Researchers,bureaucrats and the lifeworlds of cultural policy

This paper reflects on the value of cultural policy research, particularly when such research forms part of projects that seek to produce insights or ‘outcomes’ that are useful to non-university research partners. The paper draws from the author’s involvement in a project examining cultural diversity in the arts that was funded as part of the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Project scheme. It addresses Eleonora Belfiore’s provocation that this kind of instrumental cultural policy research routinely amounts to ‘bullshit.’ However, in order to understand the critical function of such research, there needs to be greater attention to the lifeworlds of cultural policy and the multiplicity of the policy-making process. This multiplicity both complicates the possibilities for usefulness in policy research, at the same time that it enables such research to be generative in unpredictable ways.     

Australian energy diplomacy

While Australia is considered an energy superpower, Australian foreign policy has often overlooked energy diplomacy. Given the transformations taking place in global energy markets, the time is ripe to begin a policy discussion in Australia on energy diplomacy. I argue that Australian diplomatic efforts should broaden beyond a historical focus on promoting fossil fuels and securing export markets, to driving global energy governance reforms through the G20. This will not only help to ensure that the international energy architecture is capable of achieving governance objectives around energy security, energy access and climate change, but significantly, it will also help Australia to achieve broader foreign policy goals, such as ensuring emerging economies become responsible stakeholders within the international system.     

The technical is political: settler colonialism and the Australian Indigenous policy system

Contemporary Australian Indigenous policy changes rapidly and regularly fails to deliver its stated aims. Additionally, political and social relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the Australian state remain complex and contested. This article draws on critical Indigenous theory, alongside the increasingly influential scholarly paradigm of settler colonialism, to draw these two elements together. It highlights the ongoing nature of colonial conflict, and the partisan nature of state institutions and processes. While policy is usually framed as a depoliticised, technical practice of public management for Indigenous wellbeing, I suggest that it also seeks to ‘domesticate’ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, perform their dysfunction and demonstrate state legitimacy. This is especially the case in Australia, which has a long tradition of framing domestic welfare policy – rather than legal agreements – as the ‘solution’ to settler colonial conflict.     

Bonded but not embedded: trust in Australia-Indonesia relations,Keating & Suharto to Turnbull & Jokowi

The aim of this article is to use theories of bonded and embedded trust to explain the ‘roller-coaster’ nature of the Australia-Indonesia relationship. An examination of Prime Minister Keating and President Suharto as a case of bonded trust between leaders reveals the value such a relationship has in building trust in bilateral relations. However, it also reveals that such trust cannot survive changes in leadership if it has not become more broadly embedded in both government and society. This is particularly problematic given Australia’s tendency for rapid leadership and ministerial turnover across the past decade. While President Joko Widodo and Prime Minister Turnbull were able to develop a warm relationship which helped to reset the relationship and enabled them to navigate diplomatic incidents, Malcolm Turnbull’s recent political demise only serves to further highlight the necessity of building trust between societies. Without trust, cooperation between the two states will be limited. Building trust between societies will be required if Australia wants to develop a trusting relationship with Indonesia capable of undertaking deeper forms of cooperation on more sensitive issues – something which will be fundamental to Australia’s ability to navigate growing strategic uncertainty in the region.     

The Public Policy Process among Southeastern States: Elaborating Theories of Regional Adoption and Hold‐Out Behavior

Having been adopted by legislatures in over a dozen states, postsecondary merit aid programs are largely concentrated in the southeastern United States. The observed clustering pattern seems to support previous evidence that policies spread between proximate states, a phenomenon referred to by political scientists as policy diffusion. Often, however, policy diffusion is not complete, and one or more states in a region fail to adopt. By interviewing policymakers throughout the southeastern United States—including actors in the three states in the region without merit aid—the study addresses the following question: Why do diffusion pressures lead to adoption in some states but not in others? Studying state “hold‐outs” promises not only to uncover the reasons for failed legislation in specific state contexts but also to better our understanding of the limits of diffusion theory.     

清代垦殖政策与陕北长城外的生态环境

陕北长城外地区位于蒙陕农牧交错带,属于典型的脆弱生境地带。清代中央和地方两级政府针对当地汉民承租蒙民土地从事农牧业生产这一环节,在不同时期制定了不同的垦殖政策,经历了封禁、招垦、禁垦、拓垦四个阶段,这既是清政府对陕北长城外地区逐步认识和开发的过程,同时也是该地区生态环境变化的过程。在政策—人—环境相互作用的关系过程中,制度、政策与权力的结合对区域环境变化的影响具有根本性的驱动作用。     

东南亚金融危机后的缅甸经济政策与华商

1997年东南亚金融危机后,缅甸政府为阻止经济恶化,采取了推进农业改革、加速国有企业私营化步伐、拓宽融资渠道和加强边贸发展等措施,为缅甸华商的发展创造了一定的机会,华人经济得到进一步发展。而缅甸动荡的政治局势、缅甸经济改革中存在的弊端和问题及中国新移民在缅甸的涌现,是缅甸华商未来发展必须应对的问题。     

北洋政府的蒙古教育政策

本文主要依据档案资料对北洋政府的蒙古教育政策进行了概要探讨。认为虽然蒙古地区的情况比较复杂,但北洋政府还是出台了一些与蒙古教育有关的政策。这些政策尽管缺乏系统性,但继承了清末教育变革的精神,继续推动了传统教育和现代教育的接轨。这一时期蒙古教育的发展受到了社会动荡的严重影响,但热河、绥远、察哈尔三个有蒙古族分布的地区,其教育还是在困境之中维持或有一定程度的发展,这种发展更多的是来自于上述地区内部的发展要求。     

法国乡村旅游产品的营销及其经验——以Le Relais de Chenillé公司为例

国家旅游局将2006年旅游主题定为“中国乡村游”,表明政府开始重视乡村旅游的发展。然而,我国乡村旅游处于起步阶段,存在不少问题,有必要借鉴国外的成功经验。法国乡村旅游从探索到完善经过了四十多年的发展路程,发展规模大,销售网络完善,拥有系统的行业标准和规范,使法国乡村成为家庭度假和休闲旅游的主要目的地。其在乡村旅游产品营销方面的成功经验值得我们借鉴,主要包括：政府、居民和旅游企业统一协调;乡村旅游的模式相对固定;利用政府性的旅游部门进行推销;利用行业认证进行质量控制和宣传;营销模式多样化等。     

法国乡村旅游产品的营销及其经验——以Le Relais de Chenillé公司为例

国家旅游局将2006年旅游主题定为"中国乡村游,"表明政府开始重视乡村旅游的发展。然而,我国乡村旅游处于起步阶段,存在不少问题,有必要借鉴国外的成功经验。法国乡村旅游从探索到完善经过了四十多年的发展路程,发展规模大,销售网络完善,拥有系统的行业标准和规范,使法国乡村成为家庭度假和休闲旅游的主要目的地。其在乡村旅游产品营销方面的成功经验值得我们借鉴,主要包括:政府、居民和旅游企业统一协调;乡村旅游的模式相对固定;利用政府性的旅游部门进行推销;利用行业认证进行质量控制和宣传;营销模式多样化等。