29330 research outputs found
Sort by
The sultanate of women: exploring female roles in perpetrating and preventing violent extremism
No full textOverview
This paper examines the appeal of Islamic State (IS) to Western women and explores how women can be employed in countering violent extremism (CVE) structures to prevent further involvement. It aims to deliver a comprehensive analysis for academics, policymakers and practitioners working in CVE program and policy design and implementation in order to bridge the gap between community development work and security and intelligence.
Two case studies of Australian women—Zehra Duman (a.k.a. Umm Abdullatif al-Australi) and Zaynab Sharrouf (a.k.a. Umm Hafs)—illustrate the appeal as well as the contradictions.
A series of recommendations suggests changes to existing CVE structures and their approaches to integrating, women
Housing: now is the time to seize the opportunity
No full text- Unless radical action is taken now, the Government will not achieve its target to build one million new homes by 2020.
- This could have severe electoral consequences. Housing is an increasingly salient political issue. According to Ipsos Mori, voters now consider housing to be one of the five most important issues facing Britain today, ahead of education, poverty, defence and foreign affairs, and crime.
- Public opinion on new housing development has also changed dramatically in the last few years. In 2010, the British Social Attitudes Survey found that 46% of respondents said they would oppose any new homes being built in their local area. In 2014, this opposition had fallen to just 21%.
- The importance of housing to the electorate reflects the fact that there are simply not enough places for people to live in. With house prices continuing to rise far faster than wages, the need for new housing has never been greater.
- The social and economic consequences of worsening affordability are considerable: the divide between those who inherit wealth and those who don’t will become more pronounced, and UK productivity will continue to stagnate as high house prices tie up significant sums in unproductive assets.
- The current system conspires to make it not in the interest of any individual stakeholder to take on this challenge. It is a dysfunctional market.
- It is therefore hardly any surprise that no new towns have been built in this country since Milton Keynes back in the 1970s. Planning restrictions, fragmented land ownership lack of institutional capital funding and the tax treatment of new development – local authorities have been the big losers on the provision of social and physical infrastructure for new developments – have combined to stifle new initiatives.
- A programme of reform, inspired by a grand vision and as bold as that outlined in the 1979 ‘Right to Buy’ White Paper, is needed now. 
If small newspapers are going to survive, they’ll have to be more than passive observers to the news
No full textWithin a few hours of Donald Trump being declared president-elect, the first wave of reflections about the future of news media began to emerge.
The existential crisis comes at a time when the economics for much of our industry — especially newspapers — remains as challenging as ever. John Oliver’s clarion call to support organizations like ProPublica and The New York Times’ post-election subscriber surge offer faint glimmers of financial hope, but we need to ensure that the conversations we are having about the role, objectives, and future of journalism do not dissipate.
We also need to ensure that this dialogue extends beyond pollsters, members of the establishment, and big newspapers. Small-market newspapers (those under 50,000 circulation), for instance, account for the majority of daily and weekly printed newspapers in the United States (6,851 out of 7,071). They’re a silent majority too often absent from discussions about the information needs of communities and the future of journalism. It’s time we include them in the conversation
Block adverts, delete Flash, kill Java: ASD
No full textIntroduction
When the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) released its Top Four Strategies to Mitigate Targeted Cyber Intrusions in 2011, it was revolutionary, because it cut to the chase. Do these four things first, before anything else, and you\u27ll repel 85 percent of targeted intrusions.
On Monday, the ASD released the new improved version. It\u27s now the Essential Eight, and the advice is just as blunt.
Read the full article>
The American face of ISIS
No full textOverview
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is mobilising sympathisers in the US at rates much higher than seen for previous terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda.
To understand this new American face of ISIS, the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) study examined 112 cases of individuals who perpetrated ISIS-related offences, were indicted by the US Justice Department for such offences, or both, in the US between March 2014 and August 2016.
This is the first comprehensive analysis of ISIS-related cases to examine the profiles of indictees overall, as well as to identify characteristics associated with each of the offence types. The findings are striking, and provide a valuable contribution to understanding the contemporary face of ISIS-related terrorism in the US.
By: Robert Pape, Jean Decety, Keven Ruby, Alejandro Albanez Rivas, Jens Jessen &Caroline Wegner
Contributors: Piper Mik, Sarah Starr, Ala Tineh, Walker Gunning & Jacinta Carrol
Engaging students: creating classrooms that improve learning
No full textOverview
When students are engaged in class, they learn more. It is vital that teachers create the right classroom climate for learning: raising student expectations; developing a rapport with students; establishing routines; challenging students to participate and take risks. These all affect how much their students engage and learn.
In Australia, many students are consistently disengaged in class: as many as 40 per cent are unproductive in a given year. The main problem is not aggressive and anti-social behaviour. More prevalent and stressful for teachers are minor disruptions, such as students talking back. Nor is it just about noise: nearly one in four students are compliant but quietly disengaged.
We do not know exactly what causes students in Australia to disengage – it could be problems at home, or subject matter that is too hard or too easy, or poor-quality teaching. But we do know disengagement matters. Disengaged students are one to two years behind their peers. Students who are quietly disengaged do just as badly as those acting out, and disruptive behaviour also reduces how much other students learn.
Teachers are calling for more support on classroom strategies. New teachers rate handling difficult student behaviours as their top professional challenge – and most feel under-prepared by their training. Even teachers with years of experience struggle. Nearly one third of all teachers are highly stressed by the challenges of engaging and re-engaging students in class. This can become a downward spiral, where poor teacher responses disrupt the class and lead to more students disengaging.
Overcoming student disengagement is complicated. What is taught and the way it is taught are crucial. But creating a good learning environment in the classroom is necessary too.
This report calls for policy reforms to build teacher capabilities to improve classrooms. It avoids simplistic calls for ‘old-fashioned discipline’, but it also acknowledges that compelling content is not enough on its own. Teachers must first know what strategies and approaches work best in the classroom. This means Australia’s initial teacher education courses need to focus more on evidence-based techniques.
Teachers then need to learn how to create the right learning climate, and how to respond well in the heat of the moment.
School leaders must go beyond creating a school-wide behaviour plan. They must also provide practical support for teachers, with opportunities for collaboration, observation and feedback, which are especially important for developing these nuanced classroom skills. And governments should direct more support to disadvantaged schools where student engagement is weakest.
Implementing these recommendations will help create a better learning environment in every Australian classroom, so that every child can reach their learning potential
Nearly half of Australians support changes to 18C: IPA polling
No full textThose who support watering down the anti-hate laws in the Racial Discriminaton Act have received a boost this morning.
Polling commissioned by conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs shows that almost one in two people support removing the words \u27insult\u27 and \u27offend\u27 from section 18C of the Act, which also makes it an offence to humilate or intimidate a person based on their race.
A parliamentary committee was established last year to look at changing the laws.
The committee has already received more than 11,000 written submissions and is this week conducting hearings accross the country
DASSH National Research Infrastructure Roadmap Submission
No full textThe Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH) acknowledges that the current draft 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap goes a long way in recognising the developments in humanities and social sciences research and its contribution to a national research and innovation agenda. However, DASSH urges the Expert Working Group to consider and incorporate infrastructure that facilitates:
the relationship between social media analytics and behavioural research around predictive data analytics as a guide to public policy;
the contribution that legal, cultural and social science researchers can make to advancing Australia’s ‘intangible innovation capabilities’ in the digital economy context, where networked ecologies of innovation are increasingly central;
the contributions of the GLAM sector.
DASSH does welcome the Expert Working Group’s inclusion of Digital Data and eResearch Platforms (2.1) and Platforms for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) (2.2) as key research infrastructure focus areas as well as the recognition of the importance of national, state and territory collecting institutions to research broadly, but particularly to HASS research
Northern Territory election 2016
No full textIntroduction
The Northern Territory (NT) has a unicameral parliament—the Legislative Assembly—elected under the provisions of the Electoral Act (NT). The NT has a fixed election date, the fourth Saturday in August, every four years: the previous election was held on 25 August 2012. The Northern Territory is divided into 25 divisions for Legislative Assembly (Assembly) elections. The Parliament was prorogued on 8 August 2016 with the election held on 27 August 2016.
In the lead up to the 2016 election political commentators seemed united in predicting a Country Liberal Party (CLP) defeat—the only question appeared to be by how much. Polls suggested that leadership and cabinet instability could wipe out the CLP at the 2016 election
Foreign investment framework 2017 legislative package: discussion paper
No full textOn 1 December 2015, the most significant changes to Australia’s foreign investment framework in over forty years were introduced. The reforms provided for stronger enforcement of the rules, a better resourced system and clearer rules for foreign investors.
In the year since the reforms were implemented, the Government has been seeking ongoing feedback from stakeholders on how the reforms are working in practice. Unintended consequences stemming from the 2015 reforms and opportunities for red tape reduction have been identified through this process.
This consultation paper seeks formal views from stakeholders on a suite of proposed changes in the areas of residential land, non-vacant commercial land, low sensitivity business investment and fees. The paper also provides an opportunity for stakeholders to present examples on how technical issues in the legislation could be addressed and any further ideas for reform.
Stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the proposed changes and the estimated regulatory costs of the options. The final legislative package and the approach to its implementation will be determined by the Government following consultation.
Closing date for submissions - Wednesday 29 March 201