There is a dearth of empirical evidence on the extent of racist attitudes, broadly defined, in Australia. A telephone survey of 5056 residents in Queensland and NSW examined attitudes to cultural difference, perceptions of the extent of racism, tolerance of specific groups, ideology of nation, perceptions of Anglo‐Celtic cultural privilege, and belief in racialism, racial separatism and racial hierarchy. The research was conducted within a social constructivist understanding of racisms. Racist attitudes are positively associated with age, non‐tertiary education, and to a slightly lesser extent with those who do not speak a language other than English, the Australia‐born, and with males. Anti‐Muslim sentiment is very strong, but there is also a persistence of some intolerance against Asian, Indigenous and Jewish Australians. Those who believe in racial hierarchy and separatism (old racisms) are a minority and are largely the same people who self‐identify as being prejudiced. The ‘new racisms’ of cultural intolerance, denial of Anglo‐privilege and narrow constructions of nation have a much stronger hold. Nonetheless, sociobiologically related understandings of race and nation remain linked to these new racisms. Narrow understandings of what constitutes a nation (and a community) are in tension with equally widely held liberal dispositions towards cultural diversity and dynamism. Encouragingly, most respondents recognise racism as a problem in Australian society and this is a solid basis for anti‐racism initiatives.

Contemporary anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia is reproduced through a racialization that includes well rehearsed stereotypes of Islam, perceptions of threat and inferiority, as well as fantasies that the Other (in this case Australian Muslims) do not belong, or are absent. These are not old or colour-based racisms, but they do manifest certain characteristics that allow us to conceive a racialization process in relation to Muslims. Three sets of findings show how constructions of Islam are important means through which racism is reproduced. First, public opinion surveys reveal the extent of Islamaphobia in Australia and the links between threat perception and constructions of alien-ness and Otherness. The second data set is from a content analysis of the racialized pathologies of Muslims and their spaces. The third is from an examination of the undercurrents of Islamaphobia and national cultural selectivity in the politics of responding to asylum seekers. Negative media treatment is strongly linked to antipathetic government dispositions. This negativity has material impacts upon Australian Muslims. It sponsors a more widespread Islamaphobia, (mis)informs opposition to mosque development and ever more restrictive asylum seeker policies, and lies behind arson attacks and racist violence. Ultimately, the racialization of Islam corrupts belonging and citizenship for Muslim Australians

The welfare and future of asylum seekers in Australia have been very contentious contemporary issues. Findings based on content analysis of media releases in 2001 and 2002 reveal the unrelentingly negative way in which the federal government portrayed asylum seekers. While the government's negative tenor was constant during the study period, the specific terms of reference altered, from 'threat' through 'other', to 'illegality' and to 'burden'. The negative construction of asylum seekers was clearly mutable. Analysis of newspaper reporting during the same period indicates that the media largely adopted the negativity and specific references of the government. The media dependence upon government statements and spokespersons in part explains this relation. The findings generally support the 'propaganda model' that holds a pessimistic view of the news media's critical abilities. However, the media departed somewhat slightly from the government's unchanging stance following some key events and revelations. Clearly, there is scope for disrupting the flow of negative constructions from government to media, and ultimately to audiences.

This review of literature on anti-racist prosocial action points to the strong and largely untapped policy potential of bystander anti-racism. Bystander anti-racism is conceptualized as action taken by "ordinary" people in response to incidents of interpersonal or systemic racism. The utility of bystander anti-racism is also demonstrated, with evidence suggesting productive effects for targets and bystanders, as well as perpetrators. The relative merits of confrontational or diplomatic action are reviewed, as is the delicate balance between communicating disapproval and maintaining interpersonal relations. The potential of bystander anti-racism will be enhanced where there are social norms that are intolerant of racism. The literature has paid little attention to the influence of context or to affective drivers of bystander anti-racism. We recommend changes to AshburnNardo's five-stage Confronting Prejudice Model, to better facilitate anti-racism policy and practice. The additions adapt the model to organizational settings, and more strongly acknowledge the importance of social norms and contexts, as well as the specific functions of racism. Through these changes, there is a scope to increase the prominence of bystander anti-racism as a vital element of anti-racism policy.Racism can be broadly defined as a phenomenon that maintains or exacerbates avoidable and unfair inequalities in power, resources, or opportunities across racial, ethnic, cultural, or religious groups in society. Racism can be expressed through beliefs (e.g., negative and inaccurate stereotypes), emotions (e.g., fear

The negative constructions of Islam which circulate at (inter)national levels include Muslims as fanatical, intolerant, militant, fundamentalist, misogynist and alien. The various constructions of Islam had varying utility for mosque opponents in Sydney, Australia, during the 1980s and 1990s. Fanaticism and intolerance are constructions of Islam which have now had centuries of articulation in the West. These constructions have attained great potency as a result of their reiterative deployment. In Sydney, they were used to influence planning determinations and political decisions within local authorities. The charges of militancy and misogyny did not easily convert into a planning ground for opposing a mosque, but they were used to heighten public unease and widen opposition. Local authorities also refused development consent for mosques on the grounds that the proposals were 'out of character' with surrounding development, drawing on the construction of Muslims as alien and ultimately out of place. The discourses of opposition to mosques did not simply rely on the stereotypes of Islam, but also drew heavily on cultural constructions of what constituted a local citizen and the local community. Mosque supporters attempted to deploy counter-constructions, of Muslims as moderate, tolerant, peaceful, clean living, family-orientated, ordinary local citizens. A social construction approach is used to examine the politics surrounding mosque development in Sydney. This reveals both the socio-spatial impacts of identity constructions (of a minority group and the imagined dominant community) as well as the important role of space and locale. Copyright Royal Dutch Geographical Society 2001.

The threshold photochemistry of methylamine along three dissociation channels is examined using CASSCF and MRSDCI wave functions. Excitation of a nitrogen lone pair electron into a Rydberg s orbital produces an excited state that can decompose via NH rupture, CN rupture, or CH rupture. In the case of NH and CN rupture the excited state and ground state surfaces cross as the molecule dissociates, forming a conical intersection. The NH rupture excited state products lie above the excitation energy, and so dissociating molecules are funneled through the conical intersection and emerge as ground state products. The CN rupture excited state products lie below the excitation energy, and dissociation would proceed mostly on the excited state surface. In the case of CH rupture, the excited state products lie above the excitation energy, but since there is no conical intersection in this channel, CH rupture has to occur only after internal conversion to the ground state. These three mechanisms are all consistent with recent experimental evidence.

The Woodward–Hoffmann forbidden dissociation of tetrahedral N4 to 2N2 has been explored at several levels of ab initio molecular orbital theory. In Cs symmetry, both reactants and products belong to the A′ representation but have different orbital occupancy at the restricted Hartree–Fock (RHF) level. The minimum in the seam of crossing between the reactant and product RHF potential energy surfaces provides a qualitative estimate of the transition state. With a multiconfigurational wave function, this becomes an avoided crossing with a true transition state. The barrier to dissociation at our best level of theory is 63 kcal/mol.

Transnationalism has become a popular concept within migration studies and human geography. A series of concerns have been raised about the early use of the term, mostly prompted by an exaggerated characterisation of mobility. Adopting an embodied approach to the study of transnationalism is a powerful corrective to the dangers of exaggerating mobility and footloosedness. When the scale of analysis is upon migrants rather than migration fl ows, and upon transnationals rather than upon transnationalism, a much more complicated and realistic picture emerges. Transnationals are simultaneously mobile and emplaced. And the extent of choice and compulsion (of both mobility and sedentariness) is uneven across racialised axes, birthplace, gender, and disability. At the embodied scale the affective and emotional geographies of transnationalism are more palpable. Importantly, an embodied analysis of transnationalism reveals the ever-present valency of place.