Why stagnant? behind the scenes in Indonesia’s reformed state asset management policies

This study seeks to answer the question of “why is policy innovation in Indonesia, in particular reformed state asset management laws and regulations, stagnant?” through an empirical and qualitative approach, identifying and exploring potential impeding influences to the full and equal implementation of said laws and regulations. The policies and regulations governing the practice of state asset management has emerged as an urgent question among many countries worldwide (Conway, 2006; Dow, Gillies, Nichols, & Polen, 2006; Kaganova, McKellar, & Peterson, 2006; McKellar, 2006b) for there is heightened awareness of the complex and crucial role that state assets play in public service provision. Indonesia is an example of such country, introducing a ‘big-bang’ reform in state asset management laws, policies, regulations, and technical guidelines. Two main reasons propelled said policy innovation: a) world-wide common challenges in state asset management practices - such as incomplete information system, accountability, and governance adherence/conceptualisation (Kaganova, McKellar and Peterson 2006); and b) unfavourable state assets audit results in all regional governments across Indonesia. The latter reasoning is emphasised, as the Indonesian government admits to past neglect in ensuring efficiency and best practice in its state asset management practices. Prior to reform there was euphoria of building and developing state assets and public infrastructure to support government programs of the day. Although this euphoria resulted in high growth within Indonesia, there seems to be little attention paid to how state assets bought/built is managed. Up until 2003-2004 state asset management is considered to be minimal; inventory of assets is done manually, there is incomplete public sector accounting standards, and incomplete financial reporting standards (Hadiyanto 2009). During that time transparency, accountability, and maintenance state assets was not the main focus, be it by the government or the society itself (Hadiyanto 2009). Indonesia exemplified its enthusiasm in reforming state asset management policies and practices through the establishment of the Directorate General of State Assets in 2006. The Directorate General of State Assets have stressed the new direction that it is taking state asset management laws and policies through the introduction of Republic of Indonesia Law Number 38 Year 2008, which is an amended regulation overruling Republic of Indonesia Law Number 6 Year 2006 on Central/Regional Government State Asset Management (Hadiyanto, 2009c). Law number 38/2008 aims to further exemplify good governance principles and puts forward a ‘the highest and best use of assets’ principle in state asset management (Hadiyanto, 2009a). The methodology of this study is that of qualitative case study approach, with a triangulated data collection method of document analysis (all relevant state asset management laws, regulations, policies, technical guidelines, and external audit reports), semi-structured interviews, and on-site observation. Empirical data of this study involved a sample of four Indonesian regional governments and 70 interviews, performed during January-July 2010. The analytical approach of this study is that of thematic analysis, in an effort to identify common influences and/or challenges to policy innovation within Indonesia. Based on the empirical data of this study specific impeding influences to state asset management reform is explored, answering the question why innovative policy implementation is stagnant. An in-depth analysis of each influencing factors to state asset management reform, and the attached interviewee’s opinions for each factor, suggests the potential of an ‘excuse rhetoric’; whereby the influencing factors identified are a smoke-screen, or are myths that public policy makers and implementers believe in; as a means to explain innovative policy stagnancy. This study offers insights to Indonesian policy makers interested in ensuring the conceptualisation and full implementation of innovative policies, particularly, although not limited to, within the context of state asset management practices.

The Spartan-3E tutorial 3 : using the LCD display [version 1.0]

This tutorial is designed to assist users who wish to use the LCD screen on the Spartan-3E board. In this tutorial, the PicoBlaze microcontroller is used to control the LCD. The tutorial is organised into three Parts. In Part A, code is written to display the message "Hello World" on the LCD. Part B demonstrates how to define and display custom characters. Finally, Part C shows how the display can be shifted and flashed. Shifting is done by using a delay in the main PicoBlaze program loop, while flashing is done using the PicoBlaze interrupt. The slider switches can be used to select the shifting direction, and to turn shifting and flashing on and off.

The cost of being ethical : evidence from Islamic equity funds

This paper examines the relationship between financial performance and ethical screening intensity of a special class of ethical funds that is rooted in Islamic values – Islamic equity funds (IEFs). These faith-based ethical funds screen investments on compliance with Islamic values where conventional interest expense (riba), gambling (maysir), excessive uncertainty (gharar), and non-ethical (non-halal) products are prohibited. We test whether these extra screens affect the financial performance of IEFs relative to non-Islamic funds. Based on a large survivorship-free international sample of 387 Islamic funds, our results show that IEFs on average underperform conventional funds by 40 basis points per month, or 4.8% per year (supporting the underperformance hypothesis). While Islamic funds do not generally perform better during crisis periods, they outperformed conventional funds during the recent sub-prime crisis (supporting the outperformance hypothesis). Using holdings-based measures for ethical screening intensity, results show IEFs that apply more intensive screening perform worse, suggesting that there is a cost to being ethical.

Reflexive professionalism : reclaiming the voice of authority in shaping the discourses of education policy

The nature and value of ‘professionalism’ has long been contested by both producers and consumers of policy. Most recently, governments have rewritten and redefined professionalism as compliance with externally imposed ‘standards’. This has been achieved by silencing the voices of those who inhabit the professional field of education. This paper uses Foucauldian archaeology to excavate the enunciative field of professionalism by digging through the academic and institutional (political) archive, and in doing so identifies two key policy documents for further analysis. The excavation shows that while the voices of (academic) authority speak of competing discourses emerging, with professional standards promulgated as the mechanism to enhance professionalism, an alternative regime of truth identifies the privileged use of (managerial) voices from outside the field of education to create a discourse of compliance. There has long been a mismatch between the voices of authority on discourses around professionalism from the academic archive and those that count in contemporary and emerging Australian educational policy. In this paper, we counter this mismatch and argue that reflexive educators’ regimes of truth are worthy of attention and should be heard and amplified.

Consuming Urban Culture in Contemporary Vietnam

Vietnam is currently undergoing a metamorphosis from a relatively closed society with a centrally planned economy, to a rapidly urbanising one with a global outlook. These changes have been the catalyst for an exciting ferment of activity in popular culture. This volume contains contributions from scholars engaged in the most up-to-date social research in Vietnam, as well as some of Vietnam's most popular cultural producers who are forging new ways of imagining the present whilst at the same time engaging actively in reinterpreting the past. The diverse ways that Vietnam is culturally and socially negotiating the future are examined as the book addresses issues of indigenisation of cultural influences, ambivalence surrounding change, and the consistent blurring of boundaries between informal, non-state cultural activities and formal institutional structures in the evolution of a civil society in Vietnam.

From movie screens to moving screens : mapping qualities of new urban interactions

Next generation screens of diverse dimensions such as the Pebble e-paper watch, Google’s Project Glass, Microsoft’s Kinect and IllumiRoom, and large-scale multi-touch screen surface areas, increasingly saturate and diversify the urban mediascape. This paper seeks to contribute to media architecture and interaction design theory by starting to critically examine how these different screen formats are creating a ubiquitous screen mediascape across the city. We introduce next generation personal, domestic, and public screens. The paper critically challenges conventional dichotomies such as local / global, online / offline, private / public, large / small, mobile / static, that have been created in the past to describe some of the qualities and characteristics of interfaces and their usage. More and more scholars recognise that the black and white nature of these dichotomies does not adequately represent the fluid and agile capabilities of many new screen interfaces. With this paper, we hope to illustrate the more nuanced ‘trans-scalar’ qualities of these new urban interactions, that is, ways in which they provide a range functionality, without being locked into either end of a scale.

Hollywood’s dominance : a revisionist approach

This 
paper 
is
 based
 on 
a
 PhD 
thesis
 that investigated how Hollywood’s
dominance 
of
 the
 movie
 industry 
arose
 and
 how
 it
 has
 been
 maintained
over
time.
 Major 
studio
 dominance 
and
 the 
global
 popularity 
of
Hollywood
 movies has
 been
 the 
subject
 of
 numerous 
studies. 
An interdisciplinary
 literature 
review
 of 
the
 economics,
 management,
marketing,
 film,
 media
 and
 culture 
literatures
 identified
 twenty
 different 
single 
or
multiple 
factor
 explanations
 that 
try
 to
 account
 for
Major
 studio
 dominance 
at
 different
 time
 periods
 but
 cannot
comprehensively 
explain 
how 
Hollywood
 acquired
 and 
maintained
 global
 dominance 
for
 nine
 decades. 
Existing 
strategic
 management 
and
marketing
 theories
 were 
integrated 
into
 a 
‘theoretical
 lens’
 that
 enabled
a
 historical
 analysis
 of 
Hollywood’s
 longstanding 
dominance 
of
 the
movie
 business
 to
 be 
undertaken 
from 
a
 strategic
 business
 perspective.
 This
 paper
 concludes
 that 
the
 major 
studios 
rise 
to
 market 
leadership
 and 
enduring
 dominance
 can
 primarily
 be
 explained 
because 
they
 developed
 and 
maintained 
a 
set
 of
 strategic
 marketing
 management
 capabilities 
that
 were
 superior 
to rival
 firms
 and 
rival 
film 
industries. 
It
 is
 argued that 
a 
marketing
 orientation 
and 
effective
 strategic
 marketing
management
 capabilities 
also
 provide
a 
unifying
 theory
 for
 Hollywood’s
enduring 
dominance 
because 
they
 can 
account
 for
 each
 of
 the 
twenty
 previously
 identified
 explanations 
for 
that
 dominance.



Groundwater visualisation system (GVS) : a software framework for integrated display and interrogation of conceptual hydrogeological models, data and time-series animation

Management of groundwater systems requires realistic conceptual hydrogeological models as a framework for numerical simulation modelling, but also for system understanding and communicating this to stakeholders and the broader community. To help overcome these challenges we developed GVS (Groundwater Visualisation System), a stand-alone desktop software package that uses interactive 3D visualisation and animation techniques. The goal was a user-friendly groundwater management tool that could support a range of existing real-world and pre-processed data, both surface and subsurface, including geology and various types of temporal hydrological information. GVS allows these data to be integrated into a single conceptual hydrogeological model. In addition, 3D geological models produced externally using other software packages, can readily be imported into GVS models, as can outputs of simulations (e.g. piezometric surfaces) produced by software such as MODFLOW or FEFLOW. Boreholes can be integrated, showing any down-hole data and properties, including screen information, intersected geology, water level data and water chemistry. Animation is used to display spatial and temporal changes, with time-series data such as rainfall, standing water levels and electrical conductivity, displaying dynamic processes. Time and space variations can be presented using a range of contouring and colour mapping techniques, in addition to interactive plots of time-series parameters. Other types of data, for example, demographics and cultural information, can also be readily incorporated. The GVS software can execute on a standard Windows or Linux-based PC with a minimum of 2 GB RAM, and the model output is easy and inexpensive to distribute, by download or via USB/DVD/CD. Example models are described here for three groundwater systems in Queensland, northeastern Australia: two unconfined alluvial groundwater systems with intensive irrigation, the Lockyer Valley and the upper Condamine Valley, and the Surat Basin, a large sedimentary basin of confined artesian aquifers. This latter example required more detail in the hydrostratigraphy, correlation of formations with drillholes and visualisation of simulation piezometric surfaces. Both alluvial system GVS models were developed during drought conditions to support government strategies to implement groundwater management. The Surat Basin model was industry sponsored research, for coal seam gas groundwater management and community information and consultation. The “virtual” groundwater systems in these 3D GVS models can be interactively interrogated by standard functions, plus production of 2D cross-sections, data selection from the 3D scene, rear end database and plot displays. A unique feature is that GVS allows investigation of time-series data across different display modes, both 2D and 3D. GVS has been used successfully as a tool to enhance community/stakeholder understanding and knowledge of groundwater systems and is of value for training and educational purposes. Projects completed confirm that GVS provides a powerful support to management and decision making, and as a tool for interpretation of groundwater system hydrological processes. A highly effective visualisation output is the production of short videos (e.g. 2–5 min) based on sequences of camera ‘fly-throughs’ and screen images. Further work involves developing support for multi-screen displays and touch-screen technologies, distributed rendering, gestural interaction systems. To highlight the visualisation and animation capability of the GVS software, links to related multimedia hosted online sites are included in the references.

Brisbane : creative city, cinema city?

Brisbane stands at the cross roads of many major economic, social and cultural opportunities as it positions itself as a cosmopolitan, globally networked metropolis of the twenty-first century. In order to link and leverage the existing screen industries infrastructure into Brisbane’s creative city’s plans, the paper argues for a re-think of the existing policy frameworks that support Australian screen culture and the national screen industries. Instead of remaining premised on a separation of these two activities the paper argues for a greater recognition of the overlaps occurring in both production and consumption of screen content. By acknowledging the impact new media technologies and social behaviours and the way they are re-shaping media consumption and media production practices, film and media policy could be better positioned to complement the emerging creative city policy frameworks that are being fostered in a city like Brisbane. The paper argues that reconsideration of the culture/industry separation that characterizes contemporary policy settings underpinning Australian media and screen production assistance would not only assist in identifying crucial synergies within a creative city policy it would also invigorate policy settings for the screen industries and enable them to connect more efficiently to a shifting film and media production and consumption landscape.

Hollywood's hidden advantage : creative suits

Creativity in Hollywood is not just about telling stories onscreen. Deal making is the name of the game in Hollywood from globally released franchised blockbusters to art house releases. Riding the currents of the twentieth century Hollywood has maintained dominance with its highly diversified production slate built on creative financing solutions. Using historical and recent case studies, the presentation will look behind the images at the numbers and discuss how 'the suits' have been, and continue to be just as creative as the 'creatives' in contemporary Hollywood.

Livestock production in a changing climate : adaptation and mitigation research in Australia

Climate change presents a range of challenges for animal agriculture in Australia. Livestock production will be affected by changes in temperature and water availability through impacts on pasture and forage crop quantity and quality, feed-grain production and price, and disease and pest distributions. This paper provides an overview of these impacts and the broader effects on landscape functionality, with a focus on recent research on effects of increasing temperature, changing rainfall patterns, and increased climate variability on animal health, growth, and reproduction, including through heat stress, and potential adaptation strategies. The rate of adoption of adaptation strategies by livestock producers will depend on perceptions of the uncertainty in projected climate and regional-scale impacts and associated risk. However, management changes adopted by farmers in parts of Australia during recent extended drought and associated heatwaves, trends consistent with long-term predicted climate patterns, provide some insights into the capacity for practical adaptation strategies. Animal production systems will also be significantly affected by climate change policy and national targets to address greenhouse gas emissions, since livestock are estimated to contribute ~10% of Australia’s total emissions and 8–11% of global emissions, with additional farm emissions associated with activities such as feed production. More than two-thirds of emissions are attributed to ruminant animals. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities facing livestock industries in Australia in adapting to and mitigating climate change. It examines the research needed to better define practical options to reduce the emissions intensity of livestock products, enhance adaptation opportunities, and support the continued contribution of animal agriculture to Australia’s economy, environment, and regional communities.

Tranquility falls

“Tranquility Falls” depicts a computer-generated waterfall set to sentimental stock music. As the water gushes, text borrowed from a popular talk show host’s self-help advice fade in and out graphically down the screen. As the animated phrases increase in tempo, the sounds of the waterfall begin to overwhelm the tender music. By creating overtly fabricated sensations of inspiration and awe, the work questions how and where we experience contemplation, wonderment and guidance in a contemporary context. “Tranquility Falls” contributes to studies in the field of contemporary art. It is particularly concerned with representations of spirituality and nature. These have been important themes in art practice for some time. For example, artists such as Olafur Eliasson and James Turrell have created artificial insertions in nature in order to question contemporary experiences of the natural environment. Other artists such as Nam Jun Paik have more directly addressed the changing relationship between spirituality and popular culture. Using a practice-led research methodology, “Tranquility Falls” extends these creative inquiries. By presenting an overtly synthetic but strangely evocative pun on a ‘fountain of knowledge’, it questions whether we are informed less by traditional engagements with organised religions and natural wonder, and instead, increasingly reliant on the mechanisms of popular culture for moments of insight and reflection. “Tranquility Falls” has been exhibited internationally at LA Louver Gallery, Venice, California in 2013 and nationally with GBK as part of Art Month Sydney, also in 2013. It has been critically reviewed in The Los Angeles Times.

The power of art, the power of entertainment

The question of the relationship between culture and power continues to exercise researchers. In this paper I argue that it is useful to consider the differences between ‘art’ and ‘entertainment’ as systems of culture, each involving a distinct set of power relationships between producers and audiences. Art wants to change audiences; entertainment wants to be changed by audiences. From these different starting points a series of differences unfold in the power possessed by producers and audiences. Artists pride themselves in not involving the audience in the process of making art. By contrast, entertainment wants audiences to contribute to the making of texts. As to the question of who controls the range of what forms of culture are available, it seems that entertainment consumers – unlike art consumers – are ill-disciplined. Historical evidence demonstrates that if legal corporate providers do not offer the kinds of entertainment they want, they will turn to illegal sources. The different ways in which ‘art’ and ‘entertainment’ function as cultural systems suggest that we must rethink our positions on ‘media power’.

Computer-based assessments of expected satiety predict behavioural measures of portion-size selection and food intake

Previously, expected satiety (ES) has been measured using software and two-dimensional pictures presented on a computer screen. In this context, ES is an excellent predictor of self-selected portions, when quantified using similar images and similar software. In the present study we sought to establish the veracity of ES as a predictor of behaviours associated with real foods. Participants (N = 30) used computer software to assess their ES and ideal portion of three familiar foods. A real bowl of one food (pasta and sauce) was then presented and participants self-selected an ideal portion size. They then consumed the portion ad libitum. Additional measures of appetite, expected and actual liking, novelty, and reward, were also taken. Importantly, our screen-based measures of expected satiety and ideal portion size were both significantly related to intake (p < .05). By contrast, measures of liking were relatively poor predictors (p > .05). In addition, consistent with previous studies, the majority (90%) of participants engaged in plate cleaning. Of these, 29.6% consumed more when prompted by the experimenter. Together, these findings further validate the use of screen-based measures to explore determinants of portion-size selection and energy intake in humans.

Pro-Am curators of Australian television history : how is their practice different from that of professional television historians?

Eleven Pro-Am curators of Australian television history were interviewed about their practice. The data helps us to understand the relationship between professional and Pro-Am approaches to Australian television history. There is no simple binary – the lines are blurred – but there are some differences. Pro-Am curators of Australian television history are not paid for their work and present other motivations for practice – particularly being that ‘weird child’ who was obsessed with gathering information and objects related to television. They have freedom to curate only programs and genres that interest them, and they tend to collect merchandise as much as program texts themselves. And they have less interest in formally cataloguing their material than do professional curators of Australian television history.