Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Are Your Ducks In A Row? External And Internal Stakeholder Perceptions Of The Benefits Of Parks In New South Wales, Australia, Monica Torland, Betty Weiler, Brent Moyle, Isabelle D. Wolf

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This research examines the strategic alignment between external and internal stakeholders' perceptions of the benefits of parks. To achieve this objective, surveys were distributed to park agency staff, as well as a sample of residents in New South Wales, Australia. Findings revealed alignment between external and internal stakeholders, with executive managers' perceptions being generally more favourable than staff and community. The paper pays particular attention to the alignment of internal stakeholders' (staff) perceptions, which is important for establishing and defending the market position of parks. A high degree of strategic alignment was found between executive and staff for personal benefits. …

Transforming Shark Hazard Policy: Learning From Ocean-Users And Shark Encounter In Western Australia, Leah Maree Gibbs, Andrew T. Warren

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Killing sharks is a popular strategy for reducing risk for beach-goers and ocean-users. But the effectiveness of kill-based strategies is debated and the ecological and economic costs are high. In Western Australia the state government introduced new policy in 2012 in response to shark-related fatalities, to track, catch and destroy sharks deemed to pose an 'imminent threat' to beach-goers. This paper reports on a survey of Western Australia-based ocean-users, and pursues two aims: to develop an understanding of the experiences of ocean-users in encountering sharks; and to learn about the attitudes of ocean-users towards shark hazard management. The research finds …

Trends In Legume Consumption Among Ethnically Diverse Adults In A Longitudinal Cohort Study In Australia, Victoria M. Flood, Joanna Russell, Sue Radd

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the Experimental Biology 2015 conference, 28 March-1 April 2015, Boston, United States.

Landscape Preferences, Amenity, And Bushfire Risk In New South Wales, Australia, Nicholas J. Gill, Olivia V. Dun, Christopher R. Brennan-Horley, Christine Eriksen

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines landscape preferences of residents in amenity-rich bushfire-prone landscapes in New South Wales, Australia. Insights are provided into vegetation preferences in areas where properties neighbor large areas of native vegetation, such as national parks, or exist within a matrix of cleared and vegetated private and public land. In such areas, managing fuel loads in the proximity of houses is likely to reduce the risk of house loss and damage. Preferences for vegetation appearance and structure were related to varying fuel loads, particularly the density of understorey vegetation and larger trees. The study adopted a qualitative visual research approach, …

The Experience Of Melanoma Follow-Up Care: An Online Survey Of Patients In Australia, Janine Mitchell, Peta Callaghan, Jacqueline M. Street, Susan Neuhaus, Taryn Bessen

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Investigating patients' reports on the quality and consistency of melanoma follow-up care in Australia would assist in evaluating if this care is effective and meeting patients' needs. The objective of this study was to obtain and explore the patients' account of the technical and interpersonal aspects of melanoma follow-up care received. An online survey was conducted to acquire details of patients' experience. Participants were patients treated in Australia for primary melanoma. Qualitative and quantitative data about patient perceptions of the nature and quality of their follow-up care were collected, including provision of melanoma specific information, psychosocial support, and imaging tests …

Retrofitting Cities: Local Governance In Sydney, Australia, Robyn Dowling, Pauline M. Mcguirk, Harriet Bulkeley

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Transforming cities to a lower carbon future is one of the key challenges of contemporary urban governance. Retrofitting the city - or modifying existing urban infrastructures, buildings and daily life to suit different energy sources and different expectations of energy consumption - is essential to this transformation. In urban studies, little focus has yet been applied to the shape and character of urban governance frameworks and mechanisms required to successfully retrofit cities. In this paper we address this lacuna by exploring the logics, practices and dynamics of retrofitting governance in the Australian city. Using a governmentality perspective, the paper identifies …

Repositioning Urban Governments? Energy Efficiency And Australia's Changing Climate And Energy Governance Regimes, Pauline M. Mcguirk, Robyn Dowling, Harriet Bulkeley

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Urban local governments are important players in climate governance, and their roles are evolving. This review traces the changing nexus of Australia's climate policy, energy policy and energy efficiency imperatives and its repositioning of urban local governments. We characterise the ways urban local governments' capacities and capabilities are being mobilised in light of a changing multi-level political opportunity structure around energy efficiency. The shifts we observe not only extend local governments' role in implementing climate change responses but also engage them as partners in conceiving and operationalising new measures, suggesting new ground is being opened in the urban politics of …

Climate Change And Australia, Lesley Head, Michael Adams, Helen Mcgregor, Stephanie Toole

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Australia has had a variable and mostly arid climate as long as humans have been on the continent. Historically observed trends toward increased warming, with rainfall increases in many tropical areas and rainfall decreases in many temperate areas, are projected to continue. Impacts will be geographically variable but mostly negative for biodiversity, agriculture, and infrastructure. Extreme events such as bushfires and floods will increase in frequency and intensity, concentrated in summer. With an economy heavily dependent on coal for domestic electricity generation and as an export commodity, Australians are high per capita contributors to anthropogenic climate change. A quarter-century of …

Reliability And Validity Of A Short Ffq For Assessing The Dietary Habits Of 2-5-Year-Old Children, Sydney, Australia, Victoria Flood, Li Ming Wen, Louise Hardy, Chris Rissel, J Simpson, Louise Baur

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective A simple FFQ which ranks young children's dietary habits is necessary for population-based monitoring and intervention programmes. The aim of the present study was to determine the reliability and validity of a short FFQ to assess the dietary habits of young children aged 2–5 years.

Design Parents completed a seventeen-item FFQ for their children by telephone on two occasions, two weeks apart. Sixty-four parents also completed 3 d food records for their children. The FFQ included daily servings of fruit and vegetables, frequency of eating lean meat, processed meats, take-away food, snack foods (biscuits, cakes, doughnuts, muesli bars), potato …

Geographical Fire Research In Australia: Review And Prospects, Christine Eriksen, Lesley Head

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

'You live in the bush. You live by the rules of the bush, and that's it.' These were the reflective words of Mrs Dunlop upon seeing the blackened rubble of her home, which made headline news the morning after the first, and most destructive, fire front tore through the Blue Mountains in New South Wales on 17 October 2013 (Partridge and Levy, 2013). While seemingly a simple statement, it goes right to the heart of heated public and political debates - past and present - over who belongs where and why in the fire-prone landscapes that surround Australia's cities. Bushfire …

Emerging Geographies Of Conservation And Indigenous Land In Australia, Heather Moorcroft, Michael Adams

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

International examples of interactions between Indigenous peoples and the new conservation paradigm come mainly from developing countries and suggest divisions over priorities. As a Western settler society, Australia is at a critical time in conservation and Indigenous peoples' rights. Innovative approaches to conservation are promoted. The role and influence of non-governmental organisations is increasing. Indigenous peoples' rights to land are recognised and Indigenous involvement in conservation is growing. Yet, despite Australia being considered a leader in these arenas, particularly the latter, there has been little analysis of the relationship between innovative approaches to conservation and Indigenous Australians under the new …

The Retention, Revival, And Subjugation Of Indigenous Fire Knowledge Through Agency Fire Fighting In Eastern Australia And California, Christine Eriksen, Don L. Hankins

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This article explores the potential impact of training and employment with wildfire management agencies on the retention of Indigenous fire knowledge. It focuses on the comparative knowledge and experiences of Indigenous Elders, cultural practitioners, and land stewards in connection with ''modern'' political constructs of fire in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, and California in the United States of America. This article emphasises the close link between cross-cultural acceptance, integration of Indigenous and agency fire cultures, and the ways in which knowledge types are shared or withheld. While agency fire fighting provides an opportunity for Indigenous people to connect and …

Outback Elvis: Musical Creativity In Rural Australia, John Connell, Christopher Gibson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

However cartographies of music are constructed, they invariably suggest some authentic relationship between particular sites of vernacular musical creativity and a social and economic context that has contributed to a certain distinctiveness. Thus, the literature is replete with accounts of supposedly distinctive Mersey and Otago sounds, New Orleans jazz or Nashville country, and the 'mutually generative relations of music and space' (Leyshon et al., 1995, p. 424). In the conventional narrative, styles are generally deemed to have originated from particular individual and collective scenes associated with key musicians and bands, and talked up as a means of promoting these styles …

Do Low-Income Neighbourhoods Have The Least Green Space? A Cross-Sectional Study Of Australia's Most Populous Cities, Thomas Astell-Burt, Xiaoqi Feng, Suzanne Mavoa, Hannah M. Badland, Billie Giles-Corti

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background

An inequitable distribution of parks and other ‘green spaces’ could exacerbate health inequalities if people on lower incomes, who are already at greater risk of preventable diseases, have poorer access.

Methods

The availability of green space within 1 kilometre of a Statistical Area 1 (SA1) was linked to data from the 2011 Australian census for Sydney (n = 4.6 M residents); Melbourne (n = 4.2 M); Brisbane (n = 2.2 M); Perth (n = 1.8 M); and Adelaide (n = 1.3 M). Socioeconomic circumstances were measured via the percentage population of each SA1 living on < $21,000 per annum. Negative binomial and logit regression models were used to investigate association between the availability of green space in relation to neighbourhood socioeconomic circumstances, adjusting for city and population density.

Results

Green space availability …

A Brief Report On Primary Care Service Area Catchment Geographies In New South Wales Australia, Soumya Mazumdar, Xiaoqi Feng, Paul Konings, Ian S. Mcrae, Federico Girosi

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background To develop a method to use survey data to establish catchment areas of primary care or Primary Care Service Areas. Primary Care Service Areas are small areas, the majority of patients resident in which obtain their primary care services from within the geography. Methods The data are from a large health survey (n =267,153, year 2006-2009) linked to General Practitioner service use data (year 2002-2010) from New South Wales, Australia. Our methods broadly follow those used previously by researchers in the United States of America and Switzerland, with significant modifications to improve robustness. This algorithm allocates post code areas …

Arts-Science Collaboration, Embodied Research Methods, And The Politics Of Belonging: 'Siteworks' And The Shoalhaven River, Australia, Leah Maree Gibbs

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Arts-science collaboration is gaining increasing attention in geography and other disciplines, in part due to its ability to 'do' social, cultural and political work. This paper considers the work of SiteWorks, a series of projects initiated by Bundanon Trust - an Australian public company. SiteWorks involves arts practitioners, scientists, other scholars and local people creating works in response to the Bundanon site, on the Shoalhaven River, southeastern Australia. The paper draws on my experience as a SiteWorks participant, and poses two questions. What does this arts-science collaboration contribute to an understanding of the more-than-human world of this site? What are …

Environmental Issues And Household Sustainability In Australia, Lesley M. Head, Carol Farbotko, Christopher R. Gibson, Nicholas J. Gill, Gordon R. Waitt

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The complex and variable structure of households makes it difficult to design policies to help them behave in a greener way. Cultural research methods, particularly ethnography, provide survey research with the necessary extra depth. These perspectives illustrate pathways towards sustainable results and the problems of achieving more sustainable outcomes.

Forensic Mental Health In Australia: Charting The Gaps, Natalia K. Hanley, Stuart Ross

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Process of national mental health reform fails to take adequate account of forensic mental health services - factors hampering national consistency in forensic mental health - need for national leadership - human rights implications.

Regulation Of Alcohol Advertising: Policy Options For Australia, Sandra C. Jones, Ross Gordon

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A systematic search of academic databases was conducted to identify all refereed papers published between 1990 and 2012 on the regulation of alcohol advertising in Australia and three comparison countries (New Zealand, Canada and the UK). This paper reviews the codes that apply to alcohol advertising in each of the four countries, research into the effectiveness of these codes, and the small body of research into consumer attitudes towards alcohol advertising regulation. This review adduces considerable evidence that alcohol advertising influences drinking behaviours, and that current regulatory systems based on co-regulation and voluntary regulation (as is the case in Australia) …

Psychophysiology In Australasia. Selected Papers From The 22nd Annual Meeting Of The Australasian Society For Psychophysiology, Asp2012, Held At The University Of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 28-30 November 2012, Robert Barry, Samantha Broyd, Jason Bruggemann, Timothy W. Budd, Stuart Johnstone, Jacqueline Rushby, Janette Smith

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Editorial

The idea of a Special Issue of the International Journal of Psychophysiology focusing on research "down under" emerged in 2012 from discussions between the Society President (Robert Barry), the journal Publisher (Shamus O'Reilly), and the Editor-in-Chief (Connie Duncan). It was greeted with enthusiasm by the Society Executive, who set up an Editorial Committee to progress the project, beginning with establishment of timelines, evaluations of the conference abstracts accepted for presentation at the 2012 meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, ASP2012, and critical scrutiny of each conference presentation. Formal invitations for selected authors to contribute to the Special Issue …

Do Social Interactions Explain Ethnic Differences In Psychological Distress And The Protective Effect Of Local Ethnic Density? A Cross-Sectional Study Of 226 487 Adults In Australia, Xiaoqi Feng, Thomas Astell-Burt, Gregory Kolt

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background A frequently proposed, but under-researched hypothesis is that ethnic density benefits mental health through increasing social interactions. We examined this hypothesis in 226 487 adults from 19 ethnic groups aged 45 years and older in Australia. Methods Multilevel logit regression was used to measure the association between ethnicity, social interactions, own-group ethnic density and scores of 22+ on the Kessler scale of psychological distress. Self-reported ancestry was used as a proxy for ethnicity. Measures of social interactions included a number of times in the past week were (i) spent with friends or family participants did not live with; (ii) …

Indigenous Knowledge And Climate Change In Australia: Can The Traditional Knowledge Of Australia's Indigenous Communities Keep Pace With Climate Change?, Michael Adams

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Indigenous knowledge systems are often characterised as including very detailed understandings of local environments, often over very long time periods. This combination of temporal and spatial knowledge is a strong base for thinking about change, both in terms of change brought about by climate change, and the sorts of adaptive change communities might need to make to appropriately respond.

'It's Good To Have Wheels!': Perceptions Of Cycling Among Homeless Young People In Sydney, Australia, Belinda Crawford, Christopher Rissel, Rowena Yamazaki, Elise Franke, Sue Amanatidis, Jioji Ravulo, Jeni Bindon, Siranda Torvaldsen

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Participation in sporting or recreational programs can be unattainable for many disadvantaged young people. Encouraging regular cycling is an important public health strategy to increase participation in physical activity and expand personal transport options for marginalised youth. Perceptions and attitudes toward cycling were explored in eight focus groups, involving 47 young people who were experiencing or at risk of homelessness in central and south-western Sydney, Australia. The benefits of cycling for physical activity, personal transport, independence and social inclusion were recognised. Barriers to regular cycling included compliance with mandatory helmet legislation; a lack of cycling skills and experience; a paucity …

The Ethical Commitments Of Health Promotion Practitioners: An Empirical Study From New South Wales, Australia, Stacy M. Carter, Christiane Klinner, Ian Kerridge, Lucie Rychetnik, Vincy Li, Denise Fry

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this article, we provide a description of the good in health promotion based on an empirical study of health promotion practices in New South Wales, the most populous state in Australia. We found that practitioners were unified by a vision of the good in health promotion that had substantive and procedural dimensions. Substantively, the good in health promotion was teleological: it inhered in meliorism, an intention to promote health, which was understood holistically and situated in places and environments, a commitment to primary rather than secondary prevention and engagement with communities more than individuals. Procedurally, the good in health …

Cities Of Australia And The Pacific Islands, Robyn Dowling, Pauline M. Mcguirk

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

1. Cities in this region may be understood as forming two groups - those of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand and those of the Pacific Islands - each with distinct characteristics. 2. All countries in this region are dominated by primate cities, but in the case of Australia primate cities are the capitals of states in the federal union. 3. Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand exhibit many of the urban characteristics of other developed countries, such as the United States. 4. The urban character of Pacific Island cities is similar to that of less developed countries though they are smaller and have …

Once A Cultural Icon, Is Australia's Surfboard Industry Destined To Disappear?, Christopher Gibson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Last October surfboard company BASE abruptly closed its factory on the Gold Coast, with the direct loss of 30 jobs. Since then, nearby D’Arcy Surfboards has announced it is shedding workers and downsizing from a state-of-the art, purpose-built factory into a backyard workshop. Is the surfboard industry yet another victim of the high Australian dollar? Dominating conversation on the future of Australian manufacturing has been talk of exports and the high dollar. Australia cannot compete in a race to the bottom for cheap labour. Even if the dollar drops substantially, the more complicated truth is that there are deeper structural …

Australia’S Rich Talk About Saving The Environment; The Poor Bear The Burden Of Doing It, Lesley Head

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Public housing tenants struggling with their bills will well understand NSW Community Services Minister Goward’s concern over the rising costs of nails and pots of paint. According to the minister, the carbon tax will push the price of household maintenance up; this is the reasoning behind an increase in public housing rents. But what’s fair about the state government passing its own carbon tax costs on to those least able to afford it?

Point-Of-Sale Alcohol Promotions In The Perth And Sydney Metropolitan Areas, Sandra C. Jones, Lance Barrie, Laura Robinson, S Allsop, T Chikritzhs

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Introduction and Aims. Point-of-sale (POS) is increasingly being used as a marketing tool for alcohol products, and there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that these materials are positively associated with drinking and contribute to creating a pro-alcohol environment. The purpose of the present study was to document the nature and extent of POS alcohol promotions in bottle shops in two Australian capital cities. Design and Methods. A purposive sample of 24 hotel bottle shops and liquor stores was selected across Sydney (New South Wales) and Perth (Western Australia) and audited for the presence and nature of POS marketing. …

"Body Bags Ready": Print Media Coverage Of Avian Influenza In Australia, Sandra C. Jones, Louise Waters, Fiona Baikie, Don Iverson, Max Sutherland, Julian Gold, Chris Puplick

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In 2006 the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus received considerable media coverage in Australia, as it did in many other countries. It is often argued that the media sensationalizes health crises, and experts cautioned about the risk of panic as a result of fear of avian influenza. The purpose of the present study was to systematically analyze Australian print media coverage of avian influenza in 2006 and to examine whether this coverage served the purpose of informing, rather than alarming, the general public. For the period January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006, 20 Australian newspaper titles were monitored for …

Population Growth And Change: Implications For Australia's Cities And Regions, Pauline M. Mcguirk, Neil Argent

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Australia's distinctive pattern of settlement has long presented a suite of social, economic, infrastructural, and environmental challenges for the nation's cities and regions. These challenges will be intensified by the population growth and dynamics anticipated in the 2010 Intergenerational Report. Future growth will inevitably have differential impacts for metropolitan, regional, and rural settlements, and for inland and coastal regions. This paper analyses current trends and likely directions in population change and distribution and the major implications for the nation's metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. For Australia's cities, core issues include: access to affordable housing, suitable employment, infrastructure, and services; managing growth …