Race and critical tourism studies: An analytical literature review

This analytical literature review focuses on critical tourism studies and its intersections with racial analyses. The tourism industry has long relied on desires to experience a sense of Otherness to generate economic growth, which makes race a valuable heuristic site to consider ways culture and economy are intertwined in the global marketplace. Two theories of race—Omi and Winant's ( 1986 ) racial formation and Goldberg's ( 2009 ) racial neoliberalism—are offered as avenues through that scholars might better investigate intersections of race and tourism. Race is commodified in tourism through orienting the concept around loci of value, and different types of tourism feature more racial prominence than others. Critical tourism scholars may benefit from an increased racial awareness in their work towards providing a counternarrative to strictly business‐based tourism research. Meanwhile, race scholars might benefit from an increased understanding of ways racial difference operates within tourism, as it is a major site of negotiations of Otherness. Although racial themes are more prevalent in some types of tourism than others, the two theories provided together force us to consider ways that tourism studies might further racialize its critical inquiries.     

Functional linear discriminant analysis for irregularly sampled curves

We introduce a technique for extending the classical method of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to data sets where the predictor variables are curves or functions. This procedure, which we call functional linear discriminant analysis ( FLDA ), is particularly useful when only fragments of the curves are observed. All the techniques associated with LDA can be extended for use with FLDA. In particular FLDA can be used to produce classifications on new (test) curves, give an estimate of the discriminant function between classes and provide a one- or two-dimensional pictorial representation of a set of curves. We also extend this procedure to provide generalizations of quadratic and regularized discriminant analysis.     

Roads to Poverty Reduction? Exploring Rural Roads' Impact on Mobility in Africa and Asia

Within current poverty reduction programmes, focus on the social‐welfare millennium development goals is widening to embrace a concern with infrastructural investment, particularly for remote areas. The previously popular assumption that rural disadvantage can be remedied by road‐building is resurfacing. Using survey data from Ethiopia, Zambia and Vietnam, this article explores how effective such investment is in addressing mobility and social‐service accessibility in rural areas. The findings indicate that, in extremely remote areas, road improvements may catalyse the expansion of social‐service provision, as evidenced in Ethiopia. However, given the poor's relative lack of motor vehicles and ability to pay for public transport, they are, by no means, a sufficient condition for enhancing the mobility of the rural poor.     

读中国文学还是读中国——兼论对外汉语教学中的跨文化主题阅读法

对外汉语教学中的外国留学生（outsider／‘局外人’）与中国学生（insider／‘局内人’）是两个不同的读者群体。然而,两个不同读者群体的文学课程却存在很大的相似性。这些相似性体现出对外汉语文学课程受到中文作为母语教育传统和实践的深刘影响。局内人课程传统和实践影响到对外汉语教学作为第二语言教学的特点在课程设置和教学层面上的实现。同时,也有违对外汉语教学‘学生中心’的原则。本文在此基础上,尝试性地提出针对留学生特点和需要的文化阅读的概念一以提高跨文化交际能力为目的的跨文化主题阅读法。其目的在于探讨通过创新性的阅读方法更有效地进行文化传播和文化教学。     

Teaching cultural humility for social workers serving LGBTQI Aboriginal communities in Australia

ABSTRACT

It is well documented that colonization and subsequent repressive policies have wrought devastating changes in the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia. Social workers are an essential group for improving social justice and self-determination for Australian Aboriginal people. The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) acknowledges that Aboriginal people make a unique contribution to the life of the nation and mandates that social work educational programs provide culturally responsive content that acknowledges the value and contributions of Aboriginal people. Social work educators need to embed this content without reinforcing stereotypes or being tokenistic. This is a challenge when teaching about intersecting identities, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) Aboriginal people. We outline the terms used in this space and propose that cultural humility is an acceptable framework to consider. We introduce key conceptual terms used in LGBTQI Aboriginal communities. Finally, we provide recommendations for engaging with LGBTQI Aboriginal peoples.     

Constructive Social Work and Personal Construct Theory: The Case of Psychological Trauma

The complex and changing relationship between theory and practicein social work has received increasing attention in recent years.Parton (2000) has advocated a constructionist approach thatunderlines the similarity between the roles of the researcherand the practitioner. Personal construct theory (Kelly, 1955)is one member of the constructionist family that has particularimplications for social work practice. It evolved as a pragmaticapproach to psychotherapy, advocating a research supervisor/studentmodel of the practitioner/client relationship. In this article,we elaborate its application to social work practice, drawingon contemporary work in the fields of trauma and loss to illustrateits value.     

Rural population density: its impact on social and demographic aspects of rural communities

Using the settled areas of South Australia as a case study, this paper seeks to demonstrate the specific importance of rural population and settlement density as an important variable in understanding the social, population and settlement geography of sparsely settled rural regions, where sparse and falling density presents both practical and conceptual problems for rural planners. After a review of the literature on population density, the case is argued for the use of net rural rather than gross density in the analysis of settlement patterns. The paper then tests a series of hypotheses on the empirical relationship between rural density as independent variable and selected demographic and socio-economic indicators as dependent variables, at two specific points in time. For the same region, points in time and set of indicators, it goes on to compare the predictive power of rural density as an independent variable with that of three other important qualities of rural settlement patterns (remoteness, settlement size and urban concentration). Rural density is found to be a significant explanatory variable, both in its own right and in comparison with the three other variables tested. In conclusion, the findings are related to policy development measures for rural Australia.     

After the tax revolt: Why Medicare matters more to middle Australia than lower taxes

The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes 2003 gives new insights into the public's increasing preference for more social spending and their willingness to pay more taxes to fund services. This paper profiles the new electorate and discusses factors driving this trend in public opinion. Multivariate analysis allows us to identify the key demographic, political and policy variables that predict support for spending. All the usual factors matter: being older and more educated, and identifying as Labor, Green or Democrat all predict support for higher spending. But we find that policy perceptions matter as well: believing that health and Medicare and/or public education have declined in the past two years brings major support for increased spending. We also find that the Australian public supports modest tax increases to fund spending on health and education and that the Australian electorate is more open minded about tax rises than conventional wisdom holds. Our main conclusions are that support for social spending over reduced taxes has increased over the past two decades, and especially after the election of the Howard Government, and that dissatisfaction with health and Medicare, and public education, are reshaping the fiscal preferences of the Australian electorate.     

The Problem,Policy, and Political Streams of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009: Implications for Social Work Practice

Protection from employment discrimination has been a long battle waged by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community and allies. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) of 2009 could provide comprehensive federal protection from employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation. In this article, John Kingdon's framework for policy analysis is used to explore the federal ENDA.