Colonising Poso : the diary of Controleur Emile Gobee, June 1909 - May 1910

"While the colonisation of Central Sulawesi was a process that was unique to the particular demographic, social, political and economic characteristics of the region, in broad terms it replicated Dutch colonial policy and practice in the rest of the archipelago at the beginning of the 20th century. The diary of Aspirant Controleur Emile Gobee, records the process which imposed the relocation and resettlement of the Pamona people of the Poso region of Central Sulawesi into villages and therefore began a dramatic process of change. The document provides a rare example of the process of colonialism and goes to the heart of understanding the nature of the colonial project in the Dutch East Indies."--Publisher's website.
"The 1909-10 diary of Aspirant Controleur Emile Goběe, of Poso, Sulawesi in the Dutch East Indies, with a scholarly introduction that explains the significance of Dutch colonial and missionary intervention, which intentionally destroyed traditional cultures and lifestyles. During the time covered by this diary, the administration moved entire villages to places where they could be observed, changed their farming practices, and introduced trade and Christianity." -- Publisher.

The development of a conceptual model and self-reported measure of occupational health and safety vulnerability

Injuries at work have a substantial economic and societal burden. Often groups of labour market participants, such as young workers, recent immigrants or temporary workers are labelled as being "vulnerable" to work injury. However, defining groups in this way does little to enable a better understanding of the broader factors that place workers at increased risk of injury. In this paper we describe the development of a new measure of occupational health and safety (OH&S) vulnerability. The purpose of this measure was to allow the identification of workers at increased risk of injury, and to enable the monitoring and surveillance of OH&S vulnerability in the labour market. The development included a systematic literature search, and conducting focus groups with a variety of stakeholder groups, to generate a pool of potential items, followed by a series of steps to reduce these items to a more manageable pool. The final measure is 29-item instrument that captures information on four related, but distinct dimensions, thought to be associated with increased risk of injury. These dimensions are: hazard exposure; occupational health and safety policies and procedures; OH&S awareness; and empowerment to participate in injury prevention. In a large sample of employees in Ontario and British Columbia the final measure displayed minimal missing responses, reasonably good distributions across response categories, and strong factorial validity. This new measure of OH&S vulnerability can identify workers who are at risk of injury and provide information on the dimensions of work that may increase this risk. This measurement could be undertaken at one point in time to compare vulnerability across groups, or be undertaken at multiple time points to examine changes in dimensions of OH&S vulnerability, for example, in response to a primary prevention intervention.

Individual, occupational, and workplace correlates of occupational health and safety vulnerability in a sample of Canadian workers

Objective: To describe OH&S vulnerability across a diverse sample of Canadian workers.
Methods: A survey was administered to 1,835 workers employed more than 15 hrs/week in workplaces with at least five employees. Adjusted logistic models were fitted for three specific and one overall measure of workplace vulnerability developed based on hazard exposure and access to protective OH&S policies and procedures, awareness of employment rights and responsibilities, and workplace empowerment.
Results: More than one third of the sample experienced some OH&S vulnerability. The type and magnitude of vulnerability varied by labor market sub-group. Younger workers and those in smaller workplaces experienced signficantly higher odds of multiple types of vulnerability. Temporary workers reported elevated odds of overall, awareness- and empowerment-related vulnerability, while respondents born outside of Canada had significantly higher odds of awareness vulnerability.
Conclusion: Knowing how labor market sub-groups experience different types of vulnerability can inform better-tailored primary prevention interventions.

Book review: Review of 'W. E. H. Stanner, The dreaming and other essays' with an introduction by Robert Manne. Melbourne: Black Inc. Agenda, 2009. ISBN: 9781863955171, (Pb) 336 pp. $AUD32.95

There is no more imposing figure in the history of Australian anthropology than W.E.H. ('Bill') Stanner (1905-1981). While some of his contemporaries produced more ethnography, none matched his skill and eloquence in describing the life-worlds of Aboriginal people. While others of his age were just as closely involved in arguing for the defensibility of Aboriginal society, none did so with such convincing passion. With these two legacies in mind, anthropologists in the here and now would be hard put to describe Stanner's oeuvre in either/or terms. He is best remembered for his scintillating, sympathetic analyses of Aboriginal myth, ritual and local organisation, together with his trenchant critiques of Durkheim and Freud.