bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The GMH Pagewood Workers Revisited
Authors: Ireland Paul
Published: December 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate the consequences for the retrenched workers and their families of the closure of the GMH Pagewood plant in August, 1980, A number of retrenched workers were surveyed at the time of the closure and then nine to twelve months later. The study found that many of the retrenched workers and their families suffered considerable financial, social and psychological costs. These costs fell most heavily on certain identifiable groups. Means are suggested by which the disadvantage of these groups may be reduced.
The Role of The Health System in Reducing The Stigma Attached to Epilepsy
Authors: Sutton Caroline , Beran Roy G.
Published: December 2016

Throughout the ages, those with epilepsy have been subjected to changing but ever present stigmatisation (Scott 1973). Manifestation of the condition is feared by many and consequently the person with epilepsy is likely to be shunned or avoided and be ascribed a ‘deviant’ status.
Professionally Qualified Refugees from Vietnam
Authors: Cox David
Published: December 2016

This paper provides a brief outline of the background to and findings of a survey of the experiences of professionally qualified refugees from Vietnam who have settled in Australia since 1975. The aim of the survey was to identify areas where difficulties were being experienced in relation to employment. The study found that the main problem was the acquisition of adequate English. A second major problem was the absence of a clear understanding of the alternative paths available for the achievement of recognition and appropriate employment. The existence of both these problems rendered any inadequacies or inequalities in the actual recognition procedures in the various occupations largely irrelevant at least in any direct sense.
Families on Television: A Content Analysis
Authors: Stewart Donald E.
Published: December 2016

An analysis of television programs telecast during peak viewing hours in Melbourne over one week uncovered the pattern of representation of family life. This version of family life was then compared with official statistics of the Australian population and families to highlight the discrepancies between reality and the mediated world of television.

Several clear trends were observed. Programs were male‐dominated, middle‐aged biased, white Anglo‐Saxon and largely middle‐class oriented. Considerable discrepancy was apparent between family structures in the real world and the media world of family types. Further, analysis of marital relationships, sexual division of labour, ageing, and an evaluation of values reinforces a traditional conservative aura. It is considered that the dominant program formulae fail to recognise new social realities, and that orthodox family stereotypes could be affecting decisions made by policy makers.
Knowledge of Community Services Amongst The Aged
Authors: Gibson Diane
Published: December 2016

Knowledge of community services is clearly an important determinant of their use by the frail or disabled elderly. This paper describes the levels of knowledge amongst the aged in Sydney concerning such services, and explores the pathways by which information is disseminated. Awareness of community services was quite limited amongst the sample studied. The data suggest that many of the elderly may be inadequately informed of services which could serve as alternatives to institutional care.
The Role of Ideology in Community Work: Contributions from Feminism and the Left
Authors: Creed Helen , Tomlinson John
Published: December 2016

Mainstream Australian community work has consistently attempted to present itself as an ideologically neutral professional discipline. In this paper we point to the inherent conservative nature of non‐ideological practice and suggest that through adopting leftist and feminist ideologies the people we service are advantaged.
Hostel Care for Elderly People: The Association with Hospital and Nursing Home
Authors: Lefroy R.B. , Hobbs M.S.T. , Page J.
Published: December 2016

In order to achieve its purpose a hostel should have a clearly defined association with both acute hospital and nursing home. This report is a study of the reasons for separation of residents from a hostel over a period of four years; it included temporary admissions to an acute hospital situation and permanent transfer to a nursing home. It is estimated that one nursing home place is needed for every three residents in this kind of hostel.

Thirty‐six of the 79 residents in a hostel with 32 places had a total of 58 temporary admissions to an acute hospital situation during the four year period.

Thirty‐three (42 per cent) of the 79 residents needed transfer to a nursing home during the study period. Analysis was made of the time spent (person years) in each institution. Although 42 per cent of the residents needed transfer from hostel to nursing home they spent approximately 75 per cent of their time in the hostel.
Mental Health Policy in South Australia: A Job Half Done
Authors: Barber James
Published: December 2016

Though the emphasis in South Australian mental health policy on deinstitutionalisation is based on sound principles of civil liberties and psychiatric treatment, serious social problems have followed in the wake of the new initiatives. This paper attributes many of the problems to the simultaneous pursuit of deinstitutionalisation and centralisation of resources within psychiatric hospitals. It is argued that the policy of deinstitutionalisation demands a commensurate decentralisation of resources to enable the development of community‐based residential and nonresidential alternatives to hospital.
Aboriginal Drinking: A Case Study in Inequality and Disadvantage
Authors: Healy Bill , Turpin Tim , Hamilton Margaret
Published: December 2016

This paper examines an aspect of social inequality experienced by Aboriginal people living in a remote Queensland mining town. We contend that non‐Aboriginal perceptions and attitudes of Aboriginal drinking behaviour contribute directly to structural inequalities within the Mount Isa community.

Social drinking in the township is, for reserve‐dwelling Aborigines, restricted mainly to one bar in one hotel and adjoining park and river bank area. The restrictions are preserved through both overt and covert discrimination. Aboriginal inebriation and excessive drinking are therefore more visible to the wider community and more accessible to police prosecution than that of any other ethnic group in the town.

Although White folk tales concerning Aboriginal drinking often contain fear about acts of violence and crime directed towards the White community, soundly documented incidents are rare. This paper argues that the persistence of such attitudes is at the heart of a symbolic differential between the White and Black community in Queensland. Moreover, problems within the Aboriginal community that can be directly related to the excessive consumption of alcohol must also be seen as a product of these White reactions and perceptions.
Care for Kids — Do We? A Psychological Study of State Wards in New South Wales
Authors: Harper Juliet , Hardy Mary
Published: December 2016

An investigation of children entering State wardship revealed a common background of poverty, mobility of domicile, neglect and deprivation together with physical abuse. There were high levels of parental loss and parental psychiatric illness and criminality. While of average intelligence, the children were educationally retarded and emotionally disturbed with depression and hostility the main symptoms. They perceived their environment as violent and aggressive and themselves as deprived or experiencing loss. Most clung to idealized parental figures and denied the reality of their present situation. On discharge from the receiving centre only four children were fostered and the rest continued in care.
A Right to Retire But Not to Work? The Future for Australia's Older Workers
Authors: McCallum John
Published: December 2016

A rapid decline in workforce participation of older Australians raises the question of the right of older workers to work. No one necessarily has a right to a job, rather the emphasis is on the right to seek work without fear of prejudice on the basis of gender or age, i.e. the right to free association. The international response to the same phenomenon, particularly in USA, Japan and Europe, is examined to show that there is an option for Australia in its response. Consequently an evaluation of the preferences of older workers for a longer working life is undertaken. There is cause for concern about older workers but some burst of age activism will be needed to bring it to the fore as a political issue.
South Pacific Migration and Australia
Authors: Cox David
Published: December 2016

Historically Australia has had, and continues to have, important links with the South Pacific. As emigration has become a growing necessity for South Pacific Islands, Australia has become involved as a receiving country of both legal and illegal immigrants from the region. A recent study of the social consequences of emigration in Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa raises several important issues for Australia, and another study of South Pacific Islanders in Melbourne raises equally important questions. This paper summarises briefly the nature of those issues and suggests that this is an area of welfare requiring considerable attention.
The Australian Peace Movement: Its Early Years
Authors: Gollan Bill
Published: December 2016

Small peace societies sprang up in Australia before and during World War I. These earliest groups opposed militant and chauvinist views on rational and humanitarian grounds. A radical critique of the social and economic roots of war began to be heard in the anti‐conscription campaigns of 1916 and 1917, and was in part an expression of internationalist currents in the Australian labour movement. During the interwar period anti‐war and anti‐imperialist movements were affected by disunity on the left; from 1934, however, an uneasy alliance between the Communist Party of Australia and the Australian Labor Party led to the formation of Australian sections of the Movement Against War and Fascism, the Left Book Club and other activities. During the interwar period internationalist and anti‐war movements nevertheless failed to challenge the reformism of the ALP.
Saying ‘No’ to MX: The Electoral Fallout
Authors: Coot Murray
Published: December 2016

According to the Morgan Gallup poll the Hawke government's decision, in February 1985, not to help the United States monitor the testing of its MX missile, led to a massive if largely temporary decline in Labor's popular support, undermining support for the party in the States as well. The political importance of this polling was considerable. But an alternative reading of the evidence suggests that the impact of the decision was neither as great nor as widespread as Morgan and the media made out. The way in which the evidence was handled rather than the evidence itself put the government on the spot. In so far as the decision did undermine confidence in the government it was Labor's division more than its decision that did the damage.
The Economics of the Arms Race
Authors: Barlow Kerry
Published: December 2016

The current arms race between the two superpowers is but one manifestation of a permanent arms economy in each of those countries. The reasons for each country developing such arms economies are different however, with economic mechanisms being of crucial importance in the United States, and historical/ political reasons being of over‐riding importance in the Soviet Union.

For the rest of the world, the outcome of the growth of such arms economies has been catastrophic. Global inflation, serious misuse and under‐employment of resources, and world trade imbalances have been the economic consequences. The social and moral outcomes, especially as they affect Third World countries, have been devastating.
An Agenda for Social Security in the Years Ahead
Authors: Saunders Peter
Published: December 2016

This paper focuses on recent debates on social welfare spending in Australia, and on social security in particular. Its starting point is the current economic climate and the perceived imperative for continued fiscal restraint. Its central argument is that the welfare debate must be placed firmly in the context of the role of the public sector as a whole. In the social welfare context, government interventions through direct expenditures and tax expenditures must be assessed together, along with the impact of the tax structure on revenue raising potential. The paper questions the virtue of increased reliance on selectivity and presents the case for a more universalist approach.
Ethnic Minorities and Social Justice in Australian Society
Authors: Jayasuriya Laksiri
Published: December 2016

This paper will endeavour to comment briefly on the way in which the issue of social justice has been handled by Australian social policies relating to non‐indigenous ethnic minorities in recent times, all of which have developed within a framework of multiculturalism. Hence, what are being considered are multicultural social policies — their goals and objectives as they have evolved over the past two decades. Part of this examination will also involve an exposition of the concept of social justice itself in relation to policy.
Setting Priorities in the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse
Authors: Barber James G. , Grichting Wolfgang L.
Published: December 2016

In its ‘National Campaign Against Drug Abuse’, the Federal Government has decided to give top priority in the 1987 financial year to preventing the use of heroin and cocaine, particularly among the young. After reviewing the drug consumption habits of North Queenslanders, we conclude that this decision does not address the most immediate drug‐related health problems of the region. Our data suggest not only that legal drugs pose a far greater threat to the health and welfare of Australian society but also that drug abuse is primarily concentrated within the adult population.
Do Lawyers Make a Difference?
Authors: Douglas Roger
Published: December 2016

While legal representation might be expected to make a difference to the outcome of criminal proceedings, much of the relevant evidence is either inconclusive or contrary to expectations. ‘This paper examines the relationship between legal representation and outcome in six Melbourne magistrates’ courts, arguing that, even after controlling for legally relevant variables, representation is strongly related to concessionary withdrawals, plea, verdict, and verdict in contested cases. Representation is also related to whether defendants receive adjournments, but is not related to imprisonment nor to fine or length of licence disqualification periods. Reasons for this pattern of relationships are discussed as are their implications.
Three Big Breakthroughs for Social Research
Authors: Cesa Ian L
Published: December 2016

The past two years have brought three developments almost certain to change radically the way social scientists and policy analysts view the conduct of their enterprise. These have been the release of samples of data collected by the ABS as unit records on magnetic tape, major modifications to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and the development of the completely new Australian Standard Classification of Occupations. The impact of each individually will be enormous, but the extraordinarily complementary nature of these almost simultaneous innovations is emphasised to demonstrate that together this impact will be revolutionary.
Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse: Issues from A Child‐Oriented Perspective
Authors: Cashmore Judith , Bussey Kay
Published: December 2016

The purpose of this paper is to highlight issues that future researchers must deal with to better understand child sexual abuse from the perspective of children. Research specifically directed at children's perceptions of the abuse is limited. Instead, most of the current literature in the area is based on clinical studies of abused children and on retrospective reports of adults who were abused as children. It is argued that the effects of the abuse may well depend on their perceptions of the abuse at or about the time it occurs as well as their perceptions of the interventions following disclosure of the abuse. Some of the difficulties that face children following disclosure are outlined, with particular reference to the problems that result from the failure of the judicial system to accommodate the special needs and vulnerabilities of children.
Child Sexual Abuse Cases: Facilitating Their Detection and Reporting by General Practitioners
Authors: Winefield Helen R. , Castell‐McGregor Sally N.
Published: December 2016

General Practitioners are frequently the first resource for families affected by child sexual abuse, and in many places are legally required to report suspected cases to the authorities. Based on a recent survey of GP experiences and attitudes concerning child sexual abuse, the issues relevant to GP's ability to respond appropriately are analysed in terms of (a) their ability to detect occurrence, and (b) their willingness to make official reports. As children are relatively powerless, child victims of sexual abuse may be particularly dependent on appropriate protective action by the GP, and suggestions are offered for reducing the identified obstacles to detection and reporting by GPs.
Part‐Time Workers in Welfare: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why?
Authors: Puckett T.C. , Frederico Margarita
Published: December 2016

This paper reviews the literature on part‐time employment and presents data from a survey of part‐time social workers in Melbourne. Information on part‐time employment by age and gender is presented and industrial issues relevant to part‐time work are discussed. Data on demographic characteristics, working conditions and employer perception of advantages and disadvantages of part‐time social work are presented from a postal survey of Melbourne health and social welfare agencies.
National Support Income Scheme For Australia: An Economic and Statistical Study
Authors: Tongzon Jose L
Published: December 2016

This study attempts to demonstrate the financial viability and economic soundness of adopting a National Support Income Scheme for Australia. The concept, designed to create an environment in which jobs are available for all, relies on three basic propositions including a reduction in wages and other incomes in exchange for receipt of the support income. The demonstration, based on the latest published statistics, indicates that adopting this scheme for Australia can be financially and economically justified.
Policing Victorian Public Transport: Extending the Police Domain
Authors: Corns Chris , Simpson Brian
Published: December 2016

In Victoria, responsibility for policing the public transport system was recently transferred to the Victoria Police, the official rationale for this development relied on the notion of a crime crisis and the need for a ‘crackdown’ on transport security.

However, a more convincing explanation for this transfer can be found in Transport Department mismanagement, bureaucratic bungling, and alleged criminal activities of railway investigation officers. On a broader and more disturbing level, this case is consistent with an increasing capacity of the State to extend formal control into new social sites under the guise of controlling a ‘crime crisis’.
Alcohol and Power on Palm Island
Authors: Barber James C. , Punt Jeanine , Albers Jules
Published: December 2016

By analysing the circumstances surrounding criminal behaviour on Palm Island, a close association is found between alcohol abuse and crimes of disorderly behaviour and violence. It is argued that one of the reasons for this association is alcohol's capacity to provide an experience of personalized power and in the case of Australian Aborigines this effect of alcohol is enhanced by the role played by alcohol throughout the history of Aboriginal legislation. Viewed in this way, the prevention of Aboriginal alcohol abuse becomes a political rather than an educational issue.
The Memory of Young Children for Eyewitness Events
Authors: Mertin Peter
Published: December 2016

Increasingly children are being required to give evidence in the Courts, especially in criminal proceedings following disclosure of sexual abuse. The traditional view of children is that they are unreliable and make poor witnesses by virtue of their inability to remember and recall events accurately. Recent studies have begun to challenge this view, and give more accurate indications of the strengths and weaknesses of children in this area. Two studies are presented which in part replicate American studies with Australian subjects.
Social Legislation For The Reproductive Technologies
Authors: Sullivan Lucy
Published: December 2016

The reproductive technologies, particularly IVF, have proved a continuing source of community disquiet Despite numerous attempts in many countries to frame appropriate regulations, a community consensus has not been achieved. This failure is due to the medical control of the reproductive technologies, whereas the contentious issues are in fact social. The argument of this paper is that we already have regulatory procedures which are suited to the control of the social aspects of these technologies in the current legislation covering adoption and rights of parenthood.
Attempting to Work Co‐operatively in Queensland
Authors: Halladay Allan , Peile Colin
Published: December 2016

This paper reports the results of a search for groups attempting to work cooperatively in Queensland. Results indicate there is a small number of people attempting to work co‐operatively but the initiatives are tiny operations dependent upon a lot of lowly paid hard work and external help from friends or the local community. Four types of co‐operative efforts were identified: the traditional, the alternative life style, the welfare oriented and the idealist The growth of worker co‐operatives in Queensland will be dependent upon a long process of development, education, research and dialogue, along with the tireless efforts of those committed to the co‐operative philosophy.
Alcohol and Road Safety: Some Criticisms of Research and Policy
Authors: Petersen Alan R.
Published: December 2016

This paper exposes and criticises some basic assumptions that inform research and policy on alcohol and road safety. Numerous official enquiries on road safety have identified alcohol as the greatest single contributing factor to accidents involving death and injury. Policy‐makers have, furthermore, given priority to removing the drink‐driver from the road through a combination of enhanced detection and law enforcement procedures. Few researchers or policy‐makers, however, have questioned the effectiveness of focussing on the individual driver while the structure of the transport system remains essentially unchanged. They have, in the main, adopted a managerial approach to the problem of road death and injury, and failed to examine the theories on accident causation that underpin current road safety strategy. The paper outlines a road safety strategy which aims to reduce the probability of collisions by redressing the chronic imbalance in the uses of the motor car and other (particularly public) means of transport.
Attitudes To Marriage Among Young Tertiary–Educated Women
Authors: Burns Ailsa , Scott Cath
Published: December 2016

This study explores the attitudes to marriage and child‐bearing held by women graduates born 1957–62. It is argued that this is a group of women for whom economic and cultural pressures to enter marriage are low, due to changes in social structures and the availability of a feminist philosophy that provides an alternative value system to patriarchy. With extrinsic pressures to marry so reduced, what factors determine the marriage and family decisions that they make? Interviews with a small sample of these women provide some strong pointers. Marriage at an appropriate age and to an appropriate partner was seen as providing substantially more benefits than costs. Delaying marriage until personal identity had been achieved was considered very important, with independent living, work and overseas travel contributing to identity formation. Supportiveness and egalitarianism were considered crucial qualities in a spouse, and those who were married had tended to marry men who were as or more ambitious for their wives than for themselves. An overall attitude of entitlement‐with‐organisation emerged. The increase in socioeconomic differences among women‐in‐their‐own‐right is discussed.
How Many Old People Use Community Services? A Review of Survey Findings
Authors: Howe Anna L , Sharwood Penny
Published: December 2016

Several surveys of the aged have been conducted in Australia in recent years. They give rise to questions about the usefulness of their findings, particularly in determining the extent to which the aged use community services and in planning future services. This paper reviews the methods and findings of five of these surveys carried out between 1981 and 1986. It looks at the way questions were constructed, the time reference used, the populations and samples, problems of non‐response and of definition. Explanations for the variability in reported service use are addressed. Finally, issues relating to the interpretation and application of survey findings are raised and discussed.
Attitudes Toward Worker Co‐Operatives in Queensland
Authors: Halladay Allan , Peile Colin
Published: December 2016

In many parts of the world, and in at least three states in Australia, the last decade has seen a resurgence of interest in worker co‐operatives as a response to high levels of unemployment. Significant determinants of the degree of success of worker co‐operatives are the attitudes of powerful people and organisations in the community. This study documents the attitudes of politicians and political parties, public servants, representatives from business, trade unions, churches and cooperatives in Queensland. Despite the history of co‐operatives and the persistent efforts of some informal groups to work co‐operatively in Queensland, no strong commitment to the concept of worker co‐operatives was found. Attitudes might best be described as varying between disinterested and hostile. Those committed to the development of worker co‐operatives in Queensland will have to engage these critical attitudes as part of any development process.
Breeders for Australia: A National Identity for Women?
Authors: de Lepervanche Marie
Published: December 2016

Most commentaries on Australian racism assume that men and women are affected equally by racist behaviour. Yet, the evidence points to a close interconnection between white racism and sexism. In the male rhetoric of race, the oppression of women is an associated element that requires investigation. This paper explores that association and its relation to some of our ‘national priorities’.
Privatisation and Welfare Services
Authors: O'Connor Peter
Published: December 2016

This paper traces some of the persistent criticisms which have attended welfare provision in Australia and many other western industrialised nations over the past twenty years. Clearly, the most concerted attacks on the welfare system have come from the radical Right, who are becoming more adept at manipulating and hijacking the language and sentiments of supporters of welfare. The paper argues that the welfare crisis debate, of which privatisation has become an important component, has deceptively seized upon a particular, and simplistic, interpretation of economics and the economy of welfare, as a means of unfurling a broader ideological position on social and economic policy. The rhetoric of the ‘rational’ Right can have no legitimate place in the restructuring and improvement of welfare provision in Australia. It is essential to the continued development of the welfare system, that the ‘backlash’ proposals of the Right be comprehensively rejected, and exposed for their destructive capacity. Efforts to reverse the ideological shift created by the ‘New Right’, need to consciously reclaim and reinstate concepts of social justice and equity on the social policy agenda.
The Identification of Behaviour Disorder within the Community
Authors: Etchells Anne , Dahl Ursula , Tustin Don , Burgess Anne , Morgan Frank , Lucas Bill
Published: December 2016

In the absence of a clinical definition of Behaviour Disorder, those termed ‘Behaviourally Disordered’ are often considered unsuitable for psychiatric servicing and many end up inappropriately contained by the correctional system. The working definitions of 213 South Australian health and welfare professionals from six client areas (child/adolescent, psychiatric, intellectually disabled, brain‐damaged, correctional and general) were surveyed. Respondents generally saw Behaviour Disorder as a recognisable disorder, involving both aggressive, disruptive behaviour and deficits in social adaptation. Perceptions of its presentation varied across client groups and across professional roles. The results highlighted a need for specialised community servicing for this group.
Theory in the Bedroom: A Report from the Macquarie University AIDS and Heterosexuality Project
Authors: Waldby Cathy , Kippax Susan , Crawford June
Published: December 2016

The political and social questions raised by AIDS/HIV are particularly complex ones, concerned as they are with changing the sexual practices of both the heterosexual and the homosexual population. In many ways these questions have tested the limits of orthodox policy‐making processes. The Macquarie University ‘AIDS and Heterosexuality’ project is one of a small number of research projects which have attempted both to analyse critically existing AIDS policy assumptions and to provide alternative conceptual methods for understanding the processes of changing sexual practices. The Macquarie University project is particularly concerned with the way that women have been represented within mainstream policy: this paper describes this representation and presents some alternative suggestions for understanding the place of women in preventing transmission within the heterosexual population.
Reaching Men who have Sex with Men in Australia. An Overview of AIDS Education: Community Intervention and Community Attachment Strategies
Authors: Dowsett G.W.
Published: December 2016

This paper outlines the principles underlying the Australian AIDS strategy and offers an explanation for its success in reducing the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among homosexual and bisexual men in Australia's gay communities. A brief outline of the AIDS education activities offered by the gay‐community AIDS organisations is followed by results from the Social Aspects of the Prevention of AIDS (SAPA) research project based at Macquarie University. This research confirms the importance of the community‐intervention strategies utilised by gay AIDS organisations. The paper then assesses progress in the development of community‐attachment strategies for men who have sex with men but who are not attached to organised gay communities.
Gay Men's Knowledge of HIV Transmission and ‘Safe’ Sex: A Question of Accuracy
Authors: Kippax Susan , Crawford June , Dowsett G.W. , Bond G. , Sinnott V. , Baxter D. , Berg R. , Connell R.W. , Watson L.
Published: December 2016

The study described in this paper is part of a project assessing the impact of the HIV epidemic on 535 men who have sex with men. These men were surveyed about their knowledge of HIV, their sexual practices, other issues concerning the transmission of HIV, and AIDS. This paper focuses on these men's beliefs about HIV transmission, their perceptions of the safety of a number of sexual and social practices, and the factors influencing these perceptions. The findings indicate, in general, that the men surveyed were moderately well informed about HIV transmission. Some twenty percent of the men were well‐informed about both ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ sexual practices, a small number were ill‐informed and the remainder, the majority, were well‐informed about some aspects and ill‐informed about others. The data suggest that information from the mainstream and gay press is not only differentially available but that information is processed and interpreted by the men in different ways. Variables which influence the manner in which information is interpreted are place of residence (locale), awareness of gay community posters and pamphlets, and the men's sexual practice; these are associated with cautiousness or rashness in the men's judgments of safety and risk.
Ethnic Group Differences in Adolescents' Responses to AIDS
Authors: Rosenthal Doreen , Moore Susan , Brumen Irene
Published: December 2016

Adolescents of Anglo‐Celtic, Greek, Italian and Chinese descent attending a wide range of post‐secondary institutions in Victoria (mean age = 18 years) were asked about their sexual behaviours, knowledge about AIDS, and social responses to the threat of AIDS. There was evidence of relatively high levels of sexual activity, with some members of all groups engaging in risky sexual behaviour. Anglo‐Australians were more sexually active and informed about AIDS, with more equality between the sexes in these respects than the other groups. There was a distinction made between behaviours regarded as safe with regular and casual partners, but the meaning attributed to regular partnership differed. Greek‐ and Italian‐Australian young men endorsed monogamy for their regular partners but not necessarily for themselves, and Anglo‐Australians accepted a relationship of shorter duration as regular. Greater knowledge was not related to safer sexual behaviour, but discussion about a regular partner's previous sexual history correlated with more risky sexual behaviour. Overall, risk levels were not high but the casual‐regular partner distinction, together with the greater use of relatively unrealistic strategies for dealing with AIDS in association with risky behaviour in the non‐Anglo groups, gives cause for concern.
White Man's Magic Makes Black Deaths in Custody Disappear
Authors: Broadhurst R G , Mailer R A
Published: December 2016

Recent articles on Aboriginal deaths in custody appear to demonstrate that Aborigines and nonaborigines faced equal risks of dying in prison or police lockup over the period 1980–1988. A major criticism of the argument from which this conclusion is made, is the weight it places on a census of prisoners on one particular day during the nine years. In fact figures from such censuses are highly variable. The argument also ignores important risk factors such as sex, age, and exposure to prison of an individual, as well as variations between states, between locations within states, and between times of year. Apart from not convincingly demonstrating that day‐to‐day risks are similar for Aborigines and nonaborigines, the approach also does not attempt to assess the probability that an individual will ultimately die in prison. Using calculations based on recent research into the recidivisim of Western Australian prisoners, we show that the latter probability, for an Aborigine in Western Australia, is likely to be of the order of three or more times that of a nonaborigine. Such a disproportion may not be accounted for entirely by the over‐representation of Aborigines in custody.
Between Tradition and Transition: Workers With Family Responsibilities
Authors: Wolcott Ilene
Published: December 2016

This paper briefly summarizes the demographic and social changes in Australian families that have focused attention on the interconnections between work and family life. The impacts that employment has on family functioning and the pressures of family life that impinge on the work environment will be discussed. The main theme of the paper explores the apparent confusion and lack of consensus on the part of government and the community at large toward the appropriate roles of men and women in the family and the boundaries that should exist between work and family life. Finally, policy implications of the ambivalence about work and family roles as reflected in government and corporate responses to workers with family responsibilities is addressed.
A Comparison of the Effects of Material and Environmental Values on Vehicle Ownership
Authors: Knight Laurence
Published: December 2016

The results of a 1988 survey of Brisbane residents demonstrate a consistent linkage between the respondent's values and their preferences for vehicle ownership and use. Through the use of the ‘Dominant Social Paradigm’ ‐ ‘New Environmental Paradigm’ theoretical framework (e.g. Cotgrove 1982) and the testing of ‘known groups’ (business people and members of the Rainbow Alliance) the following pattern emerged. The businesspeople were less willing to conserve fuel, and were more concerned with ‘comfort’ considerations when purchasing a motor vehicle than the Rainbow Alliance respondents who were more interested in utilitarian aspects. When subsamples with similar demographic/socioeconomic characteristics (males, respondents aged 35–49 years, respondents with household incomes between $20 000 and $49 999) were compared, the Rainbow Alliance respondents were more likely to own older, less valuable vehicles with small engines and manual transmissions. The businesspeople were more likely to own air‐conditioned vehicles with poor fuel economy. This finding is an example of how people's values influence their vehicle purchasing decisions and is useful to policy‐makers seeking to improve the efficiency of Australia's vehicle fleet.
Aboriginal Violence: Responding to the Tatz view
Authors: Sackett Lee
Published: December 2016

In the previous issue of AJSI (November, 1990), Colin Tatz proclaims his chagrin with Aboriginal affairs and the state of play in Aboriginal communities. I in turn am dismayed by the thrust of his ‘essay’. Although I broadly share Tatz's concerns regarding the way events have unraveled, and concur with his suggestion that current policy lacks a sense of history and that a number of realities need to be faced, I part company with him when it comes to the depiction and analysis of the ins and outs of the scene.
Policy Development for the Reduction of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems at an Australian University
Authors: Blaze‐Temple Debra , Howat Peter , Barney Judy , Saunders Bill , Saxon Stan , O'Connor John , Gadsdon David
Published: December 2016

Universities, as with other workplaces, experience problems related to alcohol and other drug use by staff and students. There is little published information about the prevalence of these problems among students in the university setting in Australia as compared with the availability of information from the USA. Curtin University of Technology's experience with alcohol‐related problems seems to be documented better than most other Australian institutions, and the available evidence indicates that the level of student alcohol consumption and reported alcohol‐related problems is cause for concern. However, this is not to say that Curtin's problems may be any greater than those of any other Australian university with alcohol available on the premises. Many years of involvement in health promotion teaching and research, combined with identification of alcohol and drug related problems on campus, were thought to be the primary factors preceding the university's decision to begin the process of formulating comprehensive alcohol and other drug policy for staff and students. The absence of clear and consistent alcohol and other drug policy can lead to 1) undermining of the educational environment, 2) confusion about appropriate behaviour, 3) dealing with drug‐related problems by inaction or arbitrary and inappropriate action. Alcohol and other drug policy has two main goals: problem reduction and better management of problems.
Drink‐driving and Adolescent Lifestyles: Re‐Thinking Policy
Authors: Papadakis Elim , Moore Anya
Published: December 2016

The difficulty of evaluating the effectiveness of programmes to tackle road safety is well‐known. Understandably most funds are spent on programmes (like manipulation of the physical environment and law enforcement) which are directed towards all road users rather than targeted at specific groups.

In this paper we are concerned with the need to develop strategies for tackling the problem of drink‐driving among a highly vulnerable group, namely young people. After examining the problem of drink‐driving amongadolescents, we review some ofthe explanations for this phenomenon and consider their strengths and weaknesses. We take issue with the argument that only crude measures involving reductions in exposure to risk have any hope ofsuccess with young drivers. Our central argument is based on two distinct areas of research. The first has specifically identified adolescents asa vulnerable group. Thesecond hasdemonstrated the distinctive character of adolescent lifestyles. The paper attempts to demonstrate that drink‐driving forms an integral part of the lifestyles of many adolescents. Educational and ‘lifestyle’ interventions should therefore focus specifically on adolescents and consider the diversity of lifestyles and social groups within this broad demographic category. We also draw attention to economic interests, social pressures and the politics ofroad safety legislation that imply constraints on policy change.
Patterns of Cocaine Use in Australia, 1985–88
Authors: McAllister Ian , Makkai Toni
Published: December 2016

Cocaine has been seen as a potential social and health threat to Australia, a role it already occupies in the United States. However, the results of two national population surveys, collected in 1985 and 1988, cast doubt on this interpretation. Contrary to popular perception, they show that the proportion who report having tried cocaine has declined, not increased. There has also been a decline in the proportion who say that they would try cocaine if it was offered by a friend. While some groups are at higher risk from cocaine in 1988 than in 1985, notably women aged in their late twenties and thirties, the overall pattern is of a decline in the high risk categories. Moreover, cocaine remains a drug of the better‐educated young in Australia, not the under‐privileged, as in the United States. Some tentative explanations for why cocaine has not become more popular, focusing on its image, Australia's social structure, and availability and cost factors associated with cocaine, are discussed.
Non‐genetic Mothers and Their ‘Own’ Children: Infertility and IVF Donor Birth
Authors: Hallebone Erica L.
Published: December 2016

Over the 1980s in Western societies which have used new reproductive technologies, there has been intense argumentation about connected philosophical, ethical and economic issues. This research on I.V.F. donor egg (i.e. ‘non‐genetic’) motherhood is based on qualitative data from partial life histories of twelve women having children by this technology through a Melbourne infertility programme. Methodology, interpretation and discussion place it within both critical social and feminist personal identity theoretical frameworks.

None of the respondent women but all except one of their respective partners are the biological parents of a total of ten children already born at the data collection stage, and in three well‐established pregnancies. Two‐thirds of the respondents used ‘unknown’ donor ova. ‘Known’ donors were typically the recipients' sisters. Many of these Australian births represent world ‘firsts’ in medical technical applications.

In biographical accounts, the focus was on experiences of social pressure towards parenthood, of infertility and medical treatment, and attitudes of openness or secrecy about using donated ova. While socially and technologically acquired parenthood added a highly‐desired dimension to their social identities, a sense of loss appeared to persist in most of the women's personal identities. Where a policy of secrecy towards relatives and friends about use of reproductive technology and gamete donation was maintained, this loss was reinforced by a feeling of social isolation.
Reproducing Women's Nature: Media Constructions of IVF and Related Issues
Authors: Noble Carolyn , Bell Phillip
Published: December 2016

This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the way the Australian press constructed the issues related to conceptive technologies (IVF and IVF‐surrogacy particularly) during the period when the technologies were most visibly controversial. It asks how medical technology, the profession, ethical debates and research were presented, focussing on the representation of women's bodies, ‘motherhood’, and consumerist conceptions of medical solutions to infertility.

Moral, ethical and political issues, including feminist critiques of conceptive technologies and medical power were found to be presented in limited and partial ways ‐ by the ‘medical‐miracle’ (human interest) or the ‘experts‐debate‐legal‐issues’ genres of press report. In text and in photographs, the press showed mothers and babies as the (positive) products of technology. Women were shown reacting, in emotional terms, to the productive power of technology. Men were active, protective, expert, and the source of rational, abstract talk. The press relied heavily on proponents of the technologies for their news stories. The results are discussed in terms of Foucault's general analysis of the history of discourses of sexuality and feminist critiques of conceptive technologies.
Beyond the Bottle: Introducing Anthropological Debate to Research into Aboriginal Alcohol Use
Authors: Moore David
Published: December 2016

This paper selectively identifies two recurring misconceptions of theory present in the existing research literature on Aboriginal alcohol use which may impede future research and prevention activities: the denial of contemporary Aboriginal cultures, particularly in urban areas, and the consequent failure to conceive of Aboriginal drinking as socially, culturally and politically meaningful behaviour; and an emphasis on rural/remote communities in research initiatives which reflects outdated conceptual paradigms which have been brought to bear on the prevention of alcohol‐related problems and has hindered innovation in program design for urban areas. Evidence from recent anthropological studies of both Aboriginal society and culture and Aboriginal alcohol use is presented which conflicts with the identified misconceptions and a case is made for the value of such analyses. Following an examination of these conflicting viewpoints, suggestions are made with respect to future research.
Queensland Whistleblowing: Sterilising the Lone Crusader
Authors: Maria William De
Published: December 2016

This paper critically evaluates one of the more interesting American imports in the last couple of years – the whistleblower. While noting that post‐Fitzgerald public life in Queensland is an obvious nurturant setting for the whistleblower, the paper considers how moral recovery may not be the most appropriate context for organisational dissent The paper predicts that whistleblowing will be captured in the heroic paradigm of the lone dissenting voice, and tethered to the limited agenda of clean government.
Understanding Contemporary Homelessness: Issues of Definition and Meaning
Authors: Chamberlain Chris , Mackenzie David
Published: December 2016

There is little agreement in the recent academic literature about how the concept of homelessness should be defined. This is more than just a theoretical problem, because it becomes difficult to urge governments to meet the needs of homeless people, if the parameters of the homeless population are unclear. This paper reviews ‘conservative’, ‘radical’ and ‘conventional’ perspectives on homelessness in modern society, and it argues that it is possible to adjudicate between them. The paper proposes a socially constructed definition of homelessness based on the notion of minimum community standards. It argues that this culturally relative position provides a theoretically meaningful framework for understanding homelessness in the 1990s.