Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Moving Beyond The Restrictions: The Evaluation Of The Alice Springs Alcohol Management Plan, Kate Senior, Richard Chenhall, Bill Ivory, Christopher Stevenson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A report prepared for the NT Department of Justice.

There have been a number of evaluations of alcohol management in the Alice Springs region. Interestingly, an evaluation in 1975 emphasised the need for government and other agencies to view the issues holistically and to address them accordingly. The outcomes of this evaluation point to a similar situation with comparable recommendations.

The situation in Alice Springs is unique in some respects but has parallel characteristics to other towns and communities in Australia. Alice Springs is an important regional supply, service-orientated, and tourism town. Its people have diverse backgrounds and appear as …

Reinventing Rural Places: The Extent And Impact Of Festivals In Rural And Regional Australia, Christopher R. Gibson, Anna Stewart

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Results have been analysed from a three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Festivals Project, which sought to document the extent and significance of festivals for rural communities and economies. Rural festivals have proliferated and diversified in recent years from the traditional country show to evermore whacky niches -- the Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival, the Wooli Goanna Pulling Festival, the Thoona Latin American and Wheely Bin Festival and Parkes' Elvis impersonators festival. Are such festivals significant for rural communities in contrast to their apparent short-lived nature? The ARC festivals project sought to answer this question. The largest ever database of rural …

Community Capacity Building: Learning From The 2003 Canberra Bushfires, Gail Winkworth, Christine Healy, Merrilyn Woodward, Peter J. Camilleri

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Research into what happens to communities after disasters is one way of understanding the elements of community capacity building and the actions that help and hinder these processes. In recent years a number of large scale disasters both onshore and offshore have become the focus of Australian State and Commonwealth disaster recovery efforts. These have provided opportunities to reflect on successful elements of 'community recovery' including what 'communities' do themselves to assist 'recovery' and what governments can do to enable and actively facilitate the 'recovery' process. Through an examination of a recent study on the recovery of people affected by …

Development Of In Vitro Methods For Toxicity Testing Of Workplace Air Contaminants, Shahnaz Bakand, Amanda Hayes, Chris Winder

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

While the OECD test guidelines and mostly animal assays have been used to study the toxic effects of chemicals for many years, very little is known about the potential toxicity of vast majority of inhaled chemicals. Considering large number of chemicals and complex mixtures present in indoor and outdoor air, heavy reliance on animal test methods appear to be not adequate. Continuing scientific developments are needed to improve the process of safety evaluation for the vast number of chemicals and inhaled materials. The aim of this study was to optimise in vitro methods for toxicity testing of airborne contaminants. An …

Rethinking The Risks Of Home Ownership, Susan J. Smith, Beverley A. Searle, Nicole T. Cook

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Most debate on home ownership and risk has focused on the management of mortgage debt. But there are other risks for home buyers in settings where housing dominates people's wealth portfolios: where the investment dimensions of property are at a premium; and where housing wealth is, de facto, an asset base for welfare. This article draws from qualitative research with 150 UK mortgage holders to assess the character, extent and possible mitigation of this wider risk regime. The analysis first explores the value home buyers attach to the financial returns on housing. Next we document the extent to which home …

Underdetermined Interests: Scientific 'Goods' And Animal Welfare, Christopher J. Degeling, Jane Johnson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

It is well known that the culture within which actors such as scientists and clinicians operate is structured by the mechanisms through which institutional rewards are distributed (Garfield 1979). In the biosciences, citation counts are the accepted markers of a researcher's originality and competence that permit access to funding, promotion and other forms of institutional support. Osborne and colleagues' (2009) study suggests that beneath this publication-driven reward system is a widespread indifference on the part of journals to the ethical/welfare issues that surround the use of animals for the purposes of science. Although the promotion of animal welfare is not …

Negotiating Value: Comparing Human And Animal Fracture Care In Industrial Societies, Christopher J. Degeling

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

At the beginning of the twentieth century, human and veterinary surgeons faced the challenge of a medical marketplace transformed by technology. The socioeconomic value ascribed to their patients was changing, reflecting the increasing mechanization of industry and the decreasing dependence of society on nonhuman animals for labor. In human medicine, concern for the economic consequences of fractures "pathologized" any significant level of posttherapeutic disability, a productivist perspective contrary to the traditional corpus of medical values. In contrast, veterinarians adapted to the mechanization of horsepower by shifting their primary professional interest to companion animals; a type of patient generally valued for …