Human and Natural Controls on the Accumulation,Acidification and Drainage of Pyritic Sediments: Pearl River Delta,China and Coastal New South Wales

There is increasing concern about environmental impacts of acidic drainage from acid sulphate soils on Holocene estuarine flood plains. Acidity derives from oxidation of iron pyrite in the sediments. Natural factors determine concentrations and distributions of pyrite accumulations, but human activities have reduced pyrite accumulation in the Pearl River Delta with land use practices increasing terrestrial sediment discharge. Large freshwater discharges and management techniques have enabled sustainable use of these soils. High concentrations of pyrite occur in many estuarine flood plains of Australia because of relatively greater marine inputs. Drainage of these soils enhances pyrite oxidation and estuarine acidification, which is associated with fish-kills. For sustainable development, the problems of acid sulphate soil drainage must be recognised and overcome.     

The changing pattern of urban fertility in eastern Australia 1966–1976

The article seeks to enhance understanding of post-transitional demographic change by examining the working out at the local level of the macro-scale societal processes underpinning the recent cyclic oscillation in Australian reproductive behaviour. Variations in urban marital and overall fertility between 1966 and 1971 and between 1971 and 1976 are described and analysed. In general, inter-urban variability in both measures diminished greatly, as did the explanatory power of ecological differentials, suggesting widespread acceptance of the small family norm throughout the study-area. While the process of convergence was continuous for marital fertility, structural changes contributed to later divergence of overall fertility levels, in accordance with Alonso's cyclical model of change. The current low level of residual inter-urban variability suggests that little more may be gained from analyses of this type.     

PROCEDURES FOR COMPARING AND COMBINING RADIOCARBON AGE DETERMINATIONS: A CRITIQUE

Archaeologists, along with other Quaternary researchers, seldom rely upon a single radiocarbon determination to provide an estimate of the age of the phenomenon which is the object of their study. There is an evident need for an explicitly formulated procedure for comparing sets of radiocarbon determinations from the same and from adjacent strata or sites, and for combining these where statistical and archaeological criteria indicate that this combination is warranted. The present contribution provides explicit modelling for a series of recommended procedures, a critique of previous methods, and paradigms for application of the recommended procedures.     

Labour Relations and the Transfer of Knowledge in Industrial Clusters: Why do Skilled Workers Share Knowledge with Colleagues in Other Firms?

Industrial clusters are held to offer competitive advantages to firms that accrue from the transfer of tacit knowledge between skilled workers co-located in spatially bound regions. This paper argues that informal knowledge transfers between skilled employees working in spatially bounded industrial clusters might have an association with the labour relationship between employers and employees. In the literature on industrial clusters general knowledge is readily traded through codified texts and collegial networks but high value, tacit knowledge transfers occur less frequently but are critical to the success of firms located in clusters. Tacit knowledge transfers are held to occur when workers move to other firms because of firm death or poaching but less frequently through contacts between colleagues from other firms. Industrial clusters are said to offer labour market advantages for skilled workers in the form of ample job opportunities and rising wages, which engender firm loyalty and discourage the transfer of tacit knowledge of competitive value to other firms. However, the limited empirical evidence available on actual working conditions for skilled workers in regional industrial clusters indicates that this argument is contestable. Some evidence suggests that there are limited wage premiums accruing to the industrial districts, a limited role for geographic proximity, and weak localised returns on seniority and education. We argue that in such circumstances high value knowledge between workers in different firms might be traded as an act of epistemic solidarity or sociability that disregards the interests of employer organisations. Such actions might vary by region and country in relation to the prevailing system of labour relations. Australian labour relations are offered as a case in point.     

Literacy and Writing: Ideology in Practice

Four recent books deal with the origins of early writing systems, the implications of texts and artifacts on the development of cognitive process and social practice, and the importance of textual artifacts for cultural cohesion and attendant issues of power and identity. This review draws out the interrelation of writing and speech, the conceptualization of literacy as singular and autonomous or multiple and ideological, and where and how to place forms of visual communication within the paradigm of “literacy.”     

Residential relocation and settlement adjustment of Vietnamese refugees in Sydney

Throughout the 1975-85 decade, most of Australia's Vietnamese refugees were housed initially in migrant centres located in major urban areas. In this study, the locations of the migrant centres in relation to subsequent relocation processes and patterns of settlement were examined The majority of secondary residential movements within the metropolitan area were within an 11 km radius of the migrant centre through which the Vietnamese entered Sydney. Patterns of visiting and shopping behaviour reinforced the strong consolidation of resettlement and activity behaviour within Sydney's southwestern metropolitan corridor, especially those areas with existing multi-ethnic concentrations of people. The growth of earlier clusters of settlement continues, accompanied by some reconcentration in the inner west and some emerging dispersal It is suggested that this sample study may reflect similar trends within the total Vietnamese community in Sydney.     

Wood Chipping of Indigenous Forest on Private Land in New Zealand 1969–1993

In recent decades the international wood chip industry has been the major cause of indigenous forest destruction in New Zealand. This paper analyses how changing state forest policies have affected wood chipping of indigenous forest. Emphasis is placed on wood chipping on private land through a case study of the reactions and changing attitudes of farmers. It is argued that farmers and Maori landowners often have no other alternative but to allow wood chipping on their land. Although government policies have been tightened in recent years, and although attitudes among private landholders are shifting towards forest conservation, the pressure on New Zealand's lowland indigenous forest remnants continues unabated.