Academic literature on the topic 'Professionalism in sports Australia'

A new professional netball competition in 2017 was part of a long-awaited boost for women’s sport in Australia. Netball has a significant footprint across the country, being the nation’s largest female participation team sport, and the national team is the reigning world champion. However, the sport has traditionally been underrepresented in both sports media and academic research. The new league was scheduled on free-to-air television after a landmark broadcast deal and the rise in media coverage reflected the growing commercial and public interest in female sport. As an example of this changing environment, it is important to examine what the coverage of women’s netball involves. This descriptive study utilises a content analysis to explore the newspaper sports reporting of the first season of the Super Netball League. Specifically, it measures the amount and tone of coverage, the types of stories and descriptions employed in articles, including mentions of men’s sport. Data have been collected from 703 articles from 15,335 stories in newspaper sports sections of nine national, metropolitan and regional publications. While newspaper coverage of netball was comparable with other sports in terms of professionalism and content, there was still only a small amount of stories.

In Creative Nation, sport is distinguished by its almost complete absence, except as a competitor for sponsorship with ‘cultural organisations’, and in brief mentions as content for SBS Radio and Aboriginal community radio stations. Sport is not mentioned at all in the 2011 National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper, but in the ensuing policy, Creative Australia, is treated, with art and religion, as one of the ‘great markers of culture’ in which, distinctively, elite professionalism, amateurism and fandom/appreciation happily co-exist. This article reflects on developments in the Australian sport field over the last two decades, highlighting the management of elite-grass roots and public–private funding tensions, and relevant parallels in the arts field. It addresses the pivotal relationship between the sport and broadcast media fields, arguing that sport, as a Bourdieusian ‘field of struggles’, is an under-appreciated domain of national cultural policy in which different forms of capital collide and converge.

Previous findings of skewed birth date distributions among sports professionals have been interpreted as evidence for a systematic discrimination against children born shortly before the cut-off date for each age grouping. Alternative explanations for these findings exist, however. This research therefore attempted to replicate the effect in a cross-cultural comparison. A strong relative age effect in professional soccer was found in Germany, Japan, Brazil, and Australia, showing that the effect is independent of different cut-off dates and a variety of climatic and sociocultural factors. A shifted peak in the birth date distribution of Australian soccer professionals paralleling a corresponding change in the cut-off date in Australian soccer in 1989 was also established. This pattern of results provides strong evidence for the cut-off date in youth soccer as the main cause for the relative age effect in professional soccer.

Australia is perceived by many as the 'lucky' country and the image that has been portrayed to the rest of the world is one that projects a nation of tanned, active, healthy, and sports-loving individuals. This image is outdated and instead Australia is a nation with a national health problem. The health problem is having an impact which is increasingly problematic for governments. It has long been recognised that primary prevention, can be developed in two ways: by using a whole of population approach or through selective targeting (Naidoo & Wills, 1998). Within this context, this paper has chosen to explore and discuss a selective targeting approach through a case analysis of cardiovascular disease in regional Australia. In Australia, cardiovascular disease continues to be one of the major causes of death. This fact is a matter of great concern to all Australians but is particularly significant for people living in the regional city of Rockhampton, Central Queensland, where the death rate from cardiovascular disease is significantly higher than it is for the rest of the state of Queensland (354.4 deaths per 100,000 people per year compared with 310.6, Harper & Taylor, 1997, p. 21). The high death rate from heart disease in Queensland is even higher than the Australian average (Harper & Taylor, 1997, p. 22). Research previously conducted has revealed certain trends regarding cardiovascular disease. This research extends the available knowledge by measuring the cost in economic terms to the community. The findings explain the implications for Rockhampton employers and places regional health professionals in a better position to develop further research as well as to implement and explain alternative health strategies.

Objective. Interprofessional collaboration is a crucial component of care for children with rheumatic disease. Interprofessional care, when delivered appropriately, prevents disability and improves long-term prognosis in this vulnerable group. Methods. The aim of this survey was to explore allied health professionals’ and nurses’ confidence in treating paediatric rheumatology patients. Results. Overall, 117 participants were recruited, 77.9% of participants reported being “not confident at all,” “not confident,” or “neutral” in treating children with rheumatic diseases (RD) despite 65.1% of participants reporting having treated >1 paediatric rheumatology case in the past month. Furthermore, 67.2% of participants felt their undergraduate education in paediatric rheumatology was inadequate. “Journals” or “texts books” were used by 49.3% of participants as their primary source of continuing professional development (CPD) and 39.3% of participants indicated that they did not undertake any CPD related to paediatric rheumatology. Small group and online education were perceived to be potentially of “great benefit” for CPD. Conclusion. This paper highlights allied health professionals’ and nurses’ perceived inadequacy of their undergraduate education in paediatric RD and their low confidence in recognising and treating RD. Undergraduate and postgraduate education opportunities focusing on interprofessional collaboration should be developed to address this workforce deficiency.

Background:Advocacy informed by scientific evidence is necessary to influence policy and planning to address physical inactivity. The mass media is a key arena for this advocacy. This study investigated the perceptions and practices of news media professionals reporting physical activity and sedentariness to inform strategic communication about these issues.Methods:We interviewed media professionals working for major television, radio, newspaper and online news outlets in Australia. The interviews explored understandings of physical activity and sedentariness, attributions of causality, assignment of responsibility, and factors affecting news reporting on these topics. Data were thematically analyzed using NVivo.Results:Physical inactivity was recognized as pervasive and important, but tended to be seen as mundane and not newsworthy. Sedentariness was regarded as more novel than physical activity, and more likely to require organizational and environment action. Respondents identified that presenting these issues in visual and engaging ways was an ongoing challenge.Conclusions:Physical activity researchers and advocates need to take account of prevailing news values and media practices to improve engagement with the news media. These include understanding the importance of novelty, narratives, imagery, and practical messages, and how to use these to build support for environmental and policy action.

ISCPES stands for International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sports and it is going to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2018. Since the beginning (Israel 1978) the main goals of the Society were established under a worldwide mind set considering five continents and no discrimination of any kind. The founders wanted to compare Physical Education and Sports across the world, searching for the best practices deserving consideration and applied on the purpose of improving citizen quality of life. The mission still stands for “Compare to learn and improve”.As all the organizations lasting for 39 years, ISCPES experienced several vicissitudes, usually correlated with world economic cycles, social and sports changes, which are in ISS journal articles - International Sport Studies.ISS journal is Scopus indexed, aiming to improve its quality (under evaluation) to reach more qualified students, experts, professionals and researchers; doing so it will raise its indexation, which we know it is nowadays a more difficult task. First, because there are more journals trying to compete on this academic fierce competitive market; secondly, because the basic requirements are getting more and more hard to gather in the publishing environment around Physical Education and Sports issues. However, we can promise this will be one of our main strategic goals.Another goal I would like to address on this Editorial is the language issue. We have this second strategic goal, which is to reach most of languages spoken in different continents; besides the English language, we will reach Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. For that reason, we already defined that all the abstracts in English will be translated into Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese words so people can find them on any search browser. That will expand the demand for our journal and articles, increasing the number of potential readers. Of course this opportunity, given by Motricidade, can be considered as a good example to multiply our scope.In June 2017 we organized a joint Conference in Borovets, Bulgaria, with our colleagues from the BCES – Bulgarian Society for Comparative Educational Studies. During those days, there was an election to appoint a new (Portuguese) president. This constitutes an important step for the Portuguese speaker countries, which, for a 4th year term, will have the opportunity to expand the influence of ISCPES Society diffusing the research results we have been achieving into a vast extended new public and inviting new research experts to innovative debates. This new president will be working with a wide geographical diverse team: the Vice President coming from a South American country (Venezuela), and the other several Executive Board members are coming from Brazil, China, Africa and North America. This constitutes a very favorable situation once, adding to this, we kept the previous editorial team from Australia and Europe. We are definitely committed to improve our influence through new incentives to organize several regional (continental) workshops, seminars and Conferences in the next future.The international research is crossing troubled times with exponential number of new indexed journals trying to get new influence and visibility. In order to do that, readers face new challenges because several studies present contradictory conclusions and outcome comparisons still lacking robust methodologies. Uncovering these issues is the focus of our Society.In the past, ISCPES started its activity collecting answers to the same questions asked to several experts in different countries and continents across the world. The starting studies developed some important insights on several issues concerning the way Physical Education professionals approached their challenges. In the very starting documents ISCPES activity focused in identifying certain games and indigenous activities that were not understood by people in other parts of the world, improving this international understanding and communication. This first attempt considered six groups of countries roughly comprehending 26 countries from all the continents.ISCPES has on its archives several seminal works, PhD proposals and program proposals, which constitutes the main theoretical framework considered in some textbooks printed at the end of the sixties in the XXth century.The methods used mostly sources’ country comparisons, historic development of comparative education systems, list of factors affecting those systems and a systematic analysis of case studies; additionally, international organizations for sports and physical education were also required to identify basic problems and unique features considered for the implementation of each own system. At the time, Lynn C. Vendien & John E. Nixon book “The World Today in Health, Physical Education and Recreation”, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1968, together with two monographies from William Johnson “Physical Education around the World”, 1966, 1968, Indianapolis, Phi Epsilon Kappa editions, were the main textbook references.The main landscapes of interest were to study sports compared or the sport role in Nationalisms, Political subsidization, Religion, Race and volunteering versus professionalism. The goal was to state the true place of sports in societies.In March 1970, Ben W. Miller from the University of California compiled an interesting Exhibit n.1 about the main conclusions of a breakfast meeting occurred during the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. There, they identified thirty-one individuals, which had separate courses in “Comparative and/or International Physical Education, Recreation and Sports”; one month later, they collected eighteen responses with the bibliographic references they used. On this same Exhibit n.1 there is detailed information on the title, catalogue description, date of initial course (1948, the first), credit units, eligibility, number of year offer, type of graduation (from major to doctorate and professional). Concluding, the end of the sixties can be the mark of a well-established body of literature in comparative education and sports studies published in several scientific journals.What about the XXIst century? Is it still important to compare sports and education throughout the world? Only with qualitative methods? Mixed methods?We think so. That is why, after a certain decline and fuzzy goal definition in research motivations within ISCPES we decided to innovate and reorganize people from physical education and sports around this important theme of comparative studies. Important because we observe an increasing concern on the contradictions across different results in publications under the same subject. How can we infer? What about good research questions which get no statistically significant results? New times are coming, and we want to be on that frontline of this move as said by Elsevier “With RMR (results masked review) articles, you don’t need to worry about what editors or reviewers might think about your results. As long as you have asked an important question and performed a rigorous study, your paper will be treated the same as any other. You do not need to have null results to submit an RMR article; there are many reasons why it can be helpful to have the results blinded at initial review”.https://www.elsevier.com/connect/reviewers-update/results-masked-review-peer-review-without-publication-bias.This is a very different and challenging time. Our future strategy will comprehend more cooperation between researchers, institutions and scientific societies as an instrument to leverage our understanding of physical activity and sports through different continents and countries and be useful for policy designs.Next 2018, on the occasion of the UE initiative Sofia – European Capital of Sport 2018 we - Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) & the International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sport (ISCPES) - will jointly organize an International Conference on Sport Governance around the World.Sports and Physical Education are facing complex problems worldwide, which need to be solved. For health reasons, a vast number of organizations are popularizing the belief that physical education and sports are ‘a must’ in order to promote human activity and movement. However, several studies show that modern lifestyles are the main cause for people's inactivity and sedentary lifestyles.Extensive funded programs used to promote healthy lifestyles; sports media advertising several athletes, turning them into global heroes, influencers in a new emerging industry around sports organizations. Therefore, there is a rise in the number of unethical cases and corruption that influence the image of physical education and sports roles.We, the people emotional and physically involved with sports and physical activity must be aware of this, studying, discussing and comparing global facts and events around the world.This Conference aims to offer an incentive to colleagues from all continents to participate and present their latest results on four specific topics: 1. Sport Governance Systems; 2. Ethics and Corruption in Physical Education and Sports Policies; 3. Physical Education and Sport Development; 4. Training Physical Educators and Coaches. Please consider your selves invited to attend. Details in http://bcesconvention.com/

Objective: To explore the factors perceived to affect rehabilitation assessment and referral practices for patients with stroke. Design: Qualitative study using data from focus groups analysed thematically and then mapped to the Theoretical Domains Framework. Setting: Eight acute stroke units in two states of Australia. Subjects: Health professionals working in acute stroke units. Interventions: Health professionals at all sites had participated in interventions to improve rehabilitation assessment and referral practices, which included provision of copies of an evidence-based decision-making rehabilitation Assessment Tool and pathway. Results: Eight focus groups were conducted (32 total participants). Reported rehabilitation assessment and referral practices varied markedly between units. Continence and mood were not routinely assessed (4 units), and people with stroke symptoms were not consistently referred to rehabilitation (4 units). Key factors influencing practice were identified and included whether health professionals perceived that use of the Assessment Tool would improve rehabilitation assessment practices (theoretical domain ‘social and professional role’); beliefs about outcomes from changing practice such as increased equity for patients or conversely that changing rehabilitation referral patterns would not affect access to rehabilitation (‘belief about consequences’); the influence of the unit’s relationships with other groups including rehabilitation teams (‘social influences’ domain) and understanding within the acute stroke unit team of the purpose of changing assessment practices (‘knowledge’ domain). Conclusion: This study has identified that health professionals’ perceived roles, beliefs about consequences from changing practice and relationships with rehabilitation service providers were perceived to influence rehabilitation assessment and referral practices on Australian acute stroke units.

Introduction Healthcare professionals, including hand therapists, are frequently called upon to identify barriers to return-to-work for workers with upper extremity injuries. However, the methods and tools used to assess barriers to return-to-work remain unknown. Results from these assessments can be used to direct appropriate interventions for those who may be at risk of a prolonged work absence. Methods The purpose of this study was to identify the tools and methods used by healthcare professionals to assess barriers to return-to-work for workers with upper extremity conditions. A total of 596 Australian healthcare professionals responded to an open-ended question regarding the tools/methods they use to identify barriers to return-to-work. All responses were coded and analysed descriptively. Differences between professional disciplines were recorded. Results Healthcare professionals nominated 59 types of tools and methods that they use to identify barriers to return-to-work for workers with upper extremity conditions in their clinical practice. The most favoured method was clinical interviewing. Other commonly used tools were clinical measures, e.g., strength, and a return-to-work risk-factor screening tool validated on musculoskeletal diagnoses, the Orebro Musculoskeletal Screening Questionnaire. Discussion Healthcare professionals use a variety of methods and tools to identify barriers to return-to-work for workers with upper extremity conditions. Generally, they favoured subjective methods. Future research is needed to develop or validate assessment tools designed to identify barriers to return-to-work for workers with upper extremity conditions. In the absence of upper extremity specific screening tools, hand therapists should consider the biopsychosocial framework when evaluating barriers to return-to-work.

Exercise science is now an integral part of the allied health framework in Australia and graduates from accredited programmes are equipped with skills recognised as being important in the prevention and management of lifestyle-related diseases. This pilot study sought to determine the experiences of 11 final-year exercise science students in their major practicum and identify skills learned and developed while on placement. Analysis of the interview data established that the students worked with clients from a broad range of sociocultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, both within and between practicum sites; the students’ experiences and their preparedness to engage with clients from different backgrounds varied as a result. Although the students generally reported being technically skilled for their major placement, many reported being underprepared to deal with people from different backgrounds. However, all participants held that their interpersonal skills greatly improved in response to their placement and several remarked that they developed their problem-solving skills through watching and assisting their supervisors work with clients. The present study confirms the practicum as a critical learning site for improving communication and problem-solving skills with exercise science and exercise physiology students.

The primary aim of this research was to investigate how Further Education (FE) Sports Lecturers defined their sense of professionalism with reference to the jobs they did and the environments in which they worked. Individual narratives were generated for the academic years 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17 for five Sports Lecturers from FE institutions in the South West of England. Eight Sports Lecturers from four different FE institutions took part in the research through completing a Survey Monkey online questionnaire and five of these lecturers from two different FE institutions undertook a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews to answer the research questions. Individual narratives were constructed, analysed and discussed. Findings showed that there remained high levels of performativity and accountability in FE institutions and these caused a great deal of pressure and stress for the Sports Lecturers. There were similarities to school-based research where the Sports Lecturers experienced significant gaps between what they were teaching and what they perceived society needed. The Sports Lecturers often had to adapt their methods of delivery to work effectively in their contexts and consequently, they mainly saw their professionalism as an externally imposed, articulated perception of what lay within the parameters of their profession's collective remit and responsibilities. This research also uncovered a new area of research entitled 'competitive mediation' which reflected how the professional practice of the Sports Lecturers was heavily influenced by structure and compliance, but they operated in ways which matched their own values and therefore they were mediating these tensions. It was found that the Sports Lecturers who had played competitive sport, felt that their sporting experiences helped them to develop skills which complemented their professional practice in their FE environments. However, the Sports Lecturers narrowed their curriculum delivery and they taught to the test to achieve good results which they then were happy to compare with their colleagues. These methods of delivery were seen to be a negative consequence of the structures which were determining their practice. Consequently, this research found that the FE sector might be moving further away from proposed democratic models of education and it was predicted that this would be compounded in the future with recent political developments.

Speaking to a local radio station in the 1960s, with the glitz, glitter and glamour of televised professional wrestling at its height, one old, retired Cumbrian wrestler declared that ‘wrestling…was a game for the field not the stage'. This statement, condensed and potent as it is, could stand in for the questions this thesis asks and seeks to answer: why did wrestling develop as a professional, performed ‘sporting entertainment'? To answer this question, existing theories of social and sports history are combined with cultural studies methods and applied to Pierre Bourdieu's notion of fields. Chapters one and two surveys the birth of a fielded society and the growth of spectator and professional sport as part of a wider cultural field in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Considering many sports during this time had relationships with the theatre, circus and fairground, the seemingly logical expansion of professional sport was closer to that of professional wrestling. Sport, however, did not develop in this way. Chapter three explore the reasons for this and posits that the genesis of the sporting field, demonstrated by the growth of sporting bodies and the perpetuation of amateur ideal, dominated the field. Control of wrestling, however, for various reasons, was not gained in this manner. Chapter four examines the consequences of this when professional wrestling became a fully performed sport in the interwar years. Finally, chapter five assesses the relationship between the sporting field and television in the late twentieth century. Wrestling as a ‘sporting entertainment' is of interest precisely because it displays a ‘discarded possible' of how professional sport may have grown had it not been for the institutions and ideologies active within the field during the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century. It also demonstrates the often precarious nature of fields and concludes that sport's meanings, pleasure and values are not as consistent as are first assumed.

The past two decades have witnessed the introduction throughout much of the Western world of what has become known as economic rationalism, and for some commentators, as economic liberalism. Grounded in neoclassical economic theory, and with close kinship to the Taylorist and Fordist principles of the early decades of the twentieth century, the vision of economic rationalism has led to measures which have tended to favour the business sector in Australia. Throughout the 1990s, the focus has been on the notions of competitiveness, competition, productivity, efficiency, and profit, while the notions of the individual, and of social justice and equity, have often appeared to become correspondingly less important. As a result, there has emerged an increasing differentiation between the interests of capital and labour or, more broadly, between commercial and social interests. The differentiation is becoming increasingly stark, and one aspect which has attracted attention is that of work intensification. The thesis revolves around three research questions, related to the issue of work intensification, and with a focus on teachers. For the sake of the study, teachers arc deemed to include principals and deputy principals who, especially in smaller schools, have both teaching and administrative duties. The study examines the extent of teacher work intensification. Consequently, the first question is: "To what extent does work intensification exist amongst teachers in Western Australian State Schools?"

This thesis investigates how sports organisations and discourses have impacted on the sports participation of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in Australia. A series of national participation studies have documented that women from minority ethnic backgrounds have significantly lower participation rates in sports and physical activity than Anglo-Australian women. However, the explanations and dimensions of this difference have not been examined in previous research. The experiences of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are used in this thesis to explore sports discourses and organisation and the embodiments of their interrelationship. The present research proposes that sports organisations and discourses within Australia have historically served to marginalise women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The arguments for this position are explored using a local narrative which details the situated nature of women????s experiences of sports. These experiences are located within a historical context that traces migration policies, the growth and development of sports and women????s social relations since white settlement of Australia. It is argued that contemporary sports discourses and organisation are inextricably tied to Australia????s colonial and imperialist past. Theories of ethnicity, gender and sports are analysed. The theoretical perspective taken in this thesis builds on feminist ideologies and ethnicity studies. Empirical analysis is undertaken using gender relations to situate sport as a site of cultural struggles best understood through investigations of history and diversity. Aspects of power, control and influence are central to this thesis. The empirical component of this thesis uses secondary data sources, surveys and interviews to investigate the research proposition. This is achieved on two levels. The first level interrogates existing data to create a macro level analysis of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in sports. A survey of 972 schoolgirls was undertaken to collect information on sports participation and attitudes to sports. This was followed by 30 interviews with women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds that explored individual sports experiences and perspectives on sports. The second level of investigation employed the case study of netball to examine the research question as it related to a specific sports organisation. The case study component of the research involved document and archival analysis, a survey of 372 netball players and interviews with 18 women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and former and current netball administrators. The thesis analyses the empirical data as it relates to the organisation and discourse of sports in Australia. The principal conclusion reached is that sports organisation and discourses are located within a societal power structure that places women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds on its margins. Sports participation is predicated on conformity to existing cultural practices and expectations and it does little to facilitate cultural diversity. The women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who participated in the research did not perceive sports as particularly inclusive of gender and culture. The examination of netball demonstrated that netball has not been concerned with ????other???? women, rather it has focussed its efforts on appealing to ????mainstream???? women. While netball has not explicitly excluded the involvement of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, neither has it actively encouraged cultural diversity. This thesis makes a contribution to knowledge in the field of sports studies with its empirical research and through the ensuing development of a framework for locating the implications of inclusion or exclusion in sports organisations and discourses. This understanding can be used to assess and inform future sports policy development and practice. Principally, the thesis seeks to acknowledge and legitimise the sports experiences of women from diverse backgrounds and in doing so provides insights into a better theoretical understanding about the nexus of gender, ethnicity and sports.

In the late 1960s, there was a major change in social policy and legislation in developed countries that improved the rights and opportunities for people with a disability in all aspects of society, including sport. In 1992, in concert with the general acceptance of the social model of disability, Australia enacted legislation making it illegal to discriminate against a person with a disability; this encouraged their inclusion into the community (Australian Sports Commission, 2005; Doll-Tepper, 1999; Thomas & Smith, 2009). In order to meet the obligations of anti-discrimination legislation, Australian sport organisations became active in preparing policy frameworks to guide and develop programs to improve access and hence participation by people with a disability. Much of the literature has focussed on constraints to sport participation, but few studies have reported the influence on, or outcome of, these policy development processes on sport generally, or on the inclusion of people with a disability at a club level. By examining those Western Australian sport organisations identified as active in providing opportunities in their respective sports for people with a disability, this study aimed to address this gap in inclusion research. This study reviewed the process of policy development used by Western Australian State Sport Associations (SSA) and investigated the influence this process had on the inclusion of people with a disability in sport at a club level. A qualitative methodological approach was chosen with semistructured interviews (with SSA and club representatives) and document analyses of state and national sport organisation (NSO) policies that related to the inclusion of people with a disability. Purposive selection of the initial study participants, SSAs, was used to identify those actively attempting to include people with disabilities in their sports. Representatives from clubs which were known to be inclusive were also identified during the semi-structured interviews with the SSA cohort. This approach focused on the experiences of those who were actively involved in the policy development process, as well as those active in the delivery of programs for people with a disability. The personal knowledge and experience revealed by all who were interviewed, was analysed using content analysis, and the relevant policy documents from the national and state sport organisations were analysed by matrix analysis. The findings reveal that the SSA and NSO policy documents that relate to the inclusion of people with a disability in sport have similar content; however, the policy development processes vary, and do not follow the theoretical policy development frameworks suggested in the literature. There are many variables, both ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ that influence the process of policy development, such as the incentive of government funding and direction provided by NSOs; and there being individuals in the sport organisations who are prepared to drive the policy process and its implementation process forward. This study found that although SSA policy development processes result in limited outcomes at a club level, when a sport organisation goes through a process it makes a commitment to include people with a disability. This in turn raises the organisation’s awareness of ways and means to include them into mainstream sport or specific programs. While several of the sports were active in conducting separate programs, specifically for people with a disability, the flow down of the influence of the policy development to clubs from the national and state level appeared negligible. There was also little coordination and engagement of SSAs and their affiliated clubs when planning and conducting programs for people with a disability. This study proposes a modified approach whereby sport organisations can follow a realistic policy development pathway to create desired change. Moreover, this study reveals the complex environment and stakeholders involved with the inclusion of people with a disability in sport.

The purposes of the investigation were to determine if status of professional sports and professional athletes increases as male participation increases, if perceived status of 'athlete' increases with participation in sports that contain 'male' attributes, and if gender differences are related to status indicators. Sixty-eight students were administered a status-determinants questionnaire. A one-way ANOVA (gender) and a 2 x 12 ANOVA (gender x sport) were employed to determine status ratings of sports. A 3 x 2 (increase/decrease/no change x gender) Chi square was employed to determine status of sports, perceived masculinity of males/femininity of females, and status of the athlete related to gender attributes of sports.

This study was prompted by the stagnation facing the Taiwanese Government in promoting elite sport and pursuing sporting achievement at the Olympic Games. The main purpose of the study was to explore and compare the national government elite sports systems (NGESS) of Australia and Taiwan and make recommendations for Taiwan to improve its elite sports development and performances at future Olympics. To accomplish this purpose, the present study examined the similarities and differences between Australia and Taiwan in terms of stakeholders' viewpoints on the definition of Olympic success; the profiles of the current national government elite sport agencies; the mechanisms of the government elite sport agencies at national level; and environmental influences affecting elite sport and the mechanisms of the respective NGESS. The study utilised a qualitative design. Data were collectcd through document analysis and the Delphi technique. In conducting the Delphi technique, a four-round Delphi survey was undertaken in the respective countries using electronic questionnaires. Participants included 24 sport experts in Australia and 32 in Taiwan. A comparative data analysis of the documentary evidene and the Delphi survey was conducted and findings reported.

This paper examines the history within Australia of the ‘parklet’, a small architecturally-framed open space installed temporarily on an on-street car-parking space. The paper traces parklets’ varied and evolving forms, materials, production processes and functions. It examines how parklets have adapted to rapidly-changing social needs and priorities for economic activity, health, safety, socialising and on-street parking, and changes in street function. The contemporary parklet began in 2005 as a localised, grassroots activity to temporarily reclaim street space for public leisure, as part of the wider movement of ‘tactical urbanism’. Parklets rapidly became a worldwide phenomenon. Starting in 2008, parklets were absorbed into institutional urban planning practice, as a strategic tool to enhance community engagement, test possibilities, and win support for longer-term spatial transformations. From 2012, commercial parklet programs were developed in Australian cities to encourage local businesses to expand into street parking spaces, to calm traffic and enhance pedestrian amenity. A new generation of commercial ‘café parklets’ has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitated by local governments, to support the heavily-impacted hospitality industry. Their design and construction show ongoing innovation, increasing scale and professionalism, but also standardisation. This paper draws on diverse Australian parklet examples to chart the emergence of varying approaches to their design and construction, which draw upon different materials, skills, local government strategies and international precedents. The findings also illustrate several convergences in the evolution of parklet design across different Australian cities, due to strong similarities in the spatial contexts, needs, risk factors, and technologies that have defined this practice.

RESUMO A abordagem sistêmica é um processo interdisciplinar, cujo princípio primordial é compreender a interdependência recíproca e relações de todas as áreas e da necessidade de sua integração, permitindo maior aproximação entre os seus limites de estudo. Nesse contexto o olhar sistêmico, da ergonomia, sobretudo no que se refere à segurança, ao conforto e à eficácia de uso, de funcionalidade e de operacionalidade dos objetos, considerando todos os produtos ou sistemas de produtos, como sistema de uso, desde os mais simples aos mais complexos ou sistêmicos, tem como objetivo adequá-los aos seres humanos, tendo em vista as atividades e tarefas exercidas por eles. No que se refere ao design funcional, os conhecimentos da ergonomia, nessa visão sistêmica, relativos à sua metodologia de projeto, são absolutamente necessários, e a sua aplicação aponta a melhor adequação dos produtos aos seus usuários. Como é o caso do vestuário feminino funcional, sobretudo no que se refere a proteção das mamas, que são peças convencionais que necessitam de um correto dimensionamento e especificação dos tecidos e de outros materiais. É um tipo de vestuário que apresenta funcionalidade diversa, como para a proteção física, o aumento do volume da mama, enchimento no bojo de pano, de água, de óleo, estruturado com arame, etc.; para amamentação (sutiã que se abre na frente, em parte ou totalmente); para o design inclusivo (pessoas com deficiência e mobilidade reduzida, no caso de mamas com prótese ou órtese) facilitando com fechamentos e aberturas colocadas em peças de roupas difíceis de manusear, roupas confortáveis e fáceis de vestir. São peças usadas por pessoas com biótipos e percentis antropométricos variáveis e com características corporais que mudam significativamente nas passagens para a adolescência, idade adulta e idosa. As mudanças corporais apresentam diferenças significativas em termos de volume das mamas, nas quais as soluções ergonômicas por uma abordagem sistêmicas que se evidencia mais para a complexidade de uso, são as mais necessárias em termos de atributos como, segurança, conforto, comodidade corporal, facilidade do vestir, funcionalidade, além da estética. Esta pesquisa, embora exploratória e descritiva, não isenta de desafios, tem por objetivo, por meio de dados e informações ergonômicas sistêmicas contribuir com o design funcional, de modo a oferecer subsídios para a confecção de roupas funcionais ou tecnologia vestível, com os atributos citados, respeitando a diversidade e inclusão das pessoas em todas as fases de sua vida, atendendo assim os princípios formais do design. Palavra-chave: Abordagem sistêmica, Ergonomia, Design funcional. REFERENCIAS AROS, Kammiri Corinaldesi. 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