Parsing the Australian curriculum English : grammar, multimodality and cross-cultural texts

The release of the Australian Curriculum English (ACE) by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has revived debates about the role of grammar as English content knowledge. We consider some of the discussion circulating in the mainstream media vis-à-vis the intent of the ACE. We conclude that this curriculum draws upon the complementary tenets of traditional Latin-based grammar and systemic functional linguistics across the three strands of Language, Literature and Literacy in innovative ways. We argue that such an approach is necessary for working with contemporary multimodal and cross-cultural texts. To demonstrate the utility of this new approach, we draw out a set of learning outcomes from Year 6 and then map out a framework for relating the outcomes to the form and function of multimodal language. As a case in point, our analysis is of two online Coca-Cola advertising texts, one each from South Korea and Australia.

Efficiency of research performance of Australian universities : a reappraisal using a bootstrap truncated regression approach

The motivation of the study stems from the results reported in the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2010 report. The report showed that only 12 universities performed research at or above international standards, of which, the Group of Eight (G8) universities filled the top eight spots. While performance of universities was based on number of research outputs, total amount of research income and other quantitative indicators, the measure of efficiency or productivity was not considered. The objectives of this paper are twofold. First, to provide a review of the research performance of 37 Australian universities using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) bootstrap approach of Simar and Wilson (2007). Second, to determine sources of productivity drivers by regressing the efficiency scores against a set of environmental variables.

Unravelling design : fashion, dressmaking, ethos

Discourses on ethical fashion are usually geared toward finding solutions—or right outcomes—to ethical problems, based on a teleological model of design and a positioning of the designer as an autonomous and isolated design authority. This practice-led project argues, however, that considerations of design ethics must take into account not only the outcome of a design, but also the ongoing, lived experience of designing as a making located in pre-existing social, historical and cultural conditions. Through an exploration of my own dressmaking practice and a reading of ethos as location, I argue for two things: one, for the designer as a located entity rather than an autonomous "author", and, two, against design-asplan and the original design object, and for the circular and conditioned character of design. Through a connection to ethos, understandings of design ethics shift from an end object focus to something situated, and invested in, everyday lived experience—and always in the making.

Middle India as revealed by Chetan Bhagat

The middle classes form the bulk of Indian migrants who head for Australian shores today. Yet, within Australia, general knowledge of the conditions that drive Indians’ determined search for opportunities overseas is limited to the few who have contact with international students and migrants from the sub-continent, and the skewed, melodramatic antics of Bollywood. It is my suggestion that a broader understanding of the underlying reasons that push Indians to migrate to societies like Australia can be had through readings of Chetan’s Bhagat’s four hugely popular novels: Five Point Someone, One night @the Call Center, The 3 mistakes of My life and Two States. Bhagat is a graduate of India’s famed Indian Institute of Technology and a former Non-Resident Indian investment banker who has since returned to live in Delhi. His experiences make him the perfect mouthpiece for middle India and his paperbacks depict that stratum of Indian society’s obsessions with social mobility, marriage, regional and religious divides with great sympathy and conviction. Drawing on observations made during a recent visit to India, I illustrate what an exploration of Bhagat’s paperbacks reveals about everyday, contemporary India and what it adds to Australian understandings of Indians and India today.

Gatekeeping, gatewatching, real-time feedback : new challenges for Journalism

How bloggers and other independent online commentators criticise, correct, and otherwise challenge conventional journalism has been known for years, but has yet to be fully accepted by journalists; hostilities between the media establishment and the new generation of citizen journalists continue to flare up from time to time. The old gatekeeping monopoly of the mass media has been challenged by the new practice of gatewatching: by individual bloggers and by communities of commentators which may not report the news first-hand, but curate and evaluate the news and other information provided by official sources, and thus provide an important service. And this now takes place ever more rapidly, almost in real time: using the latest social networks, which disseminate, share, comment, question, and debunk news reports within minutes, and using additional platforms that enable fast and effective ad hoc collaboration between users. When hundreds of volunteers can prove within a few days that a German minister has been guilty of serious plagiarism, when the world first learns of earthquakes and tsunamis via Twitter – how does journalism manage to keep up?

Seeing the outer suburbs : addressing the urban bias in creative place thinking

Seeing the outer suburbs: addressing the urban bias in creative place thinking, Regional Studies. This paper draws upon quantitative and qualitative research into Australian cities to question the assumption that creative industries workers inherently seek to cluster in inner-urban areas. It challenges this foundational assumption by combining a critical application of the location quotient analysis of major Australian cities with qualitative research drawn from interviews with creative workers based in suburban Melbourne and Brisbane. The findings provide analyses as to why many creative industries workers prefer to locate themselves in outer suburban places. There is also discussion of the implications of these findings for future work on the cultural geography and policies of creative industries.

Unintended consequences of regulatory reporting requirements for small and medium size construction entities : Australian evidence

The Queensland Building Services Authority (QBSA) regulates the construction industry in Queensland, Australia, with licensing requirements creating differential financial reporting obligations, depending on firm size. Economic theories of regulation and behaviour provide a framework for investigating effects of the financial constraints and financial reporting requirements imposed by QBSA licensing. Data are analysed for all small and medium construction entities operating in Queensland between 2001 and 2006. Findings suggesting that construction licensees are categorizing themselves as smaller to avoid the more onerous and costly financial reporting of higher licensee categories are consistent with US findings from the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulation which created incentives for small firms to stay small to avoid the costs of compliance with more onerous financial reporting requirements. Such behaviour can have the undesirable economic consequences of adversely affecting employment, investment, wealth creation and financial stability. Insights and implications from the analysed QBSA processes are important for future policy reform and design, and useful to be considered where similar regulatory approaches are planned.

Building information modeling in the Australian architecture engineering and construction industry

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a modern approach to the design, documentation, delivery, and life cycle management of buildings through the use of project information databases coupled with object-based parametric modeling. BIM has the potential to revolutionize the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry in terms of the positive impact it may have on information flows, working relationships between project participants from different disciplines and the resulting benefits it may achieve through improvements to conventional methods. This chapter reviews the development of BIM, the extent to which BIM has been implemented in Australia, and the factors which have affected the up-take of BIM. More specifically, the objectives of this chapter are to investigate the adoption of BIM in the Australian AEC industry and factors that contribute towards the uptake (or non uptake) of BIM. These objectives are met by a review of the related literature in the first instance, followed by the presentation of the results of a 2007 postal questionnaire survey and telephone interviews of a random sample of professionals in the Australian AEC industry. The responses suggest that less than 25 percent of the sample had been involved in BIM – rather less than might be expected from reading the literature. Also, of those who have been involved with BIM, there has been very little interdisciplinary collaboration. The main barriers impeding the implementation of BIM widely across the Australian AEC industry are also identified. These were found to be primarily a lack of BIM expertise, lack of awareness and resistance to change. The benefits experienced as a result of using BIM are also discussed. These include improved design consistency, better coordination, cost savings, higher quality work, greater productivity and increased speed of delivery. In terms of conclusion, some suggestions are made concerning the underlying practical reasons for the slow up-take of BIM and the successes for those early adopters. Prospects for future improvement are discussed and proposals are also made for a large scale worldwide comparative study covering industry-wide participants

Safeguarding rural Australia : addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : suicide and other violent self-harm in an Australian rural context : analysis of secondary data

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in September 2009 (see Carrington et al. 2009) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. The report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to self-harm and suicide among males living in regional and remote Australia and which were available in public data bases at production time. Moreover, specific areas of concern regarding elevated rates of suicide for rural males and data anomalies which emerged during our examination of these data are discussed.

Safeguarding rural Australia: addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : intentional violent harm to others in an Australian rural context: analysis of secondary data analysis

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in January 2010 (see Carrington et al. 2010) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. This report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to intentional violence perpetrated or experienced by males living in regional and remote Australia . and which were available in public data bases at production. The nature of intentional violent acts can be physical, sexual or psychological or involve deprivation or neglect.

Safeguarding rural Australia: addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : unintentional violent harm including injuries in an Australian rural context : analysis of secondary data analysis

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in January 2010 (see Carrington et al. 2010) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. This report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to unintentional serious and violent harm, including injuries, to males living in regional and remote Australia . and which were available in public data bases at production. Such harm typically might be caused by, for example, transport accidents, occupational exposures and hazards, burns and so on. Thus unintentional violent harm can cause physical trauma the consequences of which can lead to chronic conditions including psychological harm or substance abuse.

Safeguarding rural Australia : addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : risky behaviour in a rural Australian context : analysis of secondary data analysis

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in January 2010 (see Carrington et al. 2010) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. The report focus on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to personally and socially risky behaviour associated with males living in regional and remote Australia and which were available in public data bases at production.

Safeguarding rural Australia : addressing masculinity and violence in rural settings : consequences of violent harm in a rural Australian context : analysis of secondary data analysis

This report is an update of an earlier one produced in January 2010 (see Carrington et al. 2010) which remains as an ePrint through the project’s home page. The report considers extant data which have been sourced with respect to some of the consequences of violent acts, incidents, harms and risky behaviour involving males living in regional and remote Australia and which were available in public data bases at production.

No longer Singaporean : visibilising the everyday contestations of identities

In the past decade or so, the citizens of Singapore have been vigorously urged by the state to turn their cultural and linguistic affinities with China to economic advantage. At the same time, the city-state has opened its doors to selected, skilled migrants from Asia including many of those from mainland and Greater China. These concurrent emphases have coincided with the trend and growing numbers of Singaporeans heading overseas for one reason or another. Through a reflexive journey sparked by a recent visit, I argue in this paper that the resultant change in the makeup of its population produces tensions that may well have important repercussions for a nation that is constitutionally multiethnic though pragmatically meritocratic. However, because these frictions find form only in everyday, pedestrian practices, they are often dismissed or ignored. It is my contention that as the stage on which innocuous, creeping shifts in social identities are enacted, finessed and (re)embedded into social imaginaries, these everyday contestations of identities need to studied for indications of what is at stake.