Richard McGrath

What is successful migration? At a macro-socio-political level migration by individuals may appear to be successful when it has met the objectives of governments, industries and domestic profit makers. However, delving beneath the surface can reveal contradictions and other measures of success at the individual, or micro-level. Within a broader critical historical ethnography, we interviewed 26 post-World War 2 (WW2) British migrants living in South Australia. All interviewees could be viewed as successful at the macro-level, having remained in Australia for many years and having established multi-generational Australian families. Their migration was a ‘success’ when measured against the priorities that were actively promoted by Australian governments in the post-WW2 period. At a micro-level, the migrants involved in this study reported mixed outcomes. While migration did result in self-identified aims of migration including employment, opportunities and adventure, some migrants reported high levels of distress and longing, linked to loss and dislocation from people and places in geographically distant locales. For some, these feelings extended into the present, raising questions over the ‘success’ of their migration experiences at a personal level. We argue that pro-active migration recruitment—such as that undertaken by Australian governments in the post-WW2 period—has the potential to pressure some persons into migration, creating ongoing and unresolvable tensions. Experiences of such disruptions merit further exploration to develop deeper critical understandings of migration success.

A recurring theme has emerged from past ANZALS (Australia and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies) Conferences' keynote presentations concerning the status of leisure studies from a teaching and research perspective. While this broad discussion has been raised, little is formally known about the current status of leisure studies in Australian and New Zealand universities. The ANZALS Board initiated a project in 2015 to gain insights into this topic. The purpose of the project was to document issues about leisure studies in Australian and New Zealand universities and to explore strategies that could assist ANZALS to promote leisure studies across various sectors. This initiative sought feedback from the ANZALS Patron organisations as well as members via a workshop conducted at the 2015 ANZALS Conference. Outcomes from the project have identified leisure studies as a diverse and disparate field of study. Leisure studies is no longer a centralised field within Australian and New Zealand universities. Instead, leisure studies have become divergent and focused on the elements within leisure such as recreation, sport, tourism and events, as well as across domains such as management and health. The project outcomes indicate the need for organisations such as ANZALS to develop and maintain collaborative networks with a variety of stakeholders, both within the tertiary sector as well as amongst practitioners in various industry sectors. There is also a need for ANZALS and kindred organisations to recognise and acknowledge the past and ensure its future by examining how leisure studies can be defined for application in a realm of related fields of study.

Critical tertiary educators have a responsibility to facilitate awareness in their students of the manner in which hegemonic societal structures of power are perpetuated throughout society. Modelling and participatory engagement with students is fundamental to redesigning our world for the better and building their capacity. This paper focuses on a participatory education research model being developed by a team of academics who teach in the field of health promotion. Core to this area are concepts of community empowerment and participation. As educators we operate from the premise that unless we are able to share the construction of knowledge with our students, we impoverish both teaching and our (educational) research. This said we operate in an environment where participatory ethics are trumped by models of objective non-participatory research; with barriers to shared explorations needing to be overcome. This paper explores the development of a participatory education research (PER) model. One project focuses on students beginning to develop an understanding of their own learning styles. The second project involves students developing understandings of the negative and often damaging impact of weight bias particularly by health professionals. In both cases an experimental design is been used with some adaptions to include students as co-participants. Four core principles of a participatory educational research model are emerging. These are that both teachers and students are “researched”; individual feedback of results of research is provided; and linear integration of learning from co-participation spans across the degree with levels of co-participation deepening from first to final years.

... Perceptions of service quality affect feelings of satisfaction, which, in turn, influence customers' likely future ... users' of a lunch restaurant being customers whose residence or work place was nearby ... result in 'overall' sat-isfaction, which appears to be one determinant of loyalty. ...

The focus of this thesis is related to the provision of community recreation opportunities for people with impairments at a local government level in Australia.

By adopting a social constructionist Grounded Theory approach (Charmaz 2006), the substantive theory managing ambiguity was developed. The substantive grounded theory was developed from interviews with 27 local government staff across four Australian states (these being South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland). In addition, 29 local government Disability Action Plans and 32 Sport and Recreation Plans were incorporated into the study.

Through constant comparison analysis of interview transcripts and documents various ambiguities have been identified as existing within local government concerning the provision of community recreation opportunities for people with impairments. Ambiguity in relation to this study can be perceived through three lenses, these being; the role of local government, community recreation and disability. Ambiguity persists through the way local government staff grapple with knowing what the role of local government is in relation to providing human services; through the understandings which local government staff contend with in respect to defining what disability is; as well as locating the meaning and purpose of community recreation.

In seeking to understand how local government staff manage the various ambiguities that resonate through local authorities’ provision of community recreation opportunities for people with impairments this study has identified various management practices and strategies, actions and attitudes. Through theoretical integration of these practices, strategies, actions and attitudes, the basic social process termed managing ambiguity has been constructed.

Local government staff work through three conceptual domains, these being Organisational Orientation, Positioning Perspectives and Management Strategies in managing ambiguity. Manifesting within the three conceptual domains are practices, strategies, actions and attitudes that influence the variations in community recreation opportunities provided by local government, particularly in relation to people with impairments. The practices, strategies, actions and attitudes include: Process and Social Justice Organisational Orientations, Etic and Emic Positioning Perspectives, Networking and Building Capacity Management Strategies.

To assist with describing and explaining the basic social process of managing ambiguity, verbatim quotes from interviews and documentary evidence have been incorporated throughout this thesis. In addition, the purpose of incorporating quotes within explicating and describing the substantive theory is to enable the reader to follow how and from where the theory was developed.

Lastly, implications concerning the conceptual framework identified in this study as well as key findings are discussed. From an academic and practitioner viewpoint, findings from this study assist with developing a deeper understanding of public management provision of services for people with impairments. By understanding how services are created can provide an indication of why particular services are created and others are not. In addition, this study has provided a unique opportunity to reflect upon the processes currently employed to create and maintain local government community recreation services for people with impairments.