Healthy aspirations? Crypto-eugenics and the aim to create healthy families in Australia, 1946–1970s

This paper explores the incorporation of eugenic objectives within family focused and psychologically based public health initiatives throughout the 1940s–1970s. By focusing on three of Australia’s enduring public health initiatives – family planning, marriage guidance and sex education – I consider how post-war eugenic rhetoric in Australia was initially dominated by educational services which centred on creating a conducive environment for eugenically aligned reproductive choices within the nuclear family structure. The fact the term ‘eugenics’ was increasingly omitted from what remained eugenically aligned public health activities will also be considered.     

Equality Law and the Protected Characteristics

UK anti‐discrimination law is founded on a grounds‐based system of protected characteristics. For this system to function as a legitimate and workable legal framework the characteristics must satisfy three conditions: they must have some definitional and categorical stability, they must broadly reflect people's understanding of social reality and lived experiences and they must align with the most significant axes of discrimination in society. This article argues that all three conditions are becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy as a result of dramatic shifts in social configurations of identity and the ongoing failure to include socio‐economic status as a legally protected characteristic. The future of the legislative framework may depend on the willingness of courts and policy‐makers to adopt a more context‐based approach to the protected characteristics. This would require them to interrogate claims of individual instances of discrimination in the context of wider, but also more particular substantive group disadvantage.     

Diversity in the Judiciary: The Case For Positive Action

A range of policies has been developed in England and Wales to reform the judicial appointments process so as to promote greater diversity. But despite two decades of official activity, the pace of change has been far slower than anticipated. Increasing awareness of the intransigence of the problem has led to a greater willingness to revisit some of the more fundamental tenets which have underpinned the approach to the problem to date, in particular, the unquestioning and inflexible commitment to the principle of equal treatment. This article examines the different forms of positive action which might play a part in the development of new diversity strategies for the judiciary. It reviews the arguments for and against different types, in terms of effectiveness, quality of appointments, and equity. It goes on to consider the legal frameworks which govern diversity and equality policies and assesses the legal implications of adopting different forms of positive action.     

Interrogating the Political Economy of Age

This article considers the argument by Tim Vlandas, in this issue, that an ageing electorate may undermine democracies’ ability to make the right economic choices. Vlandas suggests that the emergence of gerontocratic politics may give rise to ‘gerontonomia’: an economy run for the old, at the expense of younger generations and of future prosperity. However, evidence from the UK suggests a more mixed picture. Age-based voting patterns have been consequential around single issues, not least the 2016 Brexit referendum. However, voters’ interests in broad economic policy models are not easily reducible to age dynamics, and intergenerational politics are filtered through a set of normative and affective considerations beyond straightforward self-interest. Moreover, since the rational interests of different age groups do not speak for themselves, cueing by political elites is potentially significant and may be contributing to older voters’ relative tolerance of a poor economic record.     

Experiential and empathetic engagements with global poverty: ‘Live below the line so that others can rise above it’

In recent years events that physically challenge Northern publics have emerged as a new form of engagement with global poverty. In this article we examine the ‘Live Below the Line’ (LBTL) campaign, which asks participants to live on a small amount of money equivalent to the international poverty line for five days, as an example of experiential exercises that complement physical challenges with the simulation of some aspect of poor people’s lives. Drawing on interviews with participants in the 2013 New Zealand campaign, we argue that LBTL creates a limited understanding of poverty focused on poor food consumption caused by low income. While participants were able to have a more embodied and empathetic engagement with poverty, they projected their own physical and emotional sensations onto imagined poor others. As a result, stereotypes about those living in poverty were reinforced rather than challenged.     

The War with the Ottoman Empire: The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War Volume 2

The War with the Ottoman Empire: The Centenary History of Australia and the Great War Volume 2. By Jeffrey Grey (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. x + 238. 16 Maps. AU$59.95 (cloth).     

Regulations as Arbiters of Risk: Great Britain, Germany, and the Hazardous Waste Trade in Western Europe

This article seeks to explain why Great Britain is one of the world's largest importers of hazardous wastes, while Germany, in contrast, is a waste exporter. Why one country exhibits such risk-acceptance behavior, while another is so risk averse, I argue, depends on differences between their national systems of environmental regulation. The style and structure of Britain's regulatory system, unlike that of Germany and its other partners in Western Europe, gives a high degree of leeway to private firms, filtering out the preferences of environmental groups and public opinion, thus enabling and facilitating the importation of hazardous wastes by waste disposal companies. The empirical section tests this argument against two alternative explanations: a state-centric explanation based on individual government's calculations of the relevant costs and benefits associated with the waste trade, and second, a "comparative advantage" explanation, based on the technological superiority of Britain's waste disposal facilities. The conclusion draws out the implication for international environmental regulation and for domestic-level regulatory change.     

Empowerment for development: Taking participatory appraisal further in rural South Africa

This paper examines the potential for Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques to contribute to community development and empowerment in a deprived rural community in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. A series of participatory workshops was undertaken in which various new techniques were used to identify people-environment relationships and, in particular, the community perception of the value and problems relating to the river and riparian zone. The workshops led to the community taking positive action to address the problems identified. The study indicates the value and role of participatory research among disempowered communities in rural Africa.