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Online tertiary level program delivery challenges traditional models of university. Online delivery removes face-to-face contact between persons, in particular the person of the teacher and that of the learner. Since persons are essentially relational beings there is necessarily a loss of quality, compensated, some might argue, by the possibility of inexpensive mass education. However, what passes for education can be little more than training as the learner accesses only data and information which is all that can be supplied by a computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The extent to which the global financial crisis (GFC) has impacted upon teacher education in universities in Australia is potentially, like most other aspects of teacher education, a contested area. Purpose, aims/questions: The aim of this article is to examine the impact the GFC along with other funding constraints, has had on teacher education in Australia. Sources of evidence: On the surface we could cite some aspects of teacher education which may point to a significant impact of the GFC such as funding from the government not keeping pace with other OECD countries' spending on higher education in general and teacher education in particular, increased pressure to find appropriate practicum placements for students, increased staff/student ratios, reduction of hours for teaching in university courses, obsession with profit margins and cost-driver budget models. However, all of these issues were evident or at least immanent before we started hearing about the GFC. Alistair Mant in his book Intelligent Leadership (Crow's Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin; 1997) employs the metaphor of frogs and bicycles to describe organisations and systems. Universities and most organisations are in fact more naturally like frogs than bicycles. They are organic in that all parts interact to create the whole and they are complex systems, which are not susceptible to technical, machine-like approaches. A bicycle is a machine and a frog is a living thing. Main argument: Governments view universities as bicycles or machines, and this thinking is further reinforced through the introduction of a market forces model. Teacher education when treated as a bicycle when it is really more of a frog, shows signs of adaptation for as long as it can cope with various bits being cut off, but then will become unsustainable. While the impact of the GFC in Australia generally was much less severe than in many other countries, the continued starving of teacher education of adequate funding over a long period has taken its toll as reflected in unduly high staff student ratios, an over-reliance on casual staffing, insufficient funds to support the requirements of practicum placements, unrealistic staff workloads, lack of succession planning and inability to innovate. Conclusion: The issues discussed in this article are likely to be attributable to a highly successful and prolonged period of economic rationalism and policies, which emanate from New Right ideologies. The influence of neo-conservative and neo-liberal policies is well in evidence in universities generally and in Australia, successive governments have underfunded higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Like many states in the Global South, the Australian economy relies heavily on the natural resource sector for a large proportion of its export earnings. Four decades ago, this basic similarity eventually induced Australian governments to become 'fellow travellers' with the G77 quest for a new international economic order. When that quest was put to rest by the rise of neo-liberalism, Australian governments then became fervent believers in free rather than managed trade; but in the contemporary era where neo-liberalism is now a dying policy creed, Australia's current resource boom begs the question of whether the time is now ripe for Canberra to reinvent this role. What the rationales might be for that 'back to the future' policy move is explored in the context of Australia's iron ore trade with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Language has always been a means of imposing political and economic dominance. The ascendancy of the discourse of economics is examined in the context of economic rationalism. Some of the effects of this discourse, both upon our services, as well as upon different modes of conceptualizing the therapeutic relationship, will be examined in this paper. Conclusions: The intensification of the use of terms from economics and management can be dated from the introduction of neo-liberal policies in our Western democracies, but the economic discourse circulates with a life of its own. The use of the language of economics and management has spread generally through our society. Thus, if the economic discourse is the language utilized by some clinicians, it is also to some degree the language adopted by our patients. It is proposed that the extension of the economic discourse into the clinical field is re-shaping the therapeutic relationship with our patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the process by which the reflective Christian may go about doing theology in a way that contributes to public issues affecting society. The particular method adopted by a person who is both theologian and citizen will depend on the nature of the society and Christianity's status within that society. The article is concerned primarily with the transparency of a theological method that can operate effectively in the context of a pluralist society where social consensus is at issue. It uses the engagement with economic rationalism as a way of illustrating how such engagement in public discourse can occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue that values influence decisions taken by policymakers and that decision and policymakers can follow one or the other of the two distinct paths — altruism and egoism. However, the main purpose of this article is to investigate outcomes of government and corporation policies formulated in accordance with theories espoused in economic rationalism or neoclassical economics. These show that they generally follow the path of egoism. The occasional result is that although multinational enterprises and other corporations contribute to the relief of natural and economic problems, they may in fact be contributing simply out of corporate self-interest. The recent collapse of financial markets in the United States and throughout the globe is identified as a result of business activities designed to seek higher corporate profits and higher executive payouts, which are motivated by self-serving values linked to the ideologies of neoclassical economics or economic rationalism. The article argues for a just and fair redistribution of incomes, possibly best achieved through the taxation system and opens the way for further research on the alternative path—the path of altruism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian sociology has wrestled with most of the big issues facing this society; however, when it comes to one of the most significant changes to face Australia in the next 30 years, it has suddenly lost its capacity to engage with the nexus between demography, social processes and political structures. While governments have forged ahead with responsibilization agendas in health, welfare and unemployment, sociology has voiced its concern about the implications for Australia's most disadvantaged. Yet, when it comes to population ageing, sociology has been, in large part, silent in the face of neoliberal policies of positive ageing, which have framed the 'problem' as a deficit that must be managed primarily by individuals and their families. This article maps the field of positive ageing, identifies key social concerns with this policy approach and asks, where is Australian sociology? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Great strides have been achieved over the past few decades in service provision for people with intellectual disability (ID). However, there has also been a growth in the use of economic rationalism and a related rise in managerialism in forming service provision outcomes. Method An account of the focus on process and means of provision directed within the managerialist agenda to determine how individual authority has become subsumed within patterns of dependence. Results An underlying influence of utilitarianism has led to a focus on servicing the average through service provision trajectories which in turn have weakened the pace for social change and perpetuated a vulnerable conception of people with ID. Conclusions There has been a qualification of the idealised intent of providing individualised support, choice and recognition of the moral worth of people with ID into relative features of equality. There remains an overriding static conception of the person with ID within funding frameworks and service provision which relies on economic and rationalist depictions of the individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two seemingly different ambulance services were included in this study. The first, an Australian service, is a statutory authority of the state and the other, a United Kingdom service is corporatised. Both services are implementing policies influenced by neoliberal economic ideology, however, this is markedly pronounced in the corporatised service. Qualitative methods were used to glean rich data from a good cross section of men and women in both services. In both societies women continue to be seen as primarily responsible for child care and housework and the relatively few mothers employed in each service found organising their lives around shift work to be stressful. This was particularly so for the UK women as their shifts are longer, more indeterminate and there is no paid overtime or penalty rates. The increased flexibility of shifts was found to be in the organisations' best interests before that of parents. The results clearly show that the situation for women in the corporatised service in terms of gender inequality as a stressor was far worse than for the Australian women. Economic rationalist policies in the UK service further discriminate against women to the extent that their male colleagues feel that their crew team is disadvantaged if mothers or potential mothers are included. The organisation was reluctant to employ women. Hence, women in the local geographic region which is presently depressed, are denied employment and training opportunities available to men. The paper argues that a cultural and political perspective on occupational stress best explains the stressors women experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the Australian government's growing support for complementary medicine. Its various ways of support may pave way to another strategy as against its four original strategies on addressing the rising health costs. It comes in several forms of training programs such as osteopathy, chiropractic, Chinese medicine, and naturopathy in public tertiary institutions as well as in partnerships between public universities and private complementary colleges.

This article explores the constraints imposed by economic rationalism on environmental policy-making in light of Western Australia's (WA) Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) experience. Data derived from interviews with WA RFA stakeholders shed light on their perceptions of the RFA process and its outcomes. The extent to which involvement of science and the public RFA management enabled is analysed. The findings point to a pervasive constrainedness of WA's RFA owing to a closing of the process by the administrative decision-making structures. A dominant economic rationality is seen to have normalised and legitimised political closure, effectively excluding rationalities dissenting from an implicit economic orthodoxy. This article argues for the explication of invisible, economic constraints affecting environmental policy and for the public-cum-political negotiation of the points of closure within political processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. This paper reports a study to evaluate and increase understanding of contemporary Registered Nurses’ discontents, and to compare these discontents and their effects with those of nurses 20 years ago. Background. In 1986, Turner argued that nurses’ discontents were reflected in a discourse or ‘vocabulary of complaint’ that provided a sense of solidarity amongst practising nurses, and defused their frustrations rather than channelling them into demands for workplace reform. In this paper, we revisit Turner's notion of a vocabulary of complaint in the context of a study of nurse retention in the contemporary Australian healthcare workplace. Methods. This paper draws on the qualitative data from a larger project (completed in 2001) exploring the relationship between job satisfaction and self-concept in both recently graduated and experienced nurses. Here, we elaborate on thematic analyses of the comments of 146 Australian Registered Nurses with more than 5 years’ nursing experience. Findings. There is still a high level of discontent amongst contemporary practising nurses, although the focus of their complaints and their responses to them have changed since Turner's study. Conflicting expectations of nurses and managers and lack of opportunity to provide comprehensive care emerged as the most important issues for experienced nurses today. Rather than contributing to a sense of solidarity as in Turner's study, contemporary nurses’ discontents reflect intense personal frustration and underpin individual nurses’ decisions to leave, or plan to leave, the workforce. Conclusion. There is an urgent need for increasing health service management and community awareness about the relationship between providing comprehensive nursing care and nurses’ job satisfaction. Addressing nurses’ discontents, wider nursing involvement in the international policy arena, and the politicization of nurses worldwide may contribute to alleviating the current global nursing shortage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To give an overview of academic departments of psychiatry in Australia, emphasising the contribution they have made to the development of psychiatry in this country and the current pressures on them. Method: Review of the literature, historical perspective and personal observation. Results: University departments of psychiatry are under considerable stress in Australia because of pressure on both the health and education budgets. Conclusion: In the current climate, university departments need to reconsider their core goals and review their sources of funding if they are to survive and prosper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disintegration is occurring daily in today's modern, democratic society through dehumanization and anti-professionalism, along with enforcement of arbitrary decisions on crucial issues made by ill-informed leaders without adequate research or collaborative consultation with those carrying out the work. All this is justified by global economic rationalism which dictates every part of living today and takes precedence even over human safety and human survival. Individuals in society today feel isolated and insignificant as their previously held value systems fail to contain them. For such individuals destructiveness can be seen to be an escape from the unbearable feeling of powerlessness. Mass destructiveness, however, to the extent of disintegrating society, needs to be associated with feelings of primitive omnipotence. In such a state, the problem is not simply that of death wishes, but a wish for total annihilation of the existing society which is perceived to be the enemy. The author explores the psychopathology of social disintegration through the writings and paintings of Edvard Munch, the renowned Norwegian artist, and also attempts to describe how society and its leaders have responded to such annihilatory experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economics, especially the narrowly defined form of economics known as neo-liberal economics, along with its policy derivative known as economic rationalism, dominates public and political debate and decision-making in Australia and many other nations as the twentieth century approaches its close. In the context of environmental issues, as also in that of welfare issues, the present over-dominance is unhealthy. Despite the best attempts of environmental economists and ecological economists, they have had relatively little influence on the broader economic profession, or on the political and business communities. Economics and free trade also dominate the international scene at the expense of equity and environmental issues. Environmental debates, by their very nature, are usually complex, requiring interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches which include the economic perspective, but much else besides. Despite the importance of local context and spatial and temporal location, there is a need for a meta-theory or national philosophy to allow the integration across space and time so often needed. The present meta-theory, firmly based in economic rationalism, is inadequate as a basis for environmental decision-making. We desperately need a new meta-theory that explicitly integrates economic, environmental, welfare and many other perspectives. Perhaps such a meta-theory could be broadly based on the concept of sustainability, though much more work is needed to refine such an approach. A major swing in public opinion from the old meta-theory to the new is essential as a forerunner to political action, and education at all levels is needed to bring about this change. There are some signs that this change is already informing public opinion, and that it may have begun to influence mainstream Australian politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reform in public health: where does it take nursing? The Australian healthcare system is undergoing changes that are impacting tangibly on professional nursing practice. While the evidence is clear that the changes pose a challenge to maintaining standards amidst resource cuts and restructuring, the processes through which these changes occur and the decisions which drive the reforms remain complex and largely obscure. This paper intends to stimulate further thinking and debate among nurses about the effects of these reforms on the conduct of practice, both in terms of our emerging discipline and our ability to conduct clinical nursing practice. It offers a way of understanding the policy ‘reform’ process through an application of policy analysis grounded in critical social theory. The discussion sets out to apply these analytical propositions to specific events that constitute examples of change in the nursing workplace, and to focus on the implications for nurses and health service clientele. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation of the work undertaken by community groups in Australia. Specifically, it highlights the role of community welfare organisations in socio-political contexts undergoing change. Different operating rationalities, corresponding to shifting political and economic imperatives, are examined. An overview of the development of the community welfare sector since 1970 reveals tendencies towards bifurcation and convergence as strategic responses to different socio-political conjunctures. Analysis of the contemporary preoccupation with the rationale of the market indicates a rehearsal of the bifurcation tendencies that characterised the sector in the 1970s. Yet shifts in the organisational relations between the state and the community welfare sector and the appearance of new strategic responses to the operating logics of the market also suggest that it is time for the development of different discursive frameworks in which to think about work in the community welfare sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how the economics paradigm should be changed to embrace modern concepts of systems science. It criticises the reductionist approaches of economic rationalism and free market economics and suggests a more holistic approach should be adopted, based on Prigogine's concepts of dissipative structures, held in a state of tension far from equilibrium; and Simon's concepts of sub optimisation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]