Absolute freedom and major structural change

Comments on the contribution of philosopher Slavoj Zizek to the reception of the works of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in universities. Analysis of philosophy, religion, politics and society; Notion of an act of absolute freedom; Consequences of an act.

Zygmunt Bauman : order, strangerhood and freedom

In the final decades of the 20th century, issues such as identity, Otherness and the role of social and cultural boundaries have been prominent in social theory, sociology and cultural studies. In this context, an analysis of Bauman's work is important because it raises pertinent questions pertaining to the nature of social and cultural boundaries and the nature of boundary construction under modernity. The metaphors of inside and outside and the idea of the boundary are significant in Bauman's critique of modernity's search for a meta-order and in his examination of strangerhood. The article illustrates how this ordering process manifests itself at the individual and societal levels of modernity. Bauman's contention is that modernity's search for a meta-order leads to the construction of boundaries and to exclusionary practices. It is the presence of the Third, for Bauman, which threatens the certainty of order. Different images of the stranger in Bauman's work are identified and the ways in which Bauman's conception of freedom and `community' is intrinsically linked to his work on the ambivalent stranger are demonstrated.

Cluster housing and the freedom of choice: a response to Emerson (2004)

Comments on the study of people with an intellectual disability. Inferiority of the standard of various objectively measured variables for the people living in cluster housing; Behavior of people living in cluster housing; Consideration of a study that compared pensioners with socialites on the extent of their social networks.

What is 'political communication'? The rationale and scope of the implied freedom of political communication

The aim of this article is to identify what counts as ‘political communication’ for the purposes of the implied constitutional freedom of political communication. This is done for two reasons. The first is to delimit the scope of the implied freedom. The second is to clarify whether racial vilification is ‘political communication’, which is the initial step that must be taken in order to assess the constitutionality or otherwise of current Australian racial vilification laws. It is, however, necessary and desirable to establish a sound theoretical basis for the implied freedom before these questions can be properly considered. To this end, it is argued that a minimalist model of judicially-protected popular sovereignty underpins the implied freedom and is the rationale that must guide its interpretation and application. The analysis undertaken demonstrates that a generous zone of ‘political communication’ must attract constitutional protection and that racial vilification will in certain circumstances amount to ‘political communication’.

Publication bias in the economic freedom and economic growth literature

The impact of institutions on economic performance has attracted significant attention from researchers, as well as from policy reformers. A rapidly growing area in this literature is the impact of economic freedom on economic growth. The aim of this paper was to explore publication bias in this literature by means of traditional funnel plots, meta‐significance testing, as well as by bootstrapping these meta‐significance tests. When all the available estimates are combined and averaged, there seems to be evidence of a genuine and positive economic freedom – economic growth effect. However, it is also shown that the economic freedom – economic growth literature is tainted strongly with publication bias. The existence of publication bias makes it difficult to identify the magnitude of the genuine effect of economic freedom on economic growth. The paper explores the differences between aggregate and disaggregate measures of economic freedom and shows that selection effects are stronger when aggregate measures are used.

Growth of highly versus moderately trained competitive female artistic gymnasts

Purpose: To investigate whether growth was adversely affected in 137 young competitive female artistic gymnasts involved in different training volumes.

Methods: This was a 2-yr prospective cohort study in which height, sitting height, leg length, weight, skinfolds, and pubertal status were measured in competitive advanced (20–27 h·wk-1) and intermediate (7.5–22 h·wk-1) training level female gymnasts every 6–12 months. Biological parameters of the adolescent growth curve were estimated using the Preece–Baines growth model. Growth rates were estimated for both groups from the mixed-longitudinal data.

Results: Estimated ages at peak height velocity (PHV) (13–13.5 yr) and mean PHV (6.2–6.4 cm·yr-1) for the advanced- and intermediate-level gymnasts suggest that these gymnasts were later maturing and experienced a blunting of the growth spurt relative to reference values for U.S. youth. Comparison of growth velocities by pubertal status revealed that height velocity was lower in the advanced- versus the intermediate-level peripubertal gymnasts, which was due to a significant reduction in sitting height velocity (2.3 vs 3.1 cm·yr-1, P. < 0.05). No marked acceleration in height or sitting height velocity was detected in the advanced-level gymnasts from pre- to peripuberty. Inspection of individual growth rates revealed that over 35% of the pre- and peripubertal gymnasts experienced growth faltering (height velocity less than 4.5 cm·yr-1) during follow-up.

Conclusion: Advanced–and intermediate–training level competitive female gymnasts tend to exhibit an adolescent growth spurt that is similar in timing and tempo to short, normal, slowly maturing girls, but the high frequency of growth faltering suggests that training may alter the tempo of growth and maturation in some, but not all, female gymnasts.

Economic freedom and economic growth: Does specification make a difference?

In this paper we apply meta-analytic techniques to the literature on the impact of economic freedom on economic growth and find an overall positive direct association between economic freedom and economic growth. A positive indirect effect of economic freedom on economic growth through the stimulation of physical capital is also identified. However, the literature is affected by specification bias with respect to controls for physical capital. The omission of physical capital results in larger estimates of the economic freedom–economic growth association. Further, the use of panel data leads to smaller estimates of the impact of economic freedom on economic growth. The meta-analysis is confirmed by primary cross-sectional and panel data analysis of 82 countries for the period 1970–1999.

Sex offenders in a risk society : setting limits on freedom

The commendable intention to protect children from risk must be weighed against loss of personal freedom when imposing extended supervision orders under the Serious Sex Offenders Monitoring Act.

Training packages and the AQTF: freedom to move or components of a compliance-driven straightjacket?

This paper reports on a PhD research project being undertaken through the Faculty of Education, Deakin University. Training Packages and the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) form part of the ruling relations of VET, but how do they operate in practice? Do they provide frameworks within which training professionals are free to use judgement and respond in innovative ways to local learning and assessment contexts? Do they impose rigid 'guidelines' within which the decision-making authority of practitioners over appropriate practices is displaced by that of auditors, constraining creativity and creating pressures towards conformity? Or does their impact vary, depending on how they are interpreted and who is doing the interpreting? My PhD research explores issues relating to the use of Training Packages in workbased learning. Interview data suggests that, in practice, different training organisations respond very differently to a regulatory framework that aims to achieve national consistency. Some practitioners describe working in a compliance-driven environment, in which their ability to meet the needs of learners is stifled by standardised training and assessment practices imposed by Training Packages and the AQTF. This view is reflected in phrases such as 'you're not allowed to…', and 'you always feel uneasy because you've got AQTF compliance, inspections, auditors'. In contrast, other practitioners talk about having freedom to design learning and assessment programs for their particular target group and context, providing they stay within broad guidelines that guarantee national recognition of qualifications they issue. This view is reflected in comments such as 'it just leaves it open … to be as creative and flexible as you like', and 'It just gives us freedom'. This paper explores the proposition that the impact of these abstract and generalised texts is influenced by local interpretations, and it considers the role that organisational culture plays in determining these interpretations.

Freedom and slavery: constructions of ideologies in illicit drugs treatment

Freedom, autonomy, enslavement and coercion have a multitude of meanings which are determined by the writer’s discipline background and intent, even more so in the area of illicit drugs’ policy and treatment. This paper proposes to begin to untangle the multiplicity of meanings which are attached to two contrasting forms of illicit drugs treatment, harm minimisation and abstinence-based treatments. Both treatment regimes lay claim to the high moral ground in this regard - freedom and autonomy are explicit terms used in the rhetoric of both. How this can best be understood and what sociologists can contribute to the debates about illicit drug treatments is the terrain this paper traverses. It does this by laying out the different meanings of the terms in social theory and then by trying to understand the ‘truth’ claims of treatment proponents and using a Foucauldian perspective to critique these claims.

Building capacity in an indigenous nonprofit artistic enterprise

Growth in Indigenous artistic enterprises has attracted government funding, cultural tourists, and arts managers with a strong interest in cultural democracy and, more recently, an interest in business models for these artists. This paper documents a case study of Arilla Paper, an artistic enterprise in Queensland, Australia, where a group of Aboriginal women, worked on making paper from natural materials, to create a sustainable non-profit arts business. Sections of the business manual developed for these women, together with primary and secondary data supporting the Indigenous creative industries, are presented. The paper concludes that success in such ventures requires a social entrepreneurship model of funding that recognises the challenges of Indigenous cultural ownership and capacity building in business practice.