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    The social considerations and emotions of parents in their COVID-19 vaccine decisions for their children in a risk society : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, distance, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024) Brownless, Emma Anne
    This study explores the social and emotional factors influencing Aotearoa New Zealand parents’ COVID-19 vaccination decisions for their children. While much of the literature on vaccine decision-making relies on quantitative data, my research takes a qualitative approach to explore the unique perspectives, experiences and relationships that shape parental vaccine choices. My thesis underscores the value of qualitative research in examining vaccine attitudes and understanding the complex and emotional nature of vaccine decision-making. Throughout the thesis, I reflect on my evolving understanding of the various vaccine beliefs and choices people make. This includes examining how my own feelings toward people who choose not to vaccinate have shifted, highlighting the role of emotion in social research. Through Ulrich Beck’s (1992) Risk Society theoretical framework, I examine how perceptions of risk, uncertainty, and trust in late modernity influence parents’ views on the COVID-19 Vaccine, particularly for younger children. My primary methodology was narrative inquiry. I conducted semi-structured interviews with parents, followed by a narrative analysis to capture their unique stories. The structure of the interviews and subsequent narrative analysis allowed me to explore the emotions, social relationships and experiences that influenced the participants’ COVID-19 vaccine decision-making. The narrative analysis was complemented by a thematic analysis to identify recurring themes and factors within the interview data and how they featured in the participants' vaccine decisions. My findings highlight the importance of understanding vaccine attitudes beyond the ternary of pro-vaccine, vaccine-hesitant and vaccine-resistant that is commonly depicted in the literature. Parents’ vaccine decisions are often fluid and context-dependent, shaped by emotion, social networks and experience. Emotions play a critical role in shaping how people interpret risk, a factor that Beck (1992) failed to consider. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, many of the participants saw the vaccine as a greater risk for their children than the virus due to the novel nature of the vaccine. The risk society lens allowed me to observe how parents are becoming increasingly sceptical of conventional experts, becoming confused by the multitude of “facts” available. This confusion increased their fear and anxiety about the vaccine for their children. Contrary to recommendations in the existing literature, my findings show that providing more information about the value and safety of vaccines to parents may be counterproductive. Information is not enough to overcome the emotions that parents feel when making vaccine decisions for their children.
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    Construction of health among the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh : a culture-centred approach : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Massey University, Manawatu, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023-12-21) Rahman, Md Mahbubur
    Rohingyas, the majority of whom are Muslims (followers of the religion of Islam) are the ethnic minority group of the Rakhine state of Myanmar, where they have lived for centuries. However, Rohingyas lost their citizenship rights through a state sponsored apartheid-like system in 1982 and since then they have been stateless. As a result of organised state-led persecutions and even genocide for decades, Rohingyas are now the largest stateless community of the world. It is estimated that around 3.5 million Rohingyas are now scattered throughout the world. Among them, only an estimated 600,000 Rohingyas are still living in Myanmar. However, the exact figure of Rohingyas in Myanmar is difficult to confirm. The largest group, more than 1.6 million Rohingyas, is in Bangladesh. The majority of the Rohingyas once living in Rakhine state of Myanmar fled to Bangladesh after the latest genocide perpetrated against them by the Myanmar authorities from August 2017 onwards. Most of the Rohingyas who fled from Myanmar are now living in 33 makeshift camps at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The Rohingyas have been living in the camps of Bangladesh for years without any citizenship rights or refugee status. In this thesis, the Rohingyas are deliberately designated as refugees as they fulfil all the conditions of refugees by various international laws. According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, "a refugee is defined as a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country or to return there because there is a fear of persecution" [Article 1(a)(2), 1951 Refugee Convention]. Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol and has avoided labelling the Rohingyas as “refugees.” Instead, Bangladeshi authorities refer to the Rohingyas as “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals” (FDMN) and do not afford them the right to work or freedom of movement. Rohingyas who fled persecution in Myanmar have reason to fear persecution if they return and so they have been staying in the camps for years. In the Bangladeshi camps, while the local authorities and international agencies barely manage to provide minimum basic needs, the Rohingya people suffer from a lack of provisions for long-term needs, such as adequate healthcare services and education. The current study explores various health issues concerning the Rohingya people living in 33 camps of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. To discover their health issues, the localised, lived experiences of Rohingyas have been studied to identify the current health policy approaches and interventions addressing their health needs. This research employs a Culture-Centred ethnographic data collection methodology, with 41 in-depth interviews including some Focused Group Discussions. Purposive and snowballing methods were used to identify and recruit the Rohingya participants. The researcher has applied the Culture-Centred Approach (CCA) to find out the Rohingya refugees’ health needs. The Culture-Centred Approach is a theory of health communication that works through centring culture along with structure and agency and believes the community should have a voice in defining their problems and finding solutions. This thesis argues that the construction of Rohingya healthcare services at the refugee camps of Bangladesh follow the top-down approach and the services are predetermined by the local authorities and international agencies. The Rohingyas are the passive users of all of their basic needs including the health needs. The voices of Rohingyas are not being heard and there is no attempt to hear them, even when critical decisions regarding their health and life are being made. From that point of view this thesis examines the lived experiences of Rohingyas living in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh through dialogical exchanges between the researcher and the Rohingya refugees. The findings suggest a theory of “looking from below” through the lens of culture, structure and agency that enables a better understanding of Rohingya health issues in the ground-level micro-practices. The study demonstrates that, given proper opportunities to take part in the decision-making processes, the Rohingyas can improve their health utilising the existing health care facilities of the camps. This thesis also advocates the Rohingya refugees’ participation in any community engagement process so as to enable a better life for them in the refugee camps with the limited infrastructures and minimum opportunities. This study also argues for greater Rohingya involvement in medical care to provide facilities that may address the localised, culture-based health needs of the refugee community.
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    Merry-Go-Sorry : an autoethnography of chronic illness : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023-09-02) Young, Megan
    Merry-Go-Sorry is an autoethnography of chronic illness. It seeks to embrace the depth and complexity of the lived experience of pain and fatigue as they move through the quotidian frustrations, joys, and challenges, as set against the social narratives which seek to fix, cure, pity, judge and quantify chronically ill bodies. This research is situated within the evocative style of autoethnography, which seeks to connect with the reader at both an intellectual and emotional level. To this aim, Merry-Go-Sorry uses creative non-fiction and visual arts techniques to enrich the narratives, including layered narratives, a braided essay, poetry fragments and figurative self-portraits. Methodological innovations are made by theorising the autoethnographic self as a textual character to support authorial reflexivity, and writing the personal story as an autoethnographic metasynthesis to illustrate how this methodology may talk with and to other texts. On a theoretical level, embodied pain is conceived as a non-linear wave like experience, and chronic fatigue as a form of amoral desire. Autoethnographic slippage in these stories are modified by the presentation of figurative portraits as an ethical and evocative way to evoke “thick performance”. Contributions to knowledge in this area include the addition of lived experience to the brachial neuritis literature, in understanding “embodied time” as important in pain, the cultural burden of shame in fatigue. Taken as a whole, this research broadens the understanding of chronic illness as a disruptive and disrupting experience, but one that does not equate an unwell body with a body that is in any way less whole.
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    An exploration of social construction of mental health : perspectives of Pakistani diaspora in Aotearoa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, Aotearoa, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Mughal, Mehwish
    The ‘Asian’ population in Aotearoa is growing significantly. Quantitatively, an increase of 26 per cent by the year 2043 is projected (Stats, 2022). Despite this increase, Asian health in Aotearoa is a neglected area of research (Chiang et al., 2021). Research suggests an urgent need to address the mental health concerns among Asian communities (Xia, 2021) but Asian mental health remains absent from the mainstream discourse. Research has also identified that Asian communities have unique ways of understanding and managing mental health, but these almost always are explained through Western constructs and conceptualisations. The purpose of this thesis is to move beyond western conceptualisations of health and well-being to examine the social construction of mental health among the Muslim Pakistani diaspora in Aotearoa – one subset of the Asian communities. Using a qualitative methodology of in-depth interviews with ten participants, this research examines how the Pakistani diaspora constructs mental health and how these constructions are influenced by culture and gender. This research showed that the Pakistani diaspora has a complex and nuanced way of socially constructing mental health that are tied to the dominant discourses prevalent in both Pakistan and Aotearoa. Participants predominantly drew on the biomedical discourse, the contemporary well-being discourse, and the religious-spiritual discourse. The research also shows that the concept of mental health is not static for Pakistani diaspora but instead it is constantly being navigated, negotiated and in some instances resisted. The research raises important questions about the dynamic social constructions of mental health among Asian communities in Aotearoa and its implications.
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    Healthcare and the oppression of sexual and gender diverse communities in Bangladesh : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the School of Social Work, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Khan, Kanamik Kani
    Since Bangladeshi society is socio-culturally and religiously conservative, sexual and gender diverse communities live with stigma, violence, and discrimination. One form of discrimination lies in the healthcare system. The purpose of this study is to investigate the healthcare experiences of these communities to depict the oppression they face, and to understand the continuing influence of colonialism and patriarchy that maintain this oppression. To investigate this, healthcare is argued as either a human right from the social justice point of view or a tool for oppression for marginalised communities. The methodology used is phenomenological to examine the lived healthcare experiences of the participants. To collect data, I used qualitative methods including participant interviews, a focus group discussion, and key informant interviews. I worked as a volunteer with one local agency that works with sexual and gender diverse communities in Bangladesh. Volunteering helped to build networks and recruit participants. Thematic methods are used for data analysis and full ethics approval is obtained from Massey University, New Zealand. The participants live in a repressive environment with stigma, harassment, limited education and employment opportunities, lack of family support, mental health issues, and inadequate health support. They frequently experience — depending on their disclosure — humiliation, neglect, insults, and discrimination in healthcare settings. Lack of awareness and an unsupportive attitude from government representatives and institutions further contribute to their oppression. Although healthcare, in theory, is regarded as a human right, it is not fairly and equally provided for marginalised communities and thus cannot be claimed as a universal human right. Discriminatory healthcare experiences, stigma, colonial law, and sexual assaults imply that colonial values and patriarchy have an influence on the overall oppression of these communities. The most significant contribution of this study is to expose the patriarchal nature of Bangladeshi society as a legacy of the British Regime. This study offers methodological insights into how to conduct research in politically sensitive environments, which is another unique contribution to methodological knowledge. As a result of this research, it is clear that the Bangladeshi government needs to change its attitude, acknowledge the existence of these communities, and take initiatives to provide equal healthcare facilities for all.
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    The interaction and tensions between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine : biomedical ontologies and epistemic authority in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Palatchie, Brittany Laurel
    In 2010, traditional Chinese medical groups put forward an application to become a regulated profession in New Zealand, sparking debates over the place of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in New Zealand’s healthcare sector. This thesis examines this debate over regulation as a lens through which to understand the epistemic tensions between biomedicine and TCM, and the challenges TCM practitioners face in their practice in New Zealand. Theoretically, I draw on Neo-Weberian frameworks of social closure and Bourdieu’s framework of symbolic violence to examine the material and symbolic forms of social closure that western medicine utilises to create boundaries between western and TCM. I carried out semi-structured interviews with five TCM practitioners in Auckland, New Zealand and analysed these interviews to elucidate the ways that TCM practitioners understand and navigate the challenges of practicing in New Zealand. I also carried out an extensive document analysis of all thirty-five submissions made to the Ministry of Health regarding TCM’s application for regulation under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act of 2003 (HPCA Act). My document analysis found that western medicine maintains dominance in New Zealand’s medical sphere through material and symbolic forms of social closure. All forms of social closure are underpinned by the public safety discourse associated with positivist frameworks of medicine; however, the symbolic forms of social closure also illustrate the ethnocentric prejudice working against TCM. The western medical sector has questioned whether TCM fits the safety and efficacy criteria of evidence-based medicine, which depend on randomised control trials to establish whether medical treatments are safe and effective. This public safety discourse aligns with positivist epistemologies of health and has largely worked against TCM. Positivist methodology has been deemed as the “gold standard” which has undermined TCM practice, with western practitioners questioning the safety, efficacy, and in turn the legitimacy of TCM. These forms of social closure impose Eurocentric standards of practice on TCM that have created numerous challenges for TCM practitioners in their daily practice. My interviews with TCM practitioners revealed the different ways practitioners navigate the challenges of working in a biomedical society. While tensions between western and TCM are evidenced in the divergent epistemologies of health, tensions have also emerged within the Chinese medical community as younger and older generation practitioners navigate the challenges they face as a consequence of the various forms of social closure enacted upon them. These tensions are exacerbated due to the different understandings younger and older TCM practitioners have around TCM’s place in New Zealand society and the precariousness of modernity. I conclude that while regulation is unlikely to resolve the epistemic tensions between western and TCM, it is a step toward overcoming the epistemic hierarchy and the subsequent challenges that stem from New Zealand’s medical hierarchy. As regulatory discussions are ongoing, this research is timely and could assist in policy discussions by highlighting the different challenges and perspectives of TCM practitioners, particularly given that the hegemony of western medicine and its positivist rhetoric that has largely undermined TCM’s legitimacy and the voices of TCM practitioners. While regulation is often seen as a way to manage both systems, existing regulatory systems have catered to the management of western medical practice, not TCM. Thus, incorporating TCM into mainstream healthcare frameworks may not necessarily lead to a more pluralistic healthcare system and needs to be carefully considered; particularly due to the different opinions from both western and TCM practitioners around what is best for TCM moving forward in New Zealand.