Gold, ink, and bitter disappointment: Swedish journalist Corfitz Cronqvist in Australasia, 1857-95

Amongst the thousands of non-British migrants who were drawn to Victoria between 1852-57, not all saw the gold-rich soil of Ballarat and Bendigo in the same light. This article examines the endeavours of Swedish Journalist Corfitz Cronqvist (1833-95), who migrated to Australia in 1857 and established the first Scandinavian-Australian newspaper, Norden. An analysis of Cronqvist's initial aspirations and spirit-breaking defeats argues that newly arrived migrants often underestimated the difficulties and realities of Australian colonial life. While the accuracy and honesty of his writing is called into question, Cronqvist is nonetheless incredibly valuable as an alternate viewpoint regarding migrant life, mining communities and newspaper history in colonial Victoria

The Use of the Social Skills Module Training to Teach Appropriate Communication Skills to a Student with Autism

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of video modeling (VM) in order to improve conversational skills using on-line instructional modules, self-monitoring, modeling of socially appropriate skills, and provide coaching opportunities within a controlled setting to an adolescent with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Using an ABAB Reversal design, direct observations of the participant\u27s identified target behaviors were collected two times per week during a controlled setting. Overall, data demonstrated that the combined treatment package was effective for improving the frequency of targeted social skills for the participant, including an additional four sessions that were needed to assess acquisition of targeted skills due to the participant graduating from high school and going on a 2-week vacation. Generalization was provided to the participant throughout the study outside of the controlled setting. However, data collection was obtained and scored by the primary researcher and a trained graduate student. In addition to current research this study complements evidence that a combined intervention presented via computer may be a beneficial method for addressing social skill difficulties for individuals with ASD

Anders Breivik and the Rise of Islamophobia

Book review of Anders Breivik and the Rise of Islamophobia (2014) by Sindre Bangstad

North/South: the Great European divide

Book review of North/South: The Great European Divide (2016) by Ricardo J. Quinones

Too remote, too primitive and too expensive: Scandinavian settlers in colonial Queensland

The defining feature of colonial Queensland was its high immigrant population. In a concerted effort to populate the land with European settlers, Queensland’s colonial administrators had enacted a pioneering immigration policy between 1860 and 1901, allowing Queensland to claim the highest percentage of foreign-born residents of all the Australian colonies in 1891. As well as the multitude of English, Irish, Scottish and German settlers that accepted governmental offers of open land and assisted passage, there was also a significant Scandinavian element that would call Queensland home. This article gives a broad overview of Scandinavian settler life in colonial Queensland

G.A. Mawer, Incognita: The invention and discovery of Terra Australis (Book Review)

Book review of Incognita: The invention and discovery of Terra Australis (2013) by G.A. Mawer

'Vi er alle Australiere': the migrant newspaper Norden and its promotion of pan-Scandinavian unity within Australia, 1896-1940

Between 1825 and 1930 over two million Scandinavians left their homelands as part of a mass exodus from Northern Europe, settling across the face of the globe and reestablishing networks of imagined communion. The Scandinavian-Australian newspaper, Norden (1896-1940), was integral in creating such networks and connecting migrant communities across vast transnational spaces, as well as historicising the extent of the Scandinavian diaspora’s activities in the Antipodes. As a comprehensive, chronologically detailed record of the migrant communities’ activities and aspirations over almost half a century, Norden’s records have been a veritable gold mine of information concerning one of Australasia’s overlooked minority groups. However, despite its immense value as a source and significance as a long-lived migrant institution, a thorough history of the Scandinavian-Australian migrant press remains unwritten. Furthermore, its overlooked importance as a cultural and social connector – and pan-Scandinavian community unifier – warrants direct scholarly attention. This thesis charts the history of the Scandinavian foreign-language press in Australasia, from the first attempts to establish a migrant newspaper in the 1850s to the decline of Norden and its readership during World War II. Norden’s establishment in the 1890s enabled scattered Scandinavian readers to identify as a small yet unified cultural group, and their ensuing involvement in wider society marks it as a significant site for migrant community-building despite Australia’s vast distances. More importantly, this thesis uses Norden’s influence to examine two major historiographical issues regarding Scandinavian-Australian migrants, namely pan-Scandinavian versus nationalist sentiments and the reactions of Scandinavians to Australian assimilation pressures. I argue that the Scandinavian foreign-language press transcended initial goals of reconnecting migrants to their countries of origin, and instead was critically influential in attempting to ethnicise a united Scandinavian-Australian identity. As an informational vehicle of first-generation migrants, Norden enabled isolated Scandinavians to reconnect on grounds of shared heritage and receive relevant news based on their individual circumstances, tailored to them in their own vernacular languages. It also gave a fragmented segment of Australia’s immigrant population a much-needed sense of direction and purpose. While fostering this united sense of community was, in itself, insufficient to guarantee migrant identity, Norden’s continual enunciation of its readership’s uncertain status within Australian society – especially through the airing of grievances and stories of societal friction – worked together with other political, economic and social exclusionary factors to drive expressions of a ‘Scandinavian-Australian’ migrant group identity forward. Norden acted as a powerful symbol of pan-Scandinavian unity at a time when homeland nationalist sentiments threatened to fragment migrants into separate Swedish, Danish and Norwegian groups, and destroy a united readership. While the individual nationalisation of migrant churches, clubs and societies limited the efficacy of pan-Scandinavian co-operation in Australia, this thesis argues that migrant newspapers required an inclusive pan-Scandinavian readership for economic and social survival. It is here that Norden’s real significance is evident. In reestablishing networks of belonging and encouraging socially constructed migrant groups to exist within a framework of dominant British-Australian society, Norden was indirectly combating assimilation pressures felt by its first-generation readership through the continuation of shared heritage, languages, and pan-Scandinavian cultural pursuits. In rallying a readership to its united cause, Norden ensured its own survival for as long as the migrant community’s sense of ethnic identity lasted

TRANSITION PROBABILITIES TO EMPLOYMENT AND NON-PARTICIPATION

The analysis of the probability of leaving the unemployment pool is cornrnonly done without distinguishing the exit state. Al1 the people who exit unemployment do not do so into employment, instead some become inactive. In this paper 1 then distinguish and examine the trasition probabilities from unemployment to employment and non-participation. 1 find that the factors that affect the transition probabilities to each state are not necesarily the same, and their effects are different in direction andlor magnitude. El análisis de la probabilidad de salir del desempleo se hace normalmente sin distinguir el estado al cual se va. Todos los individuos que dejan el desempleo no pasan a ser empleados, sino que algunos pasan a la inactividad. En este trabajo distingo y examino las probabilidades de transición del desempleo a el empleo y a la inactividad. Se encuentra que los factores que afectan a las probabilidades de transición a cada uno de los estados no son necesariamente los mismos, y los efectos van en diferente dirección y/o son de diferente magnitud.Análisis del desempleo, modelos de elección cualitativa. Unemployment analisis , qualitative choice models