Against Rehabilitation; For Reparitive Justice

The difficulties of re-imagining the possible relationships between crime and justice in capitalist societies, and imagining the possible meanings of democracy in societies characterised by gross inequalities of knowledge, and exclusion of the majority from political decisions are well known. One such difficulty stems from the impossible necessity of maintaining stances of both constant reform and constant critique (see Carlen, 2012). Confronted with economic and cultural inequalities which routinely deny ideals of justice and democracy, there can be a temptation to suppress (or bracket-off) troubling knowledge of criminal justice's and democracy's maligned underbellies and instead talk 'as if' criminal justice's ideal play of governance is always and already realised in its rhetoric. In some senses, this 'as if' talk is aspirational and it is difficult to see how it could be otherwise if more just conceptions of criminal justice and more democratic forms of democracy are to be conceived. However, when, as often happens, aspirational criminal justice concepts become routinised and acted upon as if they can be realised without fundamental social change, they become penal imaginaries, part of a taken-for-granted ideological baggage which, because it is taken-for-granted, obstructs critique (see Carlen, 2008). One such penal imaginary is the concept of rehabilitation, a concept which has a long history of justifying almost every kind of non-lethal response to lawbreaking and which is currently being reborn yet again in theories of criminal desistance and anti-prison campaigns as well as in the more invidious rehabilitation industry with its sales of programmes for cognitive reform.

Exenatide extended-release; clinical trials, patient preference, and economic considerations

Type 2 diabetes remains an escalating world-wide problem, despite a range of treatments. The revelation that insulin secretion is under the control of a gut hormone, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) led to a new paradigm in the management of type 2 diabetes, medicines that directly stimulate, or that prolong the actions of the endogenous GLP-1, at its receptors. Exenatide is an agonist at the GLP-1 receptors, and was initially developed as a subcutaneous twice daily medication, ExBID. The clinical trials with ExBID established a role for exenatide in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Subsequently, once weekly exenatide (ExQW) was shown to have advantages over ExBID, and there is now more emphasis on the development of ExQW. ExQW alone reduces glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and body weight, and is well tolerated. ExQW has been compared to sitagliptin, pioglitazone and metformin, and shown to have a greater ability to reduce HbA1c than these other medicines. The only preparation of insulin, which ExQW has been compared to, is insulin glargine, and the ExQW has some favourable properties in this comparison, notably causing weight loss, compared to the gain with insulin glargine. ExQW has been compared to another GLP-1 receptor agonist, liraglutide, and ExQW is non-inferior to liraglutide in reducing HbA1c. The small amount of evidence available, shows that subjects with type 2 diabetes, prefer ExQW to ExBID, and that adherence was high to these in the clinical trial setting. Healthcare and economic modelling suggests that ExQW will reduce diabetic complications and be cost-effective, compared to other medications, with long term use. Little is known about whether subjects with type 2 diabetes prefer ExQW to other medicines, and whether adherence is good to ExQW in practice, and these important topics require further study.

Measuring global economic interdependence : a hierarchical network approach

This paper investigates the business cycle co-movement across countries and regions since 1950 as a measure for quantifying the economic interdependence in the ongoing globalisation process. Our methodological approach is based on analysis of a correlation matrix and the networks it contains. Such an approach summarises the interaction and interdependence of all elements, and it represents a more accurate measure of the global interdependence involved in an economic system. Our results show (1) the dynamics of interdependence has been driven more by synchronisation in regional growth patterns than by the synchronisation of the world economy, and (2) world crisis periods dramatically increase the global co-movement in the world economy.

A Century of American Economic Review : Insights on Critical Factors in Journal Publishing

By using information collected from numerous American Economic Review publications from the last 100 years, Torgler and Piatti examine the top publishing institutions to determine their most renowned AER papers based on citation success. Areas of interest include how often an individual can publish in the AER, how equally successful citations are distributed and who the top AER publishing authors are. The book explores what the level of cooperation is among authors and what drives systems such as the alphabetical name ordering. Torgler and Piatti critically examine the individual characteristics of AER authors, editors, editorial board members and referees and even tackle more intricate details such as the frequency of female publications in the AER. The authors observe and analyse the relationship between academic age and publication performance to see if there is any pattern on these factors and citation success. The book then goes on to analyse data concerning awards, and whether awards can increase the probability of publishing in the AER at a later stage

The bioeconomics of nutritional poverty and child labour

This paper provides a bio-economic foundation of fertility and child labor. Drawing on the clinical and physiological literature, the model highlights the interaction between work efforts of adults and children, their subsistence consumption, and fertility. The subsistence consumption requirements are endogenous to physical efforts. Parents engaged in physically demanding occupations (e.g. non-mechanized agriculture) are likely to suffer from energy deficiency, leading to reduced future work-capacity. Consumption smoothing occurs through bearing a large number of children who provide income support as adults. Although net cost of an additional child is positive, the cost is balanced by the additional income accruing though child employment. In contrast, parents in low-physical effort occupations are less likely to su¤er from nutritional deficiency, and thus tend to have lower fertility and child labor.

The impact of organizational boundaries on (re)building capabilities

The literature concerning firm boundaries has focussed extensively on the rationale for different boundary choices and the economic efficiencies that such choices can make. There is also an acknowledged position that a firm’s boundary choices may impact the ability of a firm to maintain and even build new capabilities, though such choices may not be optimal from an economic efficiency perspective. It is in this context that we seek to investigate how firms make this potential trade-off in respect of their boundary choices and how these choices are implemented across a wide range of activities. Using qualitative data from three public sector construction oriented organizations, we observe that neither pure make nor buy decisions assisted significantly in capability building. Dual modes – where firms make and buy the same product or service simultaneously – provided firms with some opportunities to manage this paradox, but the most successful decisions seemed to occur in respect of using intermediate governance modes such as alliances. We also observed that the boundary choice was just one dimension of the capability building process and firms pursuing the same boundary choice decisions often had quite divergent outcomes on the basis of their boundary management and the ability of knowledge to move across firm boundaries.

Creating a Sustainability Scorecard as a predictive tool for measuring the complex social, economic and environmental impacts of industries, a case study : assessing the viability and sustainability of the dairy industry

Sustainability is a key driver for decisions in the management and future development of industries. The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) outlined imperatives which need to be met for environmental, economic and social sustainability. Development of strategies for measuring and improving sustainability in and across these domains, however, has been hindered by intense debate between advocates for one approach fearing that efforts by those who advocate for another could have unintended adverse impacts. Studies attempting to compare the sustainability performance of countries and industries have also found ratings of performance quite variable depending on the sustainability indices used. Quantifying and comparing the sustainability of industries across the triple bottom line of economy, environment and social impact continues to be problematic. Using the Australian dairy industry as a case study, a Sustainability Scorecard, developed as a Bayesian network model, is proposed as an adaptable tool to enable informed assessment, dialogue and negotiation of strategies at a global level as well as being suitable for developing local solutions.

Suicide and the therapeutic coroner : inquests, governance and the grieving family

This study of English Coronial practice raises a number of questions about the role played by the Coroner within contemporary governance. Following observations at over 20 inquests into possible suicides and in-depth interviews with six Coroners, three preliminary issue emerged, all of which pointed to a broader and, in many ways, more significant issue. These preliminary issues are concerned with: (1) the existence of considerable slippages between different Coroners over which deaths are likely to be classified as suicide; (2) the high standard of proof required and immense pressure faced by Coroners from family members at inquest to reach any verdict other than suicide, which significantly depresses likely suicide rates, and; (3) Coroners feeling no professional obligation, either individually or collectively, to contribute to the production of consistent and useful social data regarding suicide, arguably rendering comparative suicide statistics relatively worthless. These concerns lead, ultimately, to the second more important question about the role expected of Coroners within social governance and within an effective, contemporary democracy. That is, are Coroners the principal officers in the public administration of death; or are they, first and foremost, a crucial part of the grieving process, one that provides important therapeutic interventions into the mental and emotional health of the community?

Validation of an instrument to measure governance and performance on collaborative infrastructure projects

Collaborative infrastructure projects use hybrid formal and informal governance structures to manage transactions. Based on previous desk-top research, the authors identified the key mechanisms underlying project governance, and posited the performance implications of the governance (Chen et al. 2012). The current paper extends that qualitative research by testing the veracity of those findings using data from 320 Australian construction organisations. The results provide, for the first time, reliable and valid scales to measure governance and performance of collaborative projects, and the relationship between them. The results confirm seven of seven hypothesised governance mechanisms; 30 of 43 hypothesised underlying actions; eight of eight hypothesised key performance indicators; and the dual importance of formal and informal governance. A startling finding of the study was that the implementation intensity of informal mechanisms (non-contractual conditions) is a greater predictor of project performance variance than that of formal mechanisms (contractual conditions). Further, contractual conditions do not directly impact project performance; instead their impact is mediated by the non-contractual features of a project. Obligations established under the contract are not sufficient to optimise project performance.

Governance challenges in the global games industry

Current governance challenges facing the global games industry are heavily dominated by online games. Whilst much academic and industry attention has been afforded to Virtual Worlds, the more pressing contemporary challenges may arise in casual games, especially when found on social networks. As authorities are faced with an increasing volume of disputes between participants and platform operators, the likelihood of external regulation increases, and the role that such regulation would have on the industry – both internationally and within specific regions – is unclear. Kelly (2010) argues that “when you strip away the graphics of these [social] games, what you are left with is simply a button [...] You push it and then the game returns a value of either Win or Lose”. He notes that while “every game developer wants their game to be played, preferably addictively, because it’s so awesome”, these mechanics lead not to “addiction of engagement through awesomeness” but “the addiction of compulsiveness”, surmising that “the reality is that they’ve actually sort-of kind-of half-intentionally built a virtual slot machine industry”. If such core elements of social game design are questioned, this gives cause to question the real-money options to circumvent them. With players able to purchase virtual currency and speed the completion of tasks, the money invested by the 20% purchasing in-game benefits (Zainwinger, 2012) may well be the result of compulsion. The decision by the Japanese Consumer Affairs agency to investigate the ‘Kompu Gacha’ mechanic (in which players are rewarded for completing a set of items obtained through purchasing virtual goods such as mystery boxes), and the resultant verdict that such mechanics should be regulated through gambling legislation, demonstrates that politicians are beginning to look at the mechanics deployed in these environments. Purewal (2012) states that “there’s a reasonable argument that complete gacha would be regulated under gambling law under at least some (if not most) Western jurisdictions”. This paper explores the governance challenged within these games and platforms, their role in the global industry, and current practice amongst developers in the Australian and United States to address such challenges.

Analysing governance categories used on project alliances in the construction industry

In Australia, collaborative contracts, and in particular, project alliances, have been increasingly used to govern infrastructure projects. These contracts use formal and informal governance mechanisms to manage the delivery of infrastructure projects. Formal mechanisms such as financial risk sharing are specified in the contract, while informal mechanisms such as integrated teams are not. Given that the literature contains a multiplicity of often untestable definitions, this paper reports on a review of the literature to operationalize the concepts of formal and informal governance. This work is the first phase of a study that will examine the optimal balance of formal and informal governance structures. Desk-top review of leading journals in the areas of construction management and business management, as well as recent government documents and industry guidelines, was undertaken to to conceptualise and operationalize formal and informal governance mechanisms. The study primarily draws on transaction-cost economics (e.g. Williamson 1979; Williamson 1991), relational contract theory (Feinman 2000; Macneil 2000) and social psychology theory (e.g. Gulati 1995). Content analysis of the literature was undertaken to identify key governance mechanisms. Content analysis is a commonly used methodology in the social sciences area. It provides rich data through the systematic and objective review of literature (Krippendorff 2004). NVivo 9, a qualitative data analysis software package, was used to assist in this process. A previous study by the authors identified that formal governance mechanisms can be classified into seven measurable categories: (1) negotiated cost, (2) competitive cost, (3) commercial framework, (4) risk and reward sharing, (5) qualitative performance, (6) collaborative multi-party agreement, and (7) early contractor involvement. Similarly, informal governance mechanisms can be classified into four measureable categories: (1) leadership structure, (2) integrated team, (3) team workshops, and (4) joint management system. This paper explores and further defines the key operational characteristics of each mechanism category, highlighting its impact on value for money in alliance project delivery. The paper’s contribution is that it provides the basis for future research to compare the impact of a range of individual mechanisms within each category, as a means of improving the performance of construction projects.

Vulnerability held not to be pre-requisite for establishing a duty of care in claims of pure economic Loss

Case note Apache Energy Ltd v Alcoa of Australia Ltd (No 2) [2013] In 2011, headlines were made when Alcoa sued Apache Energy and its partners for $158 million, a loss it claimed was a consequence of Apache Energy failing to adequately inspect and maintain the gas pipelines that supplied the gas used by Alcoa in its business. As the loss was not a consequence of any property damage or injury to Alcoa, the loss is characterised as pure economic loss...

Prevention of Alcohol-Related Crime and Trauma (PACT) : brief interventions in routine care pathway – a study protocol

Background Globally, alcohol-related injuries cause millions of deaths and huge economic loss each year . The incidence of facial (jawbone) fractures in the Northern Territory of Australia is second only to Greenland, due to a strong involvement of alcohol in its aetiology, and high levels of alcohol consumption. The highest incidences of alcohol-related trauma in the Territory are observed amongst patients in the Maxillofacial Surgery Unit of the Royal Darwin Hospital. Accordingly, this project aims to introduce screening and brief interventions into this unit, with the aims of changing health service provider practice, improving access to care, and improving patient outcomes. Methods Establishment of Project Governance: The project governance team includes a project manager, project leader, an Indigenous Reference Group (IRG) and an Expert Reference Group (ERG). Development of a best practice pathway: PACT project researchers collaborate with clinical staff to develop a best practice pathway suited to the setting of the surgical unit. The pathway provides clear guidelines for screening, assessment, intervention and referral. Implementation: The developed pathway is introduced to the unit through staff training workshops and associate resources and adapted in response to staff feedback. Evaluation: File audits, post workshop questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are administered. Discussion This project allows direct transfer of research findings into clinical practice and can inform future hospital-based injury prevention strategies.

Empirical approaches in knowledge city research

In the 21st century, it has become apparent that ‘knowledge’ is a major factor of postmodern production (Yigitcanlar et al., 2007). Beyond this, in today’s rapidly globalizing world, knowledge, along with the social and technological settings, is seen as a key to secure economic prosperity and quality of life (Yigitcanlar et al., 2008a). However, limiting the benefits of a ‘knowledge-based development’ to only economic gains—and to a degree to social ones—is quite a narrow sighted view (Yigitcanlar et al., 2008b). Thus, the concept of ‘knowledge-based urban development’ is coined to bring economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, a just socio-spatial order and good governance to cities, and as a result producing a purposefully designed city—i.e., ‘knowledge city’—generating positive environmental and governance outcomes as well as economic and societal ones (Yigitcanlar, 2011; Carrillo et al., 2014).