Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory
Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory (ISSN 2209-0878) aims to provide a platform for those advancing knowledge and debate on any aspect of social justice-informed social work, social policy, practice or theory. With a goal of publishing twice yearly, the journal welcomes submissions that explore questions of: social injustice; inequity; systemic and/or individual oppression; the power dynamics of social relations such as race, class, gender, disability, sexuality, Indigeneity, age, region, political economy; questions engaging with intersectionality and multiple oppressions; and various forms of resistance, social change, social policy and social justice initiatives. An online, open access social work and social policy journal published by Social Work and Policy Studies, University of Sydney through the University of Sydney Library. Please register to be informed when submissions are open or a new issue is published.
Men of colour, family violence and the global North: A critical interpretive synthesis
Through a critical interpretive synthesis method, this paper examines the ways in which empirical research has constructed ethnically diverse men of colour’s use of family violence in the global North. The findings identify six major interrelated themes including (1) women’s employment and men’s fragility, (2) men’s inability to fulfil their breadwinner role, (3) domestic work in the global North, (4) social experiences and relational dynamics, (5) cultural transition and men’s resistance, (6) men’s experiences of trauma and distress. The analysis in this review employs feminist and postcolonial theories to demonstrate a need to increase men’s visibility through abandoning static constructions of masculinities and discursive constructions of cultural othering. A vital implication for social workers is to navigate methods to decolonise their research and practice with ethnically diverse people of colour. In such an approach, men of colour’s use of family violence is not merely an inevitable outcome of their trauma, marginalisation, or inability to transition to the modern world but rather a conscious choice that is underpinned by several intersecting factors. Recognising men of colour’s capability to make choices is vital to working with them towards making safer choices for women and children in their families.
Undergraduate and Post graduate Student papers
Copyright (c) 2024 Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory
Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC) was established by Survivors of the Kinchela Boys Home, a government run institution that forcibly removed 400–600 Aboriginal boys from their families between 1924 and 1970. Their vision is to improve the social, emotional, and cultural wellbeing of Survivors, as well as their descendants and families. KBHAC delivers a range of services and programs across social and emotional wellbeing, healing, disability, aged care, family reconnection and many other areas. To guide the delivery of these programs for a community who still suffer with the unique, complex traumas associated with institutionalisation, KBHAC identified the need to create a Practice Framework that imbued their values as a Survivor-led, trauma-informed, and culturally strong organisation. To develop the Framework, KBHAC worked with an Aboriginal-led consulting group and developed a partnership built on trust and truth-telling. A series of workshops identified a structure for the Framework that details the healing journey of the KBHAC community, typical experiences of KBHAC service-users, and the required competencies and skills of KBHAC staff. The iterative process, involving continual reflection and ongoing communication between KBHAC and the consulting group, led to the creation of a living document that is user-friendly, visually engaging, and incorporates artwork by a Gomeroi artist. This journal article showcases some of the key pages and elements of the Practice Framework. Through implementing a genuine partnership approach and best research practices, KBHAC created a Framework that serves as their central document, offering a comprehensive guide for staff, service-users, and the community. This Framework, and the process of its development, can be a best practice example for other stakeholders when working with Stolen Generation Survivors, and has potential implications for casework and service delivery in Australia and internationally.
“It’s a community thing!”: Decolonizing Struggles of Taiwan’s Indigenous Elderly Care
Drawing on qualitative interviews, this article explores decolonising struggles and emancipatory knowledge within Taiwan’s Indigenous elderly care services within the context of neoliberal policy restructuring. Informed by anti-oppressive practices, the article captures how increasingly marketised and commodified care policy reinforces the individualisation and isolation of care workers and elders within contested and politicised time and space domains. Workers sought to challenge the individualised trend by integrating the community into the care provision process and viewing care as a collaborative practice, including community engagement and collective political action. This article contributes to the decolonising debate and anti-oppressive practices by analysing empirical experiences in Taiwan and further examining the intersection of aging and ethnicity.
“I don’t want anything to do with research, but I will talk to you”
On the 14th November, 2022 the small village of Eugowra in the Central West of New South Wales was hit by an ‘inland tsunami’ with widespread destruction and the loss of two lives. This small village was the place I was raised and many previous generations of my family had lived. Coincidentally, since 2015 I had been slowly drawn in the world of ‘disaster research’, with a specific focus on the experiences of communities navigating the terrains of disasters. I had heard stories and seen the destruction caused by floods, fires, storms and of course the Covid pandemic. But I had never imagined that my past and my present would collide in such a manner. Some 40% of the homes in Eugowra and all the active businesses were damaged by unprecedented (this type of language seems increasingly wrong) flooding. My initial engagement was as a volunteer, sorting material donations and listening to people still in shock. I wondered though right from the beginning how might my research knowledge of disasters be useful, although aware of its limitations in such a chaotic situation. Over time I realised that research knowledge could be useful in supporting community responses to disasters if it was offered with generosity, caution and humility. Navigating relationships and building trust repeatedly arose as requiring ongoing attention. In this article I aim to explore what there is to learn about disaster research when it becomes personal.
Copyright (c) 2023 Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory
The repeated occurrence of natural disasters is impacting communities globally and these effects are expected to worsen as the global temperatures continue to rise. In Australia, communities on the East Coast are now bracing for another dry hot summer along with the accompanying threat of bushfire. In this context, many governments have promoted the idea of building resilient communities in order to try to mitigate the danger and threat to communities. The idea of enhancing resilience is both appealing and problematic: appealing, because it signifies the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity: problematic, because such a term can easily be exploited to support ideological beliefs about independence and self-sufficiency. This paper explores the notion of enhancing resilience in smaller rural communities, specifically in the context of recovery from the fires in 2019/2020. By adopting a case study approach, we argue first, that whilst the idea of resilience has value, it needs to be equalised by a robust understanding of the contextual factors that may increase vulnerability (Solangaarachchi Griffin & Doherty, 2012); with this in mind, we suggest that developing adaptive capacity is more fitting because of the way it draws our attention to the changes that are necessary for responding to the changes in climate. Second, we argue that if communities are to be assisted to adapt in order to survive the effects of climate change, this work will require an increased focus on community development in the medium and long-term stages of recovery, so that communities are assisted, supported and empowered to engage preparedness projects in the event of disasters occurring in the future.
Bushfire, resilience, adaptive capacity community, community development
Involuntary mental health treatment is when a person undergoes an unwanted intervention in a hospital or in the community due to an authorised medical officer deeming the person to be ‘mentally ill’ or ‘mentally disordered’ (NSW Government, 2021). The Mental Health Act NSW (2007) frames involuntary mental health treatment as a ‘necessary’ and ‘effective’ approach to supporting people experiencing mental distress. This study critically engages with women’s experiences of involuntary mental health treatment, exploring the potential implications of a biomedical and carceral response to women’s distress. Six women with experience of involuntary mental health treatment in NSW were involved in my Honours project. In alignment with both feminist and critical mental health frameworks, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were chosen as they provide a loose structure and allow for flexibility to discover new areas of significance identified by women (Dcruz & Jones, 2013). The project was approved by the University of Sydney Human Ethics Committee. All women involved in this study described involuntary mental health treatment as a profoundly harmful experience which produced ongoing implications. Women described the ways in which psychiatric and gender oppressions intersected to perpetuate the silencing of women. Collectively and individually, all women displayed acts of resistance towards psychiatric and patriarchal hegemony. Three major themes were identified in the analytical process: The Censorship of Knowledge; The Censorship of Emotions; and The Censorship of Acts of Resistance.
From Worst-Practice Disaster Recovery to Best: Lessons from Ōtautahi Christchurch
The Canterbury Earthquake Sequence (2010, 2011) devastated central Christchurch, necessitating wholesale urban renewal. But national government’s ensuing recovery efforts were castigated for exemplifying global worst practice, providing a textbook case in how not to undertake recovery. Alliteratively, I argue that the issues underpinning this failure to build back better cluster around questions of complexity, control and coherence. The government’s blueprint, the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan, illuminates several fantasies of mastery associated with the technocratic mindset: that a central authority can dictate local interests, that community is homogenous, that their wishes can be proscribed from the top down, and that a fixed recovery plan can deal with emergent complexities. For, while we can formulate blueprints, design buildings and even mandate precincts, we cannot engineer urban life. Having identified problems, we can look to community activities in Ōtautahi to recommend three best-practice solutions: enacting co-governance (between Crown and iwi – Māori kinship group, tribe, nation), undertaking meaningful collaboration (between authorities and affected communities) and harnessing communitas (the distinctive social energy that emerges after disaster). All three elements often combine as social infrastructure.
Interrogating resilience and exploring the agency within affect
In this article I discuss the role that emotions have on shaping responses to disasters, based on interviews with people who experienced bushfire and flood in 2019 and 2020 in New South Wales, Australia. At the time of the research, state and federal disaster management strategies implored individuals to be self-responsible, independent, and accountable, under the broad concept of ‘resilience’. I argue that resilience rhetoric enforces notions of acting 'stoically' and being self-reliant in the context of disasters, which I locate as being connected with historical understandings of Australian national identity and can be dismissive of emotions, as barriers or non-pertinent in recovery efforts. I problematise the notion of resilience by challenging the presumption that its corollary, vulnerability, and emotions more broadly, belong to a non-agentive category. I consider how emotions can mould both personal and collective responses to disasters and find that experiences of anger, feeling forgotten, and being traumatized can be factors that motivate people to act.
Climate change is having profound effects on natural and built environments, creating unstable living conditions for both flora and fauna. It holds implications for all humankind, however, is disparately impacting people living in Low Socioeconomic Status (SES) communities. This paper seeks to discuss what current literature finds to be the most prevalent themes of climate change related disadvantage experienced by these communities. It will then discuss the relevance of these findings in relation to the social work profession and its role to challenge policies and practices that are oppressive and fail to meet standards of environmental sustainability and human rights. Furthermore, it highlights critical social work theory and strengths-based approaches as key considerations for working alongside low SES communities. This paper was written as part of a final capstone unit of study for a Bachelor of Social Work degree.
This article draws on thesis research to critically analysis top-down management of disasters that positions informal, localised responses as subordinate in relation to formalised disaster agencies (Darab, Hartman & Pittaway, 2020). This research project has focused on the specific experience of community residents recently impacted by the 2019 Gospers Mountain Fire in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. It has utilised theoretical understandings of community development to promote the knowledge of ‘ordinary’ community perspectives often excluded in disaster management. It has identified taken for granted representation of community as ‘vulnerable’, ‘passive’ and ‘receivers’ of information. Rather it has found that post-fire the community has actively built social capital. Social networks strengthened and took on new meaning as the community continued to be active in disaster planning and recovery years after the disaster. Increased social capital also changed power relationships through increased community representation and the development of a ‘local voice’. Self-organised and informal groups became better able to identify and advocate for their interests and engage in democratic decision making. This research indicates the significance of localised, contextual knowledge and understanding in fire responses. It argues that this knowledge should be equally included in formalised disaster management and planning. This research hopes to facilitate structural change in disaster policy and practice through shifting hierarchical power relations in disaster responses.
The discursive construction of ‘good parenting’ in Australia’s statutory child protection system
Indigenous children’s overrepresentation within Australia’s child protection system indicates the need for a critical and structurally-based understanding of the factors which contribute to disproportionate rates of child removal for First Nations families. A systematic literature review suggests Attachment Theory, the international human rights framework and neoliberal ‘risk’ management as contributing to the discursive reproduction of racist and colonial norms which have the impact of devaluing Indigenous childrearing practices and overlooking structural disadvantage. Subsequently, the article applies a discourse analysis to problematise how Australia’s child protection system exists as a symbolic panopticon reinforcing settler-colonial pedagogy, regulation, surveillance and legitimation over Indigenous peoples through Western discourses of ‘good parenting’. In turn, the supporting and funding of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, the reconstructing of child protection assessment and care plans, as well as decolonising individual practice are posited as potential strategies to disrupt racist and colonial discourses in favour of Indigenous parenting knowledges.
First Nations peoples, Australia, child protection, discourse, parenting, social work, community control
‘Not a crisis of chemical imbalance, a crisis of power imbalance’
This paper offers a critical insight into the dominant discourses of involuntary mental health treatment, and the current Australian political context, from a critical social work and post-structural lens. In doing so, it aims to explore the tensions, complexities, and challenges in practice, demonstrating the unique role of social work, and the opportunities for applying the professional values to progress transformative change in mental health policy and practice. As social work is a discipline that is innately bounding to working within structures and systems, there must be critical engagement with the role of social work as ‘helpers and controllers’ (International Federation of Social Workers & International Association of Schools of Social Work, 2004). Through exploring initiatives around the globe where progress is being made with successful outcomes, this paper reinforces the salient role the profession plays in engaging a transformative shift to a world without involuntary treatment.
Tension between clinical and social justice social work
This essay explores the tensions between social work as a clinical and evidence-based profession or a political and emancipatory practice. It utilises personal reflection and a review of relevant literature to explore how our social work identities can be built through individual professionalism and power, or through a collective, emancipatory lens. It argues that we must see difference as strength and embed social justice into our practice at all levels.
The Hidden Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Older Women
How older women experience intimate partner violence (IPV) differs from their younger counterparts, given possible increased vulnerability, health difficulties, and cultural and social contexts. There is extensive research into the impact of IPV on younger women and women of reproductive age. However, for older women there are significant gaps in research into older survivors’ exposure to IPV, into screening and assessment tools, and into effective social work interventions that support the unique needs of this demographic. The term of ‘older women’ refers to women who are 50 years and older due to their distinct experiences with violence and abuse (Meyer et al., 2020). This paper aims to explore the current literature about older women who are IPV survivors and the barriers they face with service utilisation. The specific implications for social work practice regarding the gaps in research and provision of services is explored further. The discussion of social work practice and research implications related to older women IPV survivors is specific to the Canadian context. Lastly, the author provides personal commentary from both their practice experiences within the social work field in conjunction with relevant research to promote awareness of this critical issue with the hopes of instigating social justice and change.
Gender analysis of Employment of Mongolia
Mongolia, one of the world’s youngest democracies, faces ongoing challenges in developing an open, transparent and sustainable economy. The Mongolian economy is still heavily dependent on mining, which remains the country's driving force with a share of almost 24% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Additionally, there remain significant shortcomings in the participation of all population groups, particularly women, in economic and political decision-making processes. This article is based on documentary research and argues for gender equality in employment at the meta (social norms), macro (policies and laws), meso (institutions) and micro (groups) levels. We argue that a holistic gendered analysis of the Mongolian economy is important for the preparation and designing of new opportunities for gender equality.
Safety issues for women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV): An integrative review
This integrative literature review examines the safety issues for women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) in Australian studies. Using clear inclusion and exclusion criteria, seven data bases were systematically searched for the study. A total of 10 samples were identified as suitable for the study after a thorough screening of accessed sources. For ensuring the quality and appropriateness of the sources, the CRAAP test, which examined the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose was conducted. A thematic analysis was employed for analysing the data. Four core themes were identified from the analysis, which are: lack of IPV education and training, issues with services, systemic issues, and issues with protection orders. Together, the findings suggest how a range of social processes impact the safety of women experiencing IPV. It necessitates a holistic approach to IPV if women’s safety is to be effectively addressed. It is vital to look at the many layers that impact women's safety rather than a focus on the individuals involved.
This paper explores the ways in which critical reflection, a model for critical incident debrief within social work, is an act of abolition pedagogy and social work which confounds settler colonialism and carceral logics which pervade this profession as well as educational/learning environments. Theoretically grounded in reproductive justice and the abolition thinking of Angela Davis and Mariane Kaba, this paper argues that opportunities to unpack binaries and hidden assumptions through collective learning are opportunities to unpack the ways in which Foucault’s Panopticon Effect is unwittingly internalized and reproduced within ‘helping’ professions and at the micro level. In addition, an intersectional, critical autoethnographic exploration of a personal experience in a critical reflection group is interwoven throughout. I contend that the integration of these ‘selves’ serves as a reminder that use of self in its most authentic form has the potential to challenge and confound the constructed separation between personal and professional that attempts to depoliticize all realms of our lives and relegate our primary duties to that of working and consuming. As a site of potential transformation and liberation, critical reflection’s alignment with abolition stands in direct contrast to neoliberal educational structures often focused on individualism, credentials, surface learning, and brevity. Finally, critical reflection of practice, as a model of critical incident debrief, provides a site for abolition social work and pedagogy to take root in its capacity to foster an unrestrained imagination.
Power of the Powerless – Fighting the Good Fight Against Double Oppression
Double Oppression (DO) is a phenomenon that encompasses the experience of individuals facing intersecting forms of oppression based on various identities, such as race, gender, sexuality, and class. DO arises from the interconnectedness of societal structures and systems of oppression, with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and poverty being interrelated factors. Individuals who identify with multiple marginalized identities may face compounded forms of oppression, resulting in distinct experiences and social disadvantages. While the legal response to DO is essential, it poses unique challenges due to its intersectional nature. Law may also perpetuate or exacerbate existing forms of oppression. This paper argues that legal frameworks and policies must consider the specific needs and experiences of affected individuals and groups. Inadequate consideration of intersectionality can result in insufficient legal remedies that fail to address the complexity of intersecting discrimination. Effective legal strategies require a comprehensive approach that acknowledges the distinct experiences of marginalized communities. This includes ensuring access to legal protections and resources, funding legal aid services, promoting community-based legal advocacy, and addressing systemic barriers to legal resources. Collaboration between legal experts and social justice advocates, as well as ongoing engagement with impacted communities, is crucial in developing tailored legal strategies. This paper advocates for a holistic approach that acknowledges the empowerment of marginalized individuals in their resistance against oppression.
What are the factors that influence outcomes for unaccompanied humanitarian refugee minors leaving out-of-home care in Australia
Unaccompanied humanitarian refugee minors (UHRMs) are recognized globally as a vulnerable group due to their traumatic experiences in their country of origin, and distinct challenges resettling in a new country with limited if any family supports and ambiguous legal status. To date, there has been little research on their experiences within the out-of-home care (OOHC) system in Australia. This paper presents the findings of a small exploratory study, based on semi-structured interviews with young people and support workers, examining the factors that influence their outcomes when transitioning from OOHC at no later than 18 years. The findings suggest that the availability of social support networks plays a key role in enabling them to access their core housing, education, employment and health care needs.
Unaccompanied humanitarian refugee minors
How the Australian aged care sector became marketised and the consequences for humanity.
The Australian aged care sector has been described as a sector in crisis, with the Royal Commission into Aged Care (2019-2020) bringing to the forefront numerous, disturbing accounts of abuse, neglect and substandard care experienced by older adults and their families. This has been linked to the Aged Care Act 1997 (Cth) which was a catalyst for marketisation and privatisation of the aged care industry, constructing older adults as consumers over citizens. The conservative 1996 government justified this legislation by framing the ageing population as a financial burden, subsequently promoting a discourse that devalues older adults. Market principles were used to further legitimise this decision making, with the promise that competition would drive quality of services. However, this commodification of care shifted the focus from person to task and saw cost-cutting measures compromise quality and dehumanise care. By confronting the current state of this fractured system, we highlight the lack of value and investment placed on Australia’s older adults as a result of valuing neoliberalism over humanity. This article discusses the connections between theory, policy and practice for a nuanced analysis of the systemic issues, multi-layered inequities and key drivers that contribute to the current failures of the Australian aged care sector. Furthermore, it highlights critical social work as a key consideration for the provision of aged care as a social justice issue of ageism, institutional oppression and in order to centre older adults and promote their rights to respect, dignity, autonomy and equitable access.
Reframing Dementia: How to promote rights and strengths-based care for people living with dementia and their carers
By using a life course approach, this article seeks to discuss and analyse the impact on a carer when their older loved one experiences cognitive changes such as dementia, and the specific implications in case for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In Western contexts such as Australia, dementia is often understood through a biomedical lens and deficit-based frameworks. These dominant understandings can maintain ageist attitudes that construct older people and those with dementia as a social policy burden. This is further amplified for people from non-dominant cultures. This paper examines the marketisation of aged care in Australia and phenomena of ambiguous loss in identifying a range of issues for carers, including the specific experiences and challenges for culturally and linguistically diverse people. Finally, it discusses implications for critical social work practice and argues for radical change at structural and organisational levels. It proposes that a reframing of dementia as a shared social experience along with strengths-based and relational practice are key to creating more meaningful counter narratives that foster a sense of agency and empowerment for carers and people with dementia.
Social Work Advocacy for Black Reparations
Reparations are acknowledgement, acceptance, and redress for gross injustices and wrongdoings. U.S. Black reparations can attempt to address and repair systematic oppression through comprehensive interventions aimed at the vestiges of chattel enslavement and undoing and countering disproportionate, negative outcomes experienced by African Americans. Social workers committed to doing anti-racism should fervently advance reparations in social work education and practice as a social justice policy priority. This article envisions ways that social workers can actualize advocacy for reparations as an anti-racist practice. The social work profession has the potential to serve and support the Black reparations movement through education, collaboration, and community organizing.
Why It Should Be Us: The Case for Social Work to Lead Alt-Right Radicalisation Interventions
The growth of the alt-right across all western countries presents itself as a critical social justice issue. The increase in white-supremist motivated violence has led to countering violent extremism (CVE), a field of practice, policy and research, being repurposed to provide responses and interventions. Through exploring literature related to CVE this paper aims to demonstrate the need for social work, in research and practice, to lead the formulation of interventions that are specific in responding to alt-right radicalisation. Ultimately outlining the reasons why social work researchers and academics should aim to provide guidance to practitioners in this field. These being: the proximity of social work to the issue, and the benefits of a social justice lens within interventions. Given the lack of current social work interest in exploring the alt-right, it also aims to outline what is the alt-right, and what radicalisation looks like.
Copyright (c) 2022 Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory
What is the Impact of the Changing Distribution of Public Housing in Sydney on the Systems’ Emancipatory Potential for Vulnerable Children and Families?
As Sydney’s inner city rapidly gentrifies, so too does the long-standing egalitarian fabric of its suburbs. The New South Wales government is currently facilitating a rapid shift in the spatial distribution of its public housing stock, particularly in relation to the provision of housing for families. This paper seeks to interrogate the impact of this changing spatial distribution, with a particular focus on the emancipatory potential of the system to provide opportunities for children and families. Analysing this issue through a critical and post-structuralist lens, this paper identifies a split in the literature in which there is a discord between how public housing tenants are framed – as either an economic equation or as service users with valuable lived experience. This differential is interrogated and then grounded in the context of social work, where I explore the role social work can play in bringing equality to the debate in relation to public housing and its changing spatial distribution.
Abstract This article seeks to explore the complexities of online disclosures of sexual violence that are situated within digital feminist social movements and activism. The literature suggests that in the face of being let down by traditional justice systems, many are utilising techno-social spaces to meet their needs for justice and support. However, online spaces are not without their risks whereby victim/survivors are subjected to further harassment or abuse. Notably, people from marginalised groups felt that online spaces recreated the types of injustice experienced in formal justice systems. Hence, an intersectional feminist lens is applied to analyse the experiences of victim/survivors when disclosing sexual violence, and how their ‘justice needs’ are met, or not met. This presents a critical issue for social work in the twenty-first century, and as such implications for practice, policy and research are discussed.
Rethinking Care in Social Work: An Argument for Reciprocity-Oriented Practice
Both social workers and clients benefit from integrating an ethic of reciprocity into our caring relationships with both individuals and communities. This article unpacks the concept of care, arguing that its ubiquity and complexity allows for it to be imbued with many meanings. Care is predominately understood through a neoliberal lens within Australian formal services, which reinforces the carer-dependant binary and contributes to the capacity for care to be demeaning, oppressive and paternalistic. We introduce the concept of reciprocity, which allows for mutuality within care relationships and is truer to models of relationality within First Nations cultures. Invoking reciprocity in social work practice is a useful tool to aid social workers in resistance against oppressive structures and the sustenance of meaningful relationships with clients. Social workers can engage in reciprocity-oriented practice in a number of ways, including through mutual relationships, the co-production of knowledge, and community-based work.
Australian Government Social Policy- Where are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Positioned in Policy-making?
For too long Australian State and Federal, Governments have excluded Australian Aboriginal people from the planning, design, and implementation stages of social policies. Annually updated socio-economic outcomes for Aboriginal Australians in the Closing the Gap Report reveal a “minimal change in health and education outcomes, housing needs, and socio-economic outcomes” (Lowitja Institute, 2022, p. 14). The data from the 2022 Productivity Commission Report confirm this statement stating that “Education, employment, health and wellbeing, interaction with the criminal justice system, access to land and waters, and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and languages” (Productivity Commission, 2022, p. 19) are targeted areas for improvement in socio-economic outcomes. The design and implementation of Government social policies is a critical point of engagement between Aboriginal Australians and Australian Commonwealth and State Governments. Changing socio-economic outcomes require a major shift in how, why, and what policies are being planned, as well as ascertaining who will be responsible for the implementation. Being able to navigate a complex system of bureaucracy means having a presence in that process. Without a presence it is difficult to achieve targeted outcomes that are identified, to improve socio-economic living standards. Historically, Governments control and manage policy-making however, it is essential for Aboriginal people to access key entry points of policy-making, to secure Aboriginal involvement; Aboriginal decision-making and finding solutions to ongoing policy issues, that have occurred for many years.
An Examination of Eating Behaviours at University Debating Tournaments
Eating disorders and disordered eating behaviours have been on the rise in recent decades. Current research into eating behaviours indicates that several sociocultural factors can contribute to abnormal eating patterns. University debating is highly competitive, and many elite debaters have found that their eating patterns changed due to participating in debating tournaments. This paper interviews three elite debaters to identify what caused their eating habits to change. In doing so, this research project was able to highlight some of the key concerns in university debating, and the effects of stress on debaters’ eating behaviours.
Creating a better environment for children to flourish and grow in their own parents' care
The health and wellbeing of children in Australia are impacted by numerous factors, including social inclusion, disadvantage, and vulnerability. The early years of a child's life are essential where it has been found that the early to middle years of a child's life influence adulthood particularly. Australian children who experience different forms of disadvantage have an increased risk of social exclusion, impacting the individual's participation in society. This has been highlighted in a study by Frederico and colleagues (2008), who stated that a child's current functioning and future development are impacted by maltreatment, especially regarding the child's behavioural, cognitive, emotional, social, and physical wellbeing. Unfortunately, abuse and neglect are more harmful when long-lasting, more chronic, and occur earlier in an individual's life (Frederico et al., 2008). Therefore, this paper will discuss many issues affecting children and families within Australia, and the emerging information that may potentially improve the practice frameworks practitioners utilise and the child and family policies impacting them.
Citizen Groups in Mongolia – possibilities and barriers
Citizen Groups, almost exclusively comprising women, are emerging in ger district, an intriguing mix of the nomadic culture and rapid urbanization with significant social challenges. Current knowledge and policy to support citizen-led initiatives is limited in Mongolia. except for those successful examples of micro-financing and micro enterprising in Southern and South East Asian countries. In Mongolia government policies and funding schemes lack mechanisms to financially support groups like CGs.This paper draws on insights from research with three Citizens Groups seeking to build social and economic opportunities for ger residents through collaborative partnerships with governments, NGOs and the business. The paper argues that whilst Citizens Groups create bonding and bridging social capital that reduce the social, economic, and environmental vulnerability of ger residents their capacity to mobilise linking social capital remains tenuous. Citizens Groups remain institutionally weak, and this paper calls for greater recognition and support of their activities.