http://www.australianreview.net/ Australian Review of Public Affairs -- Original research, commentary, and review. Published by the The University of Sydney Business School, The University of Sydney en-au (C) 2000-2011 The University of Sydney Business School, The University of Sydney leanne@cutcher.sydney.edu.au (Leanne Cutcher) r.hollis@econ.usyd.edu.au (Rhondda Hollis) http://www.australianreview.net/image/feed.gif http://www.australianreview.net/ 144 85 http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2012/04/gleeson_johnson.html By Kate Gleeson and Carol Johnson. A new biography of Tony Abbott paints him as irredeemably sexist and misogynistic; old-fashioned, aggressive, responsible for lowering the tone in politics, and generally a danger not just to women but to the whole country. But is Tony Abbott really the lone freak in the circus of Australian politics? Or is a broader and more complex politics of gender at work, that takes in both sides of the house? http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2012/04/sriprakash.html By Arathi Sriprakash. The media is awash with stories about the exceptional academic success of Chinese students. Young Chinese-Australians are topping their classes, winning places in selective schools, and gaining entry into competitive university courses. When China debuted in the 2009 international standardised testing program PISA, students outperformed their counterparts across the world in reading, mathematics and science. What's behind their success? There's more to it than "Asian values" and "tiger mothers", at any rate ... http://www.australianreview.net//journal/v10/n2/jewell_louise.html By Paul Jewell and Jennie Louise. Australia has recently amended copyright laws in order to exempt and protect parodies, so that, as the Hon. Chris Ellison, the then Minster for Justice told the Senate, "Australia's fine tradition of poking fun at itself and others will not be unnecessarily restricted". It is predicted that there will be legal debates about the definition of parody. But if the law, as the Minister contends, reflects Australian values, then there is a precursor question. Is there anything wrong with parody, such that it should be restricted? In our efforts to define parody, we discover and develop a moral defence of parody. Parody is the imitation of an artistic work, sometimes for the sake of ridicule, or perhaps as a vehicle to make a criticism or comment. It is the appropriation of another's original work, and therefore, prima facie, exploits the originator. Parody is the unauthorised use of intellectual property, with both similarity to and difference from other misappropriations such as piracy, plagiarism and forgery. Nevertheless, we argue that unlike piracy, plagiarism and forgery, which are inherently immoral, parody is not. On the contrary, parody makes a positive contribution to culture and even to the original artists whose work is parodied. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2012/03/orchiston_smith.html By Tashina Orchiston and Belinda Smith. Women who are victims of family violence have more disrupted work histories, on average have lower personal incomes, have had to change jobs frequently and are more likely to be employed in casual and part-time work than women with no experience of violence. Yet work is a vital structural support for victims, providing them with financial independence, enhancing self-worth, and reducing isolation. Do anti-discrimination laws have a role in helping these women stay in work? Australian law reformers think they could. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2012/03/curtin.html By Jennifer Curtin. Women's rights to work and to economic security have always been central tenets in the fight for gender equality. These rights are won through feminist politics that focus on the individual rights of women as equal with men. But also important is a more social and collective understanding of rights that challenges the masculine culture of the trade union movement worldwide. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2012/02/manwaring.html By Rob Manwaring. We know Labor is in trouble in Australia -- but they are not alone. Increasing numbers of the public are turning to the right rather than to the left to govern in Europe as well. Why? One reason might be, paradoxically, that centre-left parties are too right wing: governments they lead struggle to find adequate policy responses, not least since most of them have abandoned state ownership as a civilising force for capitalism. But not everyone agrees with this assessment ... http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2012/02/carson.html By Lyn Carson. Citizens may be able to make decisions better than those of professional politicians, because they are not affected by political party allegiances, corruption, re-election anxiety, donor obligations or strategic bargaining. And there are well-tried methods of engaging citizens in rich forms of democratic participation, to harness this potential. So what is preventing their acceptance and widespread use? http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2012/02/dwyer.html By Tim Dwyer. Citizens need to be informed to participate in democracy -- and they rely on the media for information. Three recent books catalogue the problems with the contemporary media, and show just how much needs to change for the democratic role of the news to be fulfilled. In Australia, would-be reformers confront a dangerous level of media ownership concentration, declining investment in costly citizenship-focused information gathering practices, and audiences whose tastes have been cultivated in soft entertainment. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/12/phillips.html By Dennis Phillips. In September 2008, when Republican presidential candidate John McCain named Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate, some Australians likened the self-described "maverick" Palin to Australia's own political maverick, Pauline Hanson. Both women are attractive, energetic, conservative, populist, blunt and -- how to put this tactfully -- lacking in philosophical sophistication. But Palin has had much more political impact than Hanson on her nation's politics ... http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/12/braunack-mayer.html By Annette Braunack-Mayer. Medical students meet users of health services in clinical settings -- the hospital or surgery -- and so see them through eyes attuned to clinical and individual solutions, not to the broader social determinants of health, illness and modes of medical practice. Students are often resistant to thinking in new and different ways about the problems patients bring to them, but need to learn how, if medical care is to be genuinely caring. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/12/konings.html By Martijn Konings. A paradoxical logic shapes debate among critics of capitalism after the GFC: awareness that markets cannot solve social problems has generated a range of fantasies about markets' as yet untapped potential. Even financial institutions are routinely ascribed capacities for egalitarian inclusiveness that the crisis seems decisively to have demonstrated they lack. Social scientists need to do better. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/11/gelber.html By Katharine Gelber. The Internet -- home to "cyber mobs", liars, aggressive misogynists and purveyors of hate, who distribute their views with impunity. Meanwhile, their targets suffer the consequences of this predominantly unregulated arena for speech. The ubiquity of the Internet, the permanence of posts, and the search engines that dredge sludge for you, mean that material that makes its way online affects people's lives over the long term and in profound ways. Can this dark side of the Internet be regulated? http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/11/baines.html By Charlotte Baines. Since World War II, globalisation and mass migration have exposed Australians, city and country dwellers alike, to new religions from around the world. Religious people and groups can respond in different ways to increasing diversity, and a new book explores the challenges and opportunities they face. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/10/markus.html By Andrew Markus. In Australia, the attempt to apply the concept of genocide has produced two separate conversations, two divergent discourses with little indication of mutual engagement. It has not, as some might have hoped it would, fostered a wide-ranging reappraisal of Australian history. This problem is not unique to Australia. Indeed, beyond the addition of a significant chapter to the sociology of group relations, the genocide concept has failed to generate understanding at depth. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/10/wainer.html By Jo Wainer. The changed sex ratio of doctors is a worldwide phenomenon attracting the interest of policy makers at the highest level. That we even need to think at a policy level about how women are included in the practice of medicine is a result of the systematic exclusion of women from licensed practice as healers when modern medicine was being established in Europe from the 15th-19th centuries. http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/09/goodwin_huppatz.html By Susan Goodwin and Kate Huppatz. Unimaginable a decade or two ago: interracial surrogacy, raising transgender children, queer parenting, mothers' chatrooms on the Internet, "tradie" mothers, executive mothers, yummy mummies, and mothers subjected to mutual obligation. Yet with all its new ways of being a mother and doing motherhood, even in the 21st century motherhood continues to be an arena of conflict for women. How are we to make sense of mothering today? http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/09/chou.html By Mark Chou. Since the first Chinese international relations theory conference was held in Shanghai in 1987, proposals for a Chinese school of international relations, or at the least a theory of international relations with Chinese characteristics, have been continuously mooted. What can philosophers from China' s prehistory offer this project? http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/09/gothard.html By Jan Gothard. All historians have an obligation not to misuse or falsify their sources and to treat them with respect. For oral historians the obligation is also a personal and ethical one, which sometimes predisposes them to infinite introspection on their role in the co-creation of their interview sources. A new history of migration to Australia pushes the boundary of how much introspection is too much ...