‘Utterly Disgraceful’: Social Media and the Workplace

Social media use by Australian public servants has given rise to questions pertaining to their political rights, impartiality and privacy outside of work. Drawing on the recent case Starr v Department of Human Services these issues are explored. The findings suggest that social media use has heightened tensions around public servant's rights to comment on issues of the day, and its use by employees both inside and beyond the workplace remains contested terrain.     

Reviews

Silvana Malle, The Economic Organization of War Communism, 1918–1921. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, xv + 548 pp. £30.00.

Nicholas Lampert, Whistleblowing in the Soviet Union: Complaints and Abuses under State Socialism. (In association with the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham) New York: Schocken Books, 1985, xi + 221 pp. £25.00.

Christian Schmidt‐Häuer, Gorbachev: The Path to Power. London: I. B. Tauris, 1986, v + 218 pp. £12.95.

Zhores Medvedev, Gorbachev. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986, ix + 272 pp. £15.00.

Paul Dibb, The Soviet Union: The Incomplete Superpower. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan (in association with the International Institute for Strategic Studies), 1986, xiii + 293 pp. £27.50.

Mark Harrison, Soviet Planning in Peace and War, 1938–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, xiv + 315 pp. $44.50.

Peter Rutland, The Myth of the Plan. Lessons of Soviet Planning Experience. Hutchinson and Co. (Publishers) Ltd., London‐Melbourne‐Sydney‐Auckland‐Johannesburg, 1985, 286 pp. £15.00.

Stanislaw Gomulka, Growth, innovation and reform in Eastern Europe. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books Ltd, 1986, viii + 305 pp. £28.50.

Mark E. Schaffer, ed., Technology Transfer and East‐West Relations. London: Croom Helm, 1985, 273 pp. £22.50.

Jonathan Alford, ed., The Soviet Union: Security Policies and Constraints. London: Gower for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1985, xii + 180 pp. £16.50.

Daniel S. Papp, Soviet Perceptions of the Developing World in the 1980s: The Ideological Basis. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books, 1985, xii + 176 pp. £22.00.

Jerry F. Hough, The Struggle for the Third World. Soviet Debates and American Options. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1986, x + 293 pp. $32.95 h/b, $11.95 p/b.

Mark N. Katz, Russia and Arabia. Soviet Policy toward the Arabian Peninsula. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, xvi + 279 pp. £24.45.

James P. Scanlan, Marxism in the USSR: A Critical Survey of Current Soviet Thought. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985, 362 pp. $35.00.

Rasma Karklins, Ethnic Relations in the USSR: The Perspective from Below. Boston, London, and Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986, xvi + 256 pp. £18.00.

S. Enders Wimbush, ed., Soviet Nationalities in Strategic Perspective. London & Sydney: Croom Helm, 1985, xxviii + 253 pp. £19.95.

Rosalind J. Marsh, Soviet Fiction Since Stalin: Science, Politics and Literature. London: Croom Helm, 1986, 338 pp. £25.00.

Ludmilla Alexeyeva, Soviet Dissent. Contemporary Movements for National, Religious, and Human Rights. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut, 1985, xxii + 522 pp. $35.00.

Omer Bartov, The Eastern Front, 1941–45, German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare. Basingstoke/Oxford: MacMillan/St. Anthony's, 1985, xvi + 214 pp. £27.50.

Donald J. Raleigh, Revolution on the Volga. 1917 in Saratov. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1986, 373 pp. $35.75.

Janos Kornai and Xavier Richet, La Voie Hongroise: Analyses et Experimentations Economiques. Paris: Caiman‐Levy, 1986, 319 pp. 174F.

Maria Hirszowicz, Coercion and Control in Communist Society: The Visible Hand in a Command Economy. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books, 1986, vii + 226 pp. £25.00.

Irwin L. Collier, Connections, Effective Purchasing Power and Real Product in the German Democratic Republic. Heft 135, Reihe Wirtschaft und Recht, Berichte des Ost‐Europa‐Instituts an der Freien Universitä Berlin, 1985, ix + 216 pp.

Jan Jozef Lipski, KOR: A History of the Workers’ Defence Committee in Poland, 1976–1981. Translated by Olga Amsterdamska and Gene M Moore. Berkeley and London: University of California Press 1985, x + 561 pp. £33.95.

Patrick F. R. Artisien, Joint Ventures in Yugoslav Industry. Brookfield, Vermont: Gower, 1985, xv + 223 pp. h/b £16.50.

Barbara Holland, ed., Soviet Sisterhood. Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana University Press, 1985. 272 pp. £17.95 h/b, £5.95 p/b.

Sharon L. Wolchik and Alfred G. Meyer, eds., Women, State, and Party in Eastern Europe. Durham: Duke University Press, 1985, xiv + 453 pp. h/b $42.50, p/b $16.95.     

Consultation, Constraints and Norms: The Case of Nuclear Waste

The objectives of public consultation can clash with other policy objectives, partly because the norms underpinning public consultation clash with other institutional norms within the policy process. This phenomenon is evident in the case of selecting a site for a low-level nuclear waste disposal facility in Australia. This case shows how the results of consultation processes are moulded by the process design, which in turn is constrained by a range of policy process norms to which governments adhere. The case confirms some recent critiques of participatory practices. It also suggests that reconciling potentially competing policy process norms will be an important exercise in institutional design if elected representatives wish to mitigate citizens' alienation from their governments.     

Families of Origin,Foster Care Experience,and the Transition to Adulthood

The rising number of young adults transitioning to adulthood from the foster care system has been a focus of prior research. The current study explored foster care youths transitions to adulthood to identify factors that contribute to or inhibit prosocial adult outcomes. Structured data derived from interviews with foster care‐experienced adults and child welfare professionals as well as focus groups with foster care‐experienced adults and foster parents were analyzed using content analysis to examine the transition to adulthood from foster care. Positive or negative life outcomes resulted from two key mechanisms: a) issues related to family of origin (inadequate parenting, abuse); and b) foster care experiences (including a pattern of “drift”). We explore disidentification, a new social psychological concept. Throughout, key players provide policy recommendations for the child welfare system.     

A Small County's Answer to Community-Based Programs

“Some authorities have stated that the only way to gain community services for children is to close down state institutions. We believe that our progress in the past two years proves that the only way to eliminate state institutions is to provide better services in the community.”