Description:
The discussion within Australia of events of the last five years, such as 9/11, the Bali Bombing, the Tampa and the Children Overboard affair, Cronulla Riots, as well as the numbers of refugees approaching Australian shores, has typically fallen into a binarized form with public discourses coalescing around calls for either 'protectivism' or 'humanitarianism' (Mummary & Road, 2003). This discursive framework has in turn instantiated an ongoing debate concerning the issue of what it means to be Australian, and who is or should be included or excluded from this national identity, questions which have been particularly contentious in recent years. This project, however, aims to unpack and analyse just one manifestatation of this debate, that carried out in letters to the editor published between 22 January and 28 February 2002 in both The Australian (Australia's national daily broadsheet) and The West Australian (Western Australia's daily broadsheet). The period chosen for this analysis is important for several reasons.
Description:
The discussion within Australia of events of the last five years, such as 9/11, the Bali Bombing, the Tampa and the Children Overboard affair, Cronulla Riots, as well as the numbers of refugees approaching Australian shores, has typically fallen into a binarized form with public discourses coalescing around calls for either 'protectivism' or 'humanitarianism' (Mummary & Road, 2003). This discursive framework has in turn instantiated an ongoing debate concerning the issue of what it means to be Australian, and who is or should be included or excluded from this national identity, questions which have been particularly contentious in recent years. This project, however, aims to unpack and analyse just one manifestatation of this debate, that carried out in letters to the editor published between 22 January and 28 February 2002 in both The Australian (Australia's national daily broadsheet) and The West Australian (Western Australia's daily broadsheet). The period chosen for this analysis is important for several reasons.
Description:
This paper outlines the rise of women in management worldwide, and considers why so few women achieve senior or executive management positions. This slow advance of women into senior roles is unexpected given that the changes in organisations today are believed to require more ‘feminine leadership’. A decrease in the emphasis on masculine characteristics for managers is reported, and a requirement that more ‘feminine leadership’ needs to be adopted by organisations in order to ensure their survival in the future (Powell, Butterfield & Parent, 2002, p.189). Recent empirical research reports that there are differences in leadership style between male and female managers, and the findings suggest that women exhibit more transformational leadership than their male counterparts, with this style being strongly equated with effective leadership (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, van Engen, 2003). However, these findings are based on western research, and it may be that cross cultural research will yield a different picture (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004). Leadership and leadership styles may be conceptualised differently in a more paternalistic society. To explore this possibility, a cross cultural study was conducted in Malaysia and Australia. It is hypothesised that countries that are paternalistic in cultural values will exhibit a stronger constraint on women in management roles, which may impact on workplace attitudes, aspirations for promotion and style of leadership exhibited. Therefore, it is possible that the career advancement of women may be more problematic for Malaysian managerial women than their Australian counterparts. Results from an initial pilot study in Malaysia and Australia are outlined, and highlight some interesting similarities and differences to what are reported in the western literature.
Description:
This paper outlines the rise of women in management worldwide, and considers why so few women achieve senior or executive management positions. This slow advance of women into senior roles is unexpected given that the changes in organisations today are believed to require more ‘feminine leadership’. A decrease in the emphasis on masculine characteristics for managers is reported, and a requirement that more ‘feminine leadership’ needs to be adopted by organisations in order to ensure their survival in the future (Powell, Butterfield & Parent, 2002, p.189). Recent empirical research reports that there are differences in leadership style between male and female managers, and the findings suggest that women exhibit more transformational leadership than their male counterparts, with this style being strongly equated with effective leadership (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, van Engen, 2003). However, these findings are based on western research, and it may be that cross cultural research will yield a different picture (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004). Leadership and leadership styles may be conceptualised differently in a more paternalistic society. To explore this possibility, a cross cultural study was conducted in Malaysia and Australia. It is hypothesised that countries that are paternalistic in cultural values will exhibit a stronger constraint on women in management roles, which may impact on workplace attitudes, aspirations for promotion and style of leadership exhibited. Therefore, it is possible that the career advancement of women may be more problematic for Malaysian managerial women than their Australian counterparts. Results from an initial pilot study in Malaysia and Australia are outlined, and highlight some interesting similarities and differences to what are reported in the western literature.
Description:
This paper discusses the value of clan name research as a means of uncovering Aboriginal place names. It argues that clan names are able to provide a layer of place names that in some instances is the only source of information available to researchers of indigenous toponymy. They are an important data set that is useful in the mapping of Aboriginal spatial organization.
Description:
This paper discusses the value of clan name research as a means of uncovering Aboriginal place names. It argues that clan names are able to provide a layer of place names that in some instances is the only source of information available to researchers of indigenous toponymy. They are an important data set that is useful in the mapping of Aboriginal spatial organization.
Description:
Reviews three books on Japan. "Japan and its Others: Globalization, Difference and the Critique of Modernity"; "Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary Japan"; "Foreign Migrants in Contemporary Japan".
Description:
Reviews three books on Japan. "Japan and its Others: Globalization, Difference and the Critique of Modernity"; "Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary Japan"; "Foreign Migrants in Contemporary Japan".
Description:
Migrant Women Act shows the creativity and ingenuity of migrant women in shaping their own destinies during resettlement. It also shows the vital role of public services in enabling these competencies to flower. Olga Bursian documents the stories of thirty migrant women from the former USSR, Vietnam, Lebanon, the Philippines and the Horn of Africa, by exploring their socialisation into non-Western understandings of the human being, of normal society and what is worth doing in life. The women speak about how they acted through displacement and resettlement overturning popular stereotypes about their cultures. The stories reveal their generosity, resilience and audacity in the face of multiple layers of unequal social relations and negative representations. The book includes a review of the role of public services in successful resettlement, even for the most resilient women. Open entitlement to these services for new citizens was the hallmark of multiculturalism prior to the reversals begun by the Howard Government in the mid 1990s. Olga Bursian uses wide ranging sources to back a rigorous policy and program analysis, pitched at professionals and decision makers. She has lived and worked across diverse cultures and was inspired to document the unbounded resilience of migrant women.
Description:
This paper uses a post-structuralist perspective to articulate the conceptual limits of the discourse of ‘coming of age’ as a means of examining concerns about the representation of young female sexuality in the media. Through analysis of the content and production contexts of the films Lolita (1997) and Thirteen (2003), it argues that the discourse of ‘coming of age’ is grounded in a contradictory logic that produces conflicting aims: a desire to preserve the innocence of youth and a simultaneous expectation that they ‘grow up’. Using techniques of Derridean deconstruction, the paper examines the effects that this logic produces in terms of how key aspects of ‘coming of age’ contradict what the discourse sets out to determine and how this contributes to perceptions of youth sexuality as problematic. It will be shown that these conceptual contradictions remain unseen in attempts to make sense of the controversial aspects of the two films: the issue of pedophilia in Lolita and the problem of teenage rebellion in Thirteen. Importantly, the deconstructive reading suggests that it is the paradoxical underpinnings of this approach to youth identity that enables the discourse to be thought at all. By working to recognise this, it is possible to move beyond the limits of the discourse and think differently about youth in response to the perceived threat posed to young people by media representations of adolescent sex and sexuality
Description:
This paper uses a post-structuralist perspective to articulate the conceptual limits of the discourse of ‘coming of age’ as a means of examining concerns about the representation of young female sexuality in the media. Through analysis of the content and production contexts of the films Lolita (1997) and Thirteen (2003), it argues that the discourse of ‘coming of age’ is grounded in a contradictory logic that produces conflicting aims: a desire to preserve the innocence of youth and a simultaneous expectation that they ‘grow up’. Using techniques of Derridean deconstruction, the paper examines the effects that this logic produces in terms of how key aspects of ‘coming of age’ contradict what the discourse sets out to determine and how this contributes to perceptions of youth sexuality as problematic. It will be shown that these conceptual contradictions remain unseen in attempts to make sense of the controversial aspects of the two films: the issue of pedophilia in Lolita and the problem of teenage rebellion in Thirteen. Importantly, the deconstructive reading suggests that it is the paradoxical underpinnings of this approach to youth identity that enables the discourse to be thought at all. By working to recognise this, it is possible to move beyond the limits of the discourse and think differently about youth in response to the perceived threat posed to young people by media representations of adolescent sex and sexuality
Description:
This article outlines a recent pilot project in Bendigo that collected baseline data in order to develop a preliminary understanding of regional migration experiences. The literature indicated that migrant experiences in Australian regional communities are under-researched. Sixty participants from South East Asia, who have migrated to Bendigo, Victoria within the last five years, completed a mixed-methods survey. The key findings reported upon are socio-structural factors, social connectedness and psychosocial well-being. Crucial factors such as culture, spirituality and non-English-language, link to the more complex issues of personal, social and cultural identity. These findings are significant in adding to the limited data and discussion about newly arrived migrants in rural and regional communities. There are sociological implications from this preliminary data concerning social capital and psychosocial well-being. There are also implications for policy development and professional practice for migration to rural and regional communities.
Description:
Fort Scratchley has many layers of history. The fort site was part of the lore of the Awabakal people & the site of Newcastles early convict-dug coal mines. It was a major coastal defence installation until its decommissioning in 1972. - See more at:
Description:
We argue that a closer attention to the everyday visceral experiences of hearing and listening offers new insights into geographies of home and practices of sustainability. We suggest that this approach is significant to understanding how sound helps to assemble and reassemble the relationships that comprise home. We concentrate on a group of 10 amenity-led migrants in their ‘new coastal home’ in Bermagui, New South Wales, Australia. Each participant recorded a sound diary composed of their everyday sounds. Our interpretation explores the visceral connections in the processes of making bodies feel ‘at home’. First, we discuss how the rhythmic affordances of both human and non-human sounds help configure and reconfigure the spatiality and temporality of home. Second, our interpretation explores how sound is bound up with sustainability politics of homemaking. We investigate experiential practices and performativities of listening and hearing that may help constitute and reconstitute ‘a’ subject. This approach extends current thinking that encourages engagement with the corporeal, affective and emotional dimensions of home.
Description:
Abstract: Research aspires to be objective and purposeful, and keen to improve my own teaching, I began a phenomenographic exploration of lecturers’ experiences teaching in multi-cultural classrooms. Disparities between the participants’ perspectives and my expectations, however, found me caught between my purposefulness and my passion for the topic. Seeking a way forward I was drawn to explore my own assumptions about research and my role as the researcher. The emerging insights create a compelling, and at times shocking, account of my pervasive influence on this purportedly, objective research project. Searching for theoretical reflections of my experiences I discovered auto/ethnography. My initial delight turned into distaste at the degree of self disclosure I encountered in the writings. I rejected auto/ethnography as self indulgent and un-academic, yet as I wrote, I could not stem the flow of revelations about the centrality of my values and beliefs in this research project. This paper offers some thoughts on my research journey and concludes by reframing the pejorative ‘self-indulgent’ to assert that to give oneself up to contemplation of the diverse influences of the researcher’s self on her research is enlightening and essential for ethical research….indeed self/indulgent. Key words: research; auto/ethnography; reflexivity; higher education
Description:
Abstract: Research aspires to be objective and purposeful, and keen to improve my own teaching, I began a phenomenographic exploration of lecturers’ experiences teaching in multi-cultural classrooms. Disparities between the participants’ perspectives and my expectations, however, found me caught between my purposefulness and my passion for the topic. Seeking a way forward I was drawn to explore my own assumptions about research and my role as the researcher. The emerging insights create a compelling, and at times shocking, account of my pervasive influence on this purportedly, objective research project. Searching for theoretical reflections of my experiences I discovered auto/ethnography. My initial delight turned into distaste at the degree of self disclosure I encountered in the writings. I rejected auto/ethnography as self indulgent and un-academic, yet as I wrote, I could not stem the flow of revelations about the centrality of my values and beliefs in this research project. This paper offers some thoughts on my research journey and concludes by reframing the pejorative ‘self-indulgent’ to assert that to give oneself up to contemplation of the diverse influences of the researcher’s self on her research is enlightening and essential for ethical research….indeed self/indulgent. Key words: research; auto/ethnography; reflexivity; higher education
Description:
In responding to the events of 11 September 2001—the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington—George W. Bush announced to the world that democracy itself was under attack, and that such an attack1 represented a threat to democracy. Such an interpretation of these events, along with portraying Western democracy as a victim in need of protection and as ‘good’—and establishing thereby the moral high ground—also represented one of the main discourses in which the Tampa refugees were discussed in Australia, and has continued to be a prominent discourse in public discussion within Australia about the War on Terror, the Bali Bombings and both refugees and detention centres. Drawing on a detailed analysis of letters to the editor published in The Australian in the aftermath of 9/11, this paper seeks to show not only that discussion of the events of 2001 and 2002 has tended to coalesce around two apparently irreconcilable discourses2—that of the aforementioned desire to protect democracy or ‘our way of life’ versus that expressive of a kind of ‘globalized humanitarianism’—but that these discourses are indeed not so much irreconcilable but share a common ground along with common stakes and ends.
Description:
In responding to the events of 11 September 2001—the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington—George W. Bush announced to the world that democracy itself was under attack, and that such an attack1 represented a threat to democracy. Such an interpretation of these events, along with portraying Western democracy as a victim in need of protection and as ‘good’—and establishing thereby the moral high ground—also represented one of the main discourses in which the Tampa refugees were discussed in Australia, and has continued to be a prominent discourse in public discussion within Australia about the War on Terror, the Bali Bombings and both refugees and detention centres. Drawing on a detailed analysis of letters to the editor published in The Australian in the aftermath of 9/11, this paper seeks to show not only that discussion of the events of 2001 and 2002 has tended to coalesce around two apparently irreconcilable discourses2—that of the aforementioned desire to protect democracy or ‘our way of life’ versus that expressive of a kind of ‘globalized humanitarianism’—but that these discourses are indeed not so much irreconcilable but share a common ground along with common stakes and ends.
Description:
Johann Arnason and Shmuel Eisenstadt's social theories have remarkably different origins. Yet each has moved onto common ground with the other over a period of time. They meet in historical sociology in dialogue over theories of state formation and images of civilisation. Each is engaged in a project of revising civilisations sociology that reaches an apex with the comparative study of Japan.Their groundbreaking contributions can be read critically against a wider background of debates about postcolonialism, the reputation of the notion of civilisation and the state of area studies in the humanities and social sciences.
Description:
This study, conducted for the Department of Human Services (Grampians Region) in Victoria, found that gay men and lesbians experience similar types of stigma and discrimination in rural areas as those in urban centres, but that this was exacerbated by the lack of anonymity in the smaller communities. The hatred of homosexuality can, in some relatively supportive family, community, school and work contexts, transform into a homophobia that embodies a fear of homosexuality which can, and not infrequently does, result in homophobic abuse and violence. Although the majority of research participants in this study were accepting of their sexuality and happy to be lesbian or gay, they nevertheless lived curtailed lives with a blanket around a central dimension of their lives. Furthermore it was found that the experience of gay men is not a mirror image of that for lesbians.
Description:
This study used multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis procedure to examine the measurement and structural invariance across Malaysian Malay (n = 724), Chinese (n = 372), and Indian (n = 259) parent ratings of their children on the short version of the Parent–Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (Parent-PARQ/S). The Parent-PARQ/S measures parents’ perceptions of their rejection of their children and has scales for coldness/lack of affection, hostility/aggression, indifference/neglect, and undifferentiated rejection. Results provided strong support for the measurement and structural invariance of the Parent-PARQ/S. In addition, the three ethnic groups did not differ for all four latent mean scores.