Government performance and dissatisfaction with democracy in Australia

ABSTRACT

Satisfaction with democracy has declined rapidly in Australia, reaching the lowest level recorded since the 1970s in 2019. Whereas Australian citizens used to be among the most satisfied democrats in the world, there is now evidence of widespread dissatisfaction. What explains this rapid decline in political support? Comparative studies emphasise the role of government performance, both political and economic, in shaping citizens’ attitudes towards the political system. This paper examines the role of government performance in shaping satisfaction with democracy in Australia, using Australian Election Study data from 1996 to 2019. The results demonstrate that frequent changes of prime minister, which a majority of voters disapproved of, and rising economic pessimism contributed to the decline of democratic satisfaction in Australia.     

“绩效”二元视角下高速交通对旅游发展的影响及空间效应研究——以长三角地区为例

以长三角地区为研究对象,采用改进TOPSIS法和Super-SBM DEA模型分别测算高速交通优势度和旅游绩效,综合运用双变量LISA方法和空间面板杜宾模型,实证研究2005—2018年长三角高速交通对旅游绩效影响的空间效应及机理。结果表明:(1)2005—2018年,长三角高速交通优势度呈现“东高西低,中间高、南北两翼低”空间格局,且趋向相对均衡化态势。(2)旅游规模高值区集中于省会城市及高速交通干线附近;旅游效率高、较高值区沿“沪宁合—沪杭—杭甬”交通干线分布明显。(3)长三角高速交通对本地和邻近地区旅游规模、旅游效率均存在显著正向驱动效应;高速交通对旅游规模正向影响的直接和间接边际效应系数均大于旅游效率,这与高速交通的“双刃性”、“虹吸效应”及“错配效应”相关。(4)经济实力、旅游资源、产业机构高级化等对本地旅游绩效具有正向促进作用,而旅游资源、人力资本对邻近地区旅游绩效呈现负向外部性。     

‘The Official Feast’: cultural tensions in U.K. carnival

Abstract

This paper reveals how U.K. street carnival is located within policy discourses that facilitate notions of creative economy, inter-place competition and the representation of institutionally-preferred versions of local, regional and national place-identity. The paper draws on ethnographic research within two community town carnivals and the professional Battle for the Winds carnival performances that launched the 2012 Olympic sailing at Weymouth. It considers the evolution of policy-driven carnival vocabularies that were designed to articulate preferred ‘Jurassic Coast’ and Olympic place identities for the south-west U.K. during 2012, and their effect on two vernacular, community street carnivals in East Devon and Dorset. The paper exposes the cultural tension between these vernacular events and the ‘official feast’ of Jurassic Coast and Olympic carnival, in terms of their performance of contradictory place-identities and contested notions of artistic community. It describes the popular challenge to aesthetic hegemony that these community carnivals presented during 2012. Finally, the author argues for a reassessment of the artistic value of vernacular carnivals, and affirms their status as a culture of resistance that creates alternative, sometimes inconvenient, symbolic constructions of community and place to those preferred by institutional actors operating within a neo-liberal discourse of inter-place competition.     

LABOUR MOBILITY AND PLANT PERFORMANCE: ON THE (DIS)SIMILARITY BETWEEN LABOUR‐ AND CAPITAL‐INTENSIVE SECTORS FOR KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION AND PRODUCTIVITY

In this article we analyse differences between capital‐ and labour‐intensive sectors with regard to the impact of workforce composition and labour mobility on plant performance. By the use of geo‐referenced longitudinal employer–employee data on a micro level, we analyse labour flows between plants within and between labour market regions. The analysis is carried out using weighted least squares (WLS) regression analysis combined with additional variance analysis (ANOVA). The results show that there are differences between the sectors with regard to both in‐house workforce composition and type of skill inflow. A high degree of related knowledge in the in‐house workforce has a strong positive effect on plant performance in the labour‐intensive sectors. The analysis of labour inflow indicates that knowledge in the capital‐intensive sectors is localized – only intra‐regional labour flows give rise to increased plant productivity. In the labour‐intensive sectors, the geographic and cognitive dimensions complement one another; similar knowledge needs to be non‐local in order to be beneficial to plant performance, and unrelated knowledge mainly contributes to plant productivity growth when it is local.     

The performance of youth voice on the airwaves

ABSTRACT

This paper uses the case study of a youth-led community radio station, KCC Live, to argue that community radio is not a cure-all solution for disenfranchised and silenced young people. Drawing on 18 months of participant observation at KCC Live and data from in-depth interviews with volunteers, I argue that, owing to institutional constraints by station management; college management; and the regulatory body Ofcom, young people consider the airwaves to be a supervised, as opposed to emancipatory, arena. However, in attempting to combat the restricting nature of the airwaves, young people find new, performative ways to communicate. This paper provides empirical evidence which goes beyond previous simplistic conceptualisations of voice in youth media production and argues that romanticised notions of youth voice preclude performance and creativity. This paper offers an important contribution to children’s geographies in finding that pretend play, characterised by performance, can be considered a ‘life-span activity’.     

Theatre,mathematics, and the aesthetics of infinity: Complicite’s A Disappearing Number

ABSTRACT

Complicite's A Disappearing Number is one of the best examples of contemporary plays that use theatrical strategies to convey complex scientific ideas. Complicite uses performance to stage the complex mathematical concepts of partition and infinite convergent series, taking inspiration from the statement by renowned British mathematician G. H. Hardy that “a mathematician... is a maker of patterns”. As well as performativity, other elements in the play contribute to performing mathematics on the stage, elements such as time and space, narrative structure, thematic content, and characterization. Complicite introduces a complex pattern that runs throughout the play to connect these elements to form a complete whole. These elements effectively work with each other to release a set of clues that guide the audience towards decoding the play's pattern. This study provides an in-depth analysis of these connections and the complex process of decoding the pattern in the play.     

Exportando “marginalidad”: Consuelo Tamayo Hernández, “la Tortajada” (1867–1957)

Abstract

Although nowadays barely remembered, the dancer and singer Consuelo Tamayo Hernández, “la Tortajada” (1867–1957), once was a Spanish performer of considerable talent. She was a diva skilled at self-fashioning who knew how to exploit her public image both on and off stage. Born in Santa Fe (Granada, Spain), Tortajada hardly ever performed in her country of birth. But although her presence on the Spanish stage was merely marginal, as a “Spanish dancer” she achieved celebrity status in the music halls of Europe and the United States. Tortajada perfectly exemplifies the mobility and cultural transfer that took place between the cosmopolitan stages at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. This article explores how Tortajada obtained international fame and success, not so much because of the authenticity of her performances—which were often contaminated by the music halls where she performed—but because of her ability to export a certain idea of Spanish “otherness” and “marginality” by staging a series of traditional movements and dances. It is by skillfully embodying a stereotype construction of “Spanishness” (elapsing it into an Oriental fantasy) and a certain type of femininity that the artist achieved international celebrity.     

国外旅游绩效评估方法研究进展与启示

目前很少有研究系统梳理旅游绩效评估方法。本文通过梳理国外代表性文献，着重比较4类评估方法，并提出未来研究的重点方向，以期为相关研究提供理论参考与技术支持。结果发现：①4类方法分别具有特定的理论视角、固有的假设约束、严格的技术规则和明确的适用范围，未来应基于“传统绩效—技术效率—生产率—竞争力”的研究框架，针对性地评估和调控旅游企业、行业与目的地绩效；②应严格遵循模型方法的技术规则，规避技术陷阱，并从提高数据质量、优化遴选指标和扩展模型方法等方面优化评估技术，提升理论贡献；③应重点关注全球化、技术变革、可持续发展背景下的旅游绩效应用研究，在内外部因素及其交互作用中“解构”绩效评估，提升实践价值。     

Singers without borders: a performer’s rotulus and the transmission of jeux partis

The jeu parti – a debate in song weighing questions of love, sex, wealth, ethical behaviour – enjoyed popular acclaim across social classes in thirteenth-century France. Despite the appeal of these texts as historical sources, suggestive of the mentalité of a medieval community through frank discussion of taboo subjects, jeux partis have received sporadic scholarly attention. A rare scroll, copied by an Anglo-Norman scribe (London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 1681) supplies new evidence of the genre’s transmission outside the pages of a codex and outside northern France. The only known document of its kind to contain jeux partis, it has been overlooked by scholars for a century, yet it suggests that the transmission of music and culture could be achieved textually, borne along the performance circuits of medieval Europe. This study investigates how jeux partis were composed, transmitted and refashioned for new audiences with the aid of text and improvisation.