Community relations in the global mining industry: Exploring the internal dimensions of externally orientated work

This article focuses on community relations in the mining industry, within the context of sustainable development, social responsibility and stakeholder engagement. Community relations is conceptualized as a three-dimensional practice that involves: working for the company to understand local community perspectives; bridging community and company perspectives to generate dialogue and mutual understanding and; facilitating necessary organizational change to improve social performance. Key challenges of institutionalizing and professionalizing community relations within the mining industry are discussed. The article argues that at a conceptual level, community relations should be de-linked from public relations if it is to gain strength as a professional domain of work. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Is tourism education meeting the needs of the tourism industry? An Australian case study

Despite the rapid growth in the provision of tourism higher education over the past 40 years, there remain uncertainties relating to the content and nature of tourism degrees, and challenges in aligning tourism education with the needs of the tourism industry. While there has been some limited discussion of tourism higher education and suggested curriculum design, and its effectiveness in meeting the needs of industry has been neglected. This research involved comparing the views of industry representatives and tourism academics of the perceived importance of knowledge provided by tourism education in Australia. Content analysis and gap analysis were applied to analyse these data. This study found that there is considerable variance between the respective views of industry professionals and tourism education providers in Australia, firstly on the relative value of tertiary degrees for tourism; secondly, on the relative merits of various subjects taught at university. These findings suggest that a gap exists between the current tourism curriculum and the needs of the tourism industry and those involved in curriculum design should continue to work closely with industry representatives to ensure a stronger connection between theory and practice, therefore, improving the likelihood that graduates of tourism higher education courses will graduate with the knowledge aligned with the needs and expectations of the tourism industry

The future of renewable energy in Australia: A test for cooperative federalism?

In the context of the Australian federal system industry development will be influenced by the policies of each sphere of government. When announcing a set of policies in 1997 to develop the renewable energy industry the Australian federal government acknowledged the need for a cooperative approach between all governments and industry. The objective of this article is to analyse the government policies over the 1997–2007 period to promote the development of the renewable energy industry in Australia. The article highlights a number of factors that have served as barriers to the development of the industry. The research provides important insight into the difficulties associated with establishing cooperative national arrangements in areas of state government responsibility in the Australian federation. The lessons also inform the current debate on the policy initiatives needed to more effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from stationary energy from the increased availability of renewable energy