The emergence of problem gambling as a corporate social issue in australia 1

Abstract

Commercial gambling has recently expanded exponentially in Australia such that annual gambling losses now total over $12 billion dollars, representing $886 per adult and 3.4 percent of household disposable income (Tasmanian Gaming Commission 2000). In tandem with this expansion, problem gambling has emerged as a significant social issue. This paper documents how the epistemic community, governments, gambling operators and pressure groups have advanced this issue by tracking their changing stances and the widening expectational gaps between them. It develops an integrated lifecycle model of problem gambling to demonstrate how these four stakeholders have propelled the issue along its lifecycle to the point where resolving it requires substantial alterations in how gambling is operated, marketed, and managed.     

Improved outcomes following contact with a gambling helpline: the impact of gender on barriers and facilitators

Gambling helplines were developed at a time when evidence for help-seeking was almost entirely based on male gamblers and there is limited evidence that helplines have changed in response to the exponential increase in female gamblers over the past 20 years. The current study aimed to explore the impact of gender on calls to Australian helplines, including caller characteristics, barriers and facilitators to contact as well as call outcomes. We surveyed 170 callers (94% problem gamblers, 61% male) approximately 1 month following their helpline call and found gender differences in terms of age, preferred gambling type, employment and source of referral. Males reported barriers related to pride and problem denial more frequently than females did, and also reported more frequent problems associated with the welfare of others and/or their living arrangements that facilitated their calling. Males and females were equally likely to seek further help from formal, informal and self-help resources. With only 10% of callers not accessing further help, these findings highlight the importance of helplines as a key support for both men and women with gambling problems.     

PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS FOR MATERNAL HEALTH IN AFRICA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

ABSTRACT

The concept of public and private partnerships raises growing interest and hope from international development agencies, governments, and communities as an alternative strategy in social welfare delivery. Conceptualized as a strategy to build and capitalize on the tangible and intangible assets and resources endogenous to social organizations and communities, individually and collectively, this article embraces an asset-based approach to analyze the potency of such a framework in enhancing maternal health care delivery in developing countries such as Senegal and Mali. These countries face growing retrenchment of the state from social service delivery and scarcity of human and financial resources, which call for innovative approaches and sustainable solutions in addressing pervasive deficits in health service delivery. Drawing from empirical field research conducted in Senegal and Mali, this article examines the trend toward public–private partnerships and its gender impacts and critically analyzes the challenges and opportunities it offers conceptually and practically to address and improve equity in health care delivery, particularly safe motherhood and maternal health care delivery in developing countries.     

Racial disparity in risk factors for substantiation of child maltreatment

This study examined racial disparity in impacts that welfare use, substance abuse, depression, and intimate partner violence (IPV) make on substantiation of reported child maltreatment. A sample of 1493 African Americans, 848 Hispanics, and 2144 Whites was employed, extracted from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Logistic regression results indicated that each ethnic subsample had a distinct set of significant risk factors for substantiation. For the African American subsample, relatively long periods spent receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) reduced likelihood of substantiation, as did caregivers' alcohol dependence. For the Hispanic subsample, TANF receipt lowered substantiation's likelihood, while caregivers' drug use raised its likelihood. For the White subsample, caregivers' TANF receipt and substance abuse showed no significant impact. No subsample's substantiation likelihood appeared significantly affected by depression or IPV. Implications for services are suggested.     

The relationship between gambling accessibility and Hong Kong people's participation in gambling activities

Prior foreign research showed significant positive relationship between geographical accessibility, gambling advertising and gambling behaviors. This paper, using data from two studies, describes and discusses the change in prevalence of gambling in Hong Kong with the liberalization of gambling activities in Macau. Results mirror the findings of foreign studies. Analysis showed that the groups who indicated that they were mostly influenced by the increased number of Macau casinos and gambling advertising were those aged 20–39, those with tertiary or above education, and the problem and pathological gamblers. Policy makers and gaming operators' effort to implement responsible gambling policies to prevent gambling addiction are discussed.     

Bourdieu 1993: Ein Fallbeispiel einer wissenschaftlichen Ehrung

Drawing on archival materials and personal testimonies, I reconstruct the conditions under which Bourdieu came to receive the Gold Medal of the National Center for Scientific Research, France’s highest science prize, in 1993 as a signal case study of the existential predicament and institutional trappings of scholarly consecration. Bourdieu’s award speech and the ceremony at which he read it present a triple interest for the history and sociology of sociology. They illustrate how a shaping figure in the discipline personally experienced, reflexively viewed, and practically navigated the nexus of science, authority, and power. They mark 1993 as a pivot-year in Bourdieu’s intellectual evolution, leading to a new agenda foregrounding the state as paramount symbolic power, the alchemy of group formation, and the unfinished promise of democratic politics; and they help explain why he ventured more forthrightly into civic debate in the 1990s. Bourdieu’s ambivalent acceptance of the prize also illustrates his conception of the ‘Realpolitik of reason’ and put an emphatic end to the eclipse of Durkheim by restoring sociology to its rightful place at the scientific zenith in the country of its birth.     

Prediction model for the return to work of workers with injuries in Hong Kong

This study attempts to formulate a prediction model of return to work for a group of workers who have been suffering from chronic pain and physical injury while also being out of work in Hong Kong. The study used Case-based Reasoning (CBR) method, and compared the result with the statistical method of logistic regression model. The database of the algorithm of CBR was composed of 67 cases who were also used in the logistic regression model. The testing cases were 32 participants who had a similar background and characteristics to those in the database. The methods of setting constraints and Euclidean distance metric were used in CBR to search the closest cases to the trial case based on the matrix. The usefulness of the algorithm was tested on 32 new participants, and the accuracy of predicting return to work outcomes was 62.5%, which was no better than the 71.2% accuracy derived from the logistic regression model. The results of the study would enable us to have a better understanding of the CBR applied in the field of occupational rehabilitation by comparing with the conventional regression analysis. The findings would also shed light on the development of relevant interventions for the return-to-work process of these workers.     

Pilot project in developing community rehabilitation service for migrant workers suffering from pneumoconiosis in Mainland China

Pneumoconiosis is one of the major occupational health problems in China and increasing numbers of migrant workers suffered from this occupational disease after working in a dusty environment for few years. These migrant workers panicked after being diagnosed as suffering from pneumoconiosis and facing physiological disturbances including progressive dyspnea, respiratory failure or complications like silico-tuberculosis after their return to their rural village. This article reviews the preliminary results of a community rehabilitation pilot project conducted in a rural village in Guizhou, one of the provinces in southwest China. It shares the joint effort of professionals from Guangdong Province and Hong Kong SAR on supporting the migrant workers to manage and cope with this occupational disease. Finally, strategies including early intervention were suggested to help migrant workers to manage the disease. Most importantly, occupational health promotion and prevention were urged as the measures of utmost importance in reducing the risk for migrant workers suffering from pneumoconiosis.     

易道和医道——试论《周易》时机观对中医理论的影响

本文从时机观的角度探讨了《周易》哲学对中医理论的影响,认为中医学中的审时知机、按时针刺的针刺理论,子午流注、灵龟八法、飞腾八法等时间针法以及冬病夏治、三伏天灸和冬令进补、三九膏方等方法都是在《周易》时机观的影响下所建构的。《周易》哲学中审时度势、知时知机、因时变通的时机观实际上也是传统中医认识人体生理功能、病理变化和制定治疗法则的理论依据。     

动物学课程实践性教学模式初探

动物学是生物系一门实践性很强的重要基础学科。本文初步探讨了以实践性环节为中介，引导学生用理论所学到的有关动物形态结构、生活习性和生态环境以及分类知识，在海滨动物实习中观察和认识动物，了解环境保护对生态平衡的重要性，构建动物学课程的教学、科研、社会实践相结合的新的教学模式。