In this issue:
The Social Cure: How Groups Make Us Healthier;
Media Piracy: The Infinite Futility in Copyright Protection and Supervision;
The Pros and Cons of a Queensland Senate;
Politics and Money
Ideally, the party that convinces voters with the best policies and arguments wins political office. Money is a necessary means by which parties broadcast their messages, but the large amounts spent in campaigns nowadays makes it more than just a means. In this article, Keith Ewing reflects on attempts to control the influence of money in politics for the sake of democracy.
The Social Cure: How Groups Make Us Healthier
In the dynamism of modern societies there is a bias towards individualism, a bias that weakens the hold of social groups and tends to break up the continuity of social participation. Human nature has not changed that much though, with a sense of belonging still programmed into our basic needs. Here, Jolanda Jetten reports on contemporary research that underlines the importance of the social.
Media Piracy: The Infinite Futility in Copyright Protection and Supervision
The Internet is a gigantic resource. It includes a large and ever-growing volume of media material that is more and more readily downloadable. Why is it that electronic media piracy has become so commonplace and so acceptable? What is its history, and what is its future? Trajce Cvetkovski explores these questions.
The Pros and Cons of a Queensland Senate
In this second article of his two-part series on government in Queensland, Rodney Crisp reflects on whether it would be worthwhile to reinstate an upper house.
Life, Death and Choice
A central narrative of modern culture is the liberal tale of increasing individual autonomy. Freed from many of the restrictive social hierarchies and inhibiting values of the past, individuals now have, by and large, more scope for choice. But there are also countervailing trends that mould and thwart the freedom of the individual. Martin Leet reflects on two sites where individual choice is exposed to tension, one at the beginning, the other at the end of our worldly existence.