Evidence for the use of an algorithm in resolving inconsistent and missing Indigenous status in administrative data collections

Measures of the gap in living standards, life expectancy, education, health and employment between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians are primarily derived from administrative data sources. However, Indigenous identification in these data sources is affected by administrative practices, missing data, inconsistency, and error. As these factors have changed over time, assessing whether the gap between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians has changed over time, based on data unadjusted for these sources of error can potentially lead to misguided conclusions. Combining administrative data on the same individuals collected from different sources provides a method by which a more consistent derived Indigenous status can be applied across all records for an individual within a linked data environment. We used the Western Australian Data Linkage system to produce derived Indigenous statuses for individuals using a range of algorithms. We found that these algorithms reduced the amount of missing data and improved within‐individual consistency. Based on these findings, we recommend our Multi‐Stage Median algorithm be used as the standard indicator of Indigenous status for any reporting based on administrative datasets when multiple datasets are available for linkage, and that algorithmic approaches also be considered for improving the quality of other demographic variables from administrative data sources.     

Mobile skilled workers: Making the most of an untapped rural community resource

Many small rural communities have a flow of skilled people through the community, including employees from the government, non government and private sectors on fixed-term contracts, and a range of professionals, often attracted by amenity and seeking a sea change or tree change. The aim of the study reported in this paper was to investigate how rural communities can optimise benefits from professional and other highly skilled workers in the context of an increasingly mobile and transitory workforce. The paper examines the characteristics and attributes of mobile skilled workers from six different Australian rural communities and one Canadian rural community. It overviews the reasons why mobile skilled workers become involved in rural communities, the process of integration, and the reasons why they decide to stay or leave. If rural communities better understand the characteristics and motivations of mobile skilled workers, they will be able to better harness the potential of this group. Community settings and, to a lesser extent, policy, make a difference to mobile skilled worker integration and community participation. Community settings such as culture, interactional infrastructure and leadership influence the integration process for mobile skilled workers. Effectiveness of the integration process determines the nature and extent of mobile skilled worker contribution to the community and the likelihood that the worker will be retained in the community. Rural communities that make the most of the available pool of skills provided by mobile skilled workers can increase resilience, community capacity, identification and uptake of opportunities such as new enterprises, good practice in natural resource management, enhanced social and leisure opportunities, and the quality and range of local services.     

Postmodern theory and politics: Perspectives on citizenship and social justice

In this paper we consider some contributions made by postmodern perspectives to theoretical and political questions of citizenship and social justice. Postmodern theory is often dismissed as a distraction from pressing questions of material inequality and economic and political exploitation. In the paper we distinguish between ‘ludic’ or ‘spectral’ postmodernisms and ‘oppositional’ or ‘resistance’ postmodernisms. We suggest that the latter provide theoretical resources for analysing the cultural construction of inequalities and struggles around social inclusion and exclusion. The paper is divided into three sections: in the first, three dominant narratives of modernization are addressed and their implications for concepts of citizenship and social inclusion noted; in the second, some postmodern challenges to these narratives are explored in order to disclose some of the key problems with modern paradigms of citizenship and social justice; in the third section we outline two postmodern approaches to the analysis of social struggles and their contributions to debates about citizenship.     

Trust Relations in High-Reliability Organizations

Workplace trust has been recognized by researchers and practitioners alike to be an important component of an effective safety culture. However, despite this, the concept of trust as it relates to safety has been underresearched, particularly within high-reliability organizations. This article examines the importance of trust relations and their concomitant impact on safety culture within the specific context of high-reliability organizations using relevant literatures. The article then explores the implications of high and low trust situations for safety through case studies conducted within the nuclear and offshore industries as exemplars of organizations operating within high-reliability sectors.     

Marital Therapy and Feminism

The authors examine first the meaning ascribed to gender behaviour and the impact this has on couples' struggle to evolve a marital structure that can equitably meet their needs. The roles played by counsellors who inadvertently reinforce sex-role stereotyping in their counselling is also described and case-discussion in literature where sexism prevails will be presented. Alternative ways of helping couples discover their own fit without appealing to gender behaviour as a structural social tool will be developed. Attention is drawn to the necessity for counsellors to first question their own values about gender behaviour, without succumbing to social definitions.     

Minority ethnic groups and higher education in Britain: Questions of access and equity

The role of higher education in Britain is in transition as the system expands to educate an ever‐growing proportion of the nation's eighteen‐year‐olds. In the past it could have been argued that one of its main functions was to reproduce the class which would direct the country in the political, judicial, industrial, commercial and educational spheres. Now, succesful completion of a first degree will be unlikely in itself to guarantee access to the ruling élites. This paper considers questions of access and equity within British higher education, and focuses, in particular, on how young people from the minority groups constituted by recent immigration to Britain fare within the system.     

Fundamentals of Theory and Practice Revisited; The Reality of Voices: ‘Auditory Hallucinations’

This paper describes some recent developments in approaches to voice‐hearing and relates them to contemporary ideas about psychosis and therapy. The author looks at the growing body of work on cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis. She examines the similarities and differences between these approaches and those of innovators like Marius Romme and Sandra Escher, Philip Thomas, Michael White and the Hearing Voices Network. The author describes some influences upon her own systemic practice with clients diagnosed with schizophrenia, in a Community Mental Health Team in Wales.     

Safety training: An overview of current needs

This article considers the changing nature of the demands and pressures faced by today's training practitioner. It emphasizes that safety is no longer a matter of 'tin hats, safety guards and first aid boxes', and explores the problems created by new legislation and rapidly changing technology. It also points up the skills required by the safety practitioner in effectively dealing with his/her organization, and the constraints placed on them by social and economic factors. The article reviews the training implications of this developing scenario.     

MULTI-LEVEL VULNERABILITY OF ADOLESCENT MARRIAGES: AN ECO-SYSTEM MODEL FOR CLINICAL ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION

This paper utilizes the Transitionally Unintegrated-Externally Open family system type derived from Wertheim (1973,1975) to address the multiple factors that may enhance or reduce the vulnerability of the adolescent marriage. Facilitating and constraining factors on the development of marital system autonomy and competence are identified at the individual, marital, familial and extra-familial levels. Guidelines for clinical assessment and intervention are presented.