Managing dynamic public sector networks : effectiveness, performance, and a methodological framework in the field of national security

Networks are increasing in number and in importance across the security field as a means of providing inter-agency coordination. Based on a large qualitative study of networks in the field of national security in Australia, this article aims to advance our knowledge of the internal properties of public sector networks in the field of national security and the conditions shaping their performance. It puts forward a multi-level theoretical framework involving five interdependent levels of analysis—structural, cultural, policy, technological, and relational—which aims to account for the internal properties of networks and examines each of these levels in relation to public sector networks in the field of national security. Using detailed interviews with senior members of security, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, the article aims to highlight the potential lessons this framework has for strategically organizing and managing dynamic networks within and beyond the field of national security.

Cultural and gender politics in Australian education, the rise of edu-capitalism and the 'fragile project' of critical educational research

This paper draws on research by Australians on Australian education to explore the tension between being critical and being marginalised. In it, I examine how research is positioned in the changing field of education in relation to government, society and the economy in the context of the rise of edu-capitalism globally. I then explore the policy shifts framing the cultural and gender politics of the research/policy problematic in Australia from the perspective of policy critique, policy service and policy advocacy. I consider how the global reconfiguring and reframing of higher education is impacting on the nature and institutional base of educational research, and it’s gendered implications. Finally, I argue that critical educational research is what makes educational research distinctive and also ‘makes a difference’ within a democratic society.

Imagining a new future for cultural landscapes

The 1992 adoption of ‘cultural landscape’ as an additional type of recognition on the World Heritage List was supposed to be a ground-breaking moment for heritage management in Australia and New Zealand, as both countries had pushed for continuing and associative landscapes to change the perceptions and practices of heritage management. Yet fast-forward to 2015, and one might be left wondering what happened? While there is no longer a need to convince people of the value of cultural landscapes for heritage management, the incorporation of cultural landscape ideas into our property-based 'heritage frame' with its preoccupation with land use and development controls appears to have stalled. At the same time, a growing community of heritage studies scholars are critical of heritage practice, and position cultural landscapes as an initiative that the World Heritage system was forced to adopt in order ‘to incorporate a broader range of values around heritage’ (Harrison 2013: 115). This critique of the under-theorised heritage field has had some stimulating effects, but falls short of providing guidance for practitioners. To consider the aspirations and directions for the future for cultural landscapes, this paper suggests that we need to look at heritage theory and practice together, focussing on innovation wherever we find it, and develop further theorisation through our experiences. We suggest that innovation can come from local settings away from more formalised heritage processes, where communities, practitioners, managers and researchers are trying new things as a result of their encounters with cultural landscapes, and where they are learning and ‘knowing-by-doing’.

The heritage 'NGO': a case study on the role of grass roots heritage societies in Iran and their perception of cultural heritage

This paper examines the activities of a group of heritage enthusiasts in Iran. Grass roots heritage activism is a relatively recent phenomenon that appeared in Iran since the late 1990s. They are increasingly operating collectively as cultural or heritage NGOs. They have diverse socio-economic origins and political views. However, as this paper argues, they share a common ground in their activities; one that maintains an ambivalent and critical relationship with the state and official definitions of heritage and identity. Referring to interview and other data collected during fieldwork in Iran, this paper traces and analyses the contours of that common ground and argues that there is a nascent heritage movement in the country. The impact and contribution of these emerging and self-reflective heritage movements to Iranian identity, which is reflected in their embracing of diversity and the notion of historical continuity, reveal the dynamism and complexity of the cultural and political landscape of contemporary Iranian society. They also reveal the importance of generating further scholarship in the field of Iranian cultural heritage. In conceptualising the characteristics of a nascent heritage movement in Iran, the paper makes a new contribution to the approach of existing scholarship in the broader field of heritage studies.

Field experience : international student experiences in Australia

Many university programs in Australia undertaken by international students include a field experience (work placements, practicum, work-integrated learning, internships). This component of the program provides teaching and learning opportunities for international students to socialise into workplace settings often in unfamiliar cultural contexts. This presentation draws on data from an Australian Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) Innovation and Development grant Improving work placement for international students, their mentors and other stakeholders across six universities. An outcome of the project was a ‘model’ developed by the team. This will be discussed taking into account the relationship between the concepts of internationalisation, professional socialisation and reflection. Ideas and recommendations on how to improve international students’ experience during the placement will be shared.

A cross-cultural study of somatic countertransference

Somatic countertransference is a valuable clinical tool in psychoanalytic practice, which provides the clinician with clues about the emerging, inter subjective and relational field of the analytic dyad. This thesis explores how somatic countertransference occurs and how best to work with from a cross-cultural perspective.

Book review: Glamour in the Pacific. Cultural internationalism and race politics in the women's Pan-Pacific

Since the publication of Leila J. Rupp’s Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women’s Movement in 1997, historians have begun to investigate the myriad ways in which women, largely excluded from formal, government-based international relations, nonetheless forged significant personal and institutional relationships across national and cultural boundaries. As a result, women’s international activism has become an increasingly popular field of scholarly enquiry.