Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemWhat does 'significance' look like? Assessing the assessment process in competitive grants schemes(Australian Association for Research in Education, 2006)This paper focuses on the writer’s experiences from 2002-2004 as the sole Education member of the Australian Research Council committee that assesses applications across the ‘social, behavioural and economic sciences’. It is drawn from a wider analysis of how judgments about research quality are produced across different spheres of education research activity, drawing particular attention to the characteristics of those who judge, their explicit and implicit criteria, and the textual markers of ‘quality’ that they work with. The article conside rs how the explicit categories for scoring; the characteristics of those appointed to the committee; the histo ry of dominant research traditions, and a slippage between the categories ‘significance’, ‘national benefit’ and ‘national research priorities’ all influence the judgments and scores that eventuate from assessors and pro duce the final rankings.
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ItemIntroduction(Duke University Press, 2006)Official corruption has become increasingly prevalent around the world since the early 1990s. The situation appears to be particularly acute in the post-communist states. Corruption — be it real or perceived — is a major problem with concrete implications, including a lowered likelihood of foreign investment. In Rotten States? Leslie Holmes analyzes corruption in post-communist countries, paying particular attention to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, as well as China, which Holmes argues has produced, through its recent economic liberalization, a system similar to post-communism. As he points out, these countries offer useful comparisons: they vary in terms of size, religious orientation, ethnic homogeneity, and their approaches to and economic success with the transition from communism.Drawing on data including surveys commissioned especially for this study, Holmes examines the causes and consequences of official corruption as well as ways of combating it. He focuses particular attention on the timing of the recent increase in reports of corruption, the relationship between post-communism and corruption, and the interplay between corruption and the delegitimation and weakening of the state. Holmes argues that the global turn toward neoliberalism — with its focus on ends over means, flexibility, and a reduced role for the state — has generated much of the corruption in post-communist states. At the same time, he points out that neoliberalism is perhaps the single most powerful tool for overcoming the communist legacy, which is an even more significant cause of corruption. Among the conclusions that Holmes draws is that a strong democratic state is needed in the early stages of the transition from communism in order to prevent corruption from taking hold.
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ItemMovements and globalization(Blackwell, 2006-01)The past decade has witnessed an extraordinary rise of new global movements that throw into question the way we think about culture, power, and action in a globalizing world. This book surveys the field and explores some of the most significant of these movements, including antiglobalization and the new Islamic movements. These movements require a rethinking of the very idea of social movement, a concept that owes a great deal to the civic and industrial culture that was so critical to Western modernity, but may be less adequate when exploring forms of culture, action, and communication in a globalized world. This book explores key dimensions of these movements, the tensions they confront, and the crises to which they are subject. It will provide an essential text for students on globalization and social movements.
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ItemReconciliation(Oxford University Press, 2006)Reconciliation emerged in the 1990s as a central term of political discourse in divided societies such as South Africa, Chile and Australia. Originating in theology, the concept of reconciliation is often criticised in politics for fostering acquiescence in social relations that are neither desirable nor necessary. As a state-sanctioned project, reconciliation is always in danger of becoming ideological in this sense. However, there is nothing inherently problematic about reconciliation as a term of political discourse as long as it is kept in view for being just that. As such, the concept expands the vocabulary in terms of which political actors can confront, debate and contest the most political of all questions: namely, the constitution of ‘the people’ from whose will the legitimacy of law is supposed to derive in a democracy.
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ItemEducation and its cosmopolitan possibilities(Continuum, 2008)
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ItemUniversity Rankings and the Knowledge Economy(Peter Lang Publishing, 2009)
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ItemChildren and Parents Matter: Research Insights from Integrated Child and Family Services in Australia(Open University Press, 2006)
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ItemNetworking knowledge to achieve transformation in schools(Information Age Publishing, 2008)