant might owe a duty in relation to the pure mental harm suffered by one who foreseeably attends an accident scene to rescue another from a situation created by the defendant’s negligence.

Assigning metabolic equivalent (MET) values to the 2002 Census Occupational Classification System

Background: The Current Population Survey (CPS) and the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) use the 2002 census occupation system to classify workers into 509 separate occupations arranged into 22 major occupational categories. Methods: We describe the methods and rationale for assigning detailed MET estimates to occupations and present population estimates (comparing outputs generated by analysis of previously published summary MET estimates to the detailed MET estimates) of intensities of occupational activity using the 2003 ATUS data comprised of 20,720 respondents, 5,323 (2,917 males and 2,406 females) of whom reported working 6+ hours at their primary occupation on their assigned reporting day. Results: Analysis using the summary MET estimates resulted in 4% more workers in sedentary occupations, 6% more in light, 7% less in moderate, and 3% less in vigorous compared to using the detailed MET estimates. The detailed estimates are more sensitive to identifying individuals who do any occupational activity that is moderate or vigorous in intensity resulting in fewer workers in sedentary and light intensity occupations. Conclusions: Since CPS/ATUS regularly captures occupation data it will be possible to track prevalence of the different intensity levels of occupations. Updates will be required with inevitable adjustments to future occupational classification systems.

Youth theatre and the articulation of cultural capital : refocusing Bourdieu through ethnography

This study of working-class and middle-class youth theatre workshops examines the processes through which this cultural form is appropriated by different class groups. Whereas the middle-class workshop proceeded efficiently and harmoniously, the working-class group resisted a number of institutional constraints traditionally associated with play rehearsal and performance. The processes of such symbolic struggle in the working-class group appeared to differ from Bourdieu's account of cultural domination. The article explores the explanatory contribution of the ethnographic case study to the analysis of the class basis of cultural tastes and practices and suggest that Bourdieu's account of class relations would gain from inclusion of this level of analysis. The situated study of the youth theatre workshops suggests that at this level, there is possibly more scope for symbolic struggle between the classes than was found by Bourdieu.