State-NGO relations in Malaysia in the Mahathir years

This thesis states that the containment of NGOs is not simply due to the state's control of the political mechanisms. This study argues that the boundaries for NGOs are determined by the interplay between the state, the ruling elites, the middle class and the business elites.

Speaking up : changing social relations in south-west Victorian grassroots activism

This research of three grassroots activist communication campaigns makes a significant contribution to knowledge in socio-political and communicative fields. It demonstrates how to conduct effective, ethical and sustained communication campaigns that lead to wider social benefits and provides new perspectives about public relations and its role in contemporary society.

Paths to Buddhahood : the "sudden" and "gradual" awakening models in Mah ̄y n̄a and Vajray n̄a Buddhism

Examines the graduated paths of Mah ȳn̄a and Vajrayn̄a Buddhism and the instantaneous paths of Ch'an/Zen, rDzogs chen and Mahm̄udr.̄ The main contention between these approaches relates to how the mental defilements are to be purified and how the positive qualities of Buddhahood are to be realised. After comparing and examining the paths it is argued that the polarisation of the "sudden" and "gradual" approaches is the result of the critical philosophies of late Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, rather than a real spiritual dilemma for adherents of either path.

Gorbachev and the end of the Cold War : interpretations and implications for international relations theory

By arguing that international relations scholarship fails to explain adequately the end of the Cold War because it gives insufficient consideration to the role performed by Mikhail Gorbachev, the thesis makes a case for the systematic examination of the part played by individual political actors in international affairs.

Exploring positive cross-gender peer relations : Year 10 students' perspectives on cross-gender friendships

Much of the current academic and policy literature on gender and inclusive education calls for schools and teachers to move towards understanding gender as a multidimensional process of negotiated social relations that is informed by a range of discursive practicesbut how students themselves can conceptualize gender relations in these ways is under researched. This paper reports on an aspect of an exploratory study that had as its focus students' perceptions of cross-cultural and cross-gender friendships. This project, funded by a small Australian Research Council grant from La Trobe University, began with surveys of Year 10 students at two schools who have previously participated in gender reform projects. Those students who indicated they had cross-category friendships were then interviewed to elicit narratives that depict their perspectives on these friendships.

Public relations in the third sector

This chapter explore the growth of the third sector (NGOs, not for profits and community action groups) and their use of communication techniques from a socio-cultural perspective.

Schools as sites of race relations and intercultural tension

Australia’s education system endeavours to provide an environment in which students can learn in a safe and comfortable manner, free of fear of verbal or physical abuse. However, for many schools, the ability to create this safe environment has been undermined by a recent rise in society-wide intercultural tensions that inevitably permeate the school boundary. Empirical data from a national project about racism among Australian youth provides evidence that these intercultural tensions are generating an unsettling level of verbal, and in some cases, physical abuse in Australian secondary schools. These project findings inform the discussion presented in this paper that schools, as sites of intercultural relations, reflect wider societal attitudes. Nevertheless, this paper also contends that schools as microcosms of social realities have the potential to change social attitudes gradually, including those about diversity, culture and race. To do so, schools need to be supported by teacher education programs which explore the ways in which issues of race, culture and diversity can be incorporated in the content choice in school curriculum. This will influence positively the way in which graduating teachers approach diversity and inter-cultural tensions within their own classrooms and the wider school.

The role of oxytocin in mother-infant relations : a systematic review of human studies

Background: Oxytocin is associated with the establishment and quality of maternal behavior in animal models. Parallel investigations in humans are now under way. This article reviews the current research examining the role of oxytocin in mother-infant relations, attachment, and bonding in humans. Methods: A systematic search was made of three electronic databases and other bibliographic sources for published research studies that examined oxytocin and mother-infant relations in humans, including attachment, maternal behavior, parenting, and mother-infant relations. Results: Eight studies were identified, all of which were unique in their methodologies, populations studied, and measures used. Seven studies found significant and strong associations between levels or patterns of oxytocin and aspects of mother-infant relations or attachment. Conclusions: Oxytocin appears to be of crucial importance for understanding mother-infant relationships. The findings of this review suggest that the pioneering, but preliminary, research undertaken to date is promising and that replication with larger samples is needed. Research that draws on more robust measures of attachment and bonding, as well as improved measures of oxytocin that include both central and peripheral levels, will elucidate the role of oxytocin in human mother-infant relationships. As the production of oxytocin is by no means restricted to mothers, the extension of the oxytocin studies to fathering, as well as to alloparental caregiving, would be an intriguing next step.

Professionalisation and public relations : an ethical mismatch

This paper explores the ethical culture in which contemporary public relations practitioners’ work and how it relates to the professionalisation of the domain. Focusing on the international umbrella public relations institution Global Alliance (GA) and other important industry bodies such as the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ), we study how the ‘work’ of a public relations practitioner is described, and as a corollary, what professional and ethical standards are promoted. Our analysis draws on theories of professions (Abbott 1988; Anderson and Schudson 2009; Volti 2008) and narrative (Surma 2004, Herman 2009), and argues that key elements of professionalisation in public relations contribute to a normative culture which is potentially at odds with notions of ethical communication. We suggest public relations needs to engage more rigorously with professional values to develop, effectively, ethical practice and be normatively aligned with other professions.

A critical review of relations between corporate responsibility research and practice

This essay identifies epistemological, theoretical and methodological problems in a potentially influential subset of the interdisciplinary corporate responsibility literature, that which appears in the management literature. The received conceptualization of stakeholder analysis is criticised by identifying six sets of factors conventionally considered as promoting social responsibilities in the firm: inter-organizational factors, economic competitors, institutional investors, end-consumers, government regulators and non-governmental organizations. Each is addressed on conceptual grounds, its empirical salience in terms of the latest relevant research and prospects to be a significant factor in promoting outcomes consistent with social welfare. Despite obvious antagonistic relations between organization-centred economic objectives and extra-organizational-directed social considerations, the huge body of research we address drifts in a disengaged Sargasso Sea. The essay argues for appropriate directions for continuing business ethics/responsibility/corporate citizenship research, suggesting certain sociological works on moral leadership, moral courage, and academic leadership.