How Hollywood projects foreign policy

The interactions between popular culture and public policy in general, and foreign policy in particular, have always been an important area of scholarly enquiry and popular interest. However with the end of the bipolar world system and the emergence of a single world superpower in the form of the United States of America, which is waging a War Against Terror, this nexus has become critical. This is especially true because of the almost Manichean tendency of the United States to see other countries in terms of "good" or "evil". Indeed President Bush himself has coined the term "The Axis of Evil" for states, which in a kinder age were simply referred to by his predecessors as being "Rogue States".

This book draws together elements from several academic disciplines - politics, international relations, psychology, film and cultural studies and examines US foreign policy toward the so-called "rogue states" and the products of the Hollywood film industry in relation to these states, which promises to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the 'soft power' that is popular culture.

Mermaids and sirens as myth fragments in contemporary literature

This thesis examines three works: Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride and Alias Grace, and Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus. All three novels feature female characters that contain elements or myth fragments of mermaids and sirens. The thesis asserts that the images of the mermaid and siren have undergone a gradual process of change, from literal mythical figures, to metaphorical images, and then to figures or myth fragments that reference the original mythical figures. The persistence of these female half-human images points to an underlying rationale that is independent of historical and cultural factors. Using feminist psychoanalytic theoretical frameworks, the thesis identifies the existence of the siren/mermaid myth fragments that are used as a means to construct the category of the 'bad' woman. It then identifies the function that these references serve in the narrative and in the broader context of both Victorian and contemporary societies. The thesis postulates the origin of the mermaid and siren myths as stemming from the ambivalent relationship that the male infant forms with the mother as he develops an identity as an individual. Finally, the thesis discusses the manner in which Atwood and Carter build on this foundation to deconstruct the binary oppositions that disadvantage women and to expand the category of female.

Images of embodied old age in contemporary Japan

Since the late 1980s, representations of Japanese national identity and Japanese old age have been deconstructed. Images of the resilience of traditional cultural and social institutions are shown to have over-emphasized social and cultural homogeneity, elided social differentiation and inequality and minimized the significance of historical transformation. Key institutions of the postwar modernization project, including the patriarchal seniority system and household structure, are being transformed through globalization and feminization. This thesis focuses on the problem of representing individual and collective ageing in Japan in the context of modernization. Research is focussed on the contradictions, within essentialist representations of Japanese collective and individual identity, between socially constructed policy forms of old age and collective identities. Contemporary trends towards individualization and diversification of identities, and discourses on the ageing/information society, indicate cultural distance between an instrumentally rational administration and the life world of old people. Research explores the concept of embodiment through its significance in debates on postmodernization of the lifecourse in accordance with the structural shifts towards a postindustrial structure. This study examines representations of old age in broader social and cultural processes. Images of the social and cultural trajectory of the lifecourse draw attention to the embodiment of individual identities and ultimately generational cultures in contemporary social and cultural spaces. This research is the result of analyses of old age, which have been informed by postmodern theory. It in turn informs sociological theorizations of cultural representations of old age in contemporary societies.

Ongoing colonial legacy : contemporary education beliefs and practices in Papua New Guinea

In the late 1980ˇ¦s, a realisation that the western education system bequeathed to Papua New Guinea at the time of Independence had functioned to devalue and marginalise many of the traditional beliefs, knowledge and skills students brought with them to education, led to a period of significant education reform. The Reform was premised on the report of a Ministerial Review Committee called A Philosophy of Education. This report made recommendations about how education in Papua New Guinea could respond to the issues and challenges this nation faced as it sought to chart a course to serve the needs of its citizens on its own terms. The issues associated with managing and implementing institutionalised educational change premised on importing western values and practices are a central theme of this thesis. The impact of importing foreign curriculum and associated curriculum officers and consultants to assist with curriculum change and development in the former Language and Literacy unit of the Curriculum Development Division, is considered in three related sections of this report: „P a critical review of the imported educational system and related practices and related issues since Independence „P narrative report of the experience of two colleagues in western education „P evidential research based on curriculum Reform in the Language and Literacy Unit. How Papua New Guinea has sought to come to terms with the issues and challenges that arose in response to a practice of importing western curriculum both at the time of Independence and currently through the Reform, are explored throughout the thesis. The findings issues reveal much about the capacity of individuals and institutions to respond to a post-colonial world particularly associated with an ongoing colonial legacy in the principle researcherˇ¦s work context. The thesis argues that the challenges Papua New Guinea curriculum officers face today, as they manage and implement changes associated with another imported curriculum are caught up in existing power relations. These power relations function to stifle creative thinking at a time when it is most needed. Further, these power relations are not well understood by the curriculum officers and remained hidden and unquestioned throughout the research project. The thesis also argues that in the researcherˇ¦s work context, techniques of surveillance were brought to bear and functioned to curtail critical thinking about how the reformed curriculum could be sensitive and respectful of those beliefs and traditions that had sustained life in Papua New Guinea for thousands of years. Consequently, many outmoded beliefs and practices associated with an uncritical and ongoing acceptance of the superiority of western imports have been retained, thereby effectively denying the collective voices of Paua New Guineans in the current curriculum Reform.

Museum pricing in contemporary museums : a hybrid model

What are the museum pricing strategies in contemporary western museums? A large qualitative study on museum pricing decisions was conducted between 2001 and 2009, based on thirty case studies in Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France Australia. Results show that the different strategic motivations of price decisions fonn a hybrid model. The hybrid model varies according to unequal organisational learning of the strategic role of pricing in the international museum community. A discussion about these results enables us to understand how this hybrid pricing model in contemporary museums denotes their hybrid transitional identity.

Redesigning science teacher education to reflect the nature of contemporary science

Evidence that many students are not being captivated by school science has led to advocacy of revising the science curriculum. However, there need to be accompanying changes in science teacher education. This study is designed to lay foundations for innovation in the pre-service education of secondary science teachers, involving a reconceptualisation of the nature of contemporary science and a course structure that links science teaching with broader science public reform initiatives. We held a series of Focus Groups, built around Government Research Priority areas, which brought together people from industry, government, research organisations, and community groups involved in science and its applications. In the groups the participants discussed how science currently operates in their area, ways in which the area will develop in the coming decade, and what implications there are for the nation and its citizens and for science education. What emerged was a concern for public responses to science at a range of levels, and a very different view of science practice and community involvement with science to that represented in current university and school science courses. This was confirmed in interviews with science graduates working in disparate fields, and also focus groups of school students. The paper will report on the insights generated, and explore the implications for redesigning the pre-service education of science teachers.

Representing experience : changing audience relationships in contemporary art

By practice and research this exegesis includes the audience in the making of art, by using the responses of others that inhabit the artwork. It also establishes 'not-knowing' as a methodology to examine changing relationships to audience in contemporary visual arts.

Television journalism : the cultural politics of contemporary current affairs interviewing

This thesis examined television current affairs interviewing to determine the influence of the cultural politics of Australian commercial and non-commercial networks. Marketplace pressures to rate highly was the major influence on commercial programs resulting in the use of shorter dramatic interviews, more celebrities, fewer politicians, hidden cameras and ambush interviews.

Cultural politics and the appropriation of Theravada Buddhism in contemporary Burma (Myanmar)

In Burma, under the State Peace and Development Council, Burmese culture and Theravada Buddhism have become conjoined, the distinctions between the sacred and the secular have become blurred, and the political and the cultural have become intertwined, as the military regime seeks to legitimate its political power and authority.

Changing politics of male homosexuality in contemporary Singapore

Over the last few years, the Singapore government appears to have been softening its hard line position on homosexuality in Singapore. This thesis examines the various developments that have recently taken place in this area; assesses the role of the media in homosexual related stories and coverage, and conducts a comprehensive survey eliciting views of young people towards a wide range of established and emerging homosexual issues in Singapore.