Economic reforms, cultural policy : opportunities and challenges to the arts and culture in Vietnam in the age of globalization

The author investigates social change in Vietnam in the late 1980s-2000s, a transition from a subsidized economy to a market-oriented economy. The author discusses the influences of socioeconomic changes on the operation of the performing arts sector through analyzing changes in cultural policies, opportunities, and challenges confronted by performing arts organizations. The new cultural policy allows arts organizations, arts managers, and artists more opportunities to develop a greater degree of autonomy and more freedom in performing, programming and other artistic activities. The author believes that open policies will motivate Vietnam to develop its own national identity and to participate in cultural exchange with other parts of the world. However, under the impact of global culture, global economics, cuts in state funding, and rapid technological development, the performing arts sector has faced challenges in terms of financial viability, audience development, and balance between commercialization and artistic creativity. The author suggests that privatization should be implemented depending on the art form. Consideration should be given by the Vietnamese government to implementing appropriate funding policies and schemes, as state funding still forms a significant part of public companies' incomes.

How Australian industry policy shaped cultural policy

Public policies that aim to facilitate cultural activities to serve effectively as industries are often regarded as a new phenomenon. This article argues that arts and cultural policies in Australia have reflected and complemented Commonwealth industry policy for most of their history. The significant change that has happened in the past twenty years is not so much a change to cultural policy, but rather a change in the notion of industries and their role in the national economy.

Climate change and social inclusion: opportunities for justice and empowerment

...the greatest untapped resource at our disposal lies in the disadvantaged Australians living in our most excluded communities. (Nicholson 2007 p. 4)

The commons are where justice and sustainability converge, where ecology and equity meet. (Shiva 2005 p. 50)

Since 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recognised human induced climate change to be primarily a result of burning fossil fuels and land clearing (Lee 2007). Changes to the world's climate patterns have been occurring for decades, but only in recent times has climate change arrived in our collective conscious. An onslaught of extreme weather events, destruction and failure of crops, increasing levels of water restrictions, government announcement of desalination plants. proposed increase in prices for utilities such as power and water - have ushered climate change into the Australian lexicon.

The challenges for all of us are many and varied and perhaps even unimaginable. as many propose a global reduction in annual C02 emissions of between 60-80% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2050.

We are not talking just about the re-construction of our world, but about its re-invention. Ryan (2007)

How will climate change affect us? Who is most vulnerable? What will be the features of policies and strategies to combat climate change that ensure an equitable and just response across our entire society? Are our present social-cultural justice paradigms of social exclusion and inclusion adequate in addressing the impending health consequences that are likely to result from climate change, and in supporting an equitable. harmonious and fruitful life for all population groups in the future?

This paper, written in the spirit of solution-oriented research. focusing on the causes of positive health rather than the causes of disease and other problems (Robinson & Sirard 2005). explores the possibility of a paradigm shift which imagines the social inclusion of specific population groups, not as an appended extra, but integral to the design of an equitable, sustainable low carbon society of the future.

Conceptualising the policy practice and behavioural research relationship

Background
Policy is frequently identified in the behavioural nutrition and physical activity research literature as a necessary component of effective research and practice. The purpose of this commentary is to promote a dialogue to contribute towards the further development of conceptual understandings and theories of the relationship between policy practice and behavioural research and how these two activities might work synergistically to improve public health outcomes.

Methods
Drawing on policy and public health literature, this commentary presents a a conceptual model of the interaction and mediation between nutrition and physical activity-relevant policy and behavioural nutrition and physical activity research, environments, behaviours and public health implications. The selling of food in school canteens in several Australian states is discussed to illustrate components of the relationship and the interactions among its components.

Results
The model depicts a relationship that is interdependent and cyclic. Policy contributes to the relationship through its role in shaping environmental and personal-cognitive determinants of behaviours and through these determinants it can induce behaviour change. Behavioural research describes behaviours, identifies determinants of behaviour change and therefore helps inform policy development and monitor and evaluate its impact.

Conclusion
The model has implications for guiding behavioural research and policy practice priorities to promote public health outcomes. In particular, we propose that policy practice and behavioural research activities can be strengthened by applying to each other the theories from the scientific disciplines informing these respective activities. Behavioural science theories can be applied to help understand policy-making and assist with disseminating research into policy and practice. In turn, policy science theories can be applied to support the 'institutionalisation' of commitments to ongoing behavioural research.

Creating ambiguity, creating social change

Current government policy in Victoria, as elsewhere, is seeking to change the provision of maternity care from an obstetric-led system to a flatter, more collaborative system that brings midwives to the front line as primary carers, at least in the public sector.

However, dominant medical discourses continue to exert a sedimentary effect on contesting claims from midwives that deny the high-risk nature of the majority of births and which valorise the competence of the female body. Although there have been modifications in maternity arrangements (and the incumbent government is currently considering more), medical discourses continue to legitimate obstetric power via legal and professional structures, fortify the obstetric ‘habitus’, infect mainstream popular consciousness and undermine autonomous midwifery practice. Drawing from research material gleaned from in-depth interviews with nine obstetricians and thirty midwives conducted in 2004 and 2005, I argue that alternative discourses may strategically undermine obstetric dominance. Specifically, reversing stereotypes; inverting the binary opposition and privileging the subordinate term (or substituting the negative for positive); and defamiliarizing what is perceived to be fixed and given, all play on the ambiguities of representation and present social activists (midwives, childbirth educators and women) with valuable opportunities to challenge fundamentalist medical orthodoxies.

The complexity of social practice : understanding inertia and change in maternity care organizations

Beyond the limited efficiency and economy goals of neoliberal health policy lies the promise of genuine health services reform. In maternity care in particular, recent policy developments have sought to make the management of birth more ‘women-centred and family-friendly’. Interprofessional collaboration and greater consumer participation in policy and decision-making are key means to achieve this goal, but changing the entrenched system of medicalised birth remains difficult. Recent social contestation of maternity care has destabilised but not eradicated pervasive medical hegemony. Further reform requires analysis both of institutionalised patterns of power, and attention to the fluidity and situated knowledge shaping organisational and professional practices. Accordingly, this paper outlines a framework with which to explore the multi-layered social processes involved in implementing organisational and cultural change in maternity care. Analysis of social interventions in health systems, we suggest, can be advanced by drawing on strands from critical organization studies, complexity and critical discourse theories and social practice approaches.

Productivity growth and efficiency change in Malaysian manufacturing : recent evidence from disaggregated data

This paper estimates productivity growth in Malaysian manufacturing over the period 1983-1999. Malmquist productivity Indices (MPIs) have been computed using non parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) type linear programming, which show productivity growth sourced from efficiency change and growth in technology. Unlike previous studies, this study identifies the Malaysian manufacturing industries at the five digit breakdown of Malaysian Standard Industrial Classification (MSIC) thereby revealing more industry specific efficiency and technical growth patterns. Results indicate that two third of the industries (76 out of total 114 categories) experienced average annual
productivity improvement ranging from 0.1% to 7.8% over the sampled period. Average annual technical progress was recorded by 95 industry categories while technical efficiency improvement was achieved by 53 industries. Overall yearly average indicated relatively low productivity growth from the mid 1990’s onwards caused by either efficiency decline or technical regress. Summary results for industries reveal that some of the high rates of productivity growth have been recorded in glass and glass products (7.3%), Petroleum and coal (7.2%), industrial chemicals (4.9%) contributed from both efficiency improvement and technical progress ranging from 0.8% to 5.4% and from 1.7% to 4.1%, respectively. These results are expected to have some implications for ongoing and future strategic policy reform in Malaysian manufacturing generating a more sustainable growth for specific industry categories.

The changing face of literacy policy in Victoria

In the transition from the twentieth to the twenty-first century, literacy has undergone a fundamental change in the shift from page to screen as the dominant basis for communication. In a communications environment characterised by multimodality - integration of modes of linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial modes of meaning - young people require a broadened repertoire of literacy capacities.
Educational authorities with responsibility for literacy policy have responded in terms of curriculum, and assessment advice within a context of rapidly changing forms of multimodal communication. This paper details the early twenty-first century response of one educational authoríty, the Department of Education, Victoria, in reviewing early years literacy curriculum and assessment in light of the rapid developments in digital communications.

Australia's strengths and weaknesses in technology transfer and R&D exploitation : GEM survey "experts" views compared with public policy and other published data

There has been increasing public debate in Australia in recent years about research culture in universities and other publicly funded research agencies such as CSIRO and its impact on Australia's performance in generating economic, social and environmental benefits to the Australian community from the large amount of public funding for R&D. This is the supply side issue. On the demand side there is equally concern about the technology absorptive capacity of Australian. business as illustrated by the low proportion of gross business research expenditure (GERD) spent by business (BERD). Against this background, this paper has explored the views of abut 100 "experts" interviewed in the Australian Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) studies in the years 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 on the issues, strengths and weaknesses of Australia's technology transfer performance as it applies to new technology small firms. The paper has also explored evidence for any longitudinal change over this period.

Stimulating vertical integration in coastal management in a federated nation: The case of Australian coastal policy reform.

Four decades ago Australia was credited as being an early leader in  implementing integrated coastal management (ICM). Nevertheless, as a  federation of states and territories Australia has since struggled to fully  implement vertical integration of its coastal governance arrangements. In particular the federal government has historically possessed only a minor role in coastal management despite the recommendations of several major inquires suggesting that this role needed to be enhanced. This article examines a series of circumstances and events over the past two years in Australia that has created the opportunity for the federal government to adopt a more significant and prominent role in coastal management and hence to substantially complete the vertical integration of ICM in Australia. These stimuli for coastal policy reform could also play a role in enhancing ICM in other federated nations.

English language reform and the process of democratic change

Malaysian society has and is undergoing considerable social, political, economic and educational change. Scholars point to the forces of globalization and the needs to be able to meet the challenges of globalization as the central driver of language policy. Commentators, academics and many in the general public have focused on the need for Malaysia to adapt to globalization and the importance of English to this process given the needs and characteristic of the knowledge economy. However, there appears to be less recognition of the way such a change in Malaysian language policy needs to be engaged in a dynamically shifting knowledge society and developing public sphere. Language is a social act and the debate over language and its place and role in society is therefore a debate over the nature and quality of social interaction. Debate over language is thus inherently political. Due to the growth and development of an interactive and engaged public sphere and knowledge society in Malaysia, there is a need to approach to the idea of engaging English that grasps the plurality and complexity of its role in the world. The political approach to engaging English in Malaysia needs to engage democratic deliberation in a society that is increasingly fragmented but also showing signs of developing an active public sphere not beholden to top down authority. Disagreement over language and the way the debate is theorized hides from view the possibility of points of consensus on the issue of English language and Malaysian education. Establishing overlapping consensus through public deliberation and consultation is a necessary precondition to effective language policy in contemporary Malaysia. Failure to understand this only leads to policy paralysis.

Treaties as tools of foreign policy : a psychopolitical inquiry via Keatings's vision for Australia

Paul Keating will be remembered by some Australians as a visionary. As Prime Minister he outlined the structure of external and domestic reform that he believed would guarantee global security for all Australians. Driving these reforms, more often than not, were interstate agreements, often in the form of multilateral treaties, sometimes in the guise of bilateral compromise, rarely as unilateral declarations. In areas as diverse as collaborative scientific research or the protection of children in the workplace, the Keating Executive set out, through codification, to transform Australia’s political landscape. The fields of trade, military, environmental and human rights were all included in the attempts by Keating to forge a new image of and for Australia in the Asia Pacific region. Treaties were vital agents of change in this milieu in the bid to reformulate regional perceptions of Australia. The path of inquiry in this thesis stemmed from a quest to examine the origin, role, purpose and efficacy of treaties in the Keating Government’s foreign policy aimed at regional military security. In order to make this examination it develops a polyphonic1 analytical model whose purpose is to explore the psychopolitical underpinnings of these agreements. Thus the thesis has a two fold task. To develop an analytical model of how treaties work as tools of foreign policy and to outline and assess the Keating treaty strategy. Its principal contribution is on the theoretical side.

Science education in primary schools in a state of change

Through a longitudinal study of one teacher's science teaching practice set in the context of her base school, this thesis records the effects of the structural and policy changes that have occurred in Victorian education over the past 6-7 years - the 'Kennett era'. Initially, the purpose of the study was to investigate the teacher's practice with the view to improving it. For this, an action research approach was adopted. Across the year 1998, the teacher undertook an innovative science program with two grades, documenting the approach and outcomes. Several other teachers were involved in the project and their personal observations and comments were to form part of the data. This research project was set in the context of a single primary school and case study methodology was used to document the broader situational and daily influences which affected the teacher's practice. It was apparent soon after starting the action research that there were factors which did not allow for the development of the project along the intended lines. By the end of the project, the teacher felt that the action research had been distorted - specifically there had been no opportunity for critical reflection. The collaborative nature of the project did not seem to work. The teacher started to wonder just what had gone wrong. It was only after a break from the school environment that the teacher-researcher had the opportunity to really reflect on what had been happening in her teaching practice. This reflection took into account the huge amount of data generated from the context of the school but essentially reflected on the massive number of changes that were occurring in all schools. Several issues began to emerge which directly affected teaching practice and determined whether teachers had the opportunity to be self-reflective. These issues were identified as changes in curriculum and the teaching role, increased workload, changed power relations and changed security/morale on the professional context. This thesis investigates the structural and policy changes occurring in Victorian education by reference to documentation and the lived experiences of teachers. It studies how the emerging issues affect the practices of teachers, particularly the teacher-researcher. The case study has now evolved to take in the broader context of the policy and structural changes whilst the action research has expanded to look at the ability of a teacher to be self-reflective: a meta-action research perspective. In concluding, the teacher-researcher reflects on the significance of the research in light of the recent change in state government and the increased government importance placed on science education in the primary context.

Assessing cost-effectiveness in mental health: helping policy-makers prioritize and plan health services

Objective: We assessed, from a health sector perspective, options for change that could improve the efficiency of Australia's current mental health services by directing available resources toward 'best practice' cost-effective services.

Method: We summarize cost-effectiveness results of a range of interventions for depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety disorders that have been presented in previous papers in this journal. Recommendations for change are formulated after taking into account 'second-filter criteria' of equity, feasibility of implementing change, acceptability to stakeholders and the strength of the evidence. In addition, we estimate the impact on total expenditure if the recommended mental health interventions for depression and schizophrenia are to be implemented in Australia.

Results: There are cost-effective treatment options for mental disorders that are currently underutilized (e.g. cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression and anxiety, bibliotherapy for depression, family interventions for schizophrenia and clozapine for the worst course of schizophrenia). There are also less cost-effective treatments in current practice (e.g. widespread use of olanzapine and risperidone in the treatment of established schizophrenia and, within those atypicals, a preference for olanzapine over risperidone). Feasibility of funding mechanisms and training of staff are the main second-filter issues for CBT and family interventions. Acceptability to various stakeholders is the main barrier to implementation of more cost-effective drug treatment regimens. More efficient drug intervention options identified for schizophrenia would cost A$68 million less than current practice. These savings would more than cover the estimated A$36M annual cost of delivering family interventions to the 51% of people with schizophrenia whom we estimated to be eligible and this would lead to an estimated 12% improvement in their health status. Implementing recommended strategies for depression would cost A$121M annually for the 24% of people with depression who seek care currently, but do not receive an evidence-based treatment.

Conclusions: Despite considerable methodological problems, a range of cost-effective and less cost-effective interventions for major mental disorders can be discerned. The biggest hurdle to implementation of more efficient mental health services is that this change would require reallocation of funds between interventions, between disorders and between service providers with different funding mechanisms.