Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mardu Foraging, Food Sharing, And Gender, Douglas W. Bird

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Among Aboriginal people in Australia's deserts, as among all humans, food acquisition is not simply about eating: practices related to what types of foods are acquired, who obtains the food, how food is treated and distributed, are infused with value other than simple nutrition. Often these practices are attached to gender roles. Traditional explanations have assumed that gender differences in foraging and food sharing are bound by a common goal of provisioning--that like a mini-economy of scale, a household will be better provisioned through gender specialization. But recent work among other people that hunt and gather suggests that under some …

An Exploration Of Automobile Insurance Fraud, Robyn Lincoln, Helene Wells, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

This exploratory study analyses claiming behaviour within the automobile insurance industry. A local insurance company provided 32 automobile insurance claims thus permitting qualitative and quantitative analysis. This study enunciates non-fraudulent claiming behaviour as the sample included only a low number of suspected fraud cases. Variables contained within each of the claim files were analysed, as were the statements of the insured individuals. Each claimant is required to provide two written statements to the local insurance company and these statements were analysed for consistency and detail.

The overall findings revealed that claimants were generally employed, middle-aged males who were sober at …

Causes And Implications Of Declining Economics Major: A Focus On Australia, M. Alauddin, A. Valadkhani

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper analyses the causes and implications of declining economics major in Australia. Based on a brief review of the relevant literature and an analysis of the Australian time series data, it is found that economics continues to be less attractive to students in relative terms. Three major factors contribute to this phenomenon: less than appropriate product for an increasingly diverse clientele, the introduction of more attractive and business, commerce and industry-oriented programs such as finance, accounting and commerce, and business majors geared to the needs of the real world, and the use of less experienced teaching staff in lower …

Australian Virtual Libraries For Crocodile Dundee And The Sheilas, Joe Fernandez

Library Staff Publications

Discusses the growing use of virtual libraries in Australia to reach information seekers dispersed in a huge country.

Australian Virtual Libraries For Crocodile Dundee And The Sheilas, Joe Fernandez

Joe Fernandez

Discusses the growing use of virtual libraries in Australia to reach information seekers dispersed in a huge country.

Genocide In The Non-Western World: Implications For Holocaust Studies, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

The example of the Holocaust has tended to dominate genocide studies, but the broader study of extreme violence makes it difficult to exclude the mass killing of indigenous peoples and mass killing on political grounds from the category of genocide.

Benefits And Barriers To The Consumption Of A Vegetarian Diet In Australia, Emma Lea, Anthony Worsley

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine consumers' perceived benefits and barriers to the consumption of a vegetarian diet.

Design: Survey (written questionnaire) that included questions on perceived benefits and barriers to the consumption of a vegetarian diet.

Setting: South Australia.

Subjects: Six hundred and one randomly selected South Australians.

Results: The main perceived barriers to adopting a vegetarian diet were enjoying eating meat and an unwillingness to alter eating habits. This was the case for men, women and all age groups, although there were sex and age differences present in over half of the barrier items. For …

The Corrosive Acid Of Commercialism Has Bitten Into Our Life': Commodification And The Rise Of Popular Political Economy In Australia 1900-25, Ben Maddison

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The term 'commercialism' started to appear in Australian popular and political discourse in the decades that spanned 1900. On one hand, its appearance reflected the qualitative change in commodity relations in Australia in that period. On the other, the use of the term was also part of the reconstucted conceptual apparatus through which working class and popular anti-capitalist stances were articulated. This popular political economy was a vernacular expression of social knowledge about the dehumanising effects of the commodification process. It also expressed popular resistance to bourgeois attempts to represent capitalist institutions such as the market as natural and inevitable.

Belated Labour Reform: Australia And The Abolition Of Asian Indenture, Julia T. Martinez

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The abolition of indentured labour and the rejection of so-called' coloured' labour was a central concern of the first parliament of Australia, following" Federation. An exception was made, however, for the pearl-shelling industry which continued to import Asian indents despite concerns that this undermined the ' White Australian agenda. In the 1950s Australian government support for indentured labour remained steadfast ignoring growing international criticism. The dismantling of the indenture system in the late 1960s was a belated attempt at labour reform. Government debates, however, reveal that the liberalisation of labour policy masked a continued desire to limit Asian immigration.

Regional Development Politics Along Australia's Eastern Seaboard, Phillip O'Neill, Pauline M. Mcguirk

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Despite its enduring nature, there is remarkably little published analysis about Australia's period of contemporary prosperity. It is clear that the post -war Keynesian-Fordist foundations for accumulation in Australia have been displaced. Prima facie evidence suggests that this displacement centres on econormc advantage within the nation's finance, property and business services sectors. Evidence also suggests that a new territorial configurations of Australia's urban and regional economies has accompanied this sectoral shift and, in turn, new spatial distributional flows have been generated. The paper examines whether a new urban-centric economic configuration has emerged. Economic reterritorialisations in Australia have necessarily produced new …

Environmental (Re)Education And Local Environmental Knowledge: Statutory Ground-Based Monitoring And Pastoral Culture In Central Australia, Nicholas J. Gill

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Ground-based monitoring of rangeland condition is common in Australian pastoral administration systems. In the Northern Territory, such monitoring is officially seen as a key plank of sustainable pastoral land use. In the NT and elsewhere, these monitoring schemes have sought to increase participation by pastoralists. Involvement of pastoralists in monitoring is theoretically an educative process that will cause pastoralists to more critically examine their management practices. Critical perspectives on the relationship between rangelands science/extension and pastoralist knowledge systems and concerns, however, suggest that pastoralists’ reception of such monitoring schemes will be influenced by a range of social contexts, including the …

The Role Of Stereotypes In Age Discrimination In Hiring: Evaluation And Intervention, Eyal Gringart

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As the number of older adults grows, governments find it increasingly harder to support them through social and health care services. One solution to this problem is for older adults to remain in paid employment longer. However, older workers are discriminated against due to negative stereotyping by employers. Previous research has found that older females experienced greater discrimination than did older males. In order to address the issue of hiring discrimination against older adults a progressive two-stage research project was conducted. Using a questionnaire that was developed especially for this project, Study One explored the stereotypes held about older workers …

Pulling Down Their Breaches : An Analysis Of Centrelink Breach And Appeal Numbers From 1996 To 2001 Using A Case Study Of A Single Centrelink Office, Lyndal Sleep

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis is about current Centrelink breach and appeal figures. It is also about the current conservative neo-liberalising climate of Australian social policy reforms, with which they are inextricably connected. It shows that while Centrelink breach numbers have increased more than three fold since 1996, formal appeals against Centrelink decisions have not increased similarly. This thesis asks: what might this mean? It answers this question through a single case study of a Centrelink office. Data was collected using individual focused interviews, documents collected from the site, and direct observation (including a map of the office drawn by the researcher). Various …

Heavy Minerals In Modern Sediments Of The Minnamurra Estuary And Shelf Environment, Nsw, Australia, Rabea Haredy, Brian G. Jones, Adrian C. Hutton

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Provenance and sediment distribution have been investigated in the Minnamurra estuary and the adjacent shelf in NSW, Australia. Heavy mineral assemblages in the sand fractions (63-250 f.lm) of 110 surficial sediment samples were assessed using microscopic and microprobe analyses. In addition to the dominant opaque minerals, twelve translucent heavy mineral species were identified. The translucent assemblage is dominated by pyroxene, zircon, tourmaline and hornblende. Statistical cluster analysis of heavy mineral percentages in the surficial sediments revealed the existence of five mineralogical facies: the upper fluvial part of the estuary, the Minnamurra spit and elevated inner sand terrace, the estuary inlet …

Changing Ecological Concerns In Rock-Art Subject Matter Of North Australia's Keep River Region, Paul Tacon, Ken Mulvaney, Sven Ouzman, Richard L. Fullagar, Lesley M. Head, Paddy Carlton

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The Keep River region has a complex body of engraved and painted rock-art, distinct from but with links to regions to the east, west and south. At least four major periods of figurative rock-art have been identified with differing subject matters and ages. Significant changes in depictions of human figures and animals are evident, reflecting shifts in emphasis associated with ecological concerns and environmental change. We flesh out the relative rock-art chronology by highlighting these changes, from worlds dominated by humans to those dominated by mammals and birds, and finally to a recent world of reptiles and humans. Symbolic aspects …

Accounting For Intellectual Assets And Liabilities, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper is an addition to the current debate on how to measure and recognise intellectual assets and liabilities. A conceptual approach has been proposed so that intellectual assets and liabilities can be recognised in the financial statements using market value as a reference point acknowledging that intellectual assets and liability items cannot be measured accurately to recognise them individually. It was constructed using the common ground between financial reporting and intellectual assets and liability management. It has used an intellectual assets definition, an intellectual assets indicator at an organizational level, the Australian conceptual framework in accounting and recently published …

Children’S Sociable And Aggressive Behaviour With Peers: A Comparison Of The Us And Australia, And Contributions Of Temperament And Parenting Styles, Alan Russell, Craig H. Hart, Clyde C. Robinson, Susanne F. Olsen

Faculty Publications

Links between both temperament and parenting, and children’s sociable and aggressive behaviour with peers (physical and relational), were examined. The research was undertaken in two Western cultures (the United States and Australia) assumed to be similar in socialisation practices and emphases. The moderating effects of parent sex and child sex were also examined. Parents completed questionnaires on parenting styles and child temperament. Preschool teachers rated children’s aggressive and sociable behaviour. US children were rated higher on both types of aggression by teachers and on sociability, activity, and emotionality by parents. Girls were rated as more relationally aggressive and more prosocial …

A Study Of The Representation Of Marriage And The Family In The Film Muriel's Wedding, Zoe Chambers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Representations of the family in the Australian popular media in recent years appear to have shifted from a traditional nuclear family form to more diverse constructions, and the family has become an institution that is more often associated with dysfunction rather than the idealised notions of caring and support. This study will examine this re-evaluation of the nuclear family through a close analysis of the film Muriel's Wedding (1994). How the discourses of gender and nationalism intersect with those of marriage and family will be studied, in an attempt to understand this reappraisal of the Australian family.

How Reality Bites: The Production Of Australian Soap Operas, Michael Sergi, Peter Dodds

Michael Sergi

Soap opera in Australia is driven artistically by the bottom line, according to Peter Dodds, the producer of the archetypal Australian soap Neighbours, and to Michael Sergi, a freelance director and academic. The meaning of any particular episode is best understood as being filtered by constraints governing production and direction. The specific production and direction processes illuminate much debate about soaps.

Beyond The Middle: A Report About Literacy And Numeracy Development Of Target Group Students In The Middle Years Of Schooling, Allan Luke, John Elkins, Katie Weir, Ray Land, Victoria Carrington, Shelley Dole, Donna Pendergast, Cushla Kapitzke, Christa Van Kraayenoord, Karen Moni, Alistair Mcintosh, Diane Mayer, Mark Bahr, Lisa Hunter, Rod Chadbourne, Tom Bean, Donna Alverman, Lisa Stevens

Mark Bahr

The Report, Beyond the Middle: A Report about Literacy and Numeracy Development of a Target Group Students in the Middle Years of Schooling, provides a useful national coverage of approaches assisting the literacy and numeracy development of Australian students in Years 5 to 10.

The work was undertaken by a research team headed by Professor Allan Luke and Professor John Elkins from the School of Education, University of Queensland and is a study of the efficacy of middle years programmes in all States and Territories for improving teaching and learning, and student outcomes in literacy and numeracy.

The project involved …

Pyromania: Fact Or Fiction?, Rebekah Doley

Rebekah Doley

The issue of deliberate firesetting is a growing concern in Australia. Every hour of every day in Australia at least one arson fire is lit and this type of criminal behaviour is costing the country over $157m annually in property losses alone. Although much has been written on the subject of arson there remains substantial confusion about the nature and extent of pyromania within the arsonist population. This paper explores some of the common misperceptions that exist in the literature and attempts to clarify the true magnitude of pyromania in Australia's arsonist population.

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