No abstract

Using survey and documentary information collected as part of an evaluation of the 2012 conference, this paper reflects upon the value of the 2012 World Conference to attendees of the event. The results are discussed in the context of questions about what the purpose of conference is to the world injury prevention community and how they are organised. The evaluators challenge the community and future organisers to clarify what the purpose of these events are to better inform future evaluation activities.

Background New Zealand has had a national injury prevention strategy since 2003. Until last year, annual monitoring of the Strategy has focused upon producing mortality and morbidity indicators and reporting activity rather than outcomes achieved. In a significant advancement, the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy Secretariat produced a national Injury Prevention Outcomes Report for the first time in 2011. Aims/Objectives/Purpose The report's objectives were to: • draw attention to the burden of injury in New Zealand • highlight success stories in the injury prevention sector • improve government agency accountability by reporting on long- and mid-term indicators that are expected to affect injury rates • aid decision-making by Ministers, Chief Executives and government agencies about injury prevention issues, including where attention needs to be focused. Methods An outcomes reporting framework was designed, using mortality, morbidity and cost data as high-level outcomes indicators, and determining indicators of mid-term outcomes (such as increased awareness or sub-population injury trend data) for particular injury types. The report also included independent expert commentary on where future gains might be made. Results/Outcomes The report drew the Government's attention to the inconsistent levels of public investment for types of injury with similar burdens. It has also contributed to government agencies focussing on outcomes rather than outputs in their own reporting. Significance/Contribution to the Field Internationally, the report appears to be unique as it is the only national report that attempts to adopt a high level whole-of-injury prevention approach to monitoring progress on reducing the national burden of injury, using a range of traditional mortality and morbidity indicators as well as ‘action’ indicators. The report has been subjected to an independent evaluation, the results of which have been incorporated into enhancing the next edition of the report.

<p>Margaret Mahy’s novels contain numerous allusions to the classics of Victorian fiction for children. Some of these take the form of passing references; in 24 Hours, for example, protagonist Ellis thinks of himself as “Ellis in Wonderland.” But Mahy also draws on Victorian precedents for some of her settings, taking imaginary islands from Peter and Wendy and Treasure Island, and the secret garden from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel of the same name. She also invokes the forest of the fairy tales that (although they were not invented by the Victorians) featured so prominently in the reading of Victorian children. To date, little attention has been paid to what might be described as the “Victorian dimension” of Mahy’s work. In what follows, I examine its function in five novels. It emerges that Mahy’s response to the values embodied by her Victorian texts is critical on at least three counts. Mahy’s heroines (or, rather, female heroes) reject the passivity and silence exhibited by fairytale characters such as Jorinda in the Grimms’ ‘Jorinda and Joringel’, and the lack of emotional growth displayed by Lewis Carroll’s Alice. They are also shown in the process of leaving childhood (nostalgically idealized by Carroll, J.M. Barrie and other Victorian authors) behind. Moreover, this thesis exposes the tension between Mahy’s insistent allusion to quintessential fantasy spaces such as Wonderland on one hand, and the distinct anxiety present in her work about the dangerously isolating nature of fantasy on the other. While for Mahy’s teenage protagonists the domestic “real” wins out more often than not over the fantastic but dangerous “true”, the transformative journey of maturation that each undergoes is figuratively sparked by their belief in the Red Queen’s “six impossible things before breakfast”. Perhaps by the same token, they learn that fantasy worlds (like Barrie’s “Neverland”) can be dangerously isolating.</p>

<p>Margaret Mahy’s novels contain numerous allusions to the classics of Victorian fiction for children. Some of these take the form of passing references; in 24 Hours, for example, protagonist Ellis thinks of himself as “Ellis in Wonderland.” But Mahy also draws on Victorian precedents for some of her settings, taking imaginary islands from Peter and Wendy and Treasure Island, and the secret garden from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel of the same name. She also invokes the forest of the fairy tales that (although they were not invented by the Victorians) featured so prominently in the reading of Victorian children. To date, little attention has been paid to what might be described as the “Victorian dimension” of Mahy’s work. In what follows, I examine its function in five novels. It emerges that Mahy’s response to the values embodied by her Victorian texts is critical on at least three counts. Mahy’s heroines (or, rather, female heroes) reject the passivity and silence exhibited by fairytale characters such as Jorinda in the Grimms’ ‘Jorinda and Joringel’, and the lack of emotional growth displayed by Lewis Carroll’s Alice. They are also shown in the process of leaving childhood (nostalgically idealized by Carroll, J.M. Barrie and other Victorian authors) behind. Moreover, this thesis exposes the tension between Mahy’s insistent allusion to quintessential fantasy spaces such as Wonderland on one hand, and the distinct anxiety present in her work about the dangerously isolating nature of fantasy on the other. While for Mahy’s teenage protagonists the domestic “real” wins out more often than not over the fantastic but dangerous “true”, the transformative journey of maturation that each undergoes is figuratively sparked by their belief in the Red Queen’s “six impossible things before breakfast”. Perhaps by the same token, they learn that fantasy worlds (like Barrie’s “Neverland”) can be dangerously isolating.</p>