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The article discusses the Picture It project, which is the proposal for the 1997 conference of the Australasian Society for the Study of Intellectual Disability in Australia. This project provides a new model of service delivery to adults suffering from severe and multiple disabilities and their primary communication partners. PICTURE-IT was intended to meet several objectives for both participants and clients. In relation, the Spastic Society of Victoria offered an intensive training program.

This paper raises questions of the democratic function of post-crisis journalism in covering 'compounded crises' related to extreme weather disaster. Through media analysis, it examines the ways debate over bushfire protection policy was framed and made culturally meaningful, thereby politically consequential, in the wake of the worst bushfires in modern Australian history, Black Saturday (2009). The fires, in which 173 people died, led to a Royal Commission and fierce debate over the use of prescribed burning to reduce bushfire hazard. Longitudinal analysis of local, state and national mainstream media coverage (2009-16) reveals blame games that targeted environmentalists and the government, which near-silenced meaningful discussion of the complexity of fire science, impacts of climate change on weather conditions, and calls for adaptation. By exploring the media's constitutive role in crisis response, the paper highlights the legacy and potency of ideological conflict that shapes the media-policy nexus in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conjoins two different, but necessarily related themes: the nature of the sixties (and seventies) in Australia, and the establishment of academic sociology there. The sixties in Australia, as elsewhere, saw the efflourescence of student radicalism and the confirmation of youth culture, both in and against markets or consumption. This had a direct formative influence on academic sociology, which coincides exactly with this moment. Australia has a long tradition of informal sociology, but encounters nothing like the Chicago School - nothing like Chicago, in fact - its culture is settler capitalist rather than Fordist or high industrial. The radical image of sociology in Australia, powerfully influenced by marxism and feminism, may nevertheless in retrospect be exaggerated. The presentation based on this paper in Montreal will pursue further research conducted into 2006, with reference to the founding of Australia's largest and most distinct departmental culture, that at La Trobe University under the influence of Jean Martin, and with reference to the pivotal split between radicals and reformers in the newly formed Australia and New Zealand Journal of Sociology in 1971. Finally, I shall connect these Australian themes back to those raised in Sica and Turner's Disobedient Generation (2005). In Australia, as perhaps elsewhere, sociology's larger identification is with reform rather than with revolution or reaction, even if its aura remains romantic as much as it is business-as-usual. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of emotional labour describes the management of emotions as part of everyday work performance. Much of the research has been conducted in relation to jobs in the service sector where (mostly female) employees are required to shape their own feelings in order to make customers or clients feel at ease, comfortable or happy. The emphasis is on the involuntariness of emotional labour; managers and supervisors require employees to make customers or clients experience the emotions appropriate to the particular setting, which is important to customer satisfaction and ultimately business success. There is a sense that emotional labour is something that subordinate employees perform, and as a consequence, there has been relatively little attention to the importance of emotional labour in professional occupations. This paper examines emotional labour on the part of magistrates in court. Magistrates must often regulate their own emotions and those of some court users during the course of their everyday work. Magistrates deal directly with a large number of people, many of which are not legally represented and who express a variety of emotions, including anger and distress. Many also experience social problems that may elicit empathy on the part of the magistrate. The paper reports findings from interviews with over 40 magistrates throughout Australia and begins to address the issue of emotional labour and possible consequences for this branch of the judiciary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration is often assumed to be a key condition leading to ethnic conflict. However, in both immigration studies and ethnic studies there is an inadequate theorization about the relationship between immigration and ethnic conflict, and there is little systematic cross-national comparative evidence on this relationship. This paper is a step toward filling these gaps in the literature. In contrast to the "inevitable hypothesis" that assumes ethnic conflict as a natural outcome of immigration, we propose a "conditional hypothesis" that contends that only under certain conditions will migration and contact generate conflict between groups. These conditions include, but are not limited to, group direct competition for scarce resources, unequal allocation of socioeconomic resources and political power, ethnic and cultural policy based on ethnic/cultural superiority or inferiority, and perceived threats from other groups especially those with a large size and lower-class backgrounds. The historical and contemporary evidence from selected major immigration countries reviewed in this paper seems to give little credence to the inevitable hypothesis but lend substantial support to our conditional hypothesis. It is evident that when these conditions are present, so is ethnic conflict. This is particularly true in the USA, Canada, Australia, and Germany. In contrast, in Japan none of these conditions is present, and hence we see little conflict along ethnic lines. In tandem, the conditional hypothesis and the contact hypothesis suggested by psychologists grasp more completely the role of migration and contact in relation to ethnic conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between public opinion and public policy in a regional Australian city and provides evidence to support an argument that special interest groups have the capacity to escape scrutiny from within the public sphere. It demonstrates why special interest groups fail to achieve their goals and why others -- which attain what I will refer to as "mezzanine status" -- succeed politically without reference to the Mayhewian notion of the redemption of rhetorical tokens. It follows the work of Habermas and Mayhew presenting evidence that professional communicators have the means of social influence at their disposal. It examines the role of the newspaper in the determination of sociopolitics and attempts to place in context theories of persuasion and influence as they occur at local government level. It analyses newspaper reporting of a proposal to invest in a high-risk low-yield scheme to develop commercial interests using taxpayer funding. The paper focuses on the central roles played by journalists and politicians -- acting as professional communicators -- in the Australian city of Orange in supporting unconditionally economic development. It attempts to argue that political influence is assisted by mass media and of greater intensity in regional areas. It examines government financial support based on Andsagar's (2001) proposition that interest groups attempt to shape public opinion using competing news frames. It provides an analysis of the political process of policy making at and the precedent to invest taxpayer funds in high-risk low-yield proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the satirical Australian television show The Chaser's War on Everything, and uses it to critically explore the potential ramifications of what McNair (2006) has called 'cultural chaos'. Through an analysis of several examples from this particular program, alongside interviews with its production team and qualitative audience research, this paper argues that this TV show's engagement with political issues in a creative, entertaining way that departs from the conventions of traditional journalism, allows it to present a perhaps more authentic image of political agents than is often cultivated in the mainstream news media. This paper therefore provides clear evidence that the shift from homogeneity to heterogeneity in the news media presents a significant challenge to those who wish to heavily control public opinion. It also provides further support for an optimistic re-appraisal of entertainment which emphasises its central (not merely periphery) role in political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rather than focusing on the core ideas in journalism's domain, such as 'news', 'media', and 'journalism', this paper argues that 'creativity' is a keyword that should be investigated in the print journalism domain. Journalism is a form of writing that is seldom thought of as creative. The structures journalists work within are seen as constraining on the journalist's production. This is an example of the Romantic view of creativity where an artist must be free from constraints to create.However, if a rationalist approach is used, it can be demonstrated that it is structures, and the knowledge of these structures, that enable a journalist to produce. By using Csikszentmihalyi's systems model of creativity as the principal theory, this paper provides evidence that a print journalist can be a creative producer. Furthermore, acknowledging that different genres of print journalism have different structures, it can also be argued that a journalist working in any genre can produce creative texts. This paper is part of a wider qualitative study into the creative practices of the print journalist in Australia that is examining the journalist's production within cultural and social contexts. The literature review has demonstrated that by marrying theories and definitions from creativity research with literature from the print journalism domain, creativity can be explained within journalism practices. Furthermore, analysis of interviews conducted with print journalists demonstrated they are very aware of the devices used, and the requirements of the field, to produce texts that are both novel and appropriate: a creative text. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiola and Radiotron were the names the Radio Corporation of America, RCA, gave to its earliest broadcast receivers and valves. This paper investigates the use of the terms and the manufacture of the products in overseas markets, especially Australia, where a close relationship developed between RCA and Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), AWA.This relationship emerged from the global carve-up of wireless patent rights between General Electric and Marconi that occurred when RCA was formed after World War One. It helped to expand the fields of wireless activity encompassed by the Australian company and the range of its international partners. AWA eventually made much more use of the Radiola moniker than RCA itself, and attracted investment from RCA, GE and Westinghouse in the manufacturing subsidiary it established to produce Radiotrons in Sydney in 1932.The paper provides a case study of the evolution of multinational enterprise in the media industry, especially the way technology, brands, expertise and marketing strategies were used and adapted in distant markets. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing relationships as part of constantly changing relational dynamics is a complex process for public relations practitioners. Some aspects of relationships can be managed but total relationship management with clients or with other organisations is becoming very difficult. Relational exchanges take place with many parties and relational expectations change as each relationship develops or declines.This paper discusses findings of an Australian qualitative study where 16 public relations consultants and 16 of their client relationships were explored resulting in the development of relational parameters for best practice. The findings point to the need to adapt to clients' and organisations' changing needs and make sense of exchange complexity and uncertainty so as to be aware of partners' relational interpretations and understandings. Relationships are multilayered and multifaceted with many different characteristics making relationship management challenging and demanding. This paper contends that public relations relational theory needs to reflect the volatile nature of relational exchanges in contemporary public relations practice thereby advancing relational theory as multi-way relational sense making directing public relations planning and management. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of arguments and evidence from the forthcoming book, Nations of Flesh and Blood: Gender, Race and National Identity. The central contention of the work is that discourses of national identity are routinely gendered and racialized in ways that both reflect and reinforce the marginalization of women and ethnoracial minorities. The empirical evidence examined spans a ten-year period and is drawn from four nations: the US, the UK, Australia and Japan. The paper summarizes conclusions from analyses of television advertisements, Olympic opening ceremonies, news coverage of the Iraq War, post-9-11 letters to the editor, travel brochures, national museums and living history venues in the nations examined, and discusses the broader theoretical and practical implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines qualitative data with sociological and political analysis and insights from religion studies and queer theory, to explore the struggle for recognition confronting queer Muslims in Australia. Amidst ongoing political debates about the integration of Muslims into 'western' society, queer Muslims are seeking recognition by and inclusion in the mainstream community, as well as the Muslim community, and the abidingly secular and Anglo/Celtic queer community. Interrogating the increasing rhetoric of nation - and civilizational - security, this paper illustrates that the supposed 'clash of civilizations' is incorporating issues of sexuality, through the language of repression, violence and perversion. This paper centers a on the analysis of two contested notions that have arisen post-September 11, 2001, namely the 'closeting' of both homosexual and Muslim identities, and the rise of conservative, pro-assimilationist doctrines of 'homonormativity', analyzing their effect through interviews with queer Australian Muslims. Analyzing the experiences and insights of queer Australian Muslims, this paper shows how queer Muslims are beginning to announce their presence in multiple facets Australian society, with repercussions for both Muslim and queer identity, as well as the philosophy and practice of multiculturalism, at a time when it is under threat throughout the 'western' world. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how property rights in sporting spectacles – both real and intellectual ─ could give rise to information monopolies that fall outside AustraliaÂ’s competition laws. As event organisers and promoters see the commercial advantage of the Internet, they are producing their own news sites and competing for readership of the traditional news sources such as newspapers, television and radio. While the Internet is being heralded as the vehicle of greater information diversity, the commodification of sporting spectacles means that event organisers can derive an information monopoly in relation to their events. This is particularly problematic in Australia where major media networks control sporting codes such as the NRL. This study employs a variety of methods including a survey of on-line newspaper sports writers and editors. A poor response rate to the survey resulted in the author conducting in-depth interviews with some on-line sports editors to expand the information derived from survey responses. The author also obtained copies of contracts, outlining the entry conditions to sporting events for on-line reporters. Using information collected from the survey responses and interviews, the author develops a scenario and applies existing legal principles to predict how the law may help create an information monopoly. It then analyses whether the emerging monopoly could be actionable as anti-competitive conduct pursuant to section 46 Trade Practices Act (1974). ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalism has a long tradition of debating its democratic responsibilities and a vocabulary for discussing the political obligations of news professionals. Yet what is largely absent in debates on journalists’ democratic responsibilities is terms or analytical frameworks with which to develop a concept of cultural or multicultural responsibilities. Mark Deuze (2001: 129) notes that ‘the social responsibilities of the news media have been well documented and established as a “doctrine” in contemporary journalism’. In the context of globalisation, increased migration and the theorisation of cultural or multicultural citizenship ‘one may therefore expect today's journalism to develop equivalent multicultural responsibilities’ (ibid). This paper presents a repertoire analysis of normative expectations of journalists and journalism in the reporting of cultural diversity in Australia. The analysis identifies two prevalent arguments for understanding journalists' multicultural responsibilities: the argument for journalism standards or 'business as usual', and an argument for 'considering the consequences'. The discourse of democratic responsibilities provides conceptual resources such as the Fourth Estate, the watchdog of democracy, free speech and providing a voice for the voiceless that can be applied to the reporting of cultural diversity. However, interviewees themselves suggest that the language of journalists’ political obligations may be inadequate to the challenges and possibilities of reporting multicultural Australia. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we understand media coverage? This paper looks at how events in the real world affect the news. In contrast to those scholars who see media coverage as being driven predominantly by social construction and agenda-setting processes, we contend that real world events that exceed a threshold with regard to their severity have an effect on the way that the media covers them. Analyzing the relationship between institutional politics, media coverage, and characteristics of the event itself and focusing on the share of the "news hole" and "political hole" that is filled by an event in the real world, the authors are able to show that, in cases where the event surpasses this "reality threshold," the real world actually matters. The authors then apply this approach to one particular event-the drought that affected the Australian continent during the El Niño of 2002-2003-finding that this approach provides a more sophisticated explanation of news coverage and the ways that events enter the public sphere. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an introduction to a doctoral dissertation on contemporary share ownership amongst Australian households. The study uses the tools of class analysis and the theoretical work of Wright to examine this phenomenon and argues that it is an example of embourgeoisement in which the capitalist field of finance widens to incorporate proletariat class locations. Applying the social theory of Bourdieu, the study asks whether this process of field widening represents a heterodox transformation of the field or an expansion along orthodox lines. In examining the internal processes of the field, the study then employs the work of Habermas on deliberative democracy and of Arendt on public political spaces to analyse the features of contemporary corporate governance. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent international surveys in the sociology of work have generally identified the following three themes: 1) economic globalization, the advent of neo-liberalism, and the restructuring of bureaucracy; 2) the shift from a manufacturing economy to a service economy; and 3) social inequality, the rise of identity politics, and the fates of old and new social movements. The purpose of this paper is to extend the geographical coverage of recent international surveys of the sociology of work on these three global political-economic trends. Towards this end, we review 32 European, Australian, South Asian, East Asian, and Latin American journals between the years 2000 and 2004. Our review reveals a cornucopia of research dealing with the three aforementioned themes. In particular we find a strong current of research on the impact of bureaucratic restructuring on worker livelihoods in East Asia; the effects of labor outsourcing in South Asian and Australian on workplace relations; the impact of globalization, marketization, and privatization on worker livelihoods in post-Communist European nations; and the revitalization of labor movements across all geographic regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The \\\'genetic revolution\\\' is upon us, but what the Australian public thinks about it is unclear. In the USA there is broad and possibly growing acceptance, while in Europe there is less and possibly declining acceptance. This paper presents extensive data on Australians\\\' attitudes based on five large, representative national sample surveys (N = 8730) and investigates the origins of their views in hopes for agricultural and medical benefits, and in the scientific world-view. The results show that the Australian public is broadly supportive of genetic engineering although a large minority have doubts. Structural equation estimates show that support is mainly due to approval of the agricultural and medical goals and secondarily to acceptance of the scientific world-view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Becoming a raw materials supplying periphery for a rapidly growing core economy has long been acknowledged to have tremendous and often very negative impacts on the raw materials exporting region. But what happens when regions within relatively wealthy nations become raw materials suppliers for other, rapidly growing economies? Given the greater wealth and power of the nationstates of which these raw materials regions are a part, it is logical to assume that these regions, or at least their nation-states and the broader national economy, would capture a significant share of the benefits of such trade relations. This paper examines the impacts of the globalization of the iron ore and coal industries after World War II in support of Japan's economic ascent on Japan's raw materials peripheries in Australia, Brazil, and Canada in order to address this research question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do social institutions matter to family life or are they merely adornment to ineluctable social and economic forces? This paper extends recent American research cross-culturally by examining whether the introduction of unilateral no-fault divorce in Australia raised parental divorce risks. We use retrospective reports from the IsssA-Pool database of national surveys, 1984 - 2002 (N=19,601 for this analysis), and estimate the individual-level impact of the change via logistic regression. The key result is that individuals born in cohorts that finished their childhood after divorce law liberalization are about 40 percent more likely to have experienced parental divorce, net of many other social and economic changes. Control variables have their usual effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian and British public opinion now favours higher social spending over lower taxes. This paper investigates the trend towards higher support for social spending over the last two decades, and attempts to explain its proximate causes by drawing on real expenditure and taxation data, and social survey evidence from both countries. The key findings are: (i) the publics in Australia and the United Kingdom appear to have responded to earlier fiscal restraint by preferring restorative levels of social spending; and (ii) that perceptions of declining standards in public healthcare provision play an important part in explaining broader public opinion about the respective countries’ welfare states. One implication of these findings is the political risk for governments that retrench or neglect universal public healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a Bayesian hierarchical model for the analysis of transitions in employment status using data from a large longitudinal social survey of immigrants to Australia. Data for each subject is observed on three separate occasions, or waves, of the survey. A model for the employment status of immigrants is developed by introducing, at the first stage of the hierarchy, a multinomial model for the response. Six different models of varying degrees of complexity are considered with subsequent terms introduced to explain wave effects and to capture overdispersion in the form of between-subject variability. To estimate the model we use the Gibbs Sampler, a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. This algorithm allows time-varying transition effects and within-subject random effects to be estimated with relative ease, and the imputation of missing values according to an appropriate prior distribution. The six alternative models are compared using the Deviance Information Criteria (DIC) which is appropriate for assessing the fit of complex models containing random effects. After accounting for significant covariate effects in the model, results show that the relative probability of remaining unemployed diminished with time following arrival in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developed literature on national identity and the media lacks both a firm evidentiary base for many core claims and benchmark data on media impacts at the level of the individual. This paper makes use of a recent Australian national sample survey to explore the strength, direction and causes of media effects upon national identification. Results show that conventional media technologies and the consumption of lowbrow genres tend to strengthen orthodox national identity. By contrast the Internet and highbrow genres lead to a more inclusive sense of national belonging. Genre effects are generally stronger than technology effects. Media effects are robust and of a comparable magnitude to those of familiar socio-demographic control variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although health care spending represents one of the largest expenditure categories in all Western societies, most research on the welfare state has neglected issues related to health and health care. In this paper, we use the ISSP to evaluate the public attitudes towards health care in the United States, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy at three points in time. We find that public attitude do not cluster according to the most widely used schemes to classify welfare states which is not surprising given that these nations have often been clustered together without paying attention to health care. The results also indicate that the cleavages that are most influential in dividing individual health outcomes are an important predictor of people's attitudes towards government involvement in health care. In general, groups who have been shown to experience worse health in modern society are more supportive of government involvement in health care whereas groups experiencing better health are generally less supportive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The richness and complexity of the deliberative framework often poses difficulties for empirical researchers trying to pin down concrete variables and generate testable hypotheses. The current paper proposes a piecemeal approach to studying deliberation by focusing on the episodes that constitute the whole and following the course of the effects more carefully. Using data from a 2001 Australian National Deliberative Poll, we examined the effect of encountering ethnically and attitudinally different outgroup members (i.e., Aboriginal Australians) in a small group discussion setting. Contact with Aboriginals in the small groups cultivated a better understanding of the Aboriginals' current situation, and resulted in greater support for pro-Aboriginal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has had two recent public apologies, one to the 'Stolen Generation' 1 of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and the second to the 'Forgotten Australians'2- people who had been removed from their parents as children and institutionalized. Both acts occurred in time when there was no Internet and peoples' stories took years to collect and decades for their weight to carry the public momentum required to gain a public apology. Now, in a digital age, the reports and the testimonies held within them are available for all to read on the Internet. We all now know what happened and formal public apologies ensued. Both public apologies also draw attention to an emerging intersection between digital technologies, personal historical stories and public apology. Research has identified the potential of digital narrative, such as digital storytelling3 and videoed oral histories to assist in the production of digital narratives that can help to present the multiple voices and viewpoints of those affected by these subjects co-creatively (Burgess et al, pp.152-153). Not all Australians however have access or the skills to use digital tools so as to benefit from these technologies - especially Indigenous Australians. While the Federal Government is committed to helping Australians enjoy digital confidence and digital media literacy skills, experience inclusive digital participation and benefit through online engagement (Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, 2009) there are many initiatives that can also be undertaken locally by State funded institutions, such as libraries to assist. This paper highlights the outcomes of recent empirical projects undertaken at the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) in particular focusing on digital initiatives in Family History practices by Indigenous users, and a digital story project in response to the public apology to the Stolen Generation instigated by SLQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how English as 'a cool medium' of communication and instruction has effects on an Asian ethnic background (AEB) sojourners' personal security in an Australian context through the theoretical lenses of McLuhan's aphorism, 'the medium is the message', and the United Nation Development Program's concept of 'personal security'. Sojourners voluntarily participating in this study are 15 international students with non-native English speaking background (N-NESB) from China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The results based upon interviews suggested common language barriers socio-culturally producing 'world Englishes shock' and 'repetition shock' which manifests an extended sense of insecurity in sojourners. 13 participants were impinged by the experiences in 'world Englishes shock' and 4 by 'repetition shock'. 'Insecurity' was found to be the most common negative feeling while 'frustration' was the most common effect on their personal security which developed into a feeling of 'insecurity'. Only two sojourners were not impinged by their experience in 'world Englishes shock' because they appeared to possess positive attitudes towards it. Therefore, 'security' and 'insecurity' are keywords in or behind communication. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing prevalence of new media technologies and the rise of citizen journalism has coincided with a crisis in industrial journalism -as the figure of the "journalist as hero" is fading, new media forms have facilitated the production of news content "from below" by citizens and "pro-am" journalists. Participation in an action-research project run during the 2007 Australian Federal Election, youdecide 2007, allowed the authors to gain first-hand insights into the progress of citizen-led news media in Australia, but also allowed us to develop an account of what the work of facilitating citizen journalism involves. These insights are important to understanding the future of professional journalism and journalism education, as more mainstream media organizations move to accommodate and harness user-created content. The paper considers the relevance of citizen journalism projects as forms of R&D for understanding news production and distribution in participatory media cultures, and the importance of grounded case studies for moving beyond normative debates about new media and the future of journalism. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the more persuasive arguments accounting for the reproduction of socioeconomic inequality across generations and for school type differences in educational performance is the role of the senior school curriculum, which is stratified, socially selective and has an important bearing on educational out-comes. This paper analyses the relationships between socioeconomic background, school sector, ability, course taken at senior secondary school and university entrance using longitudinal data from a cohort of Australian students. It finds that course taken has strong effects on university entrance performance and participation, but its effects are largely independent of socioeconomic background and school sector. About 14 per cent of the effect of socioeconomic background on tertiary entrance performance can be at-tributed to course type (net of other factors) and 10 per cent of the effect of attending an independent school. This suggests that curriculum stratification plays only a minor role in mediating the influences of socioeconomic background and school sector on high stakes educational outcomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jean Martin (nee Jean Craig) was the founding mother of Australian sociology. She trained in Anthropology with A.P. Elkin at the University of Sydney, conducting pioneering work into rural sociology at the age of 22. In 1947, she travelled to the University of Chicago. He subsequent interests shifted from internal migration to international migration, multiculturalism and displacement. This paper, part of research in progress for an intellectual biography, enquires into the question of what she learned in Sydney and what she learned in Chicago, and how these two knowledge bases and cultures combined to generate one of the most important founding sociologies in Australia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Australian based data on the experiences of male nurses, this paper explores the gendered nature of dirty work and how dirty workers manage taint in negotiations of identity. It utilises and develops established definitions of dirty work as physical, social and moral taint and examines strategies used to manage identity. In so doing it draws attention to the gendered nature of such work, not in terms of its intrinsic qualities, but in terms of the meanings attached to it. Further, it highlights how gender is drawn upon to manage taint through the established concepts of 'reframing' and 'recalibrating' and suggests that men activate gender to partly construct themselves as having a special status in the (dirty) work that they do. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being at the core of most theories of secularization, "differentiation"—the process whereby religious organizations lose authority over social sectors—has not been adequately theorized, and in fact obscures several distinct yet linked processes. In this paper, I argue that secularization is better conceived of not as a singular process of differentiation, but rather as an ongoing process of reconfiguration occurring along three dimensions: control, cultural authority, and collaboration. Drawing on the histories of education in Australia and the United States, I show how secularization has occurred at different rates, and even in different directions simultaneously, along the three dimensions. I argue that conceiving of secularization as a three-dimensional process improves our ability to study secularization comparatively, by allowing us to more specifically describe in what ways countries are more or less secular than one another, as well as by opening promising new avenues for future research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops and tests a theoretical model of the online news adoption/use process, based on expectancy-value and innovation-diffusion theories, to examine the predictive power of nine common features of online news in its potential development. Using data from a national survey of online news uses in Australia, the study finds that while some online attributes such as its immediacy and content-richness features have a strong impact on the way online news is adopted, used and integrated into daily life, its unique attributes such as customisation and interactivity still have a limited effect. Also, despite that online news attributes tend to be integrated together in online news packages and thus can be unintentionally used without motivation, there is strong evidence to suggest that each of the nine online news features is substantially used because it is consciously appreciated and evaluated. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural understandings of fatherhood are slowly changing. Yet, providing for one's family is still seen as an important element of "good fatherhood." Unlike mothers who incur a wage penalty, fathers tend to garner an earnings premium. Previous studies have found positive effects of children on men's earnings in the United States, Britain, Australia, Germany, Denmark and Norway. This paper expands the focus of previous studies, examining the fatherhood premium cross-nationally. Findings are discussed in the context of different welfare state strategies. Employing data from the Luxembourg Income Study, I examine data from 9 European countries, Canada, the United States, and Australia. Separate OLS regressions are run within each country. The findings support the expectations based on the Welfare State context to some extent. The largest premia net of controls are found in conservative strong male-breadwinner countries Germany, Luxembourg and Spain, although not in the Netherlands. In strong liberal strong breadwinner countries, such as the United States, Britain and Canada, fatherhood has also a positive impact on earnings. In the modified breadwinner state group, a premium exists in France, but not Belgium. In line with expectations, no net association between fatherhood and earnings is found in weak male breadwinner welfare states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-help discourses have exploded in advanced liberal countries like Australia and the United States in recent decades. While the advice varies, the central message is clear: by applying the right kind of knowledge and expertise, we can make ourselves happier, healthier or more productive. Running parallel to the self-help boom, however, has been a mounting sense of personal anguish and insecurity. A prominent indicator of this darker side to our lives is the increasing prevalence of depression. Within this context, it is perhaps not surprising that self-help techniques are often held up as the remedy for depression. But what is the sociological significance of self-help discourses on depression, and how can we go about analysing such texts? This paper sets out the rationale for further sociological analysis of self-help discourses on depression, and proposes a theoretical framework for such research. My central argument is that the relationship between self-help and depression requires further academic attention, with a particular focus on how liberalism impacts both on the discursive production of our identities, and on the meanings we give to these identities. In approaching this, I contend, we should start by focusing on how self-help discourses on depression produce two contrasting models of the self, which I have termed the dynamic self and the fatigued self. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, or so, magistrates courts in Australia have undergone significant change, in particular separation from the public service and credentialisation, indicating greater professionalisation. One important reason for separating the magistracy from the public service and reconstituting it as a separate branch of the judiciary was to establish magistrates' independence as judicial officers, a distinctive form of professional autonomy and to enhance the status of this branch of the judiciary. Drawing on a national study of magistrates and their courts, this paper investigates the nature of magistrates' occupational location, as well as considering other dimensions of professionalisation, specifically occupational status and prestige. While the professionalisation of magistrates has increased, it can also be seen as incomplete. Some magistrates are dissatisfied with their autonomy, especially in relation to workload, and there is some dissatisfaction with their perceptions of the prestige and standing of their judicial office, especially in comparison with judges in the higher courts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is still much to be learnt about best practices in leveraging digital resources for learning in higher education. Research on student interactions with online video indicates such practices are as minimal as setting passive-receptive viewing through to teacher-structured purposeful engagement. This position paper focuses on teacher-set analysis categories to guide student exploration of digital video content and to help novices to scaffold their thinking. Various uses of analysis categories within one Australian university in conjunction with a video annotation tool are reviewed. Then practice examples from other universities are reviewed to demonstrate the use of analysis categories in higher education settings without an annotation tool. The literature indicates that the use of categories to inform the design of digital video analysis needs to ensure that the learning challenge is retained. Analysis guided by teacher-set categories tends to be beneficial for performance evaluation in particular. Further research on university teacher practices with digital video is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the use of educational technologies in Australian high schools has sparked this investigation into how Year 9 (13 to 14 years of age) students experience and negotiate a new technology enhanced learning environment in a bilingual classroom setting. The paper is about examining the students’ language practices in German and English while using a Managed Learning Environment (MLE). The study aims to unearth how such translanguaging practices (using both German and English to communicate in bilingual education settings) contribute to and shape self-regulated learning in a scientific open inquiry process. This is corroborated by insights into student reflections on using the MLE in two languages, with data gained from a student survey. The study further analyses the relationship between bilingual language practices and adaptive tool use. The effectiveness of online learning environments depends on the students’ adaptive tool-use (Barzilai & Zohar, 2006; Lust, Vandewaetere, Elen, & Clarebout, 2014) and the ability to engage in self-regulatory learning practices (Zimmerman, Bembenutty, & Schunk, 2013). Data were collected via voice recordings, a student-designed questionnaire and focus group interviews with 22 Year 9 students covering 18 Biology lessons during 6 weeks, over two consecutive years. The study revealed that students’ self-regulatory practices during open inquiry processes developed in specific ways through the exposure to a bilingual classroom setting, e.g. by being exposed to unknown terms in German which led them to search for translations and then on to further self-initiated and self-regulated research to find explanations online However, when biology content knowledge was pre-prepared (in the second language of German) by the teacher in guided customized simulations on a computer software tool, students seem to favor such guided practices over self-initiated and self-regulated research as shown during the open inquiry task. However, independent of the specifics of bilingual language use in open or guided inquiry, the tool-use also appeared to be reliant on students’ prior disposition. Consequently, results of this study might have interesting implications for the future customization of online learning spaces for high school students and educators in bilingual settings as well as other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 'bush kinder' is the Australian equivalent of a European forest kindergarten. Although it is not usual for technology to be used in the type of program, the authors suggest that mobile technologies can be used creatively and sensitively to support learning in the bush kinder context. This paper describes an ethnographical case study where two early childhood researchers participated in a bush kinder program in "active participant-observer" roles and used a mini-iPad with cellular data access to extend investigations with the children. The advantages of this approach are that information about the natural environment can be accessed 'just in time' and experiences can be captured for future reflection and presentation to a wider audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper examines the nature and extent of news reports using the sociological concept, "moral panic." Qualitative content analysis reveals that moral panic is commonly used in news reports in the U. S., UK, Australia, and other countries, but it is more likely to be compatible with print (e.g., newspaper) formats than television reports. It is also widely used in literary and art reviews, editorials and op-ed pieces, often by social scientists. Use of the concept has increased over the last decade, particularly in news reports as part of an "opposing" voice or the "other side" of articles about deviant behavior, sexual behavior, and drug use. It is suggested that moral panic as "opposition" fits the entertainment news format, and while this sustains its use by writers and familiarity to audience members, it also appears to be associated with certain topics (e.g., sex and drugs), but not others, such as terrorism in the mainstream media. Questions are raised for additional research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alignment between the intended learning outcomes, the teaching and learning activities and the assessment tasks is one of the keys to student engagement, to involve students in a 'web of consistency' (Biggs, 2007, p. 26). While higher order learning such as evaluation, problem solving and creative thinking; espoused as fundamentals of university learning, appear in many graduate attribute statements, previous studies suggest that designing the curriculum to elicit and assess these higher order learning outcomes poses a challenge for academics (deleted for blind review). Emerging Web 2.0 technologies have been heralded as having potential to support this type of assessment, yet in order to take advantage of these affordances, academics need the skills to integrate them into the curriculum to support learning and assessment. This paper reports the results of a survey conducted in an Australian University to explore the types of learning outcomes academics target in their curricula and how technologies are used to assess these outcomes. The results suggest that while many academics intend higher order outcomes, they are less likely to design their teaching activities or assessment tasks accordingly. Amongst the implications of the study is the need to support unit convenors in designing their curriculum to take advantage of the potential for emerging tools to support assessment of higher order outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, Australia, through the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, created the Regional Security of Radioactive Sources project and partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy's Global Threat Reduction Initiative and the International Atomic Energy Agency to form the Southeast Asian Regional Radiological Security Partnership (RRSP). The intent of the RRSP is to cooperate with countries in Southeast Asia to improve the security of their radioactive sources. This Southeast Asian Partnership seeks to improve the security of high risk radioactive sources by raising awareness of the need and developing national programs to protect and control such materials, improve the security of such materials, and recover and condition the materials no longer in use. The RRSP has used many tools to meet those objectives including: provision of physical protection upgrades, awareness training, physical protection training, regulatory development, locating and recovering orphan sources, and most recently - development of model security procedures at a model facility. This paper discusses the benefits of establishing a model facility, the methods employed by the RRSP, and three of the expected outcomes of the Model Facility approach. First, is to increase compliance with source security guidance materials and national regulations by adding context to those materials, and illustrating their impact on a facility. Second, the effectiveness of each of the tools above is increased by making them part of an integrated system. Third, the methods used to develop the model procedures establishes a sustainable process that can ultimately be transferred to all facilities beyond the model. Overall, the RRSP has used the Model Facility approach as an important tool to increase the security of radioactive sources and to position facilities and countries for the long term secure management of those sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IAEA is largely dependent upon the Member State Support Programs (MSSPs) for the technologies and concepts that underpin the effectiveness and efficiency of the safeguards system. The contributions made by the large and well-funded MSSPs have built the foundations that will support safeguards for decades to come and are vital to the operation of the safeguards system, but smaller R&D programs can also make substantive contributions to the success of the system. Commonly the smaller R&D programs face funding constraints, which mean that for projects to proceed they must be seen as meeting national needs. The challenge, for these states and the IAEA, is to ensure a real focus on the operational needs of safeguards, by exploiting synergies between the needs of the state and the needs of the IAEA. The Australian safeguards support program has existed since June 1980. We have developed a good reputation for being responsive to the Agency's needs and producing useful results in a reasonable period of time. The way in which we have done this is by trying to fit IAEA priorities into Australian institutional research priorities. The Australian Safeguards and Non-proliferation Office (ASNO) produces detailed analytical work on basic safeguards parameters that is highly influential in the progress towards new safeguards methods and approaches. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), among its many areas of research, has substantial expertise in analysis for geochronology, enabling it to conduct research in nuclear forensics which is relevant to current safeguards controversies. This paper will explore the needs and value of relatively small scale safeguards R&D work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces recent research into methods used in Australian Aboriginal knowledge sharing and looks at how this can be extended to support the social process of organisational learning. The protocols and practices as used today and in the past by Aboriginal communities are presented and discussed in relation to their relevance to knowledge sharing in modern cultures. In particular, this research focuses on online sharing of organisational knowledge to support teams in a work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the regulations and practices of cross media ownership in Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, utilizing a conceptual framework to explore triangular relationships between the government, service providers and. Government regulatory policies are then analyzed in the context of recent technological trends pushing media convergence. Study findings suggest that market size does not affect policy-making and that private ownership is the key determinant of policy outcomes. The relative merit of various regulatory approaches (i.e. “government- guided” vs. “market-oriented”) are discussed, alongside implications of cross media ownership changes wrought by technology. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two assumptions that have dominated sociological analyses of migration are (1) that it secures the necessary reserve army of labor for capital and (2) that the nation-state's status as a sovereign territorial unit and locus of social regulation is being eroded and displaced. This article seeks to correct and clarify these assumptions in a dual manner; first by re-embedding the state in explanations of the migratory process and second analyzing the nation-state's management of movement in order to demonstrate its continued importance and relational ties to globalization. The cases of Canada and Australia will be utilized as empirical reference points as the above assumptions fail to account for their experiences. With the end of the "long boom" of the post-war years both countries adopted extensive managerial policies in which state control over selection was expanded through the adoption of point systems slanted in favor of the highly-skilled and dedicated to evaluating and enumerating the human capital and economic suitability of migrants. These policies allow both countries to continue to engage in nation-building and social regulation through the management of the composition of its population and labor market. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature related to the nation-state's control over immigration and citizenship has focused upon either the rights and obligations formed between individual citizens and the polity or the documentation and surveillance of individual identity. Such policies, however, are also collective forms of state management and nation-building which cultivate and reproduce the desired attributes of the national population through the incorporation and exclusion of foreigners. These issues will be addressed by providing a comparative analysis of the policies of Australia and Canada. During the 20th century both states have followed similar historical trajectories moving from racially exclusivist policies oriented toward biological fitness and cultural homogeneity to individuated and utilitarian policies governed by economic fitness and human capital. While the majority of analyses of the two countries has focused on such transformations in terms of the emergence of pluralistic and multicultural policies, a closer examination reveals that while anti-discrimination may have been the initial intent of such policies they have largely been subordinated to economic calculations and attempts of each state to strategically adapt to the emergent global economy. The primary effect of such shifts has therefore been expansions in the depth and intensity of state regulatory capacities and control. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theory and empirical evidence suggest that work-family conflict makes people want to change the number of hours they work. However, since most studies examine work-family conflict or work hours but not both, it is unclear what kinds of changes people want or why work-family conflict makes them want those changes. Using insights from the work hours and work-family literatures, we analyze two waves of panel data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to find some answers. Our results indicate that family-to-work conflict does not make people want to change their hours. Work-to-family conflict, however, makes people want to reduce their hours because it leads to increases in actual hours but not preferred hours. We also find that people who want to reduce their hours are often unable to do so and that when they reconcile their preferences and their behavior, they do it largely by coming to prefer more hours rather than by working fewer. These findings indicate that the relationship between work-family conflict and work hours is more complicated than anticipated. They also suggest that our understanding of work-family coping strategies can be improved by distinguishing between what people want to do and what they are able to accomplish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]