A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE SOCIAL WAGE: THE NET SOCIAL WAGE IN AUSTRALIA, 1964–65 TO 1991–92

This article attempts to place the concept and measurement of the social wage into a context of political economy. Several variations on the conventional method of measuring the social wage are proposed and applied to Commonwealth outlays for the period 1964–65 to 1991–92. It is argued that the resulting concept is better suited to an analysis of the impact of government social expenditures on capital accumulation. While the alternative ‘Net Social Wage’ concept must be a qualifiable measure of the redistributive impact of such expenditures, it is argued also that it is a more meaningful one than the conventional measure presented in most studies on this subject.     

Interpretive Psychology: Stories, Circles, and Understanding Lived Experience

This essay provide an overview of the "interpretive" or "hermeneutic" approach to psychological research. It draws primarily on the work of Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911), a philosopher and literary historian who is generally recognized as the "father" of the modern hermeneutic enterprise in the social and human sciences. Dilthey argued that the human world was sufficiently different from the natural world that special methods were required for its study. Hermeneutics, the deliberate and systematic methodology of interpretation, was the approach Dilthey proposed for studying and understanding the human world. This essay summarizes Dilthey's vision of hermeneutics and considers his conception of the so-called hermeneutic circle, which characterizes the complex dynamics involved in the process of interpretation. It then illustrates Dilthey's approach by interpreting a brief interview narrative using a method based on his work. It concludes with an exploration of some of the ethical implications of adopting a hermeneutic approach to psychological research.     

International cooperation in stockpiles and tariffs for coping with oil supply disruptions

This paper provides a unified treatment of oil stockpiling and demand restraint as policy responses for enhancing energy security and examines the implications of recent changes in the structure and performance of the international oil market for the design of policies. These issues are addressed using a dynamic programming framework in which international policy actions of key oil-importing countries are modeled as a Nash dynamic game. Significant policy implications from the analysis include: (1) the result that, with realistic assumptions about disruption risks and inventory capacities, differences between noncooperative and coordinated stockpile policies appear to be minor and (2) significant mutual gains could be reaped from a modest degree of collective restraint on normal market oil demand. The broader role of international cooperation in enhancing energy security is also discussed.     

The psychosocial needs of the Chinese elderly

Changing Chinese family patterns caused by immigration have contributed to the breakdown of traditional community and familial control in Chinese-American families. As a result, the Chinese-American elderly are faced with unique psychosocial problems that workers must consider when providing services to this population.     

Survey of Voluntary Recreation Workers in New South Wales

Two surveys were conducted of volunteers working for recreation organizations in four New South Wales regions. The results highlight the dependence of these organizations on volunteers. Volunteers were found to be heavily engaged in instructing and organizing recreation activities. Few have any specific training for the role although further training is frequently considered desirable by respondents. Many respondents indicated that the government could assist voluntary work by providing— ? training at the local level, ? general financial assistance, and ? subsidies for equipment and facilities. Generally, responses indicate that the government should play a supportive rather than controlling role in recreation.     

Understanding PTSD: Forgetting "Trauma"

The concept of "psychological trauma" conflates emotional responses to traumatic events such as motor vehicle accidents, muggings, and house fires, responses to natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and responses to war, chronic physical abuse, prolonged torture, and repeated gang-rape as an act of "ethnic cleansing." It is argued that, from a psychological, human, and moral perspective, use of a single construct to describe responses to such a range of horrific happenings makes no sense. The benefits and limits of conceptualizing PTSD as a unifying concept for describing psychological responses to calamitous events are discussed. The consequences (with respect to clinical work, research, and social policy) of failing to distinguish between responses to relatively circumscribed traumatic events, more extreme, prolonged, or repeated individual traumatization, and collectively experienced mass violence against entire communities are examined.