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Rural welfare is more than addressing problems of ‘poverty’. As we argue here, social policy initiatives are also conceived by governments as solutions to geographical problems about uneven regional development and population distribution. What these problems were, and how welfare provision could solve them, has varied from generation to generation and takes shape in place-specific ways. That welfare provision has operated as de facto geographical development and population policy is particularly the case in Australia, in its context of massive continental size and heterogeneous rural places. In Australia, the ‘rural’ means much more than just the ‘countryside’ surrounding or between networks of cities and towns (in the traditional European sense; see Gorman-Murray, Darian-Smith, & Gibson, 2008). ‘Rural Australia’ is inserted into national politics as a slippery geographical category, coming to encompass all of non-metropolitan Australia (each of Australia's states only having one major city), within which there is great diversity: broadacre farming regions involving the production of cash crops at scales of thousands of squared kilometres; regions producing rice and cotton with state-sponsored irrigation; coastal agricultural zones with smaller and usually older land holdings (often the places of traditional ‘family farming’ communities); single industry regions focused around minerals extraction or defence (many of Australia's major defence bases being located outside state capitals either in sparsely populated regions in Australia's north or in smaller ‘country towns’ in the south, where they dominate local demography); semi-arid rangelands regions dominated by enormous pastoral stations leased on Crown land (single examples of which rival the United Kingdom in size); and remote savannah and desert regions many thousands of kilometres from capital cities, supporting Aboriginal communities living on traditional country mixing subsistence hunting and gathering with government-supported employment and food programmes. In this context, rural welfare performs a social policy function, but also becomes a means for government to comprehend, problematise and manage geographical space.

Since 2002 there has been strategic focus on inclusive tertiary provision as a means of addressing the issues of student groups who have historically not fared well in higher education. Equity groups include Māori, Pasifika and students with disabilities. This chapter charts the terrain of inclusive higher education in Aotearoa through the critical reflections of Kahurangi, a Māori student with a vision impairment. Despite a strategic focus on inclusive provision and Kahurangi’s success his experiences suggest that there is some way to go. The authors argue that given the limited ways in which inclusion and its underpinning theory of disability are theorised inclusive higher educational settings are unlikely to be realised.

The way crystal methamphetamine or ‘ice’ use in rural Australia has been represented for national television audiences provides rich evidence of the intersections between media, crime and rurality. This chapter explores these connections through a framing analysis of three Australian television news and current affairs features about this topic. It investigates how concepts such as ‘fluidity’ and ‘boundedness’ operate in relation to the representation of ice use and drug-related crime in rural and regional communities. This raises questions about how certain images and associations come to circulate through media as well as their potential to evolve and change over time or to even be contested – sometimes by the very individuals and communities who serve as the subjects of stories about such problems in society.

The paper seeks to promote the integration of reflective learning within a broader service learning pedagogy at the undergraduate university level. Furthermore, it aims to illustrate various models for service learning that span multiple academic disciplines.

The paper illustrates three ways in which reflective learning can be used to enhance the learning potential of service learning pedagogy. The subjective experiences inform its own stories that it presents as examples, supported as they are by the findings of prior empirical studies.

The paper believes that multi‐dimensional learning has been achieved in each of the three examples presented. Service learning extends the academic learning of students and allows for personal and societal learning to occur, not simply as a result of having a service experience, but of spending time reflecting on it.

Practical implications are particular to the students themselves, as the service experiences it describes have, in some instances, helped to clarify individual students' values and vocational interests.

Given the range of service learning models contained in these examples, the social implications likewise range, yet share common dimensions of increasing students' social consciousness, appreciation of diversity, and their own capacities to contribute.

The originality of this paper lies in the linking of reflective learning to service learning best practices to highlight the particular role of reflection in the production of multi‐dimensional learning.

M & T Chemicals have announced the appointment of Mr David Smith as Director of PCB Systems and as a member of the company's Board of Management. Mr Smith, who was formerly Sales and Marketing Director of Lea Ronal (UK) Ltd, has had more than seventeen years experience in the printed circuit industry.

This study is part of a series aimed at improving the city's environment, as fully restoring the past soundscape is hardly feasible. The initial study aims to uncover the city's sound characteristics, including iconic sounds that have shaped the city's environment for decades, contributing to its status as Indonesia's second most popular tourist destination. This stage is critical for informing policymaking to carefully manage and enhance the urban acoustic environment in alignment with the preserved culture.

The city's sound profile was examined using standard urban sound taxonomies. The study used quantitative methods, including (1) sound pressure level (SPL) measurements and sound recordings, (2) in situ surveys and (3) memory-based surveys. The first set of data were compared to current standards and standard urban sound taxonomies, while the second set was analysed to determine the median rating score for determining the soundscape dimensions. The third data set was used to identify the specific acoustic aspects inherent in Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta's acoustic environment was bustling, with traffic noise and human activities dominating the soundscape, surpassing the standard levels. Many sounds not classified in standard urban sound taxonomies were present, showing the diverse nature of urban sound classification, particularly in a cultural and traditional city like Yogyakarta. The memory-based survey unveils Yogyakarta's two most remarkable soundmarks, “gamelan” and “andong”, which support the findings of prior studies. The in situ survey rated the city's acoustic environment as eventful, pleasurable and generally appropriate, emphasising the presence of cultural sounds unique to Yogyakarta, even though they are not fully audible in the current environment.

The standard sound taxonomies used in urban areas need to be adjusted to include the unique sounds produced by cultural and traditional activities in developing countries. The ordinates and subordinates of the taxonomies also need to be updated. When cultural and daily activities are massively seen in a particular city, the sounds they produce can be recalled exclusively as the city's signature. It is urgent to implement policies to safeguard the few remaining soundmarks before they disappear entirely.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a gendered understanding of women's experience of a mass cycle tour event.

This research uses an ethnographic approach to explore women's experiences of a cycle tour event. Qualitative data are analysed through the conceptual framework of post‐structural feminism.

Key themes included the meaning of women's cycle tour experience as a “shared journey”, the centrality of the “body” in event design (comfort, safety, enjoyment) and an event culture of “respect” (encouragement, skill development, knowledge sharing).

This research is based on a particular sample of women who were largely Anglo‐Celtic, middle to lower middle class and middle aged Australians. Hence, this research does not claim to be representative of all women's experiences. Given the strong focus on quantitative research within event management, this research identifies the need for qualitative and feminist approaches.

The research findings identify a number of gender issues for professionals to reflexively consider in designing, promoting, managing and evaluating mass cycle tour events. The findings have implications for how active tourism events are conceptualised, promoted and managed as gender inclusive.

Developing a gender inclusive approach to events can broaden the participant target market and address equity issues relating to women's participation in physical activity.

There has been little exploration of the gendered experience or management of events in the literature. Hence, this paper contributes to empirical research and theorising of women's experiences of active tourism events.

The nation's oldest greeting card company remakes itself with a slew of new products sold in entirely new venues.