Digital Commons Network^™

Social Value And Its Impact Through Widening Participation: A Review Of Four Programs Working With Primary, Secondary & Higher Education Students, Jioji Ravulo, Shannon Said, Jim Micsko, Gayl Purchase

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In 2017 the Office of Widening Participation conducted a program- wide analysis of the Social Return On Investment (SROI) to evaluate the impact of four Widening Participation programs at Western Sydney University (WSU). The programs evaluated were Fast Forward, Strive Towards Educational Participation and Success (STEPS), First Foot Forward, and Pasifika Achievement To Higher Education (PATHE). The overlapping aim amongst the four programs is to increase higher education participation rates, particularly for students coming from low socio-economic backgrounds. The SROI framework provided a holistic analysis by intertwining qualitative and quantitative data. The analysis showed that each program-albeit with differences-produced a …

Factors Associated With Patterns Of Psychological Distress, Alcohol Use And Social Network Among Australian Mineworkers, Carole L. James, Mijanur Rahman, Aaron Bezzina, Brian Kelly

Australian Health Services Research Institute

Objective: To investigate the convergence of individual findings relating to psychological distress, alcohol use and social network (SN) to identify their associated clusters within Australian mineworkers. Methods: This study used cross‐sectional survey data from 3,056 participants across 12 Australian mines. Latent class analysis used the scores of Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Social Network Index. Results: Class 1 (moderate to very high psychological distress, low SN score and low to moderate AUDIT) included 39% (n=1,178) participants and class 2 (low to moderate psychological distress and AUDIT and very high SN) composed of 61% (n=1,873) …

Social Vulnerability To Natural Hazards In Wollongong: Comparing Strength-Based And Traditional Methods, Robert Ighodaro Ogie, Biswajeet Pradhan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Social vulnerability is a widely recognised way of assessing the sensitivity of a population to natural hazards and its ability to respond to and recover from them. In the traditional approach to computing social vulnerability, the emphasis is mainly on the weaknesses only (e.g. old age, low income, language barriers). This study presents a strength-based social vulnerability index that identifies the strengths that communities have that help minimise disaster risk exposure. The strength-based social vulnerability index method is compared with the traditional approach using various statistical procedures like the one-sample T-test and the Wilcoxon signed rank test. This is performed …

Utilising The Social Return On Investment (Sroi) Framework To Gauge Social Value In The Fast Forward Program, Jioji Ravulo, Shannon Said, Jim Micsko, Gayl Purchase

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A market paradigm shift towards a 'knowledge-based economy' means Australia is moving towards a major skills crisis whereby the workforce will lack skills attainable from higher education. Moreover, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, and who are confronted with disadvantage, still face challenges in gaining entry to university. The Fast Forward Program (FFP) aims to increase attainment of higher education for greater western Sydney high school students in years 9-12, with a focus on dismantling the social barriers preventing attainment. To achieve this aim, the program hosts a range of student and parent in-school workshops and on-campus visits. To capture the …

Citizen Social Science For More Integrative And Effective Climate Action: A Science-Policy Perspective, Andrew Kythreotis, Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle, Theresa Mercer, Lorraine Whitmarsh, Adam Corner, Jouni Paavola, Christopher D. Chambers, Byron Miller, Noel Castree

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Governments are struggling to limit global temperatures below the 2°C Paris target with existing climate change policy approaches. This is because conventional climate policies have been predominantly (inter)nationally top-down, which limits citizen agency in driving policy change and influencing citizen behavior. Here we propose elevating Citizen Social Science (CSS) to a new level across governments as an advanced collaborative approach of accelerating climate action and policies that moves beyond conventional citizen science and participatory approaches. Moving beyond the traditional science-policy model of the democratization of science in enabling more inclusive climate policy change, we present examples of how CSS can …

Green And Blue Infrastructure In Darwin; Carbon Economies And The Social And Cultural Dimensions Of Valuing Urban Mangroves In Australia, Jennifer M. Atchison

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Darwin's mangrove ecosystems, some of the most extensive and biodiverse in the world, are part of the urban fabric in the tropical north of Australia but they are also clearly at risk from the current scale and pace of development. Climate motivated market-based responses, the so-called 'new-carbon economies', are one prominent approach to thinking differently about the value of living infrastructure and how it might provide for and improve liveability. In the Australian context, there are recent efforts to promote mangrove ecosystems as blue infrastructure, specifically as blue carbon, but also little recognition or valuation of them as green or …

Xenophobia Towards Asylum Seekers: A Survey Of Social Theories, Michelle A. Peterie, David A. Neil

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In recent decades, there has been a global rise in fear and hostility towards asylum seekers. Xenophobia - or 'fear of the stranger' - has become a pressing issue in a range of disciplines. Several causal models have been proposed to explain this fear and the hostility it produces. However, disciplinary boundaries have limited productive dialogue between these approaches. This article draws connections between four of the main theories that have been advanced in the existing literature: (1) false belief accounts, (2) xenophobia as new racism, (3) sociobiological explanations and (4) xenophobia as an effect of capitalist globalisation. While this …

Low Levels Of After School-Hours Social Interaction And Physical Activity Of 5-7 Year Olds, Anita C. Bundy, Lina Engelen, Geraldine A. Naughton, Shirley Wyver

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

As part of a cluster randomized controlled trial (Bundy et al., 2017), the after school-hours activities of 5-7 year old children were recorded by parents and other adult carers on four consecutive weekdays between 3:30pm-7:00pm. Records of time use showed most time was spent indoors in activities involving low levels of physical activity. The most-frequently-recorded activity was screen time, accounting for approximately one quarter of all activities. Higher levels of physical activity were reported when children were outdoors (19.5% of time) and/or with peers (9.58%). If an adult was present, highest activity levels of children occurred when the child was …

Perceived Stigma And Social Support In Treatment For Pharmaceutical Opioid Dependence, Sasha Cooper, Gabrielle Campbell, Briony K. Larance, Bridin Murnion, Suzanne Nielsen

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Introduction and Aims The dramatic increase in pharmaceutical opioid (PO) use in high‐income countries is a growing public health concern. Stigma and social support are important as they may influence treatment uptake and outcomes, yet few studies exist regarding perceived stigma and social support among people with PO dependence. The aims of the study are to: (i) compare characteristics of those with PO dependence from iatrogenic and non‐iatrogenic causes; (ii) document perceived stigma and its correlates in people in treatment for PO dependence; and (iii) examine correlates of social support in people in treatment for PO dependence. Design and Methods …

Social Marketing And The Implementation Of The National Disability Insurance Scheme, Jodie Kleinschafer, Felicity Small, Mona Nikidehaghani

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a nation-wide government policy designed to support people living with a disability (PWD) and constitutes a significant reform in the provision of disability funding in Australia. This reform is a rapidly implemented response to the poor living conditions for PWD, as identified in the Australian Productivity Commission's report in 2011. It is founded on the social aim of empowering PWD with choice and control so they can "live an ordinary life". As such the implementation of this policy could have benefited from the application of social marketing strategy from the beginning, as the …

Improved Social Interaction, Recognition And Working Memory With Cannabidiol Treatment In A Prenatal Infection (Poly I:C) Rat Model, Ashleigh L. Osborne, Nadia Solowij, Ilijana Babic, Xu-Feng Huang, Katrina Weston-Green

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

Neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia are associated with cognitive impairment, including learning, memory and attention deficits. Antipsychotic drugs are limited in their efficacy to improve cognition; therefore, new therapeutic agents are required. Cannabidiol (CBD), the non-intoxicating component of cannabis, has anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and antipsychotic-like properties; however, its ability to improve the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia remains unclear. Using a prenatal infection model, we examined the effect of chronic CBD treatment on cognition and social interaction. Time-mated pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats (n=16) were administered polyinosinic-polycytidilic acid (poly I:C) (POLY; 4 mg/kg) or saline (CONT) at gestation day 15. Male offspring …

Using Film In Social Work Education: A Medium For Critical Analysis, Mim Fox

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Whilst developing an undergraduate social work subject this year in group work practice I started to reflect on the number of films I had seen over the years where support groups or group process had been depicted as a component of the protagonist's life journey. Modern films such as Ruben Guthrie (2015) and Thankyou for Sharing (2012) came to mind, along with the classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). As I started to think about this the list grew and I realised that social work students already had a wealth of representations to draw on when beginning to …

Sydney Playground Project: A Cluster‐Randomized Trial To Increase Physical Activity, Play, And Social Skills, Anita C. Bundy, Lina Engelen, Shirley Wyver, Paul Tranter, Jo Ragen, Adrian E. Bauman, Louise A. Baur, Wendy Schiller, Judy Simpson, Anita Niehues, Gabrielle Perry, Glenda Jessup, Geraldine A. Naughton

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

BACKGROUND

We assessed the effectiveness of a simple intervention for increasing children's physical activity, play, perceived competence/social acceptance, and social skills.

METHODS

A cluster‐randomized controlled trial was conducted, in which schools were the clusters. Twelve Sydney (Australia) primary schools were randomly allocated to intervention or control conditions, with 226 children (5‐7 years old) selected randomly to participate. Data were collected at baseline and after 13 weeks. The intervention consisted of introducing recycled materials without an obvious play purpose into school playgrounds and a risk‐reframing workshop for parents and teachers.

RESULTS

Children from the intervention schools increased physical activity and reduced …

An Early Years Toolbox For Assessing Early Executive Function, Language, Self-Regulation, And Social Development: Validity, Reliability, And Preliminary Norms, Steven J. Howard, Edward Melhuish

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Several methods of assessing executive function (EF), self-regulation, language development, and social development in young children have been developed over previous decades. Yet new technologies make available methods of assessment not previously considered. In resolving conceptual and pragmatic limitations of existing tools, the Early Years Toolbox (EYT) offers substantial advantages for early assessment of language, EF, self-regulation, and social development. In the current study, results of our large-scale administration of this toolbox to 1,764 preschool and early primary school students indicated very good reliability, convergent validity with existing measures, and developmental sensitivity. Results were also suggestive of better capture of …

Engagement And Qualitative Interviewing: An Ethnographic Study Of The Use Of Social Media And Mobile Phones Among Remote Indigenous Youth, Kishan A. Kariippanon, Kate Senior

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In 2012, Kishan Kariippanon began an ethnographic study on the use of social media and mobile phones by Indigenous youth practicing traditional culture in a remote community in Northern Australia. A prepaid mobile phone service is available in most Northern Territory remote Indigenous communities. This case study provides an account of the vital practical steps for engagement and conducting qualitative interviewing in an Indigenous community where traditional structure of kinship and communications is practiced. The case sheds light on the particular challenge of gaining trust and building an authentic relationship with individuals and the community as part of the engagement …

Are Big Food's Corporate Social Responsibility Strategies Valuable To Communities? A Qualitative Study With Parents And Children, Zoe Richards, Lyn Phillipson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective: Recent studies have identified parents and children as two target groups whom Big Food hopes to positively influence through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. The current preliminary study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of parents and children's awareness and interpretation of Big Food's CSR strategies to understand how CSR shapes their beliefs about companies. Design: Community-based qualitative semi-structured interviews. Setting: New South Wales, Australia. Subjects: Parents (n 15) and children aged 8-12 years (n 15). Results: Parents and children showed unprompted recognition of CSR activities when shown McDonald's and Coca-Cola brand logos, indicating a strong level of …

Impact Of A Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis On Mental Health, Quality Of Life, And Social Contacts: A Longitudinal Study, Xiaoqi Feng, Thomas E. Astell-Burt

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Aims The aim was to examine whether a type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) diagnosis increases the odds of psychological distress, a worsening in overall quality of life, and a potential reduction in social contacts.

Method Longitudinal data were obtained from the 45 and Up Study (baseline 2006–2008; 3.4±0.95 years follow-up time). Fixed effects logistic and negative binomial regression models were fitted on a complete case on outcome sample that did not report T2DM at baseline (N=26 344), adjusted for time-varying confounders. The key exposure was doctor-diagnosed T2DM at follow-up. Outcome variables examined included the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, self-rated quality …

Investigating The Accuracy Of Georeferenced Social Media Data For Flood Mapping: The Petajakarta.Org Case Study, Robert Ighodaro Ogie, Hugh I. Forehead

SMART Infrastructure Facility - Papers

Georeferenced social media data are gaining increased application in creating near real-time flood maps needed to improve situational awareness in data-starved regions. However, there is growing concern that the georeferenced locations of flood-related social media contents do not always correspond to the actual locations of the flooding event. But to what extent is this true? Without this knowledge, it is difficult to ascertain the accuracy of flood maps created using georeferenced social media contents. This study aims to improve understanding of the extent to which georeferenced locations of social media flood reports deviate from the actual locations of floods. The …

Coping With Social Complexity Of Infrastructure Projects, Ricardo Peculis

SMART Infrastructure Facility - Papers

Infrastructure projects are complex and technical complexity is dwarfed when compared with the social complexity caused by the interaction of individuals and organisations that participate and influence these projects. During conception and planning, uncertainty and conflicting motivations influence decisions that drive the solution and plans that are carried out during construction, operation and finally disposal of the system. If the need is not accurately conveyed and the solution is not properly defined, estimated and planned, infrastructure projects become subject of costs overrun and schedule delays of serious consequences, including the possibility that they may not satisfy the real need. Understanding …

Sharing Social Network Data: Differentially Private Estimation Of Exponential Family Random-Graph Models, Vishesh Karwa, Pavel N. Krivitsky, Aleksandra B. Slavkovic

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Motivated by a real life problem of sharing social network data that contain sensitive personal information, we propose a novel approach to release and analyse synthetic graphs to protect privacy of individual relationships captured by the social network while maintaining the validity of statistical results. A case-study using a version of the Enron e-mail corpus data set demonstrates the application and usefulness of the proposed techniques in solving the challenging problem of maintaining privacy and supporting open access to network data to ensure reproducibility of existing studies and discovering new scientific insights that can be obtained by analysing such data. …

Something Wonderful In My Back Yard: The Social Impetus For Group Self- Building, Emma Elizabeth Heffernan, Pieter De Wilde

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The housing crisis in the United Kingdom, as Barker (2004) identifies, has become shorthand for a chronic lack of suitable and affordable housing - in both the home ownership and rental sectors - and the undersupply and diminishment of social housing stock (Barker, 2004; Jefferys et al., 2014). What has also become clear is that the mainstream housebuilding sector - speculative housing development - has not risen to the task of ameliorating this crisis. Consequently, there is increasing marginalisation within the housing and land economy, with many people finding that their housing needs cannot be met by the sector. This …

Unlocking The Potential Of Branding In Social Marketing Services: Utilising Brand Personality And Brand Personality Appeal, Ross Gordon, Nadia Zainuddin, Christopher A. Magee

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - This paper aims to demonstrate the utility of branding theory for social marketing services. Specifically, this is to our knowledge the first to investigate brand personality (BP) and brand personality appeal (BPA) in a single study as predictors for consumer attitudes and intentions to engage with a service. Design/methodology/approach - The associations between BP and BPA and their subsequent associations with attitudes and intentions are tested in two service types, i.e. a commercial marketing service (banking) and a social marketing service (health screening). This involved a cross-sectional dual online survey administered to a sample of 395 women 50-69 …

Creating Culturally Relevant Approaches To Social Work Across Oceania, Jioji Ravulo

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

As guest editor, I've been greatly encouraged by the shared vision to support the evolving professionalism of social work, alongside the need to promote inclusive discourses characterised by cultural differences across Oceania.

Pacific Islands Field Education - Promoting Pacific Social Work Education & Practice Across Oceania, Jioji Ravulo

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The Pacific Islands Field Education (PIFE) initiative started in 2012 and has developed into an innovative project combining various stakeholders. Over the last 4 years, it has seen 20 Western Sydney University (WSU) students successfully complete a 3-month field education placement in either Fiji, Samoa or Tonga; in an array of agencies working with women, children, families and adult offenders. Apart from mobilising students to undertake international learning opportunities, the initiative strives to support the development of social work education, teaching and learning outcomes with the University of the South Pacific (USP); who has an active MOU arrangement with Western …

Cognitive Benefits Of Social Dancing And Walking In Old Age: The Dancing Mind Randomized Controlled Trial, Dafna Merom, Anne Grunseit, Ranmalee Eramudugolla, Barbara Jefferis, Jade Mcneill, Kaarin J. Anstey

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background: A physically active lifestyle has the potential to prevent cognitive decline and dementia, yet the optimal type of physical activity/exercise remains unclear. Dance is of special interest as it complex sensorimotor rhythmic activity with additional cognitive, social, and affective dimensions. Objectives: To determine whether dance benefits executive function more than walking, an activity that is simple and functional. Methods: Two-arm randomized controlled trial among community-dwelling older adults. The intervention group received 1 h of ballroom dancing twice weekly over 8 months (~69 sessions) in local community dance studios. The control group received a combination of a home walking program …

Social Media Analysis On Evaluating Organizational Performance: A Railway Service Management, Jie Yang, Ahm Mehbub Anwar

SMART Infrastructure Facility - Papers

The last decade has witnessed the dramatic expansion of online social media at the global level. It is widely believed that the influence of social media is of particular importance for public and private organisations. Unfortunately, there is very limited and anecdotal evidence to show the durable influence of social media on various components and functions within organisations. To this end, this study examines the impact of social media, particularly taking the railway services in New South Wales (NSW), Australia and the Twitter platform as an illustrative example. Topic modelling and sentiment analysis techniques are employed to analyse collected tweets …

The Impact Of Social Media Policy And Use On Value Creation: A Survey Research, Uuf Brajawidagda, Akemi T. Chatfield

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Organizations need to provide effective policies in aligning their social media use with organizational goals to realize the expected benefits of social media. However, while social media use has been studied, social media policy research is lacking. This study aims to examine impacts of social media policy and active use on value creation. Drawing on the Model of IT/Business Value, we assessed the interplay between social media policy and social media use on value creation in a survey research conducted with Indonesia's disaster management agencies. Our analysis results of 124 survey responses show that social media use and social media …

The Social Phenomenon Of Body-Modifying In A World Of Technological Change: Past, Present, Future, Sharon Bradley-Munn, Katina Michael, M G. Michael

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The current level of uncritical adoption in bodymodifying devices, and the propensity for remaking the human body through the aid of technology, is moving society closer to a human-machine fusion. We are at the brink of postmodernity in all its fullness. This paper speculates on the pros and cons of such a reality and insists on the right of the individual to be able to self-govern his/her own body, maintaining the right to choose. How individual choice is limited is also discussed, as industry innovation cycles get faster, and the need for continuous disruption means that the consumer is often …

Social Marketing, Pester Power And Reverse Socialization, Prakash Vel, Premi Mathew, Estatira Shirkhodaee

University of Wollongong in Dubai - Papers

Social marketing is used to popularise positive ideas and bring about attitude change through empowering people to change. However, the ro le of pester power in social marketing has never been explored. Children use reverse socialisation strategies to get t heir parents to yield to their purchase requests, employing pester power. Pester power has generally been seen as a negative force, but can it be used as a positive marketing tool to initiate a social change? There is a possibi lity of using this pester power in a non-consumption context. The posit ive role of pester power is underexplored, and …

Social Practices Of 3d Printing: Decentralising Control And Reconfiguring Regulation, Luke Heemsbergen, Robbie Fordyce, Bjorn Nansen, Thomas Apperley, Michael Arnold, Thomas Birtchnell

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper considers the social practices of 3D printing by comparing consumer perspectives and practices with legal scholarship on intellectual property regimes. The paper draws on data gained through a mixed-methods approach involving participant observation, focus groups, and social network analysis of 3D printing file-sharing practices. It finds that while consumers display a level of naivety about their 3D printing rights and responsibilities, they possess a latent understanding about broader digital economies that guide their practices. We suggest that the social practices associated with 3D printing function through communication networks to decentralise manufacture and reconfigure legal capacities for regulation. The …