Sport,Alcohol and Women: An Emerging Research Agenda

ABSTRACT

This article describes an emerging research agenda for defining the relationship between women, sport and alcohol as a feminist issue. Characterised as a “holy trinity”, the relationship between sport, drinking, particularly heavy drinking, and masculinity remains a popular orthodoxy. While not disputing the enduring and influential symbolic, economic, political and cultural power relations between men, sport and alcohol, the article argues that our proclivity towards framing drinking and sport through the lens of “hegemonic masculinity” gives rise to a theoretical and empirical silence when it comes to research on women, sport and alcohol in the Australian context and beyond. We interrogate four key interrelated research problems for feminist scholars of sport: i) the framing of sport-related drinking as hegemonic masculinity; ii) the need for new theoretical/conceptual/analytical frameworks that have emerged from the framing of women’s relationship to alcohol as invariably problematic; iii) a recognition that sport-related drinking for women is as pleasurable and problematic as it is for men; and iv) the relationship between sport and alcohol relative to a growing emphasis on cultural and gender diversity in Australian sport.     

Polarization and Issue Consistency Over Time

The polarization of the political and social environment over the past four decades has provided citizens with clearer cues about how their core political predispositions (e.g., group interests, core values, and party identification) relate to their issue opinions. A robust and ongoing scholarly debate has involved the different ways in which the more polarized environment affects mass opinion. Using heteroskedastic regression, this paper examines the effect of the increasingly polarized environment on the variability of citizens’ policy opinions. We find that citizens today base their policy preferences more closely upon their core political predispositions than in the past. In addition, the predicted error variances also allow us to directly compare two types of mass polarization—issue distance versus issue consistency—to determine the independent effects each has on changes in the distribution of mass opinion.     

Co-Investment and Clientelism as Informal Institutions: Beyond ‘Good Enough’ Property Rights Protection

How do we explain high rates of investment in the production of oil palm in Indonesia under conditions of legal uncertainty and uneven protection of property rights? This article argues that what are commonly seen as deficiencies in the formal institutional environment actually enabled investment, but only when informal institutions were able to provide investor assurances. Although the finding that informal institutions provide investor assurances is not new, this study addresses outstanding questions about how such informal institutions work. An examination of the micro-level details of informal institutions in the oil palm industry shows that informal institutions frequently grouped under umbrella terms such as ‘patronage’ or ‘relational ties’ are not uniform. Rather, two types of informal relational tie operate to provide investor assurances: clientelistic and co-investment. Although they serve similar purposes, clientelistic ties work well only under restrictive conditions and are vulnerable to decay. Co-investment, in contrast, is a more robust informal institution, especially when political power is fragmented. Although co-investment provides investor assurances under conditions of legal uncertainty, it remains a particularistic solution and does not guarantee generalized public interest protections.     

Overcoming the weight of history: 'Getting to yes' in the Peru-Ecuador border dispute

This article presents and analyzes the elements of the Western Hemisphere's longest standing boundary dispute and the crucial role of the region's oldest multilateral conflict resolution mechanism in working out an historic agreement in October 1998. Other factors in combination were also critical for success: an existing international legal framework, multilevel bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, decisive leadership and statecraft, and public diplomacy. The analysis suggests that the final settlement is a significant milestone in international diplomacy, demonstrating that even the most deeply ingrained differences between states can be resolved by the patient and persistent efforts of all parties involved.     

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: the Case of Papuan Asylum‐Seekers

It is perilous to look to history to provide guidance for the present. Nonetheless the political controversy surrounding the granting of temporary protection to forty‐two asylum‐seekers from West Papua in March 2006 needs to be understood in its wider, historical context. Papua has been a pebble in the region's political shoe since 1949. And national considerations are not new in shaping Australian policy toward asylum‐seekers. Certainly in the 1960s and 1970s Australia played a tactical, often tough game with Papuan asylum‐seekers in order to contain tensions with Indonesia. This article analyses the history of Australia's foreign and immigration policies towards Papuan asylum‐seekers and describes the delicate balancing act that successive Australian governments have needed to perform in handling this issue.     

Replica casting of the skull base

A new technique is described of obtaining a replica cast of the human skull base by making an epoxy resin case from a silicone rubber mould of the skull base. The replica provides an accurate and permanent record of the shape and dimensions of the base of the cranial cavity, together with the location and extent of any fractures of the skull. The method gives a good correlation between these characteristics and the type and extent of brain damage.     

Electro-acupuncture to prevent prolonged postoperative ileus:A randomized clinical trial

AIM:To examine whether acupuncture can prevent prolonged postoperative ileus(PPOI)after intraperitoneal surgery for colon cancer. METHODS:Ninety patients were recruited from the Fudan University Cancer Hospital,Shanghai,China. After surgery,patients were randomized to receive acupuncture(once daily,starting on postoperative day 1, for up to six consecutive days)or usual care.PPOI was defined as an inability to pass flatus or have a bowel movement by 96 h after surgery.The main outcomes were time to first fl...