'I don't really care about what someone else's studied' : Drinking guidelines and the government of pleasure

This paper examines data from a Drinkwise Australia funded research project that investigated the cultural drivers of drinking in 14-24 year-old Australians. The research included two studies. In one we conducted interviews and focus groups with administrators and young people in a range of sporting clubs and in the other we interviewed 60 young people aged 20-24 about their drinking biographies. The drinking biographies study is the focus of this paper. At the time of interviewing the draft guidelines on low-risk drinking were released by the NH&MRC and we asked our participants what they knew about them and if they would affect their drinking patterns. The responses to these questions are examined in light of O’Malley and Valverde’s claim that pleasure is silenced and/or deployed strategically in liberal governance discourses about drugs and alcohol (2004: 25). This is despite the fact that research indicates that pleasure is an important motivation for drinking.

I don't know anyone that has two drinks a day : young people, alcohol and the government of pleasure

Problematic alcohol consumption is a major public health, health education and health promotion issue in Australia and internationally. In an effort to better understand young people's drinking patterns and motivations we investigated the cultural drivers of drinking in 14–24 year-old Australians. We interviewed 60 young people in the state of Victoria aged 20–24 about their drinking biographies. At the time of interviewing, the draft guidelines on low-risk drinking were released by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, and we asked our participants what they knew about them and if they thought they would affect their drinking patterns. Their responses indicate that pleasure and sociability are central to young people's drinking cultures which is supported by a range of research. However, O’Malley and Valverde claim that pleasure is silenced and/or deployed strategically in neo-liberal governance discourses about drugs and alcohol such as these guidelines which raises questions about the limits of such discourses to affect changes in drinking patterns.

Theorising irony and trauma in magical realism: Junot Díaz’s the brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao and Alexis Wright’s the swan book

Magical realism has been commonly theorized in terms of a postcolonial strategy of cultural renewal, according to which such fiction is understood as embodying a racialized epistemology allegedly inclusive of magic. The inherent exoticism of this idea has drawn criticism. Critics have recently begun to re-envision magical realism in terms of trauma theory. However, trauma readings of magical realism tend to unselfconsciously reinvigorate an authenticating rhetoric: magical realism is represented not as the organic expression of a precolonial or hybrid consciousness, but of colonial or other kinds of trauma. Through case studies of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book, this essay intervenes in trauma studies readings of magical realist literature to emphasize the fundamentally ironic nature of the iconic narrative strategy of representing the ostentatiously fantastical as real. It also argues that these texts, while invested in representing the traumas of colonialism, are less interested in authenticating magic as part of a postcolonial or traumatic epistemology than in transforming fantasy into history and empowered futurity.

In the name of humanity: the government of threat and care

In this volume, editors Ilana Feldman and Miriam Ticktin have drawn together an outstanding collection of essays exploring the concept of ‘humanity’ in a range of contexts and from a rich variety of perspectives. Tracing the categorisation of humanity throughout history in their introductory chapter, Feldman and Ticktin highlight the perennial tension inherent in its definition and use. The ever-shifting boundaries of humanity serve to include and protect even as they reject and threaten those identified as ‘other’. Each of the eleven chapters engages with the fundamental question of what it means to be human, and the implications of possible responses to this for the practice of governance. However, despite the pervasive theme of government— which is explored explicitly in the context of humanitarian law (Richard Ashby Wilson) and aid (Didier Fassin), healthcare (Joao Biehl; S. Lochlann Jain; Adriana Petryna), and the regulation of human interactions with nature (Arun Agrawal; Charles Zerner)—it is the more personal aspect of the human experience that takes centre stage in most chapters, and which offers the deepest insights into that elusive concept: ‘humanity’. It offers readers a multifaceted and open-ended account of humanity, which will inform better governance and more effective research in this field.

Voluntary activity and local government : managing volunteers or facilitating active citizenship?

This article discusses the role of voluntary activity in the local government of Australia. Two approaches to facilitating volunteer participation in local government are presented. The authors encourage administrators to frame voluntary activity in support of local government as an example of active citizenship. This approach to volunteering is framed as part of an effort to develop social capital and foster sustainable communities. The application of this approach in the Australian state of Victoria is described.

Australian public sector adoption of EDRMS : a preliminary survey

Governments around the world are placing increasing emphasis on effective corporate recordkeeping within both private and public sector organisations, with some governments mandating such approaches: for example, The State Government of South Australia has required all its agencies to have 'an adequate records management program' in place by the end of 2009 (State Records of South Australia 2007). These demands are often met through the implementation of centralised electronic records management solutions – frequently, Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) – but not all implementing organisations adopt an EDRMS solution in the most optimal way; and many such systems fail to meet organisational needs, or gain acceptance form all (or even most) users. This paper reports on a Web-based survey of Australian public sector EDRMS implementation at three levels (federal, state and local government) and forms the first component of a multi-part investigation of Australian public sector records management. This preliminary survey was designed to identify the EDRMS solutions adopted by government agencies, as well as any guidelines or frameworks used in designing and implementing those solutions.

Prelude to the birth of Wayo-Secchu (Japanese hybrid style) in Japanese early modern architecture

This paper will investigate the background of the emergence of Wayo-secchu (Japanese Hybrid Style), by re-examining the rhetoric of the government-oriented early Meiji Western style architecture and Japanese traditionalism's reaction to it. I will elucidate the undercurrent of the intentional shift in nineteenth-century Japan towards the recuperation of traditional Japanese style, a shift which initiated the Japanese hybrid style we now call Wayo-secchu. I will discuss the effect of institutional pressure to Westernize, by investigating what was meant by a new architectural method as expressed by the government of the time.

A critical analysis of central bank independence and governance in Australia and Bangladesh

This study examines central bank independence and governance (CBIG) in Bangladesh and Australia. It applies a unique index model of Ahsan, Skully and Wickramanayake (2008) to assess their respective legal, political, price stability objectives, exchange rate policies, monetary policy and deficit financing practices, transparency and accountability positions from 1991 to 2008. While the model shows CBIG is much weaker in Bangladesh than in Australia, the Bangladesh Bank’s CBIG shown considerable improvement over the period. These findings suggest that the Government of Bangladesh might learn from Australia’s experience with Reserve Bank of Australia and delegate further power and authority to Bangladesh Bank as well as lessen its political interference.

New directions in biodiversity policy and governance? : a critique of Victoria's land and biodiversity white paper

The overall condition of biodiversity in many parts of Australia is poor and declining, despite the establishment of national parks and other reserves, and the adoption of conservation activities on private land. The impacts of climate change add further challenges to sustaining biodiversity. In response to these issues, in December 2009, the State Government of Victoria released a major policy statement that aimed to provide the framework and directions to secure the health of Victoria's biodiversity and associated land and water resources over the next 50 years. Given Victoria's reputation for environmental policy reform and innovation, the question arises as to whether the Victorian approach will provide a model for other Australian jurisdictions to adopt or adapt. Drawing on insights from environmental policy, discourse theory, and ecological theory, this article provides a critique of Victoria's approach, focusing on the way in which biodiversity is conceptualised and governed.

The entrepreneurial self and youth at-risk : exploring the horizons of identity in the 21st century

This paper argues that a particular form of selfhood has come to dominate the horizons of identity in the Western democracies at this time - I refer to this form of personhood as the entrepreneurial self. The paper argues that the figure (population) of ‘Youth at-risk’, in its negativity, illuminates the positivity that is the entrepreneurial Self. That is, the discourses that construct Youth at-risk reveal the truths about whom we should, as adults, become. The paper engages with Foucault’s theories of government, of (Neo)Liberalism as a problematisation of the practise of Liberal welfare government, and of the ways in which certain psychological discourses articulate with (Neo)Liberal views of enterprise to produce a view of the Self as the entrepreneurial Self.