Political Islam and the future of Australian multiculturalism

How can complex and diverse societies ensure the survival of core democratic values and the allegiance of all citizens, while respecting cultural difference? In the Australian context, these issues have been foregrounded by the presence of Muslim communities. This article argues that the discourses about Muslims and discourses by Muslims can work to reveal the dynamics for negotiating social cohesion. The political projects of mainstream Muslim communities can play a critical role in knitting together fragmented elements, and offering broader fronts through which a more integrated multicultural society can evolve. However, the potential for integration can be undermined in two ways: by political decisions in the dominant society that reject such projects, rather than engaging with them in creative and constructive directions; and by marginal groups within Muslim communities gaining greater leverage over younger people in a period of heightened apprehension occasioned by world events and Australian government reactions

Mapping Progress : Human Rights and International Students in Australia

The rapid growth in international student numbers in Australia in the first decade of the  2000s was accompanied by a series of public crises. The most important of these was the outbreak in Melbourne Victoria and elsewhere of physical attacks on the students. Investigations at the time also pointed to cases of gross exploitation, an array of threats that severely compromised their human rights. This paper reviews and pursues the outcomes of a report prepared by the authors in 2010 for Universities Australia and the Human Rights Commission. The report reviewed social science research and proposed a series of priorities for human rights interventions that were part of the Human Rights Commission’s considerations.  New activity, following the innovation of having international students specifically considered by the Human Rights Commission, points to initiatives that have not fully addressed the wide range of questions at state

“Don’t mention it…”: what government wants to hear and why about multicultural Australia

Research into migration, settlement, racism and multiculturalism has been a major theme of the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, since its inception in 2006. In this article the author, a scholar with over forty years of research experience in this thematic area, draws on his experience of the interaction between research, policy and politics to argue that independent research that tackles difficult questions can contribute to wider social understanding of difficult issues. He demonstrates the impact both of the investment in and expansion of research, and the contrary contraction and deprivation of resources. Key research exercises discussed include the Henderson Poverty Inquiry, Jean Martin’s 1970s study of the first Indochinese arrivals, the Galbally Report, the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs, the Bureau of Immigration Population and Multicultural Research, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Eureka Harmony reports, the Challenging Racism project, the Scanlon Social Cohesion project, and The People of Australia report

Co się ukrywa za nazwami emocji?

The article is devoted to the semantic motivations of the names of feelings. Its aim is to prove that when one researches semantic motivations one discovers the original associations connected with referents, in this case, feelings. In order to present the problem in an accessible way the most legible of the names were chosen for the analysis – especially those which acquired the meaning of a feeling by way of metaphor. The names whose structure is clear but which lost their legibility due to lexicalisation were also considered.The article is devoted to the semantic motivations of the names of feelings. Its aim is to prove that when one researches semantic motivations one discovers the original associations connected with referents, in this case, feelings. In order to present the problem in an accessible way the most legible of the names were chosen for the analysis – especially those which acquired the meaning of a feeling by way of metaphor. The names whose structure is clear but which lost their legibility due to lexicalisation were also considered

Cosmopolitan Civility: understanding power and difference

The 4 Rs conference at the University of Technology Sydney in October 2008 took place less than a year after the election of the Rudd Labor government. The moment is important to capture – the government had been swept into office on a wave of hostility to the Howard conservatives, but it did not have a mandate for radical reform. Its promises had carefully targeted key constituencies – skilled workers, small business, the urban “chattering” classes, people in education, in health and in the arts (to a small extent). The government was committed to fiscal discipline with a more humane face, its great vision summarised under the rubric of “social inclusion”

Evolution of the legislator’s views on the laws governing succession in public law

Kodeks handlowy w art. 285 § 3 i art. 465 § 3, czyli przepisach dotyczących łączenia spółek, stanowił, że z chwilą wykreślenia spółki przejętej spółka przejmująca wstępuje we wszystkie prawa i obowiązki spółki przejętej. Wyłącznie w tych przepisach akt ten stanowił o obowiązywaniu sukcesji uniwersalnej, jednakże z przepisów nie wynika wprost, czy sukcesja ta obejmowała swym zakresem przedmiotowym tylko prawa i obowiązki cywilnoprawne, czy również publicznoprawne. Kodeks spółek handlowych, który zastąpił Kodeks handlowy, w odniesieniu do łączenia spółek w art. 494 § 2 przewiduje wprost sukcesję uniwersalną w odniesieniu do praw i obowiązków publicznoprawnych. W czasie obowiązywania Kodeksu handlowego obowiązywały dwie ustawy, których przepisy sugerowały, że stanowią podstawę do sukcesji uniwersalnej publicznoprawnej: ustawa z 13 lipca 1990 r. o prywatyzacji przedsiębiorstw państwowych oraz ustawa z 30 sierpnia 1996 r. o komercjalizacji i prywatyzacji – rozwiązania legislacyjne w zakresie następstwa prawnego przyjęte w przywołanych ustawach stanowią materiał porównawczy analizy regulacji sukcesji zawartej w Kodeksie handlowym. Niniejszy artykuł ma przede wszystkim przedstawić ewolucję stanowiska ustawodawcy, w wyniku której od stanu prawnego nieprzewidującego następstwa prawnego w prawie publicznym doprowadzono do stanu prawnego dopuszczającego w przypadku łączeń i podziałów spółek sukcesję odnoszącą się do wszystkich praw i obowiązków publicznoprawnych. W przypadkach przekształcenia spółek i przedsiębiorstw państwowych przyjmowana jest zasada kontynuacji praw i obowiązków publicznoprawnych.Articles 285 § 3 and 465 § 3 relating to mergers of the former Commercial Code provided that once the acquired company had been struck off from the register of companies, the acquiring company acquired all the rights and obligations of the acquired company. These were the only provisions of the Code that constituted the statutory basis for universal succession. However, it was not clear whether this succession included only civil rights and obligations, or the public ones as well. Article 494 § 2 of the Code of Commercial Companies and Partnerships which replaced the Commercial Code expressly provides that in the event of a merger, a universal succession that follows extends on public rights and obligations as well. However, in the period when the Commercial Code was in force, two other acts were also enforced, namely the law on privatisation of state enterprises of 13 July 1990, and the law on commercialisation and privatisation of 30 August 1996. The provisions of both suggested the inclusion of a statutory basis for universal succession also for public law matters. The legislative solutions adopted in those acts constitute reference material for the analysis of the regulation of succession under the current Code of Commercial Companies and Partnerships. This article primarily presents the evolution of law as a result of the evolving legislator’s views, which resulted in moving from a state of affairs in which the public law legal succession was not provided to the current situation in which public law universal succession applies to mergers of companies as well. In the event of a transformation ofa company or a state-owned enterprise, the public rights and duties are continued