A social network analysis model for analysing stakeholder-associated safety risks in infrastructure projects

An important strategy in the long-term blueprint for making Australia's 18 capital and major regional cities more productive, sustainable and liveable is to develop high quality public infrastructure systems to improve civic quality of life. Because of the unique features of construction activities, such as long period, complicated processes, and dynamic organizational structures, infrastructure projects normally involve multiple stakeholders and are subject to various risks, especially safety issues. Any negligence or mismanagement of critical safety risks will have huge impact on achieving project objectives and success. Although many previous studies have identified and assessed various safety risks in construction industry, a main research gap is that these studies ignored a fact that most risks are interrelated and associated with internal and external stakeholders of the projects. The lack of a theoretical foundation and appropriate methods for analysing stakeholder-associated safety risks and their interdependencies in infrastructure projects hinders effective risk management processes and the formulations of decision strategies. This research aims at enabling higher performance in strategic safety risk management in infrastructure projects through the development of a holistic risk analysis model using Stakeholder and Social Network Theories. The outcomes can broaden project managers' awareness of emerging influential safety risks and enhance their ability to perceive, understand, assess, and mitigate safety risks in an effective and efficient way; thereby higher performance in strategic risk management could be achieved in infrastructure projects.

Using peoplemap technique to elicit and broadcast sense of place

The population in Geelong Region is expected to keep growing. In order to work towards a better future of the region, it is essential to understand the feelings and needs of local communities and empower them in the community affairs. This study used an innovative technique – peoplemap – to investigate local communities’ sense of place. The primary objective of the investigations was to reveal the sense of place of Geelong Region. Local residents (N=166) in Geelong Region were interviewed face-to-face about how they identify themselves, what they love, what they want, and how empowered they feel. This paper reports the sense of place of three areas of Geelong Region: Ocean Grove, Bannockburn and Teesdale, and Corio-Norlane. Thematic analyses revealed the sense of place of these three areas, and identified their similarities and differences. The results of this study have several implications for government policy makers, planners and designers. This study contributes to the sense of place research, in that civic action was found to be a valid dimension of sense of place.

The performing frame

This project explores the ways that creative practices—improvised movement, choreographed dance, and digital video—produce new knowledge about the sociability of public space. In other words, it uses various theoretical concepts and practical strategies to document and analyse the ways people inhabit and sometimes subvert public spaces — such as plazas, malls and piazzas — as part of their everyday experience. Drawing on concepts developed within the fields of performance theory, spatial history, cultural geography and social theory, the project will build a methodological toolbox for understanding the relationships between the diverse groups that use public spaces in Melbourne, Australia. This ‘toolbox’ will subsequently be used to understand analogous public spaces in other parts of the world to generate comparative data about spatial sociability. The research will enable an innovative way of mapping social, civic and political relations in space through a series of creative interventions, and will reveal the politics of everyday movement while exposing tensions between the spaces of public culture — those framed and legitimated by state institutions — and what Michael Warner calls ‘Counter-Publics.’ That is, those oppositional groups who actively seek to use public space in subversive or unauthorised ways.

This project documents a series of performative interventions designed to harness the untapped potential of various forms of street performance genres to function as tools that can produce new ways of understanding the politics of movement in public space. These ‘interventions’ will be generated through a series of practical performance and movement workshops that will draw on street theatre techniques, contact improvisation, Laban movement analysis and contemporary dance choreography. The project will focus on a series of dyadic relationships: self and other, inside and outside, centre and periphery that are relevant to human interaction in public space.
Street performers — musicians, acrobats, jugglers, magicians, mimes and so on — seek public spaces with high volumes of pedestrian traffic in order to maximise their ability to draw an audience and make a living. These performers who create temporary performance zones alter the flow and intensity of movement around them, thereby transforming the plazas, piazzas, town squares and subways favoured by buskers. Some of these performers interact with their audience more than others, and are potentially capable of telling us something about the politics of space. The practice of ‘shadowing’ the movements of passers-by is an increasingly popular form of public entertainment around the world.

Is e-governance a function of government or media? Some directions for future research and development of electronically mediated citizen participation

Citizen participation, enabled by electronic means, grows, in parallel with government's apparent failure to promote it. Organisations such as Getup and Moveon flourish; the BBC announced in 2003 that 'Internet-based political activism is happening...The BBC wants to help a wider audience find their voice by tackling obstacles to greater participation' (http://www.opendemocracy.net). (Kevill, 2003). Such actions echo, perhaps, the enthusiastic adoption of the Internet by activist media groups, particularly Indymedia. This paper presents a response to this situation. It provides a richer account of the contradictory rise of e-government without e-governance, and examines the potential for media-based participatory engagement to complement e-government. It presents two models of the future of electronically mediated citizen engagement: the first involving agonistic relations between government and citizenry, with civic participation occurring outside of government-approved forums; the second involving the intimate linking of governmental transactions to participation by those citizens engaged in them. Finally it will outline mechanisms for researching the capacity of either or both models to sustain effective participation.

Using strategic philanthropy to improve heritage tourist sites on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey : community perceptions of changing quality of life and of the sponsoring organization

This paper examines the “Respect for History” project on Turkey's Gallipoli Peninsula sponsored by a Turkish oil company, OPET. The project sought to enhance and protect the cultural and historical experiences of tourists visiting Gallipoli, and to bring direct and indirect benefits to local communities through enhancing tourism-related business opportunities and improving community infrastructure. This research investigates the project's impact on residents’ perceived social and economic wellbeing, using a quality of life framework, and also ascertains residents’ views of the sponsoring firm. The context illustrates key differences between pure philanthropy and strategic philanthropy; the latter defined as doing good by purposefully achieving corporate and civic benefits. The role of strategic philanthropy as a sustainable tourism development tool, and its impact on tourism governance, are considered. Data were collected from 674 residents on the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula in areas impacted by OPET's investment program. The results, using structural equation modelling (SEM), identify that respondents generally believe that both their economic and social quality of life have improved. This, in turn, has positively influenced respondents’ views of the sponsoring organization. The concept of strategic philanthropy appears valuable as a private sector, non-tourism, sustainable tourism development tool in some circumstances.

Tertius tactics : 'mediated social capital' as a resource of power for traditional commercial news media

This essay reconceptualizes “social capital” as it relates to scholarship regarding the traditional news media. Much academic attention links the news media to Robert Putnam's view which focuses on social capital as enhancing “civic pride” and collective/community involvement. I suggest Putnam's perspective is often adopted without wider exploration of what the theory may offer the future of the commercial news media in western societies. This essay proposes the term “mediated social capital” may be a more suitable lens through which to consider this theory, taking a cue from Pierre Bourdieu who views social capital as a resource of power that may be utilized to maintain or build a position of advantage.

White tribe: echoes of the Anzac myth in Cronulla

Since the publication of Fiske, Hodge and Turner’s Myths of Oz: Reading Australian Popular Culture (1987), Australian Cultural Studies has turned to the beach as a primary site for examining national identity and the myths of Australian culture. In the text the beach is read as a liminal site between ‘culture’ and ‘nature’, represented respectively by lifesaver and surfer. The meanings of anti-authoritarianism attached to the surfer are significant to the reading. And yet Fiske, Hodge and Turner also locate a heritage of authoritarianism, discipline and civic duty in the figure of the lifesaver: 

'Lifesavers have drills, march-pasts and patrol squads, while exercising a conservative pastoral interest in their members’ moral health. They are agents of social control. Further, they see themselves as servants of the community, sacrificing their weekends for others—a tradition of sacrifice dear to a nation which twice voted no to conscription in the Great War.' (Fiske et al. 1987, 64–65) 

Introduction: of turtles, dining and the importance of history in food, food in history

Feasting on North American moose or Caribbean turtle in Renaissance Italy, Ancient Rome, or the colonial working-class pub, is Social and Cultural history in a new and exciting form. Dining on Turtles traverses time and place to open up food and drink as a new field of historical enquiry. In chapters covering the heritage landscapes of sugar canefields, the reform of popular drinking customs, the importance of eating and drinking culture to Olympic Games planning, and the significance of cookbooks to civic society, historians here break new ground in locating food's importance. From the exploration of French tavern rituals, Scottish feasting on haggis, and memories of food traditions in Cyprus come themes of identity and nationalism, change and continuity.

Muslim active citizenship in the West

Muslim Active Citizenship in the West investigates the emergence and nature of Muslims’ struggle for recognition as full members of society in Australia, Great Britain and Germany. What actions have been taken by Muslims to achieve equal civic standing? How do socio-political and socio-economic factors impact on these processes? And how do Muslims negotiate their place in a society that is often regarded as sceptical – if not hostile – towards Muslims’ desire to belong? This book sheds new light on Muslims’ path towards citizenship in Australia, Great Britain and Germany. Existing research and statistics on Muslims’ socio-economic status, community formation, claim-making and political responses, and the public portrayal of Islam are systematically examined. These insights are tested ‘through the eyes of Muslims’, based on in-depth interviews with Muslim community leaders and other experts in all three countries. The findings offer unique perspectives on Muslim resilience to be recognised as equal citizens of Islamic faith in very different socio-political national settings. Pursuing an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, this book examines the country-specific interplay of historical, institutional, political, and identity dimensions of Muslims’ active citizenship and will be invaluable for students and researchers with an interest in Sociology, Religious Studies and Political Science.

Contested Publics: Racist rants, bystander action and social media acts of citizenship

While social media tools enable new kinds of creativity, cultural expression and forms of public, civic and political participation, we often hear more about the harms that arise from instances of trolling and 'aberrant' online participation, including racist provocation. In media and communications research, these issues have been framed in a number of ways, usually focusing on new tools for civic engagement, political participation and digital inclusion. Government policy has been shifting steadily towards potential regulation of social media 'misuse' in relation to appropriate forms of 'digital citizenship'. It is in this evolving context that we consider several instances of cultural or nationalistic provocation and conflict in which social media platforms (YouTube and Facebook in particular) have been central to the social dynamic that has unfolded. We examine the recording and uploading of racist rants and associated bystander actions on public transport in Australia and elsewhere around the world. In this article, we contend that while racism remains an issue in uses of social media platforms such as YouTube, this focus often overshadows these platforms' productive potential, including their capacity to support agonistic publics from which productive expressions of cultural citizenship and solidarity might emerge.

Social engagement among migrant youth: attitudes and meanings

This article explores migrant young people’s engagement, participation and involvement in socially meaningful activi-ties, events and experiences. This type of social participation is approached in the social inclusion literature using the notions of social capital and active citizenship (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 1993; Putnam, 2000). A key objective, therefore, is to explore the attitudes, values and perceptions associated with social participation for young people. They include the meanings that social engagement has for migrant young people, along with drivers and inhibi-tions to active participation. The article focuses on both the motives for being actively engaged as well as perceived barriers to social engagement. It is based on a large study conducted among migrant young people of African, Arabic-speaking and Pacific Islander backgrounds in Melbourne and Brisbane, and presents both quantitative and qualitative (discursive) snapshots from the overall findings, based on interviews and focus groups. While many studies have cen-tred on the management of migration and migrants, this article draws attention to the individuals’ active position in negotiating, interpreting and appropriating the conditions of social inclusion. Accounting for the multidimensional and multilayered nature of social inclusion, the paper highlights the heuristic role of social engagement in fostering the feel-ings of belonging and personal growth for migrant youth.

Muslim young people online: “Acts of citizenship” in socially networked spaces

This paper reviews the current literature regarding Muslim young people’s online social networking and participatory practices with the aim of examining whether these practices open up new spaces of civic engagement and political par-ticipation. The paper focuses on the experiences of young Muslims living in western societies, where, since September 11, the ability to assert claims as citizens in the public arena has diminished. The paper draws upon Isin & Nielsen’s (2008) “acts of citizenship” to define the online practices of many Muslim youth, for whom the internet provides a space where new performances of citizenship are enacted outside of formal citizenship rights and spaces of participa-tion. These “acts" are evaluated in light of theories which articulate the changing nature of publics and the public sphere in a digital era. The paper will use this conceptual framework in conjunction with the literature review to ex-plore whether virtual, online spaces offer young Muslims an opportunity to create a more inclusive discursive space to interact with co-citizens, engage with social and political issues and assert their citizen rights than is otherwise afforded by formal political structures; a need highlighted by policies which target minority Muslim young people for greater civ-ic participation but which do not reflect the interests and values of Muslim young people.