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    Trafficked women as empowered agents? : exploring the experiences of trafficked women from Sonagacchi, Kolkata : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of International Development at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Rea, Phillipa
    This thesis explores the freedom experiences of trafficked women from Sonagacchi, Kolkata, and argues that freedom for women trafficked into the sex trade is more complex than simply equating freedom to empowerment or exit from the sex trade. The trafficking of human beings is a major development issue, highlighted in the recently developed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which sets a target within SDG five, eight and sixteen to eradicate trafficking in all forms by 2030. To be able to reach this goal, a broad understanding of trafficking in needed. Research in the field of human trafficking is relatively recent with the majority of studies focusing on rescue and rehabilitation as the only means of exit from a trafficking situation. This thesis adds to the body of research on trafficking, by exploring the exit strategies of women who successfully exited a trafficking experience and seeking to understand the processes in women’s empowerment and agency. Field work took place in Sonagacchi, Kolkata the largest red-light area in India over a six-week period. A narrative inquiry method was used to hear the life stories of five women who have successfully exited their trafficking situation as well as interviews with four social workers. The findings of this study identified strategies that facilitated trafficked women’s exit from the sex trade. In addition, the processes of empowerment and agency that women experienced were explored, highlighting that individuals can experience empowerment processes and ssome degrees of agency even in exploitative environments. The idea that exit from the sex trade and empowerment equate to freedom is challenged within this study. It is recognised that freedom is contextual, personal and cultural in nature, and that in the context of the West Bengal sex trade, experiences of freedom encompassed contentment and well-being. The main implication of the findings of this research is that trafficked women experience empowerment and agency in the midst of their trafficking experience, but that experiences of freedom are more complex than the literature suggests, and women require healing and wholeness in order for freedom to be actualised.
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    Power, empowerment and children in Dhaka's poor urban communities : understanding and measuring children's empowerment : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of International Development at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Hamilton, Harley
    This thesis is about children, power and empowerment. It seeks to both understand and measure power and empowerment from the perspectives of poor urban children living in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Children have been largely overlooked in development studies literature and although empowerment and measurement have been mainstreamed into development practice, children’s perspectives on these two essentially contested concepts are marginal. This thesis contributes to existing understandings of children’s power and empowerment, with a specific focus on poor urban children living in Dhaka. To do this, this thesis draws on two competing research paradigms, those of interpretivism and positivism respectively. I show how these two research paradigms can be brought together into a single mixed methods methodology when employed to answer distinct, but related research questions. This enabled me to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and analytical strategies: task-based visual methods employed in a creative art and storytelling workshop; a qualitative thematic analysis; indicator construction; a survey and a descriptive statistical analysis. Bringing together these two competing research paradigms allows for the in-depth, contextual knowledge that qualitative research uncovers, with the ability to use this knowledge as a basis for measurement. In this thesis, I draw on empirical evidence uncovered through my research methods and insights from post-structuralism, development sociology and the literature on the relationality of childhood to argue that power can be viewed as boundaries to action. Boundaries of power exist as social structures that demarcate fields of action, possibility and imagination and are not resources that any actor has or uses but instead exist as boundaries which constrain all actors. I explore five boundaries of power that were highlighted by my research participants: personal relationships with family and friends; access to material and financial resources; the natural environment; education and children’s work. I present 34 indicators of empowerment I created that were derived from these boundaries of power. I discuss the survey and descriptive statistical analysis I undertook to measure these indicators with a small group of poor urban children. These indicators are therefore context specific and intended to be relevant and meaningful to those who are to be affected by development. They are a tool that could be used by development practitioners to measure a baseline of the relative empowerment or disempowerment of children in Dhaka and to track and measure change over time. Drawing on both my qualitative and quantitative findings, I show that viewing power as boundaries is not to claim that all power relations are equal. Instead I show that actors are placed in differential positions within power’s boundaries and have different channels for action. I suggest, therefore, that empowerment can be reconceptualized as a temporal issue that should first seek to expand the channels for action available to actors within power’s existing boundaries, and second, to shift the formation of the boundaries themselves to provide new conditions for future agency.
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    (De)constructing 'refugeeness' : exploring mediated discourses of solidarity, welcome and refugee (self)representation in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Slade, Natalie Frances
    The tragic photo of Alan Kurdi ignited protests of solidarity and compassion across the Western world in support of refugees. In New Zealand, refugee advocates and media commentators urged the government to increase the refugee quota and welcome in more refugees. Although discourses of solidarity and welcome stem from humanitarian concern, they also risk encouraging a regime of compassion and charity that speaks more about ourselves and how we feel. Refugees are framed as objects of ‘our’ moral responsibility, stereotyped as helpless vulnerable victims without agency. These discourses consequently produce a generic type of refugee – an imagining of ‘refugeeness’ – that consigns individuals to an anonymous presence, silenced and marginalised by the very act of solidarity and protest that is performed on their behalf. Situated within a post-development and post-humanitarianism paradigm, and an actor-oriented approach to discourse and agency, this research aims to explore refugee representation and discourses of solidarity and welcome in the New Zealand mainstream media, and how people from refugee backgrounds experience and contest dominant discourses of ‘refugeeness’. Using critical discourse analysis, this research critically examines the discursive constructions of refugees and solidarity in the New Zealand mainstream news media, and the power dynamics involved in the production of discourse. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with refugee advocates and former refugees are employed to create spaces for participants to share their stories and experiences, enabling voices to be heard, misconceptions to be challenged, and new meanings to be constructed. The emergence of themes in this research highlight the relationship between discourses of solidarity, humanitarianism, and imaginings of New Zealand national identity. Within these discourses, refugees are stereotyped in a particular way that calls on the New Zealand public to respond. However, as the title of this thesis suggest, meaning is not infinitely fixed. Refugees may be labelled by discursive structures, but they will also use their agency to deconstruct and redefine the refugee label for their own ends, creating space for the construction of their own identities in the process.
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    Rebuilding communities : a case study of empowerment in post-conflict Rwanda : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2009) Parsons, Anna
    Empowerment became a popular concept in the 1990s, so popular that some believe the concept has lost its impact. This thesis uses the empowerment levels of; personal, relational and community, to investigate a psychosocial intervention in the post-conflict environment. The post-conflict environment is one that is disempowering for both men and women. Rwanda, one of the most complicated and devastated post-conflict situations seen since World War II, is the location of the World Vision intervention examined in this thesis. World Vision's Personal Development Workshop aims to provide a safe environment where people can process their experiences of the genocide. They use lectures, individual exercises and small group discussions to cover the topics of understanding the grief process, dealing with emotions and the concept of forgiveness. The thesis concludes that both male and female participants of the Personal Development Workshops have been empowered at all three levels. It shows the benefit of using the empowerment approach in the community context and suggests that consideration of psychosocial interventions is crucial in post-conflict settings. The need for such interventions to be continued for many years after the conflict has ended is also identified.