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    Political messaging, parliament, and people, or, Why politicians say the things they do the way they do : the Parliamentary Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand in 2013 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Bignell, Jessica Anne Copplestone
    One of the main things a Member of Parliament (MP) does in their everyday work is talk. They are constantly saying things to try to win over the public’s support and make the world they envision real. This thesis is about politicians’ statements: why they say the things they say the way they do. Based on behind-the-scenes ethnographic fieldwork in the parliamentary offices of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, I explore the difficult strategic work that shapes what opposition MPs say. In order to win over the public support they need to increase their vote, MPs have to communicate effectively in adherence to the rules and codes of political messaging, be good oppositional MPs, and speak and act in ways that fit authentically with their dispositions. I show that, unlike the simple soundbites we see in public from our politicians, the production of statements designed to win support is messy, indeterminate, uncertain, filled with tension and –above all – intensely complex. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice and analysis of the political field, I argue that managing that complexity to make political statements that aim at winning the political stakes and fit the specific situation, MPs must rely on their practical sense: their feel for the game that allows them to anticipate and shape the future state of play from the current situation. Because the language used to describe the world constitutes the social order that makes it real, this thesis examines how the three drivers of modern political communication, the structure of parliament, and the dispositions of individuals preconstrain what politicians can say and therefore the possibilities of the world MPs can aim at creating.
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    Living with tension : pursuing ecological practice in an Aotearoa/New Zealand eco-village : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Williams, Fraser
    This research explores the experiences of an eco-village in Aotearoa/New Zealand, called Whakatipu, as they pursued ecologically ethical lifestyles. I stayed in Whakatipu and undertook participant observation for a month, working alongside residents, and interviewed eighteen of the thirty-eight people who live there. I use Bourdieu’s theory of practice to analyse how eco-villagers pursued their ideals in practice, with the aim of ascertaining whether elements of their experience could help others, such as myself, pursue ecological living. A key concept from Bourdieu’s framework is habitus, which helps to describe the naturalized, strategic way-of-being in the world that eco-villagers had developed. My findings illustrate that despite having strong motivations for ecological living, and the economic capacity to embark on this project, eco-villagers were unable to achieve many of their ideals. A common statement was ‘sustainability is not possible.’ All eco-villagers faced challenges to their ability to achieve an ecological lifestyle, and had to make compromises. Different people made different compromises, which contributed to conflict. Such challenges existed, in part, because the societal context that Whakatipu was embedded in was characterized by a consumer-capitalist ideology that eco-villagers simultaneously rejected, but remained reliant on. Rather than considering themselves to have failed, eco-villagers developed a habitus that enabled them to move towards their ideal ecological lifestyle, despite their inability to completely achieve this lifestyle. These experiences demonstrate the need for context to be considered in discussing the efforts of individuals to put their values into action. Ecologically ethical living cannot simply be the result of individual action and responsibility. Furthermore, rigid conceptions of ethical ‘success’ or ‘failure’ do not account for the attempts of individuals, with diverse backgrounds and worldviews, to lead better lives in constrained circumstances. Ecologically ethical living at an individual level is not simply a matter of failure or success, but is better understood as efforts that create progress towards an ideal.