Beach safety education for primary school children

Childhood drowning remains a serious public health problem worldwide. The Australian Water Safety Council has set as one of its highest priorities the reduction of drowning deaths in children aged 0–14 years. However, concerns have recently been raised that many students completing primary school still lack the ability to recognize potential aquatic risks, cope with emergencies or assist someone else in danger. In this study, 107 primary school children aged 11–12 completed a one day training programme led by surf lifesaving instructors. Pre, post and eight week follow-up measures showed statistically significant improvements in recognition of the red ‘beach closed’ flag, aquatic safety signs, how to identify a rip current and choosing the safest place to swim at a beach that included a rip current in the picture. Following training students were more willing to provide first aid assistance to family members and friends in an emergency situation. Findings reinforce the value of school-based training that provides a general foundation for aquatic safety, with the caveat that current programmes must be evaluated to ensure their content has a robust prevention focus.     

Non-fatal violence-related injuries in Kingston,Jamaica: a preventable drain on resources

Using data for a one-year period from the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) in Jamaica, we describe patterns of non-fatal violence-related injuries, and carry out simulation analysis to estimate rates of hospital admission under various injury reduction scenarios, and the potential savings that can be realized by reducing violent crimes. In this period there were 6107 registered violence-related visits to the KPH representing 11.5% of all recorded visits. Of these 16.6% (1001) were admitted. The most common methods of inflicting injury was by stabbing (52.1%), blunt injuries (37.9%) and gunshot wounds (7.3%). Multivariate analyses indicated that gunshot injuries, stab injuries, being male between the ages of 15 and 44 years, receiving the injury in November or December, and being injured by a stranger or unknown assailant, were significant correlates of a higher probability of admission. Simulation analysis with various injury reduction scenarios indicated decreases in the probability of admission ranging from 12% to 44%, with estimated savings of up to 31% of the annual supplies budget of KPH.     

The impact of audit penalty distributions on the detection and frequency of fraudulent reporting

We investigate how the distribution of the penalties incurred by auditors for failing to detect fraud influences their effort to detect fraud and auditees’ commission of fraud. We compare a probabilistic, skewed audit penalty to a penalty that automatically imposes the expected penalty of the probabilistic distribution (hereafter, a deterministic penalty). Our experiments show that a deterministic penalty with the same expected value of a probabilistic, skewed penalty increases audit effort to detect fraud and decreases fraudulent reporting by auditees and that these benefits hold in a game involving both auditee and auditor players.     

Should we do away with teleworking? An examination of whether teleworking can be defined in the new world of work

This empirical paper analyses data gathered from self-employed teleworkers, matching this against teleworking's defining characteristics, which appear in the literature. Our evaluation leads us to question whether the term 'teleworking' has lost much of its value in today's working world. We therefore suggest the new term 'home-anchored worker' as a less complex and more useful replacement.     

Overseas Visitor Deaths in Australia: 1997–2000

Reassuring visitors about their health and safety is particularly important for tourist destinations since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. This study examined the deaths of 1513 overseas visitors to Australia over a four-year period, and found that most deaths (76%) were due to natural causes. Among the accidental deaths, the main causes were motor vehicle crashes and water-related incidents. The study findings support a widely held view that Australia is a safe destination for overseas visitors. It also provides a safety benchmark for other tourist destinations.     

Exploring social and cultural diversity within ‘black British jazz’ audiences

This paper presents the findings of a recent study which explores the social, economic and cultural characteristics of audiences for performances by black British jazz musicians. It draws on Bourdieu’s theoretical concept of cultural capital, which links social class and educational qualification level to cultural consumption, as well as on Hall’s exploration of ‘new ethnicities’, demonstrating how the two theories are interrelated. The study uses a mixed method approach of observation, questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews, analysed using critical discourse analysis. The demographic data demonstrate the tendency, in line with cultural capital theory, for audiences for black British jazz musicians to be highly educated and from higher socio-economic classes. Particularly notable is that black audience members tended to be from the middle classes, suggesting that attention to the increasingly important social and demographic phenomenon of the black middle class is warranted. Qualitative data demonstrate the positioning of participants regarding the ways in which cultural capital interrelates with the dimension of ethnicity. The importance of cultural heritage to the black participants in particular suggests that Hall’s ‘new ethnicities’ is a particularly useful theory to aid understanding of the complexities of the interrelationship between race and musical taste.     

A place for food in Australian schools: a socio-historical review of food education

The historical development of food education in secondary schools in New South Wales Australia is a compelling yet under-researched area of interest. This review starts by exploring how food curricula have evolved since the 1700s to the present day juxtaposed on socio-economic and political factors. This review is interested in the role secondary food education may play in ‘supplying’ people into professional studies towards a career as a food technologist. Accordingly this review compares contemporary secondary food curriculum with related curricula in the higher education sector and establishes a marked dissonance between the two. The implications of this are then put forward. The drive to empower students to be enterprising and innovative twenty first century problem solvers in relation to food design through the interdisciplinary nature of food science is discussed, despite the uncertainty as to what degree Food Technology in schools is currently promoting these life-long and life-wide abilities in students. The authors suggest the lack of a theoretical underpinning may be holding the subject back from becoming a robust discipline. For this reason this review puts forward a conceptual framework for the study of food. The following review is relevant to secondary and higher education food education stakeholders (teachers, academics, curriculum developers, professional food industry) and higher education providers nationally and internationally, as the way in which food education is presented in secondary schooling is not contained to the Australian context alone.     

The lived experience of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games volunteers: a serious leisure perspective

Along with other sporting mega-events, the Olympic Games, in all its versions, makes extensive use of volunteers. The 70,000 London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic volunteers, for example, played a vital role in the delivery of the event. Stebbins’ theoretical perspective of serious leisure includes consideration of volunteering and there are calls for its further empirical evaluation. This study, therefore, uses a qualitative study of the lived experience of London 2012 volunteers to test the relevance of the serious leisure framework to Olympic volunteering. The data are drawn from the reflective diaries of 20 participants who volunteered in a variety of roles during London 2012. It is concluded that all of the qualities of serious leisure are identifiable to various extents within the experiences of the London 2012 volunteers. This finding will help Olympic and other sporting mega-event managers to understand and improve the experiences of their volunteers. Recommendations are also made, in the light of the findings, for the further refinement of the serious leisure perspective. Particular attention is paid to highlighting how the findings might contribute to recent debates around whether sporting mega-event volunteering is best explained by the serious leisure quality of career volunteering, or by the serious leisure associated concept of project-based leisure, or alternatively by the competing term of episodic volunteering.     

Reviews

MAKING BIDS.

Ball, R.M. 1995: Local Authorities and Regional Policy in the UK: Attitudes, Representations and the Local Economy. London: Paul Chapman, £14.95 paper.

Mawson, J. et al 1995: The Single Regeneration Budget: The Stocktake. Birmingham: Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, the University of Birmingham, £45.00.

Knowledge based development. Ryser, J. 1994: The Future of European Capitals — Knowledge-Based Development Berlin-London-Paris. London: The Goethe Institute.

URBAN POLICY.

Blackman, T. 1994: Urban Policy in Practice. Routledge, £14.99 paper.

City 2020. 1995: Cities for the Future. A New Urban Policy.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.

Howells, J. 1994: The Dynamics of Research and Development-Opportunities for Growth in the Sooth East Harlow: SEEDS.

Northern

Ireland Economic Development Office. 1993: R & D Activity in Northern Ireland, Report 101. Belfast: NIEDO.

Pike, A. and Tomaney, J. 1994: R & D in the North East: An issue for public policy. Newcastle: CURDS, University of Newcastle.

PARTNERSHIP'S FLOATING MEANINGS.

Atkinson, A.B. (ed) 1993: Alternatives to Capitalism: The Economics of Partnership. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, £47.50 cased.

Bailey, N., Barker, A. and MacDonald, K. 1995: Partnership Agencies in British Urban Policy. London: UCL Press, £38.00 cased, £12.95 paper.

URBAN POLICY EVALUATION.

Hambleton, R. and Thomas, H. (eds) 1995: Urban Policy Evaluation: Challenge and Change. London: Paul Chapman, £17.95 paper.