Internet regulation in Singapore : a policy/ing discourse

Little has been written critically about Singapore's approach towards Internet regulation and policy/ing. This paper therefore seeks to disambiguate the social, cultural and political aspects of Internet regulation in Singapore. We provide an analysis of Singapore's Internet content regulation, and an update of the information (technology) scene in Singapore, including its converging broadcasting, (tele)communications and media areas, all of which impact upon 'Internet policy'. We begin with an introduction to Singapore's policy-making style and an up-to-date account of Singapore's information aims and agendas. We then explore the ideology behind Singapore's Internet policy, especially censorship of content, and examine what is known as the 'light-touch' regulatory framework. We conclude that media conservatism is likely to continue in Singapore despite recent moves that would appear to 'open up' Singapore society.

The neglect of racism as an ethical issue in health care

Race and racism has been increasingly implicated in known disparities in the health and health care of racial, ethnic and cultural minorities groups. Despite the obvious ethical implications of this observation, racism as an ethical issue per se has been relatively neglected in health care ethics discourse. In this paper consideration is given to addressing the following questions: What is it about racism and racial disparities in health and health care that these command our special moral scrutiny? Why has racism per se tended to be poorly addressed as an ethical issue in health care ethics discourse? And why, if at all, must racism be addressed as an ethical issue in addition to its positioning as a social, political, cultural and legal issue? It is suggested that unless racism is reframed and redressed as a pre-eminent ethical issue by health service providers, its otherwise preventable harmful consequences will remain difficult to identify, anticipate, prevent, manage, and remedy.

Applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research

Critical discourse analysis has become an increasingly popular methodology in organization and management studies. In this article, the authors explore the potential for this methodology to be more widely used in strategic management research. They begin by identifying three research approaches that, to a greater or lesser extent, share a concern with the relationship between language and the formulation and implementation of strategy—strategy as a system of shared meaning, strategy as text and talk, and strategy as truth. They then discuss how critical discourse analysis can be used to extend and develop these approaches by exploiting their underlying complementarities. Finally, using the example of a recently completed case study of strategic change in a large banking and financial services institution, they explore the practical implications of applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research.

Instrumentalism and the 'helping' discourse : Australian indigenous performing arts and policy

Indigenous arts are significant to the way Australia is represented to the world. Since the early 19705 Indigenous cultural policies, at both federal and state levels, have helped to shape the development of Indigenous performing arts in Australia. Over this period, cultural policies, in confluence with the aims of Indigenous artists and civil rights activists, have produced and reproduced instrumentalist rationales for the support of Indigenous arts. In particular, the sector has deployed <helping' rationales for cultural policies which focus on social and economic outcomes. This article addresses current debates around the instrumentalist purposes of cultural policy and the participation of Indigenous practitioners in reproducing the 'helping' discourse. The article, however, finds evidence of a recent break in the consensus which sees some Indigenous artists resisting the historical imperative for their arts practice to be exclusively focused on instrumentalist outcomes.

Perceived discrimination in Mapuche discourse : contemporary racism in Chilean society

This paper documents the experiences of perceived discrimination by Mapuches, the largest aboriginal group in Chile, focusing on their oral discourse about the phenomenon. As part of a national research project, 100 Mapuches were interviewed about their perception of discrimination toward them. These interviews were analyzed using the four-level method developed by Merino, which is mainly based on local semantic strategies and argumentative sequences and topoi. The analysis suggests that racism is experienced in everyday interethnic interactions by means of four modes: verbal, behavioral, institutional and macro-social. Verbal racism includes name-calling (e.g. 'indio' [Indian]) and stereotyping (e.g. 'primitive'), and prejudiced remarks. Behavioral racism includes looking, ignoring, avoiding, segregating and denial of identity. In the institutional mode, denial of opportunities and discrimination in various public offices, private institutions and services are frequent, with perpetrators acting on behalf of the institution for which they work. The macro-social mode includes cultural dominance of the economic and educational systems, and an ethnocentric perspective of history. The findings suggest the presence of a racist ideology underlying Mapuche's discursive reproduction of the way Chileans talk and think about them and behave toward them.