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Stimulating Flexible Citizenship: The Impact of Dutch and Indian Migration Policies on the Lives of Highly Skilled Indian Migrants in the Netherlands
Get PDFThis paper explores the relationship between migration and integration policies in the Netherlands, diaspora policies in India, and the transnational practices of Indian highly skilled migrants to the Netherlands. We employ anthropological transnational migration theories (e.g., Ong 1999; Levitt and Jaworsky 2007) to frame the dynamic interaction between a sending and a receiving country on the lives of migrants. This paper makes a unique contribution to migration literature by exploring the policies of both sending and receiving country in relation to ethnographic data on migrants. The international battle for brains has motivated states like the Netherlands and India to design flexible migration and citizenship policies for socially and economically desirable migrants. Flexible citizenship policies in the Netherlands are primarily concerned with individual and corporate rights and privileges, whereas Indian diaspora policies have been established around the premise of national identity
Opportunities to identify and develop people skills: What university students need early in their degree journey
Get PDFEmployability skills can be categorised as ‘people’ or ‘soft skills’ and ‘technical’ or ‘industry specific’ skills. Australian employers are increasingly seeking to employ university graduates with well-developed people skills. Evidence from industry suggests these skills, in particular communication skills are lacking in today’s graduates. The aim of this study was to raise student awareness of the importance of people skills, assess their perception of personal competence across a range of these skills and support them to develop plans that will help them strengthen these skills in preparation for graduation. An online survey was emailed to 222 first year undergraduate students; 99 were completed. Analysis of quantitative data revealed students perceived themselves to be highly competent across a range of people skills. However, qualitative data found students also identified people skills that they needed to develop further. The study findings suggest that first-year students may have inflated and unrealistic perceptions of their people skills and highlights the importance of the introduction of these employability skills early in the curriculum. Recommendations from this study include the introduction of curriculum activities in the first year of their degree that raise student awareness of industry expectations of people skills upon graduation. The implementation of a people skills self-assessment tool for these students is also recommended as a benchmarking activity. Use of this tool can motivate students to engage with university support and industry opportunities that further strengthen these important skills
Intra-active: The Child/Animal in Children’s SF
Get PDFIn 1979 Ruth Hubbard asserted that 'science is the most respected legitimator of new realities' (Hubbard et al 1979, p.8-9). Science, however, is quite clearly political, particularly the speed, competition, capital and power which underpins it's overarching cultural influence in constructing 'reality', importantly the 'reality' of being human. Science's authority over 'human-ness' is evidenced in contemporary legislation regarding, for example, stem cell research and current Australian parliamentary debates (requiring a 'conscience vote'), which points to the complex ethical and cultural issues that are inherent in the production of new scientific realities. A concurrent institutional and epistemological distinction between the humanities and the sciences renders dialogue between the two problematic, such a dialogue however is critical when, as Bruno Latour notes, somehow, science has 'take[n] all the important decisions' (Latour, cited in Flower 2003, p.104). While this schism remains, it hinders a responsible and accountable public and interdisciplinary engagement with scientific practices. The question that children's literature scholars might ask, and one that I attend to in this paper, concerns a function of children's literature; how does children's SF reflect and mediate these new realities
We Enter a Time of Calamity: Informed and ‘Informated’ Youth Inside and Outside Young Adult Fiction
Get PDFYoung people's interactions with new media and communication technologies are currently popular subjects of debate and analysis in academia, the media and young adult science fiction. But while academic research increasingly highlights the complexity and individuality of the relationships between young people and new media technologies, pop culture artefacts such as recent young adult science fiction and the news media often resort to oppositional portrayals, particularly of what I will call 'informed' versus 'informated' youth. In such binaries, the informed young person is one who uses information and technology for personal growth and social transformation. Its opposite is the 'informated' young person. Hardt and Negri (2000) use the term 'informatization' to refer to the post-industrial economic processes of the postmodern era (p. 280), but I am using the term here to evoke the sense of being inflated, bloated or overloaded with information. The informed young person may be depicted positively in young adult fiction and the media, but its nemesis has become a fearsome spectre, reflecting popular anxieties and fears about the Information Age. The informated young person has access to unlimited information but is not informed, can communicate effortlessly across time and space but has nothing to say, and is surrounded by an ambient network of peers but remains isolated, alone and adrift. In this paper, I aim to explore how recent science fiction and other pop culture artefacts have depicted the relationships between young people and ICTs (information and communication technologies), especially in light of relevant scholarly research in order to ascertain the relevance such portrayals might have for young people's lived experiences
‘Oscar’: An Institutional and Contested Persona Reading of the Academy Awards
Get PDFThis article applies a persona studies approach to the case study of the Academy Awards. Key literature is used to situate an ‘Oscar’ persona within existing conceptualisations from the discipline. Oscar represents a composite persona that encapsulates an event, its broadcast, an Academy of individuals, and a larger discursive industry. It is a non-human persona that is coloured by distinctly human elements; it is collectively constructed on a massive scale, the process of which inviting constant contestation. Drawing from these theorisations I conduct a textual analysis to reach a persona reading of Oscar. As collective authors of the persona, members of the Academy, associated performers, and discursive contributors employ three distinct and consistent persona strategies: the Functional, the Spiritual, and the Ironic. Oscar’s taste-making function is enabled by extravagant staging and tempered by expressions of philanthropy yet performed with ironic self-effacement. The cumulative effect of these three performances allows Oscar manoeuvrability across the requirements of the different cultural contexts of each year. As well as providing a unique prism for understanding the Oscars as an institution, this work demarcates different levels of collective persona construction, challenging notions of central authority in production and performance, and accounting for the ongoing constructive work of publics
Leveraging Languages for Learning: Incorporating Plurilingual Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education and Care
Get PDFAbstract: Children are members of families and communities, and the languages learnt within these contexts contribute to a child’s sense of “belonging, being and becoming” throughout life (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009). Encouraging children to bring their home languages into early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings exposes all children to additional languages and supports key outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF; DEEWR, 2009). This article looks at the relationship between key tenets of the EYLF and conditions that support a plurilingual approach within ECEC settings, arguing that multilingualism can be encouraged and effectively supported within these environments. The authors outline Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of development which continues to be influential in Australian ECEC, emphasizing the importance of proximal processes in child development. Examples are provided of educator behaviours set out in the EYLF that encourage linguistic diversity and promote language learning. The influence of three key variables on the valuing of languages is discussed, namely language ideologies, teacher beliefs and attitudes, and plurilingual pedagogies. Recommendations relating to the positive positioning of languages and the integration of plurilingual pedagogies into Australian ECEC contexts are provided
Constituting Christopher: Disability Theory and the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-times the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
No full textIn 'Extraordinary Bodies: figuring disability in American culture and literature', Rosemary Garland Thompson contends that disability is another 'culture-bound, physically justified difference to consider along with race, gender, class, ethnicity and sexuality' (1997, p.5). The two reigning models that have marked disability as a site of difference are the medical and the social; the former in both its benign and pernicious forms identifying the somatic and psychological markers of disability and scaffolding around these regimes of medical intervention and correction, the latter involving social recognition of disabilities, and identifying ways to 'establish social equity that do not depend on a medical response, but on modifying man-made societal arrangements' (Saunders 2004, p.2). The medical and social models have been critiqued by theorists in the field who have argued that they are not only underpinned by the view that disability is a 'personal medical tragedy' (Campbell 2004, p.443), but also that they are often mutually exclusive, failing to successfully cognate the culturally discursive, the socially regulated and the multiple realities of disabled people's lives (Price and Schildrick 2002). This paper will situate Mark Haddon's novel 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' (2003) within these current debates in disability theory, arguing that fictional representations such as Haddon's contribute powerfully to what Judy Singer calls a more 'ecological view of society', that is 'one that is more relaxed about different styles of being' (1999, p.67)
Coconuts, Custom-Play & COVID-19: Social Isolation, Serious Leisure and Personas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Get PDFThis paper discusses Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ (ACNH) release during the COVID-19 pandemic, and draws upon responses from nearly 2000 players to frame how the game acts as a platform for routine substitution and social connectivity in a disconnected physical world. A combination of the game’s elements, including its comforting aesthetic, participatory community, financial mechanics, and goal-setting, promotes the player’s construction of their sense of self and provides crucial stability. In contrast to other life simulator games such as The Sims, the timing of ACNH’s release makes its substitution efforts more adoptable by a wide spectrum of players between casual and hardcore sensibilities.
Moreover, the game substitutes some complex face-to-face interactions during self-isolation and it affords stability and routine through a simulacrum of real-life, however exaggerated and narrowed in scope. The gameplay provides player agency and self-determination of playstyle as well as routines that contrast with the intense disruption of the everyday by the pandemic. Players’ shared affinities and engagement with the game function as a form of serious leisure which in turn creates personas from a diverse range of roles such as, the social player, the turnip trader, the gardener, the artisan. The persona roles enable players to adopt multiple recognisable specialisations within an expansive social environment. In essence, players of ACNH create an array of malleable, interchangeable gaming personas that successfully embody the routine and social play forcibly absent from real life during the pandemic
Hype Source: G Fuel’s Contemporary Gamer Persona and its Navigation of Prestige and Diversity
Get PDFG Fuel, an energy drink marketed towards gamers, performs a ‘contemporary’ gamer persona to interact with its audience, drawing upon an array of gaming influencers to appeal to fans of these figures. Specifically, this contemporary gamer persona builds upon the ‘geeky’ male gamer identity that has been constructed by marketers and adopted by players, utilising elements of esport such as skilfulness and focus. However, this persona also reimagines the gamer identity in alternative ways, such as gaming as an athletic activity – one that requires much mental and physical energy—and as an activity that connects players to others, and is exciting and glamourous, evocative of the lifestyles of gaming influencers. Thus, the contemporary gamer persona signals that there has been a shift in the popular discourses surrounding the ‘gamer’ identity in specific gaming micro-publics. The energy drink company G-Fuel is aware of this shift and strengthens this persona by forming partnerships with gamer microcelebrities and influencers. In this article, we find that in G Fuel’s construction and maintenance of the contemporary gamer persona, they seek to appeal to the wider gaming audience, but must constantly negotiate a balance between popular but controversial influencers and a commitment to diversity
Two sides of the same coin? Internationalisation and employability - students’ perceptions of employability and career outcomes from International Studies
Get PDFThe Australian higher education sector has promoted internationalisation opportunities for students, including through international studies (IS) courses that entail language and culture study and international exchange. Educators promote internationalisation for many reasons, including enhanced employability, and international studies degrees are increasingly offered in combination with professional courses. Students, however, do not necessarily share in the belief that international opportunities and language study will increase their employability. A thematic analysis of statements (n=223) supplied on student applications to withdraw from combined international studies courses in favour of single professional degrees, reveals that students fail to see employability benefits and may even perceive their international studies course as a professional liability. Understanding these beliefs can allow educators to more effectively promote the value of not only international studies degrees, but also language and culture study and exchange opportunities, and to counter some of the myths that prevent students from undertaking international opportunities