Is a healthy diet affordable and accessible in the city of Yarra, Victoria Australia? An analysis of cost disparity and nutritional choices

This study aimed to examine cost disparity and nutritional choices within the
City of Yarra (Yarra), targeting three suburbs that have low- and high-rise
estates: Richmond, Fitzroy, and Collingwood. The healthy food basket
(HFB) was modeled on the Queensland Healthy Food Access Basket for a
six-person family for a fortnight and was constructed to include food items
that are common to ethnic groups living in Yarra. The HFB food item costs
were sampled across 29 food outlets in Yarra. The average cost of HFB per fortnight
for a family of six was significantly lower in Richmond (Mean = $419.26)
than in Collingwood (Mean = $519.28) and in Fitzroy (Mean = $433.98). While
costs for cereal groups, dairy, meats and alternatives, and non-core were
comparable across the suburbs, significant differences were noticed for fruit,
legumes and vegetables. Geographic location alone explained 54% of the
variance in HFB price (F_2,26 = 15.23, p < 0.001) and 32.7% in the variance of
fruit, vegetable and legumes (F_2,26 = 7.72, p < 0.001). The effect of geographic
location remained consistent after controlling for the type of food
outlets. The type of food outlets had a non-significant effect on the variance
of prices. Richmond had a greater number variety of fruit, vegetables, and
legumes (F_{2, 26} = 5.7, p < 0.01) and an overall lower number of missing items
(F_{2, 26} = 3.9, p < 0.05) than Collingwood and Fitzroy. The diversity of food
available in the three suburbs was more likely to reflect the Vietnamese,
Chinese and East-Timorese shopping pattern than the rest of other ethnic

Provision of meals on wheels to the elderly : case studies in the era of local government reform

Australia’s ageing population is on the increase. It is predicted that by 2021 one quarter of Victoria’s elderly population will be aged 60 and over. Not only are people living longer, but they also wish to remain living in the community. The Home and Community Care (HACC) Program was established in 1985 to facilitate and assist the elderly and disabled to remain in their home. In Victoria around 51% of HACC funds are managed by local governments, a level of government that has recently undergone major reforms, which ultimately impacted on the manner in which services were provided. The HACC program funds Meals on Wheels, a service that provides meals for those elderly who no longer can prepare their own meals. The aim of this study was to assess the Meals on Wheels service provided by two Melbourne councils with different service philosophies. The study has four main components: (1) Menu analysis by food and variety; (2) Analysis of actual meals; (3) Clients assessment of Food Services; and (4) Client assessment of the organoleptic qualities of Meals on Wheels. Two Melbourne councils were chosen for their different approaches to service delivery. The City of South tendered out both meal production and delivery, while the City of North maintained its MOW service in-house. The case study method of research allowed for each council’s service to be assessed objectively and without comparison. Several methodologies were used for collecting data in this study. Menu analysis was carried out by comparing the MOW menus with the HACC menu planning guidelines together with general menu planning principles. Analysis of actual meals was in two stages. The weights of the meals were recorded and compared with the HACC recommended food serving portions and meal combinations over a five-day period were analysed for their nutrient contents. Face to face interviews were conducted with clients for their assessment of MOW and the assessment of the organoleptic qualities of the meals was carried out over a five-day period. The results concluded that both councils menus were based on sound menu planning principles, but did not conform with Home and Community Care menu planning guidelines fully and did not include a serve of bread, fruit and milk. The weight analysis of the meal combinations revealed some discrepancies between actual meals and Home and Community Care guidelines by not meeting the recommended serving sizes. Meal combinations generally met Home and Community Care standard for kilojoule and protein, but other nutrients, such as thiamin, riboflavin, magnesium, calcium and zinc were generally below the recommended levels for Meals On Wheels. The majority of study group lived alone and received four to five meals per week. Delivery times of meals, selective menus and food quality were issues raised by clients. Whilst the quality and variety of vegetables was raised by clients they generally rated the organoleptic qualities of the meals as satisfactory. This study examined the four components of the service. A simple method of evaluation the service was developed, which highlight discrepancies with HACC standards and encouraged the councils to set a customer satisfaction standard. A number of recommendations are made to ensure that meals are aesthetically pleasing, including a list of different methods for preparing vegetables. The provision of additional foods, such as a “snack pack” is recommended to improve the supply of essential nutrients that were below the Home and Community Care standards. Meals on Wheels is a vital support service for the elderly living in the community and as such should aim to provide a high quality service that meets the needs of its clients.

After hours schools as core to the spatial politics of in-betweeness

In this article the authors draw on a larger study in which their overall concern is to illustrate how diasporic identifications develop through a range of scales related to self, family, community, nation and beyond. They consider the Melbourne Greek community as an exemplar of diasporic experience and use it as a case study for their investigation, which is aimed at exploring how transcultural literacies relate to spaces which complicate and enrich identifications. In this article they consider the role of 'after hours' schools in the shaping of diasporic identities. These are community-based schools where Greek language and culture is taught. Commonly, classes are held on Saturday morning or in the evenings during the week. Such schools operate in classrooms that are rented from 'real' schools. By existing in spaces that are commonly occupied by mainstream day schools, students who attend 'after hours' schools experience a form of marginalisation that is also a right of passage. Here the authors argue that such 'in-between' spaces assist with the formation of 'in-between' identities that are emblematic of globalization.

From country town to provincial city : Albury, 1934-1949

Examines the process of urbanisation in non-metropolitan New South Wales by focusing on the transition of Albury from country town to provincial city. The study traces changes in function, form, government and society.

Validating planning heritage : evidence and reasoning for national heritage recognition of the 'City of Adelaide Plan' and park lands

The Adelaide Park Lands and the ‘City of Adelaide Plan’ (1837), as prepared by Colonel William Light, have long been held up as an international precedent in town planning literature. The celebrated model, embraced by Ebenezer Howard to describe his Garden City theory, has several layers of cultural landscape heritage. The ‘Plan’, in recent years, has been subject to a rigorous investigation of its Indigenous and colonization evolutionary layers to inform moves to list the landscape as possessing national heritage status under relevant Australian heritage regimes, and more recently under the National Heritage List regime, as a pre-emptive strategy towards an eventual World Heritage nomination of the cultural landscape and ‘Plan’.

Spectres in the city –De Chirico’s mythologized streetscapes

It is generally accepted that some of the unsettling scenes of the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, arose from his response to the northern Italian city of Turin, a city he claimed a great affinity with. While de Chirico’s paintings and commentary of this period abound with references to Turin, there has been little investigation into how genuine these citied locations really are. We know that de Chirico’s preference for Turin arose from his passionate engagement with the writings of the philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche and Nietzsche’s fondness for the city. Yet there is much evidence to suggest that Munich, the city of de Chirico’s early art school days permeated his imagery more completely; whereas Turin reflected his philosophical and aesthetic concerns. This article examines how cities have operated for the artist and how using iconography from both the world of the real and imagined produced powerful enigmatic images that evoked a profound mood of illusion and revelation.

Fundamental elements in examining a child’s right to education : a study of home education research and regulation in Australia

Home education provides valuable educational and developmental opportunities for children. An examination of Australia’s research indicates many best educational practices, including more informed mediation, contextualised learning, and opportunities to exercise autonomy. Key features include learning embedded in communities and program modification in response to students’ needs. Current state and territory legal requirements are examined within the context of this research and Australia’s obligations to international human rights treaties. All jurisdictions accept home education as one way to meet compulsory education requirements. The extent to which respective laws then reflect understanding of home education research and practice varies. Most jurisdictions allow for a variety of educational approaches. Some oversight regulation could however be modified to reflect a better understanding of home education. Consultation with home educators and reference to research would assist the development of more uniform legislation and policy across Australia, and enable better regulatory practice.

Strength training of one limb increases corticomotor excitability projecting to the contralateral homologous limb

The contralateral transfer of strength following unilateral strength training (ULS) is thought to be due to changes within the nervous system. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) we compared corticospinal responses following ULS of the right biceps brachii (BB) projecting to the untrained left BB. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from both BB of 23 individuals pre and post 4 weeks heavy load (80% of 1RM) ULS of right BB. TMS was delivered at intensities below active motor threshold (AMT) to saturation of the MEP (MEP_max). ULS resulted in a 28% increase in 1RM right BB strength, resulting in a 19.2% increase in contralateral strength of the left BB (p = .0001). There was a significant increase in MEP amplitude of 30.3% (p = .03), 33% (p = .05), and 26.5% (p = .01) at AMT, 20% above AMT and MEP_max respectively. No significant differences in silent period were seen at AMT, 20% above AMT or MEP_max. This study has demonstrated increased corticospinal excitability projecting to the untrained arm following heavy load ULS.

A right to respond? Monopolisation of 'voice' in CMS

This paper explores the power effects of, and possible justifications for, the differential 'voice' and 'silence' accorded to academic and non-academic subjects within Critical Management Studies (CMS). I explore these issues through a discussion of the practice of 'giving voice' to some subjects critiqued in CMS journal articles by providing them with the opportunity to publish a 'response'. I question the justification for extending this right only to academic subjects, and use this example to provoke CMS to question further its institutional orientation to issues of voice and silence in relation to the non-academic research subject.

Intercultural harmony and understanding in the city of Whittlesea

The City of Whittlesea is one of the most ethnically diverse urban areas in Melbourne that attracts settlers, often humanitarian migrants from countries in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. With settlers arriving from a broader range of countries than ever before, increasing ethnic as well as ethno-religious diversity presents opportunities for local government to address intercultural harmony and understanding but also significant challenges. This paper reports the findings of fieldwork conducted in 2009 among residents focusing on attitudes towards ethnic diversity and evaluations of the capacity of local government to promote intercultural harmony and understanding. The results suggest that if local government is to be inclusive and gain the confidence and trust of residents necessary to foster empowering partnerships, political spaces that facilitate interactions between long-term residents, new residents, elected leaders and council officers must be facilitated. Such initiatives will contribute to strengthening programs and policies being developed by local government that aim to address discrimination experienced by ethnic minorities and encourage greater acceptance of cultural diversity among the broader community in ways that move beyond measurable outcomes.

Indigenous place-making in the city : dispossessions, occupations and implications for cultural architecture

This paper considers Indigenous place-making practices in light of an idea for a major Victorian Indigenous Cultural Knowledge and Education Centre in central Melbourne as championed by Traditional Owners in Victoria. With only eight Aboriginal architects in the country, collaboration with non-Indigenous architects will be inevitable. Two case studies from the recent past—the Tent Embassy in Canberra and a street corner in Collingwood—reveal that dominant cultures of place-making continue to marginalise Aboriginal people in urban Australia. This paper will contend that delivering spatial justice will require both an opportunity for Indigenous Victorians to build visibility in the centre of the city and a willingness within the dominant culture to be deterritorialised.

Relationship of osmosis : rise of Emirates, the airline and Dubai, the city

A relationship of economic osmosis is noticed between an airline and the country whose flag it flies. Economic impact studies prepared by government organisations and airline managements usually point out the economic benefits of setting up a new airline or flying a new route. These benefits arise for the airline’s home base by way of greater connectivity with the world and include a number of tangibles such as growth in tourism, increase in retail revenue from transit passengers, access to cargo transport for importers and exporters, employment opportunities and a host of indirect benefits that the local populace can gain from exposure to other countries and cultures. One also notices two very important intangibles associated with an airline and the nation of origin- national pride and national security. This paper analyses the remarkable success story of mutual growth shared by Emirates, the airline and Dubai, the city, over the past twenty-five years and the opportunities that the success of this duo signifies for others in the region.

Racialised bodies encounter the city: 'long grassers' and asylum seekers in Darwin

The visibility of bodies of colour in public space can engender responses of anxiety, insecurity and discomfort in cities with white majority cultures. Such embodied responses that privilege the invisibility of whiteness have effects if they mark Aboriginal people and asylum seekers who arrive by boat as ‘out of place’ in public spaces of Australian cities. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Darwin, I argue, however, that such white spaces are interrupted by habits of touch, multi-sensory events that contribute to fleshy moments of belonging for these racialised bodies that experience dispossession and displacement. Such belonging emerges from the intertwining fleshiness of bodies in a world where we affect and are affected by other bodies and things.

The paper explores two events held in public spaces of suburban Darwin, a weekly painting activity at a beach reserve that engages ‘Long Grassers’, Aboriginal people who live in open spaces, and a cooking session at a community centre that welcomes asylum-seeker families from a detention centre. Felix Ravaisson's philosophy of habit as virtue and spontaneous practice is a starting point for thinking about how haptic knowledges can provide a nuanced understanding of belonging, encounter and ethical engagement in a racially diverse white settler city.

'In the court of a great king': some remarks on Leo Strauss' introduction to the guide for the perplexed

This essay, which will be divided between two SOPHIA editions, proposes to test the consensus in Maimonidean scholarship on the alleged intellectualism of Leo Strauss’ Maimonides by making a close interpretive study of Strauss’ 1963 essay ‘How to Begin to Study the Guide for the Perplexed’. While the importance of this essay, which is Strauss’ last extended piece on the Guide, is established in Maimonidean scholarship, its recognised esotericism has been matched by a dearth of detailed studies of the piece. We aim in this essay to try to rectify this situation, by reading ‘How to Begin to Study’ as Strauss directs us to read esoteric texts in Persecution and the Art of Writing. As one control on our exegetical claims, we will close by situating our reading of ‘How to Begin to Study’ and Strauss’ positions there on philosophy, prophecy and the Torah alongside the claims of his earlier, much less esoteric, but also rarely studied: ‘Some Remarks on the Political Science of Maimonides and Farabi’. Because of the now widely recognised foundational importance of Maimonides in understanding Leo Strauss’ own lasting positions, this work will have wider importance in Strauss scholarship, and hopefully make a contribution to the continuing task of trying to understand Strauss’ important thoughts on Athens and Jerusalem, reason and revelation, the city and man.