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Displaying results 31 to 40 of 142.

Something's Gotta Change »

Redefining Collaborative Linguistic Research

Authored by: Lesley Woods
Publication date: March 2023
Indigenous people are pushing back against more than 200 years of colonisation and rejecting being seen by the academy as ‘subjects’ of research. A quiet revolution is taking place among many Indigenous communities across Australia, a revolution insisting that we have control over our languages and our cultural knowledge – for our languages to be a part of our future, not our past. We are reclaiming our right to determine how linguistic research takes place in our communities and how we want to engage with the academy in the future. This book is an essential guide for non-Indigenous linguists wanting to engage more deeply with Indigenous communities and form genuinely collaborative research partnerships. It fleshes out and redefines ethical linguistic research and work with Indigenous people and communities, with application beyond linguistics. By reassessing, from an Indigenous point of view, what it means to ‘save’ an endangered language, Something’s Gotta Change shows how linguistic research can play a positive role in keeping (maintaining) or putting (reclaiming) endangered languages on our tongues.

A Grammar of Nese »

Authored by: Lana Grelyn Takau
Publication date: August 2023
Nese is a dying Oceanic language spoken on the island of Malekula, in northern Vanuatu. This book, based on first-hand fieldwork data, and without adhering to any particular syntactic framework, presents a synchronic grammatical description of Nese’s phonology and syntax. Despite being on the verge of extinction, with fewer than 20 living speakers, the language displays intriguing properties—including but not exclusive to the cross-linguistically rare apicolabial phonemes, interesting vowel-raising patterns in some word classes, and a discontinuous negation relationship that is obligatorily expressed with the irrealis mood marker. This book will probably be the last work published on Nese.

Yagara Dictionary and Salvage Grammar »

Publication date: March 2024
Most English speakers in Australia know a few words of Yagara, the Pama-Nyungan language traditionally spoken in the area that now includes Brisbane and Ipswich. For example, Australian English yakka ‘work’ comes from the Yagara verb yaga ‘to work’. However, no fluent native speakers of Yagara remain. The current volume compares the written records of Yagara to facilitate revitalisation of the spoken language. Part 1: Grammar introduces the Yagara sources, which are then compared to extract a picture of Yagara’s structure – its sounds, its words, and its grammar. Attention is also given to the system of kinship terms, moieties, and totems. Part 2: Dictionary contains the most complete Yagara-English dictionary to date, with over 2,200 entries, the original source spellings for each word, standardised spellings, and anthropological notes. Entries include traditional place names, fun insults, and everyday expressions such as the greeting wi balga ‘Hey, come’. The dictionary is followed by an English word finder list. Part 3: Texts consist of full versions of all known texts in Yagara, including sentences, songs, and three Bible stories. Standardised versions are accompanied by English translations and the original unedited renditions.

Sharpening the Sword of State »

Building executive capacities in the public services of the Asia-Pacific

Publication date: November 2016
Sharpening the Sword of State explores the various ways in which 10 jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific enhance their administrative capabilities through training and executive development. It traces how modern governments across this region look to develop their public services and public sector organisations in the face of rapid global change. For many governments there is a delicate balance between the public interest in promoting change and capacity enhancement across the public service, and the temptation to micro-manage agencies and be complacent about challenging the status quo. There is a recognition in the countries studied that training and executive development is a crucial investment in human capital but is also couched in a much wider context of public service recruitment, patterns of entry and retention, promotion, executive appointment and career development. This empirical volume, authored by academics and practitioners, is one of the first to chart these comparative differences and provide fresh perspectives to enable learning from international experiences.

Private Enterprise in China »

Authored by: Ross Garnaut, Ligang Song, Yang Yao, Xiaolu Wang
Publication date: December 2012
The Chinese economy is currently undergoing a profound institutional transformation—a quiet revolution. In a regulated environment geared to the requirements of state-owned enterprises, the successs of the private sector as the main focus for economic growth is remarkable. State-owned enterprises are currently being restructured based on market conditions in which private firms are now permitted to play an important role. Fascinated by the implications of this reform within the Chinese economy, the Asia-Pacific School of Economics and Management of The Australian National University, in conjunction with the China Center for Economic Research of Peking University research team, conducted a large sample survey. Four study sites were chosen: Beijing, Chengdu, Shunde and Wenzhou. Leading economists analyse the nature and dynamics of private sector reform within the Chinese economy and make recommendations for policy which support opportunities for growth and investment.

China 2002 »

WTO entry and world recession

Publication date: December 2012
In 2002 China enters the WTO. Long awaited by the world’s trading economies, it now comes in a year of global recession. What effect will China’s entry into the WTO have at a difficult time? The rapid expansion of China’s trade has required large adjustment in its trading partners, and the expansion and adjustment will accelerate with WTO entry. The internal adjustment pressures in China from WTO entry are also immense. Recently dubbed Australia’s Ambassador to the region by Rowan Callick of the Financial Review, Ross Garnaut was Australia’s ambassador to China through an earlier exciting period when China took its first major steps towards opening to international trade and investment. He was instrumental in the development of China’s thinking about the WTO. Ross Garnaut is Chairman of the China Economy and Business Program at The Australian National University. Australian members of the Program and their associates gather each year for the China Update. Ligang Song is leading authority on the internationalisation of the Chinese economy and on the development of the private sector in China. He has worked at Peking University and People’s University in Beijing and at the International University in Tokyo. This work, originally published by Asia Pacific Press, is reproduced here in the interests of maintaining open access to high-quality academic works no longer in print.

China: New Engine of World Growth »

Publication date: December 2012
Twenty-five years of reform have transformed China from a centrally planned and closed system to a predominantly market-driven and open economy. As a consequence, China is emerging as the new powerhouse for the world economy. China: new engine for world growth discusses the impact and significance of this transformation. It points out risks to the growth process and unfinished tasks of reform. It presents conclusions from recent research on growth, trade and investment, the financial sector, income and regional disparities, industrial location and private sector development. This work, originally published by Asia Pacific Press, is reproduced here in the interests of maintaining open access to high-quality academic works no longer in print.

China: Twenty Years of Economic Reform »

Publication date: December 2012
China: Twenty Years of Reform outlines the experiences of China over the past two decades.  It highlights the processes of reform, successes achieved, and problems faced during the economic transition. “China, and its relations with the international community, have been transformed. China’s economy has expanded five times, and its foreign trade by twelve. It has greatly increased consumption levels of what had been about half of the world’s people in poverty.” - Ross Garnaut “Tremendous progress has been made over the past twenty years, but much more needs to be done in setting up a more open, efficient and transparent trade system, in line with the requirements of the WTO.” - Ligang Song “Radical reform is neither in China’s tradition, nor is it an easy task. Given the difficulties of the reform task and the structure of the political economy, it will probably take a few more years for China to accomplish SOE reform and reforms in other areas.” - Yiping Huang “The most remarkable aspect of China’s agricultural reform was it’s “spillover” effect. Non-agricultural activities in rural China sprang up immediately after the reforms began—the gross output value of TVEs grew at 24 per cent per annum from 1978 to 1995 and employment grew at 9 per cent per annum.” - Yongzheng Yang  This work, originally published by Asia Pacific Press, is reproduced here in the interests of maintaining open access to high-quality academic works no longer in print.

Dilemmas of China's growth in the Twenty-First Century »

Edited by: Ligang Song
Publication date: December 2012
Since economic reforms began in 1978, China has been a focal point for observing the effects of market liberalisation. China has not only truly become one of the ‘emerging giants’ in the world economy but also provided a successful example for transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy. Thus, there is a keen interest about what lies ahead for such a significant economic player. Dilemmas of China’s Growth in the Twenty-First Century is a comprehensive treatment of China’s economic achievements to date and prospects for the twenty-first century. Covering topics as diverse as economic stability and growth sustainability, WTO membership and its implications, income disparity, agricultural policy, trade and investment prospects, Dilemmas of China’s Growth in the Twenty-First Century is a powerful work and essential guide to the latest trends and prospects for the Chinese economy. This work, originally published by Asia Pacific Press, is reproduced here in the interests of maintaining open access to high-quality academic works no longer in print.

Fiji before the storm »

Elections and the politics of development

Edited by: Brij V. Lal
Publication date: December 2012
A racially-weighted Constitution, promulgated by decree in 1990, divided the country and invited international condemnation, and the economy suffered from the collapse of institutions of good governance. In 1995, an independent Constitution Review Commision appointed by the Fijian parliament, recommended wide-ranging changes to the Constitution. Its report formed the basis of a new Constitution promulgated, after wide-ranging consultation and debate, in 1997. Two years later, Fiji held a general election under it. This collection of essays looks at the politics and dynamics of that momentous event, and the role of key individuals and institutions in producing an outcome that, a year later, plunged Fiji into its first major crisis of the twenty-first century. The essays look at some of the key political and development issues on the eve of the crisis, but the relevance to the current debates about the nature and meaning of politics in Fiji remains. All the contributors are recognised and longstanding specialists in their fields. This work, originally published by Asia Pacific Press, is reproduced here in the interests of maintaining open access to high-quality academic works no longer in print.