‘Crack in the pavement’ : pedagogy as political and moral practice for educating culturally competent professionals

This paper explores the reception of Indigenous perspectives and knowledges in university curricula and educators’ social responsibility to demonstrate cultural competency through their teaching and learning practices. Drawing on tenets of critical race theory, Indigenous standpoint theory and critical pedagogies, this paper argues that the existence of Indigenous knowledges in Australian university curricula and pedagogy demands personal and political activism (Dei, 2008) as it requires educators to critique both personal and discipline-based knowledge systems. The paper interrogates the experiences of non-Indigenous educators involved in this contested epistemological space (Nakata, 2002), and concludes by arguing for a political and ethical commitment by educators towards embedding Indigenous knowledges towards educating culturally competent professionals.

Prisoners

This issue of Hot Topics aims to provide a range of information about prisons and prisoners in australia and nsW in particular. there are many issues to examine within our prison system – how imprisonment functions as a method of punishment, the statistics that demonstrate the backgrounds of disadvantage of most prisoners and highlight the over-representation of indigenous australians in the criminal justice system. there is some detail provided on the day-to-day regime for prisoners in nsW and a discussion of prisoners’ legal rights, including their right to full citizenship.

The disenfranchisement of prisoners : Roach v Electoral Commissioner & Anor - modernity v feudalism

David Brown takes a road trip to Canberra for the Roach fixture at the High Court where modernity is attempting a fight-back against the resurrection of civil death. With echoes of Hunter S Thompson as rugby league follower, the author recounts a trip to Canberra to observe a case in which Vickie Lee Roach, an Indigenous woman prisoner, challenged (successfully as it later turns out) the Howard government's 2006 legislation disenfranchising all serving prisoners.

From "Secondary Punishment" to "Supermax" : the human costs of high-security regimes in Australia

“Supermax” prisons, conceived by the United States in the early 1980s, are typically reserved for convicted political criminals such as terrorists and spies and for other inmates who are considered to pose a serious ongoing threat to the wider community, to the security of correctional institutions, or to the safety of other inmates. Prisoners are usually restricted to their cells for up to twenty-three hours a day and typically have minimal contact with other inmates and correctional staff. Not only does the Federal Bureau of Prisons operate one of these facilities, but almost every state has either a supermax wing or stand-alone supermax prison. The Globalization of Supermax Prisons examines why nine advanced industrialized countries have adopted the supermax prototype, paying particular attention to the economic, social, and political processes that have affected each state. Featuring essays that look at the U.S.-run prisons of Abu Ghraib and Guantanemo, this collection seeks to determine if the American model is the basis for the establishment of these facilities and considers such issues as the support or opposition to the building of a supermax and why opposition efforts failed; the allegation of human rights abuses within these prisons; and the extent to which the decision to build a supermax was influenced by developments in the United States. Additionally, contributors address such domestic matters as the role of crime rates, media sensationalism, and terrorism in each country’s decision to build a supermax prison.

The Limited Benefit of Prison in Controlling Crime : On the Threshold of a Political Shift

In 2012 the New Zealand government spent $3.4 billion, or nearly $800 per person, on responses to crime via the justice system. Research shows that much of this spending does little to reduce the changes of re-offending. Relatively little money is spent on victims, the rehabilitation of offenders or to support the families of offenders. This book is based on papers presented at the Costs of Crime forum held by the Institute of Policy Studies in February 2011. It presents lessons from what is happening in Australia, Britain and the United States and focuses on how best to manage crime, respond to victims, and reduce offending in a cost-effective manner in a New Zealand context. It is clear that strategies are needed that are based on better research and a more informed approach to policy development. Such strategies must assist victims constructively while also reducing offending. Using public resources to lock as many people in our prisons as possible cannot be justified by the evidence and is fiscally unsustainable; nor does such an approach make society safer. To reduce the costs of crime we need to reinvest resources in effective strategies to build positive futures for those at risk and the communities needed to sustain them.

Practical Advice to Entrepreneurs Series by ACE Adjunct Professor Dean Shepherd: Practical advice for prisoners on developing an entrepreneurial career

The author, Dean Shepherd, is of entrepreneurship—how entrepreneurs think, decide to act, and feel. He recently realized that while his publications in academic journals have implications for entrepreneurs, those implications have remained relatively hidden in the text of the articles and hidden in articles published in journals largely inaccessible to those involved in the entrepreneurial process. This series is designed to bring the practical implications of his research to the forefront.

Prisoners as Citizens

As prison populations continue to expand across the western world the question of the rights of prisoners has become an increasingly pressing issue, particularly in the light of new human rights discourses. This important new book gives voice to a diverse range of viewpoints arising out of this debate in the Australian context, while the issues raised will have powerful echoes elsewhere. The contributors to this book include the prisoners themselves, human rights activists, academics, criminal justice policy makers and practitioners. Overall the book presents a powerful argument that prisoners do and should have rights in any society that professes to be a democracy, bringing to the fore a debate that society would often prefer to forget.

The value of political connections : evidence from Korean chaebols

This thesis examines the value of political connections for business groups by constructing a unique dataset that allows us to identify the form and extent of the connections. Results show firms' membership to family-controlled business groups (South Korean chaebol) play a key role in determining the value of political connections. Politically connected chaebol firms experience substantial price increases following the establishment of the connection than other firms, but the reverse is found for other (non-family-controlled) connected business groups.

IT governance stability in a political changing environment : exploring potential impacts in the public sector

Public sector organisations (PSOs) operate in information-intensive environments often within operational contexts where efficiency is a goal. What's more, the rapid adoption of IT is expected to facilitate good governance within public sector organisations but it often clashes with the bureaucratic culture of these organisations. Accordingly, models such as IT Governance (ITG) and government reform -in particular the new public management (NPM)- were introduced in PSOs in an effort to address the inefficiencies of bureaucracy and under performance. This work explores the potential effect of change in political direction and policy on the stability of IT governance in Australian public sector organisations. The aim of this paper is to examine implications of a change of government and the resulting political environment on the effectiveness of the audit function of ITG. The empirical data discussed here indicate that a number of aspects of audit functionality were negatively affected by change in political direction and resultant policy changes. The results indicate a perceived decline in capacity and capability which in turn disrupts the stability of IT governance systems in public sector organisations.

National and state-level politics on social media : Twitter, Australian political discussions, and the online commentariat

This paper examines the use of Twitter for long-term discussions around Australian politics, at national and state levels, tracking two hashtags during 2012: #auspol, denoting national political topics, and #wapol, which provides a case study of state politics (representing Western Australia). The long-term data collection provides the opportunity to analyse how the Twitter audience responds to Australian politics: which themes attract the most attention and which accounts act as focal points for these discussions. The paper highlights differences in the coverage of state and national politics. For #auspol, a small number of accounts are responsible for the majority of tweets, with politicians invoked but not directly contributing to the discussion. In contrast, #wapol stimulates a much lower level of tweeting. This example also demonstrates that, in addition to citizen accounts, traditional participants within political debate, such as politicians and journalists, are among the active contributors to state-oriented discussions on Twitter.

Essays in the political economy of voting and reforms

This thesis presents four essays in the political economy of elections and reforms. The first study exploits discontinuities around school entry cut-off dates to show that early childhood conditions can impact the probability to become a top-flight politician. The second study provides empirical estimates of the effect of sequential voting on turnout and bandwagon voting outside the laboratory. The third work describes a novel nonparametric strategy to identify tactical voting patterns directly from balloting results using British election data. Finally, a study is put forward that examines the political feasibility of reforms.

Life story work and social work practice : a case study with ex-prisoners labelled as having an intellectual disability

In common with other professions social workers have the power to articulate certain ‘‘truths’’ about the people who use their services (Hare Mustin, 1994). These knowledge statements about people, often situated in case files may become the only background information of the lived experience for people with disability (Gillman, Swain, & Heyman, 1997). Social workers need to develop interviewing, assessment and recording practices that give precedent to the worldview of service users, if they are to truly understand and respond effectively to people's lives (Bigby, 2007). One such way of doing this is by adopting a life story approach to working with vulnerable people, which can provide a holistic stance to a person's social reality (Ortiz, 1985). This article outlines the use of this approach in research with Queensland ex-prisoners who were labelled as having an intellectual disability. By explaining the process used by the first author (hereafter known as the researcher), the methodological findings of this study illustrate how life story work can contribute to social work practice.

Institutional investors, political connections and analyst following in Malaysia

We examine the association between institutional ownership, political connections, and analyst following in Malaysia from 1999 to 2009. Based on 940 firm-year observations, we document a positive relation between institutional ownership, particularly by Employees Provident Fund (EPF), and analyst following, thus supporting the governance role that institutional investors play in promoting corporate transparency. However, there is no evidence that political connections matter to analyst following. The monitoring role of institutional investors, including EPF, does not appear to be any different between politically connected and non-connected firms.

Exploring the effect of political risks in large infrastructure projects in politically unstable countries using a probabilistic modelling approach

This research aims to explore and identify political risks on a large infrastructure project in an exaggerated environment to ascertain whether sufficient objective information can be gathered by project managers to utilise risk modelling techniques. During the study, the author proposes a new definition of political risk; performs a detailed project study of the Neelum Jhelum Hydroelectric Project in Pakistan; implements a probabilistic model using the principle of decomposition and Bayes probabilistic theorem and answers the question: was it possible for project managers to obtain all the relevant objective data to implement a probabilistic model?

Engaging, persuading, and entertaining citizens : mediatization and the Australian political public sphere

This paper draws upon public sphere theories and the “mediatization of politics” debate to develop a mapping of the Australian political public sphere, with particular reference to television. It discusses the concept of a “political public sphere,” and the contribution of both non-traditional news media genres, such as satirical television and infotainment formats, to an expanded conception of the political public sphere. It considers these questions in the context of two case studies: the Q&A program on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and its uses of social media and interactive formats to engage citizens, and the comedy program Gruen Nation, also on the ABC, which analyzed the use of political advertising to persuade citizens during the 2013 Australian Federal election.