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This paper aims to: extend the concept of “The learning organization” to “The learning community”, especially disadvantaged communities; demonstrate how leaders in a migrant community can achieve positive change at the personal, professional, team and community learning levels through participatory action learning and action research (PALAR); and identify the key characteristics of a sustainable learning community.

The paper combines an innovative and creative methodology of PALAR and a new learning system designed by the Global University for Lifelong Learning (GULL).

A lack of cultural understanding on the part of government agencies contributes to a migrant community's socio‐economic disadvantage, e.g. high unemployment and crime rates, underachievement in education, exclusion from higher education. The Samoan community is a disadvantaged migrant group in Australia who were helped to help themselves to achieve positive change and quality learning in partnership with university researchers. The use of an enabling framework designed by GULL, mainly for developing countries, also proved to be an effective system for achieving personal and organizational learning in a disadvantaged community in Australia.

The findings represented in the conceptual models enhance understanding of the key principles and processes involved in an organizational learning project for sustainable development of a learning community.

This is one of the first papers to evaluate and track the learning outcomes in a community applying the GULL system that is used successfully in about 40 developing countries, but has not yet been sufficiently researched and documented in a developed country.

Temporary labour mobility programmes (TLMPs) are initiated by high-income nations to fill their labour demands by offering temporary work opportunities to migrants from low-income nations. TLMPs also seek to contribute to economic development in workers' home countries. This paper aims to assess the accountability of New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Scheme and Australia's Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) in reaching their economic development objectives in one sending nation, Samoa.

A qualitative study with RSE and SWP workers and key informants (collectively stakeholders) in Samoa was undertaken to assess the contributions of these schemes to economic development. An interdisciplinary research approach was taken using the Pacific methodology of talanoa. Talanoa was used to “operationalise engagement” and empower local stakeholder accounts.

Talanoa supported the elicitation of accounts that contributed nuanced insights into the accountability of TLMPs. Specifically, stakeholder accounts revealed limitations in the ability of the RSE Scheme and SWP to meet their economic development objectives for Samoan communities and workers. Adjustments are necessary to meet Pacific nations' economic development objectives.

This study responds to calls for on-the-ground accounts of stakeholders involved in TLMPs. It provides insights that may contribute to the development of more effective TLMPs, particularly regarding economic development in workers' home countries.

Drawing on dialogic accounting literature, which calls for engagement with the marginalised, a talanoa approach has been engaged to assess TLMPs via on-the-ground participant accounts in a specific context. This paper introduces talanoa to the critical and social accounting literature, to move beyond a typical accounting qualitative interview process and encourage greater engagement and collaboration with Pacific scholars and partners.

For more than a quarter of a century there has been substantial emigration from the smaller island states of the Pacific to metropolitan fringe states, mainly the USA, New Zealand and Australia. Migration reduced unemployment in island states and remittances have contributed to raised living standards. This paper provides a better understanding of the implications of remittances for economic and social development in the Pacific region. It discusses alternative explanations of remittances, estimates of the size of remittance flows, the impact of remittances on the home country, and policies that influence the flow of remittances. Much of the empirical work in this paper is based on Tonga and Samoa, although the findings apply more generally to other Pacific island nations.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute a critical perspective to debate on health disparities in Australia by examining the ways in which information technology (IT) can support more inclusive communication on aged care with refugee and migrant communities from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

The paper analyses research and policy literature on Australian aged care, IT and participatory approaches to health communication influenced by Friere's critical pedagogy. It distils significant themes for comparison with findings from: a qualitative research project involving communities from Vietnamese, Sudanese and Samoan backgrounds and elderly members of those groups; and, a later case study conducted with elderly women of Vietnamese background. Both projects were based in Melbourne's west.

Friere's theoretical framework can be used to more fully determine the capacity of IT to perform inclusive communication on aged care with refugee and migrant communities from CALD backgrounds. This is best actioned through future research and practice that: prioritizes specific aged care issues; focuses on expanding the “transformation” and “critical consciousness” elements of Friere's dialogical theory; and, uses affordable, accessible and “multi-modal” IT combined with face-to-face bilingual facilitation and two-way communication between participants and health, community and university professionals.

Due to the conceptual nature of the paper, the research results lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the reccomendations further.

The paper fills a gap in understanding about what may help in developing more inclusive aged care information using IT with elderly refugees and migrants from CALD backgrounds in Australia.

Does participation in tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand weaken or strengthen Samoan ethnic identity? Narratives of Pacific women graduates interviewed for a doctoral study of ethnic identity construction provide illustrations of how a process of ethnic identity formation is built up through interactions between groups and individuals within institutions where all members of society participate and come into contact with each other. Ethnic identity construction is influenced by both circumstantial situational factors and what people themselves bring into those circumstances (Cornell & Hartmann, 1998). The cultural backgrounds of this group of tertiary students are socially constructed within their families and churches. It is these backgrounds they bring with them into tertiary education contexts. The strengthening of ethnic identity, as experienced by this group of Samoan women graduate students, was unique, complex and at times contradictory.

This paper identifies the value of Indigenous processes in developing a reciprocal working relationship between a Pasifika grass roots community organisation, Pasifika Church and an Australian university. The focus is on the capacity of Indigenous methodologies to authentically attain equity, diversity and inclusion, during the development of stakeholder partnerships, particularly when there are power and resource imbalances between parties.

This paper is about the process of how Pasifika methodologies, namely talanoa, e-talanoa and teu le va, were used to create positive reciprocal relationships in a culturally grounded manner. The outcome was an agreement of the three stakeholders, the Pasifika Church, the Pasifika organisation and a tertiary institute to work together on a community educational and training project.

The agreement by all parties to adopt Indigenous methodologies from inception enabled the process to be community-led in a culturally safe manner. Critically, these cultural processes established a foundation of trust, expanding possibilities for shared work and projects. For migrant communities, the advocacy and employment of cultural methodologies can empower them through negotiations to maintain their sovereignty over their Indigenous knowledge and priorities. Similarly, it is important for universities and mainstream organisations not only to acknowledge power imbalances and to support community-led priorities but also to cede power around processes of negotiation and discussion.

This is an experience of four organisations working together. It is uncertain whether the same outcome could be attained with other organisations, personalities and cultural groups.

The same principles may be harnessed for other migrant communities, allowing for their cultural practices to inform the ways in which stakeholders work together as opposed to the often-dominant euro-centric practices of the West. It is a deliberate effort that privileges Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing.

Migrant communities that perhaps may be subject to the more Western dominant environment are empowered to use their cultural frameworks to create an equal ground with government, tertiary and not-for-profit stakeholders.

This article is one of the first in Australia to document how talanoa, e-talanoa and teu le va were used to develop a working partnership in a culturally grounded manner to uphold the sovereignty of grassroots Indigenous organisations. This strengthens relationships between migrant communities and mainstream organisations. It outlines Pasifika protocols and successful use of equitable decision-making, led by a grassroots community organisation, a Pasifika Church, whilst liaising with a multi-campus university.

Community solidarity with return migrants is commonly observed in the rural areas of developing countries. In this paper, we briefly review the evidence from sociological studies on this issue and suggest a new economic approach to such solidarity. We show that an implicit institutional arrangement, whereby migrants have no obligations (e.g., no obligation to remit) but may nevertheless enjoy equal ownership rights on collective resources upon return, enhances economic efficiency via an optimal regulation of migration flows. We also address enforceability issues since, within each generation, time consistency problems may give rise to opportunistic behavior among non-migrants.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the engagement of Pacific peoples in mental health services in Aotearoa New Zealand and Pacific strategies for suicide prevention.

This qualitative study involved 22 interviews with Samoans who had made a suicide attempt and/or had suicide ideation, were engaged in a mental health service.

Narratives of mental health services and suicide prevention focused on issues of cultural competency, the importance of family involvement, dichotomous views of western and traditional beliefs around mental illness and the unsuccessful engagement of Pacific youth.

This research argues that cultural considerations for Pacific communities are of paramount importance if mental health service engagement and developments towards Pacific suicide prevention strategies are to be effective.

Severe inequality from climate change exists between the Global North and Global South. The North significantly contributes to climate change yet retreats to protect itself against its harmful impacts. Conversely, members of the Global South bear the brunt of the climate crisis with limited protection against its destructive effects. Climate justice aims to address this inequality. This paper explores the effects of climate change reforms and policies that have been established to foster accountability and climate justice.

This research follows a qualitative exploratory case study method. It draws on a supply- and demand-led approach and local accounts to analyse the (in)effectiveness with which six national and international reforms and policies have achieved accountability for climate justice. The research analysed a variety of empirical documents including contemporary research, reports, academic literature, non-government and government documents and policies, media releases and Pacific Islander accounts.

Climate change reforms and policies, which come together to form supply-side accountability, have largely failed to engender accountability in the Global North for the impacts of climate change. Nor have they mitigated climate change to any tangible extent at all. This has created a system of modern-day climate apartheid. Improving accountability and remediating climate injustices going forward will require a focus on demand-led instruments and accountability, which includes the voice of citizens.

This paper responds to AAAJ’s special issue call for examining accounting and accountability with regard to environmental and climate racism. Limited research to date explores the issue of climate apartheid and climate justice and its relationship with accountability. This research attempts to fill that gap.

Examines the socio‐economic situation of the least developed Pacific Island nations (Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tuvalu and Kiribati) and the type of economics development advice which they have been given in recent years. Suggests that this advice was based on neo‐classical models and was insensitive to the institutional and cultural backgrounds of these countries. Argues that because of the insensitivity, proposed policies may be doomed and could result in further economic hardship.