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This is the first of two papers in which the design theories underlining the work of contemporary European and Japanese fashion designers are explored. In this paper, four general, major influential factors are discussed; specifically, the historical factor, the aesthetic factor, the cultural factor and the marketing factor. In order to investigate the underlying design theories of European fashion designers, two European fashion designers with international reputations are discussed, namely, Christian Lacroix and Karl Lagerfeld. These design theories are contrasted with those of two Japanese designers, Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo. The images of their customers, sources of inspiration, and possible underlying design theories are analysed with reference to their contemporary work.

Fashion accessories are vital for fashion design in terms of creating the total look and presenting a fashion statement. They are also important for marketers to develop the correspondent market to increase the companies’ profit. The research was begun with a thorough review of the roles and functions of fashion accessories. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were adopted in this study. A questionnaire survey was undertaken to collect data from the consumers and in-depth interviews were used to collect useful information from the accessories designers in Hong Kong. The findings showed that the fashion accessories were mainly functional from the perspective of consumers, especially in the case of shoes and handbags. Accessories had a decorative role and that was particularly so in the case of jewellery. Some findings showed that designers' concerns about accessories did not fully conform to those of the consumers. Therefore, an in-depth research on different buying behaviour between male and female consumers was carried out. The research questions included the amount of money consumers would spend on accessories, and their purchasing decisions primarily depended on their functionality, durability, comfort and brands. These findings will assist the fashion accessory designers to understand the wants and needs of the market. Finally, future recommendations are given to the marketers and educators.

The first author is currently registered as a doctoral research student at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This paper is derived from the findings of a full-time doctoral research programme relating to the design theory of international fashion designers. The researcher stayed in London for three weeks for the purpose of data collection. The method of data collection included in-depth interviews, observations and questionnaire survey. The purpose of this paper is to formulate the underlying design theory of British fashion designers by using the qualitative research method of grounded theory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Glaser (1978). Different factors influencing fashion designers when creating new fashion are examined. A framework of factors influencing fashion designers is developed. Constructs for a grounded theory of fashion designers are synthesised from in-depth interviews, observations and questionnaire surveys of 25 fashion designers, students and educators in London. The design theory of the British fashion designers is portrayed through the major constructs subsequently identified, namely, ‘psychological satisfaction’ and ‘aesthetic presence’.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether mandatory disclosure of information accompanying the sale of real estate achieves its aim of informed purchasers.

Using a case study approach focused on mandatory disclosure in South Australia data was collected from interviews and focus groups with key personnel in the property industry involved in the production of information required to fulfil vendors’ disclosure obligations.

The authors found that purchasers are ill-served by a long and complex form of mandatory disclosure with a short time frame that prevents the use of the information provided. Without good form design and increased digital affordances provided by the cadastral and conveyancing systems, mandatory disclosure is insufficient to ensure minimisation of information asymmetry between vendor and purchaser.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first Australian qualitative study that examines the utility of mandatory vendor disclosure in real estate sales and the first to consider the impact of the digitalisation of cadastral and conveyancing systems upon the efficacy of mandatory disclosure regimes.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

This study aims to examine how government policies have influenced the governance paradigm of Australian public universities from a historical perspective. In doing so, it addresses current uncertainty on government-governance connectivity.

The study draws on Foucault’s concept of governmentality and governance and uses a developed framework of three constituents of governance to explore government–governance connectivity through a critical discourse analysis.

The findings reveal that government policies have influenced the three constituents of governance differently since 1823, resulting in three distinct governance discourses. In the third governance discourse, the findings reveal a deviation from policy directions towards corporate managerialism, resulting in a hybrid governance control environment. This scenario has arisen due to internal stakeholders continuing to be oriented towards the previous management cultures. Other factors include structural and legalistic obstacles to the implementation of corporate managerialism, validity of the underlying theory informing the policy directions towards corporate managerialism and doubts on the achievability of the market based reforms associated with corporate managerialism. The totality of these factors suggests a theory practice gap to be confirmed through further empirical research. There are also policy implications for policymakers to recognize the hybrid control environment and ascertain the risk the hybrid control environment poses towards the expected outcomes of corporate managerialism.

The findings are limited to a critical discourse analysis of data from specific policies and journal publications on higher education and a developed framework of constituents of governance.

The study is the first to examine government–governance connectivity in Australian public universities and also the first to introduce a three-constituent governance framework as a conduit to explore such studies. The findings contribute to the literature in identifying a theory-practice gap and offer opportunities for further research to confirm them.

Climate change is a global issue with far-reaching environmental, social and economic consequences. As more people become aware of these consequences, pressure is mounting on governments and businesses to implement ambitious and required climate mitigation and adaptation plans to reduce and finally stop making the climate crisis worse. One of these strategies is just transition, which is defined as the call for climate transformation that prioritises the social and environmental needs of workers and vulnerable groups, especially in the context of transitioning away from fossil fuels, while leaving no one behind. This chapter first provides an overview of just transition through a review of the literature and bibliometric analysis. Then, it discusses just transition in policymaking, comprising reactive, proactive and transformational just transition approaches. This is followed by a discussion on barriers to just transition. Finally, the chapter offers a practical example of transformational just transition approach by reporting some preliminary findings from a case study in the coal mining town of Collie on Wilman Boodja, Western Australia.

Intergenerational confinement is an under-recognized, policy-driven issue which greatly impacts Indigenous and racialized peoples in countries with ongoing colonial legacies. Numerous policy solutions enacted over colonial history have exacerbated instead of mitigated this situation. This chapter advances an improved understanding of the impacts of carceral legacies, moving beyond the dominant focus of parental incarceration in the literature. Focusing on Indigenous peoples, multiple generations in families and communities have been subjected to changing methods of confinement and removal. Using critical policy analysis and interview research, this chapter interrogates these intergenerational impacts of carceral policy-making in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 124 people in the three case countries, this chapter centers perspectives of people who have been intergenerationally confined in carceral institutions. With a goal of transformation, it then explores an alternative orientation to policy-making that seeks to acknowledge, account for, and address the harmful direct and indirect ripple-effects of carceral strategies over generations.

Ex-prisoners often face significant challenges in their efforts to find meaningful and stable work, undermining their chances of successful reintegration back into the community. These problems are likely to be compounded for those who have an intellectual disability (ID), given evidence that the disabled generally experience high levels of discrimination when applying for and maintaining jobs. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether members of the public hold different attitudes and expectations towards the employment of ex-offenders who have an ID and a history of criminal offending.

Samples of 642 participants, recruited via social media, were presented with vignettes, and then completed a short survey designed to measure their attitudes and expectations towards the employment of ex-offenders.

Whilst the presence of a mild ID did not significantly affect community attitudes towards ex-offender employment, it did change expectations about employment outcomes.

It appears that ex-offenders are perceived as a homogenous group of people, despite actual and substantial differences existing within this population.

There is a need to actively educate the community about differences between subgroups of ex-offenders in relation to the employment needs of those with an ID.

The social inclusion of ex-offenders with an ID lies at the heart of any effective and progressive criminal justice policy.

This is one of the only studies that has examined public attitudes towards this group.