A case for a mobile architecture and built environment laboratory

Deakin University and other research and industry partners have recently won a grant for the establishment of a Mobile Architecture and Built Environment Laboratory (MABEL). MABEL provides the first means of integrated, on-site measurement of the key aspects of the built environment (power, sound, light and comfort) using the latest instrument technology. There exists an ongoing need to establish a versatile and comprehensive in-situ testing facility for built internal environments, for the provision of research, education, training and technology diffusion. The ability to make on-site measurements across the environmental spectrum is unique and important. Individual measurements might demonstrate improved lighting performance, reduced power consumption, and improved ventilation or better building acoustics. More importantly, an integrated perspective will address an interaction in terms of energy efficiency and overall occupant comfort. H is recognised that many of the parameters we can measure with existing instrumentation remain unresolved regarding their diagnostic significance on occupant health, comfort and productivity. Also, developed standards for in-situ measurement are at an emerging state, in the delivery of reliable and useful assessment methods. This paper discusses the inception and role of the MABEL facility for building research, learning and teaching.

Big change questions : can we create a form of public education that delivers high standards for all students in the emerging knowledge society?

Within many Anglophone nation states there is significant debate about
the future of public education and its ongoing capacity to provide quality
education. The new knowledge economy not only challenges the position
of educators as the primary producers, disseminators and authorizers of
what is valued knowledge, but also requires them to prepare students for
new ways of working with that knowledge. In the service economies of
post-industrial Western nations, 'knowledge work' is critical to national
productivity and international competitiveness. At the same time, the
globalization logic suggests that the nation state is under threat, and therefore its role as provider of universal services such as education is also threatened.

The bio-economy and the competition state : transcending the dichotomy between coordinated and liberal market economies

This article examines the role of the state in the emerging bio-economy. The starting point is that state interventions, including supportive regulatory arrangements and the shaping of public attitudes, constitute core assets in the evolution of bio-industrial complexes. Public policy in the bio-economy, across advanced industrial countries, is well captured by the “competition state” concept. This type of state takes different forms, analogously with the historical variants of the Keynesian welfare state. The article compares patterns of governance of the biotechnology sector in Finland and Sweden, the USA and the UK, and Australia. It is concluded that the bio-industry sector does not fit with the “models of capitalism” paradigm which postulates coherence within, and systemic divergences between, national models of economic governance. The bio-economy displays trends toward convergence, in particular mounting public investments in health care and in research and development. On the other hand, countries differ in their approach to market regulation, industrial support, and ethical restrictions. These differences do not follow the dichotomy between “liberal” and “coordinated” models of capitalism.

Managing professionals : the emerging leadership role of Victorian Maternal and Child Health coordinators

Drawing on research into cultural and organizational change in the Victorian Maternal and Child Health Service during the 1990s, this paper examines implications for the nursing leadership provided by service coordinators. The project included a quantitative survey of nurses and semistructured interviews with managers and coordinators. Under a strongly neoliberal state government in Victoria, Australia, services were fundamentally restructured through tendering processes. A competitive, productivist culture was introduced that challenged the professional ethos of nurses and a primary health orientation to the care of mothers and infants. This paper focuses on the pressures that the entrepreneurial environment presented to maternal and child health nurses' identity and collegial relations and to the coordination role. It argues that coordinators emerged as a Significant nursing management group at the interface of administrative change and the management of professional practice. Although many nurses skilfully negotiated tensions with peers and management, their leadership role needs further clarification and support.

"Sins of their fathers" : culturally at risk children and the colonial state in Asia

In contact with their foreign surroundings, European enclaves throughout imperial Asia and Africa formed new cultural communities. Nevertheless, over time as Cooper and Stoler (1997) have argued, such colonial communities became subject to the same bourgeois project as experienced in the metropolitan centres to which they remained connected. If, in terms of that project, metropolitan European society was deemed vulnerable from a brutish and unruly working class, these colonial outposts of Western society were even more vulnerable to what was deemed to be the more insidious dangers of miscegenation and cultural hybridity. Where nineteenth century educators typically suggested that working class children were “at risk” of not being able to benefit from, and simultaneously representing “a risk to”, the emerging opportunities of bourgeois capitalist society, this “risk” was accentuated in the colonies by the additional category of race. Focussing on the question of children of mixed parentage as a category of “children at risk”, this paper examines the way educationists and politicians responded to what was perceived as “civilisational decline” in four such communities - the Dutch East Indies, British India, (British) Australia and French Indo-China - to demonstrate the universality of these concerns in Imperial Asia.

Gambling and corporate social responsibility (CSR) : re-defining industry and state roles on duty of care, host responsibility and risk management

During the 1990s, states embraced legalised gambling as a means of supplementing state revenue. But gaming machines (EGMs, pokies, VLTs, Slots) have become increasingly controversial in countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which experienced unprecedented roll-out of gaming machines in casino and community settings; alongside revenue windfalls for both governments and the gambling industry. Governments have recognised that gambling results in a range of social and economic harms and, similar to tobacco and alcohol, have introduced public policies predicated on harm minimisation. Yet despite these, gaming losses have continued to climb in most jurisdictions, along with concerns about gambling-related harms. The first part of this article discusses an emerging debate in Ontario Canada, that draws parallels between host responsibility in alcohol and gambling venues. In Canada, where government owns and operates the gaming industry, this debate prompts important questions on the role of the state, duty of care and regulation ‘in the public interest’ and on CSR, host responsibility and consumer protection. This prompts the question: Do governments owe a duty of care to gamblers?

The article then discusses three domains of accumulating research evidence to inform questions raised in the Ontario debate: evidence that visible behavioural indicators can be used with high confidence to identify problem gamblers on-site in venues as they gamble; new systems using player tracking and loyalty data that can provide management with high precision identification of problem gamblers and associated risk (for protective interventions); and research on technological design features of new generation gaming products in interaction with players, that shows how EGM machines can be the site for monitoring/protecting players. We then canvass some leading international jurisdictions on gambling policy CSR and consumer protection.

In light of this new research, we ask whether the risk of legal liability poses a tipping point for more interventionist public policy responses by both the state and industry. This includes a proactive role for the state in re-regulating the gambling industry/products; instituting new forms of gaming machine product control/protection; and reinforcing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and host responsibility obligations on gambling providers – beyond self-regulatory codes. We argue the ground is shifting, there is new evidence to inform public policy and government regulation and there are new pressures on gambling providers and regulators to avail themselves of the new technology – or risk litigation

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.

Cyberbullying research : the current state

This paper contributes to the understanding af cyberbullying by summarising the key themes
in an up-to-date review of the academic research literature. The misuse of, and abuse in, online
environments is ever-increasing and becoming a growing concern for educators, families
and authorities around the world. It needs investigation to be understood and prevented to
ensure safe and beneficial experiences for children and adolescents through networked and
mobile communications. The various types of malice are described as is the frequency of their
occurrences and the most prevalent tools for inflicting harm. Given this fast emerging global
problem and the scarcity of empirical studies, there is a strong and urgent need for further
research in.

Policing, rule of law, state capacity and sustainable peace in Timor-Leste

This paper sets out to demonstrate the link between development, state capacity and peace, employing Timor-Leste as the case study. It employs the association between state capacity and development to illustrate where if state capacity is lacking or functions improperly there is likely to be a low level of state legitimacy. This in turn manifests as lack of respect for or failure of rule of law, developing as generalised lawlessness and anti-state activity and eventually manifesting as intra-state or civil conflict. In particular, policing is seen as a critical component in state legitimacy, being the 'front line' of the judicial system from which legitimacy ultimately derives. This issue is particularly critical in states emerging from traditional legal and judicial structures, but which have not yet articulated into 'rational-legal' structures. Ipso facto, key state institutions, such as the judicial system and police are required to function well, while these are alone not enough to guarantee peace, they are significant contributors to and guarantors of peace.

Building nature’s safety net 2011 : the state of protected areas for Australia’s ecosystems and wildlife.

This report is the third in a series with the two previous reports published in 2006 and 2008. This report details major conservation initiatives that have occurred in Australia since the last report, in which data was current to 2006, and highlights emerging issues. A major enhancement on previous reports is the inclusion of ecosystem and threatened species gap analyses, and the reporting on Australia's protected area systems on both land and sea. We define a minimum standard for an adequate, representative, and comprehensive reserve system by sampling ecosystem and species level diversity. Using the latest protected area and national species and ecosystem spatial data, we quantify the gaps: those areas needing to move from the current reserve system to one which meets the minimum standard. We also use data provided by various parks agencies, from responses to a questionnaire or as published by the agencies, to detail financial investments in protected areas, and estimate the investment levels needed to fill the documented gaps. We also identify critical policy changes needed to more effectively fill the identified gaps.

Perpetual revolution : people and state in socialist Cuba

This thesis examines the definition of “Revolution” in Cuba, exploring the political and social system that is associated with what people in Cuba call “the Revolution”, and placing special emphasis on people’s daily experiences of such systems. Through an analysis of organic movements of urban agriculture, alternative therapies emerging within the framework of a state-centred biomedical health system, and emigration this thesis aims to understand the lived experience of the Cuban Revolution

Credit cycle dependent spread determinants in emerging sovereign debt markets

We address credit cycle dependent sovereign credit risk determinants. In our model, the spread determinants' magnitude is conditional on an unobservable endogenous sovereign credit cycle as represented by the underlying state of a Markov regime switching process. Our explanatory variables are motivated in the tradition of structural credit risk models and include changes in asset prices, interest rates, implied market volatility, gold price changes and foreign exchange rates. We examine daily frequency variations of U.S. dollar denominated Eurobond credit spreads of four major Latin American sovereign bond issuers (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela) with liquid bond markets during March 2000 to June 2011. We find that spread determinants are statistically significant and consistent with theory, while their magnitude remarkably varies with the state of the credit cycle. Crisis states are characterized by high spread change uncertainty and high sensitivities with respect to the spread change determinants. We further document that not only changes of local currencies, but also changes of the Euro with respect to the U.S. dollar are significant spread drivers and argue that this is consistent with the sovereigns' ability to pay.

The geopolitical economy of social policy in the Philippines: securitisation, emerging powers and multilateral policies

Recent geopolitical and economic changes have altered global social policy formation. Bretton Woods multilateral development agencies (MDAs) have selectively incorporated ideas that have emerged from developing country states and decision makers. Recent years have witnessed an increased acceptance of social transfers as part of renewed efforts at poverty alleviation policies based on social risk management. There has been an instance in the use and promotion of conditional cash transfer (CCT) policies by MDAs. One case is the Philippines. CCTs were a product of the emergence of a neostructuralist welfare regime (understood as an ideal type) in Latin America. There was an attempt to reconcile neoliberal strategies of development with aspirations for guaranteed minimum incomes. The Bretton Woods and regional development bank MDAs have facilitated the adoption of CCTs in other developing country contexts. In the Philippines, a combination of actions by national political actors and MDAs resulted in the implementation of a securitised and compliance-focused version of CCTs derived from the Colombian security state. Although poor households welcome income assistance, CCTs have acted to enforce further state monitoring without altering the national-based political and economic processes that replicate poverty.

Does CEO pay dispersion matter in an emerging market? Evidence from China’s listed firms

This paper examines how the institutional features of emerging economies (i.e., government ownership, political connections, and market reform) influence CEO pay-dispersion incentives. Consistent with our expectation, we find that CEO pay dispersion generally provides a tournament incentive in China's emerging market, as it is positively associated with firm performance. In addition, tournament incentives are weaker where firms are controlled by the government and where the CEO is politically connected, but it became stronger after the China's split-share structure reforms. Further, we find that in state controlled firms the satisfaction gained by meeting multiple economic and social goals largely reduces the effectiveness of tournament incentives, while the managerial agency problems inherent in private firms might mitigate them.

Does control-ownership divergence impair market liquidity in an emerging market? Evidence from China

This paper examines how institutional characteristics of emerging economies influence the effect of control-ownership divergence on market liquidity. We find that the divergence is negatively associated with liquidity and that this negative relationship is more pronounced in firms with more severe agency problems and information asymmetry. We argue that in an emerging market, the negative effect of the divergence on liquidity is worsened by state ownership and poorer shareholder protection, both of which result in more severe agency conflicts; we also find, however, that this effect is alleviated by the NTS reform, which aligns the interest of different shareholders.