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INTRODUCTION: Longitudinal studies can provide timely and accurate information to evaluate and inform COVID-19 control and mitigation strategies and future pandemic preparedness. The Optimise Study is a multidisciplinary research platform established in the Australian state of Victoria in September 2020 to collect epidemiological, social, psychological and behavioural data from priority populations. It aims to understand changing public attitudes, behaviours and experiences of COVID-19 and inform epidemic modelling and support responsive government policy. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This protocol paper describes the data collection procedures for the Optimise Study, an ongoing longitudinal cohort of ~1000 Victorian adults and their social networks. Participants are recruited using snowball sampling with a set of seeds and two waves of snowball recruitment. Seeds are purposively selected from priority groups, including recent COVID-19 cases and close contacts and people at heightened risk of infection and/or adverse outcomes of COVID-19 infection and/or public health measures. Participants complete a schedule of monthly quantitative surveys and daily diaries for up to 24 months, plus additional surveys annually for up to 48 months. Cohort participants are recruited for qualitative interviews at key time points to enable in-depth exploration of people's lived experiences. Separately, community representatives are invited to participate in community engagement groups, which review and interpret research findings to inform policy and practice recommendations. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The Optimise longitudinal cohort and qualitative interviews are approved by the Alfred Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee (# 333/20). The Optimise Study CEG is approved by the La Trobe University Human Ethics Committee (# HEC20532). All participants provide informed verbal consent to enter the cohort, with additional consent provided prior to any of the sub studies. Study findings will be

University–industry (U–I) collaboration takes on many forms, from research services, teaching and training, to curiosity-led research. In the chemical industries, academic chemists generate new knowledge, address novel problems faced by industry, and train the future workforce in cutting-edge methods. In this study, we examine the dynamic structures of collaborative research contracts and grants between academic and industry partners over a 5-year period within a research-intensive Australian university. We reconstruct internal contract data provided by a university research office as records of its collaborations into a complex relational database that links researchers to research projects. We then structure this complex relational data as a two-mode network of researcher-project collaborations for utilisation with Social Network Analysis (SNA)—a relational methodology ideally suited to relational data. Specifically, we use a stochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM), a statistical network model for longitudinal two-mode network data. Although the dataset is complicated, we manage to replicate it exactly using a very parsimonious and relatable network model. Results indicate that as academics gain experience, they become more involved in direct research contracts with industry, and in research projects more generally. Further, more senior academics are involved in projects involving both industry partners and other academic partners of any level. While more experienced academics are also less likely to repeat collaborations with the same colleagues, there is a more general tendency in these collaborations, regardless of academic seniority or industry engagement, for prior collaborations to predict future collaborations. We discuss implications for industry and academics.

In this study we investigated how social anxiety and expressed friendship relate to the perceived friendship network of adolescent girls. We define an expressed friendship as a friendship choice made by an individual, and a perceived friend as one whom the individual perceives as choosing them as a friend; expressed and perceived friends need not be the same. We applied Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to understand effects of social anxiety and expressed friendship on structural patterns of the perceived friendship network, aiming to shed light how social anxiety and expressed friendship choices relate to cognitive perceptions of the social environment (in terms of perceived friendship partners). Participants were 94 year-nine students recruited from an all-female high school in Melbourne, Australia. Results indicated that socially anxious students were similar to other students in terms of their number of perceived friends but were themselves less popular in the perceived friendship network. High anxiety students perceive friendship from low anxiety alters. Expressed and perceived friendship ties tended to be congruent so that students expressed friendship to partners who they perceived would nominate them as friends. Furthermore, students tended to be accurate in understanding their social environment in that perceived friends did tend to nominate them. Socially anxious students did not differ markedly from other students in terms of congruence and accuracy, although congruence was less likely in in ties from high anxiety to low anxiety students. The results indicate the ways in which social anxiety influences how students perceive their friendship relations.

Burnout is commonly associated with professions that entail a high rate of close relationships with other individuals or groups. This paper explores the association between burnout and interpersonal relationships using a relational, social network framework. We collected data on advice-seeking relationships among 102 teachers and administrative staff from a secondary school in Melbourne, Australia. Burnout was measured using the Burnout Assessment Tool and we focused on four core subscales: (1) exhaustion; (2) mental distance; (3) emotional impairment; and (4) cognitive impairment. We applied a particular class of statistical model for social networks called Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to shed new light on how level of burnout relates to formation of advice relations among school staff. Results indicated that high levels of overall burnout were linked to a higher number of advice-seeking ties among school staff. Additionally, teachers who scored high in cognitive impairment (i.e., difficulties in thinking clearly and learn new things at work) tended to seek and to provide advice to a greater number of others. Finally, school staff who scored high in exhaustion (i.e., a severe loss of energy that results in feelings of both physical and mental exhaustion) tended to be sought out less as advisors to others, while those high in mental distance (i.e., psychologically distancing oneself from others) were generally less likely to seek advice from other school staff. We discuss these findings drawing on Conservation of Resource theory. Notably, our results show that burnout is not only an individual-level problem, but that burnout is associated with reduced social connectivity in specific ways that may impact on how other school staff collaborate, culminating in a staff-wide overall impact that affects how schools function.

OBJECTIVES: To profile the long-term mental health outcomes of those affected by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and to document the course of mental health since the disaster. METHOD: The longitudinal Beyond Bushfires study included 1017 respondents (Wave 1; 3-4 years after the fires), 736 (76.1%) at Wave 2 (5 years after the fires) and 525 (51.6%) at Wave 3 (10 years after the fires). The survey indexed fire-related and subsequent stressful events, probable posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, alcohol use, severe distress and receipt of health services for mental health problems. RESULTS: Relative to their status 3-4 years after the fires, there were reduced rates of fire-related posttraumatic stress disorder (6.2% vs 12.2%), general posttraumatic stress disorder (14.9% vs 18.7%) and severe distress (4.4% vs 7.5%) at 10 years. There were comparable rates between Wave 1 and Wave 3 for depression (10.9% vs 8.3%) and alcohol abuse (21.8% vs 18.5%). Of people in high-affected regions, 22.1% had posttraumatic stress disorder, depression or severe distress at Wave 3. One-third to one-half of participants who reported probable posttraumatic stress disorder or depression at any assessment did not display the disorder at the next assessment. Worsening of mental health at Wave 3 was associated with the extent of property loss, exposure to recent traumatic events or recent stressful life events. Only 24.6% of those with a probable disorder had sought professional help for this in the previous 6 months. CONCLUSION: Approximately one-fifth of people from high-affected areas have a probable psychological disorder a decade after the fires. Mental health appears to fluctuate for those who are not consistently resilient, apparently as a result of ongoing stressors. The observation that most people with probable disorder are not receiving care highlights the need for further planning about managing long-term mental health needs of disaster-affected communitie

Involvement in voluntary associations is a key form of social capital and plays an especially important role following disaster as a venue for coordination and decision-making for the wider community. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to how group involvement affects mental health, at either the individual or community level. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of involvement in voluntary associations on mental health among residents of bushfire-affected communities. A longitudinal sample of 642 individuals affected by the 2009 Victorian bushfires in south-eastern Australia were surveyed in 2012 and 2014 (3- and 5-years post-disaster). A further subsample (n = 552) of residents residing continuously within 22 bushfire-affected communities were examined for community-level effects using multilevel regression methods. After adjusting for demographics, disaster exposure, and network variables, group involvement at time 1 bore a curvilinear relationship with PTSD at both time points: moderate involvement was most beneficial, with no participation, or high amounts, yielding poorer outcomes. High amounts of group involvement was likewise linked to a greater risk of major depression. Furthermore, communities with higher median levels of group involvement reported lower levels of PTSD symptoms and major depression two years later. With respect to group involvement, more is not always better. For individuals, moderation - if possible - is key. Meanwhile, community-level health benefits come when most people participate to some extent, suggesting that the distribution of involvement across the community is important.

Sport participation has been shown to be associated with health and social benefits. However, there are persisting inequities and barriers to sport participation that can prevent children and young people with diverse backgrounds and abilities from accessing these benefits. This mixed methods study investigated how diversity is understood, experienced and managed in junior sport. The study combined in-depth interviews (n = 101), surveys (n = 450) and observations over a three-year period. The results revealed that a focus on performance and competitiveness negatively affected junior sports clubs' commitment to diversity and inclusive participation. Gender and a range of attitudes about diversity were also strongly related. On average, we found that those who identified as men were more likely to support a pro-performance stance, be homophobic, endorse stricter gender roles, and endorse violence as a natural masculine trait. In addition, those who identified as men were less likely to hold pro-disability attitudes. These findings suggest that the participation-performance tension and gender affect to what extent, and how, sports clubs engage children and young people with diverse backgrounds and abilities.

Junior sport is a popular activity for children under the age of 18. However there have been few analyses of the extent that racism is experienced in junior sport, or how sports clubs manage it. Farquharson, Spaaij, Gorman, Jeanes, Lusher and Magee investigate how junior sports clubs in Victoria, Australia manage experiences of racism during matches. Through an in-depth analysis of interviews with over one hundred players, parents, coaches and volunteers across nine junior sports clubs, they argue that structural and cultural factors result in the maintenance of an on-field sporting culture where racism is essentially tolerated, even when lip service is given to its inappropriateness. Both the official and the informal processes for managing racial abuse reinforce the marginalisation of non-White players while reinforcing the normativity of Whiteness in Australian sport.

This paper presents a case study of Beyond Bushfires, a large, multisite, mixed method study of the psychosocial impacts of major bushfires in Victoria, Australia. A participatory approach was employed throughout the study which was led by a team of academic investigators in partnership with service providers and government representatives and used on-site visits and multiple methods of communication with communities across the state to inform decision-making throughout the study. The ethics and impacts of conducting and adapting the approach within a post-disaster context will be discussed in reference to theories and models of participatory health research. The challenges of balancing local interests with state-wide implications will also be explored in the description of the methods of engagement and the study processes and outcomes. Beyond Bushfires demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating participatory methods in large, post-disaster research studies and achieving rigorous findings and multilevel impacts, while recognising the potential for some of the empowering aspects of the participatory experience to be reduced by the scaled-up approach.

© 2017 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand. The last two decades within Australia have witnessed a range of policies and strategies seeking to promote the inclusion of young people with disabilities within mainstream community sport clubs. Whilst research at an institutional level has highlighted the problems with mainstreaming agendas, few researchers have examined how grassroots clubs, as key components of the supply side of inclusive provision seek to respond to such policy imperatives. In this paper, therefore, the authors provides a critical analysis of the ways in which clubs engage with inclusion policies in practice. Theoretically, the authors draws on the concept of policy enactment and educational inclusivity. Through analysis of semi-structured interviews with club volunteers, the findings illustrate three key areas. Firstly, the importance of individual volunteers in establishing and developing provision within clubs; secondly, the largely separatist nature of disability provision within clubs; and thirdly, that policies tend to encourage clubs to focus on narrow forms of participation that lead to competitive pathways and mirror the structure of mainstream sport. In the conclusion, the authors problematize the notion of inclusion presented in policy and practice, suggesting such imperatives do not encourage a holistic approach.

The Charlie football club is an AFL club that participated in this Australian Research Council project Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to promote community harmony, multiculturalism and reconciliation. Charlie participated in both the surveys and the interviews. This club and its players and staff have all been deidentified as required by Curtin University’s ethics guidelines.

This paper looks at the context with which the research for the collection came out of. It draws on recent examples in the media and football and connects that up to the examples in the past particularly the incidents in the AFL that involved Nicky Winmar in 1993 and Michael Long in 1995 and the introduction of Rule 35. This paper sets the scene from which the rest of the collection positions itself.

The Delta football club is an AFL club that participated in this Australian Research Council project Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to promote community harmony, multiculturalism and reconciliation. Delta participated in both the surveys and the interviews. This club and its players and staff have all been deidentified as required by Curtin University’s ethics guidelines.

The Abacus football club is an AFL club that participated in this Australian Research Council project Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation. Abacus participated in both the surveys and the interviews. This club and its players and staff have all been deidentified as required by Curtin University’s ethics guidelines.

The Foxtrot football club is an AFL club that participated in this Australian Research Council project assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to promote community harmony, multiculturalism and reconciliation. Foxtrot participated in both the surveys and the interviews. This club and its players and staff have all been deidentified as required by Curtin University’s ethics guidelines.

The Bravo football club is an AFL club that participated in this Australian Research Council project Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to promote community harmony, multiculturalism and reconciliation. Bravo participated in both the surveys and the interviews. This club and its players and staff have all been deidentified as required by Curtin University’s ethics guidelines.

The Igloo football club is an AFL club that participated in this Australian Research Council project Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation. Igloo participated in the surveys only. This club and its players and staff have all been deidentified as required by Curtin University’s ethics guidelines.

The Gecko football club is an AFL club that participated in this Australian Research Council project Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to promote community harmony, multiculturalism and reconciliation. Foxtrot participated in the surveys only. This club and its players and staff have all been deidentified as required by Curtin University’s ethics guidelines.

This book is the outcome of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project titled Assessing the Australian Football League's Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to Promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation, ...

This introductory paper lays the foundation for this important work. This is the first time that a multidisciplinary, systematic study has been conducted into the Australian Football League's (AFL) Rule 35 1. In 2013, due to the expanding nature of the initiative to encompass a range of themes and issues around vilification, the AFL updated the rule, known as Rule 30 since its inception, and in 1995, it became Rule 35. The difference between AFL ‘Rules’ and AFL ‘Laws’ is this: the rules relate more to the administration of the game, whereas the laws refer to the actual game itself (i.e. umpiring decisions). View all notes – the first code of conduct introduced by an elite sporting organization in the world to deal with racial, religious and sexual vilification. Social and sport history in Australia will be discussed to further contextualize the importance of the research.

This conclusion discusses some recent examples of racism in AFL in order to explore the question of ‘how far have we come in the AFL when it comes to racism?’ This paper also discusses what the potential future trajectories are for Rule 35 and the findings from the Australian Research Council Linkage project that this book came from.

The Echo football club is an AFL club that participated in this Australian Research Council project Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation. Echo participated in both the surveys and the interviews. This club and its players and staff have all been deidentified as required by Curtin University’s ethics guidelines.

The interaction of positive and negative relationships (i.e. I like you, but you dislike me - referred to as relational dissonance) is an underexplored phenomenon. Further, it is often only poor (or negative) mental health that is examined in relation to social networks, with little regard for positive psychological wellbeing. Finally, these issues are compounded by methodological constraints. This study explores a new concept of relational dissonance alongside mutual antipathies and friendships and their association with mental health using multivariate exponential random graph models with an Australian sample of secondary school students. Results show male students with relationally dissonant ties have lower positive mental health measures. Girls with relationally dissonant ties have lower depressed mood, but those girls being targeted by negative ties are more likely to have depressed mood. These findings have implications for the development of interventions focused on promoting adolescent wellbeing and consideration of the appropriate measurement of wellbeing and mental illness.

There is growing evidence that providing increased voice to vulnerable or disenfranchised populations is important to improving health equity. In this paper we will examine the engagement of Aboriginal community members and community controlled organisations in local governance reforms associated with the Aboriginal Health National Partnership Agreements (AHNPA) in Australia and its impact on the uptake of health assessments. The sample included qualitative and quantitative responses from 188 people involved in regional governance in Aboriginal health. The study included data on the uptake of Aboriginal health assessments from July 2008 to December 2012. The study population was 83190 in 2008/9, 856986 in 2009/10, 88256 in 2010/11 and 90903 in 2011/12. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationships between organisations within forums and the regional uptake of Aboriginal health assessments. The independent variables included before and after the AHNPA, state, remoteness, level of representation from Aboriginal organisations and links between Aboriginal and mainstream organisations. The introduction of the AHNPA was associated with a shift in power from central government to regional forums. This shift has enabled Aboriginal people a much greater voice in governance. The results of the analyses show that improvements in the uptake of health assessments were associated with stronger links between Aboriginal organisations and between mainstream organisations working with Aboriginal organisations. Higher levels of community representation were also associated with improved uptake of health assessments in the AHNPA. The findings suggest that the incorporation of Aboriginal community and community controlled organisations in regional planning plays an important role in improving health equity. This study makes an important contribution to understanding the processes through which the incorporation of disadvantaged groups into governance might contribute to heal

BACKGROUND: Natural disasters represent an increasing threat both in terms of incidence and severity as a result of climate change. Although much is known about individual responses to disasters, much less is known about the social and contextual response and how this interacts with individual trajectories in terms of mental health, wellbeing and social connectedness. The 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia caused much loss of life, property destruction, and community disturbance. In order to progress future preparedness, response and recovery, it is crucial to measure and understand the impact of disasters at both individual and community levels. METHODS/DESIGN: This study aims to profile the range of mental health, wellbeing and social impacts of the Victorian 2009 bushfires over time using multiple methodologies and involving multiple community partners. A diversity of communities including bushfire affected and unaffected will be involved in the study and will include current and former residents (at the time of the Feb 2009 fires). Participants will be surveyed in 2012, 2014 and, funding permitting, in 2016 to map the predictors and outcomes of mental health, wellbeing and social functioning. Ongoing community visits, as well as interviews and focus group discussions in 2013 and 2014, will provide both contextual information and evidence of changing individual and community experiences in the medium to long term post disaster. The study will include adults, adolescents and children over the age of 5. DISCUSSION: Conducting the study over five years and focussing on the role of social networks will provide new insights into the interplay between individual and community factors and their influence on recovery from natural disaster over time. The study findings will thereby expand understanding of long term disaster recovery needs for individuals and communities.

The natural variability of pitch naming ability in the population (known as absolute pitch or AP) provides an ideal method for investigating individual differences in pitch processing and auditory knowledge formation and representation. We have demonstrated the involvement of different cognitive processes in AP ability that reflects varying skill expertise in the presence of similar early age of onset of music tuition. These processes were related to different regions of brain activity, including those involved in pitch working memory (right prefrontal cortex) and the long-term representation of pitch (superior temporal gyrus). They reflected expertise through the use of context dependent pitch cues and the level of automaticity of pitch naming. They impart functional significance to structural asymmetry differences in the planum temporale of musicians and establish a neurobiological basis for an AP template. More generally, they indicate variability of knowledge representation in the presence of environmental fostering of early cognitive development that translates to differences in cognitive ability. © 2008 The Authors.

This article provides a critical discussion about the formative stages of a current Australian Research Council research project investigating the Australian Football League's racial and religious vilification laws. Using a multidisciplinary research framework the research evaluates Indigenous and multicultural policies in the broader context of the public policies about community harmony, reconciliation and diversity. Central to this approach is an examination of the Australian Football League's Rule 30. It evaluates the roles of key industry, government, community and academic stakeholders and briefly considers the theoretical and practical challenges of researching multiculturalism, harmony and reconciliation.

The natural variability of pitch naming ability in the population (known as absolute pitch or AP) provides an ideal method for investigating individual differences in pitch processing and auditory knowledge formation and representation. We have demonstrated the involvement of different cognitive processes in AP ability that reflects varying skill expertise in the presence of similar early age of onset of music tuition. These processes were related to different regions of brain activity, including those involved in pitch working memory (right prefrontal cortex) and the long-term representation of pitch (superior temporal gyrus). They reflected expertise through the use of context dependent pitch cues and the level of automaticity of pitch naming. They impart functional significance to structural asymmetry differences in the planum temporale of musicians and establish a neurobiological basis for an AP template. More generally, they indicate variability of knowledge representation in the presence of environmental fostering of early cognitive development that translates to differences in cognitive ability.

This article is a theoretical examination of Connell's social theory of gender, discussing how hegemonic, complicit, subordinate, and marginalized masculinities interact and relate to one another in the men's everyday lives in particular social contexts. Connell's theory is articulated in global terms that need to be localized to examine the actual interactions of men with one another. The theory implies a multilevel framework that the authors develop more explicitly. They investigate two interrelated theoretical concerns: (a) inadequately detailed interdependencies between structural, individual, and cultural factors with respect to masculinities, and (b) the lack of contextualization of masculinities in specific relational settings. The authors suggest that theoretical insights gained from social network theory and analysis allow such issues to be addressed and assist in local-level accounts of gendered power relations. The authors conclude by specifying Connell's theory into particular, testable hypotheses for use with statistical models for social networks.

Despite increasing social, economic and political interest in the growing global marketplace of health and medical tourism, it remains relatively unexamined in sociological and tourism literature. In this paper, I seek to understand health and medical tourism by briefly exploring its history, varying definitions, and contemporary developments. This highlights how health and medical tourism is a subjective practice and embodied experience which, due to increasing options available to tourists, is difficult to classify. Furthermore, as health and medical tourism involves an active body that is not restricted by time and place, it challenges traditional sociological understandings of tourism, which classify tourism as a passive, escapist and leisurely activity that occurs over ‘there’ in contrast to ‘here’.

Globality generates increasingly diffuse networks of human and non-human innovators, carriers and icons of exotic, polyethnic cosmopolitan difference; and this diffusion is increasingly hard to ignore or police (Latour 1993). In fact, such global networks of material-symbolic exchange can frequently have the unintended consequence of promoting status systems and cultural relationships founded on uncosmopolitan values such as cultural appropriation and status-based social exclusion. Moreover, this materialsymbolic engagement with cosmopolitan difference could also be rather mundane, engaged in routinely without any great reflexive consciousness or capacity to destabilise current relations of cultural power, or interpreted unproblematically as just one component of a person’s social environment. Indeed, Beck’s (2006) argument is that cosmopolitanism, in an age of global risk, is being forced upon us unwillingly, so there should be no surprise if it is a bitter pill for some to swallow. Within these emergent cosmopolitan networks, which we call ‘cosmoscapes’, there is no certainty about the development of ethical or behavioural stances consistent with claims foundational to the current literature on cosmopolitanism. Reviewing historical and contemporary studies of globality and its dynamic generative capacity, this paper considers such literatures in the context of studies of cultural consumption and social status. When one positions these diverse bodies of literature against one another, it becomes clear that the possibility of widespread cosmopolitan cultural formations is largely unpromising.

This paper seeks to interrogate the Seachange phenomena by utilising cultural theoretical principles developed by Durkheim (1995[1912]) and later reconceptualised through Smith (1999). It is argued that nature plays a significant role within the Seachange discourse by being ‘sacralised’ against the ‘profane’ metropolis. By interrogating public documentation developed by local councils, it is shown that nature is constructed as ‘pristine’ and ‘untouched’. This is counter-posed against the city which is aesthetically devoid of authenticity or pleasantness. Objects of technology which signify the metropolis then are considered profane and require separation from the natural world. However, the paper shows that through policy innovation, this separation is achieved on an aesthetic, predominantly visual level rather than physically, due to the demands of these areas for services (Gurran, Squires & Blakely, 2006). This occurs through hiding the ‘profane’ objects from the spectacle of nature, or if that is not possible, by blending them aesthetically into the natural surrounds. The paper concludes by examining the manner in which past ‘mundane’ objects such as 19th century infrastructures, are symbolically transformed to represent part of the area’s ‘sacredness’. Thus, the sacred/profane distinction is not fixed and immobile, but can shift according to cultural understandings.

This paper examines the idea of social economy in an era of network governance. In particular, it focuses on recent approaches to social inclusion involving strategic partnerships that combine social and economic objectives. The paper outlines some key themes in both the social economy and network governance literatures, linking them together through the issue of cross-sector joint action. The intention is to highlight the conceptual and empirical challenges this area of research poses. In this regard, we propose some preliminary questions and tentative responses as part of a broader program of research which involves conceptualising and mapping the Australian social economy.

Tensions frequently occur when people and young people seek to make use of a multitude of public spaces (Loader 1996; Brown 1998; White 1999; valentine 2004; Whie and wyn 2008). In Australia over a number of years, various strategies have been adopted by local councils, police and other stakeholders such as business groups, to respond to such tensions. Rarely, if ever, are children and young people involved in meaningful ways in the design and control of public space that reflects their needs and aspirations (white 1999;; Freeman and riordan 2002; Freeman 2006). Deploying the prisms of urban planning and law and order to deal with perceived public space issues impacts adversely on children and young people, contributing to their partial or complete removal from public space (Harris 2006; Waiton 2001). The provisional matrix presented here draws on existing material advocating child rights, extending these rights to unclude young people, as there are few frameworks of rights that are tryly inclusive of young people (Skelton 2007).

This paper briefly summarises1 findings from a South Australian study that examined whether Judges' decisions to sentence offenders to imprisonment differed between Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders when they appeared before the court under similar circumstances. Results showed that Indigenous offenders were less likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment when appearing before the court under seemingly similar circumstances. Focal concerns (attribution) perspectives are used to explore these findings.

Place identification in urban sociology has traditionally be associated with a sense of ‘being at home’ and connected to the formation of stable and fixed identities. The rise in transnational migration and the increasing number of refugees around the world has made particular regions and communities, within many western nations, culturally diverse. This has led to a re-conceptualisation and re-examination of the relationship between place and home. In light of this new paradigm I explore the existence of multicultural places and investigate the ways, if any, we can speak of ‘being at home’ in these diverse urban places. If home has been traditionally associated with order, sameness and identity while multicultural places are conceptualised in terms of fluidity, contingency, heterogeneity and difference then there seems to be an inherent tension between these two ideas. Are the ideas of home and multiculturalism mutually exclusive? I maintain that they are dialectically interwoven, especially when we acknowledge that otherness and home should not be conceived in binary terms. In order to examine this complex relationship the paper provides a brief discussion of home within the discourses of modernity and postmodernity and then links these discourses to phenomenological and sociological approaches to home. The concluding section demonstrates how home and otherness are expressed in intercultural moments where sameness and diversity rub against each other causing occasional friction but also moments of intercultural dialogue.

Postmodern society frequently presents new technologies and ways of doing things. The definition of community has been reshaped by the impact of globalisation. Distances have been reduced by people’s ability to access various types of technology. Many nations foster Lifelong Learning because education is believed to be ‘one of the principal means available to foster a deeper and more harmonious form of human development’ (Delors 1996: un). Networking among communities and/or stakeholders links social and educational resources. In Victoria, initiatives such as the Local Learning and Employment Network (LLEN) have resulted in networks of local stakeholders to scaffold the school to work transition. Schools, Adult Community Education (ACE) providers and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) providers have networked to provide alternative pathways to further education or work for young people in years 11 and 12. However, despite the intent of lifelong learning to overcome exclusion and increase social capital, Bauman (1998) indicates that the freedoms of postmodernity may result in feelings of powerlessness, as previously secure spaces become destabilised. This paper, drawing on the theories of Bauman, discusses some consequences that the shifting of local and global boundaries has on communities and asks if lifelong learning meets the challenges of postmodernity.

Beyond the limited efficiency and economy goals of neoliberal health policy lies the promise of genuine health services reform. In maternity care in particular, recent policy developments have sought to make the management of birth more ‘women-centred and family-friendly’. Interprofessional collaboration and greater consumer participation in policy and decision-making are key means to achieve this goal, but changing the entrenched system of medicalised birth remains difficult. Recent social contestation of maternity care has destabilised but not eradicated pervasive medical hegemony. Further reform requires analysis both of institutionalised patterns of power, and attention to the fluidity and situated knowledge shaping organisational and professional practices. Accordingly, this paper outlines a framework with which to explore the multi-layered social processes involved in implementing organisational and cultural change in maternity care. Analysis of social interventions in health systems, we suggest, can be advanced by drawing on strands from critical organization studies, complexity and critical discourse theories and social practice approaches.