Giving Muslim girls ‘a voice’: the possibilities and limits to challenging patriarchal interpretations of Islam in one English community

This paper presents the philosophies and practices of ‘Laura’, a young English community liaison worker and former religious studies teacher who has recently converted to Islam. Drawing on data generated from a qualitative and predominantly interview‐based research project that investigated issues of pedagogy and social justice in English schools, the focus is on Laura’s efforts to support Muslim girls through an Islamic discussion group. The paper highlights how Laura draws on Islamic beliefs to support the girls’ questioning of patriarchal interpretations of Islam within their Pakistani immigrant community. The paper also provides insight, however, into some of the tensions and limitations of Laura’s liberatory approach in terms of her positioning as white, western, and middle‐class. Against this backdrop, a self‐reflexive approach that is sensitive to how ‘ethnic‐specific sociability’ shapes understandings and enactments of gender is advocated. Such an approach is presented as central in considering how spaces of gender justice might be mobilised within community environments where unprecedented levels of multi‐cultural fragmentation and diversity have amplified tensions and conflict between and amongst racial and religious groups.

The entrepreneurial arts leader : cultural policy, change and reinvention

"The Entrepreneurial Arts Leader is grounded in an understanding of cultural policy, management, art history, entrepreneurship and creativity, and is cross-disciplinary. It features a comprehensive bibliography and models of entrepreneurial arts leaders, and will be of seminal importance to arts managers, administrators, cultural policy makers and students."--BOOK JACKET

Observations from the refuse-heap: Freud, Michelangelo`s Moses, and psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud's 1914 essay on Michelangelo's statue of Moses is unique in having been the only one of his works whose authorship he sought to conceal. Although the essay bears no relation to psychoanalytic theory as such Freud characterized the method of inquiry that he employed therein as one that has in point of fact a certain resemblance to the methodology of psychoanalysis, and a number of authors have since insisted on this resemblance even to the point of proclaiming the essay to be paradigmatic of Freudian interpretive methods.

The new arts leader: the Australia Council and cultural policy change

One consequence of the development of cultural policy has been a demand for more creative leadership in arts organisations. This article provides a case study of how leadership of the Australia Council changed from the 1970s to the beginning of the 21st century. It argues that changes to the way in which Australia Council chairs approached their role was shaped by, and contributed to, the trend towards constructing the arts as an industry. Part of this change sees the Australia Council subjected to aspects of reform, which were widely endorsed by the Australian public sector. The article identifies three styles of leadership exhibited by the chairs over the period: visionary, statesman and reformer, in three phases of the Council's history. It examines the political and social imperatives shaping these leadership styles.

Deakin as a national leader in teaching and learning

Deakin University has set itself the ambitious goal of becoming a national leader in teaching and learning and in the provision of high quality flexible education. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sally Walker, recently reinforced the target of Deakin being in the top third of Australian universities in relation to teaching and learning by 2012.

ANZAC day to VP day : arguements and interpretations

This paper offers a survey of recent military historiography. The author considers its fragmentary nature, and argues for integrative and comparative approach.

Who is responsible for the protection of children? Implicit and explicit interpretations of marketing messages

In this paper, we examine ethical issues related to advertising to children in light of evidence that people can hold ‘implicit’ as well as ‘explicit’ consumer attitudes. From a review of the important features of implicit versus explicit attitudes, we hypothesise three important features of implicit consumer attitudes in children. First, we suggest they are likely to be acquired automatically from, in part, exposure to marketing messages. Second, we predict that these attitudes will be resistant to change through reflection or reason by the child or other person. Third, we hypothesise that children’s implicit consumer attitudes will be powerful predictors of their consumer choices in many situations. We discuss the implications for the ethics of marketing to children, and propose a research framework to begin investigating this important issue.

Technical and scale efficiency of Islamic banking operations in Malaysia: an empirical investigation with a longitudinal perspective

Against the background of increasing competition from globalization and the trend towards consolidation, diversification and rationalization, the study of efficiency is most relevant in the Malaysian Islamic banking context, where all domestic commercial banks operate Islamic banking schemes. Using the non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), this study investigates the recent efficiency of the Malaysian Islamic Banking system. The attributions of technical efficiency (utilization of capacity) and scale efficiency (optimality of scale achieved) are identified. Further, Islamic Banking Schemes operating under the dual banking system of foreign and domestic commercial banks were benchmarked to the country's two full-fledged Islamic banks to provide insight of the relative efficiencies. Amidst an overall improvement in TE and SE, it was noted that foreign banks (FB) increased efficiency levels to achieve full efficiency over the six-year period, and domestic banks (DB) followed by smaller improvement while the fully-fledged Islamic banks (FFIE) experienced a general decline in efficiency which was solely attributed to scale inefficiency. The findings provide useful guidelines for policy implications and may also assist banks concerned with their strategic planning with regard to the future of Islamic banking.