A senior Charles Sturt University (CSU) social researcher is leading research and discussion into the influence of globalisation on economic development and human security in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Manohar Pawar, a principal researcher in CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society, believes globalisation “is good if it helps erradicate poverty and reduce global inequalities”. In October, Dr Pawar organised a major international conference on the topic in Thailand, in collaboration with Thailand’s Thammasat University and Taisho and Kyushu universities, Japan. “Confronted by extreme poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disorder and violence and many other social problems, the conference delegates presented positive examples from the region showing that alternative social development approaches must include and allow participation in the planning and implementation of projects by the people affected by them,” Dr Pawar said.

“The big question is, do some adults improve their lives after a parent’s cancer experience? It sounds quite odd, because how could anything good possibly come from this?” Janelle Levesque from Charles Sturt University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences will research how having a parent with cancer impacts on their adult children. “For some, cancer can act as a wake-up call. Some realise life is too short to stay in work they don’t like while others switch to more family-friendly or part time work. Another change may be the realisation that the little things are not so important. The wet towel on the bathroom floor really doesn’t matter, what matters is making time to speak to the kids for 10 minutes before bed.” Ms Levesque says the biggest area of change is that “most people find that their family grows closer through the experience”.

Primary school pupils from Trinity Anglican College at Thurgoona are exploring migrant experiences and preparing to build their own heritage collections through a project run by Lysa Dealtry, an Early Childhood education Honours student from Charles Sturt University. Ms Dealtry will lead a field trip to the Bonegilla Migrant Museum at the Albury Regional Museum on Monday (27 November). An important part of the project is the “explore-a-box”, which contains items from the Bonegilla Collection. Ms Dealtry, a descendant of migrant parents and grandparents, is conducting her Honours research project on the teaching and learning that takes place in the classroom. Earlier this year, she was awarded a $5 000 fellowship from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the NSW Migration Heritage Centre to develop a mobile display to raise community awareness of migrants and their heritage and identity. The “explore-a-box” resource will be available for use by local school teachers in 2007.

An innovative Albury-based health research charity hopes to reach a wider international audience thanks to assistance from two Charles Sturt University (CSU) students. The Power Thinking Health Council website aims to help people heal themselves through their own mental health and wellbeing. CSU information technology students Dan Francisco and Ben Van Kesteren developed a monitoring and reporting tool that compares a visitor’s daily moods, feelings and emotions with their personal general health. Power Thinking Health Council president Theo Richter said the online tool “will provide our website readers with immediate feedback on how their current emotional state might be affecting their health, which is particularly important for living with such chronic diseases as cancer”. The students developed the site and associated survey and online monitor as part of their final year project for their CSU information technology degrees.

“Young people need no magic shields, swords and arrows to cope with the world of work,” according to Associate Professor Erica Smith, a specialist in vocation education and training from Charles Sturt University (CSU). Professor Smith says it is dangerous and futile to constantly make changes to the school curriculum in attempts to prepare young people better for the workplace. Her paper, The Land of Narnia or just the back of the wardrobe? What research tells us about the real world of work for young people will challenge many assumptions made about the nature of entry into work life for young people. Drawing from her national research, Professor Smith says the majority of young people have a realistic view of the labour market, hold sufficient skills to succeed and are able to move to full-time work seamlessly over a period of several years with no major difficulties. “The world of work, rather than being a strange land, difficult to enter, where battles are fought and special guides are needed, is a familiar and navigable place to young people,” she said. 

Carbon emissions trading is a great idea waiting to happen, according to Charles Sturt University’s environment economist Mark Morrison. Dr Morrison says he agrees with Prime Minister John Howard, who said at the APEC summit late last week that any carbon trading system would have to be global to suceed. “The global effort is going to be ineffective unless everyone is going to involved,” said Dr Morrison. “Very few countries are meeting their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Australia is going to be one of the most severely affected countries. The ability of agricultural land in Australia to produce the way it has historically is very unlikely, if you believe the global warming forecasts and I do.”

Policies aimed at increasing the pace of developing renewable energies could accelerate global warming, according to Dr Rod Duncan, a lecturer in economics at Charles Sturt University. It wouldn’t be the first time regulations have had the opposite of the desired effect. When US Congress introduced the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, Detroit car makers responded by producing petrol-guzzling SUVs. And when Mexico City implemented no-drive days where a car could only be used every other day, the citizens reacted by buying a second car. “Air quality in Mexico City got worse, because the second car tended to be an old bomb,” said Dr Duncan. And what does all this have to do with alternative energies? “If cheaper alternatives are being developed, oil producers will have an incentive to pump oil faster and sell it cheaper. The renewables could be worth it in the long run, but at least temporarily, you may actually make the global warming problem worse.”

A local perspective on, and planning for, a possible avian influenza outbreak is the subject of a public forum to be held in Albury this Thursday 3 November. Hosting the free public event is Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Institute for Land Water and Society. Entitled Bird Flu - a local perspective, the forum will hear from four local speakers including CSU’s Dr David Roshier. Speakers will field questions from the audience during the forum, which will be chaired by the Head of CSU School of Environmental and Information Sciences, Professor Nick Klomp. The evening commences at 6.30pm in the University’s Nowik Auditorium, Guinea Street, Albury. All are welcome, with light refreshments available. Attendees are asked to RSVP to Kris Deegan on telephone (02) 6051 9992 or send an email.

CSU is holding a Change of Preference Information Day in Sydney on 3 and 4 January 2007. Market Development Manager Cheryl Howell said the information session is mainly aimed at Sydney school leavers.“It doesn’t have to be a traumatic time. We will have Prospective Student Advisors (PSA) there to talk to them about their options. For students at or near CSU Campus towns we have open day every day, so if they want to come and talk to PSAs at any time they can do that.” CSU’s Contact Centre is extending its opening hours from 8.30am through to 5.30pm for the whole of January. January 4 2007 is the last day for NSW university applicants to change their course preferences for the main round of offers due out later that month.