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The sale of raw drinking milk from cows is banned in Australia due to regulatory requirements that all milk must be pasteurised. Such a prohibition is based on concern about public health and safety risks, and was upheld in the most recent review of raw milk product regulation undertaken by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). However, this decision is not one that is universally accepted, with some people challenging the conclusion that raw milk is dangerous, and choosing to still source and drink it. In this paper, the contested regulation of raw milk is examined by questioning the normative assumption that the object in question, raw milk, is a singular entity, and one which is always dangerous. Drawing on analysis of six FSANZ documents released as part of its raw milk review, this paper discusses the practices that stabilise raw milk as always risky; processes that are found to wash away the possibility of other, potentially safe, versions of raw milk. It concludes by finding that such stabilisation has tangible impacts for public health policy and regulation, including limiting the parameters within which debate can occur, and precluding the possibility that other versions of raw milk could exist, or be accounted for in food safety regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common depictions of buying and selling illicit drugs online centre on how drug market actors engage in dark web drug cryptomarkets, but the supply of illicit drugs also takes place in 'plain site' on the surface web. Drawing on netnographic observations and qualitative interviews with hard-to-reach buyers and vendors (n = 20), this paper explores LeafedOut, a specific, popular surface web platform, that provides a conduit for local cannabis exchanges. We found that the platform enabled easy access and supply at the local level but increased some specific risks to those involved. Actors neutralised the perceived risks of drug supply over this surface web platform through the broader societal normalisation of cannabis use/supply, adopting encrypted messaging applications to cover 'digital traces', and developing various methods to establish trust with an exchange partner (e.g. review systems, sending selfies with drug paraphernalia, selectively choosing meet-up locations). This paper expands our understanding of the growing number of online illicit drug markets by shifting attention from dark web cryptomarkets to the much more widely accessed surface/clear web. Theoretical implications for the study of trust and risk in online illicit drug market exchanges are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of consensus statements in a risk society. It uses Beck's theory of risk to show that scientists have employed consensus statements in order to re-establish faith in science. Through analysing the goals of participants in consensus fora and comparing them to the fora processes, this paper considers how consensus statements and guidelines in public health can be viewed as remedies for the decline in expert trust experienced in the current risk society. To collect data, 25 interviews were undertaken with consensus panel participants from the USA, UK and Australia. Interviewees were from peak national agencies/commissioning agencies and were categorised as policymaker, practitioner and consumer stakeholders. Participants made recommendations for improving consensus processes in order to mitigate perceptions of risk. These were: (1) clearly stated goals; (2) robust, evidence-based and transparent processes of methodological development and participation/deliberation/decision-making; (3) diverse stakeholder representation, including increased consumer participation; (4) transparency about conflicts of interest; and, (5) robust, carefully worded recommendations. Poor-quality consensus statements can further entrench scepticism about the scientific enterprise. While consensus statements can be seen as a tool for moderating perceptions of risk, policymakers and scientists must ensure the integrity, strength and transparency of their research methods. This has the potential to facilitate policy, improve scientific accountability to the public and legitimise processes. While fostering greater trust is not a primary objective for scientists, an increase in legitimacy of process can be an important unintended consequence of improved quality consensus statements and an important antidote to the risk society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of financialisation has not yet become a major subject in mainstream construction economics research. This is surprising since construction risk, risk management and project financing have long been important issues for researchers and practitioners. This paper introduces the concept of financialisation, outlines its causes in the construction industry and identifies some effects. An important dimension of financialisation in the construction industry can be seen in the growing conversion of illiquid built assets into liquid financial instruments that have become a distinct global asset class. These liquid construction assets have become important to current risk management and profit strategies of developers, major construction firms and capital market investors. Five key drivers of financialisation in the construction industry are identified. The article finds that a principal effect of financialisation in construction is to intensify competition for access to global capital, which in turn reinforces long-established tendencies for risk shifting in the contractual chain. The Australian construction industry has been an early adopter of the key drivers of financialisation and is used in this article as a case study. In developing the case study analysis the article also draws on observations by major Australian construction industry associations and financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on critical securitisation theory to explore different constructions of housing risk within the Australian context. In particular, it is interested in how housing regulation has been variously constructed as an issue of national importance. To this end the paper has three key parts. First, the salience of securitisation framing theory is reviewed as a critical analytical lens that might have utility within the urban housing context. Second, key national housing narratives are identified and discussed in relation to the role of regulation at the risk management/securitisation nexus. Third, the national securitisation of Australian housing as part of the broader political economic 'great risk shift' is discussed. The paper concludes by highlighting the implications of this approach to the national securitisation of housing risk in a climate-constrained future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development and validation of spatial models for wildfire occurrence at a broad landscape scale. The hotspots databases from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and logistic regression models are investigated for the comprehensive understanding of environmental and socioeconomic determinants regulating the spatial distribution of wildfires over the 11-year period 2003–2013. The probability of occurrence of at least one fire on a 1 km2grid cell in a 1,030,000 km2region located in South-Eastern Australia is studied for the prediction of future fire occurrence. Our research shows that wildfires are most likely to occur in mountainous areas, forests, savannas and lands with high vegetation coverage, and are less likely to occur on grasslands and shrublands. Wildfires also tend to occur in areas near human infrastructures. Environmental variables are strong individual predictors of fire occurrence while socioeconomic variables contribute more to the final model. The influence of environmental and socioeconomic conditions on wildfire occurrence and the spatial patterns of wildfires identified in this study can assist fire managers in implementing appropriate management actions in South-Eastern Australia. This paper also demonstrates the potential of applying the MODIS active fire product in wildfire occurrence studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a number of the ways in which globalization can accentuate the uncertainties and risks borne by Australians with retirement savings in superannuation funds or who are receiving superannuation benefits. It begins by addressing the impact of globalization on job prospects as a result of off-shoring. It then turns its attention to the impact of globalization on domestic inflation. The third area addressed by this paper is the vulnerability of superannuation funds to the ‘regular’ financial crises of the world financial system. Here, particular attention is given to the way international hedge funds operate in bear markets. Finally, the paper describes the increasing prominence of sovereign wealth funds and explores the implications of their growing role for future superannuation fund earnings. A major conclusion of the paper is that the certainty of the financial uncertainties and risks associated with the occupational superannuation pillar means that Australia's retirement income system needs to be modified in order to limit the exposure of workers' retirement savings and benefits in payment to some of the consequences of a globalized financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the place of risk and risk management within contemporary Australian drug policy debates, focusing on the Howard Government's Tough on Drugs strategy. In exploring the conceptual bases of this strategy, this paper suggests that the characterisations of risk discernible in Australian debates have been dominated by a narrow group of 'expert' discourses leading to a range of gaps and omissions in the development of drugs policies. Furthermore the paper suggests that such omissions have significant implications for the development of harm reduction strategies within young drug using populations in Australia and elsewhere. In developing these arguments, the paper draws upon the work of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens. Of particular interest is Beck's account of the tension between 'expert' and 'non-expert' risk assessments within contemporary risk management debates. In privileging more 'expert' risk knowledges, this paper suggests that Australian drug policies have ignored the range of 'non-expert' risk management strategies that exist within young drug using populations, and concludes that this ignorance of the culture and the context of young people's drug use further undermines the efficacy of health promotion efforts within these populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the methodological politics of researching at the intersections of sexuality, culture and religion in secondary schools. It draws on experiences during a project concerned with how to address cultural and religious diversity in sexuality education in Australia and New Zealand. The paper focuses on two methodological sticking points, one occurring inside academia and the other outside, in schools. The first coheres around the process of gaining ethics approval from multiple institutional committees and the second accesses schools for participation. These sticking points are conceptualized as effects of a set of discursive and material constraints which are idiosyncratic to school-based sexualities research. We argue that discourses of sexuality and young people are mobilized in both spaces and intersect with a social moment of ‘risk anxiety’ in ways that shape the methodological possibilities of the research. These discourses serve to constitute sexualities research as ‘risky’ and ‘controversial’, an image which impedes the generation of new knowledge in the field. By rendering challenges of this research visible and discursively deconstructing the reasons for them, we refuse to dismiss school-based sexualities research as ‘too hard’. Instead, we aim to keep this topic firmly on the educational research agenda by alerting researchers to its challenges so they may prepare for them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In contemporary Western society, the concept of risk is mostly linked related to negative or undesirable outcomes and used to explain unusual or abnormal events that have harmful consequences. Working in a poststructuralist framework, in this article we examine how risk shapes interactions between midwives and pregnant women in the context of public hospitals in Australia. We draw on data from an observational study of clinical encounters in three Australian hospitals between October 2014 and July 2015. The research teams recorded 83 health encounters and in this paper we draw on data from the recordings of 10 clinical consultations between 8 midwives and 10 pregnant women at various stages of gestation. We used these data to explore how a discourse of risk was mobilised through rhetorical strategies and practices of ‘hunting’ for the abnormal and attempts to control the body. Our findings demonstrate how a discourse of pregnancy and birth as risky operates within public hospital midwifery consultations. We found that in the midwifery consultations we recorded, pregnancy was constructed as a period of vulnerability and unpredictability. It was normalised through discursive practices of hunting for the abnormal and rhetorical strategies of attempting to control the body. Within this discourse, midwives occupied conflicting positions. They asserted that women, with the right support, were capable of spontaneous and intervention-free (pregnancy and) birth. Yet, they acted to enable medical professionals to assess a woman’s ability to give birth (un)assisted, or the potential for an adverse event. The women, while positioned as passive within the public health system, were positioned as active in surveilling themselves and responsible for taking steps to mitigate against adverse events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Risks posed by new species entering local environments have instigated Indigenous peoples' efforts to develop new knowledge and land management strategies in many regions. Working to share responsibility for the management of these risks requires new information, prompting government agencies, Indigenous organisations, industry groups, and others to advance new knowledge and different biosecurity practices. Tensions can exist between diverse interest groups advocating different versions of "biosecurity risk." For example, which organisms should be governed as harmful, what kind of knowledge is useful to inform management practices, and what constitutes "risk"? We draw on research conducted with Indigenous organisations in northern Australia to better understand what risks they associate with "caring for [sick] country." We argue that effective biosecurity practice in cross-cultural settings can navigate the bridge between different kinds of knowledge and capabilities to support diverse values, notions of responsibility to country, and related understandings of risk. Further, we argue that "biosecurity risk" as a boundary concept could provide the means for creating improved knowledge partnerships that value all interpretations of "biosecurity risk". Partnerships that recognise multiple approaches for taking responsibility for the management of identified risks could support innovation for cross-cultural and collaborative approaches to biosecurity practice and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is tipping for service customary in the United States, but not Australia? With origins in sixteenth-century England, then moving onto Continental Europe, tipping was introduced to both Australia and the US in the late-nineteenth century. Yet it became the norm only in the US, whilst simultaneously marginalised in Australia. This paper proposes that the structure of US society in the late-nineteenth century was one that was conducive to tipping, while the structure of Australian society was not. Furthermore, quiet anti-American sentiment in Australia during the Second World War defined tipping as “un-Australian”. These two factors have ensured that tipping has been seldom practiced in Australia's history. However, this seems to be changing in recent years. The extent to which Australians adopt the custom may depend on the direction of labour-relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the construction of avian influenza in Australian media and federal government policy, with a focus placed on discourses of contagion, preparedness and risk. The threat of an infectious disease outbreak, such as avian influenza, on social life is surrounded by a range of collective narratives which attempt to make it explicable. These narratives socially define the disease and provide explanations for its existence. The paper demonstrates that central to these narratives are depictions of the source of the outbreak and suggestions of appropriate responses to the threat. Methodologically, a narrative analysis of print media and government documents was conducted. This showed that conceptually both government and media discourses could be understood in terms of risk, contagion and blame. Furthermore, it was found that narratives linking the risk of avian influenza with globalised interconnectedness and contagion by the developing world underpin discourses of causation and frame the reactions to and preparation for a potential outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this paper is to discuss the limitations of risk management as a strategy for Australian local government climate change adaptation and explore the advantages of complementary approaches, including a social-ecological resilience framework, adaptive and transition management, and vulnerability assessment. Some federal and local government initiatives addressing the limitations of risk-based approaches are introduced. We argue that conventional risk-based approaches to adaptation, largely focused on hazard identification and quantitative modelling, will be inadequate on their own for dealing with the challenges of climate change. We suggest that responses to climate change adaptation should move beyond conventional risk-based strategies to more realistically account for complex and dynamically evolving social-ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2003, avian influenza has recently spread around the world sparking fears of a potential pandemic. As a result of this, a range of explanations and expectations surrounding the phenomenon were generated. Such social representations of disease depict the issue under discussion and frame reactions to the event. This paper explores the social representations surrounding avian influenza in Australia. Methodologically, a textual analysis of media and government documents was conducted in order to uncover the social representations implicit in these accounts. This demonstrated a symbolic framing of avian influenza with reference to the Spanish Influenza pandemic (1918). Analytically, the study draws upon the concepts of social representations from Durkheim and of risk and symbolic risk in the work of Beck. Overall, it is argued that the framing of avian influenza as a risk, mediated through the collective memory of Spanish Influenza, characterised the nature of the social representations surrounding the phenomenon. This resulted in the production of symbolic solutions to the threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between the prominent aetiological frameworks for mental illness in Australian psychiatry, and ideas and strategies for preventing mental illness. Data is drawn from the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry for the period 1967-2005, and textbooks used to teach the psychiatric component of the medical degree at six Australian universities since 1950. Content analysis of the journal demonstrates that social aetiological models dominated Australian psychiatry until 1985 and the rise of biological models. This represented a shift in the focus of mental health prevention from the social environment to the individual, and the re-location of psychopathology from social relationships to social and biological risk factors. A consequence of this new focus has been the re-targeting of mental health strategies toward individuals and their exposure to social and biological risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents evidence of a ‘normalisation’ of the risk of homelessness experienced by apprentices and trainees in Australia. It draws on a bespoke survey of past and current learners in its Southern state, group and one-to-one interviews with apprentices and trainees, and a review of a government support programme, conducted in 2012 and 2013. The research produced evidence of apprentices and trainees experiencing homelessness in the course of their studies, but also applying preventative strategies to avoid or lessen its impact. At the same time, the study encountered behaviours and judgements reflecting a generalised acceptance among learners and training providers of this risk, which has been reinforced by the marketisation of training provisions in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper falls into two parts. The first contributes to the development of concepts necessary to understand questions of 'self-formation', particularly in relation to domains of government. The second seeks to work these concepts within a case-study of what it calls 'governmental-ethical practices'. The case-study consists of an examination of the recent reform of social security and income support practices concerning the unemployed in Australia and the utilization of the language, rationality and techniques that have been elaborated under the rubric of the 'active society' by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It offers an analysis of these governmental-ethical practices of the unemployed in terms of what they seek to govern, the means by which they propose to do so, their forms of subjectification, and the mode of existence they envision. It suggests that the analysis of these practices challenges and forces us to refine our approach to the formulae of neoliberal or advanced liberal government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Victorian Child Death Review Committee (VCDRC) in Australia is a multidisciplinary Ministerial Advisory Committee established to review the deaths of children either currently child protection clients or known to the statutory child protection system. The Committee provides advice about each child death as well as insights into what are the surrounding patterns and issues. Key to this role is examining the contribution of the service sectors to the protection of children and the routine practices that are in place to respond to children and vulnerability. This paper provides a snapshot of the cases referred to the VCDRC and the key messages for practice drawn from them. What emerges is that often the threshold for when statutory child protection services must be involved in child and family matters can be ambiguous and that agreement about intervention, the level and nature of need or risk, and when cumulative harm and neglect require statutory responses are not always shared between agencies. It is clear that the lack of common frameworks about what constitutes child protection intervention challenges services. It is recommended that there be and used agreed definitions and frameworks to ensure shared understandings and collaborative responses across the service and legal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asset ownership is a significant cost to Fremantle Ports and developing a best practice strategic asset management (SAM) framework that provides a simple, logical and innovative approach for optimising the whole of life cycle cost of asset delivery in meeting the agreed levels of service and risk exposure has been a corporate priority over the past years. With the development and implementation of the SAM framework well underway, Fremantle Ports now focuses on the integration of asset management practices across the business, from operational through to tactical and strategic planning. A pilot project has been proposed to assess and improve asset management practices across one of Fremantle Ports' most critical asset classes, the wharves and jetties. This paper reviews the findings and challenges of this project and the various tools that were developed, including a life cycle cost model. This model is based on asset condition and related deterioration curves that allow for the estimation of remaining life. In addition, the model enables the selection of most cost effective rehabilitation strategies while considering risk profile and available funding, assisting Fremantle Ports in optimising the decision making process by providing an actual and an optimised life cycle cost plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a school subject, health education functions as a contemporary apparatus of governmentality by attempting to shape the health[y] conduct of young people. Currently, health education, along with many other institutions and programmes, is heavily shaped by neoliberal logics of risk. This paper is interested in exploring how these tenets shape versions of curriculum and classroom practices. The article draws on ethnographic data and the analytical device of governmental assemblages to consider how governmentalities are brought to life at their point of application; via teacher interviews and classroom practices. Analysis reveals that health education pedagogical assemblages are made up of the usual ‘neoliberal suspects’: risk discourses and strategies that attempt to individualise and responsibilise. However, accompanying these ‘usual suspects’ are a raft of melodramatic and affective intensities, including disgust and shame. These affective pedagogical assemblages are significant for scholars interested in understanding the governmental machinery of health education, and public health and health promotion more broadly, and its potential effects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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This paper examines key aspects of the Australian public's response to swine flu through an analysis of interviews and focus groups with people deemed “at risk” by medical authorities. The wider context for the study is provided by risk theory, research on public responses to emerging infectious diseases (EID) and the concept of biocommunicability. We focus on reflexivity in engaging with media, views on the government's response, and vigilance and behaviour change. EID fatigue, a predisposition toward distrusting the media, personal circumstances and location within particular social networks, shaped responses to news reporting of swine flu. People did not link swine flu to already stigmatised groups because they identified it as “resident” in the community. The continuing dependency of lay publics upon governments and expert systems may help to explain the lack of criticism directed at more traditionally powerful groups. Distancing took a variety of forms. While newspapers emphasised the “novel” and “deadly” swine flu narrative, audiences readily described it as just another flu and were unconcerned about contracting it. However, some imagined that others were more vulnerable to the effects of media reporting. Some reported searching the internet for information, which may explain the differences between how they saw it and how it was reported. Also influential was the fact that their lived experiences did not bear out the novelty or seriousness of swine flu. Our discussion is informed by our concurrent analyses of media coverage and interviews with EID experts and journalists involved in the reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the mid-1980s, Australian governments have focused on expanding community and home-based services for older people. This has led to increased levels of dependency, vulnerability, and complexity to be managed in the community. Consequently, aged care services have had to develop mechanisms for regulating and managing these increased risks, and risk management has become more central to the practices of professional workers in this field. This paper reports on some findings from a large-scale study that explores the way risk management policies have been translated into practice by community-based services in Victoria, Australia. Drawing on interviews with 18 frontline and management professionals employed in community aged care, we found that these workers were wrestling with a diverse and new range of institutional risks beyond those encountered in the actual delivery of frontline care. We found that these workers experienced 'risk' in four different contexts, which often created demands for contradictory or conflicting responses. Here we examine these 'contexts of risk practice': professional workers' relationships with their clients, relationships with other service providers, the unregulated nature of the home as a work environment, and community expectations about the management of risk. Despite tensions that frequently arose, workers expressed strong professional commitments to their clients and were motivated to find positive resolutions amid competing interests. We conclude that tensions experienced by workers were embedded in the structural dimensions of institutional relationships and the systematic absence of shared understandings of 'acceptable' risks in the community care of older people, rather than in the failure of professional agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing need for Australian cities to augment their water supplies, the community has displayed increasing interest in alternative water sources. Public attitudes have ranged from enthusiasm to concern, and in some cases have resulted in the rejection of potential new water supplies. To date, there has been little research that has attempted to examine and understand the basis of community acceptance of a new water supply system. This paper outlines a research program that aimed to develop a model of community acceptance that was consistent over different scales, source-points, end-uses and users of current and future water supply systems. It describes the development of an hypothesised model of community acceptance which incorporated a range of psycho-sociological variables. This then went through a preliminary assessment, followed by testing of the model, and finally a confirmatory stage of research. The program resulted in a robust model that can assist planners and developers in understanding and gaining community acceptance of alternative water supply systems at a range of spatial and temporal scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial body of work has considered the role and impact of constraints on the leisure experience. Recent research in leisure constraints theory, however, has moved beyond a preoccupation with barriers to access and identified the importance of in situ constraints and their impact on the leisure experience itself. New directions in constraints research are needed to expand our understanding of in situ constraints in leisure segments like adventure recreation. This paper presents the findings of an interpretive, qualitative study of how in situ (or 'in-water') constraints impacted on the experiences of 27 recreational scuba divers in Australia. The notion of comfort as it applies to adventure leisure and diving is also explored. Using a grounded approach to analysis, it was revealed that divers' comfort was constrained in physical, psychological, social, and visual contexts. This suite of constraints worked to limit, disrupt, or impede divers' in-water comfort, bringing discomfort or uncertainty into a dive. The implications and application of these findings for adventure leisure research and practical management of the scuba dive experience are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, mental health practice has become increasingly focused on assessing and managing the risks posed by service users. British researchers have made significant advances in studying the consequences of risk management for community-based health and welfare services, but in Australia this field remains largely undeveloped. Drawing on my experiences as a social worker in a Melbourne-based Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team from 1991 to 2008, the present paper offers a reflective analysis of the shift in practice orientation that has emerged through the growing prominence of risk as a foundation for intervention. Specifically, I argue that this shift has led to a narrowing of service provision and that “low-risk” clients are newly disadvantaged, often excluded from service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emergent critical social work risk literature positions risk as a morally conservative construct that has repressive effects in direct social work practice. In this literature it is argued that how risk is defined and operationalised in social work reflects the political dominance of neo-liberalism as an ethos of government within the context of the social and cultural conditions of the risk society. This narrative is fast becoming a dominant perspective in the social work literature. However, this perspective in effect creates a 'catastrophe story' where there is little room to envisage an alternative social work practice that is able to resist the conservative effects of risk. In addition there is little empirical evidence to support the relevance of this pessimistic view to the embodied aspects of social work interventions. This paper presents initial findings of a study undertaken in Australia that has explored whether risk is necessarily as totalising of our professional identities, and in turn our practices, as is suggested by this literature. The findings indicate that whilst practitioners were interpellated within conservative contexts in their front-line practice, ethical, moral and value standpoints assisted practitioners to resolve the moral dilemmas posed by risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing political significance of private health insurance can be located in an altered understanding of the role of individuals and the State in protecting citizens' welfare. In common with other Western societies, contemporary Australia is marked by an expectation that people will fund their own needs and identify and manage their own risks throughout their life course. However, we lack information on how people come to make their decisions. In particular, there is no analysis of why people choose to invest in private health insurance. This paper reports on an exploratory study investigating the motivations for the uptake of private health insurance. Taking a socio-cultural approach, the study indicates that while people's stated reasons for buying health insurance show some surface similarities with the reasoning expected of neo-liberal citizens, a closer reading of the data indicates they do not approach their decisions in a rational or calculative way. They rely less on weighing evidence (e.g. relevant statistics, the provisions of their contract with the insurance provider and their own experiences) than they do on trust in an impersonal system, i.e. they believe people and systems will not harm them in future situations (Gilson 2003). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from a qualitative analysis of the perceptions Australian young women cigarette smokers have of the medical health messages espoused through anti-smoking campaigns. The study aims to show that the deployment of medico-scientific knowledges in the most recent series of anti-smoking campaigns disseminated in New South Wales Australia (those which emerged in the 1990s under the auspices of the National Tobacco Campaign (NTC)), means that for a number of reasons, the anti-smoking message becomes detached from the everyday life circumstances and smoking choices of the young women. Semi-structured face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of 20 Australian young women smokers aged 18 to 24. The sample was purposively selected according to gender, age, and smoking status. Interviewees were drawn from the Sydney metropolitan and surrounding Sydney area, the Newcastle area and the Hunter Valley area. The interviews were one-off and took place from May to December 2002. The study found that there are a range of important issues which flow from the tendency of the anti-smoking discourse to characterise and profile smoking as a ‘risky’ health behaviour. For young women who smoke for the positive benefits associated with the activity (such as stress relief and enhanced social interactions), the risks may be justified as part of a risk profiling, where the smoker sees the risk as a risk they are willing to take in an inherently uncertain and risky world. For anti-smoking campaigns to impact on young people, they must adopt strategies which increase the awareness of young people regarding their own particular health risks, and do so in ways which are non-judgemental and even optimistic, without tacitly endorsing risky behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the middle of 2020, with its borders tightly closed to the rest of the world, Australia almost achieved the local elimination of COVID-19 and subsequently maintained 'COVID-zero' in most parts of the country for the following year. Australia has since faced the relatively unique challenge of deliberately 'undoing' these achievements by progressively easing restrictions and reopening. Exploring the role of mathematical modelling in navigating a course through the pandemic through qualitative interviews with modellers and others working closely with modelling, we argue that each of these two significant phases of Australia's COVID-19 experience can be understood as distinct forms of 'model society'. This refers at once to the society enacted through the governance of risk, and to the visions of societal outcomes – whether to be sought or to be avoided – that are offered up by models. Each of the two model societies came about through a reflexive engagement with risk facilitated by models, and the iterative relationship between the representations of society enacted within models and the possibilities that these representations generate in the material world beyond them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media representations of refugees who are HIV-positive often revolve around criminal transmission cases. This study examines the approach the Australian mass media have taken toward the case of two men from refugee backgrounds and how this stigmatizing language is unhelpful in discussions of HIV. An extensive search of the Factiva database was undertaken for all newspaper articles in the major dailies that mentioned 'HIV,' 'AIDS,' and 'refugee' between 2002 and 2008. Analysis was guided by several approaches to media analysis in an attempt to understand the representations of HIV-positive refugees. When analyzing the media articles of criminal cases relating to HIV we found that refugees who are HIV-positive were portrayed in a negative fashion, with the concept of 'otherness' prominent throughout most newspaper media reports. Considering this is the main source of information for most people concerning HIV, this representation carries the potential to lead to further stigma and discrimination to both people living with HIV and refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with increasing supply chain risks due to economic and environmental changes, it is imperative to answer the question of how to reduce supply chain risks. This study examines supply chain collaboration as a risk mitigation strategy. The study examines three types of risks, namely supply risk, demand risk and process risk in relation to three types of collaboration, namely supplier collaboration, customer collaboration and internal collaboration, as a mechanism to mitigate those risks. The proposed relationship model is tested with data collected from 203 manufacturing companies in Australia. The results show that each area of collaboration effectively reduces its respective supply chain risk, but only the mitigation of process risk and demand risk has a direct effect on supply chain performance. In addition, both supply risk and demand risk increase process risk. We offer theoretical and practical implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As antibiotics have become increasingly ineffective against bacteria, antibiotic stewardship has been introduced across a variety of settings world-wide. Members of the public have been entreated to use antibiotics strictly as prescribed. We interviewed ninety-nine participants who shared their understandings of antibiotics and reflections on antibiotic resistant bacteria. Some participants were eager consumers of antibiotics whilst others sought to avoid them. Overall, the participants expressed their desire to act in a responsible manner in relation to antibiotic usage. However, we also found considerable confusion regarding responsible action linked with risk management and trust in expert advice. Despite the encouragement of personal responsibility for health decisions, sick individuals are urged to enact a Parsonian-like sick role that abdicates personal decision-making powers and invests trust in the expertise of prescribers. We find this assumption of a responsible, knowledgeable patient and expert clinician is disrupted by 1) patients' contingencies when circumstances force them to seek and use antibiotics despite their misgivings, 2) patients' own embodied knowledge and assessment of their vulnerability and progression of infections and 3) doubts in the expert knowledge of clinicians, as considered in light of scientific debate. Accordingly, lay publics are left entangled in contrary expectations of responsibility and trust regarding the use of antibiotics with significant implications for antimicrobial stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past several decades, the paradigm of risk has become increasingly salient for understanding how health care is provided. In more recent years, we have seen an expanding body of literature raising concerns of possible harms that a focus on risk may carry. Despite considerable research interest in risk, relatively little is known about the construction of risk in contexts of allied health resource allocation decision-making. This article reports on qualitative research exploring how allied health leaders construct the concept of risk and how this influences resource allocation decision-making. Data are drawn from forums held in August and September 2014, with a total of 59 participants who occupied leadership roles in allied health in Australia. The findings highlight three domains of risk: resource, patient and organisational risk. Some domains of risk received more attention from participants and exerted greater influence on decision-making than others. Relative to the other domains, patient risk was not a core focus. Risk had a distinct emotive element and some domains of risk led participants to focus on catastrophic outcomes. Patient risk did not evoke emotive responses, whereas both resource and organisational risk did. It appears that perceived risk may be costly for health organisations, as it can be a primary driver underpinning resource allocation decisions. We explore the relative lack of attention to patient risk, the role of fear and anxiety in decision-making, and discuss implications of the impact of a focus on risk in wider society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Trainees across the healthcare sector contend with ubiquitous risk during clinical placement. This has prompted educative action to enhance student competency in unpredictable clinical environments. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of Risk Aware, an online blended simulation‐based learning program, upon student preparedness and confidence for clinical placement. Method: A sequential explanatory mixed‐methods design was utilised to evaluate Risk Aware. The Risk Aware program was trialled on 149 first‐year professional psychology postgraduate students across seven Australian universities prior to their first clinical placement. Repeated measures t‐tests investigated the impact of Risk Aware learning modules upon student knowledge and confidence; descriptive statistics and analysis of frequencies summarised student competency following Risk Aware (N = 120). Follow‐up qualitative interviews explored the nature of student knowledge and confidence, and student impressions of Risk Aware (N = 8). Results: Preliminary quantitative findings demonstrated significant increases in student knowledge and confidence (p < 0.05), and low‐to‐average competence, after Risk Aware. Qualitative results corroborated increases in student knowledge and confidence and pointed to early signs of clinical competency. Student impressions of Risk Aware were generally positive and included suggestions to improve program usability. Conclusions: Findings highlight Risk Aware's capacity to increase students' ability to identify and detail responses to risks arising during placement. Further field testing to ascertain students' application of skills is required. Results will inform program modifications to enhance future Risk Aware iterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Victoria, data indicates that in 2013–2014 there were 74,992 adult male arrests, yet little formal attention has been paid to the parenting status of these men, despite knowledge of the impact of parental arrest and incarceration on children being well established. This article addresses a gap in the literature by providing new insights into the experiences of arrest of 34 primary carer fathers incarcerated in Victoria. It examines how incarcerated primary carer fathers experience planning processes for their children at the time of arrest and what factors facilitate or hinder the planning process. To do so, the article draws on data gathered for an Australian Research Council funded study conducted in Victoria and New South Wales between 2011 and 2015. Key issues include: the primary location of paternal arrest; the presence, or absence, of children at the location at which the arrest is made; police awareness of children; and subsequent discussions between police and fathers about suitable care. Findings indicate that half of all arrests took place in the family home. Children were present in 10 of these arrests and half were characterised by force, a large number of police, or weapons. Findings also indicate that in around one-half of all arrests, children were not physically present, despite fathers continuing to have responsibilities for these children. Despite 27 of the arrested men reporting that the police were aware (or made aware) of their children, almost all of these men (n = 26) were not asked about suitable care even when their children were physically present. Overall qualitative findings depict an absence of any discussion about children between police and fathers during the arrest process. The study highlights the demand for guidelines regarding child sensitive practice when a primary carer father is arrested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports wagering has been identified as a gambling product which may pose particular risks for young men, because of the aggressive marketing tactics used to promote these products, and the alignment with culturally valued sporting activities. However, there is very limited information about the socio-cultural processes that may contribute to the normalisation of sports wagering for this population. Using semi-structured interviews with 50 Australian young men who gambled on sport, we explored the way in which peer group behaviours influenced attitudes towards, and the consumption of, gambling products. Four thematic clusters emerged from the interviews. First, young men perceived that sports wagering was a ‘normal’ and socially accepted activity, and a natural ‘add on’ to sports. Second, there were clear indicators that sports wagering was becoming embedded within existing peer based sporting rituals, with the emergence of gambling clubs, and online forums. The third finding related to the shaping of gambling/sport discussions, which created a sense of identity and a point of conversation for peers. Finally, some participants spoke of the social pressure to gamble to ‘fit in’ with their friends. This study suggests that sports wagering poses a new health threat for young men, with sports wagering quickly being normalised as an embedded activity in young male sports fans' peer groups. There are clear lessons from the Australian experience for other countries, relating to the ways in which industry marketing tactics may combine with culturally valued activities such as sport, to influence risky gambling behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies investigating attitudes to genetically modified (GM) foods suggest a correlation between negative attitudes and low levels of science education, both of which are associated with women. In a qualitative focus group study of Australian women with diverse levels of education, we found attitudes to GM foods were part of a complex process of making “good” food decisions, which included other factors such as locally produced, fresh/natural, healthy and nutritious, and convenient. Women involved in GM crop development and those with health science training differed in how they used evidence to categorize GM foods. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how GM food, and the role of science and technology in food production and consumption more broadly, is understood and discussed amongst diverse “publics” and across different “sciences,” and to research related to deepening public engagement at the intersection of science and values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within the context of heightened perceptions of risk within the higher education sector worldwide, responsibility for outcomes is increasingly required not only of universities but, also, of individual academics. In turn, contracts have become a key form of governance for institutions in mediating and modulating this risk and responsibility. While much writing around the use of contracts in higher education has focused on market-based, competitive neoliberal conceptions of contractualism, this article argues that there are, in fact, two largely antagonistic new modes of contractualism – market contractualism and relational contractualism – and a third, residual mode, paternal contractualism. These three modes of contractualism coexist within universities, in tension. The article draws on two Australian exemplars to highlight how these tensions play out and to highlight the potential for contractualism to create spaces for shared goals and projects and shared risks resulting from the ways in which responsibility and individual agency are negotiated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Soil moisture is a critical component of a wide range of human activities. Its decline correlates well with climate change. This study extends the examination of soil moisture in Victoria, Australia by the pioneering work undertaken in 1965 by G.D. Aitchinson and B.G. Richards. It examines trends in soil moisture in three, twenty-year, and six, ten-year periods from 1948–2007. This 60-year period includes a number of wet and dry periods and provides long-term trends that should be considered in assessing the impacts of climate change on land use. The study applied the Thornthwaite Moisture Index using data on rainfall, temperature, potential evapotranspiration and soil water-holding capacity from 135 Victorian weather stations. This led to the development of soil moisture zones depicting the extent of changes between time periods. The findings hold significant implications for the future of agricultural production and construction suggesting that some practices will cease or shift to different areas. Risk from bushfires may also be increased. The findings point to the importance of soil moisture as one of many important factors contributing to the resilience of complex socio-physical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australian workplace safety legislation places specific duties on asset owners and operators, including the requirement to demonstrate that diligent decisions have been made and carried out in the safe management of their assets. A layer of significant complexity is added when an asset is heritage-listed. These obligations place significant importance on heritage-listed asset owners’ and operators’ decisions, especially given that the safety measures that are considered reasonable are only ever determined in a court of law after an incident. Relevant issues are identified with the current approaches to safety-related engineering decisions in heritage contexts. A discussion is then provided of the context within which these approaches sit, including legislation and good practice, and how current approaches address (or fail to address) critical legislative aspects. Finally, an approach is presented that addresses these problems in an efficient and transparent manner, and its value is demonstrated through case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article furthers the discussion in the March 2015 (Vol. 35, No. 2) issue of Public Money & Management on ‘Public procurement policy and practice— international lessons and debates’. In particular, it illustrates some of the major difficulties in achieving the required policy outcomes through the procurement processes. The numerous ‘failures’, particularly in the defence acquisitions area, are of ongoing concern both in terms of ‘blow-outs’ in costs and, more unfortunately, in achieving strategic defence capability and overall policy outcomes in required timeframes. Can current public sector reforms and observed better practice provide any encouragement for, discipline on, participants to achieve the required results or is it all just too difficult? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health guidelines in many countries advise women that not drinking alcohol during pregnancy is the safest option for their babies. This advice is based on a lack of evidence about what is a safe amount of alcohol and increasing concern about Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. While there is some knowledge of factors informing women's views and practices in relation to alcohol consumption during pregnancy, there is little knowledge or understanding of the ways women interpret and respond to the abstinence public health advice in Australia and its bearing, if any, on their own practices. In this article, we examine women's experiences of alcohol consumption during pregnancy and their views of the abstinence advice. We locate our analysis within the body of thinking that views pronouncements about risks during pregnancy as bound up with social and cultural values and ideas about what it means to be a 'good' or 'bad' mother, as much as they are about science. We draw on a study that we undertook in 2014 of 20 women, who were either pregnant, had recently had a child or who had young children, or who were planning for pregnancy, who took part in one-to -one qualitative interviews or participated in focus group discussions in Canberra, Australia. We found that the women in our study variously described receiving reassurance after drinking in early pregnancy; opting to abstain as the safest option in the face of uncertainty; and having an occasional drink if they felt like it. In response to the abstinence advice, we found that some women understood it as a responsible message, even if they had not necessarily adhered to it, while others criticised it as an example of policing pregnant women. Overall, the women in our study accepted that it was possible to drink responsibly during pregnancy and defended this view through strategies of normalising the occasional drink, emphasising a woman's right to make her own decisions, and associating low-level consumption with low risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about how storylines are interwoven with mega transport project success. It examines the animating stories that inspire support for a project, the leadership that carries forward and expresses these stories and in turn becomes defined by them, and one particular impact this has on the management of risk. In developing this article we have used data collected on three Australian mega urban transport projects (MUTPs) for OMEGA Project 2, an international project on MUTPs. Framing the discussion also are some wider questions of political ethics which the expenditure of large amounts of public funds entails. In this article we first discuss our interpretive theoretical framework. We adduce evidence on the three elements (storylines, leadership and risk) before reaching our conclusion that whether or not a project is subsequently judged a ‘success’ depends on the combination of a persuasive storyline, strong leadership and the effective management of risk. Finally, we turn to the wider normative ambitions of the OMEGA project and question whether these can be achieved in an Australian context in which infrastructure planning is so highly politicised. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many Australians live in attractive urban-fringe and semi-rural environments which are said to be places that promote health and well-being. Yet, each summer, these residents are asked by authorities to prepare for episodic, intensely unpredictable bushfire emergency. In 2012/2013, we interviewed 17 people who lived on the rural fringe of Melbourne to gain insights into how people are able to feel secure whilst residing in bushfire risk environments. Our findings highlight the deep attachment that people have to place, the importance of learning from past experiences, recognition that any preparation has limitations, and the need to recognise one’s own limitations when confronted with fire. With reference to the bushfire preparedness narratives told in the interviews, we discuss the precariousness of living in a place that is seen as healthy and dangerous. The argument we develop furnishes insight into how individuals and families deal with the intensity and complexity of bushfire risk and more generally how they are taking on the emerging rationalities of disaster preparedness as a mode of risk management for survival. Such insights support policy makers to tailor advice that recognises the complexity of people’s understanding of fire risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are numerous examples of unfair inter-organizational business practices in the construction industry. Conflict and confrontation, corruption, bid-shopping, insecurity of payment and supply chain exploitation are just some examples which have been documented over several decades in many countries. There have been numerous initiatives to make the construction industry a fairer business environment, but these have been largely developed in a conceptual vacuum. Consequently, few advances have been made in making the industry a fairer place to do business. To address the lack of theory in this area and provide a conceptual foundation for future improvement, theories of organizational justice were used as the basis for a survey of 135 consultants, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers from across the Australian construction supply chain. The findings reveal that mainstream theories of justice may need refinement and reorganization to be applied to a construction industry context. Furthermore, in contrast to much previous research, the results indicate that levels of interpersonal, social and informational justice are high within the Australian construction industry. However, they also show that more can be done to improve levels of procedural and distributive justice, particularly in relation to subcontractors and suppliers in the construction supply chain. Many of these findings are transferable to other countries which are culturally, contractually and organizationally similar to the Australian construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this article we examine the ways discourses of risk manifested and played out within and across two groups of Australian mothers living in two large urban centres in Australia: the first comprised of mothers who had a pre-teen child diagnosed with an eating disorder (n = 13); the second of mothers who had a pre-teen child without the symptoms or diagnosis of an eating disorder (n = 13). In 2011 and 2012, we conducted in-depth interviews with the mothers in their homes on their ideas about health and their relationships with their children. An analysis of the data collected from these interviews indicated that having a pre-teen child diagnosed with an eating disorder had a decisive impact on how the mothers constituted and responded to risk. For mothers, who had a pre-teen child with an eating disorder, risk was intensified by bio-medical discourses. The particular intensifications of risk limited the ways in which mothers could act and often threatened to undermine their abilities as competent carers. By contrast, the mothers who did not have a pre-teen child with an eating disorder spoke about risk less directly, and with less sense of immediacy. Where these mothers acknowledged risk discourses particularly in regard to health, they were in a stronger position to negotiate them. Our analysis indicates that the ways in which mothers responded to risk is contingent on circumstances and contexts. Mothers’ responses to risk were related to the calculability of the risk and their perceived capacity to manage it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociological health research on the concept of trust has been bedevilled by its multivocalities. This article extends Luhmann's attempts to clarify a sociology of trust. Luhmann argued a semantic distinction between trust and confidence. In this article, we use empirical data on patient ‘trust’ in doctors to argue that there is also a semantic distinction between trust and dependence. We conducted 37 semi-structured interviews with patients with coronary heart disease in Adelaide, Australia in 2008 and 2009. Our findings indicate that risk, familiarity and time were critical to understand the distinction between trust and dependence. We argue that patients in situations of emergency (heightened risk) ‘depended’ on, rather than trusted, doctors, given the patients lack of familiarity with their doctors. Time was a mediating factor, as the more ‘urgent’ the situation, the more likely it was that dependence came into play, since the situation was ‘unfamiliar’. Rather than juxtaposing trust and dependence, in this article we show how dependence may coexist with trust in the health care system in times of emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]