Enabling e-governance through Web 2.0 : role of ICTs in civic assignation

Citizen participation is essential for progressive representative democracies.  In this paper, we analyze the rolw of ICTs and particularly Web 2.0, in Indian Elections of 2009, to unearth it ICTs had enabled citizen empowerment and engagement e-democracy.  We build on preliminary research over the past decase, anf outline the role of Web 2.0 in the pivotal elections process using the methodological framework of historiography and critical discourse analysis.

The Civic School : Australian-Indonesian professional collaboration to model and audit the development of democratic primary classrooms and teacher language using the index for inclusion

The study is a pilot project in Australian-Indonesian institutional collaboration for the professional development of primary school teachers in West Sumatra in citizenship education. Senior staff in the department of Pancasila and Citizenship Education at the State University of Padang (UNP), West Sumatra initiated the project. UNP staff sought the collaboration of the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania for bringing about and sustaining changes in teacher practice needed to implement the new civic goals in the 1999 Suplemen. The Index for Inclusion was used to model and audit the development of democratic primary classrooms and language use in a cluster of Padang schools in West Sumatra. The paper describes the background to the project and how the Index for Inclusion was understood during the initial two-week implementation phase by teachers and school principals. The significance of the study lies in the potential of the Index for Inclusion internationally to citizenship education, a field of education that was not considered in the initial development of the Index project and the contribution of the multiple fields of inquiry to the evolving theoretical understandings of inclusive education.

Reading for meaning : problematizing inclusion in Indonesian civic education

This paper reports on the use of the Index for Inclusion in five socioeconomically different primary school contexts in Indonesia. The research was designed and developed through Australian and Indonesian teachers and teacher educators collaborative efforts over a year. The work took place during the post‐Suharto reform period and focuses on the field of Civics education. The research examines what the ethic of inclusion means to teachers participating in political and educational democratization as they attempt to embrace and develop citizenship classroom practices that feature respect for difference. The theoretical interest is in both citizenship theory and inclusion; showing how the civic cultures of school and nation intersect; and the implications of that intersection for inclusion theory and cross‐cultural theorizing of inclusion more broadly.

Dignity, virtue and punishment : the ethical justification of disciplinary segregation in prisoners

In this paper I reflect on Bersot and Arrigo’s argument that virtue ethics provides a sound ethical theory to guide judicial decisions concerning the legitimacy of subjecting mentality disordered offenders to long-term disciplinary solitary confinement. I expand on three issues evident in the Bersot and Arrigo paper: (1) the nature and justification of punishment; (2) the concept of dignity and its relevance to mentally disordered offenders placed in disciplinary solitary confinement, and (3) the nature and scope of virtue theory in the criminal justice context.

The paradox of virtue : (re)thinking deviance, anorexia and schooling

In this paper we posit a radical retheorization of anorexia as a form of deviance. We examine how the disciplinary practices and moral technologies typical of contemporary secondary schooling signify and enter into the articulation of three ‘virtue discourses’ (discipline, achievement and healthism), and tease out how these ‘virtue discourses’ play into the formation of the ‘anorexic’ subject. Informed by Foucauldian theory, our analysis draws on our life history interview study with teenage girls diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and their parents. We argue that anorexia can be understood not as a form of deviance but as a ‘paradox of virtue’ involving zealous compliance with and taking up of socially and culturally sanctioned ‘virtue discourses’ that are immanent in schooling and wider society.

Civic integration for religious community leaders new to Australia : a multifaith peacebuilding approach

We inhabit a mobile world. Globalisation has resulted in the rise of the movement of religion and therefore an increase in religiously diverse societies. A heightened awareness of global risks has also produced an unprecedented interest in global peace and security initiatives. Multifaith peacebuilding is an example of this phenomenon as it has gained increasing prominence on the global agenda since September 11. The role of religious leaders in promoting violence and peace is being examined by scholars, as is the growing multifaith peacebuilding movement. This paper will discuss a recent Australian pilot study, which applied a multifaith peacebuilding approach to civic integration training for religious community leaders. It argues that the peacebuilding potential of religious community leaders must be recognised and that integration strategies that are inclusive and promote the building of networks between multiple function systems, can contribute to security and social cohesion in diverse societies. Alternately, assimilationist, exclusionist strategies can exacerbate security risks. In an increasingly mobile world, religious diversity has become the norm and multifaith peacebuilding strategies require further research and state support.