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

The emphasis on a sexualised muscular body ideal in gay social and cultural settings has been described as facilitating body image dissatisfaction among gay men. Drawing on a concept of reflexive embodiment, this paper uses qualitative interviews to analyse gay men's embodiment practices in relation to discourses and norms that can be found across and beyond any coherent notion of 'gay subculture'. The findings reveal body image to be more complex than a limited focus on subculture or dissatisfaction can account for. In particular, gay men negotiate a gay pride discourse in which the muscular male body generates both social status and self-esteem, and deploy notions of everyday masculinity that imply rationality and control to resist gendered assumptions about gay men's body image relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the historical importance of police welfare functions. Historians have too often neglected this area of police work, which represented a crucial interface between local communities and the police institution throughout the nineteenth century. While American studies suggest there was a transformation in policing from class control to crime control. Australian evidence indicates an alternative trajectory in the evolving welfare role of police. Despite the growth of new professionals and agencies of government in the later nineteenth century, the police remained a vital conduit in relationships between the destitute and the State. This was largely due to the police organisation's unrivalled bureaucratic and archival capacity and its pervasive street presence. This ensured that, while police interactions with the poor became more bureaucratised and formalised, police retained a significant welfare role into the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]