Strengthening the Foundations: Mutuality and the Performing Arts

Following the positive response by governments to the report of Helen Nugent's major performing arts inquiry, urgent attention needs to be given to the seedbed companies where so often audiences are introduced to the performing arts and practitioners are launched on their professional careers. Doing so calls for lateral thinking such as will enable the widest possible range of stakeholders to become involved. One solution may be to develop multi-stakeholder arts mutuals from the simpler arts mutuals such as co-operatives which are already widespread in many spheres of arts activity. Relevant models include the multi-stakeholder mutuals of the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation and the employee mutuals which are being trialled currently in Britain. Possible stakeholders in an arts mutual could include employed, unemployed and trainee practitioners, professional, quasi-professional and amateur theatre bodies, community groups, municipal councils and statutory bodies such as the ABC. Mutualist models may also be helpful to major performing arts companies facing erosion of their subscription incomes or incurring higher support services costs.

The criminalisation of medical mistakes in Canada : a review

The issue of health professionals facing criminal charges of manslaughter or criminal negligence causing death or grievous bodily harm as a result of alleged negligence in their professional practice was thrown into stark relief by the recent acquittal of four physicians accused of mismanaging Canada’s blood system in the early 1980s. Stories like these, as well as international reports detailing an increase in the numbers of physicians being charged with (and in some cases convicted of) serious criminal offences as the result of alleged negligence in their professional practice, have resulted in some anxiety about the apparent increase in the incidence of such charges and their appropriateness in the healthcare context. Whilst research has focused on the incidence, nature and appropriateness of criminal charges against health professionals, particularly physicians, for alleged negligence in their professional practice in the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and New Zealand, the Canadian context has yet to be examined. This article examines the Canadian context and how the criminal law is used to regulate the negligent acts or omissions of a health care professional in the course of their professional practice. It also assesses the appropriateness of such use. It is important at this point to state that the analysis in this article does not focus on those, fortunately few, cases where a health professional has intentionally killed his or her patients but rather when patients’ deaths or grievous injuries were allegedly as a result of that health professional’s negligent acts or omissions when providing health services to that patient.

Industrial Relations: Proceedings from the 1999 Australasian Drama Studies Association Conference

These papers were presented at “Industrial Relations”, the Australasian Drama Studies Association conference hosted by Theatre & Teaching Studies in the Academy of the Arts, Queensland University of Technology, from the 5th to the 9th of July, 1999. Conference delegates included scholars and artists from across the tertiary education and professional theatre sectors, including, of course, many individuals who work across and between both those worlds. More than a hundred delegates from Australia, New Zealand, England, Belgium and Canada attended the week’s events, which included: • Over sixty conference papers covering a variety of topics from project reports to academy/industry partnerships, theatre history, audience reception studies, health & safety, cultural policy, performance theory, theatre technology and more; • Performances ranging from drama to dance, music and cabaret; • Workshops, panel discussions, forums and interviews; • Keynote addresses from Wesley Enoch, Josette Feral and Keith Johnstone; and • A special “Links with Industry” day, which included the launch of ADSA’s “Links with Industry” brochure, an interview between Mark Radvan and David Williamson, and a panel session featuring Jules Holledge, Zane Trow, Katharine Brisbane, John Kotzas, Gay McAuley and David Watt.

Juvenile justice in Queensland and Canada : new legislation reflecting new directions

Due to their similar colonial histories and common law heritage, Australia and Canada provide an ideal comparative context for examining legislation reflecting new directions in the field of juvenile justice. Toward this end, this article compares the revised juvenile justice legislation which came into force in Queensland and Canada in 2003 (Canada, Youth Criminal Justice Act, enacted on 19 February 2002 and proclaimed in force 1 April 2003; Queensland, Juvenile Justice Act, amended 2003). There are a series of questions that could be addressed including: How similar and how sweeping have been the legislative changes introduced in each jurisdiction?; What are likely to be some of the effects of the implementation of these new legislative regimes?; and, how well does the legislation enacted in either jurisdiction address the fundamental difficulties experienced by children who have been caught up in juvenile justice systems? This article addresses mainly the first of these questions, offering a systematic comparison of recent Queensland and Canadian legislative changes. Although, due to the recentness of these changes, there is no data available to assess long-term effects, anecdotal evidence and preliminary research findings from our comparative study are offered to provide a start at answering the second question. We also offer critical yet sympathetic comments on the ability of legislation to address the fundamental difficulties experienced by children caught up in juvenile justice systems. Specifically, we conclude that while more than simple legislative responses are required to address the difficulties faced by youth offenders, and especially overrepresented Indigenous young offenders, the amended Queensland and new Canadian legislation appear to provide some needed reforms that can be used to help address some of these fundamental difficulties.

Conceptual framework for managing knowledge of police deviance

This is a conceptual article on police deviance and its multi-faceted forms. It seeks to address the lack of an adequately formulated framework in the literature of the breadth and depth of police misconduct and corruption. The article argues for the use of a proposed ‘sliding scale’ of police deviance by examining the nature, extent and progression of police deviance and crime using research in Australia and Canada as illustrative case studies. This sliding scale is designed to research, capture and store, and hence extend the knowledge base of what constitutes police deviance at the level of the individual, the group and the organisational contexts of policing. As such, the conceptual framework is a robust yet flexible research tool and its utility as a sliding scale constitutes a step forward in advancing the knowledge on police deviance and criminality through adopting an integrated and holistic approach to managing such knowledge.

The 2010 Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Conference

The 2010 Native American Indigenous Studies Conference was held at The Westin La Paloma Resort, Tucson, Arizona, USA from 20-22 May. The conference was scholarly and interdisciplinary and intended for Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars who work in American Indian/ Native American/ First Nations/ Aboriginal/ Indigenous Studies. The 2010 gathering attracted 768 registrations from the USA, Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia and other countries. This paper is a personal reflection and overview of the 2010 Conference.

Drugs, dental professionals and the law

Dentists have the privilege of possessing, administering and prescribing drugs, including highly addictive medications, to their patients. But because drugs are often vulnerable to being abused by all members of society, including dentists and their patients, and because drugs can be dangerous, they are tightly regulated in Canada by the federal and provincial/territorial governments. Regulatory and professional dental bodies also provide guidance for their members about how to best administer and prescribe drugs. This chapter outlines the regulation by federal and provincial/territorial governments in this area, examines the professional practice requirements set out by regulatory/professional bodies and the issue of drug abuse by dental professional and patients. It is important to note from the outset that governmental and professional regulations, policies and practices differ from province to province and territory to territory. This chapter aims to alert dentists to possible legal and professional issues surrounding the possession, administration and prescription of drugs. For detailed specific information about regulation, policies, ethical standards and professional practice standards in Canada or their province/ territory, dentists should contact their insurer or professional association.

The new middle class meets the creative class : the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and creative innovation in 21st-century China

‘MBA fever’ in China needs to be understood in the wider context of forces driving structural change in China’s relation to the global knowledge economy. The rise of a ‘new middle class’ in China is connected to the new claims for cultural leadership of an emergent ‘creative class’, which generates new issues about the relevance of the MBA in China, in terms of its relevance to Chinese economic circumstances, and its flexibility and capacity to respond to accumulation strategies that emphasise innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.

Contexts, hybrids and network governance : a comparison of three case-studies in infrastructure governance

While hybrid governance arrangements have been a major element of organisational architecture for some time, the contemporary operating environment has brought to the fore new conditions and expectations for the governance of entities that span conventional public sector departments, private firms and community organisations or groups. These conditions have resulted in a broader array of mixed governance configurations including Public Private Partnerships, alliances, and formal and informal collaborations. In some such arrangements, market based or ‘complete’ contractual relationships have been introduced to replace or supplement existing traditional ‘hierarchical’ and/or newer relational ‘network-oriented’ institutional associations. While there has been a greater reliance on collaborative or relational contracts as an underpinning institutional model, other modes of hierarchy and market may remain in operation. The success of these emergent hybrid forms has been mixed. There are examples of hybrids that have been well adopted, achieving the desired goals of efficiency, effectiveness and financial accountability; while others have experienced implementation problems which have undermined their results. This paper postulates that the cultural and institutional context within which hybrids operate may contribute to the implementation processes employed and the level of success attained. The paper explores hybrid arrangements through three cases of the use of inter-organisational arrangements in three different national contexts. Distilling the various elements of hybrids and the impact of institutional context will provide important insights for those charged with the responsibility for the formation and key infrastructure and public value development.

Indigenous knowledge and effective parent / school partnerships : insights and issues from 4 school case studies

Towards the last decade of the last millennium, Indigenous knowledge has been central to scholarly debates relating to decolonising knowledge on a global level. Much of these debates were advanced by Indigenous scholars in colonised countries particularly Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Indigenous scholars argue for the location of Indigenous knowledge as the epistemological standpoint (Battiste, Bell and Findlay, 2002; Kai’a, 2005; Nakata 2002, 2007) for intellectual engagements and methodology for resisting colonial constructions of the colonised other (Rigney, 1997; Smith, 1999, 2005). However, the challenge to engage Indigenous knowledge to inform research and educational processes, in many respects, is still a contested debate in western-oriented universities and institutions of higher education. The place of Indigenous knowledge in Australian secondary and primary schools remains vague, while efforts to embed Indigenous perspectives in the curriculum continue to be made by both government and private educational providers. Educational funding for Indigenous education continues to operate from a ‘deficiency’ model, whereby educational outcomes are often measured against set criteria, reflecting a pass/fail structure, than a more comprehensive investigation of educational outcomes and quality of learning experiences. Teacher knowledge, effective parental and community engagement into students’ learning and students’ experiences of schooling continue to be secondary to students’ final results. This paper presents preliminary findings of Parent School Partnership Initiative (PSPI) project conducted by the Oodgeroo Unit at the Queensland University of Technology in partnerships with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Focus Group for the Caboolture Shire, in South East Queensland. The state government sponsored initiative was to examine factors that promote and enhance parent/school engagement with their students’ schooling, and to contribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ learning and completion of secondary schooling within the participating schools in a more holistic way. We present four school case studies and discuss some of the early findings. We conclude by arguing the importance of the recognition of Indigenous knowledge and its place in enhancing parent – schools partnerships.

Long-evans rats acquire operant self-administration of 20% ethanol without sucrose fading

A major obstacle in the development of new medications for the treatment of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) has been the lack of preclinical, oral ethanol consumption paradigms that elicit high consumption. We have previously shown that rats exposed to 20% ethanol intermittently in a two-bottle choice paradigm will consume two times more ethanol than those given continuous access without the use of water deprivation or sucrose fading (5-6 g/kg every 24 h vs 2-3 g/kg every 24 h, respectively). In this study, we have adapted the model to an operant self-administration paradigm. Long-Evans rats were given access to 20% ethanol in overnight sessions on one of two schedules: (1) intermittent (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) or (2) daily (Monday through Friday). With the progression of the overnight sessions, both groups showed a steady escalation in drinking (3-6 g/kg every 14 h) without the use of a sucrose-fading procedure. Following the acquisition phase, the 20% ethanol groups consumed significantly more ethanol than did animals trained to consume 10% ethanol with a sucrose fade (1.5 vs 0.7 g/kg every 30 min) and reached significantly higher blood ethanol concentrations. In addition, training history (20% ethanol vs 10% ethanol with sucrose fade) had a significant effect on the subsequent self-administration of higher concentrations of ethanol. Administration of the pharmacological stressor yohimbine following extinction caused a significant reinstatement of ethanol-seeking behavior. Both 20% ethanol models show promise and are amenable to the study of maintenance, motivation, and reinstatement. Furthermore, training animals to lever press for ethanol without the use of sucrose fading removes a potential confound from self-administration studies. © 2010 Nature Publishing Group All rights reserved.

China's new Creative Clusters : Governance, Human Capital and Investment

Recognising that creativity is a major driving force in the post-industrial economy, the Chinese government has recently established a range of "creative clusters" – industrial parks devoted to media industries, and arts districts – in order to promote the development of the creative industries. This book examines these new creative clusters, outlining their nature and purpose, and assessing their effectiveness. Drawing on case studies of a range of cluster models, and comparing them with international examples, the book demonstrates that creativity, both in China and internationally, is in fact a process of fitting new ideas to existing patterns, models and formats. It shows how large and exceptionally impressive creative clusters have been successfully established, but raises the important questions of whether profit or culture is the driving force, and of whether the bringing together of independent-minded, creative people, entrepreneurial businessmen, preferential policies and foreign investment may in time lead to unintended changes in social and political attitudes in China, including a weakening of state bureaucratic power. An important contribution to the existing literature on the subject, this book will be of great interest to scholars of urban studies, cultural geography, cultural economics and Asian studies.

International transfer pricing : the Australian approach and lessons for Canada

In response to developments in international trade and an increased focus on international transfer-pricing issues, Canada’s minister of finance announced in the 1997 budget that the Department of Finance would undertake a review of the transfer-pricing provisions in the Income Tax Act. On September 11, 1997, the Department of Finance released draft transfer-pricing legislation and Revenue Canada released revised draft Information Circular 87-2R. The legislation was subsequently amended and included in Bill C-28, which received first reading on December 10, 1997. The new rules are intended to update Canada’s international transfer-pricing practices. In particular, they attempt to harmonize the standards in the Income Tax Act with the arm’s-length principle established in the OECD’s transfer pricing guidelines. The new rules also set out contemporaneous documentation requirements in respect of cross-border related-party transactions, facilitate administration of the law by Revenue Canada, and provide for a penalty where transfer prices do not comply with the arm’s-length principle. The Australian tax authorities have similarly reviewed and updated their transfer-pricing practices. Since 1992, the Australian commissioner of taxation has issued three rulings and seven draft rulings directly relating to international transfer pricing. These rulings outline the selection and application of transfer pricing methodologies, documentation requirements, and penalties for non-compliance. The Australian Taxation Office supports the use of advance pricing agreements (APAs) and has expanded its audit strategy by conducting transfer-pricing risk assessment reviews. This article presents a detailed review of Australia’s transfer-pricing policy and practices, which address essentially the same concerns as those at which the new Canadian rules are directed. This review provides a framework for comparison of the approaches adopted in the two jurisdictions. The author concludes that although these approaches differ in some respects, ultimately they produce a similar result. Both regimes set a clear standard to be met by multinational enterprises in establishing transfer prices. Both provide for audits and penalties in the event of noncompliance. And both offer the alternative of an APA as a means of avoiding transfer-pricing disputes with Australian and Canadian tax authorities.