This article has the following two overarching aims First, it traces the development of multimodal discourse analysis and sets out its main descriptive and analytical parameters; in doing so, the article highlights the specific advantages which the multimodal approach has to offer and exemplifies its application The article also argues that the hierarchical arrangement of different semiotics (in the way common sense construes this) should not be lost from sight Second, and related to this last point, the article will advance a complementary perspective to that of multimodality: resemiotization Resemiotization is meant to provide the analytical means for (1) tracing how semiotics are translated from one into the other as social processes unfold, as well as for (2) asking why these semiotics (rather than others) are mobilized to do certain things at certain times The article draws on a variety of empirical data to exemplify these two perspectives on visual communication and analysis

Multimodality, resemiotization: extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice

https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/human_rights/Health_System_HR_194_countries.pdf

Health systems and the right to health: an assessment of 194 countries

Background Over the past decade, developed Western countries have supplied increasingly stringent measures to discourage those seeking asylum.

Aims To investigate the longer-term mental health effects of mandatory detention and subsequent temporary protection on refugees.

Method Lists of names provided by community leaders were supplemented by snowball sampling to recruit 241 Arabic-speaking Mandaean refugees in Sydney (60% of the total adult Mandaean population). Interviews assessed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive episodes, and indices of stress related to past trauma, detention and temporary protection.

Results A multilevel model which included age, gender, family clustering, pre-migration trauma and length of residency revealed that past immigration detention and ongoing temporary protection each contributed independently to risk of ongoing PTSD, depression and mental health-related disability. Longer detention was associated with more severe mental disturbance, an effect that persisted for an average of 3 years after release.

Conclusions Policies of detention and temporary protection appear to be detrimental to the longer-term mental health of refugees.

/pdf/impact-of-immigration-detention-and-temporary-protection-on-20by3n50mj.pdf

Impact of immigration detention and temporary protection on the mental health of refugees

In April 2008, the Australian Government established the National Preventative Health Taskforce to develop a National Preventative Health Strategy by June 2009. The Strategy will provide a blueprint for tackling the burden of chronic disease currently caused by obesity, tobacco and excessive consumption of alcohol. The Taskforce has produced a discussion paper, Australia: the healthiest country by 2020. It presents a wide range of options, some of them contentious, to achieve this ambitious target.

Australia: the healthiest country by 2020.

Despite its proscription in legal jurisdictions around the world, workplace sexual harassment (SH) continues to be experienced by many women and some men in a variety of organizational settings. The aims of this review article are threefold: first, with a focus on workplace SH as it pertains to management and organizations, to synthesize the accumulated state of knowledge in the field; second, to evaluate this evidence, highlighting competing perspectives; and third, to canvass areas in need of further investigation. Variously ascribed through individual (psychological or legal consciousness) frameworks, sociocultural explanations and organizational perspectives, research consistently demonstrates that, like other forms of sexual violence, individuals who experience workplace SH suffer significant psychological, health- and job-related consequences. Yet they often do not make formal complaints through internal organizational procedures or to outside bodies. Laws, structural reforms and policy initiatives have had some success in raising awareness of the problem and have shaped rules and norms in the employment context. However, there is an imperative to target further workplace actions to effectively prevent and respond to SH.

Workplace sexual harassment 30 years on : a review of the literature

/pdf/human-rights-and-equal-opportunity-commission-2ff2fy1r9u.pdf

Chris Sidoti

Papers

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission