Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Fields of Research – 220000 Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts-General'

The main theme of this study is to form a culturally appropriate approach to music therapy concepts from a Maori perspective that could be inclusive and accommodate both Maori and Tauiwi (non-Maori) Rangatahi (adolescents) in health care settings. In order to provide a descriptive account of the holistic aspects of introducing Maori musical concepts in a music therapy setting a qualitative design was employed. The study draws on my personal journal entries, an interview with Kaumatua (Maori respected elders) regarding the appropriateness of introducing and altering traditional Maori musicality to accommodate the patient’s needs and a case study involving the Haka as a music therapy intervention strategy with a young Maori patient diagnosed with schizophrenia. My findings show that as a music therapist consultation with Kaumatua regarding anything related to Maori cultural aspects was essential. I also found that when working with a Maori Rangatahi who is immersed in Maori culture, it created an atmosphere of containment, familiarity, enjoyment, engagement and an environment that facilitated the achievement of therapeutic goals. Te Whare Tapa Wha Maori mental health model is well suited as a music therapy assessment tool to the characteristics of the physical, emotional, spiritual and family context of the Haka. I also found that Tauiwi music therapists wishing to introduce cultural elements must first learn about Maori culture and the people in order to confidently understand the music. Tauiwi Rangatahi may also benefit from the introduction of Maori musicality as a therapeutic means by being an inclusive member of the community and the positive psychological effects. For example, Rangatahi benefited from learning the proper pronunciation and meaning of the Haka, which in turn gave them a sense of achievement. I also found that some Maori protocols fit well with the protocols of music therapy, such as the beginning and endings with a hello and goodbye song.

This thesis is concerned with creativity as an object of educational governance and a category of subjective identification. It studies a ‘creativity explosion’ in higher education in New Zealand, focusing on how fashion design students are being mobilized as subjects of creativity through ‘joined up’ modes of governance and technologies of educational choice. Using a poststructural ethnographic ‘methodology’ I explain how, from the late 1990s, models of educational governance began to appear dysfunctional and unable to deliver the attributes and capacities expected of citizens in a knowledge economy. I argue that creativity gained significance as a result of new ways of ‘thinking culture and economy together’. Neoliberal rhetorics representing creativity as flexible human capital and a generic, transferable skill needed by workers in the new economy, were articulated with liberal humanist notions about creativity, which are commonly understood and performed through the social categories of art. All kinds of individual and institutional actors took advantage of these shifting opportunity structures to position themselves with ‘creative’ identities. Within various cultural organisations, including universities, moves to strengthen a liberal agenda and retain creativity as a form of ‘arts knowledge’ with high cultural capital, rubbed up against counter-hegemonic strategies to enlist and develop more universal concepts about creativity as a collaborative endeavour, vital to new forms of capitalist enterprise. By historicising the context in which a new ‘normative doctrine’ of creativity has emerged, and by treating its theorisation as culturally performative, I develop the position that fashion design graduates, as ‘creative girls’, are highly productive performers in the new categories of cultural economy. However I argue that the creative girl occupies a subject position fitted to after-neoliberalised social and economic arrangements, not because she is shaped by neoliberal ideologies, but because she is made up by techniques and tactics of an ‘after-neoliberal’ governmentality. This demonstrates the mutual constitution of ‘creative economy’ and ‘creative persons’ and underlines the fact that despite after-neoliberal ambitions for managing education, there can be no simple cause and effect relation between higher education and economic performance.

Urbanization has destroyed and fragmented previously large areas of natural habitat. Small remnants that still exist in numerous cities will be unable to sustain many viable wild plant populations if they do not expand into the surrounding urban matrix. Residential gardens surrounding such remnants, and which form a significant component of urban green space in many cities, could play a role in redressing this problem. Riccarton Bush, a 7.8 hectare forest remnant, and its surrounding suburban residential area, in Christchurch, New Zealand, is a good example. Over 125 years the reported number of native vascular plants in the bush has declined by a third. My study was an attempt to understand: 1) the ecological, social and cultural factors influencing the dispersal and regeneration of 12 native bird-dispersed woody species from Riccarton Bush, into surrounding residential properties; and 2) the potential role residential properties could play in the future of the bush. To examine these diverse factors I adopted an interdisciplinary research approach combining methodologies, concepts and theories from ecology and the social sciences. In a broader context my work was an attempt to demonstrate how urban ecology can further develop and strengthen by adopting and integrating new methodologies, theories and concepts. The ecological component involved recording individuals of the study species found on 90 randomly selected properties within a 1.4 km radius of the bush. Soil samples were also collected from 31 of those properties and placed in a glasshouse and the study species that germinated were recorded. Results showed some species, particularly kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides), the most abundant species in the bush, are being dispersed and establishing on properties predominantly within 250 m of the forest margin. These juveniles are not reaching maturity as most gardeners tend to remove all non-planted woody species. Qualitative interviews with 16 residents and a quantitative survey of the residents of 85 of the properties provided insights into the social context which these natural processes were operating. Using notions of place and performance I argue that gardens are continuously created and recreated by humans and non-humans. Residents attempt to create and maintain a garden that fulfils their individual and familial needs and desires (e.g., aesthetics, leisure and privacy), and public responsibilities such as ensuring they have a ‘neat’ and ‘tidy’ garden. This involves selecting plants for colour, shape and the care they require, and encouraging certain performances (e.g., flowering) while controlling other undesirable plants and performances (e.g. growth, spread and shading). While people make connections between native plants, belonging and identity; the ‘scientific’ demarcation between native and exotic species often becomes obscured as the garden is co-created by people and plants. Some plants become more significant than others but usually this is attributable to their performances rather than whether they are native or exotic. Residential gardens have the potential to play a major role in the conservation of species restricted to urban remnants. My research suggests that although the potential exists for woody species restricted to Riccarton Bush to naturally regenerate in nearby gardens, this will not happen without human intervention. Plants will need to be eco-sourced and propagated to avoid detrimental impacts on the genetic health of remnant populations, and then actively planted in gardens. The success of such planting initiatives will be increased by providing residents with information about the plants that are suitable for their performative needs and desires (e.g., the size, colour, and maintenance requirements of plants) and, most importantly, control over the location of plantings. In concluding, I argue that by adopting new concepts, theories and methodologies, the productivity, creativity and relevance of urban ecology can be significantly enhanced.

In many ways, coastal marine resources have provided an important source of protein, income and even employment for coastal rural Solomon Islands communities. Fishing, for instance, has always played a very important role in these communities' culture and tradition. Subsistence fishing is traditional in most rural coastal communities. Small-scale fishing is also wide-spread. Traditionally marine areas and resources were managed by the custodians of the adjacent land and the traditional leaders in some local communities. While small-scale fisheries are managed by the Government, much of the enforcement responsibility is in the hands of the community leaders, given the realities of what that Government can provide. This research has explored the interaction between rural coastal livelihoods and marine resource management under Customary Marine Tenure (CMT) in one area of Temotu Province, Solomon Islands. Specifically the research seeks to explore, explain and describe how the livelihoods of the rural coastal villagers influence the use, access and management of marine resources and vice versa. Particular attention has been given to: first exploring the traditional marine resource management under CMT and livelihoods in the three villages; second, how the changes in the villagers' livelihoods system affects the customary marine resource management in the three case study villages; third, how changes in customary marine resource management influences the livelihoods of the villagers and finally the nature of the relationship between livelihoods and customary marine resource management is described for the first time for this part of the Solomon Islands. The research results showed that villagers' livelihoods have changed over the past decade and much of these changes have affected the customary marine resource management in the three case study villages. Consequently, customary marine resource management under CMT is no longer effective. The changes in customary marine resource also have implications on the villagers' livelihoods. For this reason the study argues that when trying to understand the factors affecting customary marine resource, the entire livelihoods system of the people should be considered. The study states that the nature of the interactions between livelihoods and customary marine resource management is a two-way relationship, dynamic and very complex. Should there be further marine resource development, the study suggests that understanding the livelihoods of the people concerned is important for better management.

This thesis explores how stakeholders in Mongolian rural development projects interpret the concept of 'participation'. While previous research has provided an ethnographic snapshot of participation in rural development projects, none has yet focused on Mongolia – a post-socialist nation that receives significant amounts of foreign aid. To gain a holistic picture of 'participation', this study explores: how stakeholders understand participation; what stakeholders perceive and prioritise as the benefits of participation; and which factors motivate or inhibit participation. This study's methodology involved an inductive, qualitative approach with a multiple case study design. Three Mongolia rural development projects, each with objectives of poverty-reduction and participation, were selected from three different development organisations and interviews were conducted with different stakeholder groups: development organisation managers, field staff, and local people of the project sites (participants and non-participants). The results of this study revealed a dominant or 'Mongolian' understanding of 'participation' existed across the various stakeholders: 'Participation is local contributions of group labour and information for material benefits, within a top-down authoritarian structure (including local institutions)'. This understanding arose from development organisations' emphasis on efficiency and sustainable results and local people engaging with the project as a normative livelihood strategy. In this study, given the incidence and nature of rural poverty, stakeholders prioritised the tangible benefits of participation over the intangible and linked empowerment to tangible outcomes. Development staff prioritised the longer-term tangible benefits (food security and income), and to ensure their sustainability sub-benefits were provided sequentially, mental capital, then physical capital, with social capital built naturally through the project's formal and informal activities. In contrast, local people prioritised the manifest tangible benefits, which initially meant the physical capital gifted by the project, and then later the material outcomes of the new livelihoods. While development staff envisioned intangible benefits as important in their own right, for Mongolian participants they were a gateway to the project's tangible outputs. Four prominent intangible benefits emerged: knowledge/mental investment, 'power within', social connections, and involvement in groups – each uniquely valuable within the Mongolian context. The results also showed that the factors which shaped participation reflected the unique circumstances of rural Mongolia and each project's activities. Economic rationality appeared as the foundational incentive for participation, followed by social motivations that included: widespread, detailed, and positive information about the project; the perceived power, leadership, and organisational skills of the development organisation; a deep personal relationship between development staff and local people; and rurally-oriented seminars and workshops. The major barriers to 'Mongolian' participation included: a lack of opportunity or incentive to participate; the current situation of poverty and unemployment; Mongolia's governance structures, culture, and history; the geography of isolation; the development organisation‟s procedures; and the dynamics of project 'groups'. Moreover, the results indicated that projects which require higher levels of local participation, i.e. decision-making, may face more fundamental obstacles because of the cultural value placed upon top-down, authoritarian leadership and a prevailing mentality of dependence. Based on these results, this study concludes that interpretations of participation arise out of field-level realities, and thus the level of participation incorporated into development projects needs to reflect the local culture, context, and history.

When the New Zealand Government restructured the system of the public funding of research (1990-1992) it created Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) as companies operating in a global, market-led economy. One CRI, AgResearch, responded to this environment by corporatisation and instituted a normative system of control of workers which, through strategic plans, vision and mission statements, and performance appraisal processes, encouraged workers to adhere to company goals. This thesis, reporting on an ethnographic study of this CRI, shows how most scientific workers (technical workers and scientists alike) experienced insecurity through estrangement because the contributions they wished to make were less valued both in society and in their work organisation. They were excluded from participation in both organisational and Government policy-making, and felt they did not ‘belong’ anymore. Scientists in particular were also experiencing alienation (in the Marxist sense), as they were losing autonomy over the production of their work and its end use. Scientific workers developed tactics of compliance in order to resist these experiences and ostensibly comply with organisational goals while maintaining and protecting their self-identities, and making their work meaningful. Meanwhile, to outward appearances, the work of the CRI continued. This thesis adds to the sociology of work literature by extending the understanding of the concepts of compliance and resistance in white-collar work, particularly under normative control, by developing two models of resistance. It adds to the stories of the impact on public sector workers of the restructuring of this sector in New Zealand’s recent history, and develops implications for science policy and practice.

Visitor non-compliance with protective recommendations is a major problem faced by recreational managers within natural environments. Although many studies have been conducted on noncompliant visitor behaviour within natural resource areas, few attempts have been made to gain an understanding of the behaviour, or to understand the decision making process. This dissertation seeks to address this gap by exploring salient motivations behind noncompliant behaviour within a natural recreation setting. The study was conducted over the summer of 2007-2008 within the popular tourist attractions of Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, Westland National park, New Zealand. The Department of Conservation has a legal and increasingly a moral obligation to provide a level of service and ensure a high standard of visitor safety within lands it administers. However, despite its efforts, management actions are criticised as being ‘over cautious’, and consequently a large number of visitors choose to ignore hazard warnings communicated by management and cross safety barriers, placing themselves and others at considerable risk. Previous studies at the glaciers have identified a number of causes for visitor non-compliance, including situational factors and the adequacy of current visitor management procedures. Through a quantitative measure, and qualitative interview responses, study findings show that visitor compliance with protective recommendations was strongly influenced by a number of situational factors including the proximity of track end points from the glacier terminus; the visibility of other visitors beyond the roped barriers; modest hazard perceptions of visitors; estimated visitor age; time of day and weather conditions. Based on visitor interview responses, motives of non-compliance were further explored by classifying behaviour according to Gramann and Vander Stoep’s (1987) typologies of normative violations. It is identified, using Ajzen’s (1985; 1991) theory of planned behaviour, that non-compliance with protective recommendations at the glaciers is motivated by, (1) a ‘belief’ that the situation or resource encouraged it; (2), through a release of ‘social pressure’, because everyone else was going over; and (3), a ‘perceived facilitation of the behaviour’, in that there were no obvious consequences to self or others. Implications for management to control noncompliant behaviour are discussed in detail.

‘Rural restructuring’ has frequently been used to indicate the magnitude, and conceptualise the nature, of contemporary change in the countryside. Most notably, concern has focused upon the fundamental changes in economic and social organisation brought about by the increasing leverage of consumption-based activity as a path to rural development. By drawing on the relevant literature, however, I suggest in this thesis that the use of ‘rural restructuring’ as a conceptual framework has been inconsistent. The issue of scale is a case in point with scholars positioning their studies of rural change at varying levels of analysis. In response, I adopt Massey’s (2004) arguments about space and place to present an alternative model which considers ‘rural restructuring’ as a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process. To explore the feasibility of approaching ‘rural restructuring’ in this way, the thesis focuses, in particular, upon the development of rural tourism at five different scales. These comprise the national scale (New Zealand), the regional scale (Central Otago), the sub-regional scale (the Otago Central Rail Trail), the business scale (five business case studies) and the individual scale (five entrepreneurial case studies). Reflecting the exploratory nature of the study and its multi-scalar approach, I use a number of qualitative research methods. These include interrogating the promotion of New Zealand and Central Otago as tourist destinations, cycling along the Otago Central Rail Trail, staying at accommodation businesses along the Rail Trail, and interviewing individual entrepreneurs about their experiences of business development. The analytical chapters of the thesis comprise an in-depth look at the promotion or experience of rural tourism development at each scale of analysis. Through identifying inter-scale consistencies and emphasising the reciprocal basis of such consistency, I present ‘rural restructuring’ as a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process. Thus, I connect the national-scale targeting of the ‘interactive traveller’ to the promotion of Central Otago as a ‘World of Discovery’, before linking the development of the Otago Central Rail Trail to its regional context. I then investigate the nature of business development as intimately bound to the evolution of the Rail Trail, before finally tying these entrepreneurial creations to individual accounts of exhaustion and enjoyment that emerge from the operation of tourism businesses. The thesis ends by concluding that ‘rural restructuring’ can indeed be considered a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process, worked out simultaneously at wide-ranging but interconnected levels of change.

Since 1984, public service occupations in New Zealand have been subordinated to the over-determined bureaucratic structures of contemporary managerialism. The reactions of front-line public servants to New Management’s unfamiliar ‘market-place’ imperatives and the concomitant loss of occupational autonomy have received very little rigorous qualitative analysis. This study addresses that shortfall, taking as its cue a key question in the sociology of ‘profession’—what arouses or subdues the inclination of bureaucratised occupations to professionalise as a means of reclaiming autonomy? It explains the nature and meaning of strategies adopted by front-line practitioners in New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) to defend their marginalised work conventions and collegial culture. Symbolic interactionist analysis shows that profoundly personal values and beliefs connect vocationally motivated practitioners with their ‘mission’ (to conserve natural and cultural heritage). These powerful intuitive connections play a crucial role in subduing interest in resistance and organised strategic action, principally by converting conservation labour into the pursuit of personal fulfilment. Practitioners respond to managerial intrusions on their core work (the source of their fulfilment) by defending these personal connections rather than group interests. As a result of this introversion, perceptions of ‘community’ and occupational identity are disorganised and become a further reason for inaction. Practitioners resolve the conflict between self-interested pursuit of fulfilment and the altruistic goals of conservation by negotiating an unspoken bargain with DOC’s authority structures. The ‘pay-offs’ for deferral to managerial authority win the space to pursue fulfilment through immersion and conspicuous achievement in work, obviating the need for more concerted defensive action. Accordingly, managerialism has not acted as a professionalising catalyst for this group. NB: The abstract has been revised by the author in the electronic version of this thesis, since the print edition was published.

Bearing witness to tragedy, the aftermath of genocide often resides quite evidently within the landscape. A potent container of memories and representation, the landscape provides both a symbolic role in which to honour the victims and give survivors a place to mourn and remember, but is also often infused with the tensions of post-genocide life. The memoryscapes of the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides illustrate these contested concerns explicitly. The case study sites investigated in this study - the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre in Cambodia, and the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda - each express today (consciously or unconsciously) design strategies that engage the Euro-Western visitor. Termed Euro-Western ‘cues to connect’, encountered and existential phenomenological data is analysed in relation to design interpretation and the affective cognition of meaning. Finally, considered in relation to Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, post genocide memorialisation is analysed in its ability to connect through time and culture - through its ability to transpose interpretations and evolve as the needs of society change.

Customary land ownership, recording and registration are complex issues in the Solomon Islands. At present, 87% of the land is held under customary laws. Almost all (some 99%) of the land held under customary law is not surveyed, recorded or registered to the tribes. Customary land disputes have been inhibiting rural development initiatives, which is partly responsible for the ill-being of the people. The Family Tree Approach (FTA) is a process being used within the To'abaita region of the Malaita Province to help address problems in the dilemmas of land ownership, land disputes, land recording, land registration and rural development in land held under customary laws in To’abaita. The FTA is a blend of indigenous epistemology, modern practices and Christian principles. Indigenously, the tribes identify with their land by tracing their origins through genealogies, historical narrations, tribal epics and chants, shrines and properties. Rev. Michael Maelia’u, a Church Minister and a former Parliamentarian, promotes the FTA. The FTA has four pillars (principles) – recognition, reconciliation, recording and registration – which are covered within five sequential phases. For instance, recognition is done in phase one of the process, enabling all members of a tribe to recognize each other. Reconciliation is part of the process, promoting forgiveness and acceptance of tribal members. Recording is an important pillar of the FTA, as its role is to produce documents that will be accepted by the law. Research results show that land registration is also a pillar of the FTA; once customary land is registered to the tribes, land disputes will be resolved, thereby enabling sustainable rural development that improves the people’s well-being. The FTA, however, is currently not formally recognized in the country. It has been used by 12 of approximately 20 tribes within the To'abaita region. Some of the To'abaita tribes have not adopted the FTA for various reasons. The FTA has enabled the disintegrated generations to recognize or identify with one another. It enables public recognition of existing tribes, tribal genealogies, tribal tales, tribal epics, the tribal iii shrines, and the tribal land. Reconciliation has been carried out at both intertribal and intra-tribal levels. The FTA enables identification of people who are residing on land and utilizing resources they do not have a right to. It makes people aware of their roots or the land of their origin, which would then lead to reduced land disputes that constrained development initiatives and the well-being of the people. The results, however, indicated that the FTA has problems either in the approach itself or in its management. It is incapable of achieving its objectives (reducing land disputes, enable rural development, enable tribal land registration, and resettling land that was wrongly acquired). People have split perception of the FTA and the legislation; this therefore reduces potential motivation that is needed to advance the approach. Results of the research also indicated that no proper and serious documentation has been done, despite knowing that it is one of the pillars. In To'abaita, gender and culture are contributing issues, which cause difficulties to the FTA. Also, the FTA lacked financial support. Those that have experience with the FTA believe that the FTA objectives need to be made known to promote motivation to the illiterate people of To'abaita. Adequate communication of issues to improve the FTA is essential. Forming a committee that oversees the design and management of the FTA is necessary for its improvement, and adequate financial support will bring the FTA forward. Chief empowerment by the legislation is essential to enable the FTA to achieve its objectives in the future.

First-hand narrative accounts of participants’ experiences during outdoor programmes are notably absent from the outdoor education literature. This thesis reports on an exploratory study which applied a creative qualitative approach called photo-elicitation interviews to gather student accounts about the ways in which they experienced an outdoor education programme known as ‘school camp’. A group of Year 10 (14-15 years old) students attending secondary school in Christchurch, New Zealand, participated in this study, and were provided with 27-exposure, disposable cameras on which they were asked to take a series of photographs to demonstrate what a residential school camp was like for them. Follow-up, individual photo-elicitation interviews with the 32 self-selected respondents (21 female, 11 male), revealed that school camp is primarily an enjoyable, social experience where students are able to spend time with their friends and develop their peer networks in a unique environment. From the perspective of these students, school camp primarily contributed to developing a greater understanding of others, while developing greater understandings of the self and the environment were less salient. A greater understanding of others was achieved primarily through the ways in which school camp created an enjoyable, novel, experience which allowed students to see their peers from a different, more ‘real’ perspective. Aspects of this novel experience which contributed to students’ social interactions included the residential nature of these camps and the absence of ‘urban’ features associated with teenage culture such as mobile phones, clothing and make-up. Interestingly, students’ camp experiences included little specific reference to the natural environment; a finding which challenges recent discourses advocating for a shift towards a more critical outdoor education aiming to promote human-nature relationships. The use of photo-elicitation interviews in this context is critically examined. Providing students with cameras was an effective way to engage young people in academic research and to capture important aspects of the outdoor experience from their perspective. To better assess the utility of the technique, it warrants further application in other outdoor education contexts. The inclusion of participant-generated photographs, however, raises several research ethics issues. This study contributes to the growing body of qualitative literature seeking to provide a more in-depth understanding of outdoor education and complements the quantitative studies which predominate in the field.

Tourism has been increasingly used for, and directly linked with, rural poverty reduction in developing countries. In recent years, it has, however, been criticised by rural developers for its lack of concern for the rural poor and for being too increasingly focused on tourism specifically. Instead, it is argued that these inadequacies can be addressed by the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), a widely used organising framework for facilitating poverty reduction. But the application, and to an extent the principles, of the SLA may not fully fit the tourism situation, and vice versa. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding about the relationship between the SLA and tourism needs to be explored. This thesis incorporates a review of the literature on rural and tourism development. Gaps between the SLA and tourism are identified. It is suggested that the SLA cannot fully address the issues when tourism is used as a rural livelihood strategy. New knowledge and thinking are needed. Based on the literature review, a Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism (SLFT) is proposed as a guiding tool in rural development when tourism is a livelihood strategy. For testing the applicability of the SLFT, a mixed methodology and case study research method was adopted. Three mountainous rural villages, respectively at involvement, development and rejuvenation Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) stages, in central China, were examined. Before implementation of the case study, SLFT indicators were firstly developed. Findings show that the SLFT provides an overall organising framework for the consideration of rural development using tourism as a livelihood strategy at all stages of TALC. Revisiting the SLFT, it is argued that an additional attraction capital should be added to the SLFT. Attraction capital includes natural, cultural, and other attractions, and is defined as all resources used to attract tourist arrivals from which local people benefit for better livelihood objectives. Based on the findings, the SLFT and its key elements are revised to offer a more complete insight and understanding of a tourism livelihood system for the purpose of tourism planning and management. Particular attention is drawn to the newly introduced concept of institutional capital, mainly evidenced in community participation practice. Appropriate institutional policies and practices can ensure local people share the benefits from tourism. The implication of a participatory approach is extended to access to tourist markets, benefit sharing, as well as participation in the decision-making. This research indicates that improvement of livelihood assets by tourism enhances local people’s resilience to vulnerability contexts. Institutional arrangements play an important role in mediating this process as well as the impact of vulnerability contexts through the planning portfolio (e.g., planning, policy-making, and legislation). Future research is suggested to evaluate and improve the SLFT’s applicability in multiple development contexts, and to explore ways of further developing SLFT indicators as a means for evaluating the usefulness of the SLFT.

As the pace of life in contemporary Western society accelerates, an increasing number of people are engaging in an alternative lifestyle: ‘Slow Living’. Although popular in the media, Slow Living, which addresses issues of quality of life, is a relatively new area of academic enquiry. Given a lack of empirical research, especially on the realities of the Slow Life in a New Zealand context, this ethnographic study aims to augment the knowledge on this lifestyle by focusing on how families experience Slow Living. The key research question is: How do families live their interpretations of a Slow Life? To answer this question, this study examined the everyday lives of five Slow Living families in Canterbury, New Zealand. Adult family members were given a time-use diary to complete over two days. These diaries were then used as a foundation for in-depth interviews and participant observation. Slow Living families hold to a number of personal values, such as personal agency, conscious living and leading meaningful lives. These comprise their ideal way of living. The families are also faced with a number of challenges and have to employ strategies to balance their ideal and what is possible. The different ways families adapt produces a variety of Slow Living lifestyles.

The thesis argues that who we are, what we aspire to, and how we enact social and cultural practices are a result of the way we narrate stories about ourselves as both individuals and members of communities. The question ‘Who am I?’ is frequently answered with reference to what is important to us: our commitments and what we determine as good, valuable and right. Our identity is thus inextricably woven into our understanding of life as an unfolding story, bound by an ethical commitment to what we value. In this way, understandings of narrative and identity become part of the social and cultural context of education, drawing upon complex relationships between individual and community. It is through narrative that we construct truth about ourselves in relation to others. The central concern of the thesis is the interplay between the ‘capable’ child subject and various readings of texts that form the educational landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand: in curriculum documents with their emphasis on relationships, reciprocity, community, culture and language; and in policy documents with their emphasis on economic rationality. The thesis examines some important narratives that emerge from readings of these curriculum and policy documents, and the impact of those narratives on identity formation in early childhood education. Examined in turn are a liberal narrative, an economic narrative and a social narrative. Each of these narratives emphasises particular discourses and rationalities within education. The thesis finds these narratives inadequate to explain understandings of the self of early childhood education. The thesis argues that Ricoeur’s hermeneutical approach enables a range of narrative possibilities for early childhood education. The use of Ricoeur’s narrative theory in the thesis is twofold: a methodological approach for the study, and a critical exploration of the formation of ‘narrative identity’ (for both the individual and the group) through an examination of selected narratives. The thesis responds to the tensions of these narratives through Ricoeur’s understandings of ‘intersubjectivity’ and ‘just institutions’ and provides educators with an ethical framework by promoting Ricoeur’s understandings of the ‘good life’ and a ‘capable subject’.

This dissertation examines the films of David Cronenberg which all conduct a consistently thorough examination of the relationship between the ideologically constituted Cartesian subject and the disciplinary structures that surround, control and limit this subject. Cinema, because of the presence of both film form and narrative content, functions as a double articulation of this disciplinary activity. Each film’s narrative disciplines, on screen, the bodies contained within the plot, even as each film’s form disciplines both the way in which these cinematic bodies are delivered to an audience, and the way the audience’s own viewing practices are controlled and composed. Thus it becomes vital to explore the mechanisms implicated in these processes, and to gain an understanding of how Cronenberg’s cinema works to highlight and critique them. The primary assertion of this thesis is that Cronenberg’s work functions as a particular style of resistance to hegemony that Slavoj Žižek labels‘heresy’. For Žižek,heresy occurs not when one disobeys one’s ideological requirements, but when one over-fulfills them, thereby extending these ideological demands and disciplinary discursive structures out to a site of logical absurdity. In assessing and charting this territory, the thesis is constructed in the following manner. The first chapter,which outlines my methodology, applies itself to a brief examination of Cronenberg’s least discussed commercial feature (Fast Company). Chapter Two is concerned with charting the disciplines applied to the body in Shivers, Rabid and The Fly, while Chapter Three continues a focus on Cronenberg’s movement and play with framing devices as a means of subverting a stable spectatorial position, utilising eXistenZ, Spider and The Dead Zone as examples. Chapter Four explores the manner with which heretical adherence to a single ideological construction pushes the protagonists towards large-scale disciplinary violations, as detailed in Crash, M. Butterfly and Dead Ringers while the fifth chapter examines notions of discipline and recuperation is focused on Naked Lunch, Scanners and The Brood. A final sixth chapter compares Cronenberg’s most recent film, A History of Violence, with Videodrome in order to explore the changing face of his disciplinary ambivalence and its relationship to a broader cinematic industry.

Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities are being diagnosed with schizophrenia at significantly higher rates than majority groups all around the world. Aetiological literature reveals a wide range of causal explanations including biogenetic, social and cultural factors. A major limitation of this body of research is the assumption of schizophrenia as a universal syndrome. When viewed through an indigenous lens, experiences labelled schizophrenic by Western psychiatry have been found to vary from culture to culture in terms of content, meaning and outcome. The current project aimed to investigate Māori ways of understanding experiences commonly labelled ‘schizophrenic’. The philosophical frameworks that guided the research were Kaupapa Māori Theory and Personal Construct Theory. A qualitative approach was used and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 57 participants including tangata whaiora (service users), tohunga (traditional healers), kaumatua/kuia (elders), Pākehā clinicians, Māori clinicians, cultural support workers and students. Four categories were derived from qualitative thematic analysis. These being: making sense of the experiences, pathways of healing, making sense of the statistics and what can we do about the statistics. Overall, Māori constructions related to other indigenous constructions of mental illness and wellbeing cited in the international literature but were in stark contrast to current psychiatric constructions. The current project indicated Māori participants held multiple explanatory models for extra-ordinary experiences with the predominant explanations being spiritual. Other explanations included psychosocial constructions (trauma and drug abuse), historical trauma (colonisation) and biomedical constructions (chemical brain imbalance). Based on these findings, recommendations for the development of culturally appropriate assessment and treatment processes are presented. Over the last couple of centuries a single paradigm, the medical model, has come to dominate the explanation and treatment of illness in Western society. Via legal and political means, indigenous models of illness and wellness have been wiped out or forced to the margins of many societies. This thesis aims to challenge the dominant medical model that has privileged psychiatric knowledges while suppressing others by repositioning indigenous construction at the centre of the research via a Kaupapa Māori framework. Chapter One aims to deconstruct current medical constructions by presenting psychiatry as a culture in itself as opposed to a discipline dedicated to scientific truths. This chapter posits that the culture of psychiatry has lead many clinicians to suffer from “cultural blindness” when working with indigenous and ethnic minority groups. Chapter One uses the tools of science to question the scientific validity and reliability of the construct “schizophrenia”. I conclude that this construct is “unscientific” in itself. I will also look at three themes highlighted by other researchers regarding the treatment of mental illness throughout Western history: treatments are used as a form of social control; treatments can be dehumanising; and the dominance and power of the medical model to define who and what is considered ill. Chapter One also acknowledges the significant role of the consumer movement in developing more humane treatments. Interactions between culture and psychiatry via colonisation are outlined in Chapter Two. I also critique research that is conducted cross culturally in terms of whether researchers attempt to establish the reliability of universal diagnoses or recognise local and unique constructions. Chapter Two challenges the commonly cited finding of higher rates of schizophrenia for ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples by questioning the validity of foreign cultural constructs to explain indigenous forms of illness. This chapter recognises indigenous and cultural constructions of what psychiatry labels ‘schizophrenic’. To illustrate, three ‘culture bound syndromes’ will be discussed. The development of indigenous psychological paradigms is also presented to position the current research within this wider international movement. Chapter Three summarises Māori constructions of illness and wellness. This chapter predominantly draws from early anthropological literature and subsequent psychological studies to represent the resilience of Māori constructions of experiences commonly labelled schizophrenic. In accordance with the experiences of other indigenous populations, this chapter also recognises the impact of colonisation on Māori beliefs and practices relevant to maintaining wellness. To illustrate the effect of colonisation, disparities in statistics between Māori and non-Māori for admissions and readmissions to inpatients units for psychotic disorders will be discussed. Explanations for these disparities will also be outlined. Within Chapter Three, the resistance and revival of Māori constructions is also recognised as a function of the development of bicultural and Kaupapa Māori Services. Chapter Four, summarises the theoretical orientation of the research. This research is qualitative and assumes a post-modern critical paradigm. Two theoretical frameworks were used within this research (Kaupapa Māori Theory and Personal Construct Theory) to represent the two worlds in which the research was conducted (Indigenous and Western). Chapter Five outlines the methodology by recounting a somewhat layered journey. Within the first section, ‘Who am I’, I have positioned myself by sharing my journey towards conducting this project. The second section, ‘Where did I want to go’, outlines the research aims and process of consultation. The final section summarises ‘What I did’ in terms of qualitative interviews and the process undertaken for interpretation and presentation of the data. Chapter Six presents the results of the research according to the four categories developed from qualitative analysis. These were: ‘Making sense of extra-ordinary experiences’, ‘Pathways of healing’, ‘Making sense of the statistics’ and ‘What can we do about the statistics’. Within this chapter I have attempted to present quotes with as little interpretation as possible (over and above sorting of themes) to allow the reader to make their own interpretations before reading the discussion. Chapter Seven summarises the major findings from each category and relates the results to the national and international literature. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed with recommendations for future research. The limitations and strengths of the research are highlighted and conclusions drawn from the research journey. The plan for dissemination is also presented.

Degeneration of the striatum and striatal-frontal circuits are generally thought to cause most of the neuropsychological symptoms experienced in Huntington‘s Disease (HD). Advances in cortical thickness mapping (an automated MRI method for precisely measuring the cortical thickness across the entire cortex) provide a new technique for examining changes in the brain in HD. Recent studies using this technology have reported provocative results. They found significant cortical thinning in participants with early HD (Rosas et al., 2002; Rosas et al., 2008) and even in presymptomatic HD (Rosas et al., 2005). Moreover, cortical thinning was most prominent in posterior regions of the brain, with relative preservation of the anterior frontal regions. The present study replicated Rosas et al.‘s (2005) study but used a larger sample of presymptomatic HD participants (n = 19) and a control group matched for age, gender and education (n = 19). Presymptomatic HD participants were divided into two groups, PreHDclose and PreHDfar, based on their estimated proximity to clinical onset. The distribution of cortical thinning was assessed using an identical MRI method to previous cortical thinning studies with HD participants. Specific neuropsychological tests were used to assess cognitive and mood changes that may be associated with cortical thinning. It was hypothesised that cortical thinning would be more evident in posterior than frontal cortical regions. It was also hypothesised that presymptomatic HD participants would perform more poorly than controls on tests that are subserved primarily by specific posterior cortical regions, but not on tests that are subserved by anterior cortical regions. Lastly, it was predicted that poorer performance in the neuropsychological measures would be associated with greater thinning in cortical regions that are important during performance of these tasks. Consistent with predictions, the presymptomatic HD group showed regionally-specific cortical thinning which was most prominent in the posterior cortices, particularly around the right parieto-temporal-occipital (PTO) junction. Thinning occurred in people up to 15 years before clinical onset, with little to no thinning before that. The presymptomatic HD group, and particularly the PreHDclose participants, performed significantly worse than controls in 2 of the 6 cognitive tests that are subserved primarily by posterior cortical regions (the Judgment of Line iii Orientation test and modified Roadmap Test), but not in tests that are subserved primarily by frontal cortical regions. Correlational analyses showed a number of regionally-specific relationships between thinning and cognitive performance, although the distribution of these relationships did not generally support our region-of-interest predictions. The results contribute to a better characterisation of the cortical and neuropsychological changes that occur early in the development of HD, and provide tentative support for cortical thickness mapping as a valid and sensitive measure for assessing cortical changes in presymptomatic HD.

This research takes an autoethnographical approach to exploring the connections between being a nurse, doing nursing work, and experiencing a mental illness. Data is comprised of autoethnographical stories from 18 nurses. Drawing on Lyotard’s (1988) postmodern philosophy of ‘regimes of phrases’ and ‘genres of discourse,’ the nurses’ stories yielded three motifs: Nursing, Tangata Whaiora (people seeking wellness) and Bullying. Motifs are recurring topical, emotional and contextual patterns which have been created in this research by means of the formation of collective stories from the content of the nurses’ stories, artwork, fictional vignettes and poetry. Interpretation of the motifs was undertaken by identifying and exploring connected or dissenting aspects within and between the motifs. Using Fine’s (1994) notion of hyphenated lives, the spaces between these aspects were conceptualised as hyphens. The Nursing motif revealed a hyphen between the notion of the nurses as selfless and tireless carers, and the mastery requirements of professionalism. The nurses’ hope for caring, belonging, expertise and ‘goodness’ were also features of the nursing motif. The Tangata Whaiora motif revealed the hyphen between being a compliant patient and a self-determined person seeking wellness, and also foreshadowed the notion that the nursing identity does not ‘permit’ the dual identities of nurse and tangata whaiora. This research has found that nurses who have experienced, or are vulnerable to, mental illness negotiate a nexus of hyphens between societal, professional and personal expectations of the nurse. Ongoing unsuccessful negotiation of their identities is exhausting and leads to enduring distress. At times, negotiation is not possible and the nurse is immobilised in a differend of silence and injustice. At such times, the only resolution possible for the nurse is to leave the nursing profession. Bullying surfaced as a feature of the hyphen between the nursing and tangata whaiora identities, as well as being a part of each identity as colonising, silencing and/or discriminatory acts. Successful negotiation between and among the nursing and tangata whaiora hyphens requires a radical restructuring of the nursing image and culture across the education, workplace and personal/clinical areas. Three strategies are proposed for the discipline of nursing to achieve this change: transformatory education, a conscientisation programme, and mandatory emancipatory clinical supervision.

The Social Action by Youth (SAY) project provided participants with an opportunity to explore their hopes, celebrate their social identity and address their community concerns by creating participant designed and participant-led community-building and social action projects. The researcher worked in partnership with a community agency in a socially disadvantaged area of Melbourne. An appreciative inquiry approach to action research was taken with three local youth groups who became active co-operative inquirers. The first group of 16 year old school students designed and successfully undertook community-building projects in community arts, including: a drug-free underage dance party, a community theatre group, a student battle of the bands, children's activities in a cultural festival for refugees and designing an Aboriginal public garden. The group of same-sex attracted youth in a social setting chose to address heterosexism in the local community by the workshops and performances of their own drama scenarios at a teachers' forum on same-sex attracted friendly environments in schools. The third group, recently arrived refugee youth from the Horn of Africa in an educational bridging program, organised a celebratory day on their recent educational achievements with food, music and dancing. Participants reported alienation from their local neighbourhoods at the beginning of the research. However, through the process of appreciating their identity and successfully creating community projects, the participants in each group reported feelings of positive identity affirmation and being able to make a difference in their communities. Participants began a social transformation process of developing new positive narratives for an improved sense of community connectedness.