Fabulation: Toward Untimely and Inhuman Life in Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book

This paper brings together Alexis Wright’s novel, The Swan Book [2013a, Artamon, NSW: Giramondo] and the concept of fabulation from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s philosophical approach to literature. I employ their approach to explore the complex relation to history and language that Wright’s highly poetic novel illustrates: a relation to untimely and inhuman life that suggests other possibilities for living within the body politic than are currently available.     

Early childhood education and care reform in Canadian provinces: Understanding the role of experts and evidence in policy change

In over half of Canada's provinces, a recent commission has recommended major reform of ECEC systems; in response, provincial governments in nearly all cases have chosen to implement full‐day kindergarten funded by the province and delivered through public schools. We analyze the commission processes that led to changes to investigate the relationship between experts, policy makers, and policy outcomes. Our analysis of processes in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and PEI leads us to conclude that governments rarely fully implement the programs supported by the evidence base and recommended by their own experts. Instead, recent policy changes have been driven by a highly selective and path‐dependent approach to the complex issue of early childhood care and education.     

Rural and Regional Policy: A Case of Punctuated Incrementalism?

The rural policy environment has many of the conditions that might suggest a tendency towards punctuated equilibrium. The Commonwealth has little direct power over rural space and industries, there has been a long tradition of state support for agriculture and decision‐making has generally been kept within a tight policy community, dominated by rural interests. In our review of the PAP data and policy history, we find instead an underlying movement across time and governments towards an expectation of self‐reliance for rural businesses and communities. On top of the long‐term incremental movement towards this expectation, issue attention has shifted according to political, climatological and market conditions, rather than necessarily in line with changes in policy content.     

American murder mystery revisited: do housing voucher households cause crime?

This paper reviews the current state of the housing market, particularly in the shadow of the foreclosure crisis, the collapse of the financial system, and persistent unemployment. The authors outline the policy priorities necessary to facilitate the recovery of the housing market in general and to encourage comprehensive revitalization of the hardest hit communities.     

The US Rebalancing to Asia and Transatlantic Public Opinion

The US policy of ‘rebalancing to Asia’ is likely to have major implications for transatlantic relations as well as for the role of rising powers, such as China. US public opinion and leaders are largely aware of this eastward shift in attention and this awareness can be considered, albeit in a somewhat indirect way, an indicator of support for the policy. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, Europeans seem to be less aware of the fact that the Far East is becoming the main chessboard of international relations in a multipolar global order. Nevertheless, when objectively informed about China, people on both sides of the Atlantic are less in favour of a shift in interests toward Asia and their negative perceptions of China are significantly correlated to a hesitancy in supporting a rebalancing policy. Moreover, if people perceive Beijing as a threat, especially an economic threat, they are even less likely to support a shift of interests to the Far East, the only exception being American elites, who tend to increase their support for the rebalancing strategy in the presence of a Chinese economic threat.     

Explaining the Divergence in Asylum Grant Rates among Immigration Judges: An Attitudinal and Cognitive Approach

In seeking to understand the variation in asylum grant rates by immigration judges (IJs), we apply a variation of the attitudinal model that we modify by incorporating a cognitive model of decision making, arguing that some pieces of information before IJs are treated objectively while others are treated subjectively. This model allows us to account for informational cues that influence decisions while assessing the impact of national interests and human rights conditions. We find that IJ policy predispositions play a dominant role, and that liberal IJs respond to applicant characteristics differently than conservatives, but also that the law constrains decision making.     

The Effects of Mixing Offenders with Non-Offenders: Findings from a Danish Quasi-Experiment

This study examines the effects of mixing offenders with non-offenders at Skejby half-way house in Denmark. Skejby half-way house constitutes an outstanding social experiment, as offenders are deliberately mixed with non-offenders in order to reduce their risk of recidivism. The treatment group consists of offenders who have stayed at Skejby half-way house while the controls are selected from residents of four other half-way houses. A Cox regression analysis reveals that the probability of reoffending is 21% lower for the treatment group than it is for the control group.     

Singapore Inc: A success story

The success of Singapore's government‐led and managed economy has allowed it to box above its weight in the international trade and financial arena for decades. However, globalisation and technology are forcing a policy shift.