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Hepatitis C has long been a public health problem in Australia. 'Revolutionary' new drugs with the potential to cure hepatitis C have now emerged. The Australian government has invested heavily in them, and has an ambitious goal to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030. Numerous shifts in policy and practice are required if the elimination agenda is to be realised. This paper explores the significance of these shifts. We ask: what is the race to elimination doing with the subject? We argue that the race to elimination can be understood, simultaneously, as a product of posthuman forces, capable of being analysed using the theoretical tools made available via the posthuman turn; producing an intervention in what it means to be human; and generating a dilemma for people who use (or used) drugs, people with hepatitis C, and posthuman scholarship. In drawing out these issues, we aim to: trace the significant developments underway in hepatitis C medicine and raise awareness of them; encourage reflection on the consequences of these developments; and invite reflections on what might be lost when the human is remade by hepatitis C medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the frequent occurrence of unwanted disclosure of HIV status in Australia, there is little understanding of its determinants and consequences. This paper offers an analysis of lived experiences of unwanted disclosure amongst 28 people with HIV in urban settings in Australia. Of the 28 individuals interviewed, 17 men and 8 women had experienced unwanted disclosure of their HIV status by other people in work, health, social and other settings. Through the lenses provided by the concepts of habitus and agentic practice, this paper focuses on unintentional and deliberate practices of unwanted disclosure, and the consequences that may arise from this. Findings reveal how unwanted disclosure may lead to reflexive and agentic action among people with HIV as they struggle to reclaim control over their lives and how they are perceived. Despite what is sometimes assumed, the negative social responses the HIV epidemic has given rise to persist in Australia. Some 30 years into the epidemic, findings highlight the need to establish a social climate that is intolerant of unwanted disclosure, and which recognises the damage it may cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although abortion rates appear to be declining in high-income nations, there is still a need for accessible, safe abortion services. However, limited attention has been paid to understanding the social contexts which shape access to abortion information and services for communities who are less engaged with sexual and reproductive health care more generally. This paper explores the views and experiences of 27 migrant and refugee young people (16–24 years old) living in Sydney, Australia, regarding unintended pregnancy and abortion. Pregnancy outside marriage was described by all participants as a shameful prospect as it revealed pre-marital sexual activity. Even when abortion was described as culturally and/or religiously unacceptable, it was believed many families would find an abortion preferable to continuing an unintended pregnancy outside marriage. However, a pervasive culture of silence regarding sexual and reproductive health may limit access to quality information and support in this area. To better meet the needs of these young people, greater attention must be paid to strengthening youth and community awareness of the availability of contraception including emergency contraception, pregnancy options, and access to abortion information and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the Indigenous people of Australia. The prevalence and burden of chronic disease among them is significantly higher than that of non-Indigenous Australians. This paper describes the chronic illness experiences of 19 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in urban areas in terms of their strategic representations of self. Participants in this study used techniques of revealing and concealing chronic illness. These strategies were employed in multiple arenas - among family, among broader community, and in specific spaces including health care services. They highlight tensions that arise through the intersection between the desire to preserve family and community life, and the ways in which the physical body manifests chronic illness. In this paper we bring together notions of time (drawing on Zimbardo's time perspectives theory) and biography (drawing on Bury's disrupted biography theory). Through an analysis of shifting boundaries we conduct an exploratory investigation of the ways in which urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this study weave together elements of both past and future perspectives to mobilise modes of self-representation and agency in their management of chronic illness. We then consider some options for primary health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts from the premise that embodied knowledge is critical to understanding health policy implementation. We explore this notion through a qualitative investigation of the way that knowledge has functioned in the implementation of an Australian mental health policy, Partners in Recovery (PIR). Analysis uses the theoretical lens of interpretive policy analysis and the 'embodied, inscribed, enacted' knowledge schema developed by Freeman and Sturdy [(2014a). Introduction: Knowledge in policy – embodied, inscribed, enacted. In R. Freeman & S. Sturdy (Eds.), Knowledge in policy: Embodied, inscribed, enacted (pp. 1–19). Bristol: Policy Press]. Our analysis reveals a policy problem centred around difficulties of coordination where the inscribed solution lies in individuals who must implement the PIR program in local areas. Our interviews with PIR consortium members and stakeholders show that this implementation happens through the enactment of embodied knowledge. However this implementation is not straightforward and we point to difficulties arising from the centrality of embodied processes in implementation, related to the localisation of systems knowledge in individuals and structural devaluation of certain types of knowledge over others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of sociological knowledge in Australian universities is explored through an empirical study of research papers published in a selection of academic outlets between 1960 and 2011. Drawing on theories concerning scholarly practices, institutional formation and the sociology of knowledge, questions are posed about the factors that shape and structure the production of sociological knowledge about health and medicine. The concept of intellectual schools is examined, with evidence sought for the presence of these 'knowledge networks' in the Australian context. The study suggests the formation and maintenance of schools are subject to structural factors within the university sector, specifically the relative wealth and prestige of the university and the dictates of the higher education market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study of the impact of casualised and independent contractor work place arrangements on the psycho-social health of 72 workers in regional Victoria. It contributes to our understanding of the crisis in rural Australia in its use of qualitative methods focusing on the impact of work on health and well-being. There is some evidence in the literature that casualised work arrangement enhance the health and well-being of workers by giving them a sense of autonomy and freedom to negotiate their conditions of work. On the other hand, these arrangements may make an already vulnerable group even more vulnerable to uncertain work conditions, poor pay and uncertainty for their future with a significantly negative impact on their health and wellbeing. The results of these interviews support this latter perspective and show that these workers do not experience freedom and autonomy, but rather lowered social status, insecurity and serious limitations to their ability to manage their health, psychological wellbeing and social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, consumers in Australia and elsewhere have increasingly been confronted with a fast growing number of health food products. This profusion of health foods is accompanied by a proliferation in popular culture of professional nutritional advice on 'what is good to eat'. The genre of lifestyle magazines is one popular medium via which healthy eating practices and health foods are frequently reported. In this paper we use a visual discourse analysis of food-related editorial and advertorial content sourced from the long running and popular The Australian Women's Weekly to investigate how lifestyle magazines have been one important locus for constituting health conscious consumers. Taking up a Foucauldian governmentality perspective we trace how this active, responsible conceptualisation of the consumer, which we refer to as 'healthy food consumer', has increased in prevalence in the pages of The Australian Women's Weekly over time. Based on our analysis we suggest that the editorial and advertorial content offers models of conduct to individuals about what possible preventative activities in which to engage, and plays an important role in shaping how we think about taking care of our health through eating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is evidence to suggest that illicit drug use is increasingly a ‘normal’ part of the lives of many young people in Australia. The normalisation framework has been applied in limited contexts in Australia, and has not been assessed using longitudinal data. This paper uses cross-sectional periodic data collected at the Sydney Big Day Out music festival between 2006 and 2009 to examine several aspects of normalisation among festival patrons. Over the 4-year period high proportions of respondents reported that cannabis and ecstasy were ‘very easy’ or ‘fairly easy’ to obtain. In most years, over half the respondents reported ‘any illicit drug use’ in the past 12 months. A statistically significant relationship was found between recent illicit drug use and degree of contact with other people who use drugs (χ2 = 64.391, df = 4, p = 0.001). Such results suggest that certain aspects of drug use are normalised among festival patrons and that these are particularly concentrated among certain groups of young people. These groups could to be targeted when delivering drug education and prevention activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, fluoridation was first endorsed as an effective, safe and equitable means of improving population oral health over fifty years ago. However, recent opposition to attempts to introduce the measure in several regional Victorian towns has demonstrated that it remains a highly controversial health policy. This paper investigates the history of the Victorian fluoridation debate within a national and international context. It finds that although the evidence concerning fluoridation has advanced considerably, the essential arguments put forward by proponents and opponents have remained largely unchanged over that time. Protagonists incorporate the same scientific evidence yet come to polarised and unshakeable conclusions. I argue that the concept of deep structure ideation is a useful means to understand how this occurs. Furthermore, analysis of the ideas and social processes that determine a partisan position in the fluoridation debate makes this an important case study for approaching other durable scientific controversies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current Australian maternity policy, while fragmented and uneven, is moving in new directions. Alliances between consumers, sympathetic health professionals and bureaucrats have placed the objectives of improving women's choices, increasing their control over decision-making and providing continuity of care firmly on the agenda. The state arena is a central space for articulating such demands and policy support has been critical to implementing changes in service delivery. Along with steps forward, though, steps sideways and backwards indicate the contingent character of the late modern state as it responds to social changes at the same time as advancing particular political goals. This paper argues that impediments towards making services more 'women-friendly' lie not only in the historical location of childbirth management in the medically-driven acute sector but in contemporary neoliberal political and economic pressures that both promote and yet constrain change. Research in selected Victorian hospitals suggests that desirable goals are compromised by working realities in contemporary public hospitals. Political mobilisation in the community and around the state remain necessary to encourage further change in childbirth management, but continuing critical assessment of the structural context and human challenges of maternity reform is also essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]