Small is not Necessarily Beautiful: An Evaluation of Policy Support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Australia

One of the key strategies of the current Commonwealth government in Australia is to promote a dynamic entrepreneurial culture by improving the business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper evaluates the contribution of SMEs to innovation and employment in Australia and reviews the international evidence on the value of SMEs. It concludes that a very small percentage of SMEs are responsible for most of the employment generation and innovation in the small-firm sector. The policy implication is that general deregulatory measures designed to support SMEs as a generic class are likely to create an environment within which low-quality, low-wage employment is generated in SMEs with little future. Instead, the sectoral composition of industrial activity and the social structures and relationships within which firms are embedded require greater policy attention.     

Measuring Fatness, Governing Bodies: The Spatialities of the Body Mass Index (BMI) in Anti-Obesity Politics

Abstract:  The Body Mass Index (BMI) is the dominant means of defining and diagnosing obesity in national and international public health policy. This paper draws on geographical engagements with Foucault's work on biopower and governmentality to question the power afforded the BMI in obesity policy. With reference to a UK public health intervention involving the measurement of children's bodies within schools, the paper questions the multiple materialities and spatialities of the BMI with reference to both its role in the construction of geographies of obesity and its (in)ability to capture the fleshy, material, and experiential bodies of those individuals involved in the process of measurement. The paper contributes to poststructuralist health geographies through writing fleshy, active bodies into a Foucauldian reading of health and illness, thus questioning the justifications and implications of an obesity politics focussed on the BMI.     

Identification of the first reported Lapita cremation in the Pacific Islands using archaeological,forensic and contemporary burning evidence

Burnt human remains excavated from a scoop feature from a cemetery at Teouma, Vanuatu in the western Pacific (∼2850 BP) were examined to assess the nature of the deposit. Possible scenarios explaining the reason the bone was burnt and interred were assessed using osteological signatures taken from archaeological, experimental, and forensic studies. The methodology of the study included recording color change, types of bone distortion, and element representation in conjunction with archaeological evidence. The burnt and fragmented human bone (n = 430, fragments weighing 620 g) represents a single adult individual. Macroscopic evidence from the bone indicates the body had been fleshed or fresh at the time of burning and element representation follows a similar pattern to other burials excavated from the site. Excluding burning, there was no evidence of human modification to the bone such as cut marks, percussion pits or peri mortem trauma suggestive of cannibalism. The archaeological evidence from the site indicates that the body had not been burnt in the place the remains were subsequently discovered. The combined macroscopic and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that the human bone was burnt as a result of a deliberate cremation of an individual. If a conclusion of deliberate cremation is accepted, this research represents the first case of a Lapita period cremation and demonstrates how a combination of methods can explain the nature of an archaeological deposit of burnt human bone when the cause is not otherwise apparent.     

Excessive rightsizing? The interdependence of public school closures and population shrinkage

Shrinking cities have, by definition, lost population. Rightsizing is a strategic planning approach to mitigate the challenges of population loss by adjusting a municipality's services, amenities, or even footprint to fit a new demographic reality. While studies have documented the unacceptability and ineptitude of municipality-driven rightsizing, public school closures have proliferated and quietly become a noteworthy material manifestation of population change. However, as public schools are widely considered to be a foundational component of community cohesion, identity, and prosperity, it begs the question of whether their closure may accelerate the decline feedback mechanisms already present in many shrinking cities. Our study examines public school closures in Ontario, Canada, from 2011 to 2016 to determine the relationship between municipal population trajectories and size and public school closures, and to explore the prevalence of school closures and the community context in shrinking Ontario municipalities. We find that public school closures occurred disproportionately in shrinking and smaller municipalities. Furthermore, public school closure prevalence is associated with low income, low ethnoracial diversity, and low educational attainment.