Tools or Toys? The Impact of High Technology on Scholarly Productivity

Toys. The impact of computers on productivity has been examined directly on macro data and indirectly (on wages) using microeconomic data. This study examines the direct impact on the productivity of scholarship by considering how high technology might alter patterns of coauthoring of articles in economics and their influence. Using all coauthored articles in three major economics journals from 1970-79 and 1992-96, we find: 1) Sharp growth in the percentage of distant coauthorships (those between authors who were not in the same metropolitan areas in the four years prior to publication), as the theory predicts. Contrary to the theory: 2) Lower productivity (in terms of subsequent citations) of distant than close-coauthored papers; and 3) No decline in their relative disadvantage between the 1970s and 1990s. These findings are reconciled by the argument that high-technology functions as a consumption rather than an investment good. As such, it can be welfare-increasing without increasing productivity.

Job Discrimination, Market Forces and the Invisibility Hypothesis

The Invisibility Hypothesis holds that the job skills of disadvantaged workers are not easily discovered by potential new employers, but that promotion enhances visibility and alleviates this problem. Then, at a competitive labor market equilibrium, firms profit by hiding talented disadvantaged workers in low level jobs. Consequently, those workers are paid less on average and promoted less often than others with the same education and ability. As a result of the inefficient and discriminatory wage and promotion policies, disadvantaged workers experience lower returns to investments in human capital than other workers

Job Discrimination, Market Forces and the Invisibility Hypothesis

The Invisibility Hypothesis holds that the job skills of disadvantaged workers are not easily observed by potential new employers, but that promotion enhances visibility and alleviates this problem. Then, at a competitive labor market equilibrium, disadvantaged workers will be paid less on average and promoted less often than other workers with the same education and ability, even if their employers are unprejudiced and know their workers’ abilities. As a result of the discriminatory wage and promotion policies, disadvantaged workers will experience lower returns to investments in human capital than other workers. An affirmative action program that eliminates discrimination and brings about efficiency initially forces the promotion of unqualified workers

The views of women in prison about help-seeking for intimate partner violence: at the intersection of ‘survivor’ and ‘offender’

Women represent the fastest growing section of prison populations across the Western world (Jeffries & Newbold, 2016), with ‘gender responsive’ theories of crime proposing that experiences of victimization often create offending pathways dissimilar to those of male offenders (see Bloom, Owen, & Covington 2005; Salisbury & Van Voorhis, 2009). Women’s experiences prior to incarceration have been shown, for example, to be characterized by high rates of child abuse, rape, and intimate partner violence (IPV) (Lynch, Fritch, & Heath, 2012). Of particular concern is the findings of one US study, that three quarters 75% of incarcerated women reported a history of physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner (Browne, Miller, & Maguin, 1999). A more recent study, by Lynch, Fritch, and Health (2012) has also reported that 90% of female prisoners report physical and sexual violence from their partners in the year prior to incarceration. While such experiences may be important antecedents to a range of personal problems, which, in turn, lead to offending, these studies highlight how women who are in prison represent a group who potentially have an ongoing vulnerability to IPV after release (Cross, 2016). And yet, despite many prisoners returning to the same relationships and geographic contexts/communities that existed prior to incarceration, relatively little is known about the post-release experiences of women prisoners and the types of services that might be made available to maintain their safety

The forgotten victims: prisoner experience of victimisation and engagement with the criminal justice system

Many women in prison have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). As this form of violence is often intergenerational and entrenched, women in prison are widely considered to be at particular risk of ongoing victimisation following release from custody. And yet, their support needs often go unrecognised, and it is likely that a range of barriers exists that prevent exprisoners from accessing services. This research documents a series of interviews with both incarcerated women and service providers in one Australian jurisdiction to arrive at an understanding of help-seeking behaviour and how this might inform service responses. It is not concerned with advancing current understandings of why women come into contact with the justice system, although it is clear that services and programs that prevent IPV will contribute to reduced criminal justice involvement. Te analysis is positioned within a review of current theories of how people seek help from both formal and informal sources and how these theories might apply to women in prison. Tese theories suggest that any individual who experiences IPV must: 1) recognise and define the abusive situation as intolerable; 2) decide to disclose the abuse and seek help; and 3) select a target for the disclosure and where to subsequently seek help from. At the same time, the ability to seek help is infuenced by a broad range of individual, interpersonal and socio-cultural factors. Socio-culturally, for example, IPV is ofen viewed through the lens of particular social, religious and cultural institutions where male–female power inequalities are reinforced. Figure 1 provides a summary of those factors that infuence help-seeking at each stage of the process. Te interviews with women in prison clearly illustrated the need for service providers to ofer support at each of these three stages; they also illustrated how the process of re-entering the community leaves many women who have been released from prison feeling insufciently empowered to access help independently. Te interviews with service providers highlight that although services are available to victims of IPV, they rarely provide the type of support required to engage ex-prisoners. Te research suggests there is much that can be done to prepare women for their eventual release back into the community and to support them in the period following release. Specialist safety services are needed to provide education and information about IPV, to assess the particular risks faced by women in prison, to broker service access with community agencies and to provide general support and advocacy. In short, a dedicated integrated response to community reintegration is indicated that can help to break the cycle of victimisation and incarceration that is characteristic of the lives of many women in Australian prisons

E-learning for self-management support: Introducing blended learning for graduate students - A cohort study 13 Education 1303 Specialist Studies in Education 11 Medical and Health Sciences 1117 Public Health and Health Services

Background: E-learning allows delivery of education in many diverse settings and researchers have demonstrated it can be as effective as learning conducted in traditional face-to-face settings. However, there are particular practices and skills needed in the area of providing patient self-management support (SMS), that may not be achievable online. The aim of this study was to compare three approaches in the training of university students regarding the preparation of a Chronic Condition Self-Management Care Plan: 1) traditional face-to-face delivery of SMS training, 2) an e-learning approach and 3) a blended approach (combining e-learning and face-to-face teaching). Methods: Graduate entry physiotherapy students and medical students at Flinders University were recruited. Depending on the cohort, students were either exposed to traditional face-to-face training, e-learning or a blended model. Outcomes were compared between the three groups. We measured adherence to care plan processes in the preparation of an assessment piece using the Flinders Program Chronic Care Self Management tools. A total of 183 care plans were included (102 traditional, 52 blended, 29 e-learning,). All students submitted the Flinders Program Chronic Care Plan for university assessment and these were later assessed for quality by researchers. The submission was also assigned a consumer engagement score and a global competence score as these are integral to successful delivery of SMS and represent the patient perspective. Results: The blended group performed significantly better than the traditional group in quality use of the Flinders Program tools: Problem and Goals (P < 0.0001). They also performed significantly better in the total care plan score (P < 0.0001) and engagement score (P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference between the groups for the Partners in Health tool. Conclusions: In this pilot study, the blended learning model was a more effective method for teaching self-management skills than the traditional group, as assessed in the development of a chronic condition self-management care plan. We anticipate that future research with identical groups of students would yield similar results but in the meantime, academics can have confidence that blended learning is at least as effective as traditional learning methods

Fragmentation in Australian Commonwealth and South Australian State policy on mental health and older people: A governmentality analysis

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).Mental health care for older people is a significant and growing issue in Australia and internationally. This article describes how older people’s mental health is governed through policy discourse by examining Australian Commonwealth and South Australian State government policy documents, and commentaries from professional groups, advocacy groups and non-governmental organisations. Documents published between 2009 and 2014 were analysed using a governmentality approach, informed by Foucault. Discourses of ‘risk’, ‘ageing as decline/dependence’ and ‘healthy ageing’ were identified. Through these discourses, different neo-liberal governmental strategies are applied to ‘target’ groups according to varying risk judgements. Three policy approaches were identified where older people are (1) absent from policy, (2) governed as responsible, active citizens or (3) governed as passive recipients of health care. This fragmented policy response to older people’s mental health reflects fragmentation in the Australian policy environment. It constructs an ambiguous place for older people within neo-liberal governmental rationality, with significant effects on the health system, older people and their carers