WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL COSTS OF GAMBLING?: THE CASE OF THE QUEENSLAND MACHINE GAMING INDUSTRY

Gambling has frequently been blamed for contributing to a range of social and economic problems for players and their families. The introduction of gaming machines (more commonly referred to as “poker machines” or “pokies”) to clubs and hotels in Queensland in 1992 attracted such criticism. This paper presents data from a survey conducted in Brisbane in May 1994, funded by the Department of Family Services and Aboriginal and Islander Affairs, which seeks to assess the characteristics of gaming machine players and to evaluate the extent to which players and their families seem disproportionately likely to experience social and economic difficulties. The survey led to a number of noteworthy findings, many of which challenge conventional stereotypes concerning the characteristics of players and the consequences of their playing. Firstly, men, the young and those in employment are disproportionately likely to be players. Secondly, playing is spread evenly across different occupations and levels of educational achievement. Thirdly, most players appear not to play very often or spend very large amounts of money. Fourthly, while there is evidence that money is being diverted from necessities to machine gaming, there is virtually no evidence of an association between machine playing and economic hardship.     

Prisons and Panopticons

This article concerns a number of aspects of the history of social policy during the nineteenth century. In particular it argues that the five stage model of development proposed by Dr Oliver MacDonagh in 1958 has been somewhat too peremptorily dismissed by historians, and it uses the prison system between 1777 and 1877 as a test of each stage of the model as far as this part of the social administrative system is concerned.
In addition MacDonagh's views on the part of Jeremy Bentham in the changes which occurred in social policy in the nineteenth century were also said to be invalid and thus an attempt is made to illuminate further Bentham's role in prison reform.
The article therefore sets out to test MacDonagh's thesis in one particular area of development and suggests that as far as prisons are concerned it throws a good deal of light upon the processes of change which occurred.     

Desertification ... in perspective

Desertification remains high on the international agenda of critical environmental problems as the decade of the '80's draws to a close. The fact that this subject has attracted renewed high level attention over the past year is a source of considerable encouragement. The "bad news" is that such recognition reflects the failure of the international community to address the desertification problem in a meaningful way over two decades—this despite the considerable enthusiasm, detailed planning and extensive commitments of governments, international bodies and the private sector.While lack of adequate funding is often implicated, reasons for the woeful performance are found elsewhere: an initial underestimation of the depth and tenacity of the problem; the continuing absence of agreement on the dimensions and key indicators of desertification, prerequisites for measuring trends and progress; the erosion of public confidence and government support through failure to publicize and build on the few successes; and widespread civil unrest in many of the affected countries which has thwarted meaningful antidesertification efforts.Prospects for the 1990's depend upon new commitments and follow-through both by governments of affected nations and by the development assistance community. The former must provide a more favorable political and social context for success. This means tackling more aggressively problems of population growth, land tenure, and civil disruption. The donor community, for its part, must overcome the scattering of its intellectual, technological and financial resources, and rebuild its own and others' confidence by demonstrating that the resource base can indeed be stabilized and enhanced at a meaningful scale. Recognition of and commitment to the long-term requirements of antidesertification campaigns are also required of all parties.This paper was prepared for the symposium, Review of the 1977–87 Decade of Action to Combat Desertification, under the authority and sponsorship of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceCommittee on Arid Lands. The views expressed are solely those of the author and not those of the OECD and/or its Member countries.     

¡Hasta La Victoria!: Murals and Resistance in Santiago,Chile

The article considers in detail mural painting in Santiago, Chile. It examines the history of mural painting, from the early days of support for Salvador Allende's attempt to combat inequality and provide for the basic needs of all citizens, through the repression of the military dictatorship, to the reemergence of the phenomenon in the transition to democracy and up to the present day. It identitifes a range of themes in the contemporary murals: resistance to repression and misrepresentation, past and present; memorials to dead and disappeared people with varying degrees of fame; the situation of women (their roles in resistance and building the future, as well as their specific demands for an end to violence against women and for reproductive rights); and the struggle of the indigenous Mapuche people of Chile for recognition and justice. Analysis explores examples of murals on each of these themes from a number of areas throughout Santiago, with a particular focus on La Victoria, an area noted for solidarity in the face of state repression and the inequalities fostered by neoliberalism.     

Planning and Integration of Welfare Services: An Australian Government Viewpoint

A rationale is given for the Australian Government's goals in the area of intensive social welfare development. The aims and functions of the Social Welfare Commission and the Australian Assistance Plan are described, as well as the place, in the integrated programme, of the Regional Councils for Social Development. It is anticipated that the Australian community will actively participate in the evolvement of these public programmes.     

MAINSTREAMING AND INTEGRATING PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES: THE VICTORIAN EXPERIENCE

Over the last few years, the psychiatric service system in Victoria has undergone extensive reorganisation. The goals of mainstreaming and integration, endorsed by the National Mental Health Policy, have been fundamental in these changes. However, the implementation of these policies has aroused much criticism. This article discusses the concepts of mainstreaming and integration and summarises a research project into their impact on service delivery. We conclude that the initial implementation strategies in Victoria represented a limited understanding of the complexity of the key policy concepts; in particular, the overly literal model of mainstreaming has put at risk the gains of recent years in developing community-based programs.     

The True Cost of Precautionary Chemicals Regulation

This article explores the possible social costs of introducing an overly precautionary regulatory regime for chemicals It begins by examining research by the UK Medical Research Council Institute for Environment and Health (MRC-IEH), which suggests that the resource implications of the proposals contained in the European Commission White Paper "Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy" are unrealistic and even unrealizable. The article then focuses on contemporary debates pertaining to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and goes on to question whether a "right to know" is always necessarily a good thing, or whether in certain instances it can lead to a society that feels more sorry than safe. Finally, problems relating to the representation and inclusion of public values in decision-making processes are raised prior to concluding with a call for an ambitious orientation toward social change rather than a self-limiting obsession with safety.     

Social work training in Central and Eastern Europe: Experiences in Bulgaria and Slovakia

The authors draw on their experiences as members of EU-funded projects for training social workers in post-communist countries to reflect on developments in social work education there and in the United Kingdom. They argued that the emergence of social work in Central and Eastern Europe has a double agenda—to improve professional skills and values in the public services, and to contribute to the strengthening of a democratic and participatory civil society. Hence it is concerned both with changing the organizational culture and practices of the official social services, and with promoting voluntary organizations, community associations and service-user groups. Training in partnership, negotiation, networking and empowerment is as relevant as the teaching and learning of professional competences. This double agenda leads to tensions, both within universities and in various parts of the organizational systems in which social workers are employed. But these issues are not fundamentally different from the ones still being struggled over in the UK context. Similar issues over the respective roles of official social control and the authoritative enforcement of responsibilities, and empowerment and participation among excluded and deprived communities, are central to British social work education also.     

The Informal Economy: A Case Study in Unrestrained Competition

The New Labour government in Britain is the first post-deregulation regime in Europe and the first to attempt to re-regulate the labour market. In particular, its welfare-to-work programme and New Deal for Lone Parents are aimed at shifting activities from the informal to the formal economy, and at enlarging labour market participation. Its commitment to social justice and inclusion is closely linked to increased employment opportunities and a responsibility for contributing to national prosperity. The new programmes must also reconcile these aims with the retention of the flexibility that it sees as giving Britain a competitive edge over other European economies. In order to combine efficiency and equity, increased participation must not involve excessive transaction and enforcement costs. The problem is that those at present engaged in the informal economy (and especially in undeclared cash work while claiming) do not have strong incentives to cooperate with the new schemes. This paper uses the example of the informal relations of taxi-driving in a small town to illustrate the paradoxes of this situation. It is a case study in the rational strategies of individual actors, which collectively frustrate each other; and in the difficulties of starting collective action for mutual restraint of competition. The New Labour government must solve many such problems if its policies are to succeed.