The right to a voice and the fight to be heard: The experience of being an ESL user in Australia

This paper focuses on the fundamental right to be heard, that is, the right to have one’s voice heard and listened to – to impose reception (Bourdieu, 1977). It focuses on the ways that non-mainstream English is heard and received in Australia, where despite public policy initiatives around equal opportunity, language continues to socially disadvantage people (Burridge & Mulder, 1998). English is the language of the mainstream and most people are monolingually English (Ozolins, 1993). English has no official status yet it remains dominant and its centrality is rarely challenged (Smolicz, 1995). This paper takes the position that the lack of language engagement in mainstream Australia leads to linguistic desensitisation. Writing in the US context where English is also the unofficial norm, Lippi-Green (1997) maintains that discrimination based on speech features or accent is commonly accepted and widely perceived as appropriate. In Australia, non-standard forms of English are often disparaged or devalued because they do not conform to the ‘standard’ (Burridge & Mulder, 1998). This paper argues that talk cannot be taken for granted: ‘spoken voices’ are critical tools for representing the self and negotiating and manifesting legitimacy within social groups (Miller, 2003). In multicultural, multilingual countries like Australia, the impact of the spoken voice, its message and how it is heard are critical tools for people seeking settlement, inclusion and access to facilities and services. Too often these rights are denied because of the way a person sounds. This paper reports a study conducted with a group that has been particularly vulnerable to ongoing ‘panics’ about language – international students. International education is the third largest revenue source for Australia (AEI, 2010) but has been beset by concerns from academics (Auditor-General, 2002) and the media about student language levels and falling work standards (e.g. Livingstone, 2004). Much of the focus has been high-stakes writing but with the ascendancy of project work in university assessment and the increasing emphasis on oracy, there is a call to recognise the salience of talk, especially among students using English as a second language (ESL) (Kettle & May, 2012). The study investigated the experiences of six international students in a Master of Education course at a large metropolitan university. It utilised data from student interviews, classroom observations, course materials, university policy documents and media reports to examine the ways that speaking and being heard impacted on the students’ learning and legitimacy in the course. The analysis drew on Fairclough’s (2003) model of the dialectical-relational Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to analyse the linguistic, discursive and social relations between the data texts and their conditions of production and interpretation, including the wider socio-political discourses on English, language difference, and second language use. The interests of the study were if and how discourses of marginalisation and discrimination manifested and if and how students recognised and responded to them pragmatically. Also how they juxtaposed with and/or contradicted the official rhetoric about diversity and inclusion. The underpinning rationale was that international students’ experiences can provide insights into the hidden politics and practices of being heard and afforded speaking rights as a second language speaker in Australia.

Associations among working conditions and behavioral risk factors : The Helsinki Health Study with International Comparisons

Adverse health behaviors as well as obesity are key risk factors for chronic diseases. Working conditions also contribute to health outcomes. It is possible that the effects of psychosocially strenuous working conditions and other work-related factors on health are, to some extent, explained by adverse behaviors. Previous studies about the associations between several working conditions and behavioral outcomes are, however, inconclusive. Moreover, the results are derived mostly from male populations, one national setting only, and with limited information about working conditions and behavioral risk factors. Thus, with an interest in employee health, this study was set to focus on behavioral risk factors among middle-aged employees. More specifically, the main aim was to shed light on the associations of various working conditions with health behaviors, weight gain, obesity, and symptoms of angina pectoris. In addition to national focus, international comparisons were included to test the associations across countries thereby aiming to produce a more comprehensive picture. Furthermore, a special emphasis was on gaining new evidence in these areas among women. The data derived from the Helsinki Health Study, and from collaborative partners at the Whitehall II Study, University College London, UK, and the Toyama University, Japan. In Helsinki, the postal questionnaires were mailed in 2000-2002 to employees of the City of Helsinki, aged 40 60 years (n=8960). The questionnaire data covered e.g., socio-economic indicators and working conditions such as Karasek s job demands and job control, work fatigue, working overtime, work-home interface, and social support. The outcome measures consisted of smoking, drinking, physical activity, food habits, weight gain, obesity, and symptoms of angina pectoris. The international cohorts included comparable data. Logistic regression analysis was used. The models were adjusted for potential confounders such as age, education, occupational class, and marital status subject to specific aims. The results showed that working conditions were mostly unassociated with health behaviors, albeit some associations were found. Low job strain was associated with healthy food habits and non-smoking among women in Helsinki. Work fatigue, in turn, was related to drinking among men and physical inactivity among women. Work fatigue and working overtime were associated with weight gain in Helsinki among both women and men. Finally, work fatigue, low job control, working overtime, and physically strenuous work were associated with symptoms of angina pectoris among women in Helsinki. Cross-country comparisons confirmed mostly non-existent associations. High job strain was associated with physical inactivity and smoking, and passive work with physical inactivity and less drinking. Working overtime, in turn, related to non-smoking and obesity. All these associations were, however, inconsistent between cohorts and genders. In conclusion, the associations of the studied working conditions with the behavioral risk factors lacked general patters, and were, overall, weak considering the prevalence of psychosocially strenuous work and overtime hours. Thus, based on this study, the health effects of working conditions are likely to be mediated by adverse behaviors only to a minor extent. The associations of work fatigue and working overtime with weight gain and symptoms of angina pectoris are, however, of potential importance to the subsequent health and work ability of employees.

Right to War in the Islamic Tradition:Jihad and its Compatibility with Modern International Law (will be submitted to the publisher in April 2014)

In the last century, Islam drew the world’s attention though such phenomena as the Islamic revolution in Iran, the fierce Muslim resistance against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the assassination of Egypt’s President Sadat by a radical Islamic group. But it was when Osama Bin Laden and his organization Al Qaeda were established to have been behind the 11 September attacks in the US, the age-old images of Islam, the fanatical and belligerent religion threatening what the Western world stands for, were revitalized. The impact of 9/11 attacks was so great that even balanced portrayals of Islam were eclipsed by stereotypical images of a fundamental, anti-Western and warmongering religion that bore the hallmarks of medieval prejudices and rhetoric. The popular image tailored for the Western audience reflected Islam as monolithic, intrinsically aggressive, and determined to engage in religious wars against the interests and values of the Western civilisation.
This book intends to help reduce, at least to a reasonable degree, the impact of sweeping, and at times tendentious, generalisations about Islamic laws of warfare. The main purpose of this book is to place the legal, cultural and historical practices of Islamic wars in their broader socio-political contexts, thereby establishing that there has been no undisputed understanding of what defensive or aggressive warfare entails in Islam, whether in doctrine or in practice.

Automotive waste heat recovery: Working fluid selection and related boundary conditions

This paper presents the rational for the selection of fluids for use in a model based study of sub and supercritical Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). The study focuses on multiple vehicle heat sources and the potential of WHR ORC’s for its conversion into useful work. The work presented on fluid selection is generally applicable to any waste heat recovery system, either stationary or mobile and, with careful consideration, is also applicable to single heat sources. The fluid selection process presented reduces the number of potential fluids from over one hundred to a group of under twenty fluids for further refinement in a model based WHR ORC performance study. The selection process uses engineering judgement, legislation and, where applicable, health and safety as fluid selection or de-selection criteria. This paper also investigates and discusses the properties of specific ORC fluids with regard to their impact on the theoretical potential for delivering efficient WHR ORC work output. The paper concludes by looking at potential temperature and pressure WHR ORC limits with regard to fluid properties thereby assisting with the generation of WHR ORC simulation boundary conditions.

The human right to water - normative foundations and ethical implications

La présente contribution examine les fondements normatifs ainsi que les implications éthiques du droit à l’eau, tel qu’il fut reconnu en 2002 par le comité onusien des droits économiques, sociaux et culturels. Il sera défendu que le droit à l’eau potable peut être justifié en tant que droit moral fondamental, de par son caractère indispensable en vue de la garantie des conditions basiques de survie. Cet état de fait, cependant, s’avère moins évident au vue d’un droit à l’eau d’usage non-domestique. Ici, la discussion se rapproche des débats accompagnant le concept beaucoup plus complexe des droits sociaux et économiques. Par rapport à ce groupe de droits, la question de l’allocation est des plus controversées: à qui incombe-t-il de garantir leur respect? Dans le but d’éviter cette problématique d’allocation, le présent essai soulèvera la question de savoir, si la limitation de l’accès à l’eau peut être conçue comme une violation d’autres droits moraux: bien qu’il y ait des cas où des entreprises transnationales déploient des activités nuisibles à l’égard des populations pauvres en polluant sciemment leurs ressources en eau ou en initiant et en exécutant des stratégies de privatisation les privant de leurs droits, la crise globale de l’eau ne saura être rattachée uniquement aux effets de la mondialisation. Plutôt, l’on reconnaîtra la nécessité d’efforts positifs et soutenus de la part des pays développés en vue de la réalisation d’un approvisionnement suffisant en eau pour tous.

"Right to Personal Liberty Under the Indian Constitution - With Special Reference to Judicial Process"

The nature and extent of protection secured to personal liberty has been a subject matter of great controversy and debate. The expression "procedure established by law" as a standard of protection for personal liberty has been looked upon as highly unsatisfactory and inadequate. For, unlike the specific attributes of liberty that are separately guaranteed under Art.19, ‘personal liberty‘ as guaranteed by Art.21 does not obligate the .Legislature to comply with the requirements of justice and reasonableness as and when it enchroaches upon that right. Though the concept of ‘personal liberty‘ has received an evolutive and expansive meaning through judicial process, the standard of protection which the judicial process could secure to personal liberty through the interpretation of Art.21 has been far from satisfactory Even after four decades of judicial process in the interpretation of Art.21 the problem of evolving a just and adequate standard of protection for personal liberty in that Article continues to be 21 crucial constitutional issue, craving for a. satisfactory solution. And the present study is a humble attempt to unravel this problem and to Search for a reasonable solution.

Wellbeing, job satisfaction and commitment among Australian community health workers: the relationship with working conditions

The Australian community health sector has undergone extensive organisational reform in recent times, and, in the push to enhance efficiencies and contain costs, there are indications that these changes may have undermined the wellbeing of community health personnel and their ability to provide high quality illness-prevention services. The aim of this study was to examine the working environments experienced by community health service employees and identify conditions that are predictive of employee stress. The study was guided by a tailored version of the demand-control-support model, whereby the generic components of the model had been augmented by more situation-specific stressors. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that job control, and, to a lesser extent, social support, were closely associated with the outcome variables (psychological health, job satisfaction and organisational commitment). The more situation-specific stressors also accounted for significant proportions of explained variance. Overall, the results suggest that working conditions, particularly job control, social support and specific job stressors, offer valuable opportunities for protecting and enhancingthe wellbeing of community health service personnel.

Medical treatment and the good death: an ethical analysis of euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, and the right to die

Frequent advances in medical technologies have brought fonh many innovative treatments that allow medical teams to treal many patients with grave illness and serious trauma who would have died only a few years earlier. These changes have given some patients a second chance at life, but for others. these new treatments have merely prolonged their dying. Instead of dying relatively painlessly, these unfortunate patients often suffer from painful tenninal illnesses or exist in a comatose state that robs them of their dignity, since they cannot survive without advanced and often dehumanizing forms of treatment. Due to many of these concerns, euthanasia has become a central issue in medical ethics. Additionally, the debate is impacted by those who believe that patients have the right make choices about the method and timing of their deaths. Euthanasia is defined as a deliberate act by a physician to hasten the death of a patient, whether through active methods such as an injection of morphine, or through the withdrawal of advanced forms of medical care, for reasons of mercy because of a medical condition that they have. This study explores the question of whether euthanasia is an ethical practice and, as determined by ethical theories and professional codes of ethics, whether the physician is allowed to provide the means to give the patient a path to a "good death," rather than one filled with physical and mental suffering. The paper also asks if there is a relevant moral difference between the active and passive forms of euthanasia and seeks to define requirements to ensure fully voluntary decision making through an evaluation of the factors necessary to produce fully informed consent. Additionally, the proper treatments for patients who suffer from painful terminal illnesses, those who exist in persistent vegetative states and infants born with many diverse medical problems are examined. The ultimate conclusions that are reached in the paper are that euthanasia is an ethical practice in certain specific circumstances for patients who have a very low quality of life due to pain, illness or serious mental deficits as a result of irreversible coma, persistent vegetative state or end-stage clinical dementia. This is defended by the fact that the rights of the patient to determine his or her own fate and to autonomously decide the way that he or she dies are paramount to all other factors in decisions of life and death. There are also circumstances where decisions can be made by health care teams in conjunction with the family to hasten the deaths of incompetent patients when continued existence is clearly not in their best interest, as is the case of infants who are born with serious physical anomalies, who are either 'born dying' or have no prospect for a life that is of a reasonable quality. I have rejected the distinction between active and passive methods of euthanasia and have instead chosen to focus on the intentions of the treating physician and the voluntary nature of the patient's request. When applied in equivalent circumstances, active and passive methods of euthanasia produce the same effects, and if the choice to hasten the death of the patient is ethical, then the use of either method can be accepted. The use of active methods of euthanasia and active forms of withdrawal of life support, such as the removal of a respirator are both conscious decisions to end the life of the patient and both bring death within a short period of time. It is false to maintain a distinction that believes that one is active killing. whereas the other form only allows nature to take it's course. Both are conscious choices to hasten the patient's death and should be evaluated as such. Additionally, through an examination of the Hippocratic Oath, and statements made by the American Medical Association and the American College of physicians, it can be shown that the ideals that the medical profession maintains and the respect for the interests of the patient that it holds allows the physician to give aid to patients who wish to choose death as an alternative to continued suffering. The physician is also allowed to and in some circumstances, is morally required, to help dying patients whether through active or passive forms of euthanasia or through assisted suicide. Euthanasia is a difficult topic to think about, but in the end, we should support the choice that respects the patient's autonomous choice or clear best interest and the respect that we have for their dignity and personal worth.

Job stress in the law enforcement sector: comparing the linear, non-linear and interaction effects of working conditions

This study addresses a gap in much of the research involving stress among high-risk occupations by investigating the effects of linear, non-linear and interaction models in a law enforcement organization that has undertaken a series of efficiency-driven organizational reforms. The results of a survey involving 2085 police officers indicated that the demand-control-support model provided good utility in predicting an officer's satisfaction, commitment and well-being. In particular, social support and job control were closely associated with all three outcome variables. Although the demand × control/support interactions were not identified in the data, there was some support for the curvilinear effects of job demands. The results have implications for the organizational conditions that need to be addressed in contemporary policing environments where new public management strategies have had widespread affects on the social and organizational context in which policing takes place.

Why business academics remain in Australian universities despite deteriorating working conditions and reduced job satisfaction : an intellectual puzzle

In the last two decades, Australia's 38 universities have been subjected to profound changes affecting the working lives of their academic staff. That the working conditions of staff have deteriorated cannot be denied, while many studies have shown that job satisfaction has been affected adversely. Paradoxically, there is little evidence that academics are seeking employment outside the university system. In this article, the authors report the findings from their survey of over 3000 academics employed in business disciplines in Australian universities, which aimed to find explanations for this phenomenon.

Relationships between stress-related working conditions and performance : a comprehensive investigation

The study examined if and how prominent stress-related working conditions were longitudinally associated with multiple employee performance behaviours. The findings revealed the positive influence of workload demands and the positive curvilinear effects attributed to relationship-based resources (support from colleagues, fair interpersonal treatments and fair information sharing) on performance long-term.

Provision of control measures for exposure of the hands to wet-working conditions in Australian workplaces

Objective: To analyze the occupational and demographic characteristics for workers participating in the Australian National Hazard Exposure Worker Surveillance (NHEWS) Survey, who reported the provision of various types of workplace control measures for exposure of the hands to wet-working conditions, and to identify the barriers for the provision of controls. Methods: Computer-assisted telephone interviews were conducted with 4500 workers in 2008. Workers were asked about the types of control measures provided to them in the workplace for exposure of the hands to liquids. Results: Workplace size was the strongest predictor for the provision of control measures. Compared to workplaces with fewer than five employees, workers in workplaces with 200 or more employees were more likely to report provision of gloves, barrier creams and moisturizers, labeling and warning, and ongoing training and education about skin care. Conclusion: Smaller workplaces have poorer access to control measures to mitigate exposure to wet work.

'Global’ is not just ‘out there’ but also ‘right here’: expectations and experiences in internationalised and globalised higher education

This paper reports on a study that took a cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional approach to investigate postgraduate student expectations and experiences in internationalised and globalised higher education. The researchers drew on Giddens’ theory of structuration1. They explored the way samples of specialist medicine trainees in the UK and pre-service teacher education students in Australia identify and make meaning of their circumstances in an era that is increasingly characterised by greater internationalisation of the student body and more globalised curricula. In this paper, we discuss some of the tensions students reported encountering, and propose several ways in which such tensions might be counteracted.

Just call me dad: health and social benefits to fathers and their children

In the past 20 years, social change and expectations for both maternal and paternal responsibilities have highlighted the need for services for families to better understand the role of a father in family relationships. In Australia, as well as internationally, there have been many contested understandings about what constitutes ‘good fathering’ in research, social media and in the political sphere. More specifically, there has also been an emerging trend to understand the challenging task of recruiting and maintaining men's involvement in child and family services programmes, particularly those fathers who are deemed a risk to children and mothers, violent or have been separated from their children. That many child and family/welfare services have exercised dedicated effort to work with fathers is still a relatively recent phenomenon, and has only emerged following criticism that services have been too geared towards working only with mothers. Despite this increasing interest, there is still ongoing need for more research to be undertaken in Australia. An important area of focus is the views of professionals about their perception and engagement of fathers, particularly the views of fathers who are described as being absent from family-based services. The purpose of this article is to report briefly on a study undertaken to examine how child and family welfare workers engage fathers in their work. First, this paper will describe some of the social and health benefits to fathers and their children, focusing on the key role of attachment through play. Research into effective service delivery involving fathers will then be presented, concluding with key practice factors necessary for fathers to be involved in family life.

International perspectives on psychosocial working conditions, mental health, and stress of dairy farm operators

Dairy farm operators-farmers, workers, and family members-are faced with many demands and stressors in their daily work and these appear to be shared across countries and cultures. Dairy operators experience high psychosocial demands with respect to a hard work and production ethos, economic influences, and social and environmental responsibility. Furthermore, both traditional and industrial farms are highly dependent on external conditions, such as weather, fluctuating markets, and regulations from government authorities. Possible external stressors include disease outbreaks, taxes related to dairy production, and recent negative societal attitudes to farming in general. Dairy farm operators may have very few or no opportunities to influence and control these external conditions, demands, and expectations. High work demands and expectations coupled with low control and lack of social support can lead to a poor psychosocial work environment, with increased stress levels, ill mental health, depression, and, in the worst cases, suicide. Internationally, farmers with ill mental health have different health service options depending on their location. Regardless of location, it is initially the responsibility of the individual farmer and farm family to handle mental health and stress, which can be of short- or long-term duration. This paper reviews the literature on the topics of psychosocial working conditions, mental health, stress, depression, and suicide among dairy farm operators, farm workers, and farm family members in an international perspective.