Urban Dispersal in Australia

In a recent issue of the Journal, Professor R. E. Lonsdale argued that the relatively successful American experience of decentralization suggests serious difficulties in attempting a comparable programme in Australia. His comparisons, while illuminating many of the problems which must be faced by a realistic regional development policy, are unduly pessimistic in their assessment of the Australian situation. The barriers to urban dispersal in Australia lie less in economic and social conditions than in political attitudes and governmental structures.     

The Psychology of Working: A New Framework for Counseling Practice and Public Policy

The authors present the psychology‐of‐working perspective (D. L. Blustein, 2006; N. Peterson & R. C. González, 2005; M. S. Richardson, 1993) as an alternative to traditional career development theories, which have primarily explored the lives of those with choice and volition in their working lives. The major historical and conceptual features of the psychology of working are reviewed, with a focus on how this framework provides a more inclusive and, ideally, more just vision for the career counseling field. Implications for career counseling and a case presentation are provided to examine how this new perspective can inform counseling practice. A brief overview of public policy implications concludes the article.     

Familism Values,Perspective Taking,and Prosocial Moral Reasoning: Predicting Prosocial Tendencies Among Mexican American Adolescents

Mexican American youth often engage in relatively high levels of prosocial behaviors. We theorize that this may be due to a cultural value system that encourages familism values, which, in turn, may foster the development of sociocognitive processes that promote prosocial behaviors. Two hundred and five Mexican American early adolescent youth (M_age = 10.9 years, SD = 0.84; 51% girls) reported their familism values, perspective taking, prosocial moral reasoning, and six types of prosocial behaviors. The results indicated that perspective taking partially mediated the relation between familism values and the specific prosocial tendencies theoretically linked to the Mexican American culture. The study demonstrated the utility of integrating cultural and traditional developmental mechanisms in attempting to explain prosocial behaviors.     

“THE WAR FOR THE FARE”: HOW DRIVER COMPENSATION AFFECTS BUS SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

Prior to 2007, two systems of bus driver compensation coexisted in Santiago, Chile: one paid drivers per passenger transported, while the other paid a fixed wage. Per‐passenger drivers engaged in “The War for the Fare,” altering their driving patterns to compete for passengers. Examining these systems on similar routes in Santiago, we observed two key findings. Compared with the fixed‐wage system, the per‐passenger system leads to (1) 13% shorter passenger wait times, via reduced bunching of buses and (2) 67% more accidents per kilometer driven, via more aggressive driving. We discuss implications for the design of incentives in public transit. (JEL L92, M52, R41)     

Engaging Indigenous Communities: Towards a Policy Framework for Indigenous Community Justice Programmes

Community engagement has come to the fore as a policy and programme approach that seeks to connect citizens both with each other and with government in order to deliver improved social and economic opportunities and outcomes. This model has become a key aspect of the intervention approach within Indigenous communities and is seen to have particular application in addressing community justice issues. This article examines a suite of community justice initiatives being used in Indigenous communities in Australia with a view to ascertaining how the principles of community engagement are operationalized. The article draws on this information and argues that community engagement is only one aspect of a number of community‐oriented justice initiatives currently being applied. These initiatives range from concepts of community as a location, community as an interest group, and the leveraging of community capital so as to tap into and build better and stronger relationships. In so doing, the latter attempts to increase the social infrastructure, resources and capacity of communities. However, despite government attention in this area, there is a lack of a policy and programmatic framework to guide a coherent and apposite approach to issues of community in specific policy settings. The article contributes to the development of a framework that begins the process of differentiating and assessing justice administration interventions.     

Social Justice and the Low-Paid Workers

This paper defines a minimal set of conditions which must be satisfied by any system purporting to be guided by a notion of social justice with a significant egalitarian element. The aim is to distinguish between egalitarian concern on the one hand and mere alms-giving sentiment on the other. Taking a broad historical span, the paper shows that, rhetoric apart, the empirical data does not support the claim that egalitarian concerns have played an effective role in determining the value of the real wage for the low-paid worker. In reality, the fate of low wages appears to have been determined by little more than an alms-giving sentiment. This has implications not only for current debates over labour market reform but also for social welfare policies in general. This is especially so because of the close affinity between the base Award rate and the evaluation of the ‘poverty line’. Attention to the Award wage of the low-paid worker, the paper argues, is all the more urgent in the current economic climate when an increasing proportion of workers are likely to be trapped in low paying jobs for very long periods and possibly indefinitely.     

Ethnicity,Race and Nationalism in Australia: Some Critical Perspectives

Over the last 15 years or so, a number of writers have undertaken critical analyses of Australian immigration that have challenged prevailing social science paradigms and raised issues of the representation of social and power relations in a very diverse society. These analyses have located Australian immigration within the context of international capitalism, exploring class segmentation and solidarity, the relation between policies and practice and questions of racism and nationalism.     

Initial Validation of the Open Adoption Scale: Measuring the Influence of Adoption Myths on Attitudes Toward Open Adoption

All adoptions, including those facilitated by public agencies, should be evaluated for openness. Although there are no national figures related to openness in public welfare, there are indications that it is not considered in all cases. Adoption myths may be one of the reasons that adoption workers do not always assess a family's ability to maintain a more open adoption arrangement. The following study is the initial validation of a multidimensional psychometric instrument developed to measure myths as they relate to open adoption. Based on a sample of 547 university students, the results indicate very good reliability and acceptable factorial and construct validity. The instrument was designed as a training and research tool to inform child welfare personnel and policy makers of the influence of adoption-related myths on child welfare adoption practice.