Political theory in the Australian Journal of Political Science: A review

The place of political theory in AJPS has historically been a fairly marginal one, partly because Australia does not seem to have a strong national tradition of political theorizing. This is thought to be a function of living in a nation that never produced a great political theorist and was born neither in revolution or utopianism. Yet, although there has been a marked absence of high theory or exegetically-inclined history of ideas over the life of the journal, theorists have responded by contributing work that usefully illuminates applied problems with theoretical insight. Further, it may be the case that there is a peculiarly Australian style of political theory that is pragmatic and self-consciously embedded within our institutions and political culture. The paper explores this and other means by which Australian theorists have adapted in order to retain a presence within the journal.     

Spatial variation in cervical cancer screening participation and outcomes among Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians in Queensland

Indigenous women continue to experience a disproportionately higher burden of cervical cancer than non‐Indigenous women in Australia. The National Indigenous Cervical Screening Project used probabilistic record linkage to combine population‐based administrative databases and identify Indigenous women on Pap Smear Registers. This study aimed to quantify the spatial variation by local government areas (LGAs) for Indigenous and non‐Indigenous women in Queensland in cervical screening participation rates and related outcomes. Empirical Bayes local geostatistical smoothing was performed to reduce the likelihood of spurious variation between small areas. The cohort included 1,091,260 women (2 per cent Indigenous) aged 20 to 69 with 2,393,708 Pap smears between 2006 and 2011. Indigenous women had smoothed LGA‐specific 5‐year participation rates (interquartile range (IQR) 38.9–53.3 per 100 eligible women) consistently lower than non‐Indigenous women (IQR 80.7–85.3). The non‐overlapping confidence intervals of these rates suggest that the Indigenous differential was significant. Compared with Indigenous women, non‐Indigenous women had consistently lower and more stable prevalence rates of histologically confirmed high grade abnormalities (IQR 8.0–10.1 versus 15.0–21.3 per 1,000 screened women). Although the LGA‐specific rates also suggest that a higher proportion of non‐Indigenous women were followed‐up within two months of an abnormal screening result, the wide confidence intervals for these estimates limit our ability to draw definitive conclusions about spatial patterns for this outcome. These findings highlight the importance of continued monitoring and ongoing efforts to identify drivers of these patterns and develop effective strategies to improve participation and potentially reduce the cervical cancer burden among Indigenous women.     

Viewing obesogenic advertising in children's neighbourhoods using Google Street View

The advertising of unhealthy food and beverages forms an important component of obesogenic environments. Such marketing to children is a key health determinant because of its impact on dietary preference and food purchasing behaviour. The location of outdoor advertising is important in exploring obesogenic environments and children's neighbourhoods. The aim of this study is to explore issues involved in the use of Google Street View to examine outdoor food and beverage advertising. The implications for using Google Street View in the context of neighbourhood built environment research and grass‐roots advocacy are discussed. The study was conducted within walkable distances from 19 primary and intermediate schools in Auckland, New Zealand, where “walkable” was defined as limited by 800 m road network boundaries, which are equivalent to school buffer boundaries. Google Street View allows for centrality of data collection, coding, and storage. However, challenges exist with the method because 727 (29.4%) of a total of 2,474 outdoor advertisements that were identified were not able to be categorised because images were unclear, not in English, blocked, or at angles where detail cannot be deciphered. Specific to outdoor advertising for food and beverages, the results presented here show that children are exposed to a significantly greater number of unhealthy advertising than other advertising, P=0.001, eta‐squared statistic (0.45) indicates a large effect size. Overall, the results show promise for the use of Google Street View in the study of obesogenic environments.     

Der Weg zum Flussgebietsmanagement

Zusammenfassung Der Flussgebietsansatz ist ein zentrales Element der Wasserrahmenrichtlinie (WRRL) und wurde in Deutschland im Zuge der organisatorischen Umsetzung der Richtlinie strukturell implementiert. Die Kooperationsstrukturen auf Flussgebietsebene sollen dabei einen funktionierenden Rahmen auch für die fachliche Umsetzung der Richtlinie bilden. Beim dazu erforderlichen strukturellen Wandel waren insbesondere die in den Flussgebieten bereits vorhandenen Kooperationsstrukturen von Bedeutung. Diese wurden entweder ausgebaut, umstrukturiert oder von neuen Strukturen zur Umsetzung der WRRL überlagert. Die dabei zum Teil entstandenen Doppelstrukturen erh?hen jedoch den Koordinierungsaufwand der Akteure stark, so dass es aktuell zu einer Zusammenführung und Konsolidierungsbewegung kommt. Allerdings wird auch nach der Konsolidierung eine gro?e strukturelle Vielfalt in den Flussgebieten verbleiben, die durch eine enge Zusammenarbeit der Akteure zu bew?ltigen ist. Es bleibt abzuwarten, inwiefern diese Strukturen sich auch eignen, um neuen Herausforderungen, wie beispielsweise den Folgen des Klimawandels, zu begegnen.     

Das Klima von Bayreuth

Zusammenfassung Das Klima von Oberfranken liegt in einem übergangsbereich zwischen ozeanisch und kontinental gepr?gten Klimaten. Der Beitrag stellt langj?hrig ermittelte Klimadaten und Klimatrends für die Stadt Bayreuth vor. Er geht auf die Herausforderungen ein, die sich daraus für die Stadtplanung ergeben, auch und besonders im Zusammenhang mit dem Klimawandel.