Social Work handbook

1996 handbook for the Board of Studies in Social Wor

The Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney: the rise and fall of a musical organisation

The Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney, formed as the Sydney Philharmonic Society in 1885, represented the rich tradition of amateur choral organisations present in Sydney in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Under the strong leadership of two of their conductors, Roberto Hazon and Joseph Bradley, the Philharmonic Society presented the Sydney and Australian premieres of many choral works, engaged the services of many international vocal soloists, performed for full houses, and was invited to perform at many important civic and state events. Yet this organisation has been forgotten by history and the Sydney music community. Although many issues contributed to the decline of this amateur organisation, the strongest factors included the Philharmonic’s inability to maintain consistency in their leadership in later years, a change in general musical trends from amateur vocal performances to professional orchestral concerts, an increase in competition from other entertainments, the establishment of the ABC, and an ongoing lack of support from the city and state governments. These were further exacerbated by the lack of support from members of the Sydney press, particularly the Sydney Morning Herald. Therefore, an in-depth study into the story of the Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney not only uncovers the history of a forgotten music organisation, it also contributes to a deeper understanding of the musical performance culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Sydney

Ritual Awareness, Symbolism and Creativity in Shi Jing Poetics

For more than two thousand years, the collection of poetry simply referred to as the Shi Jing, (“The Classic of Poetry”, “Book of Odes” or “Book of Songs”), has shaped the Chinese literary landscape. The classic is one of the central influences on the development of later Chinese poetry, and can appropriately be considered a major contributor to the habits of expression, imagery and structure which remained dominant until the nineteenth century

Pension reform: an analysis of the economic foundations of private pensions

The dissertation investigates support by economists for the global policy shift away from unfunded public pension schemes towards funded private pension schemes. Influential economists and institutions, including the World Bank, present a suite of economic arguments that suggest that this shift will have positive effects on national economies, particularly in the context of aging. The arguments may be categorised according to their relation to the operation of three sets of institutions: capital markets, labour markets and political systems. In capital markets, the transition is purported to increase private and national saving, increase the quantity and quality of investment, and provide more efficient private administration. In labour markets, it is claimed that the shift will reduce labour market distortions associated with public pensions, which inhibit competitiveness, produce unemployment and encourage early retirement. According to the World Bank, public pensions systems cause these distortions without achieving their stated objective of reducing inequality. In the political sphere, the shift is purported to insulate the pension system from political pressures, which otherwise inevitably lead to crisis. The thesis provides evidence which refutes these claims. The best research, including studies by orthodox economists, indicate that the shift does not increase savings or investment, or improve the quality of financial investment. The main effect of tax concessions associated with private pension systems is to divert to private pension funds savings that would occur in any case via other mechanisms. The tax concessions are also regressive, even in systems with compulsory elements. Private administration of pensions, particularly in a plural consumer market setting, is highly inefficient, with customers at a disadvantage in dealing with providers due to the complexity and opacity of products and pricing. A negative relationship is found between public pension spending and levels of elderly poverty, suggesting that reducing public pension spending increases levels of elderly inequality. Public pensions are found not to explain differences in economic growth between regions. Elements of system design which distort labour markets, such as by encouraging early retirement, can easily be adjusted. However, such elements are explicit government policy in several countries. A review of public and private pensions finds that examples of public system crisis are associated with instances of economic and political collapse, rather than system design. Private funded systems are found to be more vulnerable, not less, to the same external influences. Relatively generous universal public pension systems are found to be financially sustainable despite demographic change, assuming modest levels of economic growth

A Linguistic Analysis of Some Japanese Trademark Cases

There has been dissatisfaction over some court rulings among lay people in Japan. In this thesis I propose a model to explain the discrepancies between legal experts and lay people. Chapter 1 presents the purpose of this thesis, and an overview of the model called the Linguistic Legal Model. Chapter 2 shows the Japanese legal system including a new lay-participation system, the mixed court system. Chapter 3 provides background information on Japanese trademark issues. In Chapter 4 and 5, the Linguistic Legal Model is explored with Layer Analysis and Register Analysis. For Layer Analysis in Chapter 4, the notion of layering is presented from a linguistic perspective whereas legal reasoning is discussed from the notion of different modes of thought. Register Analysis in Chapter 5 is discussed in terms of genre and register. Japanese legal language is examined together with English legal language. In Chapter 6 and 7 I examine trademark cases. The Golden Horse case in Chapter 6 presents court’s judgment of the likelihood of confusion which is in common with that of lay people. However, it is argued that the thought process in the legal judgment court was not convincing. In Chapter 7, the Snack Chanel case portrays a judgment characteristic of the legal layer, which is quite different from the common sense of lay people. This discrepancy is explained from the perspective of different layers and different modes of thought. Chapter 8 concludes with a brief summary of this thesis

Self-Determination: Aborigines and the State in Australia

This thesis is an inquiry into the possibility of Aboriginal autonomy under the regime of a state policy which commands self determination. Debate about policy has been dominated by Western scientific, political and professional knowledge, which is challenged by indigenous paradigms grounded in the Dreaming. A recognition of the role of paradox leads me to an attempt at reconciliation between the old and the new Australian intellectual traditions. The thesis advances the theory of internal colonialism by identifying self-determination as its current phase. During more than 200 years of colonial history the relationship between Aborigines and the state has been increasingly contradictory. The current policy of self-determination is a political paradox. Aboriginal people must either conform to the policy by disobeying it, or reject the policy in obedience to it. Through the policy of self-determination the state constructs a relationship of dependent autonomy with Aboriginal people. In a two-year (1994-95) action research project Kitya Aboriginal Health Action Group was set up to empower a local community to establish an Aboriginal health service despite opposition from the Government Health Service. In collaboration with local general practitioners and volunteers the action group opened a health centre. After the end of formal field work government funding and support for the health service was granted. The project illustrated the paradox of dependent autonomy. What appeared as successful community development was not development, and what appeared as destructive factionalism was empowering. Strategies for change made use of contradictions and paradoxes within the state. As an innovation in the practice of social change, the thesis begins the construction of a model for indigenous community action for self-determination in health

Quantitative Fibroblast Acylcarnitine Profiling In The Diagnostic and Prognostic Assessment of Mitochondrial fatty acid [beta]-oxidation disorders

Mitochondrial fatty acid ß-oxidation disorders are a group of clinically and biochemically heterogeneous defects mainly associated with intolerance to catabolic stress. The diseases are potentially fatal, but treatable and the prognosis for most diagnosed disorders is generally favourable. Early diagnosis is thus important to prevent morbidity and mortality. This project describes an improved and validated quantitative fibroblast acylcarnitine profile assay for the investigation of suspected fatty acid ß-oxidation disorders. Intact cells were incubated with deuterium-labelled hexadecanoate and L-carnitine, and the accumulated acylcarnitines in the medium analysed using electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. This modified procedure is less demanding technically, requires fewer cells and better reflects the in vivo acylcarnitine status than previously published methods. Mitochondrial fatty acid ß-oxidation is coupled to the respiratory chain. Functional defects of one pathway may lead to secondary alterations in flux through the other. The diagnostic specificity and the prognostic potential of the in vitro acylcarnitine profile assay were investigated in fibroblasts from 14 normal controls, 38 patients with eight enzyme deficiencies of fatty acid ß-oxidation presenting with various phenotypes, and 16 patients with primary respiratory chain defects including both isolated and multiple enzyme complex defects. All fatty acid ß-oxidation deficient cell lines revealed disease-specific acylcarnitine profiles related to the sites of defects irrespective of the severity of symptoms or of different mutation. Preliminary studies suggested a correlation between severity of symptoms and higher concentrations of long-chain acylcarnitine species. However, the fibroblast acylcarnitine profiles from some patients with respiratory chain defects were similar to those of controls, whereas others had abnormal profiles resembling those found in fatty acid ß-oxidation disorders. In vitro acylcarnitine profiling is useful for the detection of fatty acid ß-oxidation deficiencies, and perhaps the prediction of disease severity and prognostic evaluation facilitating decisions of therapeutic intervention and genetic counselling. However, abnormal profiles do not exclusively indicate these disorders, and primary defects of the respiratory chain remain a possibility. Awareness of this diagnostic pitfall will aid in the selection of subsequent confirmatory tests and therapeutic options

Sex, subjectivity and agency: A life history study of women's sexual relations and practices with men

This study explores women’s experiences of sex with men. It is based on qualitative data collected from eighteen life history interviews. Such an approach provides means for examining women’s sexual experiences over time. The study finds that women give meaning to their sexual experiences through two main discursive representations: the passive, “proper” and sexually obliging girlfriend or wife, and the active and “sexually equal” woman. However, these representations do not capture the entirety of women’s sexual experiences. The life history analysis demonstrates that women are not simply inscribed by discourse. Rather, they are embodied beings actively engaged in pursuing sexual identities. Central to the process is a relationship between the practice of sex and self-reflexivity over time. Finally, the study demonstrates how the process of gaining sexual subjectivity is shaped by the material conditions of women’s lives. For instance, the praxeological circumstances of women’s class or race are powerful in recasting discourses of feminine sexuality, the meanings women ascribe to them, their access to broader sexual experiences, and the kinds of relationships they have with their male partners

Hard Cash, John Dwyer and his Contemporaries, 1890-1914

John Dwyer (1856-1934) was a London docks foreman who emigrated to Australia in 1888. Leaving his London employment on his 'own accord', Dwyer embarked upon a quest for recognition - recognition of his rights as a worker and his identity as an individual. Dwyer and his family arrived in New South Wales to be greeted by the economic depression of the 1890s, and state and employer mobilisation against organised labour and working class radicals. Dwyer was soon reduced to scraping together a living as a boarding house manager in Sydney's poorest districts, as he helped organise the Active Service Brigade, which agitated on behalf of the unemployed. Dwyer's surviving papers - twenty-one boxes of correspondence, manuscripts, minutes, handbills, tracts and newspaper clippings, plus several other volumes - document the life of a working class political radical and autodidact who embraced temperance, and who was fascinated by new ideas in religion and science - Darwinism, Theosophy and occult spiritualism. This thesis places Dwyer in the context of the intense ideological ferment of new ideas in politics, theology and science that characterised the period 1890-1914. Ideas that aggressively challenged the old certainties, and which Dwyer embraced in his project to 'change the face of the world.' Changing the world contested with the need to endure its conditions. Theosophy and temperance appealed to Dwyer's notion of duty, and an instinct to rationalise the social and economic roles he seemed unable to escape. The fragmented nature of his papers, and stop-start bursts of public activism - in politics, theosophy and temperance - reflect the tension between an urge to fight, to understand, to create - struggling against the daily demands of making a living and feeding a family. The thesis explores Dwyer's relationship with fellow radicals and workers, the labour movement and members of Sydney's social and political elite - men and women who shared and contested with his vision. Dwyer's complex and at times apparently contradictory values can be found amongst radicals and labourites alike - for example, William Lane, W.G. Spence and Bernard O'Dowd. Nor was Dywer's interest in theosophy or the occult as unusual as it might seem to modern readers. Dwyer's papers provide important insights into dilemmas that have challenged historians: the problem of alienation, the role of the individual in the historical process, the nature of working class radicalism. Issues often analysed in theoretically abstract terms, or at a broad level of historical inquiry, across a national or class-wide scale. Broad analyses of social forces or ideologies tend to distort their historical impact and meaning, failing to capture the complex relationship of phenomena such as class or ideology with individual experience. Working from Dwyer's experience, this thesis argues that it is possible to build a complex picture of working class life in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia