Teacher's stories of change: stress, care and economic rationality

The impact of economic rationalism on teachers’ working lives has been documented extensively, particularly in the UK. This article provides a case study of its impact in the early 1990s in a small Australian state, Tasmania, to illustrate that although the particular institutional forms through which it is expressed may differ its impact is similar. We do this by focusing on teachers' stories of change that have stress as a major theme. Stress is partially explained by increased workloads, teachers teaching outside their specialist areas and a changing student population. However, the ideology of economic rationalism has heightened stress because of the perceived lack of administrative care. A major stressor is trying to maintain a professional ideology of caring while, concurrently, accommodating to economic rationality. The clash of ideologies leads teachers to reduce commitment by leaving teaching, moving to part-time employment, withdrawing into classroom teaching and/or rationalising their workload with, they perceive, a decrease in the quality of teaching

Governing the compact city: The role and effectiveness of strata management

This research charts the key issues facing the governance and management of strata buildings and is the first major study of the strata sector undertaken in Australia.• An estimated three million people live in strata titled homes in Australia. The state of New South Wales (NSW) has the largest number of strata titled properties of all states and territories in the country and approximately 1.2 million people live in strata titled homes in the state. In the Sydney metropolitan area, almost a quarter of the population live in strata titled homes. This means that for the first time in Australia’s history large numbers of property owners find themselves in a legally binding relationship with their neighbours for the communal upkeep and maintenance of their property. The governance structures that mediate this community-based property ownership represent a new form of civic relationship. With the development of increasing numbers of strata schemes, owners corporations, through their executive committees and the managing agents and other property professionals who support the sector, have become increasingly important in ensuring the maintenance and upkeep of significant parts of our cities. In effect, owners corporations act as a fourth tier of government that is democratically elected, with lawmaking, taxation and enforcement powers. But despite the growing prevalence of strata title in our lives, relatively little is known about how well the strata system works in practice to meet the needs of those people who own and live in strata properties. The Governing the Compact City project1 provides the first comprehensive assessment of how the strata title system is operating in regard to governance and management from the point of view of those who own, live in, and manage strata homes. While it is focused on NSW, the report’s findings have implications for the entire Australian strata market which is based on essentially the same governance and management arrangements. The research project The project had three major aims: 1.    To explore the role, capacity and effectiveness of owners corporations as agencies of property governance and management in contemporary urban Australia. 2.    To explore the capacity and effectiveness of strata managing agents as mediators of outcomes for residents and owners in the sector, and their role and function within the overall structure of management and governance. 3.    To assess how well residential strata works from strata owners’ points of view. The research project focused on residential strata properties with three or more lots in NSW. The research was undertaken between 2009 and 2012 and included surveys and interviews with strata owners, executive committee members and strata managing agents in NSW, as well as analysis of the NSW strata database and NSW strata schemes management legislation and interviews with peak body representatives around Australia. In total, the research consulted 1,550 individuals including 1,020 strata owners, 413 executive committee members, 106 strata managing agents and 11 peak body representatives. Downloads: FINAL REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMAR

How is social housing best delivered to disadvantaged Indigenous people living in urban areas?

AN INTERCULTURAL APPROACH TO THE PROVISION OF SOCIAL HOUSINGFOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE LIVING IN URBAN AREAS WOULD MAXIMISEOPPORTUNITIES TO STRENGTHEN PARTNERSHIPS AND WORK WITHINDIGENOUS ORGANISATIONS. THIS APPROACH HAS THE POTENTIAL TODELIVER MORE DIVERSE HOUSING CHOICES AND ADAPT SERVICES TO LOCALCULTURAL NORMS

Teachers\u27 Stories of Change: Stress, Care and Economic Rationality

The impact of economic rationalism on teachers’ working lives has been documented extensively, particularly in the UK. This article provides a case study of its impact in the early 1990s in a small Australian state, Tasmania, to illustrate that although the particular institutional forms through which it is expressed may differ its impact is similar. We do this by focusing on teachers\u27 stories of change that have stress as a major theme. Stress is partially explained by increased workloads, teachers teaching outside their specialist areas and a changing student population. However, the ideology of economic rationalism has heightened stress because of the perceived lack of administrative care. A major stressor is trying to maintain a professional ideology of caring while, concurrently, accommodating to economic rationality. The clash of ideologies leads teachers to reduce commitment by leaving teaching, moving to part-time employment, withdrawing into classroom teaching and/or rationalising their workload with, they perceive, a decrease in the quality of teaching

Forensic uncertainty, fragile remains, and DNA as a panacea: an ethnographic observation of the challenges in twenty‐first‐century Disaster Victim Identification

This is an account of ethnographic research examining the specialist scientific processes known as ‘Disaster Victim Identification’ (DVI) in three settings: Québec, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In cases of multiple deaths, a series of actions accompanied by a plethora of tools are often invoked, housed at a disaster scene, forensic laboratories, a family assistance centre, and a mortuary. In this article, I examine a process dedicated to connecting the biological remains of the deceased with a confirmed validation of personhood. I describe a situation where responders/scientists will attempt multiple testing and re-testing of human remains, often pushing boundaries of available science. I argue that the search for certainty in identification lies at the heart of the activation of DVI processes, particularly when it is connected to DNA testing. Observing intimate forensic settings and the bricolage of the forensic anthropologist's labour has allowed me to track the production of the science of identity. I then reflect on the wider implications of these observations for affected communities and the responding scientists. Finally, I argue that there is complexity and ambivalence surrounding the increased use of technologies when applied to identification of victims

Text and Subject Position after Althusser

Althusser\u27s achievement is that he redefined Marxism. He reconceptualizes history and totality in terms of different times, construes knowledge as the outcome of a process of construction, and interprets subjectivity as an effect of ideology and unconscious processes. Unfortunately, Althusser\u27s functionalist view of ideology claims that the subject recognizes itself as a subject because it duplicates— reflects—an absolute subject. However, Lacan\u27s notion of the mirror stage remedies this fault. Lacan\u27s subject always misrecognizes itself in a process of contradiction that threatens the stability of any given social order. Moreover, unlike Foucault\u27s subject, which is limited in that subjectivity is folded back into a vaguely expanded notion of power, this revised Althusserian subject allows careful reading of texts. The critic does not simply read against the grain; he or she exposes the multiple points of identification offered the reader. For example, Wordsworth\u27s The Solitary Reaper installs the reader in multiple positions: a devotee of high culture and the national canon, a lover of the verbal signifier and its play, a consumer of confessional discourse, and a masculine I desiring a laboring, singing woman

Minimum toe clearance: probing the neural control of locomotion

Minimum toe clearance (MTC) occurs during a highly dynamic phase of the gait cycle and is associated with the highest risk of unintentional contact with obstacles or the ground. Age, cognitive function, attention and visual feedback affect foot clearance but how these factors interact to influence MTC control is not fully understood. We measured MTC in 121 healthy individuals aged 20-80 under four treadmill walking conditions; normal walking, lower visual field restriction and two Stroop colour/word naming tasks of two difficulty levels. Competition for cognitive and attentional resources from the Stroop task resulted in significantly lower mean MTC in older adults, with the difficult Stroop task associated with a higher frequency of extremely low MTC values and subsequently an increased modelled probability of tripping in this group. While older adults responded to visual restriction by markedly skewing MTC distributions towards higher values, this condition was also associated with frequent, extremely low MTC values. We reveal task-specific, age-dependent patterns of MTC control in healthy adults. Age-related differences are most pronounced during heavy, distracting cognitive load. Analysis of critically-low MTC values during dual-task walking may have utility in the evaluation of locomotor control and fall risk in older adults and patients with motor control deficits

DIY Music Spaces: An Origin Story and Tour of the Underground

Under the radar, overlooked by guidebooks, neglected by city governments, ignored by mainstream arts institutions, and perhaps in a garage or living room in your neighborhood, is a secret world of community and music. The acronym DIY (Do It Yourself) describes and defines spaces that offer an artistic home to creative outsiders: artists and audiences marginalized by age, race, class, gender preference, or any number of markers of unconventionality. Often found in under-utilized commercial or industrial buildings in less-desirable neighborhoods, viewed as degenerate or even dangerous, these spaces are nevertheless vital incubators in the cultural life in Seattle, the Bay Area, New York, and cities worldwide. This paper offers an ethnography of a vital organism of cultural infrastructure that is often overlooked