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Feeding the Margins: Disability and Food Sovereignty in the Majority World
(Dublin University Press, 2026-10-29) Pillay M; Jagoe Sherman C; O'Reilly CF
This chapter argues that the right to food is meaningless without the capability to eat, and that this capability is structurally denied to persons with disabilities in the Majority World. Drawing on Amartya Sen's capability approach, Frantz Fanon's analysis of coloniality, and de Sousa Santos's account of epistemicide, swallowing disability is reframed not as a clinical anomaly but as a political-economic outcome shaped by colonial spatial planning, structural adjustment, food-system deregulation, and neocolonial workforce distribution. In KwaZulu-Natal, 91% of disabled people live in food-insecure households; in Aotearoa New Zealand, similar patterns mark Māori and Pacific populations as Majority-World citizens within a settler-colonial Minority-World state. These are not separate clinical problems — they are the same political problem made visible across Majority World contexts. The chapter introduces THRIVE (Tackling Hunger with Research and Innovation in Vulnerable Environments), a decolonial praxis framework developed in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. THRIVE rests on four pillars. Pillar 1 (Food Production) operationalises indigenised, dysphagia-safe food through One Home One Garden initiatives and pharmacy farms. Pillar 2 (Food Preparation) applies molecular gastronomy to community kitchens — the Robin Hood Strategy. Pillar 3 (Con-Texture) contextualises the IDDSI classification system for indigenous foods, validated through embodied, sensory knowledge held by community health workers. Pillar 4 (Primary Care Risk Management) relocates choking prevention and aspiration response training from the urban hospital to the household, school, and clinic. THRIVE is not a service-improvement model. It is an onto-epistemological intervention: epistemic relocation from the credentialed expert to the family caregiver, from the clinic to the kitchen. Its guiding ethos is Decolonising Deliciousness; the insistence that safety, pleasure, and political sovereignty are inseparable. Safe eating, in this frame, is a political act: the right to food becomes coherent only when the capability to eat is collectively defended as both clinical and political work. The swallow is never just a swallow. It is where food sovereignty, disability justice, and environmental injustice converge. A framework, called THRIVE; which stands for Tackling Hunger with Research and Innovation in Vulnerable Environments; positions food insecurity as politicised: a question of who reaches food, and who possesses the capability to benefit from it. In this chapter, the argument is straightforward: the right to food means nothing without the capability to eat, and that capability is structurally denied to persons with disabilities in the Majority World (Alam, 2008). This term, Majority World, reframes the “developing world” as home to the majority of the world’s population, challenging the marginality implied by terms like Third World or Global South. Crucially, the Majority World includes indigenous and marginalised populations within the Global North (Pillay & Kathard, 2018). The Global North/South binary originates in the Brandt Commission's North–South: A Programme for Survival (1980) as an economic classification of high- and low-income economies, displacing the politically loaded First/Second/Third World schema. Its limitations are well documented: the binary obscures stratification within both regions, and an income-based frame inadequately captures the epistemic, political, and historical dimensions of global inequality. This chapter therefore adopts Majority World (Alam, 2008) foregrounding population share over income, and Minority World as its counterpart, while retaining Global North/South only where directly cited.
Artificial intelligence as a cultural adaptation scaffold: Experiences of Asian international students at Chinese universities
(MDPI, 2026-11-01) Li M; Wang M; Zhou Z; An Y
Growing international student mobility, particularly intra-Asian flows to China, has intensified the need to support Asian international students’ cultural adaptation amid linguistic, academic, sociocultural, and psychological challenges. This study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is used and perceived as a resource for such adaptation in Chinese higher education. Drawing on Berry’s acculturation framework, Ward and Kennedy’s dualprocess model, and Deardorff’s and Byram’s intercultural competence theories, the study employed a qualitative interpretivist design. Semi-structured interviews with 37 Asian international students from 11 countries enrolled at five universities in Yunnan Province, China, were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Participants perceived AI as multidimensional adaptation scaffolding supporting academic adjustment, language mediation, sociocultural navigation, emotional well-being, and intercultural learning. They also reported challenges including misinformation, algorithmic bias, over-reliance and uneven AI literacy. Institutional factors—particularly the absence of clear policies, training and instructor guidance—further shaped how useful and safe they found AI to be. The study positions AI as a mediating resource in participants’ reported acculturation experiences and proposes multidimensional adaptation scaffolding and the dependency paradox as sensitising concepts. It underscores the need for culturally responsive AI literacy initiatives and institutional support systems to maximise perceived benefits while mitigating reported risks in international higher education.
Improving our knowledge of snow leopard behaviour (Panthera uncia) through close encounters and enclosure utilisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Zoology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2026) Moss, Phoebe Grace
There is currently limited information on the behaviour of snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in wild or captive environments, or on the influence of close encounters on behaviour in captivity. This limits the ability of facility managers to design and evaluate habitats that fulfil the behavioural needs of captive animals, or to design and evaluate appropriate close encounter or enrichment strategies. The present study aimed to evaluate the behaviour of two snow leopard sisters (Asha and Manju) at Te Nukuao Wellington Zoo in response to the introduction of close encounters (Chapter 2) and to develop detailed behavioural time budgets and characterise habitat utilisation (Chapter 3). To evaluate the effects of encounters on behaviour, continuous video recordings from 12 encounter days (three per week over four consecutive weeks) were analysed according to a pre-defined ethogram, for the periods 1 hour before (immediately before guests' arrival), during (while guests were present), and 1 hour after (immediately after guests left) encounters. Behavioural time budgets were calculated from continuous video recordings over 12 separate days (four days per week from weeks 1, 3, and 5, including 2 encounter and 2 non-encounter days per week) using the same pre-defined ethogram. In addition, the cat’s location in the habitat was recorded (based on pre-defined grids). The cats’ behaviour differed during and after encounters, and with different enrichment presentations. Both cats spent more time interacting with hanging enrichments than with other presentation types. The percentage of time spent inside the dens (where enrichment was presented) before and after the encounters differed between cats, possibly reflecting differences in response to/anticipation of guest presence. Furthermore, Asha’s time spent interacting with the enrichment increased over the four weeks, whereas Manju showed no such trend. The behavioural time budgets and habitat utilisation were similar among both cats. Both cats spent a large proportion of time inactive, which is consistent with previous data from wild and captive felids, with the largest proportion of their time spent in the flat, elevated sections of the habitat. This research is the first to characterise snow leopard behaviour in response to the introduction of close encounters. Presenting food enrichment in hanging format increased the time spent interacting, possibly mimicking natural hunting behaviours. Future research should evaluate behaviour over a longer period to account for any acclimation effects. Although there were broad similarities between the cats in their behavioural time budgets and habitat utilisation, the identification of individual differences in some behaviours highlights the importance of considering and characterising behaviour at the individual level when designing and evaluating enrichments and close encounters.
“It’s been a good life” : a relational ecology of becoming in Otapiri, Aotearoa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2026) Frampton, Elizabeth
Near the end of his life, Malcolm, a rural Southland farmer, told me: "It's been a good life." Not long after, he died. This thesis asks what makes a life ‘good’ to the person who lived it, while exploring the researcher's responsibility when that person can no longer explain what they meant. What began as research into rural community change evolved over time into an inquiry into the conditions through which a life remains meaningful across profound transformation. Through oral life history and a relationship that deepened into friendship, I trace how Malcolm’s sense of a ‘good’ life was sustained – not through individual accomplishment, but through care accumulated slowly, redirected when worlds shifted, and dispersed into futures he would never inhabit. Drawing on Bourdieu, Tronto, Hage, and Biehl & Locke, I develop an analytic lens I call a ‘relational ecology of becoming.’ This lens attends to how dispositions rooted early – through family, place, and more-than-human relations – are sustained, and then reassembled as fields and viability transform. By using metaphors formed through the relationship and place – the rooting tree, the mycelial substrate, and the kererū – I argue that care is not lost through rupture, but is creatively reassembled and dispersed. These metaphors serve as analytic tools for understanding a life that remains unfinished: one where care persists beyond the individual, regenerating new growth in the wake of shifting worlds. Following Malcolm's death, the thesis also becomes an examination of the ethical afterlife of carrying a life story forward. It explores how obligation, grief, and relational asymmetry shape what can be told when direct reciprocity is no longer possible. The 'good life' that emerges in this story is relational and unfinished – a condition not of lack, but of continuation. It persists in recovering wetlands, trees not yet grown, and practices of care carried forward by others beyond the lifespan of the person who began them.
The effects of authentic leadership on worker engagement : investigating the roles of basic psychological need satisfaction and psychological capital in military and emergency services : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in (Psychology) at Massey University, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2026) Brent, Alaina
Organisations are continuously in pursuit of improvement, whether that is regarding increased efficiency or profit, stronger outputs, enhanced outcomes, higher levels of wellbeing, or increased sustainability. However, these improvements rely on the people within the organisations making it happen. Research has shown that there is a strong link between leadership and worker engagement and explicitly between authentic leadership and engagement. However, the topic remains convoluted and mostly unexplained with very little research investigating specific pathways. This dearth of knowledge inhibits any pragmatic response to how organisations should be developing their leaders or increasing worker engagement. There is an even larger gap in research dedicated to exploring these pathways within emergency services and military fields even though the hierarchical nature of these industries generates a heavy reliance on leadership to produce desired outcomes. This study aimed to address this by examining how authentic leadership is related to engagement through basic psychological need satisfaction and psychological capital and investigated the possibility that neuroticism plays a moderating role. Two hundred and nine employees working in emergency services or military organisations were surveyed using an online survey and the data gathered was used to conduct several regression analyses to test the hypothesised models. The study revealed that authentic leadership was positively associated with basic psychological need satisfaction and worker engagement. It showed that need satisfaction was positively associated with psychological capital which was shown to be positively associated with engagement. It also revealed that need satisfaction and psychological capital sequentially mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and worker engagement. Neuroticism, however, was not a significant moderator of neither the relationship between authentic leadership and engagement nor between psychological capital and worker engagement. This research serves as an important exploratory step towards assisting the field in demystifying the role that authentic leadership may play in increasing and maintaining sustainable worker engagement. Equally, it goes towards enabling clearer direction for organisations in military and emergency services sectors wanting to develop more robust, outcomes focused programmes that improve engagement through leadership development.