Addressing the contradiction between discourse and practice in health promotion

The main theme of this thesis is the contradiction between discourse and practice in health promotion. Many health promoters continue to exert power-over the community through top-down programming whilst at the same time using an emancipatory discourse. The thesis has addressed this contradiction in three parts. The first part determines how the emancipatroty discourse has evolved and eplores the role of social movements in the development of contemporary health discourses and their influence on the legitimisation of empowerment. Central to this discourse is the empowerment of communities. To understand the role of this concept the thesis provides an interpretation of the different meanings of power and community, and the different levels of analysis of empowerment in the context of health promotion programming. The second part identifies the nature of health programming and the dominance of top-down, and to a much lesser extent, bottom-up approaches. The thesis argues that these two approaches are not, and do not have to be, mutually exclusive. To address this issue the thesis presents a new methodology is situated within a framework developed for the accomodation of empowerment goals within health promotion programmes. The study also identifies the organisational areas of influence on the processs of community empowerment and it is these which are used for the assessment of this concept. Both the framework and the methodology address the contradiction in health promotion by making community empowerment operational within a programme context. The third part of the thesis supports the rationale for the design of the methodology with field work in rural Fijian communities. The findings are presented as a composite case study to highlight the experiences of implementing the methodolgy and the main themes that emerged during the field work. the final chapter of the thesis brings together the central themes of the study and draws from these and 'emergent agenda' as a way forward for health promotion research and practice.

Teachers’ ethics : education international and the forging of professional unity

The paper maintains that the current era, marked by a new global economy transforming economic and social development, has created the need for a reorganisation of teachers’ representation. This paper discusses a key development in teacher organisation, namely the emergence of Education International as a global hub for teacher unionism from across the world. This unique organisation, formulated in response to the emergence of global economies and supra-national figures, represents teachers’ response to globalised institutions and has instigated projects, such as the Professional Code of Ethics, which aim to create a sense of professional identity and unity amongst teachers. The organisation presents the political voice of teachers as a global collective that seeks to embed teachers’ interests in education reform and in the public debates concerning the direction of educational change in the era of globalisation. The paper concludes by outlining an ongoing issue that jeopardizes the collective voice of teachers and stresses how this needs to be further addressed in the ethical frameworks of what it means to be a teacher in the 21st century.

Using building adaptation to deliver sustainability in Australia

Purpose – This paper seeks to establish the rationale for existing office building adaptation within Melbourne, Australia, as the city strives to become carbon neutral by 2020. The problems faced by policy makers to determine which buildings have the optimum adaptation potential are to be identified and discussed.

Design/methodology/approach – This research adopts the approach of creating a database of all the buildings in the Melbourne CBD including details of physical, social, economic and technological attributes. This approach will determine whether relationships exist between attributes and the frequency of building adaptation or whether triggers to adaptation can be determined.

Findings – This research provided evidence that a much faster rate of office building adaptation is necessary to meet the targets already set for carbon neutrality. The findings demonstrate that a retrospective comprehensive examination of previous adaptation in the CBD is a unique and original approach to determining the building characteristics associated with adaptation and whether triggers can be identified based on previous practices. The implication is that a decision-making tool should be developed to allow policy makers to target sectors of the office building stock to deliver carbon neutrality within the 2020 timeframe.

Practical implications – Drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are required to mitigate global warming and climate change and all stakeholders should be looking at ways of reducing emissions from existing stock.

Originality/value – This paper adds to the existing body of knowledge by raising awareness of the way in which the adaptation of large amounts of existing stock can be fast tracked to mitigate the impact of climate change and warming associated with the built environment, and in addition it establishes a framework for a decision-making tool for policy makers.

Mobilising corporate social responsibility for world cultural heritage conservation

Through case studies and international surveys, this thesis investigates means to mobilise further corporate responsibility for World Cultural Heritage Conservation. It reveals a strong business case for support, based on the sustainable development benefits and shared value for all stakeholders and makes recommendations for using the findings to engage companies.

澳大利亚的民主和公民权

With the granting of the franchise to white men and women in 1902, Australia became one of the first mass electoral democracies. When the early federal governments passed innovative social and economic legislation, Australia also laid claim to being, or at least becoming, a social democracy. Nonetheless, these achievements built upon an earlier record of political, social, and economic reform in the Australian colonies. This paper offers a brief history of the evolution of Australian democracy that takes account of the interactions between institutional change and political struggles for citizenship rights. The process of democratisation has not been uniform, either in its evolution or scope, and the outcomes for citizens have been uneven. Where liberal and social democratic principles generally predominate, these remain in constant tension with more authoritarian tendencies, which then become a focus for resistance from individual citizens, organised labour, and social movements. Democratisation in Australia, as in many countries, is a process that inevitably involves conflict, not only over the character of its political and legal institutions, but also over who is to be included or excluded as citizens, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Democratizing health : consumer groups in the policy process

This timely book examines the role of consumer organisations in the health policy process. In an age of shifting boundaries between state and civil society, consumer groups are potentially drivers of democratisation in the health domain. Their activities bring new dynamics to relations between service providers, the medical profession, government agencies, and other policy actors. This book is unique in comprehensively exploring the opportunities and dilemmas of this type of activism, including sometimes ambiguous partnerships between consumer groups and stakeholders such as the pharmaceutical industry. These themes are explored within an internationally comparative frameThis book examines the important role of consumer activism within health policy in different national contexts. In an age of shifting boundaries between state and civil society, consumer groups are potentially drivers of democratization in the health domain. The expert contributors explore how their activities bring new dynamics to relations between service providers, the medical profession, government agencies, and other policy actors. This book is unique in comprehensively analysing the opportunities and dilemmas of this type of activism, including ambiguous partnerships between consumer groups and stakeholders such as the pharmaceutical industry. These themes are explored within an internationally comparative framework, with case studies from various countries. work, with case studies from many countries.

Introduction : consumer groups and the democratization of health policy

This book examines the important role of consumer activism within health policy in different national contexts. In an age of shifting boundaries between state and civil society, consumer groups are potentially drivers of democratization in the health domain. The expert contributors explore how their activities bring new dynamics to relations between service providers, the medical profession, government agencies, and other policy actors. This book is unique in comprehensively analysing the opportunities and dilemmas of this type of activism, including ambiguous partnerships between consumer groups and stakeholders such as the pharmaceutical industry. These themes are explored within an internationally comparative framework, with case studies from various countries. Students and researchers in the fields of health policy and sociology, public policy and social movements will find this relevant and path-breaking book enlightening. It will also prove invaluable for participants and activists in patient and health consumer organizations.

From activism to state inclusion : health consumer groups in Australia

This book examines the important role of consumer activism within health policy in different national contexts. In an age of shifting boundaries between state and civil society, consumer groups are potentially drivers of democratization in the health domain. The expert contributors explore how their activities bring new dynamics to relations between service providers, the medical profession, government agencies, and other policy actors. This book is unique in comprehensively analysing the opportunities and dilemmas of this type of activism, including ambiguous partnerships between consumer groups and stakeholders such as the pharmaceutical industry. These themes are explored within an internationally comparative framework, with case studies from various countries. Students and researchers in the fields of health policy and sociology, public policy and social movements will find this relevant and path-breaking book enlightening. It will also prove invaluable for participants and activists in patient and health consumer organizations.

Health consumer organizations and the pharmaceutical industry : is transparency the answer?

This book examines the important role of consumer activism within health policy in different national contexts. In an age of shifting boundaries between state and civil society, consumer groups are potentially drivers of democratization in the health domain. The expert contributors explore how their activities bring new dynamics to relations between service providers, the medical profession, government agencies, and other policy actors. This book is unique in comprehensively analysing the opportunities and dilemmas of this type of activism, including ambiguous partnerships between consumer groups and stakeholders such as the pharmaceutical industry. These themes are explored within an internationally comparative framework, with case studies from various countries. Students and researchers in the fields of health policy and sociology, public policy and social movements will find this relevant and path-breaking book enlightening. It will also prove invaluable for participants and activists in patient and health consumer organizations.

A social perspective of sports-based entrepreneurship

In this paper I develop the concept of sport-based entrepreneurship and argue that it provides a potential social orientated strategy for the development of sports-related businesses. I maintain that this emerging form of entrepreneurship is usually inherent in the management of sports, which transforms sport-based organisations into an entrepreneur and enterprise. This paper draws on interdisciplinary approaches from the entrepreneurship and sport management literature to discuss the social entrepreneurship inherent within sports-based organisations. The sport sector provides an exploration of the contextual boundaries of social entrepreneurship and provides a useful discussion on the innovation, risk taking and proactive activity. The implications for sport organisations involved in social entrepreneurship are stated and the importance of governments around the world to promote social entrepreneurship in sport are highlighted. In addition, suggestions for future research are stated that highlight the role of sport-based entrepreneurship theory for examining social change.

Fundacion Maquipucuna: an entrepreneurial Ecuadorian non-profit organisation

The purpose of this paper is to describe Fundacion Maquipucuna's community-based entrepreneurship activities. Fundacion Maquipucuna is a unique non-profit organisation in the Choco-Andes region of Ecuador. An ethnographic study and review of the literature is conducted to analyse the cacao, coffee, ecotourism and plastic thatch enterprises of Fundacion Maquipucuna. The enterprises Fundacion Maquipucuna is engaged in support the ongoing sustainability of the biodiverse ecological environment in the Choco-Andes region, which is one of the top five biodiverse hotspots in the world. On a global scale, more emphasis is being placed on promoting sustainability initiatives to preserve the environment. This paper discusses how a litre-government agency Fundacion Maquipucuna is changing from a non-profit to a for-profit structure in order to continue its community engagement projects. This paper integrates the social and community-based entrepreneurship literature to discuss how Fundacion Maquipucuna is engaging in innovative regional development that benefits the whole Choco-Andes community including the large Afro-Ecuadorian population.

Neighbourhood environments and children's social capital : investigating the pattern of relationships

The main purpose of this work was to investigate the pattern of relationships among three constructs: neighbourhood socio-physical environment, children's social interactions and their social capital. This work was designed as a two-phase mixed-methods research. Phase I included several qualitative studies to develop a scale of neighbourhood socio-physical environment, a scale of children's social interactions and a scale of children's social capital. Phase II was a cross-national survey that used these three scales to collect information from high school students in Beijing and Sydney. The main finding of this work was that there were strong and significant correlations among the three constructs. Children's assessment of their neighbourhood socio-physical environment was positively correlated with their social interactions and social capital, which indicated that children who lived in better neighbourhoods had more social interactions and larger volumes of social capital. Strong positive relationship was also found between children's social interactions and social capital, which implied that better-connected children interacted with their friends more.

Advancing Australian 'shared security' : secular-religious peacebuilding networks

The role of religious leaders in promoting social cohesion and ‘shared security’ is increasingly being examined by scholars, as is the growing multifaith movement. The VIIIth World Assembly of Religions for Peace first proposed the notion of ‘shared security’ and the importance of religious leaders’ role in advancing such a concept in Kyoto 2006. A recent study, Managing the Impact of Global Crisis Events on Community Relations in Multicultural Australia (Bouma et al. 2007) has documented the impacts of international crisis events and discourses of exclusion on religiously diverse communities in Australia, in particular rising Islamophobia, migrantophobia and attacks on multiculturalism. Religious communities have been far from passive in their responses to the impact of these events initiating dialogue and educational activities to dispel negative stereotypes and attitudes. State actors, including police, have prioritized engagement with religious leaders resulting in a rise of state supported multifaith and secular-religious peacebuilding activities. This paper argues that, in response to global risks of terror and exclusion, secular-religious networks including religious leaders, state actors, educators and the media have the potential to advance ‘shared security’ in multifaith societies, by drawing on Australian experiences documented in the Global Crisis Events study.

How can the impact of cultural development work in local government be measured? Towards more effective planning and evaluation strategies

The field of cultural development in local government is relatively new, with most councils only having dedicated staff or teams within the last ten to fifteen years. Challenges are associated with that newness in the areas of planning, goal setting and formal evaluation of achievements in relation to goals. How can the best decisions be made about what is needed? How can the outcomes of that work be evaluated? What should be measured and how? This paper explores these challenges and presents some solutions. Program Logic is introduced as a methodology for effective planning and evaluation of cultural development work in local government. The need for both performance and outcome evaluation of cultural development work is discussed, as are the levels of evaluation required; considering the contribution of individual workers, departments, whole of council and the overall community outcomes. Factors beyond the influence of local government, which impact the outcomes of arts initiatives, are also considered in arguing that more sophisticated evaluation processes are required.

The first stage of developing the adolescent friendship social capital scale

 The purpose of the study was to generate the candidate items for the Adolescent Friendship Social Capital Scale. Both inductive and deductive approaches were used to generate the scale items. Halpern's conceptual map of social capital served as the theoretical basis of this scale, and guided the development of items. Semi-structured interviews with adolescents in Sydney, Melbourne and Beijing generated the initial pool of scale items. Twenty-six items were generated for the Adolescent Friendship Social Capital Scale. The items are organised in four theoretical constructs: Bonding Networks, Bridging Norms, Bridging Sanctions, and Linking Networks. Each item is a short statement followed by a five-point Likert scale anchored by 1= "Strongly disagree" and 5= "Strongly agree". The scale has several advantages over previous measures of adolescent friendship networks and friendship social capital. The scale has a strong and clear theoretical structure, the scale items demonstrate initial construct and content validity, and the format of the scale enables the collection of continuous data. However, in order to ensure the validity and reliability of the scale, another two stages of research need to be conducted in the future: scale development and scale evaluation.