Designing relational pedagogies with jam2jamXO

This paper examines the affordances of the philosophy and practice of open source and the application of it in developing music education software. In particular I will examine the parallels inherent in the ‘openness’ of pragmatist philosophy in education (Dewey 1916, 1989) such as group or collaborative learning, discovery learning (Bruner 1966) and learning through creative activity with computers (Papert 1980, 1994). Primarily I am interested in ‘relational pedagogies’ (Ruthmann and Dillon In Press) which is in a real sense about the ethics of the transaction between student and teacher in an ecology where technology plays a more significant role. In these contexts relational pedagogies refers to how the music teacher manages their relationships with students and evaluates the affordances of open source technology in that process. It is concerned directly with how the relationship between student and teacher is affected by the technological tools, as is the capacity for music making and learning. In particular technologies that have agency present the opportunity for a partnership between user and technology that enhances the capacity for expressive music making, productive social interaction and learning. In this instance technologies with agency are defined as ones that enhance the capacity to be expressive and perform tasks with virtuosity and complexity where the technology translates simple commands and gestures into complex outcomes. The technology enacts a partnership with the user that becomes both a cognitive and performative amplifier. Specifically we have used this term to describe interactions with generative technologies that use procedural invention as a creative technique to produce music and visual media.

The child, the text and the teacher : reading primers and reading instruction

From the late sixteenth century, in response to the problem of how best to teach children to read, a variety of texts such as primers, spellers and readers were produced in England for vernacular instruction. This paper describes how these materials were used by teachers to develop first, a specific religious understanding according to the stricture of the time and second, a moral reading practice that provided the child with a guide to secular conduct. The analysis focuses on the use of these texts as a productive means for shaping the child-reader in the context of newly emerging educational spaces which fostered a particular, morally formative relation among teacher, child and text.

Governing depression in Australian legal education : power, psychology and advanced liberal government

Legal educators in Australia have increasingly become concerned with the mental health of law students. The apparent risk posed by legal education to a student’s mental health has led to the deployment of a variety of measures to address these problems. By exploring these measures as productive power relations attempting to shape law students, this paper outlines how this government of depression is achieved, and the potential costs of these power relations. It examines one central Australian text offering advice about how students and law student societies can address depression, and argues that doing so not only involves students adopting particular practices of self-government to shape their legal personae, but also relies on an extension of the power relations of legal education. In addition, this paper will link this advice — which privatises the issue of depression, responsibilises individuals and communities, privileges psychological expertise, and seeks to govern ‘at a distance’ — to broader forms of social administration that presently characterise many Western societies. Doing so allows legal educators to reflect on the effects of their attempts to govern depression, and to consider new ways of altering the power relations of legal education.

Violent urbanism is us

This paper explores violent urbanism in the recent science-fiction filem District 9 whhich depicts an alien immigration camp, filmed on location in Soweto in 2008 in the midst of a series of violent clashed between indigenous South Africans and the new wave of African immigrants. Violent Urbanism is the State of method of control of bodies and populations by those precise biological techniques that determine geopolitical sites for the control of cities. This film while presented as cinema verite speaks the real invasion of traditional, spatio-disciplinary regimes such as corporate-run detention centres, refugee camps, border control and enforced relocation by those imperceptible techniques which violate the body by reducing it to a biological datum, tool, or specimen to serve the security agenda of the twenty-first century nation-state. These techniques are chemical and biological warfare proliferation; genetic engineering; and surveillance systems, such as biometrics, whose purview is no longer limited to the specular but includes the molecular. District 9 evinces a compelling urban image of contemporary biopolitics that disturbs the received historiography of post-apartheid urbanism. Clearly Johannesburg is not the only place this could or is happening - the reach of biopolitics is worldwide. District 9 visualises with utter precision the corporate hijacking of the biological realm in contemporary cites, just as it asks the unsettling question, who exactly is the "audience" of Violent Urbanism?

Optimal allocation of water in village irrigation systems of Sri Lanka

This PhD study examines whether water allocation becomes more productive when it is re-allocated from 'low' to 'high' efficient alternative uses in village irrigation systems (VISs) in Sri Lanka. Reservoir-based agriculture is a collective farming economic activity, which inter-sectoral allocation of water is assumed to be inefficient due to market imperfections and weak user rights. Furthermore, the available literature shows that a „head-tail syndrome. is the most common issue for intra-sectoral water management in „irrigation. agriculture. This research analyses the issue of water allocation by using primary data collected from two surveys of 460 rice farmers and 325 fish farming groups in two administrative districts in Sri Lanka. Technical efficiency estimates are undertaken for both rice farming and culture-based fisheries (CBF) production. The equi-marginal principle is applied for inter and intra-sectoral allocation of water. Welfare benefits of water re-allocation are measured through consumer surplus estimation. Based on these analyses, the overall findings of the thesis can be summarised as follows. The estimated mean technical efficiency (MTE) for rice farming is 73%. For CBF production, the estimated MTE is 33%. The technical efficiency distribution is skewed to the left for rice farming, while it skewed to the right for CBF production. The results show that technical efficiency of rice farming can be improved by formalising transferability of land ownership and, therefore, water user rights by enhancing the institutional capacity of Farmer Organisations (FOs). Other effective tools for improving technical efficiency of CBF production are strengthening group stability of CBF farmers, improving the accessibility of official consultation, and attracting independent investments. Inter-sectoral optimal allocation shows that the estimated inefficient volume of water in rice farming, which can be re-allocated for CBF production, is 32%. With the application of successive policy instruments (e.g., a community transferable quota system and promoting CBF activities), there is potential for a threefold increase in marginal value product (MVP) of total reservoir water in VISs. The existing intra-sectoral inefficient volume of water use in tail-end fields and head-end fields can potentially be removed by reducing water use by 10% and 23% respectively and re-allocating this to middle fields. This re-allocation may enable a twofold increase in MVP of water used in rice farming without reducing the existing rice output, but will require developing irrigation practices to facilitate this re-allocation. Finally, the total productivity of reservoir water can be increased by responsible village level institutions and primary level stakeholders (i.e., co-management) sharing responsibility of water management, while allowing market forces to guide the efficient re-allocation decisions. This PhD has demonstrated that instead of farmers allocating water between uses haphazardly, they can now base their decisions on efficient water use with a view to increasing water productivity. Such an approach, no doubt will enhance farmer incomes and community welfare.

Enhancing Chinese TEFL academics' research performance : necessity and urgency

China’s increasing participation in world affairs and the growing popularity of English as a lingua franca have made significant impact on Chinese society, culture and education. As such, considerable research topics in relation to English require TEFL researchers’ attentions. Additionally, higher education reform in China has created higher demand on academics by stressing research as an important element in academics’ assessment. Recurrent rhetoric in the field of TEFL also calls on practitioners to theorise their practice. All these practical needs and theoretical arguments point to the necessity and significance of TEFL academics’ engagement in research. To find out whether Chinese TEFL academics’ research meet the new demand on them, a survey of TEFL academics at three Chinese higher institutions was conducted. One hundred eighty two of them provided valid responses which were analysed using SPSS. It was found that TEFL academics’ research productivity in each category of research products was quite low. Large percentages of them did not produce any item in the investigated categories of research. They were least productive in conference papers and research products at the national level. However for these least productive categories, there were highly-productive TEFL academics. The categories of research where the TEFL academics were found relatively productive were non-core journal articles and provincial projects. The findings suggest that it is necessary and urgent for Chinese TEFL academics to enhance their research productivity to be able to meet the demand that new era has rendered.

Transit line passenger transmission and productiveness under high load conditions

Deterministic transit capacity analysis applies to planning, design and operational management of urban transit systems. The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (1) and Vuchic (2, 3) enable transit performance to be quantified and assessed using transit capacity and productive capacity. This paper further defines important productive performance measures of an individual transit service and transit line. Transit work (p-km) captures the transit task performed over distance. Passenger transmission (p-km/h) captures the passenger task delivered by service at speed. Transit productiveness (p-km/h) captures transit work performed over time. These measures are useful to operators in understanding their services’ or systems’ capabilities and passenger quality of service. This paper accounts for variability in utilized demand by passengers along a line and high passenger load conditions where passenger pass-up delay occurs. A hypothetical case study of an individual bus service’s operation demonstrates the usefulness of passenger transmission in comparing existing and growth scenarios. A hypothetical case study of a bus line’s operation during a peak hour window demonstrates the theory’s usefulness in examining the contribution of individual services to line productive performance. Scenarios may be assessed using this theory to benchmark or compare lines and segments, conditions, or consider improvements.

Transit line passenger transmission and productiveness under high load conditions : presentation

Transit Capacity Analysis critical to urban system Planning Design, Operation Productive Performance Analysis not so well detailed This study extends TRB’s & Vuchic’s work in this area

Arts and creative industries : a historical overview; and an Australian conversation

Australia should seek new and liberating ways to bring together the arts, popular culture and the creative industries, according to Arts and creative industries. The report, funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and prepared by Professor Justin O’Connor of the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, looks at ways in which the policy relationship between these often polarised sectors of arts and creative industries might be re-thought and approached more productively. The report is in two parts, commencing with An Australian conversation, in which Professor O’Connor, with Stuart Cunningham and Luke Jaaniste, document a series of in depth interviews with 18 leading practitioners across the creative industries. They discuss their perceptions of the similarities, differences and connections between the arts and creative industries. The interviews frequently returned to the fundamental question of what was meant by ‘art’ and ‘creative industries’. The second, larger part of Arts and creative industries, addresses this question through an extensive review of the discussions of art and its relation to society and culture over the last few centuries. A historical overview highlights the importance that art has had in developing our comprehension of the modern world. It also examines the enthusiasm for the creative industries over the last 15 years or so and the impact this has had on creative policy-making. Arts and creative industries suggests there is no dividing line between publicly-funded arts, popular culture and the blossoming businesses of the creative sector – and national policy should reflect this. This study was commissioned by the Australia Council as part of a long-running and productive relationship between the council and the ARC Centre of Excellence on Creative Industries and Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology.

Cultural studies and the urgency of interdisciplinarity : sooner, not later, we're going to need a cultural science (Os Estudos Culturais e a urgência por interdisciplinaridade: cedo, e não tarde, vamos precisar de uma Ciência da Cultura)

Most of creativity in the digital world passes unnoticed by the industry practices and policies, and it isn't taken into account in the cultural and economic strategies of the creative industries. We should find ways to catalyze this creative production, showing how the user's contribution may contribute to social learning, cultural and economic advancement. To that effect, we must know what is an open creative system and how it works. Based on this diagnosis, the author that interdisciplinarity is urgent and there is also a need for a science of culture. What is at stake is a strategy of integrated development, as regards the upcoming innovation in its complex, productive and learning aspects.

Economic fluctuations and productivity in the Malaysian construction sector

Growth in productivity is the key determinant of the long-term health and prosperity of an economy. The construction industry being one of major strategic importance, its productivity performance has a significant effect on national economic growth. The relationship between construction output and economy has received intensive studies, but there is lack of empirical study on the relationship between construction productivity and economic fluctuations. Fluctuations in construction output are endemic in the industry. In part they are caused by the boom and slump of the economy as a whole and in part by the nature of the construction product. This research aims to uncover how the productivity of construction sector is influenced in the course of economic fluctuations in Malaysia. Malaysia has adopted three economic policies – New Economic Policy (1971-1990), National Development Policy (1991-2000) and the National Vision Policy (2001-2010) since gaining independence in 1959. The Privatisation Master Plan was introduced in 1991. Operating within this historical context, the Malaysian construction sector has experienced four business cycles since 1960. A mixed-method design approach is adopted in this study. Quantitative analysis was conducted on the published official statistics of the construction industry and the overall economy in Malaysia between 1970 and 2009. Qualitative study involved interviews with a purposive sample of 21 industrial participants. This study identified a 32-year long building cycle appears in 1975-2006. It is superimposed with three shorter construction business cycles in 1975-1987, 1987-1999 and 1999-2006. The correlations of Construction labour productivity (CLP) and GDP per capita are statistically significant for the 1975-2006 building cycle, 1987-1999 and 1999-2006 construction business cycles. It was not significant in 1975-1987 construction business cycles. The Construction Industry Surveys/Census over the period from 1996 to 2007 show that the average growth rate of total output per employee expanded but the added value per employee contracted which imply high cost of bought-in materials and services and inefficient usage of purchases. The construction labour productivity is peaked at 2004 although there is contraction of construction sector in 2004. The residential subsector performed relatively better than the other sub-sectors in most of the productivity indicators. Improvements are found in output per employee, value added per employee, labour competitiveness and capital investment but declines are recorded in value added content and capital productivity. The civil engineering construction is most productive in the labour productivity nevertheless relatively poorer in the capital productivity. The labour cost is more competitive in the larger size establishment. The added value per labour cost is higher in larger sized establishment attributed to efficient in utilization of capital. The interview with the industrial participant reveals that the productivity of the construction sector is influenced by the economic environment, the construction methods, contract arrangement, payment chain and regulatory policies. The fluctuations of construction demand have caused companies switched to defensive strategy during the economic downturn and to ensure short-term survival than to make a profit for the long-term survival and growth. It leads the company to take drastic measures to curb expenses, downsizing, employ contract employment, diversification and venture overseas market. There is no empirical evidence supports downsizing as a necessary step in a process of reviving productivity. The productivity does not correlate with size of firm. A relatively smaller and focused firm is more productive than the larger and diversified organisation. However diversified company experienced less fluctuation in both labour and capital productivity. In order to improve the productivity of the construction sector, it is necessary to remove the negatives and flaws from past practices. The recommended measures include long-term strategic planning and coordinated approaches of government agencies in planning of infrastructure development and to provide regulatory environments which encourage competition and facilitate productivity improvement.

Measurable progress? Teaching artsworkers to assess and articulate the impact of their work

The National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper—drafted to assist the Australian Government in developing the first national Cultural Policy since Creative Nation nearly two decades ago—envisages a future in which arts, cultural and creative activities directly support the development of an inclusive, innovative and productive Australia. "The policy," it says, "will be based on an understanding that a creative nation produces a more inclusive society and a more expressive and confident citizenry by encouraging our ability to express, describe and share our diverse experiences—with each other and with the world" (Australian Government 3). Even a cursory reading of this Discussion Paper makes it clear that the question of impact—in aesthetic, cultural and economic terms—is central to the Government's agenda in developing a new Cultural Policy. Hand-in-hand with the notion of impact comes the process of measurement of progress. The Discussion Paper notes that progress "must be measurable, and the Government will invest in ways to assess the impact that the National Cultural Policy has on society and the economy" (11). If progress must be measurable, this raises questions about what arts, cultural and creative workers do, whether it is worth it, and whether they could be doing it better. In effect, the Discussion Paper pushes artsworkers ever closer to a climate in which they have to be skilled not just at making work, but at making the impact of this work clear to stakeholders. The Government in its plans for Australia's cultural future, is clearly most supportive of artsworkers who can do this, and the scholars, educators and employers who can best train the artsworkers of the future to do this.

Studying Mobile Media : Cultural Technologies, Mobile Communication, and the iPhone

The iPhone represents an important moment in both the short history of mobile media and the long history of cultural technologies. Like the Walkman of the 1980s, it marks a juncture in which notions about identity, individualism, lifestyle and sociality require rearticulation. This book explores not only the iPhone’s particular characteristics, uses and "affects," but also how the "iPhone moment" functions as a barometer for broader patterns of change. In the iPhone moment, this study considers the convergent trajectories in the evolution of digital and mobile culture, and their implications for future scholarship. Through the lens of the iPhone—as a symbol, culture and a set of material practices around contemporary convergent mobile media—the essays collected here explore the most productive theoretical and methodological approaches for grasping media practice, consumer culture and networked communication in the twenty-first century.

Diaspora: the new philanthropy?

Diaspora philanthropy is a popular buzzword; however, what the term encompasses or how institutionalised the phenomenon is remains an open question. There are as many views and definitions of diaspora philanthropy as there are diaspora communities involved. It is often seen as a potential source of funding for geographic regions, religions or ethnic communities globally. But identifying a framework for diaspora philanthropy is difficult. Unlike the literature on international philanthropy (including ethnic philanthropy and cross-border philanthropy), which has been a predominant topic of interest in recent years, the literature on diaspora philanthropy is scarce. There is a variety of opinion on what should and should not be considered under this scribe, which makes it impossible to provide a definitive description of diaspora philanthropy that suits everyone. The term “diaspora” has different meanings for different individuals and groups of people. Some see it as relating only to exiled and ejected communities of people; others use the term to refer to individuals or groups who are living in a new homeland whether by choice or circumstance. This paper defines “diaspora” in terms of an individual or group which identifies with an original homeland, (either theirs or a member of their family’s such as a grandparent), and is in the diaspora whether through their choice or a circumstance beyond their control. This obligatory identification towards a homeland differentiates this study on diaspora philanthropy from those that define it as an affiliation with a religious community and not necessarily a specific homeland.

Studying the mobile : locating the field

Book Description: The iPhone represents an important moment in both the short history of mobile media and the long history of cultural technologies. Like the Walkman of the 1980s, it marks a juncture in which notions about identity, individualism, lifestyle and sociality require rearticulation. this book explores not only the iPhone’s particular characteristics, uses and "affects," but also how the "iPhone moment" functions as a barometer for broader patterns of change. In the iPhone moment, this study considers the convergent trajectories in the evolution of digital and mobile culture, and their implications for future scholarship. Through the lens of the iPhone—as a symbol, culture and a set of material practices around contemporary convergent mobile media—the essays collected here explore the most productive theoretical and methodological approaches for grasping media practice, consumer culture and networked communication in the twenty-first century.