Neighbourhood renewal in Victoria, Australia : an effective way to address social inclusion

People who live in disadvantaged communities are at increased risk of social exclusion through diminished access and quality of services, lack of opportunity and feeling powerless over decisions relating to their neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood Renewal (NR) is a Victorian State Government initiative that seeks to address this. This paper presents the findings from two individual project sites, side-by-side. Data were collected in 2004/5 and 2009 using face-to face interviewing with convenience samples of 900 NR residents across the two NR sites at each time period. A comparison group for each NR site consisted of a sample of 150 people living in the same suburb or town but outside the NR site, data were collected by telephone. Data were analysed separately for each NR project site. Findings indicate that neighbourhood renewal strategies can be effective in improving trust in government, perceptions of community participation, influence and control over community decisions and improved services. Community level strategies are valuable in addressing area-level determinants to improve social inclusion. The successes of the NR scheme support the implementation and continuation of area-specific interventions to address disadvantage and social exclusion across Victoria, Australia.

It's here! Are we ready? Five case studies of health promotion practices that address climate change from within Victorian health care settings

Issue addressed: Climate changes and environmental degradation caused by anthropogenic activities are having an irrefutable impact on human health. The critical role played by health promotion in addressing environmental challenges has a history in seminal charters − such as the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion − that explicitly link human well-being with the natural environment. The lack of documented practice in this field prompted an investigation of health promotion practice that addresses climate change issues within health care settings.

Methods: This qualitative study involved five case studies of Victorian health care agencies that explicitly identified climate change as a priority. Individual and group interviews with ten health promotion funded practitioners as well as document analysis techniques were used to explore diverse practices across these rural, regional and urban health care agencies.

Results: Health promotion practice in these agencies was oriented toward: active and sustainable transport; healthy and sustainable food supply; mental health and community resilience; engaging vulnerable population groups such as women; and organisational development.

Conclusion: Despite differences in approach, target population and context, the core finding was that health promotion strategies, competencies and frameworks were transferable to action on climate change in these health care settings.

Balancing the benefits and risks of public–private partnerships to address the global double burden of malnutrition

Objective: Transnational food, beverage and restaurant companies, and their corporate foundations, may be potential collaborators to help address complex public health nutrition challenges. While UN system guidelines are available for private-sector engagement, non-governmental organizations (NGO) have limited guidelines to navigate diverse opportunities and challenges presented by partnering with these companies through public–private partnerships (PPP) to address the global double burden of malnutrition.

Design: We conducted a search of electronic databases, UN system websites and grey literature to identify resources about partnerships used to address the global double burden of malnutrition. A narrative summary provides a synthesis of the interdisciplinary literature identified.

Results: We describe partnership opportunities, benefits and challenges; and tools and approaches to help NGO engage with the private sector to address global public health nutrition challenges. PPP benefits include: raising the visibility of nutrition and health on policy agendas; mobilizing funds and advocating for research; strengthening food-system processes and delivery systems; facilitating technology transfer; and expanding access to medications, vaccines, healthy food and beverage products, and nutrition assistance during humanitarian crises. PPP challenges include: balancing private commercial interests with public health interests; managing conflicts of interest; ensuring that co-branded activities support healthy products and healthy eating environments; complying with ethical codes of conduct; assessing partnership compatibility; and evaluating partnership outcomes.

Conclusions: NGO should adopt a systematic and transparent approach using available tools and processes to maximize benefits and minimize risks of partnering with transnational food, beverage and restaurant companies to effectively target the global double burden of malnutrition.

Presidential address : culture and the future of education research

Recent changes in higher education have confronted education research with a conundrum: how our traditionally multidisciplinary field can refine itself as a unified discipline. In this address I sketch out what this conundrum may mean for education research, both substantively and methodologically, in the future. I propose that one starting point is for education researchers to consider what unites rather than divides us. One common, unifying conceptual concern is with the operation of culture/s in educational settings. I use the narratives of two teachers from different places and times to illustrate how culture analysis can be a fruitful tool for understanding the experience and practice of Education. In my conclusion, I extend the theme of culture to education research itself. I suggest that the challenge of disciplinary identity confronting education research requires a culture change in the modus operandi of our practice, and that this will involve an articulated focus on methodological pluralism, interdisciplinarity, and the use of new modes of communication as key unifying elements of the discipline of education research.