Civic Education and Political Knowledge in Australia

As part of the renewed emphasis on national identity and citizenship, interest in civic education in Australia has increased. Although both Labor and Liberal national governments have been committed to introducing civic education, there is little research to show that the politically knowledgeable citizen is the more sophisticated and competent citizen. This paper uses survey data collected in 1996 to examine the extent of political knowledge in Australia and to analyse its consequences for political literacy, competence, and participation. The results show that the median citizen could answer two out of seven factual questions correctly, with women, the young and those with less education being more likely to provide incorrect answers. The relationship between knowledge and attitudes and behaviour shows that factual knowledge increases political literacy and, to a lesser extent, competence. However, knowledge has little effect on political participation, a major goal for civic education among politicians. Overall, the increased political knowledge that civic education creates is more effective in generating positive views of democratic institutions, and less effective in shaping political behaviour. The democratic citizen is expected to be well informed about political affairs to know what the issues are, what their history is, what the relevant facts are, what alternatives are proposed, what the party stands for, what the likely consequences are. (Berelson, Lazarsfeld and McPhee 1966, 308)     

RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY PREFERENCES OF RESIDENT AND TOURIST CAMPERS IN THE YELLOWKNIFE REGION

Tourism may represent an important component of regional economic development strategies, and geographic research on recreation behaviour can provide data, of potential planning utility, about recreational activity preferences. The results of a campground survey in the Yellowknife region showed that residents and tourists differed in recreational activity preferences but not in recreational satisfaction. The residence variable has implications beyond the superficial spatial separation of residential origin and recreational destination and can guide choices between natural environmental protection and facility development in recreational resource management.
Le tourisme peut ětre un element important des stratégies de développement économique régional, et les recherches géographiques sur le sujet de la récréation peut fournir des renseignements, d'un intérět capital pour la planification, au sujet des préférences pour des activités récréatives. Les résultats de l'enquète des terrains de camping dans la région de Yellowknife ont montré que les résidents et touristes different dans leurs activités récréatives alors qu'ils s'accordent en ce qu'il concerne les satisfactions récréatives. Le variable de résidence posséde des implications qui surpassent la séparation spatiale et superficielle entre l'origine de résidence et la destination de récréation, et peut informer les décisions entre la protection du milieu naturel et le développement des facilités pour l'amenagement des ressources de récréation.     

Local Knowledge and Economic Realities Affecting Soil Erosion in the Rach Rat Catchment,Vietnam

Several parts of Binh Phuóc Province, southern Vietnam, suffer from degraded soils and vegetation as a result of both natural erosion of weak mud rocks and sandstones and intensive human activity, especially through land clearing for agriculture on unstable slopes, deforestation, and abandonment of poor farmland. The underlying cause of this land degradation has been the farming habits of migrants of varying ethnic groups who have settled in the area since 1980. The indigenous farming knowledge of these people and the role of that knowledge in soil erosion were examined by a series of household surveys. They enabled farming practices to be related to ground cover established from a 2002 Landsat 7 ETM (Enhanced Thematic Mapper), and erosion data from a series of erosion bridge measurements. A GIS (Geographical Information System) approach was piloted as a means of identifying areas vulnerable to erosion. This could then be combined with the understanding of farming practices to reveal the relative roles of farmer behaviour, crop cover, and slope and soil characteristics in the erosion process. Land use, local people's knowledge and economic realities are the main factors, as well as natural conditions, that drive this land degradation.     

SOCIALISM AND THE FISHERY: A CASE STUDY OF THE CUBAN SHRIMP FISHERY

Analysis of the problems involved in the use of common property in fisheries has frequently been subsumed under the rubric ‘tragedy of the commons’. In the English-language literature dealing with this topic, little consideration has been given to the exploitation of fish stocks in countries with command economies. In such countries, the state not only acts as a central authority regulating the use of the commons, but is also the owner of the means of production. The socialist state thus possesses powers which should, theoretically, enable it to avoid the biological overfishing and even extinction of stocks that have been frequent occurrences in the fisheries of many countries with capitalist economies. An evaluation of the exploitation of shrimp stocks on the Cuban insular shelf since the revolution of 1959 reveals a mixed record of successes and failures. Stocks have been subject to overfishing, but the state has been able to employ its powers to address at least some of the associated problems. However, the current economic situation in the country makes it more difficult to deal with the impacts on shrimp stocks of habitat degradation resulting from pollution in near-coastal waters, water diversion, and development in the coastal zone. L'analyse des problèmes dûs à la propriété commune dans le domaine des pêches est souvent incorporée à la rubrique « tragédie des communs ». Les publications en anglais sur le sujet se sont peu intéressées à l'exploitation des reserves de poissons, dans les pays àéconomie centralisée. Dans ces pays, l'Etat agit non seulement en tant qu'autorité centrale qui règle l'usage des ressources communes, mais il est en outre propriétaire des moyens de production. En théorie, l'état socialiste possède donc des pouvoirs qui devraient lui permettre d'éviter la surpêche biologique, voire l'extinction des stocks, fréquemment observée dans de nombreux pays capitalistes. Une évaluation de l'exploitation des réserves de crevettes du plateau insulaire cubain, depuis la révolution de 1959, révèle un passé partagé de succès et d'échecs. Bien que les stocks aient été l'objet d'une pêche excessive, l'Etat a pu utiliser ses pouvoirs pour remédier à un partie des problèmes liés à cette surpêche. Néanmoins, la situation économique actuelle du pays rend plus difficile un quelconque traitement de l'impact sur les stocks de crevettes de la dégradation de leur habitat – dégradation due à la pollution des eaux côtières, au détournement des voies d'eau et au développement du littoral.     

Submergence,Persistence and Identity: Generations of German Origin in the Barossa and Adelaide Hills,South Australia

This paper examines settlers of German ancestry and their cultural resilience in the Barossa Valley, Light and Adelaide Hills districts of South Australia. After five to seven generations of local settlement, cultural persistence has resulted from: the strong religious reasons for the original migration; early congregational exclusivity; maintenance of German as the liturgical language for over 80 years; and rural community self-sufficiency. The excoriating public and State Government rejection of integration during World War One reinforced their cultural assertion. This was manifested in religion, family and place identity, musical events, traditional and hybrid cuisines and festivals, and has continued despite counter-urbanisation into these German-settled areas. Therefore the landscape and community consequences of persistence, resistance and reinvention have survived far longer than most inter-generational models of socio-cultural change would otherwise have predicted.     

In vino veritas? Indigenous wine and indigenization in Israeli settlements

In recent years, wineries have proliferated in Israel’s West Bank settlements, some of which are now producing world-class wine. However, growing grapes and making wine in this context represents more than simply commercial viticulture. These wineries are part of a trend to re-establish ancient Jewish winemaking practices, which fosters the imagination of returning and reconnecting to biblical sites. Moreover, high-tech grape science is now being employed to engineer wines from so-called indigenous varietals to create a wine identity for Israel. Some religious settlers regard these developments as the fulfilment of a messianic biblical prophecy. This pursuit of indigenous wine thus bolsters a religiously inflected historical imagination of indigeneity that naturalizes the Jewish presence in this contested territory. This article shows that claims to authentic indigeneity emerging from viticulture entangle high-tech grape science, biblical prophecy and an aesthetic connection to the land so that indigenous wine and an indigenous identity are co-produced in a mutually constitutive process.     

The Idealist Tradition in Australian Religious Thought

Although British idealism has recently undergone a minor scholarly revival, its impact on Australian intellectual life remains an underexplored area of inquiry. Such work as there is on the Australian idealists has largely focused on social and political themes despite the fact that idealism was driven by deeply religious interests. This paper explores the religious writings of five Australian intellectuals whose work was shaped by the tradition of philosophical idealism. The writers chosen include two Scottish émigrés — Charles Strong (1844–1942) and Francis Anderson (1858–1941) — and three Australian born students of Anderson — M. Scott Fletcher (1868–1947), E.H. Burgmann (1885–1965), and A.P. Elkin (1891–1979). By identifying the threads that connect these writers, along with some of their British contemporaries, the case is made that they can be understood as giving voice to a coherent, if rather loosely bound, intellectual tradition. Among much else, this tradition sought a reconciliation of religious and secular knowledge, proposed an evolutionary or developmental understanding of religious truth, and defended the idea of human personality in an increasingly scientific and mechanistic civilisation.