School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications

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    Putting People in the Picture? The role of the arts in social inclusion
    Barraket, Dr Jo ( 2005-02)
    This working paper presents a preliminary analysis of the relationship between arts and social inclusion. Drawing on local and international evidence, and the experiences of program staff within the Brotherhood of St Laurence, it is found that there is significant evidence that arts initiatives and activities play a role in achievingsocial inclusion outcomes for disadvantaged individuals, groups and communities. The preliminary review of activities utilising the arts within BSL and its partner organisationssuggests that the arts are being employed in diverse ways to empower individuals, heal communities, foster social connections, create employment and encourage educationalparticipation. The specific benefits of arts initiatives appear to be that they are overwhelmingly viewed positively by participants and they provide important interactivecontexts in which difficult social issues can be addressed.
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    Community Sector Sustainability:Research Evidence and Public Policy Implications
    Barraket, Dr Jo ( 2006-08)
    This paper reviews the available research evidence to identify factors impacting on the sustainability of the Victorian community sector, with a specific focus on public policy implications. The review finds that major areas affecting sustainability include: the changing nature of government funding regimes; the regulatory environment; relationships with government; capacity within the sector; and opportunities for resource mobilisation.
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    Darebin eForum Report
    Chen, Dr Peter ( 2004)
    This report provides an assessment of the pilot electronic democracy project undertaken at Darebin City Council during 2004. The Darebin eForum provided Council staff and Darebin residents the opportunity to discuss policy related issues via electronic mail in a structured manner which allowed the Council to summarise topics of interest and concern to feed into pre-existing decision-making processes. Based on research conducted with participants during the pilot project, a number of conclusions can be drawn regarding the value and future viability of the online forum. These are: The pilot project did not attract a wide number of participants from outside of the Council organisation and participants reflected a relatively narrow slice of the diversity within the City of Darebin. Overall, the average eForum participant was a forty-year-old English speaking, educated, and computer literate woman in full time employment. These participants tended to exhibit characteristics that would classify them as joiners who tend to be in well-developed social and work networks, and tend to have a consociational and communitarian outlook, who would therefore be attracted to discussion lists of this type. This finding indicates that the work of recruitment for the eForum of residence of the city needs to be a priority for future iterations or implementations of this concept. The selection of topics for discussion on the eForum allowed discussion to develop amongst the list participants, even where some topics were outside of the specific knowledge for interest of members. This was advantageous in the development of an active group of participants as topics were inclusive of participation across a number of levels. The selection of topics, however, may have been overly broad and fail to deliver instrumental outcomes either to participating staff members with responsibility for policy development, or a reasonable minority of non-staff list participants who focus their interest
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    Information Technology in Teaching and Learning: A Report on Trial Applications of MultiMedia in the Department of Political Science
    Chen, Dr Peter John ( 2003-06)
    In accordance with the policy of the University of Melbourne to develop and integrate the use of Information Technology (IT) in teaching and learning, in 2003 a small-scale trial was undertaken to apply desktop MultiMedia (MM) to the teaching of one subject which had made limited use of teaching in learning in previous years.This document reports on the outcomes of this trial, indicates the positive and negative benefits of this application, and makes some conclusions about barriers and enablers to the implementation of IT in the teaching environment. The aim of the document is to:•Report on agreed activities to the Head of Department, Political Science, and•Provide feedback on IT applications in teaching to other staff of the University of Melbourne.
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    Submission to the Review of the Operation of Schedule 5 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992
    Chen, Dr Peter John ( 2002-11)
    A submission made to the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts in reference to the operations of the Internet content regulation scheme (censorship) in Australia. Contains unpublished research.
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    Submission to the Inquiry into Electronic Democracy
    Chen, Dr Peter John ; Roberts, Dr Winsome ; Gibson, Dr Rachel ( 2002-10)
    A submission made to the Victorian Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee pertaining to electronic democracy. Contains as yet unpublished research