Solar Collectors for Historic Homes : Linking consumption to perceptions of space

Reduction of household energy consumption is one of the top issues in contemporary discussions on sustainable consumption. This chapter concerns one way through which consumption of purchased energy for house heating can be reduced; by having a solar thermal system added to one's house. However, the fact that one of the components - the solar collector - usually is situated on the roof or the facade of a building, is a recurrent impediment to such installations. In certain contexts, these attributes may melt into the building, while in others, they may be perceived as problematic. The latter may particularly be the case when the appearance of the building is of major imiportance, as with houses deemed worthy of preservation for coming generations. This chapter draws upon a study carried out in Visby Town, a walled Hanseatic town and a World Heritage site on the island of Gotland, Sweden.

Literacy Practices in and out of School in Karagwe : The case of primary school literacy education in rural Tanzania

This study has investigated the question of relation between literacy practices in and out of school in rural Tanzania. By using the perspective of linguistic anthropology, literacy practices in five villages in Karagwe district in the northwest of Tanzania have been analysed. The outcome may be used as a basis for educational planning and literacy programs. The analysis has revealed an intimate relation between language, literacy and power. In Karagwe, traditional élites have drawn on literacy to construct and reconstruct their authority, while new élites, such as individual women and some young people have been able to use literacy as one tool to get access to power. The study has also revealed a high level of bilingualism and a high emphasis on education in the area, which prove a potential for future education in the area. At the same time discontinuity in language use, mainly caused by stigmatisation of what is perceived as local and traditional, such as the mother-tongue of the majority of the children, and the high status accrued to all that is perceived as Western, has turned out to constitute a great obstacle for pupils’ learning. The use of ethnographic perspectives has enabled comparisons between interactional patterns in schools and outside school. This has revealed communicative patterns in school that hinder pupils’ learning, while the same patterns in other discourses reinforce learning. By using ethnography, relations between explicit and implicit language ideologies and their impact in educational contexts may be revealed. This knowledge may then be used to make educational plans and literacy programmes more relevant and efficient, not only in poor post-colonial settings such as Tanzania, but also elsewhere, such as in Western settings.

Out-of-town shopping and its induced CO2-emissions

Planning policies in several European countries have aimed at hindering the expansion of out-of-town shopping centers. One argument for this is concern for the increase in transport and a resulting increase in environmental externalities such as CO2-emissions. This concern is weakly founded in science as few studies have attempted to measure CO2-emissions of shopping trips as a function of the location of the shopping centers. In this paper we conduct a counter-factual analysis comparing downtown, edge-of-town and out-of-town shopping. In this comparison we use GPS to track 250 consumers over a time-span of two months in a Swedish region. The GPS-data enters the Oguchi’s formula to obtain shopping trip-specific CO2-emissions. We find that consumers’ out-of-town shopping would generate an excess of 60 per cent CO2-emissions whereas downtown and edge-of-town shopping centers are comparable.

Assessing feasibility and acceptability of study procedures : getting ready for implementation of national stroke guidelines in out-patient health care

BACKGROUND: Even though Swedish national guidelines for stroke care (SNGSC) have been accessible for nearly a decade access to stroke rehabilitation in out-patient health care vary considerably. In order to aid future interventions studies for implementation of SNGSC, this study assessed the feasibility and acceptability of study procedures including analysis of the context in out-patient health care settings. METHODS: The feasibility and acceptability of recruitment, observations and interviews with managers, staff and patients were assessed, as well as the feasibility of surveying health care records. RESULTS: To identify patients from the the hospitals was feasible but not from out-patient care where a need to relieve clinical staff of the recruitment process was identified. Assessing adherence to guidelines and standardized evaluations of patient outcomes through health care records was found to be feasible and suitable assessment tools to evaluate patient outcome were identified. Interviews were found to be a feasible and acceptable tool to survey the context of the health care setting. CONCLUSION: In this feasibility study a variety of qualitative and quantitative data collection procedures and measures were tested. The results indicate what can be used as a set of feasible and acceptable data collection procedures and suitable measures for studying implementation of stroke guidelines in an out-patient health care context.

When our children come out : how to support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered young people

Powerful and moving accounts from young people, parents and teachers on the important support that families, schools and communities can provide when children come out.

A warrior nation

Under Prime Minister John Howard, Australia today appears to have turned away from Asia, returning to a Western oriantation. Has racial invasion fear, once expressed in the 'White Australia' policy, been the determinant of relations with Asia? I argue, in contrast, first, that invasion fear preceded race fear and, second, that Australia was unlucky, in coming to nationhood during the eras of Social Darwinism and New Imperialism, scaling ideas of race citizenship into its national formation. It was unlucky to associate national 'manhood' with Gallipoli and war, making the national tradition expeditionary nationalism, or ANZAC. War is central in national memory and public patriotism, primarily because war has been carried out overseas rather than through fighting on Australian soil, and the devastation of Australian cities. Even after the retreat of Western empires in Asia, and of racial ideology, why has this romantic and foolish view of war as an expression of the nation persisted? Paradoxically, Australians romanticise war even though, after 1788, there has been no other invasion of a continent which is harder to invade than it is to defend.

Blairgowrie: the meaning of place

Defining the meaning of a specific place is difficult. Blairgowrie is a peaceful and naturally protected beach haven on the Nepean Peninsula on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia. When a major development is perceived as threatening the quality of place, it is perhaps already too late to begin to name its characteristics or particular attributes. The evocative and poetic qualities of Blairgowrie do not reveal themselves immediately. Only over a period of time, and by visiting at various times of the day in all seasons, can one begin to fathom its moods, its soul, its many colours; and to touch its memories. Here sea and sky can meet, or divide, totally unobstructed, depending on climatic conditions, seasonal weather patterns and diurnal changes. It is still possible to get a sense of scale and wide-angle limitless vision. When a Safe Boat Harbour was proposed for Blairgowrie, residents came out in force to voice their objections or their support. A tribunal hearing was put in place. In light of the dismissal of qualitative data, of reflective experiential material, of community opinion, of values of the 'other' in planning tribunal hearings, this paper attempts to build a case for putting into words 'the meaning of place'. The Safe Boat Harbour proposal was the catalyst for this exploration of 'meaning of place', and is not itself primarily the subject of this paper. This very personal paper begins to examine the meaning of this place. Through images, perceptions, and representations; through time; history, topography; flora and fauna: it attempts to find a way of coming to terms with this extraordinary land/seascape. In the long term this project aims to produce relevant, authoritative, and defensible research that provides the context and rationale for the selection and assessment of places of outstanding heritage significance. Further, it will provide a case study in support of new planning regulations for 'place' zones (Mant, 2001) rather than the generic land use zones, which are current in Victoria.

Working out intimacy: young people and friendship in an age of reflexivity

Drawing upon a longitudinal, interview-based study of Australian secondary school students, this article explores young people's friendship experiences and attitudes to intimacy and the interpersonal. The discussion develops in relation to the work of Anthony Giddens on detraditionalisation and reflexivity, and Nikolas Rose on modernity and the self. First, I argue that feminism and psychotherapeutic ways of constituting and knowing the self are reconfiguring the cultural meanings of intimacy. Second, I suggest that this reworking of intimacy has differential and uneven effects and has particular consequences for the production of gendered subjectivities. Third, I raise some critical questions about the extent to which either Giddens's or Rose's account can properly capture the gendered and situated experiences of intimacy. I offer examples in which gender is being rearticulated in new yet familiar ways and note some persistent tensions in desires for connection and community versus autonomy and freedom. Carol Gilligan's work on gender differences in orientations to autonomy and connection is briefly revisited. Overall, it is argued that we need to take more account of how class, location and schooling differences influence dispositions to friendship and the interpersonal, and this is elaborated through a discussion of the 'relationship orientations' of two white Australian young men.

Still plucking figures out of the air? Markarian and the affirmation of the instinctive synthesis

The High Court of Australia recently had the opportunity to reconsider the appropriate sentencing methodology to be adopted in the sentencing of offenders under Australian criminal law in the case of Markarian v The Queen. The High Court had to decide whether to continue with the instinctive synthesis approach to sentencing or a process that exposed in greater clarity the basis upon which sentencing was to occur. Ultimately, a majority of the Court favoured the continuance of the instinctive synthesis approach to sentencing in criminal cases. The article will consider the decision in Markarian and the implications that it will have for the sentencing of offenders in the States and Territories of Australia.

Bringing shared values out of the shadows

As part of its wider promotion of a world that is peaceful and tolerant, the United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Sport and Physical Education. At the fore of the UN's proclamation was recognition of the important role sport and PE play in nurturing the health and harmony of society. Sport and PE, the UN declared, provide important nodes for social connection around which shared values and understandings can be formed. In the wake of the UN's endorsement of the role that sport and PE can play in fostering social and emotional development, it is more important that ever that we reflect on and refine our practices towards this end. This paper draws on two research narratives to illustrate how easily this potential can be undermined. Indeed, behind some of the wonderful opportunities for connection that exist through a participation in PE and sport exists a dark shadow of alienation and oppression. The challenge raised through this paper centres on the need for PE teachers and coaches to work deliberately and strategically towards the cultivation of inclusive, tolerant and responsible forms of participation, and not leave their development to chance.

Reconstituting the invisible out of structure and repetition: a walk through diary V3.2.

This presentation will discuss the production of an interactive personal diary constructed in digital form as an interactive CD-Rom: Diary V 3.2. This diary was conceived as a digital version of the family photo album of the artist's nuclear family, which unfortunately disintegrated during 4 years of the diary's making. As a result Diary V 3.2 became more a documentation of the mood and state of mind of the maker than the family it began to focus on. It acted more as a trace or a remnant of mood, an artifact of loss. This was communicated not so much through narrative but ideas of loss and erasure. Another layer to this work concerns the migration of images, technique from the old analogue technology to the new digital technology which can act as a replay of the migrant experience.

The square from inside out: Federation Square, Melbourne

This XXlst Annual Conference of SAHANZ offers a timely opportunity for celebrating and critically reflecting on Federation Square, Melbourne - a project that continually crosses the line between the purely experimental and the built form (A Benjamin, 2003) and offers an opportunity to identify and investigate the different, often competing, limits within the discipline of architecture. Here in this project, considered by the city of Melbourne to point to its future aspirations; and by the RAIA as demonstrating 'the strength of design and the leap into the unknown which is where good design always comes from' (I McDougall, 2003), different approaches to the possibilities of 'limit' as a contemporary concern can be fruitfully explored. Architectural masterpieces are daringly imaginative and each in their own way challenges architects, engineers, builders and technologists - those who are to realise the dream - and makes administrators, politicians and governments put their credibility on the line. So how does Federation Square contribute to contemporary architectural debate, specifically to Melbourne architecture? How has it dealt with thresholds? Where has It approached, crossed and/or exceeded boundaries? This paper will deal with design aesthetics in the realisation of the Lab architects 'vision' in the context of historical, urban and political realities. Analysis will provide insights into the limitations imposed upon this architectural project and the limitations it now, in turn, imposes on the city. Two aspects will be dealt with: understanding Lab's overall vision, and juxtaposing the vision with the reality of Federation Square. The author's interview with Don Bates, principal Lab architecture studio, forms the frame argument about Federation Square in this paper.

Casing out teaching and learning online: enhancing fidelity into the mainstream

In this paper we present the rationale and outcome of a University strategically funded project aimed at developing a broad range of cases illuminating good practices in the development and use of digital media and online technologies at Deakin University. The project is aimed at supporting the ongoing implementation of the University’s suite of e-learning technologies, Deakin Studies Online (DSO). It was seen as a significant strategic academic professional development initiative by the University in bringing together perspectives on effective teaching and learning in the context of various disciplines and professional fields of practice, with DSO possibilities for enhanced teaching/learning quality, efficiency, accessibility and satisfaction. The ‘case’ as a useful means of developing practice is outlined, along with the various project processes involving case selection, development, production and promotion. Finally, reflections on the outcomes of the project are considered. A number of positive though largely unintended consequences are identified

Reaching out to promote physical activity in Australia: a statewide randomized controlled trial of a stage-targeted intervention

Purpose. This study examined the broader use of a print-media intervention, which was previously shown to be effective at promoting physical activity to participants recruited from a regional Australian community, as a strategy suitable for a more diverse statewide population sample.
Methods. Participants were randomly selected adults who responded to a telephone interview conducted by the New South Wales Health Department and consented to Participate in a randomized controlled trial. Consenters were allocated to either intervention (n = 361) or control (n = 358) conditions. The intervention, a personalized letter plus stage-targeted booklets, was sent 1 week postbaseline. Data were collected via telephone interview at baseline and 2 and 8 months and were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and mean squared statistics.
Results. The groups were similar at baseline (mean age 43 +/- 3 years; 64 % women). Process evaluation showed high intervention recall (76 % at 2 months) and high follow-up response rates (> 85 % at 8 months) were achieved. Nonsignificant increases in physical activity were observed (Fl,719 = 2.18, p = .14).
Discussion. A single mailing of stage-targeted print materials was not effective in promoting increases in physical activity among participants selected from the statewide population. Future research could examine how the effectiveness of print media might be enhanced, possibly by using supplementary media, community-based prompts, or other incentives.