What Do We Talk About Now? Reflecting on Publications in AJPA 1970–2015

This article reflects on 45 years of articles published in the Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA), providing commentary not only on the journal's status and future but also the state of public administration in Australia. The analysis builds on a first study conducted in 1997, continuing the themes of institutional affiliation, subject matter and research methodology as key categories for AJPA article analysis. The context for the analysis is the advent of the journal's new editorial team. The article concludes that several opportunities present themselves for AJPA's future including performing a strategic stocktake of the discipline and debating its merits as well as marking out what might make for a peculiarly Australian form of public administration (if any) in the contemporary era.     

The Relationship Between Partner Abuse and Substance Use Among Women Mandated to Drug Treatment

This study investigates the relationship between substance use and partner abuse among women (N = 1,025) who entered drug-treatment programs through the criminal justice systems in New York City and Portland, Oregon. Self-report data on substance use and partner abuse indicate that although the rate of partner abuse in both cities is well above the national average, the less substance-involved women in Portland reported more abuse than their New York counterparts. Our analyses suggest that the relationship between partner abuse and substance use during conflicts varies within the population of women offenders who are heavily drug-involved, with women in Portland reporting a greater direct link between partner abuse and substance use. The findings indicate that there is a need for drug-treatment providers to understand their clients' victimization histories and the relationship between partner abuse and substance use in order to engage clients in the treatment process and help them learn how to avoid being victimized in the future.     

Culture and Negotiation Strategy

In this article the authors investigate the relationship between culture and joint gains by examining the role of information sharing and power strategies in intracultural negotiations. Previously, the authors found that the relationship between cultural values or norms and joint gains was uncertain in six cultures: France, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil, and the United States. Of the five values and norms measured, only norms for information sharing in negotiation were directly related to joint gains. This article explores and extends prior findings by investigating the strategies used by negotiators in the same six cultures. Cultures that maximized joint gains used direct information-sharing strategies or a combination of indirect and direct strategies. Power strategies may help or hurt joint gains, depending on a culture's values and norms for power and whether or not power-based influence is used in conjunction with sufficient information exchange. The findings suggest that understanding the other party's cultural characteristics and strategies can help negotiators plan how to focus on information exchange and deal with unusual power strategies that they may encounter.     

ATTORNEYS' OPINIONS REGARDING CHILD CUSTODY MEDIATION AND ASSESSMENT SERVICES

Family attorneys (N = 161) completed a questionnaire about mediation and assessment of child custody issues. Comparisons by gender, years of family law practice, and status as a mediator revealed more similarities than differences among attorneys. There were gender differences in the strength of conviction of the importance of attending to abuse issues in mediation and assessment, with female attorneys holding stronger views than did their male counterparts. There were few differences among the opinions of lawyers based on their years of experience or their training in mediation, although, compared to nonmediators, mediators rated the positive effects of mediation more highly.     

Margaret Thatcher is my sister: Counselling on divisions between women

This paper looks at the ways in which women are divided from themselves and each other as women: at the internalised oppression which results from THE oppression of patriarchy, at the systematic mistreatment of women as a group by men as a group reinforced by the social structures of male power. It also looks at the ways in which women are divided from each other as a result of other oppressive systems such as class and/or race or religion or physical ability or age.The paper then describes how the particular theory and practice of Re-evaluation Counselling can be used to ‘deconstruct’ or ‘discharge’ the internalised oppression of patriarchy and other oppressive systems, making the principles of Women's Liberation and sisterhood a practical possibility for ‘everywoman’ and all women—including Margaret Thatcher. Throughout, the word ‘patriarchy’ is used to mean the system of male power usually regarded as synonymous with sexism.The paper includes a basic summary of Re-evaluation Counselling theory and practice.