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When Rupert Murdoch announced in April 2004 that he intended to see his company, News Corporation, reincorporated in the United States, two competing representations of the 'media mogul' came to dominate the press's interpretation of this event. The first of these 'Murdoch representations' was the most common, and painted an image of a successful entrepreneur, a 'celebrity CEO'. Yet, the second 'Murdoch representation' painted a different image, a more detailed portrait, with critical attention paid to the modus operandi of the world's most notorious media proprietor. This article deconstructs these representations of Murdoch, a mythic fracturing of image resulting from the political economy of the Australian press. In essence, the article explores issues of media diversity, myth and ideology, and the propensity of the press for critical, impartial, journalism. The empirical data are drawn from an analysis of two of Australia's pre-eminent newspapers: The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a tribute to the late Steve Crook who shared with us the excitement of research on environmentalism. As we predicted, environmental activism in Australia remains socially circumscribed, but its scope, and the scope of environmental concerns, have been widening. Differentiation and proliferation of environmental issues combine with social diffusion and routinization. The pro- portion of people who see the environment as a salient issue continues to be relatively high, in spite of an increasing competition from new issue concerns, including security and illegal migration. The new `white' environmental issues enter the public arena reflecting widespread (though less urgent) concerns about genetic modification of food-crops and cloning of human tissue - all interpreted as `interference with nature'. The `white' environmental issues attract the concern of new social categories of `conscience environmentalists' who are more likely to be women, tend to be older, religious; and less attracted by green organizations. They are also less metropolitan in their location, and not as leftist and postmaterial in their value preferences as their `green' and `brown' predecessors. The formation of the `white' environmental issue cluster and constituency opens the way for new ideological reinterpretations of environmental outlook - and for new political alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The passage of the GST legislation through the Senate brings to an end 25 years of debate over whether Australia should radically alter its tax system. This paper investigates the empirical problem of whether there were patterns of public opinion indicating that voters may have been averse to one particular aspect of taxation more than any other. The paper also addresses the methodological problems involved in investigating the suggestion that voters expressed intransitive preferences in regard to taxing and spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a comprehensive, sociological explanation of the increasing recognition and use of alternative therapies--such as acupuncture--by Australian GPs. Noting the 'pragmatic' motives of clinical legitimacy and market demand, this paper goes on to explore the deeper roots of this phenomenon in a widespread cultural shift often termed postmodernisation. In this instance, this development involves a return to and commodification of nature, spirituality, tradition and pre-modern, often non-Western values and practices. These postmodernising trends are compatible with the holistic health values that underpin alternative therapies. The analytic inductive methodology employed involved the collection of data from 60 health care providers from the Brisbane metropolitan region. This paper, however, draws on only part of the data collected to provide empirical evidence of clinical 'postmodern' encounters of biomedically trained GPs (n=17) who employ alternative medicine in their daily practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines attitudes to workplace entitlements, such as parental leave and flexible work hours. Family friendly policies such as leave to care for children have implications for feminist debates about sameness versus difference and the extent to which such policies will lead to greater equality between men and women, or alternatively, further entrench existing gender divisions of labour. Using data from a recent national survey in Australia, the paper shows that while the Australian workforce is generally in favour of workplace entitlements, women are generally more supportive of these kinds of benefits than men. Surprisingly, most respondents are more supportive of unpaid rather than paid parental leave. The results also show that the most important determinants of support for work entitlements are a combination of the extent to which one needs work entitlements and employment location. The results raise issues about whether the provision of workplace entitlements will encourage greater participation by men in domestic responsibilities, or simply ease women's double burden of paid and unpaid work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a study of murder-suicide in Australia. The study is based on the analysis of 188 events in four states of Australia spread over a period of 20 years from 1973 to 1992. This paper focuses on two types of murder-suicide--those events in which a male offender kills his female partner and those events in which a parent kills his or her child or children. The motivations of men and women who commit murder and then kill themselves are qualitatively different. The findings are discussed from a feminist perspective and it is argued that there is a need to combine psychological and sociological frameworks for a better understanding of murder followed by suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on research into the practice of euthanasia amongst Australian health care professionals specialising in HIV/AIDS. It draws on data from thirty-nine semi-structured interviews carried out in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra with physicians, general practitioners, hospital and community nurses, therapists and community workers. Using a qualitative methodology, the study seeks to identify how (illegal) euthanasia is currently practised, the degrees of involvement, the various forms that involvement takes, and the social relations which provide the context for involvement. In this paper we outline three categories of 'doers' to illustrate the range of attitudes and practices concerning euthanasia. This 'typology' carries a number of implications for recent policy debates over the legalisation of euthanasia In particular it illustrates, at least within the context of AIDS care, the fragmentation of consensus over euthanasia amongst health care workers, the reality of current illegal euthanasia practices, and the limitations of a prohibitionist policy. While the legalisation of euthanasia within a regulatory framework is sometimes portrayed as an extreme or 'radical' response to terminal illness; the data presented in this paper suggest that prohibitionism is also radical in its failure to control euthanasia practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of neighbouring and community is a vexed endeavour. In Australia, analytical difficulties are exacerbated by the political nature of suburbia and the ambiguity which surrounds the place of the suburbs in Australian culture. What is well known, however, is that traditionally women have been at the centre of suburban life and are influential in establishing and maintaining everyday neighbourhood communities. Unfortunately, academic knowledge is scant in regards to the experiences and priorities of women in this regard, and of the criteria they use to delineate their communities and determine the boundaries of neighbourhood interaction. This paper considers these issues and reports on a study of neighbouring in an industrial Newcastle suburb. The paper argues that objective class position and life-cycle stage may not, as has previously been thought, be the crucial determinants of neighbouring. Rather, in playing their pivotal role of shaping and defining their residential communities, the women in the study set the boundaries of network inclusion and exclusion by privileging a particular form of housing tenure--ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s a remarkable transformation has occurred in the rationale that informs public policy in Australia. This transformation reflects a fundamental change in the way national economies and populations are conceived by policy-makers, and has led to the emergence of new strategies of governance as a consequence. We argue that this change of direction in Australian public policy may be best thought of as a specific neoliberal `political rationality'. The first section of the paper outlines changes in conceptions of the economy and subjectivity which are associated with neoliberalism as a political rationality. The second part of the paper examines the articulation and implementation of neoliberalism in Australia over the last couple of decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the largest 250 companies in Australia in the early 1990s and their network of interlocking directorates. It examines the institutional profile of Australian big business and the impact of globalisation. It finds that international capital has not, as yet. made major inroads into the core of Australian big business although global finance capital has had a major impact on its mode of operating. It argues that the greatest area for structural change is the privatisation of government-owned enterprises. Following the precedents of US and international studies the paper then explores key features of the theory of financial hegemony. The paper uses network analysis of interlocking directorships to assess the centrality of banks and the direction of ties among big businesses. Australian banks are heavily interlocked and 'attract' executives of other companies to their boards but they do not constitute the core of the intercorporate network as in the US. As outlined by Australian scholars the systemic conditions of capitalist hegemony in this country involve uncritical acceptance of big business leadership. These conditions privilege all large, Australian public companies (the 'private sector') as the core institutions of class power. Centralisation and hierarchy within big business parallels these conditions of public culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the lack of recognition and devaluing of the work of Australian farm women by examining the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) report, Women on Farms (Gooday 1995). The paper argues that the work of ABARE and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is fundamentally flawed by their definition of what constitutes valid work and by their perception that farm family labour can be differentiated by gender such that the work of men is accorded greater value while the work of women is reduced or ignored. By examining the nature of farm family labour, analysing the notions of work and by incorporating a radical feminist framework to this analysis, this paper challenges ABS and ABARE to reexamine their position on the issue of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Intergenerational difference' has become a lens through which to view issues of identity, social connectedness, belonging and agency in migrant youth research, highlighting that differences in the aspirations of migrant youth and their parents shape young people's experiences. The article will present findings from a mixed methods study of social network participation among three migrant youth cohorts in two Australian cities to address a perceived 'gap' among migrant youth and parents' aspirations for social network formation and participation. The paper will first examine current theoretical approaches to intergenerational challenges in migrant youth research. It will then introduce 'intersectionality' as a concept offering a more nuanced understanding of the challenges and hopes of migrant youth for whom social networks can be a gateway towards belonging and connectedness. This, however, requires a negotiation of complex structural, social and cultural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the courtroom legal authority must be performed by the presiding judicial officer. It is also a social situation where information and emotions must be managed in face-to-face interactions. This paper investigates how magistrates perform their authority in the delivery of decisions in open court. An observational study of criminal cases in Australian lower courts shows that magistrates communicate sentencing decisions in a distinct manner. Magistrates frequently look and speak directly to the person being sentenced (the defendant), in line with everyday conversational conventions, and preface their decision with explanations, which allow for some engagement with the defendant. When delivering other kinds of decisions (in criminal cases), such as adjournments, magistrates display less engagement with the defendant. These findings underscore the important ways in which the embodied presence of the defendant and the interactional dimensions of the courtroom can impact on the legal process and the legitimacy of judicial authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologist Nicole Asquith argues that, in Australia, when it ‘comes to population ageing, sociology has been, in large part, silent in the face of neo-liberal policies of positive ageing’ (2009: 255). In the absence of such critical research, governments at all levels since the 1990s have pursued policies of ageing that tends to subordinate the social needs of older Australians to the nation’s economic needs. This paper seeks to explain why the critical social gerontology movement has not taken root in Australia through an historical analysis of ageing research in Australia. Furthermore, it aims to demonstrate the rewards of critical analysis through new research into the discourses of positive ageing. It also shows how older Australians resist ‘responsible’ ageing and its regulation of them. This analysis is designed to inspire further critical engagement, which recognizes the diversity of older Australians, giving voice to their resistance, and better inform policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the ways in which ‘the child’ is positioned in obesity debates and, in doing so, examines the discursive relations between childhood obesity, mothering and child neglect. Using legal cases of parental neglect and an analysis of representations of obesity in Australian print media, we argue that a particular constellation of ‘child politics’ in which children are represented as innocent victims of poor parenting is at play. Parenting, however, is a code for mothers and it is their gendered responsibility for food and families for which they are now being held legally culpable in cases of neglect. The relationship between children and mothers has become the focus of moral discourses around childhood obesity, containing contradictory elements of innocence and risk, responsibility and danger. The intersection of child politics, mothering and individualized responsibility not only illuminates the ways in which gender is absent yet centrally implicated in obesity debates and policy, but also highlights how models of neoliberal governance encompass both State and decentralized forms of power in their attempt to regulate excess bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australian sociologists have barely engaged with the resurgence of economic sociology in the USA and Europe. It might be argued that this lack of engagement arises from a robust local agenda, immune from metropolitan fashions This article argues that this is not the case. Rather, it arises from the enduring residualism of Australian sociology vis-a-vis economics In turn, this residualism is grounded in sociology's late beginnings in Australia, the dominant framework at the time of its institutionalization in the 1950s and 1960s, and the limited challenge presented by critical approaches from the 1970s. The article identifies four major lines of inquiry in the resurgence of economic sociology: network analysis, comparative political economy, field theory and performativity theory Notwithstanding their differences, these approaches direct attention to the social construction of markets. In turn, they challenge both mainstream economics and sociology. The papers in this Special Edition of the Journal of Sociology build upon these lines of inquiry in the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and the academic performance of children is well established in sociological research. Another important dimension is the factors that may influence educational outcomes within low SES families. This paper presents new data from a sample of over 3000 students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds to estimate the extent of socioeconomic, family, individual and contextual factors on school educational performance. Results obtained using binomial logistic regression techniques indicate that gender, unexplained absences, parental educational attainment, housing type, ethnicity and student age are all statistically significant variables and predictors of academic performance. In contrast, family structure, the main source of family income and geographical location do not significantly predict outcomes in school performance once other factors are controlled for. The findings support the notion that the 'social' and the 'economic' components of the socioeconomic status equation have distinct and separate influences on educational outcomes. While financial assistance to schools and families in need is important, policies and programmes that also assist low-income parents in providing appropriate psychological and educational support for their children should also be promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of US hate crime legislation reveals a significant overall trend involving: (1) the inclusion of a notion of hate motivation on the part of the offender; (2) the provision for enhanced penalties; and (3) the identification of particular victimized groups who are listed in state and federal hate crime statutes. Whether or not a person is recognized as a hate crime victim in US statutes has been shown to be heavily influenced by the strength of social movements based on politicized identities. It is argued that this alignment problematizes the position of victims who are the targets of hate crimes yet who fail to organize on the basis of identity politics, lack political clout, have insufficient moral status, or who see hate crime legislation as an ineffective way of dealing with their particular concerns. This paper examines the barriers to achieving hate crime victim status for persons who are targeted because of their occupations or sexual orientation. The specific examples I will use are doctors and other workers in abortion clinics, sex workers and paedophiles. These widely disparate groups have been selected as examples to highlight some of the moral status, politicized identity and social movement and lobbying strength issues that are currently involved in being recognized as a victim of hate in the US. It is argued that Australia should not proceed down the track of introducing hate crime legislation. Hate crime legislation is the source of serious social disquiet and acrimony in the US. There are inequities built into the alignment between proving hate intent and the enhanced penalty approach that involve giving higher symbolic status to some bodies and not others. As the experience in the US shows, this has a dangerous potential to undermine social cohesion and community faith in equality before the law as well as creating a breeding ground of resentment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unemployment policy is currently informed by notions of labour force flexibility, workfare and mutual obligation. Things have not always been this way. Over this century there have been profound shifts in the way in which unemployment and government responsibilities have been conceptualized. Using the notion of 'welfare rationalities' to guide the discussion, this paper records the nature of these changes. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which economic objectives intersect with the social and moral-behavioural components of unemployment programmes. The changing nature of these factors is traced through three distinct welfare rationalities surrounding un/employment: relief, full employment and mutual obligation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian government has expressed a continuing interest in the assessment of research productivity as a basic element of a 'rationalised' research funding process. Bibliometric analyses are among the techniques that the government uses to evaluate the quality of research performance. Like many other disciplines, sociology is a target of these assessments. This paper presents data to demonstrate how Australian sociology might measure up if subjected to an inquiry using these methods. Data are provided on the standing of Australian sociology internationally and on the research contributions of major Australian universities. Several important methodological issues are reviewed and discussed. It is concluded that Australian sociologists would be well served by becoming active participants in the ongoing national debate over the assessment of research performance and the allocation of funding for tertiary education and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data drawn from the authors' own 1996 Australian National Trade Union Survey, this paper examines the size and implications of union bureaucracies in Australia. In particular, we critically evaluate the arguments of Bramble (1995b) that the growth of Australia's 'new generation' of union officials has had the effect of 'deterring democracy'. We find that while the evidence of increasing numbers of union officials is mixed, there are some trends that are contributing to higher union official density rates while other trends are lowering those rates. However, we find no support for Bramble's central claims that union bureaucratisation and managerial-service unionism have led to less democratic practices in Australian unions. Rather than being concerned with the number or class character of officials, we suggest that organisational features such as delegate structures are more relevant to the issue of union democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early 1970s, large numbers of Aboriginal people became tenants of the Housing Commission of New South Wales under the Housing for Aborigines program. Most moved from government reserves or dilapidated and overcrowded private rental dwellings to broadacre suburban estates. As public housing tenants, they encountered considerable pressures to become 'respectable' citizens, to build their lives around privacy, sobriety, moral restraint, the nuclear family, conventional gender roles and wage labour. For many indigenous Australians, these expectations--which were based as much on class relations as on colonialism--represented a threat to their conventional ways of life and their obligations to extended family and community. This paper explores the patterns of conformity and resistance amongst Aboriginal tenants. It draws on the sociological and cultural studies literature on youth subcultural resistance and compares anthropological theory about indigenous responses to the pressures of modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian researchers have used ANU status scales for over two decades to assign socioeconomic status scores to occupations coded into the occupational classifications produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). When the ABS has released new occupational classifications in the past, the ANU scale has been updated accordingly. The most recent status scale, the ANU3 scale, was developed in 1989 for use with the First Edition of the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO). In 1996, however, the ABS released the Second Edition of ASCO. In this paper, we report an adaptation of the ANU3 scale for use with this modified classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to go beyond the usual liberal/democratic debates about the justifiability of compulsion or arguments about partisan benefit, towards a discussion of the social and economic functions of compulsory voting. The main theme is that given a number of trends both here and in comparable contexts, it would not be a good idea for Australians to consider abandoning the present system. These trends include: policy driven socio-economic insecurity; greater time pressures upon those in work; increasing alienation and apathy among the young and a global trend towards political demobilisation. Abstention is understood as both a political and emotional response to economic marginalisation and social isolation. Subjective feelings of alienation, neglect, cynicism and low political efficacy are treated as socio-psychic norms which govern the behaviour of non-voters, culminating in what is termed here 'political shyness'. The politically shy are shown to be among the most vulnerable members of our community and it is suggested that under a system of voluntary voting, political shyness would negatively affect the welfare of these groups. The importance of compulsion is also linked to notions of reciprocal obligation and the centrality of inclusive citizenship to Australia's anticipated republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the annual rich lists compiled by the magazine Business Review Weekly. Methodological considerations mean that the lists are tilted against old wealth spread around kinship networks, and towards new wealth assembled by individuals on the cusp of a speculative wave. Even so, the lists provide the best available profile of large private fortunes ('superwealth') in Australia. More than this, the lists highlight the private wealth of entrepreneurs, a group largely overlooked by sociological research on the capitalist class. Further, they highlight private accumulation as a pathway to business leadership among ethnic groups otherwise excluded through social closure. In this context, ethnic and religious diversity among entrepreneurs have necessarily problematised the institutions, networks and collective self-identity that once informed the cohesiveness of the capitalist class in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the Australian humanities and social sciences, the research field of Australian identity has produced a substantial literature. Yet, notwithstanding the impressive array of scholarship on the topic, empirical research and analysis on how contemporary Australians understand and experience Australian identity has existed in a disparate form. Since studies of popular views about Australian identity remain to be integrated, this paper will review social scientific research and analysis in the area for the first time. Three matters will be considered in reviewing these studies. First, I illustrate the contexts in which research on popular views about Australian identity has been conducted. Second, findings from these studies are pooled for the purpose of documenting current empirical knowledge about Australian identity. Third, some problems with existing research are considered and possible directions for future research proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intersecting issues of violence and masculinity are central to Australian rugby league. Positively sanctioned violence is explicitly linked to the all-male preserve of rugby league, with physical violence and domination being an historically naturalised way of performing masculinity in this context. These characteristics see this sport perform as a `flag-carrier' of masculinity in Australian society. This paper utilises Connell's concept of the `gender order' to bring the issues of masculine identities, and the role that violence plays in the formation and construction of these identities, into the critical spotlight. While gender relations in rugby league appear `natural', `static' and `normal', and remain mostly unquestioned, it is hoped to unravel many of the social and historical processes that have constructed and maintained masculine hegemony in and through the game. Issues to be addressed include codes of player behaviour, the body, injury and violence, the subordination of women and women's sport, and homosexuality in rugby league's homosocial subculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a brief overview of Stephen Crook's scholarly and professional work as a prelude to the articles by Malcolm Waters and Jan Pakulski. His scholarly work particularly focused on the theorization of social differentiation and social order in studies of everyday life. The TASA 2003 Presidential Address is dedicated to the life-work of Stephen Crook. Steve was a prominent figure in Australian sociology and made a significant contribution to the profession over many years. In order to gain a fuller appreciation of Steve's scholarly work, there are no two people better placed to comment than his close friends and colleagues Malcolm Waters and Jan Pakulski. At one stage, all three were in the Department of Sociology at the University of Tasmania, where they co-edited TASA's "Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology" and co-authored the internationally acclaimed book "Postmodernization." Another paper, by Waters, traces the pathway of Steve's intellectual development through three life phases, from Steve's early days in York, to Hobart and then finally to Townsville, explaining the development of his post-foundational approach and highlighting the great promise of Steve's later work on social differentiation and "orderings."