1,721,124 research outputs found
A Literature Review of Wellness, Wellbeing and Quality of Life Issues as they impact upon the Australian Mining Sector
No full textAustralia’s mining boom\ud
Global demand for minerals and energy products has fuelled Australia’s recent resources boom and has led to the rapid expansion of mining projects not only in remote locations but increasingly in settled traditionally agricultural rural areas. A fundamental shift has also occurred in the provisioning of skilled and semi-skilled workers. The huge acceleration in industry demand for labour has been accompanied by the entrenchment of workforce arrangements largely dependent on fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) and drive–in, drive–out (DIDO) non-resident workers (NRWs). While NRWs are working away from their homes, they are usually accommodated in work camps or ‘villages’ for the duration of their work cycle which are normally comprised of many consecutive days of 12-hour day- and night-shifts. The health effects of this form of employment and the accompanying lifestyle is increasingly becoming contentious. Impacts on personal wellness, wellbeing and quality of life essentially remain under-researched and thus misunderstood.\ud
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Sodexo in Australia\ud
Sodexo began operations in Australia in 1982, and has since become a leader in providing Quality of Life (QOL) services to businesses across the country. The 6,000 Australian employees are part of a global Sodexo team of 413,000 people. Sodexo in Australia designs, delivers and manages on-site their QOL services at 320 diverse site locations, including remote sites. Sodexo operates in a range of sectors, including the mining industry. Service plans are tailored to suit the individual needs of organisations.\ud
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Sodexo Remote Sites has previously conducted unpublished research among mining workers in Australia. The results highlighted needs and expectations of Australian mining workers. Main insights about workers’ requirements were directed towards:\ud
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• contacts with closest;\ud
• warm rest time around proper and varied meals;\ud
• additional services to help them better enjoy their life onsite and/or make the most of it;\ud
• organise their transportation;\ud
• promote community living; and\ud
• finding balance between professional and personal life. \ud
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The brief for this current research is aimed at building upon this knowledge. \ud
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Research brief\ud
Expectations for quality of life and wellness and wellbeing services are increasing dramatically. It's getting costlier and more difficult to retain valuable employees. This is particularly the case in the Australian mining sector. Given the level of interest in ensuring healthy workplaces in Australia, Sodexo has commissioned QUT to conduct a literature review. The objectives as specified by Sodexo are:\ud
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Objective 1: \ud
To define the concepts of wellness and wellbeing and quality of life in Australia\ud
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Objective 2:\ud
To examine how wellness and wellbeing are developed within organisations in Australia and how they impact on employee and organizational performance. More specifically, to review the literature that could be sourced about:\ud
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• challenges of the mining environment; \ud
• the mining lifestyle – implications for health, wellness and daily life;\ud
• personal health and wellness of Australian mining workers;\ud
• factors affecting health in mines and perceived support for health and wellness; and \ud
• the impact of employer investment in health on perceptions and behaviour of employees. \ud
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Objective 3:\ud
To determine what impact employee wellness and well-being has on the performance of mining workers. More specifically, to review the literature that could be sourced about:\ud
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• impact of obesity, alcohol, tobacco use on companies; and\ud
• links between employee engagement and satisfaction and company productivity. \ud
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Accordingly this review has attempted to ascertain what factors an organisation should focus on in order to reduce absenteeism and turnover and increase commitment, satisfaction, safety and productivity, with specific reference to the mining industry in Australia.\ud
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The structure of the report aligns with the stated objectives in that each of the first three parts address an objective. Part IV summarises prominent issues that have arisen and offers some concluding observations and comments
Established-outsider relations and fear of crime in mining towns
No full textUsing Elias and Scotson's (1994) account of established-outsider relations, this article examines how the organisational capacity of specific social groups is significant in determining the quality of crime-talk in isolated and rural settings. In particular, social 'oldness' and notions of what constitutes 'community' are significant in determining what activities and individuals are salient within crime-talk. Individual and gorup interviews, conducted in a West Australian mining town, revealed how crime-talk is an artefact of specific social figurations and the relative ability of groups to act as cohesive and integrated networks. We argue that anxieties regarding crime are a product of specific social figurations and the shifting power ratios of groups within such figurations
Inquiry into Suicide in Australia (Submission)
No full textThis submission is informed by an ongoing Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project: “Safeguarding Rural Australia: Addressing Masculinity and Violence in Rural Settings”. Due to project status, presentation of emergent findings, although relevant to this\ud
inquiry, would be premature and could jeopardise extant reporting and publishing obligations. Accordingly, our comments are restricted and are essentially with respect to\ud
Terms of Reference (c) dealing with the accuracy of\ud
suicide reporting in Australia
Challenging Mining Workforce Practices : Implications for Frontline Rural Communities
No full textGlobal demand for minerals and energy products has fuelled Australia’s recent ‘resources boom’ and led to the rapid expansion of mining projects not solely in remote regions but increasingly in long-settled traditionally agriculture-dependent rural areas. Not only has this activity radically changed the economic geography of the nation but a fundamental shift has also occurred to accommodate the acceleration in industry labour demands. In particular, the rush to mine has seen the entrenchment of workforce arrangements largely dependent on fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) and drive–in, drive–out (DIDO) workers. This form of employment has been highly contentious in rural communities at the frontline of resource sector activities.\ud
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In the context of structural sweeping changes, the selection of study locations informed by a range of indices of violence. Serendipitously we carried out fieldwork in communities undergoing rapid change as a result of expanding resource sector activities. The presence of large numbers of non-resident FIFO and DIDO workers was transforming these frontline communities. This chapter highlights some implications of these changes, drawing upon one particular location, which historically depended on agriculture but has undergone redefinition through mining
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Abortion, religion, and politics: A comparative study of the abortion debate in Kenya, Mexico and Poland.
No full textThis dissertation examines abortion practice, policy and debate in Kenya, Mexico and Poland, where the author conducted extensive fieldwork. It sets out to compare, contrast, and to link the abortion controversy globally by using multiple sources of evidence, including 162 elite interviews, in a systematic and analogous way. Abortion is becoming a more vexing public policy issue in Kenya, Mexico and Poland, representative of growing conflict within their regions. Each of these three countries is characterized by high abortion rates which will not decline until contraceptive practice is more widespread and effective, improving public health in the process. Abortion is seen as a symbolically powerful issue. It is being contested by various disparate forces, with the most active mobilization occurring among women's groups, liberal and left-wing political circles, as well as the Catholic church and allied sectors. This is adding pressure to review policies in this area. Abortion-related data are an under-utilized resource in this dispute, notwithstanding limits to their use. However, the conflicting discourses of different organizations impede societal consensus on the matter. The ensuing debate is often poorly informed at the same time as it is moving to the public arena, be it slowly as in Kenya and Mexico, or more rapidly as in Poland. It is reaching agenda status as societies become more pluralistic and open to external interests, and states are finding it more difficult to contain the controversy and to reach an effective policy resolution. The study contributes to the limited research on several aspects of abortion. It highlights the increasingly global nature of the abortion debate, its development, construction, and attempts to manage it. It provides a timely focus on the role of different groups, especially the Catholic church (the most visible transnational actor in this dispute) and of the importance ascribed to the issue by Pope John Paul II. The research also assesses the barriers to reforming abortion policy and the conditions under which this becomes more open to change. Finally, it reflects on the future prospects for the abortion debate.PhDPopulation PlanningUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/104496/1/9527669.pdfDescription of 9527669.pdf : Restricted to UM users only
Safeguarding Rural Australia: Data Report No. 3 - Unintentional Violence
No full textThis report focuses on our examination of extant data which have been sourced with respect to unintentional serious and violent injuries to males living in regional and remote Australia. Such injuries typically might be caused by, for example, transport accidents, occupational exposures and hazards, burns and so on. Thus unintentional violent incidents cause physical trauma the consequences of which can sometimes lead to chronic conditions including psychological harm or substance abuse. Additional commentary resulting from exploration, examination and analyses of secondary data is published online in complementary reports in this series
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