Pedagogical work and the 'cult of the body': Considering the role of HPE in the context of the 'new public health'

Physical education, now often explicitly identified with health in contemporary school curricula, continues to be implicated in the (re)production of the 'cult of the body'. We argue that HPE is a form of health promotion that attempts to 'make' healthy citizens of young people in the context of the 'risk society'. In our view there is still work to be done in understanding how and why physical education (as HPE) continues to be implicated in the reproduction of values associated with the cult of body. We are keen to understand why HPE continues to be ineffective in helping young people gain some measure of analytic and embodied 'distance' from the problematic aspects of the cult of the body. This paper offers an analysis of this enduring issue by using some contemporary analytic discourses including 'governmentality', 'risk society' and the 'new public health'.

Do Australian public sector employees have the type of culture they want in the era of new public management?

New public management theory proposes that public sector organisations should be managed more like private sector organisations. It is therefore expected that public sector managers will have preferences for an organisational culture that will reflect the culture of private sector organisations, with an external rather than internal orientation. The current research investigated the idea that managers' perceptions of ideal organisational culture would be different to the bureaucratic model of culture (internally oriented), which has traditionally been associated with public sector organisations. Responses to a competing values culture inventory were received from 925 public sector employees. Results indicated that the bureaucratic model is still pervasive; however, managers prefer a culture that is more external, and less control focussed, as expected. Lower level employees expressed a desire for a culture that emphasised human relations values.

Developing New Tourism Services: Dinosaurs a New Drive Tourism Resource for Remote Areas

This paper examines issues encountered when developing new tourism services generally, and specific aspects relating to the development of remote area dinosaur fossil fields for tourism. It studies two sites, one in the USA and one in Australia. Access to both sites is by minor roads, and both sites are characterised by long drives separating the sites from small communities that offer limited infrastructure and few other attractions for visitors. In both areas, however, tourism is seen as one of the few possible ways to sustain existing communities in the face of declining primary-industry-based employment. In general, tourists visiting these areas are on touring holidays of two weeks’ duration or more where the attraction is the general attributes of the region as well as to a lesser extent their interest in dinosaur fossils. These provide a potential resource for remote-region economic development through commodification as a new tourism attraction. Development of dinosaur fossil finds as a tourism resource is conceptualised here as new service development. Developing new tourism services, especially in remote regions, is challenging and has not been well examined in the tourism literature. The new service development process used in this case study first examines the characteristics of the existing tourists travelling through the region. The characteristics of a number of potential market segments currently interested in dinosaur fossils were then examined and contrasted with the existing market. This is conceptualised on a specialist-generalist spectrum of interest in fossils. A study of the tourist service features associated with dinosaur fossil tourism in remote regions of the USA was conducted, leading to the identification of a number of possible incremental development opportunities. The paper then takes a strategic approach to examining potential new tourism service development related to dinosaur fossils in remote regions of Queensland, Australia. In particular, it describes use of information about existing services in similar regions as the basis for ideas about development as well as comparison between existing and potential markets.

Conditional release: A less restrictive alternative to hospitalization?

Objective: This study examined conditional release - that is, involuntary outpatient commitment orders upon release from hospitalization - as a least restrictive alternative to psychiatric hospitalization in Victoria, Australia. Methods: Records were obtained from the Victorian Psychiatric Case Register for patients who experienced psychiatric hospitalization: between 1990 and 2000 a total of 8,879 patients were given conditional release and 16,094 were not. Results: Compared with the group that was hospitalized but did not receive a conditional release, the group that received a conditional release was more likely to have more prior hospitalizations of greater than average duration. Patients with schizophrenia were more likely to be given conditional release. Patients given conditional release experienced a care pattern involving briefer inpatient episodes (8.3 fewer days per episode), more inpatient days, and longer duration of restrictive care - that is, combined inpatient and conditional release periods (5.1 more days per month in care). Conclusions: For patients at risk of long-term hospitalization, conditional release may help to shorten inpatient episodes by providing a least restrictive alternative to continued hospitalization. However, patients who were given conditional release doubled the amount of days they spent under restrictive care, compared with the amount of time they previously spent in the hospital before entering a period of combined inpatient and conditional release commitment. Additional oversight may have led to more frequent hospitalization. This consequence raises new questions regarding the possible benefits of such extended oversight and new challenges for release planning using conditional release as a least restrictive method of care.

Going up? Women in the public sector

Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to document women's reflections on their careers over a ten-year period to provide quantitative baseline data on which to frame follow-up in-depth interviews. The participants work in the public service in Queensland (Australia) and had been recommended for, and participated in, women in management (WIM) courses conducted in the early 1990s. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by means of a survey (containing closed and open items) which gathered demographic data and data related to employment history, perceptions of success and satisfaction, and the women's future career expectations. Findings – Findings revealed that the percentage of women in middle and senior management had increased over the ten-year period, although not to the extent one might have anticipated, given that the women had been targeted as high flyers by their supervisors. While not content with their classification levels (i.e. seniority), the majority of the cohort viewed their careers as being successful. Practical implications – Questions arise from this study as to why women are still “not getting to the top”. There are also policy implications for the public service concerning women's possible “reinventive contribution” and training implications associated with women only courses. Originality/value – The study is part of an Australian longitudinal study on the careers of women who attended a prestigious women-only management course in the early 1990s in Queensland. This is now becoming a study of older women.

Social identity and perceptions of media persuasion: Are we always less influenced than others?

People typically perceive negative media content (e.g., violence) to have more impact on others than on themselves (a third-person effect). To examine the perceived effects of positive content (e.g., public-service advertisements) and the moderating role of social identities, we examined students' perceptions of the impact of AIDS advertisements on self, students (in- group), nonstudents (out-group), and people in general. Perceived self-other differences varied with the salience of student identity. Low identifiers displayed the typical third-person effect, whereas high identifiers were more willing to acknowledge impact on themselves and the student in-group. Further, when influence was normatively accept able within the in-group, high identifiers perceived self and students (us) as more influenced than nonstudents (them). The theoretical and practical implications of this reversal in third-person perceptions are discussed.

Rural community pharmacists integrating care for people with complex health needs

The project involves rural/regional community pharmacists integrating care for complex needs patients and delivering a range of services, based on a care plan developed collaboratively with the GP and the consumer. The pharmacist will coordinate other services based on the multidisciplinary care plan. This research follows a successful pilot project and offers an opportunity to investigate new health service delivery in rural areas for patients at greater health related risk. Care integration will be compared to usual care, with outcomes relating to medication and health service usage, as well as clinical and quality of life outcomes being compared

High dependency units: Issues to consider in their planning

This review discusses the issues to be considered in establishing new or extending existing high dependency unit (HDU) services. A defined high dependency service becomes cost-effective when patient care requires more than one nurse for three patients. Professional guidelines for HDUs vary and there are no national accreditation criteria. Casemix and service delivery specifications for the HDU need to be defined and agreed upon within the institution. Establishing a new HDU service requires changes to care delivery. Many potential HDU patients are currently managed in general wards or in the intensive care unit. The service should be discussed widely and marketed within the institution, and the development of defined working relationships with the ICU and primary care teams oil the wards is mandatory.

An Australian PR state?

In their 1994 study Taxation and Representation, Deacon and Golding point to the extensive use of press and public relations professionals by governments to promote policy, and to outmanouvre their opponents. With the UK specifically in mind, they warn: 'we cannot ignore the massive expansion of the public relations state.' (p.6). What distinguishes their approach from the more usual preoccupation with the use of 'spin' to 'package' political leaders is a focus on the institutionalisation of public relations within government. In this paper, I explore the utililty of the concept, and consider what the broad features of an Australian 'PR State' might be.