Massey Documents by Type
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294
Browse
48 results
Search Results
Item The future of automated mobilities transition in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 15 October 2026.(Massey University, 2024-06-14) Shammut, MoayadAutomated vehicles (AVs) have been commonly regarded as disruptive technologies of the future with multifaceted implications for cities, economies, and people’s mobilities. However, fundamental to exploiting any benefit from AVs, is the issue of complexity in transitioning towards safer AVs in the future. This research aims to fill this gap in literature and explore the complexity of safer AVs transition in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). This research develops a theoretical framework based on the mobilities approach. The mobilities approach explains a wide array of economic, social, political practices and infrastructures that all involve various kinds of movement of people, information, or objects. This framework conceptualises AVs transition through three dimensions of mobilities. First, social mobilities explores how social meanings influence AVs transition. Second, governance mobilities explores how political-institutional factors influence AVs transition. Third, smart mobilities covers how technology risk and readiness influence AVs transition. This research used a qualitative approach by applying the case study of NZ. Data were collected through interviews with government officials and the AVs telecommunication industry, critically reviewing policy and planning documents as well as analysing social media. Firstly, social mobilities involved investigating how safety perceptions, feelings, and cultural practices of society influence AVs adoption. The content analysis of Facebook posts highlighted diversified social meanings for AVs safety, freedom, control and (un)employment that influence AVs adoption. This research found new evidence that developing trust in AVs is influenced by the reputation and achievements of both regulators and developers of technology. The informal driving style of NZ locals requires ‘remarkable competence’ from AVs to negotiate the road safely. NZ society tends to be inclined towards accepting lower-level AVs to maintain the ‘driving pleasure’, and to allow taking vehicle control during safety-critical scenarios. Secondly, governance mobilities involved investigating how political leadership, institutional capacity, and policy discourses steer AVs transition on the basis of their safety. The discourse and thematic analysis of government policy documents and interviews with government officials, revealed how different NZ governments steer AVs policy direction according to their political priorities. This research highlights the complexity of governing AVs due to the involvement of various government organisations with different hierarchical levels, fragmented responsibilities, high interdependencies and conflicting priorities. A strong political leadership coupled with investments for AVs could catalyse a smooth AVs transition. Thirdly, smart mobilities involved focussing on how infrastructure development, hardware, and software influence safe AVs uptake in the future. A focus group discussion and interviews with the AVs industry revealed the necessity for AVs to operate without significant interaction with other road users due to safety risks concerning object classification, GPS positioning, connectivity, and cybersecurity. Findings revealed various potential scenarios for surveillance and exploitation of AV users’ privacy including tracking their mobility habits and data monetisation. NZ roading network requires considerable adjustments to existing (physical and digital) infrastructure. Future infrastructure development may help ease introducing AVs in NZ, especially through developing collaboration between and across tech-industry and the government, to ensure safer uptake of AVs in the future. This research finds that achieving driving autonomy is complex. Transitioning towards safe AVs is dependent on a multitude of different types of factors including social meanings and practices, institutional cultures and norms, strategic visions, political leadership, various public and private sector organisations, technology readiness and enabling infrastructure, as well as influential pioneering actors. This research challenges the traditional technical rhetoric that assumes AVs capable to be deployed ‘everywhere’ and ‘under all conditions’, and rather argues for greater understanding of the complexity of real-life regulatory and urban environments within a specific country context. This research concludes that a successful transition towards safer automated mobility systems will require a holistic understanding of the complexities and interrelationships among the three ‘mobilities’ dimensions, which (each and collectively) significantly influence AVs transition in the future. All in all, the use of the mobilities paradigm in this thesis has been valuable in terms of revealing how the transition towards safer AVs is complex, entangled, heterogenous, and cannot be understood in silos. Existing research on AVs falls short in terms of capturing the complexity of AVs transition from these collective perspectives, hence the contribution of this research to the field. This overall thesis contributes to planning practice in terms of providing insights into a future-focused, long-term, strategic planning for the transition of AVs in NZ. Crucially, this thesis highly recommends the flexibility and openness of planners as AVs transition will occur outside the extant planning processes.Item “Broken” pathways : understanding the licensing experiences of overseas-trained medical doctors in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand(Massey University, 2024) Thomas-Maude, JohannaMore than 40% of registered medical doctors in Aotearoa New Zealand received their primary medical qualifications overseas. Within this landscape, the pathways that international medical graduates (IMGs) must follow to achieve professional licensing depend on their background. This research explores IMG experiences of these processes using a capabilities approach to mobility justice, finding that although pathways to registration exist on paper, many are broken, unpredictable, and often unattainable in practice. General registration is available to doctors who completed their primary qualifications, or have worked for a minimum time period, in 24 high-income, Global North countries known as Comparable Health Systems (CHS). Other IMGs must apply for registration by taking a medical knowledge examination from the United Kingdom (U.K.), Australia, Canada, or the United States of America (U.S.A.), demonstrating English language competency, and taking the New Zealand Registration Examination (NZREX), which evaluates context-specific clinical skills. While completing these steps is time-consuming and costly, IMGs on the NZREX pathway are also required to complete two years of supervised work in local hospitals. First year positions, known as Postgraduate Year One (PGY1), are limited and prioritised for New Zealand medical graduates (NZMGs). As a result, a bottleneck has delayed or prevented many of these IMGs, typically originating from Global South countries, from finding PGY1 employment. This research addresses a knowledge gap by exploring the relationship between IMG experiences, professional outcomes, and their designated pathway to registration. An exploratory sequential mixed methods research design was employed, consisting of semi-structured interviews of IMGs (n = 24) and local experts (n = 9), an online questionnaire of IMGs (N = 80), and a document analysis of historical policies, grey literature, and media reports (N = 370), across three phases. The project was framed by a capabilities approach to mobility justice that evolved alongside the research design, data collection, and analysis. This theoretical approach considers what IMGs in Aotearoa New Zealand are able to “be” and “do” as migrant professionals, through four key components known as the 4Ps. The 4Ps comprise professional mobilities and capabilities, (inter)personal mobilities and capabilities, mobilities and capabilities in practice, and mobilities and capabilities power regimes. Combining empirical data with this theoretical lens highlights how medical registration pathways and policies contribute to uneven mobilities and capabilities among IMGs in Aotearoa New Zealand. Injustices are produced through misrecognition and the arbitrary exclusion of individuals who did not train in CHS countries. Such arbitrary exclusions, in turn, produce brain waste, whereby some IMGs already residing in Aotearoa New Zealand were unable to work as doctors, or experienced significant delays in registration, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is detrimental not only to these IMGs, but also to the chronically under-resourced local medical workforce and, consequently, the broader population in need of healthcare. Furthermore, colonial vestiges can be seen to have contributed to a recurring cycle of policy changes, which have culminated in contemporary licensing policies strongly resembling those from 1905. To create more just pathways for registration for IMGs in Aotearoa New Zealand, this (post)colonial cycle needs to be examined, evaluated, and broken, paving the way for more equitable medical regulation.Item Investigating the New Zealand policy response to residential methamphetamine contamination : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health, SHORE & Whāriki Research Centre, College of Health, Massey University, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until further notice.(Massey University, 2023) Sanchez Lozano, Claudia DenisseIntroduction: Methamphetamine use and manufacture has been an on-going issue in New Zealand since the early 2000s. Clandestine manufacture of methamphetamine is associated with hazardous chemicals that contaminate the area in which this activity occurs, with potential health harms to occupants of these structures. From 2010, a set of policies addressing methamphetamine contamination of housing were implemented in the residential sector to determine whether a property is contaminated and the appropriate response. In 2018, a scientific review prompted a dramatic change in the recommended contamination thresholds and related policies, particularly those of Housing New Zealand. This PhD thesis aims to investigate and critically evaluate the policy process and change in approach to residential methamphetamine contamination in New Zealand. Methods: This research applied a qualitative approach to case study research. The methods used included analysis of local and overseas literature, official reports, guidelines, and policy documents, analysis of legal decisions, comparative case study analysis, and qualitative interviews of stakeholders and key experts. More specifically, thematic and content analyses of legal decisions addressing methamphetamine contamination in housing before (N = 685) and after the change in approach (N = 195) were completed. A comparative analysis of the policy responses and outcomes for public housing authorities in the United States and New Zealand was also conducted. In addition, a thematic analysis was carried out on the transcripts from semi-structured interviews with 13 New Zealand key informants (KI) from government, industry, the residential and academic sectors. Results: A range of unintended consequences from residential methamphetamine contamination policies were observed, including termination of tenancies and substantial financial expenditure on testing and remediation. Tenants were particularly disadvantaged by the policies, with public housing tenants facing additional consequences including their suspension from the public housing list. Stakeholders highlighted the need for additional guidance and industry regulation. Inconsistencies in the adoption and interpretation of policies were observed across the residential sector, particularly in the analysis of Tenancy Tribunal decisions. The US public housing authority shared many similarities in policy response and outcomes to Housing New Zealand, starting with a zero-tolerance to eventually moving to a harm reduction approach. Conclusions: Limited scientific evidence of the health risks from methamphetamine contamination in houses enhanced the influence of the political context and fundamental attitudes to drug use in the development and implementation of these policies in New Zealand. Additional guidance is required and it should balance scientific uncertainties with the outcomes of policy implementation. Evaluation of future interventions is needed to avoid further unintended consequences.Item Living with the unassimilable : a creative arts thesis, supported by a written component, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Arts, Whiti o Rehua School of Art, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington(Massey University, 2021) Cui, LiangLiving with the Unassimilable is a creative practice PhD research project initiated in response to a haptic experience – a violent encounter with the surface of a framed canvas – which triggered a repressed trauma within me. I interpreted the trauma as a consequence of my mother’s transmission to me of her experience of the Chinese government’s gender policies in her youth during the Cultural Revolution. The purpose of this research was to realise a new art language to express and release the repressed trauma in order to achieve catharsis. Despite the challenging cultural and psychological distancing of being voluntarily ‘displaced’ in New Zealand from China (the land of my birth and upbringing), a sense of freedom gradually developed without the previous constraints experienced in my homeland. A series of explorations engaging with diverse materials and modes of display was conducted to arrive at an appropriate and original art expression to reflect upon the significance of past memories, relevant historical and cultural backgrounds, and to communicate the traumatic and cathartic experiences. The creative investigation was undertaken in parallel to pertinent theoretical analysis. From Sigmund Freud theories, I interpreted the experience with my mother as a trauma and Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection contributed to deciphering the sensations experienced in the traumatic event and haptic experience, and confirmed my related artistic articulation. Representing something far wider than a personal experience, a reflection on China’s patriarchal system led to Michel Foucault’s theory of power in order to unpack the government’s regulation of people’s sexuality, and to Judith Butler in relation to the performance of gender and identity. ‘Touch’ and ‘surface’ were rendered significant by the haptic encounter and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s body schema and Erin Manning’s politics of touch offered theoretical perspectives that advanced my creative practice. Jill Bennett’s notion that trauma-related art directly engages with viewers by embodied sensations to register the repressed memory, coincided with establishing the appropriate means of artistic expression for this research: a hybrid sculpture/video installation. Through the orchestration of elements, in particular, the combination of static sculpture and moving imagery, and diverse material qualities and media, the final installation ‘transformed’ an inner, individual, and psychological experience into a visual and material art language. In the embodied sensations, it uttered the otherwise unspeakable trauma, thus becoming an expression of living with the unassimilable. The hybrid practice is not the only contribution the research makes to the field of trauma/catharsis-related installation art and to contemporary Chinese art. Situated in a globalised world and positioned in relation to relevant contemporary Chinese and Western art and theory, this creative practice assimilates my heritage – including Chinese language and philosophy in relation to gender power politics – thus presenting hitherto unexplored perspectives.Item At loggerheads : an examination of afforestation as a climate change prevention tool and environmental policy : a 60-credit Journalism project presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Journalism at Massey University, New Zealand(Massey University, 2020) Schwanecke, GianinaThis project examines the impacts of afforestation as a policy tool for mitigating climate change. Additionally, it examines the New Zealand media coverage of the One Billion Trees programme, and how this is influenced by access to sources and the use of framing. It will explore the programme’s tensions between farming and forestry, and native versus exotic tree planting and its implications as a policy to address climate change.Item Fostering a new approach : how alternative care models in Greece are meeting unaccompanied minors' rights : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Finlay, LiselleUnaccompanied minors seeking refuge in Greece are met with woefully inadequate care structures for meeting their needs. Despite the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child [CRC] stipulating children’s entitlement to appropriate care arrangements, there is a gap between this rhetoric and the reality of alternative care provision for minor refugees. Significantly, institutions are prioritised over familybased solutions. There is also a lack of research addressing the processes of power and exclusion in refugee hosting countries, and how these structural conditions influence unaccompanied minors’ situations and their wellbeing. To address these issues, this study adopts a socio-political construction of children’s rights to understand both how different care models are meeting unaccompanied minors rights, and why these models were selected. In conceiving rights as a socio-political process, this thesis addresses issues of power and agency in the navigation of rights. Tensions between restrictive migration policy and commitment to the CRC will be shown to compromise care provision for unaccompanied minors through conscription to control over care. Despite the overarching structural limitations, young people in this study find avenues for exercising their agency, albeit often risky ones. What emerges is a need to understand both young people’s vulnerabilities and strength, and how they are both these things in different parts of their lives. This thesis presents results of fieldwork largely undertaken in Athens over a six-week period in 2018. A cross-section of care providers engaged in the welfare of unaccompanied minors participated in the study. Also interviewed were the foremost experts in Greece’s child protection system: young people who themselves have experienced these care models. Findings reveal the impact migration policy has had in undermining care provision for unaccompanied minors, and the corresponding tensions that emerge for NGOs looking to address urgent needs and find sustainable solutions. This study recorded that rights violations and risks are occurring. It also explored the barriers and opportunities to expand the spectrum of care options and strengthen optimal care, which were identified as family and community-based alternative care initiatives.Item The contradictions of freedom : freedom camping tensions, tourism governance and changing social relationships in the Christchurch and Selwyn districts of New Zealand : a thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Aston, ShannonIn 2011, the National led government of New Zealand hastily enacted the Freedom Camping Act (2011) in order to accommodate the bourgeoning number of foreign tourists expected to arrive for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. This was despite opposition concerns that existing public infrastructure, and particularly sanitation facilities, would not be able to meet the growth in demand. In the years since the introduction of FCA (2011), the popularity of freedom camping primarily among budget conscious Europeans has increased and there has been an ever growing number of freedom campers arriving on New Zealand’s shores. Freedom camping is defined in the Act as camping in self-contained and non-self-contained vehicles on public land managed by local governments or the Department of Conservation. Promoted by the national government and tourism industry for its potential to contribute to national tourism revenue, public and political concerns have surfaced around the social, economic, cultural and environmental costs and benefits of freedom camping. Significant points of tension and conflict have come to characterise freedom camping which illuminate multiple contradictions both in its conceptualisation and the way it is experienced by various groups. Freedom camping is embedded in neoliberal governance and discourse and is a policy directive enacted in national legislation. However, its management is devolved to local governments and its effects are highly localised. In this thesis I examine the different management approaches to freedom camping and the effects of these approaches in two neighbouring areas of New Zealand’s South Island: the Christchurch and Selwyn districts. Christchurch is a major urban area and tourism hub and since 2015 has had a freedom camping bylaw in place which restricts freedom camping in its environs. In contrast, Selwyn is a rural district with a rapidly growing urban centre. It has no freedom camping bylaw and manages two large freedom camping areas in its district. Drawing on extensive document analysis and three weeks of qualitative field research involving interviews, observation and site visits in the two districts in late 2018, this thesis speaks to two specific research questions: • How do people in the Christchurch and Selwyn regional districts feel about freedom camping, the Freedom Camping Act 2011 and its management? • How is freedom camping and the Freedom Camping Act 2011 reshaping social relations within and between the Christchurch and Selwyn regional districts? This thesis locates the FCA (2011) and freedom camping within current discourse on tourism governance in neoliberal government structures and in answering the research questions, explores three key areas. First, I examine the governance of freedom camping, the state of the legislation and how different regional approaches to freedom camping create inconsistency and community stress. Second, I consider freedom camping as a contradictory process of capitalism and interpret economic power over nature through the framework of political ecology. The third area is an analysis of tourist-hosts relations which sets a broader framework to examine tensions over freedom camping’s visibility seen through the cultural lens of the “New Zealand camper identity”. The thesis concludes that freedom camping through the FCA (2011) makes multiple interpretations of freedom compete in, and for, contested public spaces. Four freedoms are identified that emerge from the tensions. Freedom from cost relates to seeking free sites and overusing public space. Freedom of mobility is the legislation encouraging freedom campers to locate themselves in contested public places. Freedom as birthright is New Zealander’s interpretation of freedom in nature as a birthright which is utilized by the national tourism industry. The freedom of regulated responsibility involves the language of freedom being removed from freedom camping by the central government after eight years of significant social and environmental stress due to freedom camping. These freedoms are both interconnected and internally contradictory leaving the future meaning and practice of freedom camping uncertain.Item The application of complexity theory to contracting out public health interventions : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy, School of Health at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Oakden, Judith PenelopeThe New Zealand government has used a policy approach called New Public Management since the 1980s to contract out public health services. Under this approach contracting out works well for public health services that are predictable, stable and controllable. However, the approach does not always work so well for hard to specify, complex to deliver services, where it is challenging to measure whether the right people benefit. Complexity theorists suggest that public services are complex adaptive systems and therefore do not respond in linear, predictable ways. Complexity theorists also suggest New Public Management framing of contracting out is too simplistic and overlooks the needs of some important population groups, in its quest for efficiency. The overall objective of the research was to explore contracting out of public health services using a general complexity framing to see what insights it might add. The research considered: which ideas from within complexity theory might provide a possible frame to examine contracting out practices; how complexity theory might inform contracting out practice for public health services; and how public sector managers might understand the processes and dynamics of contracting out if informed by complexity theory. A review of complexity and public management literature identified four complexity concepts used to frame interview questions and analyse results for this research: path dependence, emergence, self-organisation and feedback. A small-scale qualitative study used a theory-based approach to test the complexity concepts with public sector managers experienced in contracting out for public health and social services. This research argues that a framing informed by complexity theory resonated with public sector managers in understanding and working in the messy ‘realities’ of contracting out. This research observes that contracting out is often not tidy, linear and controllable as suggested by New Public Management practices. Public sector managers seeking to try new contracting out approaches, can find the underlying New Public Management ethos found in many administrative arms of government hampers them. This research provides insights about why change is hard to achieve, as well as offering public sector managers some alternative ways to think about how they contract out public health services.Item Increases in consumption and harms among young people in the context of alcohol policy liberalisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand(Massey University, 2011) Huckle, TaisiaObjective: To assess drinking patterns and alcohol-related harms among young people in the context of substantial liberalising alcohol policy change in New Zealand. Five studies were developed to address this objective which assessed: (i) trends in drinking patterns, alcohol-related problems and harms during the time of the liberalising policy change and (ii) specific policy changes relevant to young people in New Zealand: the lowering of the minimum purchase age, the introduction of ready to drinks and alcohol outlet density (alcohol outlets had proliferated due to the relaxation of the liquor licensing system). Methods: General population alcohol surveys and routinely collected harms datasets were utilised. Survey measures were: typical occasion quantity, drinking frequency, heavier drinking, self-reported drunkenness, alcohol-related problems and individual demographic measures. Harms measures included: prosecutions for disorder offending, prosecutions for driving with excess breath alcohol, alcohol-involved crashes (all and fatal) and individual demographic measures. Analysis techniques utilised in Studies One through Five were as follows: quantile regression, general linear models, broken stick Poisson regression, logistic regression (and analysis of variance) and multi-level modelling. When possible the wider New Zealand population was considered in relation to young people. Young people were defined as those up to 24 years of age (inclusive). Results: In the context of alcohol policy liberalisation young people, and in particular teenagers, were observed to experience the greatest increases in typical occasion quantities, alcohol-related problems and harms relative to other groups in the New Zealand population. Specific liberalising policy contexts relevant to young people, including the lowering of the minimum purchase age, ready to drinks and alcohol outlet density were also associated with increased quantities consumed or increased harms among teenagers. Conclusion: The public health problem of increased alcohol consumption and related harms among young people in New Zealand can be reduced. It will, however, take effective restrictive alcohol policy controls to achieve this.Item The role of small business in employment generation : a Manawatu study : a research paper presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies, Massey University(Massey University, 1993) Sincharoenkul, ChindaratUnemployment rates in NZ have increased steadily throughout the recessionary period dating back to the early 1970s. This study, using both quantitative and qualitative anysis, examines what role small businesses can play in both regional and national economic revival. In the literature review it is demonstrated both internationally and regionally, that small businesses contribute significantly to employment opportunities during recessionary periods - far more than large firms. This was supported in a Manawatu study of 56 small businesses. Quantatively small firms in the region are, albeit slowly, expanding their workforces despite the economic climate. The chances of setting up a small firm are still not too difficult. Qualitatively these small businesses are found to be positive and dynamic environments. Nearly all respondents had little difficulty in retaining workers and all stated that the working environment was based on 'friendship and trust'.Thus small firms not only contribute to the quantitative expansion of employment but also significantly improve the qualitative nature of the workplace. Finally, while government assistance in the form of direct financial assistance, has not been significant in these findings, it is argued that the role of government policy is critical in the role and success of small enterprises in the economy.
