Hard-boiled homemakers: The individual and the dystopian urban in the Japanese anti‑detective novel

This paper discusses the ways in which Japanese authors have engaged with the tropes of hard-boiled detective fiction in order to examine post-capitalist Japanese society. With reference to the extant framework on the relationship between hard-boiled fiction and the urban space, discussion will focus on two Japanese novels: Natsuo Kirino’s Out (アウト, 1997), and Haruki Murakami’s Dance Dance Dance (ダンス・ダンス・ダンス, 1983). Both texts depict individuals who have been displaced to the spatial and socioeconomic ‘margins’ of a dystopian urban space, and who, through narratives of crime and detection, attempt to escape its mundane oppression. However, both texts also challenge the hard-boiled genre through an integration of detective fiction archetypes with post-modern textual elements. Accordingly, they are emblematic of the emergent ‘anti-detective’ novel, which denies the hermetic and cathartic aspects of the traditional crime novel to discuss irresolvable issues of modern identity. Nonetheless, whilst Dance uses surreal ‘dream spaces’ as a source of relief for its protagonist, Out instead ultimately critiques its own escapist fantasy through stark violence. Regardless, both texts argue personal autonomy can only be achieved by the rejection of the urban space itself for an arguably unattainable imaginary

Australian student visas: Assessing how the GTE requirement is assessed

Australia is a country that has long sought to be competitive in the international education sector, for the purposes of both revenue generation and contribution towards Australia’s social fabric. However, it has also historically had ambivalent views concerning migration, since the days of the ‘White Australia’ policy. Given this socio-legal background, on 5 November 2011 the Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) requirement was introduced as part of Australia’s Student Visa Program. It sought to maintain the integrity of Australia’s international education sector, as well as enhance the sector’s global competitiveness. However, industry experts have expressed concern over the requirement, suggesting that its application has been subjective and lacked transparency. This essay examines the GTE requirement through two cases submitted for review to the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT), to consider whether these concerns are evident at an appellate level. The essay will compare Australia’s requirements with Canada’s, taking into account broader policy objectives and the aforementioned goals. It will conclude that Australia’s GTE test is subjective, evidenced by unclear and inconsistent decisions that lack transparency

Just a little bit of healthy competition: An assessment of the neoliberal policymaking paradigm as it relates to the United States healthcare system

Instead of creating perfect market conditions where Pareto optimality has been realised, the US healthcare system exists in a state of market failure. The US spends more on healthcare per capita than any other country in the world and yet it lags far behind all other industrialised nations in standards of public healthcare provision and health outcomes. I argue that three main elements endemic to the US healthcare market have created conditions in which it has necessarily failed. Firstly, consumers’ willingness to pay for healthcare is often disproportionate to their capacity to do so. The result of this behaviour is inelasticity of demand for health-related goods and services. Secondly, there exist a number of barriers to competition that would not occur in a ‘perfect’ free market system. Market monopolies conferred by intellectual property protections and regulatory processes mean that prices of healthcare and its related services can be raised to levels disproportionate to the actual value of the goods and services provided. Lastly, the US healthcare market is not an arena in which all parties to a transaction have access to perfect information. This informational asymmetry, compounded by the ‘agency relationship’ means that it is impossible for consumers to rationally compare competing options in the provision of health services