Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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Subject: search.filters.subject.16 Studies in Human Society

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 24
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    When veiled silences speak: Reflexivity, trouble and repair as methodological tools for interpreting the unspoken in discourse-based data
    (SAGE Publications (UK and US), 2014-12) Morison T; Macleod C
    Researchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal silences or such things as laughter. We consider the analysis of veiled silences where participants speak, but their speaking serves as ‘noise’ that ‘veils’, or masks, their inability or unwillingness to talk about a (potentially sensitive) topic. Extending Lisa Mazzei’s ‘problematic of silence’ by using our performativity–performance analytical method, we propose the purposeful use of ‘unusual conversational moves’, the deployment of researcher reflexivity and the analysis of trouble and repair as methods to expose taken-for-granted normative frameworks in veiled silences. We illustrate the potential of these research practices through reference to our study on men’s involvement in reproductive decision-making, in which participants demonstrated an inability to engage with the topic. The veiled silence that this produced, together with what was said, pointed to the operation of procreative heteronormativity.
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    Sleep health in later life: Interviews exploring experiences, attitudes and behaviours of older people
    (Cambridge University Press, 21/04/2022) Crestani F; Williams G; Breheny M; Tupara H; Cunningham C; Gander P; Gibson R
    Sleep is vital for health and wellbeing across the lifecourse. Ethnic differences have been observed with regards to the prevalence and predictors of self-reported sleep problems. An understanding of sleep experiences with ageing and across ethnicities is required to better support older people. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 23 people living in Aotearoa/New Zealand aged 61-92 years (12 MAori and 11 non-MAori) concerning current sleep status, changes over their lifecourse and personal strategies for supporting good sleep. Participants typically expressed satisfaction with current sleep (usually pertaining to duration) or feelings that sleep was compromised (usually pertaining to waking function). Comparisons to a socially perceived 'ideal' sleep were common, with sleep transitions presented as a gradual and accepted part of ageing. Participants resisted medicalising sleep disruptions in older age. While participants were aware of ways to enhance their sleep, many acknowledged engaging in practices that undermined it. Unique insights from some MA ori participants indicated that sleep disruptions were not so readily pathologised compared to Western views and that sleeplessness could provide opportunity for cultural or spiritual connection. Common narratives underpinning the themes were: 'You don't need as much sleep when you're older', 'Sleep just fits in' and 'Having the time of my life'. Findings provide personal experiences and cultural interpretations relating to sleep and ageing. This provides the foundation for future participatory research to co-design sleep health messages which are meaningful for ageing well across ethnicities.
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    The limits of satire, or the reification of cultural politics
    (SAGE Publications, 15/02/2023) Holm N
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    Extent of E-Procurement Use in SMEs: A Descriptive Study
    (Elsevier, 31/12/2014) Hassan H; Tretiakov A; Whiddett RJ; Adon I
    Although e-procurement is a complex practice, a number of existing studies, however, simplified the representation of the state of e-procurement in an organization to a binary measure. Although this is helpful to understand adoption decisions, it does not completely capture the reach and richness of the use of information technology (IT) innovations. Hence, this study explores the extent of e-procurement use in New Zealand, focusing specifically on the range of e-procurement functionalities used in the manufacturing SMEs. The e-procurement functionalities are seen from the information and transaction perspectives. A crosssectional survey is used as a methodology for data collection. The SPSS software is used to analyse the data gathered from the 151 senior managers. Our results demonstrate that all of the functionalities, especially those that rely on commonly available technologies, are in use. Nonetheless, complex e-procurement technologies, such as e-auctions, are not common.
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    Estimating direct N2O emissions from sheep, beef, and deer grazed pastures in New Zealand hill country: accounting for the effect of land slope on N2O emission factors from urine and dung
    (Elsevier, 2015-03) Saggar SK; Giltrap DL; Davison R; Gibson R; de Klein CAM; Rollo M; Ettema P; Rys G
    Nearly one-half of New Zealand's ruminant livestock graze on hill country pastures where spatial differences in soil conditions are highly variable and excretal deposition is influenced by pasture production, animal grazing and resting behaviour that impact the nitrous oxide (N2O) emission factor from excreta (EF3). New Zealand currently uses country-specific EF3 values for urine and dung of 0.01 and 0.0025, respectively, to estimate direct N2O emissions from excreta. These values have largely been developed from trials on flat pastoral land. The use of the same EF3 for hill pasture with medium and steep slopes has been recognised as a possible source of overestimation of N2O emissions in New Zealand. The objectives of this study were to develop and describe an approach that takes into account the effects of slope in estimating hill country N2O emissions from the dung and urine of ruminant animals (sheep, beef cattle, and deer) across different slope classes, and then compare these estimates with current New Zealand inventory estimates. We use New Zealand as a case study to determine the direct N2O emissions between 1990 and 2012 from sheep, beef cattle and deer excreta using updated estimates of EF3 for sloping land, the area of land in different slope classes by region and farm type, and a nutrient transfer model to allocate excretal-N to the different slope classes, and compare the changes between these hill pastures-specific and current inventory estimates. Our findings are significant - the proposed new methodology using New Zealand specific EFs calculated from a national series of hill country experiments resulted in 52% lower N2O estimates relative to using current inventory emission factors, for the period between 1990 and 2012 and reduces New Zealand's total national agricultural N2O greenhouse inventory estimates by 16%. The improved methodology is transparent, and complete, and has improved accuracy of emission estimates. On this basis, the improved methodology of estimating N2O emission is recommended for adoption where hill land grasslands are grazed by sheep, beef cattle and deer.
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    Plastic Pollution as Waste Colonialism in Moananui
    (University of Arizona Libraries, 2022) Fuller S; Ngata T; Borrelle SB; Farrelly T
    Plastics pollution is a global, relational, integrated, and intersectoral issue. Here, we undertook narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with nineteen key plastic pollution decision-makers. They offered a contextual lens to understand challenges facing Pacific Island (Te Moananui) nations in preventing plastics pollution. We build on the work of Ngata (2014-2021) and Liboiron (2014-2021) to situate the narrative analysis within a "waste colonialism" framework. We argue that plastics pollution as waste colonialism transcends environmental, policy, and industry concerns. "Indigenous political ecologies" of plastics pollution provide an understanding by which plastics pollution prevention can be examined at multiple scales. These include, at the international level: trade agreements and import dependency, donor aid and duplication, and transnational industry influence. At the local level: pressure from local plastics manufacturers, importers and suppliers, and barriers to accessing the latest science. Located within a global and regional context, our findings capture the systemic and long-standing impacts of colonialism on Indigenous responses to plastics pollution prevention and management, highlighting its effects on human and environment health and wellbeing. Sustainable solutions to plastics pollution for Te Moananui require the centering of its peoples and their deep, lived, and intergenerationally transmitted knowledges in the identification of challenges and solutions, the implementation of activities, and amplification of a shared regional voice.
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    Transformation and time-out: The role of alcohol in identity construction among Scottish women in early midlife
    (Elsevier, 2015) Emslie C; Hunt K; Lyons AC
    Despite the increase in drinking by women in early midlife, little alcohol research has focused on this group. We explore how alcohol is associated with the construction of gender identities among women aged 30-50 years in the west of Scotland, United Kingdom. We draw on qualitative data from 11 focus groups (five all-female, six mixed-sex) with pre-existing groups of friends and work colleagues in which women and men discuss their drinking behaviours. Analysis demonstrated how alcohol represented a time and space away from paid and unpaid work for women in a range of domestic circumstances, allowing them to relax and unwind. While women used alcohol to construct a range of identities, traditional notions of femininity remained salient (e.g. attention to appearance, drinking 'girly' drinks). Drinking enabled women to assert their identity beyond the roles and responsibilities often associated with being a woman in early midlife. For example, some respondents with young children described the transformative effects of excessive drinking which allowed them to return temporarily to a younger, carefree version of themselves. Thus, our data suggest that women's drinking in early midlife revolves around notions of 'idealised' femininity but simultaneously represents a way of achieving 'time out' from traditional female responsibilities such as caring for others. We consider these findings within a broader social and cultural context including alcohol marketing, domestic roles and motherhood and their implications for health promotion.
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    Geostatistical determination of soil noise and soil phosphorus spatial variability
    (Elsevier Masson, 28/09/2017) Kaul TMC; Grafton MCE
    This research studies the effect of stratifying soil samples to try and find a suitable depth to establish a geospatial relationship for a practical soil sampling grid in New Zealand hill country. Cores were collected from 200 predetermined sites in grids at two trial sites at “Patitapu” hill country farm in theWairarapa, New Zealand. Trial 1 was a 200 m 100 m grid located in a gently undulating paddock. Trial 2 was a 220 m 80 m grid located on a moderately sloped paddock. Each grid had cores taken at intervals of 5 m, 10 m, or 20 m. Core sites were mapped out prior to going into the field; these points were found using a Leica Geo Systems GS15 (real time kinematic GPS) and marked with pigtail pegs and spray-paint on the ground. Cores were taken using a 50 mm-diameter soil core sampler. Cores were cut into three sections according to depth: A—0–30 mm, B—30–75 mm, and C—75–150 mm. Olsen P lab results were obtained for half of the total 1400 samples due to financial constraints. The results indicate that there was a significant decrease in variability from Section A to Section B for both trials. Section B and C for Trial 1 had similar variability, whereas there was another significant drop in variability from Section B to C in Trial 2. Measuring samples below the top 3 cm appeared to effectively reduce noise when sampled from 3 to 15 cm. However, measuring from 7.5 cm to 15 cm on the slope in Trial 2 reduced variability so much that all results were almost identical, which may mean that there is no measurable representation of plant available P. The reduction in noise by removing the top 3 cm of soil samples is significant for improving current soil nutrient testing methods by allowing better geospatial predictions for whole paddock soil nutrient variability mapping
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    Can the commons be temporary? The role of transitional commoning in post-quake Christchurch
    (3/04/2019) Dombroski K; Diprose G; Boles I
    In recent work on commons and commoning, scholars have argued that we might delink the practice of commoning from property ownership, while paying attention to modes of governance that enable long-term commons to emerge and be sustained. Yet commoning can also occur as a temporary practice, in between and around other forms of use. In this article we reflect on the transitional commoning practices and projects enabled by the Christchurch post-earthquake organisation Life in Vacant Spaces, which emerged to connect and mediate between landowners of vacant inner city demolition sites and temporary creative or entrepreneurial users. While these commons are often framed as transitional or temporary, we argue they have ongoing reverberations changing how people and local government in Christchurch approach common use. Using the cases of the physical space of the Victoria Street site “The Commons” and the virtual space of the Life in Vacant Spaces website, we show how temporary commoning projects can create and sustain the conditions of possibility required for nurturing commoner subjectivities. Thus despite their impermanence, temporary commoning projects provide a useful counter to more dominant forms of urban development and planning premised on property ownership and “permanent” timeframes, in that just as the physical space of the city being opened to commoning possibilities, so too are the expectations and dispositions of the city’s inhabitants, planners, and developers.