Browsing by Author "Henry, Matthew"
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- ItemAssembling the land of milk and money : the work of money in New Zealand’s dairy industry : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2023) Mouat, Michael JamesAcademic and media narratives about the New Zealand dairy industry have reinforced a portrayal which emphasises its steady, almost inevitable evolution into ‘the backbone’ of New Zealand’s export economy. In these narratives rising export revenues have been taken as proof of the valuableness of the dairy industry. However, in this thesis I argue that these currently prevalent understandings of the dairy industry uncritically accept a definition of money as just being a commodity that simply facilitates exchange and measures value. Drawing on my concept of moneyness, my thesis re-investigates money as a form of work and contributes to a different understanding of the dairy industry that re-narrates it as an effect of the way this money work practically assembles and reassembles sets of relations. My moneyness analysis highlights how previously inconspicuous relations became stabilised through the work of tax, loans, and shares, by following moments of controversy to where the way money and the dairy industry worked were practically changed. The work of tax shows how solving the problem of state revenue also translated value into other relations which made the early dairy industry valuable as a sterling accumulation machine. The work of loans shows how the dairy industry became creditable because of the way relations between the state, financial system and dairy industry have been maintained. The work of shares shows how overcoming various problems has arranged and re-arranged cooperative dairy industry value, making it stably commensurable with national value. The effect is to present a historical arc of New Zealand’s dairy industry as characterised by a dynamism that is locally arranged and historically adaptable. The thesis concludes that the creative practices of moneyness have continually stabilised the dairy industry, not in spite of disruptions but because of them.
- ItemBanal nationalism and New Zealand human geography : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Geography at Massey University(Massey University, 1999) Henry, MatthewNationalism has often been linked with the 'irrational other', and consequently, as a form of nationalist discourse, the routine articulation of national identities in 'Western' nations has often been overlooked. In order to uncover the routine nationalism of 'Western' nations the thesis draws upon the theoretical concept of 'banal nationalism' in combination with poststructuralist ideas of a performative subjectivity. Using this approach the thesis presents a discursive analysis of a series of human geography texts presented in the New Zealand Geographer between 1945 and 1990. During this period the thesis identifies a series of epistemological discontinuities in New Zealand human geography, partly reflecting New Zealand human geography's position vis-à-vis Anglo-American human geography. However, the thesis also identifies a common thread in New Zealand human geography, that reiterates human geography's relevance to 'the nation' Through the banal and rhetorical reiteration of 'the nation' in New Zealand's human geography discourse the thesis argues that New Zealand human geography has performatively constituted the New Zealand 'nation' as the unimagined context for social life. In this sense the thesis suggests that, rather than merely reflecting the social context in which New Zealand human geography is situated, through the performative unimagination of 'the nation', New Zealand human geography is a partly constitutive of that 'nation'. Consequently, the thesis notes that geographers need to maintain, and develop, a critical attitude towards the banal elements of social life, because it is through these banal elements that myriad forms of power are expressed.
- ItemTranslating biosecurity world-making : thinking with Mycoplasma bovis in Aotearoa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa(Massey University, 2023-12-12) McDonald, Deidre AnnAotearoa has one of the strictest biosecurity networks in the world and, at the same time, enacts one of the world’s most export-driven agricultural economies. It was into these dual assemblages that Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) first emerged, in July 2017, causing the (then) Biosecurity Minister to declare that M. bovis was Aotearoa’s ‘single biggest biosecurity event’. Consistent with this problematisation, and in a world-first manoeuvre, the government and farming industry bodies decided to try to eradicate the bacteria. This thesis tells the story of that eradication attempt and of M. bovis’ own attempt to fight back. This more-than-human research follows the network translation attempts of five key actors involved with M. bovis’ world-making. These are the eradicators themselves, the scientists enrolled in the programme, the farmers who were impacted by M. bovis (and by the eradicators), the cows who hosted the bacteria and M. bovis, the smallest living organism known to self-replicate. Together these network actors have enacted realities that are significant for the future of farming and biosecurity in Aotearoa. At the time of writing, the eradicators have almost succeeded in protecting and stabilising farming by Othering M. bovis from the network. In doing so, however, the eradicators have reterritorialised a pasture-based farming assemblage that is inherently fragile. Farming’s continual need for complex biological mobilities itself creates the need for ongoing biosecurity practices. Yet, as this thesis will show, these on-farm biosecurity practices are fundamentally incompatible with farming ontologies. There is a precarious misalignment between these two assemblages, each of which are vital for Aotearoa’s economic security. As to M. bovis’ bacterial world-making, this seems to be irrelevant to the human actors, despite their collective interest in non-human health. As a spokesperson for this M. bovis assemblage, I have tried to expose a series of ontological worlds. In doing so, my aim is to create a conceptual space for reimagining farming and biosecurity in Aotearoa.