The place of media in community formation for homeless youth : a case study of Gibber magazine

This paper presents the findings of a research project that was set up to establish haw well Gibber, a street magazine set up in Perth in 1994, effectively provides a 'voice' for its canstituency -'young people marginalised by society'.

Deterministic diffraction loss modelling for novel broadband communication in rural environments

This paper presents a deterministic modelling approach to predict diffraction loss for an innovative Multi-User-Single-Antenna (MUSA) MIMO technology, proposed for rural Australian environments. In order to calculate diffraction loss, six receivers have been considered around an access point in a selected rural environment. Generated terrain profiles for six receivers are presented in this paper. Simulation results using classical diffraction models and diffraction theory are also presented by accounting the rural Australian terrain data. Results show that in an area of 900 m by 900 m surrounding the receivers, path loss due to diffraction can range between 5 dB and 35 dB. Diffraction loss maps can contribute to determine the optimal location for receivers of MUSA-MIMO systems in rural areas.

Youth theatre and the articulation of cultural capital : refocusing Bourdieu through ethnography

This study of working-class and middle-class youth theatre workshops examines the processes through which this cultural form is appropriated by different class groups. Whereas the middle-class workshop proceeded efficiently and harmoniously, the working-class group resisted a number of institutional constraints traditionally associated with play rehearsal and performance. The processes of such symbolic struggle in the working-class group appeared to differ from Bourdieu's account of cultural domination. The article explores the explanatory contribution of the ethnographic case study to the analysis of the class basis of cultural tastes and practices and suggest that Bourdieu's account of class relations would gain from inclusion of this level of analysis. The situated study of the youth theatre workshops suggests that at this level, there is possibly more scope for symbolic struggle between the classes than was found by Bourdieu.

A sustainable approach to community based rehabilitation in rural and remote Australia

This paper presents a summary of an extensive review of the health, disability and rehabilitation literature conducted for the purposes of informing the formulation of a sustainable approach to community based rehabilitation in rural and remote Australia. It begins with a review of definitions of disability and rehabilitation, which is followed by differentiating 'rehabilitation in the community' and 'community based rehabilitation'. Finally, a network of community based rehabilitation coalitions is proposed as a sustainable approach to community based rehabilitation in rural and remote Australia. Each coalition would have a community rehabilitation facilitator and community specific database of resources, as well as a register of local community rehabilitation assistants who can support the work of health professionals by providing rehabilitation interventions under the latter's direction. In this approach, rehabilitation is conceptualised as being about people's lives rather than only a series of interventions provided by health care professionals. As such, rehabilitation becomes everybody's business.

The accidental mentor : Australian rural nurses developing supportive relationships in the workplace

improved rural nurse retention as an outcome of recognising and developing such supportive relationships in the workplace. Strategies include: performance review and development processes that account for all forms of supportive relationships conducted in the workplace; recognising the importance of developing supportive relationships and allocating time for these; and continuing professional development designed to meet local needs for developing a culture of support in the workplace.

Getting to know a stranger-rural nurses' experiences of mentoring : a grounded theory

Background: Mentoring is often proposed as a solution to the problem of successfully recruiting and retaining nursing staff. The aim of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore Australian rural nurses' experiences of mentoring. Design: The research design used was reflexive in nature resulting in a substantive, constructivist grounded theory study. Participants: A national advertising campaign and snowball sampling were used to recruit nine participants from across Australia. Participants were rural nurses who had experience in mentoring others. Methods: Standard grounded theory methods of theoretical sampling, concurrent data collection and analysis using open, axial and theoretical coding and a story line technique to develop the core category and category saturation were used. To cultivate the reflexivity required of a constructivist study, we also incorporated reflective memoing, situational analysis mapping techniques and frame analysis. Data was generated through eleven interviews, email dialogue and shared situational mapping. Results: Cultivating and growing new or novice rural nurses using supportive relationships such as mentoring was found to be an existing, integral part of experienced rural nurses' practice, motivated by living and working in the same communities. Getting to know a stranger is the first part of the process of cultivating and growing another. New or novice rural nurses gain the attention of experienced rural nurses through showing potential or experiencing a critical incidence. Conclusions: The problem of retaining nurses is a global issue. Experienced nurses engaged in clinical practice have the potential to cultivate and grow new or novice nurses-many already do so. Recognising this role and providing opportunities for development will help grow a positive, supportive work environment that nurtures the experienced nurses of tomorrow.

Live my work : rural nurses and their multiple perspectives of self

Aim. This paper is a report of a study to explore rural nurses' experiences of mentoring. Background. Mentoring has recently been proposed by governments, advocates and academics as a solution to the problem for retaining rural nurses in the Australian workforce. Action in the form of mentor development workshops has changed the way that some rural nurses now construct supportive relationships as mentoring. Method. A grounded theory design was used with nine rural nurses. Eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted in various states of Australia during 2004-2005. Situational analysis mapping techniques and frame analysis were used in combination with concurrent data generation and analysis and theoretical sampling. Findings. Experienced rural nurses cultivate novices through supportive mentoring relationships. The impetus for such relationships comes from their own histories of living and working in the same community, and this was termed 'live my work'. Rural nurses use multiple perspectives of self in order to manage their interactions with others in their roles as community members, consumers of healthcare services and nurses. Personal strategies adapted to local context constitute the skills that experienced rural nurses pass-on to neophyte rural nurses through mentoring, while at the same time protecting them through troubleshooting and translating local cultural norms. Conclusion. Living and working in the same community creates a set of complex challenges for novice rural nurses that are better faced with a mentor in place. Thus, mentoring has become an integral part of experienced rural nurses' practice to promote staff retention. © 2007 The Authors.

Walking with another : rural nurses' experiences of mentoring

The aim of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore rural nurses' experiences of mentoring. Mentoring is often proposed as a solution to the problem of nursing workforce shortages. The global problem of workforce for nurses can be defined using the parameters of recruitment and retention rates, 'problems' with which result in staff shortages, particularly of experienced nurses. Constructivist grounded theory has its foundations in relativism and an appreciation of the multiple truths and realities of subjectivism. Seven Australian rural nurses were interviewed. To ensure data saturation of particular categories and the fit of tentative theoretical conceptualisations, two participants were interviewed twice with no new codes identified from the subsequent interviews. Cultivating and growing new or novice rural nurses was the core category which conceptualised a two-part process consisting of getting to know a stranger and walking with another. Supportive relationships such as mentoring were found to be an existing, integral part of experienced rural nurses' practice - initiated by living and working in the same community. In this grounded theory, cultivating and growing is conceptualised as the core category. A two-part process was identified - getting to know a stranger and walking with another. This paper examines one of these subcategories, walking with another, relating the ways in which experienced rural nurses walk with another by firstly keeping things in perspective for new or novice rural nurses, and secondly using a particular form of language called nurse chat. For experienced rural nurses, mentoring in this way delivers a number of different outcomes with various nurses. Because it is a part of the experienced rural nurse's practice on an ongoing basis, individual mentoring relationships do not provide an end in relation to this nurse's experiences of mentoring, rather they are part of an ongoing experience. Creating supportive environments that include developing relationships such as mentoring is a potential solution to local staffing needs that does not require intensive resources. Experienced nurses engaged in clinical practice have the potential to cultivate and grow new or novice nurses - many already do so. Recognising their role and providing support as well as development opportunities will bring about a cycle of mentoring within the workplace. © 2008 Sage Publications.

Offending Youth : Crime, Sex and Justice

Rates of female delinquency, especially for violent crimes, are increasing in most common law countries. At the same time the growth in cyber-bullying, especially among girls, appears to be a related global phenomenon. While the gender gap in delinquency is narrowing in Australia, United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, boys continue to dominate the youth who commit crime and have a virtual monopoly over sexually violent crimes. Indigenous youth continue to be vastly over-represented in the juvenile justice system in every Australian jurisdiction. The Indigenisation of delinquency is a persistent problem in other countries such as Canada and New Zealand. Young people who gather in public places are susceptible to being perceived as somehow threatening or riotous, attracting more than their share of public order policing. Professional football has been marred by repeated scandals involving sexual assault, violence and drunkenness. Given the cultural significance of footballers as role models to thousands, if not millions, of young men around the world, it is vitally important to address this problem. Offending Youth explores these key contemporary patterns of delinquency, the response to these by the juvenile justice agencies and moreover what can be done to address these problems. The book also analyses the major policy and legislative changes from the nineteenth to twenty first centuries, chiefly the shift the penal welfarism to diversion and restorative justice. Using original cases studied by Carrington twenty years ago, Offending Youth illustrates how penal welfarism criminalised young people from socially marginal backgrounds, especially Aboriginal children, children from single parent families, family-less children, state wards and young people living in poverty or in housing commission estates. A number of inquiries in Australia and the United Kingdom have since established that children committed to these institutions, supposedly for their own good, experienced systemic physical, sexual and psychological abuse during their institutionalisation. The book is dedicated to the survivors of these institutions who only now are receiving official recognition of the injustices they suffered. The underlying philosophy of juvenile justice has fundamentally shifted away from penal welfarism to embrace positive policy responses to juvenile crime, such as youth conferencing, cautions, warnings, restorative justice, circle sentencing and diversion examined in the concluding chapter. Offending Youth is aimed at a broad readership including policy makers, juvenile justice professionals, youth workers, families, teachers, politicians as well as students and academics in criminology, policing, gender studies, masculinity studies, Indigenous studies, justice studies, youth studies and the sociology of youth and deviance more generally.-- [from publisher website]

Time variation effects of weather conditions in rural MUSA-MIMO-OFDM channels

This paper presents channel measurements and weather data collection experiments conducted in a rural environment for an innovative Multi-User-Single-Antenna (MUSA) MIMO-OFDM technology, proposed for rural areas. MUSA MIMO-OFDM uplink channels are established by placing six user terminals (UT) around one access point (AP). Generated terrain profiles and relative received power plots are presented based on the experimental data. According to the relative received signal, MUSA-MIMO-OFDM uplink channels experience temporal fading. Moreover, the correlation between the relative received power and weather variables are presented. Results show that all weather variables exhibit a negative average correlation with received power. Wind speed records the highest average negative correlation coefficient of -0.35. Local maxima of negative correlation, ranging from 0.49 to 0.78, between the weather variables and relative received signals were registered between 5-6 a.m. The highest measured correlation (-0.78) of this time of the day was exhibited by wind speed. These results show the extend of time variation effects experienced by MUSA-MIMO-OFDM channels deployed in rural environments.

Are low CO2 emitters in rural areas also socially excluded? An empirical investigation of travel diary data from rural Northern Ireland

The reduction of CO2 emissions and social exclusion are two key elements of UK transport strategy. Despite intensive research on each theme, little effort has so far been made linking the relationship between emissions and social exclusion. In addition, current knowledge on each theme is limited to urban areas; little research is available on these themes for rural areas. This research contributes to this gap in the literature by analysing 157 weekly activity-travel diary data collected from three case study areas with differential levels of area accessibility and area mobility options, located in rural Northern Ireland. Individual weekly CO2 emission levels from personal travel diaries (both hot exhaust emission and cold-start emission) were calculated using average speed models for different modes of transport. The socio-spatial patterns associated with CO2 emissions were identified using a general linear model whereas binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify mode choice behaviour and activity patterns. This research found groups that emitted a significantly lower level of CO2 included individuals living in an area with a higher level of accessibility and mobility, non-car, non-working, and low-income older people. However, evidence in this research also shows that although certain groups (e.g. those working, and residing in an area with a lower level of accessibility) emitted higher levels of CO2, their rate of participation in activities was however found to be significantly lower compared to their counterparts. Based on the study findings, this research highlights the need for both soft (e.g. teleworking) and physical (e.g. accessibility planning) policy measures in rural areas in order to meet government’s stated CO2 reduction targets while at the same time enhancing social inclusion.