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Historically, males from low socio-economic backgrounds have been a difficult demographic for educators to reach and engage. Despite efforts to widen participation in Australia, males who would be considered 'first-in-family', remain severely underrepresented in higher education. For those who do attend, they often encounter significant barriers and are at a higher risk of attrition. Experiences with employment can be a determiner of their success at university both in terms of informing or reaffirming their prospects for future employment. While recent policies in Australia have sought to integrate working-integrated learning (WIL) into university studies, these are not available to all students thus opportunities to develop skills and attributes through WIL remains a fragmented picture. As a result, we are witnessing many young people who are concerned about their future employability seeking out non-formal WIL opportunities to bolster their CVs. This paper explores the motivations of first-in-family males to pursue non-formal WIL opportunities and the effects these endeavours had upon their aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the evolution of generation technology-mix in Australia, with specific emphasis on understanding how such evolution has been shaped by wider political and socio-economic influences. This assessment is predicated on the argument that the contemporary, quintessentially techno-economic, policy discourse on renewable energy is deficient, as it ignores climacteric political and socio-economic influences on generation technology-mix. The methodological framework employed in this paper is informed by the core tenets of technological change theory. The assessment suggests that generation technology-mix in Australia has historically been overwhelmingly influenced by the underlying technological paradigm of the electricity industry; and that this technological paradigm essentially draws its imprimatur from the wider political and socio-economic contexts. By implication, it suggests that a rapid uptake of renewables will have widespread ramifications, extending into political, socio-economic and cultural realms of a society. Clearly, existing policy discourse – that tends to focus on technical potentials, cost competitiveness, externalities and risks of various renewable technologies – is deficient. A much broader discourse is needed. This paper also made an attempt to develop a basis for such a discourse by reviewing broader aspects of the Australian society that would be affected by a rapid uptake of renewables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's large regional cities and towns display wide variation in how they are adjusting to the socio-economic transitions that have occurred over the past decade. One area of research interest has been in developing typologies of non-metropolitan performance. The current paper represents an analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001 Census data aimed at analysing non-metropolitan regions based on their performance across a range of selected socio-economic variables. Using model-based clustering methods, this paper places non-metropolitan regions into clusters depending on the degree to which they share similar socio-economic and demographic outcomes. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio-economic and demographic outcomes at the regional level. Differences between the clusters are analysed using graphs of 95% confidence intervals on the individual means for each cluster. The typology provides a useful framework with which to develop a broad understanding of socio-economic processes and performance across different spatial scales. Las grandes capitales y ciudades regionales de Australia muestran una gran variación en el modo en que se están adaptando a las transiciones socio-económicas que han sucedido durante la década pasada. Un área de investigación de interés ha sido el desarrollo de tipologías de rendimiento no metropolitano. Este artículo representa un análisis de datos del Censo 2001 del Australian Bureau of Statistics dirigido a analizar regiones no metropolitanas basándose en su rendimiento en un rango de variables socio-económicas seleccionadas. Usando métodos de cluster basados en modelos, este artículo agrupa regiones no metropolitanas en clusters dependiendo del grado en que comparten resultados socio-económicos y demográficos similares. Estos clusters forman la base de una tipología que representa el rango de resultados socio-económicos y demográficos a escala regional. Las diferencias entre clusters son analizadas usando gráficas con intervalos de confianza del 95% para las medias individuales de cada cluster. La tipología proporciona un marco útil con el que desarrollar un conocimiento más amplio de los procesos socio-económicos y rendimiento en diferentes escalas espaciales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper commences with a brief review of environmental issues in Australia, and then turns to the origins and development of socio-economic accounting incorporating environmental accounting. The attempts of accountants, economists and others are identified and, in particular, the work of Linowes (1968) and others at that time is identified as the point of departure for this paper. Linowes argues the case for the incorporation, within the traditional balance sheet of environmental, social and financial data. Since the time of Linowes however, this thread within the literature of accounting and environmental accounting seems to have been lost. This paper seeks to redress this apparent gap in the literature. Following a theoretical examination of the suitability of traditional accounting for extension, a model is developed closely modelled upon the Linowes 1968 paper together with the contribution of others writing at that time which are identified within the literature review. The measurement model proposed is then applied to a preliminary case study of Central Highlands Water (CHW), a regional water authority in Victoria, Australia. The paper concludes by noting further research issues identified within this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports several issues and events related to economics in Australia. The South Australian Branch of the Economic Society of Australia invites all economists to attend the 38th Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2009 held in Adelaide, South Australia on September 28-30, 2009. The History of Economic Thought Society of Australia (HETSA) announces that the organization will already accepting applications for the 2009 (HETSA) Prizes award. The Economic Society of Australia has two publications entitled "The Economic Record and Economic Papers" and "Economic Papers: A journal of applied economics and policy."

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the usefulness of the yield spread for forecasting growth in the Australian economy since 1969. Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies time series analysis to evaluate the in-sample and out-of-sample forecasting power of the spread-growth nexus in Australia for the period spanning from 1969 to 2014. Findings – This paper concludes that the spread serves as a useful predictor of growth in output, private dwellings, private fixed capital formation, and inventories in Australia, both in-sample and out-of-sample. Its predictive content is not sensitive to the inclusion of monetary policy variables or the switch to the inflation-targeting regime by the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 1990s. Originality/value – This paper provides significant evidence to policy makers and market participants on the usefulness of the spread in forecasting output growth for up to eight quarters ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the idea of the university from the first-in-family enabling students' perspective. It provides an overview of the current crisis of meaning in scholarly commentary that points to a spectrum of meanings about the university. This spectrum ranges from the ancient imaginary of the monastic university as 'ivory tower' to the instrumental idea of the entrepreneurial university. The analysis then reports on the idea of the university in over 40 interviews and surveys of first-in-family enabling students who attended two large regional Australian universities in 2014. Their metaphorical understandings of the university constitute a powerful imaginary about what a university is and can do for individuals and the wider society. For many, the resolution of the individualistic passion for knowledge of 'ivory tower' studies and the commitment to the social and economic usefulness of the fully engaged entrepreneurial university can be found in the pursuit of the passionate career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working at a satellite campus of an Australian regional university, where many students are the first in their family to attend university, fear of failure can present a strong disincentive to creative experimentation. Consequently, the authors have developed a number of tacit strategies with which to gently engender students with critical and creative skills at the expense of short-term vocational expectations. This de-emphasis of vocational specificity is particularly radical in a social context in which unemployment is high, cultural diversity is low (despite a higher than average Indigenous population) and education levels remain low. This paper seeks to explore the challenge of fostering a climate of critically engaged creative experimentation in a relatively conservative and socially disadvantaged regional context. The authors consider whether there is pedagogical value in facilitating the creation of liminal spaces between community and classroom in a social environment more attuned to vocational aspiration and economic sustenance than critical self -reflexive agency. The paper also addresses the role of student centred learning and the idea of the undergraduate student as researcher as critical to facilitating a holistic educational experience. This case study proposes a pedagogical climate that might performatively emphasise the importance of students re-imagining their own ethical, philosophical, spiritual and political futures. The authors find that the potential for failure is incontrovertibly linked to each of these aims. In a world in which previously unimagined contexts are routinely traversed the author's assert that the transformative potential of failure can unlock a transposable ability for students to critically navigate the complexity of contemporary cultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is renewed energy by universities in Australia to embark on a journey of social inclusion driven by the Federal Government's widening participation agenda. Much research and attention is being given to access and outreach programs to raise the participation rates of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (LSES) as well as learning and teaching initiatives to aid their success in higher education. While Student Services units in higher education are designed to build the personal resources of students, LSES students can bring with them unique and complex social, economic, and cultural factors that can affect Student Services' capacity to support them effectively. It is important to reflect on the role Student Services units can play in the retention and success of invisible cohorts such as LSES students as well as the challenges they will face in supporting an increasingly diverse cohort. This paper proposes a strategy to build collaborative outreach models with multiple entry points into Student Services. Strategies based on universal design principles will enable Student Services units to respond effectively to an everchanging and increasingly diverse student demographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly recognized that social exclusion is a dynamic process, but it operates within well-established political, social and economic structures. A breadth of empirical data is used to explore various dimensions of social exclusion and inclusion, including Australian, Canadian and European data. While all the articles explore different aspects of social exclusion, common themes emerge. All authors note the multi-dimensional nature of social exclusion. The importance of social networks in providing information and advice to the integration of young people is also identified. Common to all articles though is the firm belief that national governments should be centrally involved in tackling social exclusion. As currently formulated, the extent of government commitment to rural development programmes is questionable. These programmes tend to be short-term with insecure and limited funding. At any rate, the capacity of local partnerships to address issues of social exclusion is restricted. The responsibility for economic, social and civic inclusion of citizens rests primarily with national governments.

While several studies have estimated returns to education in Australia, there is limited evidence regarding the influence of health on the returns. This paper identifies how health affects returns to education in the labour market using the Heckman selection bias-corrected model. We measured health status using a self-rated health item with five response categories 'poor, fair, good, very good, and excellent'. The findings show that poor health or being unhealthy (defined as 'poor' or 'fair') interacts with education, such that the benefits of education (i.e. higher hourly wage rate) are curtailed in those with health problems; the adverse effect is stronger for those in lower skilled jobs. The estimated returns to an additional year of schooling on average over 2001-2017 is 7.43% and 6.88% for the healthy and unhealthy groups, respectively. Thus, the return for workers with poor health is 7.4% lower than the return for healthier workers (for each additional year of schooling). This gap in the returns is equivalent to a productivity loss of about $19-25 billion per year. The lower returns to education for workers with poor health likely results from lower productivity while at work rather than loss of working days as the estimate is based on an hourly wage rate (rather than days or hours absent from work). These lower returns may also be explained by unhealthy workers accepting lower paid jobs given the same levels of experience, skills and education that healthier counterparts have. The cost of poor health to labour market returns is further amplified in low-skilled occupations, a process which is likely to exacerbate socio-economic inequalities and undercut social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting on neo-liberal and Deleuzian theory, this paper examines how new modes of governance are shaping Australian regions and what kind of resistance is emerging in response to them, in particular to government encouragement of business and commercial appropriation. The first part of the paper discusses recent literature on regional policy-making in the context of neo-liberalism. It is argued that Deleuzian metaphors such as 'reterritorialisation', 'deterritorialisation', 'machinic assemblages', 'folding' and 'lines of flight' provide a rich conceptual vocabulary that can be used to enhance an understanding of contemporary regional policy-making. To demonstrate the efficacy of this claim, the paper draws upon the example of policy-making in the Australian State of Tasmania and the conflicts these policies have generated. Amongst the paper's conclusions is that the competitive practices now being pursued within the auspices of regional policy-making generate a set of new interactions that have significance both across Australia and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years, however debate continues over the concept in policy and community renewal strategies. This paper explores how different interpretations of the concept may affect the role that government is perceived to have in developing 'social capital'. Empirical research findings are used to explore the relevance of different social capital interpretations to the role of government in rural prosperity. The paper argues that the current dominant interpretation obscures the role that government can play in generating community prosperity. Additionally, this paper argues that the dominant interpretation of the concept does not acknowledge the effect that government actions may have on social networks and, therefore, social and economic outcomes. The paper comments on the implications of different social capital interpretations for policy development focused on the social and economic sustainability of rural Australia. It concludes that the political context of the use of social capital affects how it is interpreted. Further, the interpretation utilised affects government policy responses to the renewal of rural communities, a factor largely unrecognised in social capital debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global oil prices have risen markedly over the past 18 months, generating considerable speculation regarding their economic and social impacts. Cities that are highly dependent on petroleum for urban transport are likely to be most adversely affected by rising oil prices. Yet there has been little recent scholarly engagement with the socioeconomic implications of increasing oil prices. This paper develops a basic framework and methodology for assessing the socioeconomic ‘oil vulnerability’ of Australian cities. The paper demonstrates that there is wide spatial variability in the vulnerability of Australia's urban populations to rising fuel costs which may compound existing socio-spatial divisions and speculates on some underlying causal factors. The paper calls for better data and new methods to understand the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's metropolitan cities have undergone significant social, economic and demographic change over the past several decades. In terms of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage these changes, which are often associated with globalisation, wider economic and technological restructuring, the changing demographics of the population and shifts in public policy are not evenly dispersed across cities, but represent a range of often contrasting outcomes. The current paper develops a typology of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage for locations across Australian metropolitan cities. More specifically, the paper takes a range of Australian Bureau of Statistics data and uses a model-based approach with clustering of data represented by a parameterised Gaussian mixture model and discriminant analysis utilised to consider the differences between the clusters. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio-economic and demographic outcomes at the local community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, social housing in Australia operated as a springboard for social mobility. For many working families, public housing tenancy was an opportunity to save for a house purchase deposit. Latterly, tenant exits from public to private housing have declined to very low levels. This has raised concerns about systemic barriers to residential and social mobility for social renters, and about the consequent longer waiting times for applicants in need of social housing. Drawing on administrative data collected by social housing providers in NSW and Victoria, and in-depth interviews with 95 former and current social housing tenants in both states, this paper examines tenant attitudes, intentions and motivations as regards future house-moves. We argue that the primary disincentives to exit relate to affordability and security of tenure in private rental, rather than factors related to the social housing system itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research that projects biophysical changes under climate change is more advanced than research that projects socio-economic changes. There is a need in adaptation planning for informed socio-economic projections as well as analysis of how these changes may exacerbate or reduce vulnerability. Our focus in this paper is on the delivery of time-sensitive socio-economic information that can better support anticipatory adaptation planning approaches. Using a ‘multiple lines of evidence’ approach based on Australian Bureau of Statistics’ data (2010/2011), we examine the socio-economic vulnerability of the grazing sector located on Australia’s east coast. We profile the east coast grazing sector through an overview of the composition of its workforce and the value of grazing commodities produced. We then assess the potential vulnerability of the grazing sector using spatial snapshots of five factors known to shape socio-economic vulnerability in New South Wales and Queensland: (1) reliance on agriculture, (2) geographic remoteness, (3) socio-economic disadvantage, (4) economic diversity and (5) age. Our assessment of the east coast grazing sector reveals six subregions characterised by high potential socio-economic vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. We find high percentages of labour forces employed in agriculture, geographic remoteness and age (high percentages of owner/managers and employees in younger age groups) to be drivers of vulnerability. Finally, we evaluate the ways in which these vulnerabilities may be exacerbated or reduced in light of emerging environmental, economic and social trends. This approach complements demographic projection methods to deliver time-sensitive socio-economic information to support anticipatory adaptation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to document the knowledge and experiences of healthcare professionals and researchers in Australia about the barriers to controlling Strongyloides stercoralis in Australian Indigenous communities. Qualitative research methods were used to conduct in-depth semi-structured interviews, which were digitally recorded, transcribed, and participant-checked. Data were thematically analysed to identify significant themes. Five major themes were identified: 1. Barriers to health/treatment; 2. Access to healthcare; 3. Policy; 4. Learning opportunity; and 5. Ideas for intervention. The findings suggest that Australian Indigenous communities will continue to suffer increased morbidity and mortality due to a lack of control or prevention of Strongyloides stercoralis. Issues such as institutional racism, improvements to health promotion, education, socioeconomic determinants, and health care system policy and procedures need to be addressed. This study identifies several direct implications for Indigenous health: • The need for increased knowledge and understanding of the risks to health for Indigenous community members; • The need for prevention policy development for neglected tropical diseases in Indigenous communities; • The need for increased knowledge and understanding of the treatment, diagnosis, and healthcare access concerning Strongyloides stercoralis for health professionals and policymakers who work within Indigenous health; • The need to raise awareness of systematic institutional racism in the control and prevention of neglected tropical diseases in Indigenous communities; and • The need for a health promotion framework that can provide the basis for multiple-level interventions to control and prevent Strongyloides in Indigenous communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Government's Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program aims to encourage greater participation of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds in higher education. Historically, participation and retention rates of students from under-represented groups have been less than for the majority of school leavers. Universities are now intensifying their efforts to improve retention, and expect all parts of their institutions, including the university library, to contribute. Through a review of conceptual and empirical literature, this paper identifies five potential means by which a library may contribute to student retention and concludes by outlining one library's approach to investigating its contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Within the context of economic and social change in rural Australia, this paper identifies four structural dimensions of non-metropolitan communities that are shown to influence a range of areal and socio-demographic characteristics. The analysis shows that such influence is essentially maintained whether the social catchments forming the database are subdivided by State or by an equivalent number of landscape types. Also, although the dimensions influence both the urban and dispersed elements of the communities, the strength of the relationships is substantially greater if those elements are considered as a symbiotic whole. Throughout, net rural local density (as opposed to gross density) is shown to be a consistently important dimension of rural communities in relatively sparsely settled lands such as those of south-eastern Australia, supported by the important subsidiary influence of relative settlement dispersal and town size. The paper concludes with a discussion of the processes involved in the impact of those structural dimensions upon rural society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of what has been broadly labelled the knowledge economy has been such that, even in the absence of precise measurement, it is the undoubted dynamo of today's global market and an essential part of any global city. The socio-economic importance of knowledge production in a knowledge economy is clear, and it is an emerging social phenomenon and research agenda in geographical studies. Knowledge production, and where, how and by whom it is produced, is an urban phenomenon that is poorly understood in an era of strong urbanization. This paper focuses on knowledge community precincts as the catalytic magnet infrastructures impacting on knowledge production in cities. The paper discusses the increasing importance of knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) within the paradigm of the knowledge economy and the role of knowledge community precincts as instruments to seed the foundation of knowledge production in cities. This paper explores the KBUD, and particularly knowledge community precinct development, potentials of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and benchmarks this against that of Boston, MA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by considering the Australian evidence on intergenerational social and economic mobility in the context of the international literature. Recent evidence from the Youth in Focus project is used to highlight the effects of growing up in socio-economic disadvantage on a range of outcomes for young Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current approaches to rural community development in Australia provide for limited government intervention. Such intervention is usually housed within programmes that seek to build the internal capacity of communities to achieve long term socio-economic sustainability. A fundamental implementation strategy for capacity building has been developing local leadership. The underlying assumption of this approach is that good leadership will result in existing resources being mobilised for a more sustainable function and new resources attracted. What though is good leadership in terms of building the capacity of rural communities to develop sustainable socio-economic futures? This paper compares the conceptualisation of leadership within rural development policies and leadership training programmes with the nature of local leadership as it exists in on-ground community building projects. From an in-depth review of the role and nature of local leadership within six Australian rural communities it was found that local leadership could result in improved adaptive capacity if the leadership is similar in nature to Burn's (1978 ) transformational model of leadership. Within policy, local leadership was most often conceptualised as being similar to this transformational model. However, rural leadership training programmes tended to conceptualise leadership as a top-down process, similar to Burn's (1978 ) transactional model. While this study of leadership within rural communities revealed that transactional skills, as taught in leadership training programmes, were important for successful project management, such skills did not necessarily result in improved community adaptive capacity. It is suggested that, while transactional leadership can have an important role in influencing the development of rural communities, greater attention needs to be given to developing strategies to support transformational leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - In the wake of public service liberalisation in many OECD countries, economic interventions into the purpose and implementation of social policies have gained a lot of interest in recent years. The prime aim of this paper is to describe the nature of these interventions. The paper examines the reasons for pursuing elusive efficiency objectives in the conduct of public policy, rationales for purchaser-provider splits, evaluation of cost-quality relationships, service costing and pricing, and the influence of "external" economic variables. Design/methodology/approach - The paper breaks the analysis of public policy down to three layers of economic interventions: macroeconomics (allocative efficiency, intervention rationales and macroeconomic environment), mesoeconomics (economics of delivery in "social industries") and microeconomics (agent behaviour, contracting, pricing and evaluation). Each level of economic intervention is illustrated with examples, mainly taken from Australian public policy and mainstream social economic research. Findings - Some of the most critical questions in policy implementation (outsourcing, pricing, contracting and agency problems) can be traced back to economic reforms. Experiments with new modes of service delivery are driven by a changing economic context, yet the efficiency gains from these innovative approaches may come at the expense of service quality. Practical implications - Changing macro-, meso- and microeconomic variables profoundly alter the parameters of service delivery. Designers and managers of service delivery systems need to be aware of - and skilled in - the practical application of economic principles, concepts and methods. Originality/value - Except for the health sector, there is a lack of consistent research on the intecrelationships between the standard economics toolkit and the delivery of public services. Yet the two are profoundly intertwined. The paper helps distinguish these relationships by putting together elements of conceptual analysis and fieldwork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low health status of indigenous communities in Australia, and other countries, has been a continuing societal problem. One way to improve health status involves the provision of health-related information. Computer-based systems offer new ways to provide such information: thus their application can be seen as process innovations. This paper describes the use of touch-screen technology to present health information in a culturally relevant fashion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Queensland, Australia. Touch-screen kiosks incorporate both computer hardware and software. The paper also outlines some of the key economic concepts relevant to an economic analysis of an information system employing touch-screen technology. It is shown that the economic analysis involves a two-stage process, and it is somewhat more complex than setting up an Internet website. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Australia's population ages, housing is going to become an increasingly important issue for policy makers, developers, housing providers and service providers. Not only will there be demands for increasing numbers of houses but also increasing demands for greater choice, variety and greater expectations about the quality of that housing and the type of facilities associated with, or in close proximity to, that housing. Research emphasises an array of demographic, social, economic, personal and community factors along with cohort effects that influence the housing and living arrangement choices of older people. A clear understanding of these factors and the way they may interact in influencing housing decisions and transitions is essential if planning is to be effective. This paper provides an overview of our current understanding of the influences on the housing careers of the older population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current decision-making in natural resource use and management aims at delivering ecologically-sustainable development to achieve conservation and economic benefits. The process of guiding natural resource use requires the integration of social, economic and biophysical information on which to base management decisions. This paper discusses the integration of socio-economic information for natural resource management (NRM) planning and decision-making in the Australian context. A comprehensive resource of socio-economic data is the Census, which is undertaken every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the whole of Australia. Unfortunately there are qualitative and quantitative issues stemming from the use of ABS census data maps for NRM decision-making, as they are at a different scale to and the boundaries do not coincide with biophysical information. These issues include the variable shape of collection districts, the use of enumerated data for population-based statistics, the large size of collection districts in low populated areas, and the averaging of socio-economic information over the collection districts. Examples highlight these issues and show a way forwards in improving data integration, which includes simple spatial overlay methods and regression modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Port Adelaide waterfront is symbolic of a distinctive form of entrepreneurial urban governance that emphasises specific forms of capital accumulation. As in waterfront projects elsewhere in Australia and overseas, depicting Port Adelaide as an 'urban problem' has been critical in legitimating the public-private market-based approach to regenerating the waterfront site. This paper outlines how the ascendancy of urban governance in Australian political sensibility is coinciding with and facilitating a particular urban form in waterfront developments. This involves transforming the Port's disused industrial and maritime landscape from a site of production to one of consumption. This urban makeover signifies a radical reconstitution of place identity, economic function and social relations. This paper also investigates the impact on the pre-existing social structure, built form and economic activity base of the location and suggests that the potential for this significant waterfront project is not confined to the re-imagining of the discursive identity of the place but extends to meeting wider institutional metropolitan and regional planning objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the philosophical question: ‘why rehabilitate urban river systems?’ within an Australian context. Rehabilitation of river systems has become an important objective of many local, state and national governments around the world, who allocate substantial investment into various river projects. An understanding of the various factors influencing stream condition and potential rehabilitation options is essential in order to determine how the process is undertaken, and how success is measured. This paper examines the triple bottom line (economic, social and environmental) factors that influence decisionmaking with respect to urban stream rehabilitation and management and considers their relative value and importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New national and international economic and social forces have reshaped national geographies in general and the characteristics of cities in particular, resulting in a range of diverse social and spatial outcomes. These outcomes, which include greater differentiation across, within and between cities has become a feature of the economic and social forces associated with post-Fordist social structures. Taking localities across Australia's metropolitan regions, this paper develops a typology of advantage and disadvantage using a model-based approach with clustering of data represented by a parameterised Gaussian mixture model and confidence intervals of the means providing a measure of differences between the clusters. The analysis finds seven clusters of localities that represent different aspects of the socio-spatial structure of the metropolitan regions studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social democratic parties have been agents in the neo-liberal transformation of public policy in recent decades. There has been debate about the reasons why social democrats have embraced market policies, with particular emphasis given to ideological trends, globalisation and electoral factors. This paper aims to shed further light on this debate by examining the case of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), which was a prominent social democratic exponent of neo-liberalism during its time in office in the 1980s and 1990s. In Labor's case, the primary cause of the shift from pledging social reform and interventionist government to neo-liberalism was the lower levels of economic growth that followed the end of the post-war boom in the 1970s. Social democrats rely on strong economic growth to fund redistributive policies. Thus when recession occurred in the 1970s it eroded the economic base to Labor's programme. While this paper focuses on the story of the ALP, it may provide some answers as to why social democrats elsewhere have adopted neo-liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's large regional cities and towns display wide variation in how they are adjusting to the socio-economic transitions occurring in Australia. That variation is exposed using a multi-variate model analysing performance on a range of socio-economic variables over the decade 1986 to 1996 for 122 cities and towns with populations of 10 000 and above at the 1996 census. Those places are classified into seven clusters of community performance reflecting opportunity/vulnerability, and their spatial patterns are mapped. The resulting framework is then used to show how the recent geography of the socio-economic performance of the large regional cities and towns has a distinctive selectivity and contributes to opportunity in some places and the vulnerable performance of others. The influence of that selectivity can be seen in the mismatched geographic patterns evident from an analysis of shares of national population and employment change, investment in non-residential construction, levels of welfare dependency, and the ratio between household income tax generation and transfer benefits received. The paper uses the insights drawn from that analysis to pose questions suggesting the need to rethink national policy perspectives for addressing change in non-metropolitan Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to estimate the trend of social welfare for Australia using 1983-1984, 1988-1989 and 1993-1994 Household Expenditure Survey data. The functional form of the Social Welfare Function (SWF) was derived by Sen, Degum, Yitzhaki and Shesinski (all independently). Since the function contains the Gini coefficient as the inequality parameter, it could not be formally disaggregated by subgroups of population. This paper, using a method of subgroup decomposition of the Gini coefficient developed by Podder, attempts to disaggregate the SWF. With this method it is now possible to identify disadvantaged groups by their relative shares in total welfare. In addition the method is used to determine effect of economic growth on specific subgroups, and in turn, on total social welfare. This study is based on the Australian economy. Distribution of relative shares of total social welfare among various regional groups are identified, groups determined by occupational status and groups determined by country of birth. The effect on society's welfare for a percentage change in income of a group and the trend of relative welfare of a specific group are also computed. This information can be used in a variety of social decision making situations, including cost benefit analysis. [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]

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]

In this paper, we first explore the trends in the maintenance of migrant community languages among the first generation migrants and then the socio-economic variation in the shift in use of community languages. Our analysis showed that language shift to English among first generation migrants has not been uniform, with some migrant groups adopting English as a home language at a much faster rate than others. Gender and duration of residence had strong association with language shift; languages of migrant groups of the pre-1980 period have not been maintained as well as that of later arrivals. Place of residence and the distribution of a linguistic community also provided opportunities for language maintenance as migrants residing in major capital cities in Australia tended to better maintain their community language. Finally, higher level of education was associated with lower likelihood of speaking a community language at home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: Agricultural industries in Australia provide food, forestry and fibre selfsufficiency, as well as significant exports. They are among the most hazardous industries in Australia, primarily because of socio-economic factors, environmental hazards and limited healthcare access. Other relevant factors are the proximity of families to farming industry hazards and the age of the workforce. Agricultural health and medicine (AHM) is an integral part of the expertise required in rural medical practice. To this end, the Queensland Rural Medical Education (QRME) program delivers AHM teaching for rurally-based graduate medical students and rural pathway postgraduate vocational trainees. Context: Themed rural and agricultural medicine seminars are delivered to all Griffith University medical students, with additional specific AHM teaching and research provided for students choosing the longitudinal rurally-based integrated clerkships during their third and fourth years. For rural pathway primary care vocational trainees, AHM is introduced and taught as a distinct topic in multiple modes, including discussions and instruction at a working farm. Farm visits have been developed and evaluated over a period of 5 years. Evaluation: Since 2011, 188 registrars and students have attended farms days, with 115 participants completing evaluations. Farm days were generally very well received, with participants reporting that the information provided was relevant and suitably presented, their learning needs were met and the activity was well-timed in the education programs. Conclusions: Within rural longitudinal integrated clerkships and rural pathways vocational training, it seems appropriate to deliver specific learning opportunities in agricultural health and medicine. The learning approaches described in this paper illustrate one way of addressing these needs and focus on the "farm day" as an exemplar. Exposure to real farming environments and the associated learning was valued by the majority of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New markets and governance arrangements have emerged in recent years to address grand challenges at the interface of science, economics and politics. Whereas much has been written on the technical design on these markets, this paper focuses on how these complex socio-economic systems are created and evolve over time. Drawing on theories of legitimacy, we propose a model for how legitimate authority is created in environmental governance along three bases: scientific authority, economic authority and emotive authority. We distinguish our approach from the literature on power by examining discursive practices that create legitimacy over time. Our analysis relies on the case study of the Australian carbon market and uses in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 45 respondents across multiple fields. Our findings have implications for theory and policy practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Technology use, including continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and insulin pump therapy, is associated with improved outcomes in youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D). In 2017 CGM was universally funded for youth with T1D in Australia. In contrast, pump access is primarily accessed through private health insurance, self-funding or philanthropy. The study aim was to investigate the use of diabetes technology across different socioeconomic groups in Australian youth with T1D, in the setting of two contrasting funding models. Methods: A cross-sectional evaluation of 4957 youth with T1D aged <18 years in the national registry was performed to determine technology use. The Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSD) derived from Australian census data is an area-based measure of socioeconomic status (SES). Lower quintiles represent greater disadvantage. IRSD based on most recent postcode of residence was used as a marker of SES. A multivariable generalised linear model adjusting for age, diabetes duration, sex, remoteness classification, and location within Australia was used to determine the association between SES and device use. Results: CGM use was lower in IRSD quintile 1 in comparison to quintiles 2 to 5 (p<0.001) where uptake across the quintiles was similar. A higher percentage of pump use was observed in the least disadvantaged IRSD quintiles. Compared to the most disadvantaged quintile 1, pump use progressively increased by 16% (95% CI: 4% to 31%) in quintile 2, 19% (6% to 33%) in quintile 3, 35% (21% to 50%) in quintile 4 and 51% (36% to 67%) in the least disadvantaged quintile 5. Conclusion: In this large national dataset, use of diabetes technologies was found to differ across socioeconomic groups. For nationally subsidised CGM, use was similar across socioeconomic groups with the exception of the most disadvantaged quintile, an important finding requiring further investigation into barriers to CGM use within a nationally subsidised model. User pays funding models for pump therapy result in lower use with socioeconomic disadvantage, highlighting inequities in this funding approach. For the full benefits of diabetes technology to be realised, equitable access to pump therapy needs to be a health policy priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: This paper reports on the experimental design process and considerations of a choice experiment conducted in collaboration with farmers in northern Australia. The purpose of the research is to inform the design of effective and efficient payments-for-ecosystem services schemes to safeguard north Australia’s biodiversity values. It promotes the contractual provision of biodiversity conservation services by farmers, in particular pastoralists operating in Australia’s tropical savannas. The paper focuses on the discrete choice experimental (DCE) aspects. The DCE is employed to estimate farmers’ preference heterogeneity for supplying ecosystem services, specifically their willingness to accept remuneration for the on-farm conservation of biodiversity, based on potential programme attributes. The design of the choice experiment draws on best practice standards (Hoyos, 2010), a recognition of the benefits of embedding design in a consultative process (Klojgaard et al., 2012) and recent advances in accounting for response certainty (Brouwer et al., 2010; Hensher et al., 2012). DCE design decisions relating to attribute selection, attribute levels, alternatives and choice tasks are explained based on literature, focus group discussions, expert input and an iterative process of Bayesian D-efficient DCE design. Additional design aspects include measuring choice certainty and stated attribute attendance, embedding the DCE within a discrete-continuous approach, capturing relevant respondent-related attributes with socio-economic-psychological questions and scales, and devising appropriate data collection logistics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines credit card usage and credit recovery activities by female students at universities in Melbourne, Australia. Primary data were collected though a four-part questionnaire. A total of 257 valid responses were analysed. The research found that there is no relationship between monthly average credit card debt and demographic and socioeconomic variables. There is, however, a negative correlation between monthly average credit card debt and weekly income. The patterns of credit card usage by the respondents in years 3 and 4 tend to be negative (irresponsible). The junior respondents are more likely to have positive (responsible) credit card usage than the senior respondents. Also, the majority of the respondents sought financial help from their parents and/ or relatives, although some approached financial counsellors, government and non-governmental agencies for help to settle debts. Overall, both junior and senior female students need assistance in regard to credit card usage and credit recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers operating in data-poor environments are often required to use data from one region to draw inferences about another. The quality of decisions made using this ‘typology’ approach will depend, at least in part, upon the degree of similarity between the two regions. Using data from a variety of sources relating to several different domains in 55 separate catchments in northern Australia, this paper uses statistical clustering techniques to test if it is possible to identify socioeconomically ‘similar’ catchments. It finds that regions which are socioeconomically ‘similar’ are not always adjacent, and that assessment of ‘similarity’ depends upon the type of data used. Evidently, the typology approach offers itself as a useful framework for management, but still requires reliable baseline data with which to construct the typologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of innovation in overcoming the challenges and negotiations within the 'lifestyle migration' or sea/tree change of working people, to places rich in nature but 'lean' in industry. It focusses on how they overcome primarily economic challenges in the process of negotiating a new life. The paper is founded upon a qualitative study in conjunction with relevant literature and theoretical analysis. Participants stemmed from diverse socio-economic positions and represented both the coastal and hinterland townships within the study site. The study stems from the need to understand the difficulties within the lifestyle migration phenomenon, where anecdotally approximately two thirds of working aged migrants within the study site 'fail' to sustain their relocation for at least five years. This paper attempts to expose how the minority of those who attempt the transition have managed to survive. The research employs a unique approach in exploring the relationship between adult education theories of reflexive identity and innovation, as well as educational perspectives of self-efficacy and emotional intelligence. The paper suggests that reflexivity with external factors positions the process of seachange among working people as a creative act where lifestyle migrants need to demonstrate creativity in order to survive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores the relationships between amenity, creativity, internal migration processes and economic development in a significant proportion of rural Australia. In developing a predictive and synoptic model of migration attractiveness, we explore the extent to which rural regions and localities have been able to attract ‘creative’ human capital since 2001, the geographic distribution of such gains, and the extent to which ‘creative class’ presence is positively associated with business and employment growth. We find that ‘creative industry’ members find high amenity and high socio-economic status areas of rural Australia attractive places in which to live and work, yet this group's presence is not readily attributable to rural migration processes. Presence of the creative class, together with select rural amenity indicators, are powerful predictors of firm numbers but appear to have little influence over employment creation in rural Australia. Given these findings, the paper argues that building regional development policies around the attraction of the creative class is unlikely to yield major economic development gains. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For over a decade, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has been measuring the progress of our nation against a set of seventeen headline social, economic and environmental dimensions. Developed in the early 2000's by the ABS, important aspects of life were chosen after extensive consultation and debate about what should be the key headline dimensions of progress for Australia. Ten years on, and in recognition of the wide spread national and international interest in measuring the wellbeing and progress of societies, the ABS embarked on a journey to have a new conversation with Australians about what matters. The Measures of Australia's Progress consultation, or MAP 2.0, was a national conversation on Australia's progress. A major part of the project was the use of an online blog to collect comments from the general public about what aspects of life matter most to them, and what aspirations they hold for Australia's progress. Video and written contributions from prominent Australians were used to raise the profile of the blog and encourage input from people who might not otherwise have engaged. The use of social media as an engagement and consultation mechanism by a national statistical organisation was a new and challenging undertaking, but was a huge success - over 140 quality comments were received and discussions on several other websites were generated. This paper focuses on the rationale for using social media, the experience of the ABS in hosting a blog, lessons learnt, and future plans for measuring progress in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, as in many countries across the world, our educational landscape is being shaped by an ever-increasing focus on the "globalized educational policy discourse" (Lingard, 2010) of standardised, 'high-stakes' testing, and the subsequent quantitative measuring and ranking of children, classes, schools, districts, states, and countries. Through this paper, we explore our research conducted with children, teachers and parents within a culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse public school community. The paper draws on the voices of teachers, parents, and children who were co-researchers in Clare's case study research at the school (using emergent, arts-informed methods (Clark & Moss, 2001; Cole & Knowles, 2008; Somerville, 2008)), and Sophie's teaching and teacher-research experiences (using pedagogical documentation (Rinaldi, 2006)). We explore the children's perspectives on how they were developing individual and collective subjectivities, how they conceived of difference and connection, and the ways they worked with difference to create a community of belonging in this highly diverse context. We also analyse the ways in which the teachers and school community sought to actively challenge hegemonic constructions of the "successful" student subject through discourses of trust, difference and connectedness. Shaped by a theoretical framework informed by the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987), this paper highlights the ways this school community may disrupt "normalised" conceptualisations of pedagogical practices and contribute to the research literature that offers hope in opening up lines of flight to re-imagine possible subjectivities for teachers and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some of the reasons why in the Northern Territory of Australia speakers of indigenous languages shift from using indigenous languages to using creoles and standard or non-standard English. Language attitudes of speakers are discussed in terms of what people say about languages, what public activities they engage in with respect to language maintenance, and how they talk in informal settings. The divergence between people's positive attitudes towards a language (as indicated by public language activities) and their everyday talk is discussed in the light of linguistic vitality indicators, including the socio-structural features of political, social, economic and cultural control, institutional control and status, and demographic factors as well as interactional possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender plays an important role in how we constitute ourselves and how writers create a subject in the domestic as well as the public life in their narratives. Despite similarities in basic immigrant experience and cultural environment, the socio-economic experience of male and female immigrants affects the construction of a gendered self and role. This paper shows how the South Asian diaspora community has changed in relation to the gender discourse over the years, by analyzing representations of male protagonists in selected short stories of South Asian diaspora in Australia. Drawing from the theories of Judith Butler, Robert E. Park, Milton Gordon, Ronald F. Levant, and others on gender (masculinity) and sexuality, this paper shifts the focus from the politics of sensory and spatial locations that diaspora studies usually highlight toward a politics of gendered location and difference. This is to see whether the stereotypical image of the marginal immigrant male still holds in postcolonial, post-patriarchal, and globalized South Asian diasporic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demography of Indigenous Australians is distinguished from that of other Australians by relatively high mortality and fertility leading to very different composition by age. This is beginning to change as movement towards a convergence in vital rates is observed. In the meantime, the Australian government has established targets for Indigenous socioeconomic outcomes that simultaneously impact on, and are affected by, the course of demographic change. This paper examines the relationship between these targets and projected Indigenous demographic outcomes that arise from incipient population ageing. The most likely scenario is movement into an indeterminate period of potential demographic dividend. If demand for Indigenous labour expands alongside reductions in age dependency this could provide for dramatic improvement in Indigenous economic circumstances. However, caution is warranted as disparities in adult mortality require long-term solutions and movement into a second phase of demographic transition appears likely to be delayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]