A profile of gaming machine players in clubs in Sydney,Australia

New South Wales, Australia, is one of the major markets in the world for machine gaming, with its 1,441 registered clubs holding the dominant share of the state's machines. This study examined machine gambling behavior amongst a random sample of 3,000 club members from six of the largest clubs in Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales. The findings identify their machine gambling preferences and participation levels, isolate significant sociodemographic and other differences between gaming machine and non-gaming machine players, measure the prevalence of probable pathological gambling associated with machine gambling, and identify certain characteristics which differ significantly between probable pathological and non-pathological machine gamblers amongst the respondents.     

Training issues in churches

The national and local frameworks of the Christian churches in the UK provide important resources to families and to young people and children. To promote awareness and effective responses to child abuse, training needs to address organizational issues and individual learning, and should do so at community, regional and national level. In training within churches, the part played by beliefs and values cannot be overlooked. Key concerns are identified and discussed.     

Registration completeness and international comparisons of infant mortality

The physical development of the live born infant is the single most important variable governing its survival: infant mortality among those weighing 2,500 grams (5 1/2 pounds) or less at birth is 17 times the mortality among those weighing more than 2,500 grams at birth. The variation in mortality according to birth weight (or gestation) is greater than for subclasses of color, sex, maternal age, or birth order. Infant mortality in the United States is significantly higher than in a number of other countries e.g., Sweden, Netherlands, Norway. The difference is thought, by some, to be due to underregistration of low birth weight infants in other countries. In this paper, distributions of live births by birth weight for Denmark, England and Wales, New Zealand, and the United States, and infant mortality data for Denmark and the United States are examined. The data do not support a hypothesis of gross underregistration of live born infants in other countries. The results indicate that some index of physical development (birth weight, gestation, or a combination of both) should be included in any appraisal of infant mortality.     

The social costs and benefits of gambling: an introduction to the economic issues

This paper surveys the range of economic issues that need to be addressed in attempting to evaluate the social costs and benefits of gambling. It considers, inter alia, the nature of private and social costs and benefits and their policy significance, the important distinction between real and pecuniary costs, the incidence of gambling costs and benefits and the sources of gambling costs and benefits. Similarities and differences between the analysis of gambling and alcohol are considered. The paper concludes with a consideration of why various estimates of the social costs of gambling have produced such divergent results.     

Whose ‘Ordinary Life’ Is It Anyway?

This paper offers a feminist critique of current community care policy and of the normalisation ideology which underpins it. Drawing on experience in services for people with learning difficulties and people who use mental health services, the authors draw a series of parallels between 'clients' and women in our society. They discuss the mechanisms whereby groups of people are accorded second class status and the ways in which such oppression is experienced. Strategies for change are discussed with reference to feminist scholarship and the development of the women's movement. The prevailing philosophy of normalisation, which is both apolitical and highly individualistic, is challenged to take more account of collective and communal ways forward and to acknowledge the interdependence of people who need care and their carers. Despite the rhetoric of community care, the work of carers (most of whom are women) is undervalued and unsupported. Mainstream values such as competitiveness and self-reliance are incompatible with the integration of people with disabilities and a theoretical framework which confronts such conflicts of interest is required.     

The Attitude of Husbands to Working Wives

This study examines the attitude of 256 men whose wives had been surveyed in relation to their workforce experience. Husbands with working wives and non-working wives were surveyed, and their different responses analysed. Variables which could affect responses, such as ages of children, full-time or part-time work, and impact on husbands' own jobs were all considered. In this survey, it was found that neither the level of education of the husband, nor his age were statistically significant indicators of his attitude towards working women.     

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 Role of Ideology in Community Work: Contributions from Feminism and the Left

Mainstream Australian community work has consistently attempted to present itself as an ideologically neutral professional discipline. In this paper we point to the inherent conservative nature of non-ideological practice and suggest that through adopting leftist and feminist ideologies the people we service are advantaged.     

Rethinking comparative studies: an agent–centred perspective

Broadly speaking, three rival approaches to comparative research can be identified. One suggests that the study of different countries and their regions is unproblematic, and is best exemplified by scholarship in mainstream (particularly neoclassical) economics. Stress is placed on an integrated theoretical perspective emphasizing apparent similarities while explaining differences by reference to the heritage of nations and places. By way of contrast a second approach, which owes much to anthropology, relies on case studies and presumes the existence of profound differences between countries and regions. Stress is placed upon the local cultural, social and political factors that sustain persistent difference. A third approach is rooted in new institutional economics and argues for the significance of national institutional frameworks, supposing that those frameworks shape and structure the actions of agents. Whatever their differences and origins, idealism drives each method of comparative study. In this article, we consider these rival theories of comparative study, and suggest an alternative model based upon a set of fundamental assumptions about the nature of human cognition. These assumptions are the building blocks for our analysis, which has global applicability. We focus in particular upon consciousness and reflexivity, the interplay between agency and structure, and the connection between intention and rationality. Implications are then drawn for the practice of comparative studies. In the penultimate section of the article we comment on the limits of comparative studies emphasizing the problems that lie behind the translation of complex concepts within and between languages.