Reconsidering institutional cosmopolitanism : global poverty and the importance of the state in international political theory

Cosmopolitan scholarship has been at the forefront of efforts to consider political structures capable of realising justice in a more robust manner than prevailing global governance arrangements. In particular, the arguments of Thomas Pogge have contributed significantly to scholarly thinking about global poverty and his scheme of 'institutional cosmopolitanism' aspires to institutionalise human rights in the structures of global governance. This essay critiques the capacity of Pogge's cosmopolitan approach to productively guide political action in relation to global poverty by questioning whether global institutions generated by human rights are sufficient to address global poverty. The argument in this essay is that a viable guide to political action which alleviates global poverty must also take account of the potential utility of the state. This essays draws upon republican ideas to contend that cosmopolitanism needs to encompass a robust account of local institutions such as the state.

The increasing importance of sustainability for building ownership

Purpose — This study seeks to investigate the degree to which energy efficiency is incorporated into office building refurbishment and capital expenditure with the emphasis placed on a cost-benefit analysis from the owner’s perspective.
Design/methodology/approach – In order to develop a research framework, a thorough literature review was conducted of three disciplines being construction technology, building refurbishment and property management. The study identifies differences between varying levels of capital expenditure to ensure an existing building is more energy efficient, with the emphasis placed on the cost of implementation and the potential for tenants to acknowledge the increased energy efficiency via higher rents.
Findings – Office buildings have been identified as a contributor to global warming during the construction phase, however during the building lifecycle there is a greater contribution to CO2 omissions. Whilst various building designs and construction techniques have evolved to improve energy efficiency, the focus has largely been placed on new buildings where it is easier to incorporate change and innovative approaches. However, the proportion of new buildings constructed each year is relatively small in comparison to existing building stock, which requires regular capital expenditure to maintain and attract new tenants within a competitive marketplace.
Practical implications – The increasing importance of energy efficiency affects the office market in a variety of different ways.
Originality/value – This paper identifies important links between the environment and the built environment, and the implications for office building owners.

The emerging importance of feminist research paradigms in built environment research

Purpose – This paper seeks to establish and demonstrate the relevance of feminist research methods within built environment research. While no one definition of feminist research exists, many feminist researchers identify characteristics which distinguish it from traditional social science research; it is research that studies women, or that focuses on gender.
Design/methodology/approach – There is a growing body of research into women and the built environment adopting feminist paradigms. This paper explains the dynamic, evolving philosophical basis of feminist research methods drawing comparisons to traditional positivist methodologies and demonstrates that feminist research has characteristics that can be imported into other research paradigms.
Findings – The paper shows that there is much to be learned from an understanding of feminist research for all researchers in the built environment and that by adopting different approaches to research, researchers may find new and original ways of examining complex issues.
Research limitations/implications – The implications are that all researchers in the built environment should consider the benefits of adopting a feminist approach in their research especially where the researcher is seeking to gain a deeper understanding of peoples' experiences.
Originality/value – This paper seeks to raise awareness of the benefits of adopting feminist research methods in a discipline dominated by traditional approaches to research.

The importance of informal investing to New Zealand's new and growing firms

As part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project, we asked 2,000 adult New Zealanders if they have made a personal investment in a new firm in the past three years as well as the magnitude of their supPort, the nature of the businesses they sponsored, and their relationship with
the recipient. We compared these data on informal investment to data on venture capital obtained from national sources. We are thus able to compare New Zealand's performance to cross-national measures. We also surveyed 20 key informants/experts on questions on financing.
In New Zealand, venture capital accounts for only 0.80/o of total investment in new and growing start-ups. Yet New Zealand is world-ranked in terms of informal investment. In New Zealand, informal investment activity is 3.5olo of the national GDP amount. New Zealand is also a world leader in the prevalence of informal investors (percentage in the adult population). Seventy-three percent of informal investors put their money into a relative's or a friend's business. Fifty-eight Percent of New Zealand's informal investors are female, quite the reverse of the world pattern.

When we compare Australia and New Zealandlo the rest of the GEM world, Australia ranks favourably with the GEM globat measures in terms of venture capital as a percentage of GDp, while New Zealand does poorly. Australia also does about 40olo better than New Zealand in terms
of the amount of VC invested in individual companies. But New Zealand is clearly higher in the measures of informal investment.

We conclude with implications for entrepreneurs, policy makers, educators, researchers, and journalists. In a nutshell, they should pay more attention to the critical role of the four F's - family friends, founders, and "foolish" investors - in start-up ventures. Informal investment is a critical component of New Zealand's entrepreneurial process and thus to its economic growth. Perhaps fifty superstars with extraordinary opportunities will receive financing from the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund to launch their businesses. Meanwhile, the vast majority of firms rely on the 4Fs - friends, family founders, and "foolish" lnvestors.

Office buildings and the environment : the increasing importance of ESD

The links between the built environment and sustainability issues such as fossil fuel consumption and climate change is clear. In developed countries buildings contribute around half of all carbon dioxide emissions and offer considerable scope for a significant contribution to sustainability through ecologically aware design and increased energy efficiency (BRE, 1996). The Australian commercial stock emits 12% of all greenhouse gas emissions however the commercial property market has some inherent barriers to sustainability (DSE, 2005). A substantial proportion of the stock is owned by institutional investors who are unconvinced by the need to improve their stock and pass on running costs to tenants (Callender & Key, 1997). As capital values are not greatly affected by sustainability, owners react by doing little or nothing and the effect is to limit sustainability related investment and undermine efforts to deliver sustainability in the sector.

Furthermore the efficiency of buildings declines over time and whilst energy efficiency is important to new design, the existing stock must be improved if urban built environment greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced. Much of the property and surveying research has previously adopted an illustrative case study approach advocating the benefits of ESD and energy efficiency in existing buildings. This research adopts a radically different approach and profiles the entire office stock of a global CBD, namely Melbourne, which is seeking to become a carbon neutral city by 2020. The research also employs scenario forecasting to model future changes to the stock over a fifteen year period. This paper sets out the rationale for the research and establishes the methodological approach adopted by the research team.

The increasing importance of housing demography in the 21st century

To many, demography is an area which traditionally focuses upon macro issues such as migration and population forecasts. However traditional economic indicators cannot always observe the degree of purchaser and vendor willingness and therefore consideration should also be given to characteristics of buyers and sellers in the marketplace. This study draws the disciplines of housing research and demography closer and looks to social indicators for an insight into residential housing markets. This research analysed changes in the value of established residential house prices in Brisbane and the influence of variations in demographic variables on a dynamic time series basis. The results confirmed the existence of strong linkages between demographics and established house prices. While it is acknowledged that established house values are significantly influenced by external economic and political factors, this research confirmed that serious consideration must also be given to the increasing importance of housing demography

The increasing importance of serviced offices as a competing land use in global cities

Once considered a relatively low key land use in central business districts, the number of serviced offices has increased dramatically in recent years. The factors driving the demand for serviced offices have changed, and the suppliers of this service have reacted quickly to meet these needs. This trend has been assisted by the expansion of a select number of multi-national companies that specialise in the provision of serviced offices, available in a flexible range of office types and costs.
This paper considers the reasons behind the rapid growth in the serviced office market, and examines the role of both the user and the provider. Attention is focused on the global marketplace and how these changes have been transformed into the Australian central business districts. The information will be of benefit to property analysts, developers and investors, especially when seeking an alternative use of existing traditional office accommodation.

The ethics and practical importance of defining, distinguishing and disclosing nursing errors : a discussion paper

Nurses globally are required and expected to report nursing errors. As is clearly demonstrated in the international literature, fulfilling this requirement is not, however, without risks. In this discussion paper, the notion of ‘nursing error’, the practical and moral importance of defining, distinguishing and disclosing nursing errors and how a distinct definition of ‘nursing error’ fits with the new ‘system approach’ to human-error management in health care are critiqued. Drawing on international literature and two key case exemplars from the USA and Australia, arguments are advanced to support the view that although it is ‘right’ for nurses to report nursing errors, it will be very difficult for them to do so unless a non-punitive approach to nursing-error management is adopted.

Importance of assessing family dysfunction in conjunction with standardised measures when treating substance abuse

In this thesis, the link between substance abuse and family dysfunction is examined, and an argument is made for the assessment of family dysfunction when treating clients with substance abuse issues. Family dysfunction has been associated with a broad range of problems in children (e.g., low self esteem, increased risk of child abuse) through to adolescence and adulthood (e.g., increased risk of mental disorders such as depressive disorders, substance abuse disorders, and personality disorders) (Kaplan & Sadock, 1998). It is not the purpose of this thesis to suggest that family dysfunction causes substance abuse but rather to highlight that family dysfunction can in some cases place the individual at greater risk of substance abuse. Therefore, in order to understand the reasons why substance abuse developed and how it is maintained in the present requires the assessment of family dysfunction. Further, the importance of assessing the role and impact that family dysfunction may have had on the client, may help to better understand the nature and extent of substance abuse so that relevant and appropriate treatment goals for change may be set, progress monitored, and risk of relapse reduced. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to this thesis, and Chapter 2 is a review of the literature on the impact of family dysfunction including poor parental attachment and supervision, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, in adolescence and adulthood. Four case studies are presented to illustrate how family dysfunction and substance abuse may be related, thus highlighting the importance of assessing family dysfunction when treating substance abuse clients. All of the case studies include an individual with a substance abuse disorder (namely heroin) but they are diverse in terms of the types and extent of family dysfunction. The final chapter discusses the case studies in relation to the literature reviewed. Lastly, it gives consideration to the implication of a history of family dysfunction, and how it may impact negatively on treatment and therefore prognosis.

Importance of the contribution of Australians to the penetration of China by the China Inland Mission in the period 1888-1953, with particular reference to the work of Australian women missionaries

Australians, in the main, are unaware of the role which Australia played in the evangelization of China in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. Most would never have heard of the China Inland Mission (CIM), the largest of the Protestant bodies which penetrated the Middle Kingdom, and few would know of the contribution that its Australian contingent, which consistently comprised about a tenth of the CIM's numbers, made towards the Christianization of that vast country. This thesis aims to raise the level of awareness in this area. Academic researchers have not totally neglected to examine the proselytization of China, and historians of the stature of Latourette have not let it escape their attention. However, most of the studies which have not merely fleetingly focused on the subject while viewing a larger canvas, have been North American, singling out the efforts of United States and Canadian bodies in introducing Christianity to the Chinese. Here, authors like Amerding, Bacon, Creighton, Gates, Hawkes, Ho, Ko, Mensendiek, Michell and Quale have left their mark. In the case of the present thesis, the outlook from which events played out in China are viewed is firmly based in Australia rather than North America. Earlier Australian research has been scarce, and is dominated by Loane and Dixon. Loane, evidently primarily working from Australasian Council minutes, mainly concentrates on the efforts of the CIM's Home Council, examining its endeavours decade by decade against a backdrop of contemporaneous events in China, and briefly referring to aspects of the lives of a cross-section of Australasian missionaries, without providing much idea about what they actually did in the field or what they achieved there. Because of its preoccupation with the Home Council, which never admitted women into its ranks, Loane's treatise is systemically biased towards men, though the more prominent of the women, like Mary Reed and Susie Garland, are given due recognition. The current thesis looks in detail at what Australians did in the field, the level of success they achieved, and at the particular contribution of Australian women towards the evangelization of China. Dixon took upon herself the formidable task of examining the endeavours of all missions in China which contained Australian missionaries. Because of the magnitude of her task, she could not focus to any great extent on particular missions, nor pursue in any detail the work of individual Australian missionaries. Like Loane, she was unable to explore what they actually did in the field or what they achieved there. Neither could she delve to any depth into the work of Australian women missionaries, though on the basis of the information she had accumulated, she drew the conclusion that Australian women had largely only brought about some unintended feminist consequences amongst Chinese women. This sweeping generalization failed to take into account the other very real social changes for Chinese women the Australian female missionaries quite purposely helped to bring about, and this thesis makes good that omission. This thesis studies aspects of the Australian missionary endeavour which both Loane and Dixon have neglected, thereby breaking new ground, and sets out to correct erroneous impressions which Dixon's dissertation has left on the historical record. One of these impressions concerned the longevity of the effect of the Australian effort in China. She had the View, writing in 1978, that the Chinese Church was moribund (a view shared by Varg and Lacy) , and that therefore the effects attributable to the endeavours of any nationality had proved fruitless, whereas the author is able to show, using modern-day sources, that the church has burgeoned in recent years thanks to earlier missionary endeavours and later neo-evangelistic efforts like Gospel radio, and now has a complement of perhaps 50 million adherents, making it second only to the United States in the size of its Protestant evangelical population. Another impression she left was that the Australian input into the evangelization of China can be largely dismissed because no totally Australian organization emerged, leaving the direction of Australia's effort in other hands. Contrary to that impression, the author shows that the Australian impact in China was significant and that Australians enjoyed more power than Dixon ever imagined. The author also shows that Australians were accepted as the equal of other nationalities in the CIM once they had acquired the necessary field expertise, a factor which doubtless also applied in respect of other missions with Australian components in China. Marchant has suggested that it is a fiction perpetuated by mission periodicals that Christianity spread and progressed in a determined manner in China. This thesis establishes that within the CIM's bailiwick, though there was some patchiness, Christianity progressed steadily and inexorably. One mission alone, the CIM, is concentrated upon, firstly in order to render the data manageable, secondly because it was the largest mission in China and had a sizeable Australian (including female) contingent, and thirdly because it exemplified many of the problems which would have been faced by missions in that country and their Australian components. The methodology employed is multifaceted. The written testimony of the missionaries themselves, contained in CIM periodicals, Field Bulletins, Monthly Notes, Annual Reports, autobiographies, personal files, diaries and letters is used to illustrate various aspects of the CIM's work in which Australians were engaged. This approach is augmented by other sources such as China and Australasian Home Council Minutes, missionary conference reports, Candidates' Books, biographies, and other selected material from archival holdings in Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, America and Canada. Statistics, especially ratio analyses and growth rate comparisons are used to demonstrate the relative success of different missions, missionaries and genders. Also employed are reminiscences of missionaries and descendants obtained by personal interview, and these are aggregated to provide some general conclusions. Data from these various sources have been synthesized to serve the central objective of demonstrating the importance of the contribution of Australians to the penetration of China by the CIM in the period 1888-1953 with particular reference to the work of Australian women missionaries.