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Proposals for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) have a long history, but a surge of interest since the global financial crisis suggests a connection to growing inequality and insecurity. The pandemic intensified interest through the global explosion in the use of cash transfers. This special issue arose from pre-pandemic debates among Australian sociologists connecting global interest around UBI to emerging patterns of inequality and insecurity stemming from Australia's precarious labour market and expensive housing market. Those discussions broadened to reflect on Australia's colonial history and patriarchal economy, and the potential to recognise more diverse contributions and values. Evolving through the Covid crisis, the issue now incorporates the remarkable alternatives that were, briefly, made possible. The articles reflect both scepticism and optimism towards UBI, but all reveal how basic income can provide a useful lens for Australian sociology – a simple tool responding to an increasingly complex society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societies often respond to a crisis by attributing blame to some groups while constructing others as victims and heroes. While it has received scant sociological attention, 'panic buying' is a critical indicator of such public sentiment at the onset of a crisis, and thus a crucial site for analysis. This article traces dynamics of blame in news media representations of an extreme period of panic buying during COVID-19 in Australia. Analysis reveals that lower socio-economic and ethnically diverse consumers were blamed disproportionately. Unlike wealthier consumers who bulk-bought online, shoppers filling trollies in-store were depicted as selfish and shameful, described using dehumanising language, and portrayed as 'villains' who threatened social order. Supermarkets were cast simultaneously as 'victims' of consumer aggression and 'heroes' for their moral leadership, trustworthiness and problem-solving. This portrayal misunderstands the socio-emotional drivers of panic buying, exacerbates stigma towards already disadvantaged groups, and veils the corporate profiteering that encourages stockpiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the latest decade of Australian sociology PhD completions for differences in the number and quality of research outputs students published during doctoral enrolment. There was no evidence of a statistically significant difference between Go8 PhD students and their non-Go8 PhD counterparts in terms of either the quantity of research publications achieved, or the quality of these publications as measured by high-impact journals. There was also insufficient evidence statistically to conclude that Go8 men and Go8 women differed from one another, or that non-Go8 men and non-Go8 women differed from one another in overall quantity of outputs and publishing in high-impact journals. However, publishing success of men and women, when combined, regardless of whether they were at elite Go8 or non-Go8 institutions, showed gender had a marginally significant effect on publication productivity, men outperforming women, in both publication counts and in publishing in high-impact journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades, there have been increased public debates about rising level of ethnic and religious diversity and their implications for social cohesion and intercultural relations. These contestations are often situated within a diversity governance continuum with two opposing and often extreme poles both in the policy arena as well as the academic literature. The first pole sees diversity as potentially contributing to social fissures and intercultural discord. The second pole highlights the benefits of an acceptance of diversity for cross-cultural awareness and social peace. Using empirical evidence from a multi-year project, this article assesses the key assumptions underlying these oppositional approaches through a study of the provision of social services to multicultural communities and its association with civic engagement and national belonging. Study findings show that access to multicultural services is significantly associated with higher levels of civic engagement among migrants, rather than social exclusion and urban segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, there is a dearth of research applying the theoretical lens of critical race theory to explore Muslim university students' experiences in higher degree education institutions. The prevailing approach has been to focus on institutional barriers and policies. This article deviates from such studies by framing the analysis in terms of a comparison between Muslim and non-Muslim white students in higher degree education institutions in New South Wales (NSW) Australia in order to operationalize whiteness in Australia's settler colonial society as a central category of analysis. The article seeks to explore how Muslim and non-Muslim students experience and respond to the university as a white institution, considering how Muslim students engage in both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies in response to the university as a white institution, and how white, non-Muslim students experience the normativity, invisibility and hegemony of whiteness in the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commentators have predicted that Australian male primary school teachers will be extinct within 50 years. Drawing upon sociological ideas about the emergence of 'caring masculinities', this article qualitatively examines popular Australian understandings about male primary school teachers, their importance, why they are declining and whether, and how, this gender imbalance can be addressed. The study analyses data from 541 comments posted in response to nine online media pieces on male primary school teachers in Australia. The article shows that commenters believe men teaching young children experience stigmatised masculine identities but misplace the cause of this as the result of women and anti-feminist 'anti-male bias' rather than the constraining impact of hegemonic masculinity. The article suggests that until more caring and progressive forms of masculinity are culturally and economically valued in Australia we will see little change in the numbers of men entering primary school teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores why women miss out in the transition from the educational system to the labour market. Using nationally representative longitudinal data (2001–18) from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we compare how long after graduation it takes men and women with tertiary qualifications (n = 2030) to achieve key labour market milestones: (1) getting a full-time job; (2) getting a permanent contract; (3) earning an average wage; (4) finding a job that matches their skill level. We find significant gender differences in reaching these milestones, confirming that time is a critical dimension for understanding gendered inequalities in the returns to education. We attribute findings to incompatible 'timescapes' across the institutions of education, family and employment. The more flexible timescape of education allows women to succeed, but the inflexible timescape of employment (particularly when combined with family responsibilities) impedes them from turning educational achievement into labour market progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International studies using the European Social Survey (ESS) reveal higher support for Universal Basic Income (UBI) in poorer countries with less generous welfare systems, and among individuals with lower income and education, and leftist political leanings. We present data from the 2019−20 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes mirroring the ESS question. Australia falls in the middle of European opinion, with 51% supporting a UBI, increasing slightly during the onset of Covid-19. We also find higher support among two different groups: (1) those facing greater 'material' precarity, including younger, low-income, unemployed, suburban renters, and (2) those who have more post-materialist concerns, including Green-left voters and those favouring redistributive values. Unlike in other countries, higher education predicts more support, while homeownership predicts less. The article concludes with challenges to introducing UBI to Australia, including potentially contradictory strategies for different support bases (material vs post-material), ongoing commitments to means-testing, and negative framing in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's remote-focused 'workfare' program (Community Development Program, CDP) has produced overwhelmingly negative impacts, most of which have been borne by its ∼80% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants. The Australian government has announced that CDP will end in 2023, though a replacement policy/program is not yet decided. Here, I bring three public proposals for replacement policies (wage subsidy, Job Guarantee, Liveable Income Guarantee) into conversation with one another, and compare these to the possibilities offered by a basic income. Drawing on documentary evidence, I discuss potential advantages and disadvantages of these alternatives, asking whether they might improve wellbeing and alleviate the harms experienced under CDP-style workfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changes in social security measures introduced by the Australian government during the first wave of Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020. These measures were basic income-like in that they became both more unconditional and adequate for a reasonable standard of living. This was achieved through a significant supplementary payment, suspension of mutual obligation requirements, and the relaxation of eligibility criteria on a range of unemployment-related payments. Through drawing on the results of an online survey, we examine the impacts of these measures and find that they significantly helped to alleviate poverty and improve wellbeing. These gains were not insignificant for the individuals involved, and offer empirical insights into studies of basic income. While seeing the Australian government embrace more generous and basic income-like measures, we also note that during Covid-19 gendered and class inequalities increased. This reminds us that basic income is never a silver bullet and, alongside implementing basic income payments, there also needs to be a concerted effort to restructure economic relations more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks: 'To what extent can health professional influencers function as health pedagogues, educating their audiences and protecting public health in an era of digital misinformation?' The article teases out that question by applying Content Analysis and Framing Analysis to a selection of TikTok and Instagram posts by Dr Michael Mrozinski, a Scottish general practitioner who is based in Australia. The posts seek to debunk online misinformation and provide facts regarding COVID-19. Mrozinski's social media content exemplifies what the article terms 'public health pedagogy' (PHP) – pedagogy that is informed by public health principles and that is undertaken outside traditional educational institutions. The article also asks: 'How exactly does Mrozinski respond to misinformation actors and to what extent does this diminish the effectiveness of his PHP?' The article investigates whether Mrozinski's hostility towards these actors actually invokes stereotypes of medical experts as elitist and uncaring. Those stereotypes are commonly expounded by misinformation and conspiracy actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the impact of education as the most important human capital endowment in the context of migration, religion, gender and ethnic identity from a demographic perspective. It presents research-based evidence to address such key research questions as whether and how significantly women's education provides equal benefit in the labour market for individuals, based on their migration status, religion, and ethnic identity. The field of this study is the multi-ethnic and multicultural context of Australia with a wide range of ethnic and religious groups of migrants from throughout the world. Preliminary results show that labour market achievement is positively and significantly associated with the educational attainment of individuals, irrespective of their migration status, religious affiliation and ethnicity. However, more comprehensive analysis from comparative perspectives reveals that the positive economic return of education is higher for natives (compared with migrants), for ethnic migrants from developed regions of origin (compared with those from less developed regions of origin) and for non-Muslims (compared with Muslims). The article provides two plausible explanations for these patterns. The first refers to the lack of recognition of overseas qualifications and to the devaluation of foreign education that particularly applies to ethnic migrants from less developed regions. The second relates to disadvantage through structural discrimination against migrants, particularly when their cultural and religious identity, such as Islamic names and dress codes, are distinctively displayed. In sum, this analysis presents further research-based evidence to go beyond the human capital theory in order to explain more appropriately the economic return of women's education in the context of religion and migration from a demographic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the issues limiting prevention of elder abuse in Australia is lack of a strong evidence base to target social drivers of abuse, particularly ageism. This evidence gap is exacerbated by social discourses that perpetuate negative representations of older age as a time of vulnerability and physical decline, often in opposition to people's actual experience of ageing. This article presents findings of the 'OPERA Project', which used co-designed digital storytelling to explore how ageing and ageism are perceived by older people. The project findings indicated that preventing elder abuse requires discursive intervention to combat negative social discourses representing older people, and to frame social acceptance of the inherent complexity of experiences of ageing. Using a social constructionist approach, this article puts forward a 'middle path' through traditional theories of ageing and associated 'positive ageing' discourses, which often problematise ageing itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about the state of Australian sociology have raged for as long as sociology has existed in Australia. Concerns about the discipline's future may be inevitable for a critical, reflexive discipline, but to those entering the discipline, it is neither instructive nor productive to be subjected to lingering disciplinary anxieties. After more than fifty years, it is time to take stock of the differing visions of sociology, and examine the arguments about the health, or otherwise, of Australian sociology. To advance this debate, we consider the signs and benchmarks of a 'successful' sociology as expressed in The Australian Sociological Association magazine, NEXUS, and key writings from Australian sociologists. We suggest that much of the disagreement over the status of sociology derives from the way 'disciplines' and 'success' are defined. Regarding sociology to be an heterogeneous, multi-modal, social institution and practice, we propose a way forward in our efforts to represent ourselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to approaching work and family as conflictual roles, a shift towards acknowledgement of the positive interaction between work and family has been detected. This research investigated whether married/cohabiting and divorced/separated parents differ in terms of work–family enrichment, considering their gender and relationship status after separation. Data from 3993 married/cohabiting and 1455 divorced/separated parents from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) database were analysed using regression analysis. The results revealed a complex interplay of relationship status and gender. Single mothers experience more work–family enrichment after a break-up than do mothers with a partner. No differences were found for fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing commentary rarely systematically acknowledges racism in the Australian aged care field. This article begins to address this gap through a detailed focus on the experiences of 30 African migrant women workers, one of the fastest growing groups employed in aged care across Australia. Drawing on data generated through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, we argue that racist micro-aggressions, specifically micro-insults and micro-assaults, were a commonplace experience for this group of workers. Micro-insults and micro-assaults were perpetrated interpersonally, and also drew upon and reinforced colonial discourses about backwardness, inferiority and Otherness. We conclude that for these carers, micro-aggressions have a two-fold effect: they express everyday racism in interaction, and they position African migrant carers as unwelcome and unable to care for and care about clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights a divergence between equivalent cultural practices undertaken by Calabrians in Italy and by individuals originating from Calabria living in Australia. It offers a reflexive framework on identity and authenticity. Previous research on a group of Calabrian-Australian families living in Australia found a widespread feeling among participants that they were 'more Italian' than the Italians who live in Italy. On the other hand, similar claims were made in Italy, during a brief period of fieldwork in Calabria among the 'sedentaries' (those who did not emigrate). Data show differences between the modus operandi of equivalent cultural practices among the participants in Adelaide and in Calabria and a divergence in participants' perceptions of ethnic identity and authenticity. In proposing the terms 'Archetype village' and 'Alter Ego village' to refer respectively to the migrants' village of origin and their community overseas the article examines notions of authenticity utilising socio-anthropological theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's history of negative child protection outcomes for children in state care highlights the sustained, systemic nature of serious harm. Situated in emerging conversations on structural challenges and state violence for parents involved in child protection systems, we trace the resources and barriers to responsive and 'just' child protection practice, highlighting how institutions can serve to compound disadvantage and injustice. We argue that addressing challenges such as access to advocacy at the level of the individual is to miss the underlying politics of oppression that serves to keep families marginalised. Instead, we need to rethink how parental rights and responsibilities are best facilitated at institutional levels – what we term institutional justice capital. This requires public conversation about thresholds for child removal, transparent treatment of families, access to mechanisms to challenge the determinations of child protection authorities, and inter-organisational respect and collaboration to support families to navigate complex and multiple systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In reflecting on the last two decades of publications by Australian rural studies scholars in three major disciplinary journals, this article argues that the field of Australian rural sociology has failed to address racial inequality and class difference. While we note a burgeoning of feminist rural research challenging the historical emphasis on the white male farmer, this too has tended to occlude class and race, as is demonstrated in our analysis of the national 'Invisible Farmer' project. Accordingly, we point to a need to bring anti-racist work and scholarship to bear on our subdiscipline. In particular, we call for Australian rural studies scholars to engage with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander scholarship to interrogate whiteness as a category of difference and to open a discussion about relinquishing settler power, including in the academy. We emphasise the need for actions to understand and challenge the continuing dominance and privilege of whiteness and the fundamentally classed colonial project in Australian rural studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a random stratified sample of people over 18 years of age residing in Australia, this article examines participants' opinions of the Islamic faith independently of their opinions of Muslim people. Earlier studies have not made the nuanced distinction between opinions about Islam as a religion and opinions about Muslims as people. Theoretical approaches suggest that there is a difference in the opinions non-Muslims have of Muslims and their religion. The non-Muslim Australians we surveyed have very different opinions about the religion of Islam than they do about Muslims, with significantly higher levels of favourablity towards Muslims than towards their religion. Our findings in this latter respect are somewhat at odds with the body of international literature, which suggests it is Muslims, with their cultures, lifestyles and values, that non-Muslims perceive to be problematic. We explain the implications of our findings for government and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motherhood can bring joy and enrichment but may also be associated with stress leading to poor health outcomes and low life satisfaction. Young mothers are a group particularly at risk of adverse outcomes, including increased social, economic, and health disadvantage following early entry to motherhood. This article reports results from a mixed-method study examining variations in levels of social support reported by mothers. Cross-sectional analyses of survey data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children showed that young mothers (aged less than 25 years when their child was born) generally reported higher levels of social support, but poorer family relationships than older mothers. In-depth interviews with nine young mothers provided insights into how they perceived support under these circumstances. Our research shows that young mothers often experienced difficult childhoods and strained relationships with parents, but many reconnected with their mothers after pregnancy and saw them as important sources of support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses trends in Chinese–international marriages and divorces, using Australia, a major migrant-receiving country, as a comparative case study. In exploring the recent rise of 'Chinese–foreign' marriage in the People's Republic of China (PRC), we show that Chinese–international marriage within mainland China is a small, gendered phenomenon that largely involves Chinese women marrying men from other Asian societies. By examining unique data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we reveal that most marriages involving PRC-born people in contemporary Australia are between two people born in China. But the displacement of Chinese intimate relationships to a non-Asian country results in significant behavioural divergences from couples 'at home', especially regarding prior cohabitation. Marriages solely involving PRC-born couples in Australia are also typically less enduring than marriages to non-Chinese. We argue that these differences underscore the roles of country-specific immigration policies and labour mobility patterns in shaping unpredicted family formation behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]