Nervous outsiders : Australia and the 1955 Asia-Africa conference in Bandung

In 1955 29 Asian, African and Middle Eastern nations gathered in Bandung. Indonesia, to discuss a range of issues including colonialism, racialism, economic development, war and peace. India's Prime Minister. Jawaharlal Nehru, was one of the key figures at the conference, but the Chinese Prime Minister, Chou En-lai. was the primary focus of world attention and media interest. The conference raised awkward questions for the Australian government. It highlighted the point that Australia was geographically part of Asia and had a vital interest in the region, but the fact that Australia had not been invited to attend the conference emphasised its status as a nation apart, racially and culturally. The Bandung conference provides an ideal opportunity to examine thinking about Australia's place in Asia as key figures in the Department of External Affairs. journalists and Asianist intellectuals debated whether or not Australia should attend.

‘Outsiders’ and ‘others’: ‘different’ teachers teaching in culturally diverse classrooms

This article draws on data from two separate qualitative research studies that investigated the experiences of Indigenous teachers and ethnic minority teachers in Australian schools. The data presented here were collected via in-depth individual semi-structured interviews with teachers in 2004 and 2005. Data analysis was informed by poststructuralist discourse theory and the data were examined for broad themes and recurring discourse patterns relevant to the projects’ foci. The article explores how teachers who are not from the Anglo-Celtic Australian ‘mainstream’ use their cultural knowledge and experiences as ‘other’ to develop deep understandings of ethnic minority and/or Indigenous students. I suggest that the teachers’ knowledge of ‘self’ in regards to ethnicity and/or Indigeneity and social class enables them to empathize with students of difference, to contextualize their students’ responses to schooling through understanding their out-of-school lives from perspectives not available to teachers from the dominant cultural majority. I raise in this paper a number of important implications for teacher education including the need to recruit and retain greater numbers of teachers of difference in schools, the need to acknowledge their potential to make valuable contributions to the education of minority students as well as their potential to act as cross-cultural mentors for their ‘mainstream’ colleagues.

Review essay : insiders, outsiders, and shared stories

The article reviews several books including "Being Australian: Narratives of National Identity," by Catriona Elder, "Australian Pastoral: The Making of a White Landscape," by Jeanette Hoorn, and "The Australians: Insiders and Outsiders on the National Character Since 1770," by John Hirst.

The exclusionary policies of 'us and them' in the IPA and psychoanalytic institutes

This article will explore the issues of otherness in the IPA and also consider the local institute level using the example of the British Psychoanalytic Society. According to the IPA it is 'The world's primary psychoanalytic accrediting and regulatory body, with 10,500 members in over forty-five countries. The IPA works in partnership with its Component Organizations to train, support and network psychoanalysts, developing clinical, educational and research programmes'. It is well-known that the history of psychoanalysis is replete with organizational schisms and primary issues of 'inclusion-exclusion'. Who is a real psychoanalyst? "That are the necessary acceptable professional 'standards'? 'While standards' should be derived from knowledge, they are often derived from power and are often really a mask for power-plays. The others' have included those from both outside and within the psychoanalytic movement. Outsiders include medicine and the universities, psychotherapists, other psychoanalysts and other disciplines. Deviationists ,.vithin the IPA include other schools vvithin the'broad church' of psychoanalysis or even just those who don't fit with the proclivities of those in power sometimes rationalized into issues of standards

Do outsider-dominated boards and large board sizes curtail firm enterprise activities?

Recent literature recognizes the need for corporate governance to encompass mechanisms for motivating managerial behaviour towards enhancing enterprise activities or increasing wealth of the firm. Agency theory and current regulatory activity advocate increasingly greater roles for outsiders on the board of directors of publicly-traded firms. The literature also put forward that board size affect firm activities independent of other board attributes. Lipton and Lorsch (1992) also propose limiting board sizes to enhance communication and coordination on the board of directors as well as increase the ability of the board of directors to control top management of firms. This suggests that there are biases as board size grows. This paper, therefore, studies the implications of outsider-dominated board of directors and board size on firm enterprise activities. The paper finds that outsider dominated board of directors have a negative impact on firm enterprise activities. Board size was found to have a positive effect on firm enterprise activities.

Veiled threats : recurrent cultural anxieties in Australia

At the end of the nineteenth century, white Australians found themselves in a turbulent and rapidly changing world. As British settlers in a vast, often-perplexing and under-populated continent, they were increasingly aware that they lived in a crowded and predominantly Asian neighbourhood. Their supposedly empty spaces seemed to invite the unwanted attention of hostile outsiders, fertile soil for speculation about vulnerable borders, invasion and violation. It was commonplace of the period for white females to be considered at once particularly vulnerable and also innocent symbols of the new nation. They needed to be protected against Asian males allegedly bent on conquest and violation. It does not follow that these “invasion narratives”, however persistent, meant that the entire population was disabled by fear and dread, but there is convincing evidence of a deeply embedded cultural anxiety about the destructive possibilities and hostile intentions of Asian outsiders. In this article, the authors examine recent representations of Muslims as hostile outsiders in Australia, focusing in particular on the veil as a marker of female oppression under Islam and a sign of the threat attributed to the Islamic community in Australia. While it would be misleading to propose a simple line of progression from late nineteenth century apprehensions to those a century or more later, there are nonetheless intriguing parallels and recurrent expressions of survivalist anxiety across the period examined in this article.

A tenuous belonging: international students, multiculturalism and the manifestation of cosmopolitanism in local schools

This paper is concerned with the ‘imagination of community within local/global contexts such as those of Australian schools, at the beginning of the 21st century. In particular, it explores the ways that school community representatives in urban and rural Victoria, Australia discuss the presence of international students within their school communities and the consequences of these understandings for the ways that these students can belong. The paper argues that recent and globalising changes, particularly the impact of international students within schools, have meant that school communities understand the presence of others and therefore themselves in new ways. Arguments derived from mono-cultural and multicultural thought, always ambivalent, take on new forms as school representatives are concerned with a more individualistic and market driven world shaped within a cacophony of local/ global tensions. The paper concludes that in the tenuousness of belonging within local/global communities such as those of Australian schools, understandings of community and its outsiders need to be understood in relation to the contradictory but increasingly pervasive logics of cosmopolitan discourse.

The information content of directors' trades: empirical analysis of the Australian market

We examine the trading activities of directors in shares of their own companies on the Australian Stock Exchange during the July-December 2005 period. We find that directors of small companies in particular earn abnormal return after both their 'Purchase' and as well as their 'Sale' trade. Directors of these companies have an uncanny ability to time the market by trading when mispricing is greatest, and are able to predict the future performance of their firms in short run. For directors of medium and large companies, we find evidence that 'Sale' trades are the ones which work as loss avoiders. Outsiders recognise to some extent that directors' trades are informative, however they are slow to incorporate the new information into prices, refuting much of the market efficiency literature.

Building commitment through integrating employees

Corporate collapses of past decade have affected all stakeholders through a loss of public confidence, loss of jobs and loss of shareholders' funds. We have seen poor business decisions, extravagant business acquisitions, lack of attention to detail, exorbitant directors fees, lack of board scrutiny and inadequate disclosure internationally and in Australia in cases such as Enron, WorldCom, HIH, the Australian Wheat Board, and numerous state banks. This paper analyzes annual reports, web sites and CSR/ Sustainability and Governance reports of twenty selected companies to highlight the position of human resources and labour in their governance frameworks, and by linking the data to Stum's (2001) performance pyramid, evaluates the extent of organizational commitment. It concludes that despite all the rhetoric around employees being stakeholders, employees continue to be viewed as 'outsiders' with governance primarily focused on shareholder concerns. Employees are primarily seen as constituents of legal and regulatory frameworks and employee codes of conduct and lack a position in strategy and effective decisionmaking structures, thereby conveying to employees that they are perceived only as workers, and not as a person (Stum, 2001). Naturally, the organizations fail to win the commitment of their employees.

The impact of globalisation on building surveying in Europe

This research examined the impact of globalisation on building surveying in Europe. Globalisation has resulted in the emergence of three large trading blocs or a global economy depending on the view one takes. This has impacted on property in two ways, by creating transnational companies who operate in many countries but require branding of their property, and companies who wish to invest in property markets other than their country of origin.

Building Surveyors have professional expertise and knowledge valued in the UK since the 1960 and 1970s but until recently not recognised in Europe, partly due to poor awareness of Building Surveying (BS) expertise, legal constraints, and practises relating to the employment of professionals. This is changing with the establishment of European Surveying associations and the globalisation of the RICS.

The results showed four factors provided the reasons for the globalisation of BS skills. These were that Building Surveyors provided a consistent level of service for their clients. Secondly that English is the language of business. Thirdly, clients perceive Europe as a single trading bloc with a need for technical representation in each investment centre, providing them with a fast, knowledgeable service. Fourthly, clients perceive that UK Building Surveyors know what international, or transnational, investors want.

The finding on the current demand for the BS services in Europe is that though demand is large, few Building Surveyors are located in Europe. Secondly, both investors and occupiers require the services of Building Surveyors, and local companies / individuals are beginning to use their professional services. Finally, there is a diverse range of demand for the many BS skills.

Five key barriers to the practice of BS skills in Europe emerged from the research. Firstly, there was the problem of limited local legal and technical knowledge possessed by outsiders. Secondly, there are legal barriers to practice in some cases. Thirdly, other professionals can, and do, offer the services of the Building Surveyor. Fourthly, there can be cultural differences between ‘values’ and ‘norms’ required in business that constitute barriers. Finally there can be ‘communication’ problems when the Building Surveyor is not located in the country where the service is required.

The emergence of the global workplace : opportunities and barriers for building surveyors in Oceania

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) the professional body representing surveyors in the UK, has implemented a policy to globalise in order to meet the challenges and opportunities the global marketplace was creating for its members as well as protecting and serving its interests (RICS, 1999). Quantity surveyors had a presence and history of employment outside the UK, particularly in the Middle and Far East. Real estate surveyors found the transition to working in European Union (EU) countries relatively straightforward and numerous UK real estate organisations have European, Asian, North American and Oceanic offices. Additionally UK based firms establishing partnerships with overseas real estate firms expanded significantly over the previous decade. Building Surveying is different. Small numbers worked in commonwealth countries but in most countries their professional and academic qualifications were not recognised. With the changes implemented by the RICS, this paper examines the barriers and opportunities facing RICS Chartered Building Surveyors (CBS) in Oceania (taken as Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji).

A desk top study reviewed the political, economic and sociological variables affecting employment opportunities and professional services which were put to the RICS Oceania Building Surveying Faculty. No previous study had been undertaken to identify the specific barriers and opportunities in Oceania for the BS and this research adopted a census survey of RICS practitioners currently employed in the region and the results form the most comprehensive picture of the current position. The findings are that some of the opportunities and barriers will change in significance over time. The main barriers to growth were perceived as lack of support from a Euro focussed RICS and the difficulties associated with being perceived as outsiders. Opportunities were perceived as emerging in new areas of professional services such as sustainability and energy efficiency.

History of contact and change in the Goroka Valley, Central Highlands of New Guinea, 1934-1949

The thesis traces the interaction of the Goroka Valley people with European and coastal New Guinean intruders during the pacification stage of contact and change. In this 15 year period the people moved from a traditional subsistence culture to the threshold of a modern, European-influenced technological society. The contact experiences of the inhabitants of the Valley and the outsiders who influenced them are examined, using both oral and documentary sources. A central theme of this study is the attempts by Europeans and their coastal New Guinean collaborators to achieve the pacification of a people for whom warfare has been described as 'the dominant orientation'. The newcomers saw pacification as being inextricably linked with social, economic and religious transformation, and consequently it was pursued by patrol officers, missionaries and soldiers alike. Following an introductory chapter outlining the pre-contact and early-contact history of the Goroka Valley people, there is a discussion of the causes of tribal fighting in Highlands communities and two case studies of violent events which, although occurring beyond the Goroka Valley, had important consequences for those who lived within its bounds. The focus then shifts to the first permanent settlement of the agents of change -initially these were coastal New Guinean evangelists and policemen - and their impact on the local people. A period of consolidation is then described, as both government and missions established a permanent 'European presence in the Valley'. This period was characterised by vigorous pacification coupled with the introduction of innovations in health and education, agriculture, technology, law and religion. The gradual transformation of Goroka Valley society as a result of the people's interaction with the newcomers was abruptly accelerated in 1943, when many hundreds of Allied soldiers occupied the Valley in anticipation of a threatened Japanese invasion. Village life was disrupted as men were conscripted as carriers and labourers and whole communities were obliged to grow food to assist the Allied war effort. Those living close to military airfields-and camps were subject to Japanese aerial attacks and the entire population was exposed to an epidemic of bacillary dysentery introduced by the combatants. However the War also brought some positive effects, including paradoxically, the almost total cessation of tribal fighting, the construction of an ail-weather airstrip at Goroka which ensured its future as a town and administrative and commercial centre, and the compulsory growing of vegetables, coffee, etc, which laid the foundations for a cash economy and material prosperity. The final chapter examines the aftermath of military occupation, the return of civil administration and the implementation of social and economic policies which brought the Goroka Valley people into the rapid-development phase of contact. By 1949 Gorokans were ready to channel their aggressive energies into commercial competitiveness and adopt a cash-crop economy, to accept the European rule of law, to take advantage of Western innovations in medicine, education, transport and communications, to seek employment opportunities at home and in other parts of the country and to modify their primal world view with European religious and secular values. A Stone Age people was in process of being transformed into a modern society.

Deep identity, shallow time : sustaining a future in Victorian fishing communities

Like commercial fishers everywhere, it seems, those living in coastal communities of Victoria perceive themselves to be under threat from recreational fishers, environmentalists, imposed management regimes, and modernisation and globalisation of the industry. In responding to these threats they appeal to conventional props of tradition--to continuity in genealogical time, affiliation with place and specialised knowledge and practice. This seems paradoxical, given that most established fishers in Victoria are first or second generation members of an industry that, through its 150-year history, has been characterised by innovation and mobility. That paradox, we argue, is more apparent than real. Fisher identity is grounded primarily in engagement with an environment that is not familiar to outsiders. The paradox arises because fishers, like others who seek to sustain a future in the face of threat from outsiders, reshape strongly felt identity as tradition.

Resignifying "lesbian"

The marginalised develop a twin vision of the world, and their autobiographical accounts can serve as counter narratives to challenge and transform dominant beliefs. As outsiders, lesbians can be used to test assumptions about gender and sexuality. Their experiences can also serve to renegotiate the terms for "woman" and "lesbian". This paper is comprised of nine short stories, accompanied by an exegesis.