‘It’s almost like a White school now’: racialised complexities, Indigenous representation and school leadership

Drawing on a broader study that focused on examining principal leadership for equity and diversity, this paper presents the leadership experiences of ‘Jane’, a White, middle-class principal of a rural Indigenous school. The paper highlights how Jane's leadership is inextricably shaped by her assumptions about race and the political dynamics and historical specificities of her school community. A central focus is on Jane's tendency to deploy culturally reductionist understandings of Indigeneity that position it as incompatible or incommensurable with White culture/western schooling. The paper argues the central imperative of a leadership that rejects these understandings and engages in a critical situational analysis of Indigenous politics, relations and experience. Such an analysis is presented as imperative to supporting representative justice in that it moves beyond merely according a voice to Indigenous people to a focus on better understanding, problematising and remedying the racial relations that contribute to Indigenous oppression.

Surface effects: public relations and the politics of gender

This chapter examines gendered and sexual heirarchies in public relations workplaces.Specifically it investigates the clothes-body complex and two case studies of sexual harassment, together with the media representations of these cases, in order to discuss how reform in this area may build better social relations, equality and diversity. 

The politics of boganism and public relations in contemporary Australia

What is meant by the term ‘bogan’ and how does its popular usage distinguish a new public occupying a particular class position and social presence in Australian society. Examining a number of media texts, this paper explores the bogan phenomenon and asks if it normatively repositions Marxist ideas of class within the contemporary construct of lifestyle politics and classless capitalism (Beck). Challenging the idea the term is politically benign, the paper argues that the rise ‘boganism’ and its stigmatic associations has implications for public relations. In particular, it argues successful framing techniques designate a group of people occupying social risk positions and that are dis-empowered by eco-discourses and targeted for social control. These marginalised publics lack the sociocultural resources required for participation in the public sphere and as such are malleable and highly receptive to intrinsic and extrinsic forms of public relations.

Indonesian approach to ASEAN Plus Three financial cooperation: power relations, domestic politics, and regulatory regionalism

 This study examines Indonesia’s responses to financial regionalism within ASEAN Plus Three cooperation. It derives largely from the discussions, debates and empirical findings on how the Indonesian financial agencies exercise their authority and mandates, formulate policy coordination with international counterparts, and internalize and execute policy options into domestic financial regimes.

Stoking expectations: public relations and the politics of "bogans"

This chapter theories the notion of 'identity PR' as a new discursive practices working under the radar within contemporary globalised conditions. Supporters of sustainability who welcome the prospect of a low-carbon 'green' economy sometimes overlook the lived realities for those disadvantaged by the decline of old industrial society. The chapter challenges the idea that the Australian working class term 'bogan' denotes a benign social grouping, this chapter discusses its potential as a 'target public' vulnerable to exploitation by political organisations carrying coded messages about the 'Australian way of life".

Managing complexity and insitutionalization : power and politics in ERP implementation in an Australian university

This chapter reports a case study of ERP implementation in an institution of higher education. The ERP is one based on integration of administrative tasks based on Oracle® systems and is successful both in terms of its embeddedness in institutionalized practice and in supporting that university's operations. The key issue that emerged from the study showed that understanding complexity, institutionalized practice, and the power relations in existence enable the implementation to be more effective, as it can be managed when understood. The chapter argues that organizations reproduce practice and that an ERP challenges that. To deal with that challenge, social dramas emerge wherever power exists, and the resulting conflicts challenge the effectiveness of the systems put in place. In this case study, the key role of the project champion in resolving the social dramas became evident.

The 'China Threat' in American self-imagination: the discursive construction of other as power politics

Argues that the "China threat" argument in mainstream international relations literature in the United States is derived, primarily, from a discursive construction of otherness. Construction which is predicated on a particular narcissistic understanding of the U.S. self and on a positivist-based realism, concerned with absolute certainty and security; Concern which is central to the dominant U.S. self-imagery.

Theories of international relations

The substantially revised second edition of this widely-used text provides a broad-ranging introduction to the main theoretical approaches to the study of International Relations. The introduction focuses on the nature of theory in the study of global politics and the discipline's internal debates. The following nine substantially revised and updated chapters, including an entirely new one on Constructivism, provide thorough examinations of each of the major traditional and more recent approaches currently prevailing in the discipline.

Outsourcing in the Australian health sector : the interplay of economics and politics

Purpose – The paper discusses the reasons and approaches used at three health organisations in introducing outsourcing. It specifically answers the question: why have managers of health organisations outsourced some functions in preference to others?

Design/methodology/approach – This research employs a case study method making use of qualitative analysis. The health organisations were chosen first as representatives of their type, and secondly due to the nature of the outsourcing decisions made. The first health organisation operates in the rural sector; the second is a metropolitan network; and the third is a large metropolitan hospital, which, in contrast to the other two case study organisations, had made only one decision to outsource, producing the largest outsourcing contract in health in Australia. Furthermore, this situation was distinctive as the contract was terminated and re-issued to another private sector organisation.

Findings – The reasons for outsourcing varied within and between health organisations. Although generally they were made on the bases of the characteristics of the labour market, employee skill levels and the nature of industrial relations, the perception of what was core, the level of internal management skills, the ability of internal teams to implement change and the relationship between management and staff. Even though cost savings and a downsized labour force resulted, generally these occurred even when services were not outsourced, through the use of other change processes, such as introducing new technology, changing structures and promoting workforce flexibility. The interplay of political reasons and economic effects was evident along with the political nature of the decision-making and processes used. The paper concludes that the power of managers was a moderating factor between the desire for outsourcing and whether outsourcing actually occurred.

Research limitations/implications – Although this research was conducted solely within the health sector it has implications for other public sector bodies and the private sector.

Practical implications – Managerial decision making can be enhanced with the exploration of the full complement of reasons for the outsourcing decision.

Originality/value – The paper has value to both academics researching in the public sector and public sector managers.

Korea's developmental alliance : state, capital and the politics of rapid development

South Korea is often cited as a case of miraculous transformation from poverty to prosperity. Korea’s achievement of moving from one of the world’s poorest countries as recently as the early 1960s to the ranks of the ten biggest economies only four decades later has rightly attracted interest from policymakers and scholars alike.

This book identifies the factors that shaped relations between the state and big business in Korea, the ‘developmental alliance’. These factors offer a cogent framework in which to identify and predict changes in power relations between government and business. Rather than merely offering a means of explaining the rapid-growth phase of Korean development, the politics of the developmental alliance also help us understand how and why the Korean miracle turned to crisis in 1997 and why the subsequent recovery has been so uneven. In this way, the book highlights the political power of business, which is often underplayed in discussions of the development of Korea. It also sheds light on the constraints on policymakers during modernisation, and how power is shared among a small number of powerful parties.

Illustrating the tumultuous politics of the ‘developmental alliance’ between business and government during the rise and decline of South Korea’s economic miracle, this book is an essential read for anyone interested in Korean politcs, economics and development,

The politics of NGOs : empowering marginal groups in a climate of micro-management and distrust

The role of peak NGOs in Australian civil society is considered crucial for representing marginal groups in the public and policy arena. The Howard government had particularly challenged the advocacy, coordination, information, research and policy role of peak NGOs. Instead of dealing with NGOs, the Howard government developed a 'governing through communities' process establishing new arrangements between the Federal government and local communities. It is of concern that 'governance through communities' may directly erode the values of voluntary association, broad representation of diverse groups in society and may negate non-instrumental political relations that NGOs aim to contribute to a healthy democracy. How the new Rudd government relates to peak NGOs is thus worthy of close analysis to understand what democratic role especially peak NGO's will play in Australian civil society.