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Item The art of involvement : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University(Massey University, 1998) Bryant, ClaireLevy (1996, 367) says, The art of involvement discovers the current of music. How do we make a symphony rise from the murmur of a multiple? How do we transfer the sound of a crowd into a chorus, without a musical score? The collective intellect continually brings the social contract into play, it keeps the group in a state of renewal. This thesis focuses on the role of the relations of production in building human capital, recognising this as a component of economic development, along with mobilising financial capital and utilising the natural resource base. Although relations of production sometimes destroy human capital, this thesis discusses examples where marginalised groups have used creolisation strategies to resist globalisation and build their human capital - first, Maori seeking to improve their position of equity within the economy and, secondly, women seeking to use the Net on their own terms. The privatising of the economy, and of the Net, symbolises the continued exclusion of marginalised groups from control, or even much influence, within the post-industrial economy of text and image flows now dominating global economics and culture-making. The risk for Maori and women is that the hunger of a global digital entertainment industry (which today includes marketing, movies, games, politics, chat lines and the news) for different and especially new information, even in the midst of what is, for the individual, infinitely abundant information, is that their stories will be absorbed but leave them with no means of exchange. The telling of different, but equally persuasive stories, is characteristic of the use of creolisation strategies that resist global cultural colonisation. In both large and small ways, the Maori and women in the case studies are using involvement in interactive performances to deny the power of the one-way monologue transmitted by elites seeking passivity, isolation and un-resisting consumption. Although we may live in a 'sea of stories' and sometimes the tide seems to bring only other people's stories it is useful to remember the power of the undercurrent to subvert surface intentions. I use hermeneutic methodology to discuss historic examples of interactive performance and, by comparing these with present day case studies, I develop the argument that such performances have always been used to build human capital. As a relation of production, interactive performance is based on mutuality and negotiation and, when people have the opportunity to practise these skills, they also increase their choices to adopt them in their daily life. By providing 'safe' environments, like flags on the beach within the marae and on the Net, interactive performances create a collective playspace that encourages people to practice and explore self determination skills, and remember the presence of the undercurrent.Item Living with Self-Injury: A New Direction in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Research(School of Psychology, Massey University, 2012) Hastelow, KatherineNon-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has become an increasing area of research over the last two decades, however this has been limited to capturing prevalence rates and discovering intents and purposes. Recent research found that nearly 50% of New Zealand teenagers will try it at least once, and in the western world around 15% of teenagers and young adults will do it repeatedly. Most of the research in this area has been focused on the injury or harm part of NSSI, with little focus on the effects of NSSI on identity or life experiences. NSSI itself can induce guilt and shame, increasing likelihood of repetition, giving it a cyclic nature. Both the physical scars and identity as a “self-injurer” are surrounded by secrecy and stigma and tend to be managed or hidden, with implications for social relations.The current paper briefly reviews past research on NSSI, before discussing possibilities for future research seeking to address the current imbalance. The proposed research focuses not on the NSSI itself, but on its wider effects and how living with NSSI is experienced, both for the individual self-injuring and for the people around them.Item Wade in the Water: Awash in the Sense of Adoption(School of Psychology, Massey University, 2012) Blake, Denise; Morgan, Mandy; Coombes, LeighA discursive approach to knowledge contends that language is the constitutive force of experience and lived reality. Meaning is created through language use within relationships, while discourses function as the statements that produce knowledge, power and truth claims. We cannot step outside of the discourses through which our knowledge of experience is produced, though their complexity always allows us to resist particular identities that are discursively available to us. Based on interviews with 12 adoptees constituted within the ‘closed’ adoption period between 1955 and 1985, this narrative analysis represents the way in which the adoptive body matters to participants’ experiences of adoption and their resistances to the discourses that produce knowledge of adoption: Embodiment needed to be incorporated into this discursive work. Knowing, accessing and beingin- the-world are achieved through our senses in everyday life. We engage and shape cultural norms that enable and constrain corporeality. The adoptive experience is lived and felt through bodies that struggle to articulate their corporeality through discourse. Without discourses fit for purpose, speaking embodiment in and through adoption is precarious and adoptees attempt to articulate subjectivities beyond those allowed. This paper discusses the strategies used to materialise body matters in researching adoption.Item ‘Wade in the Water …': Rethinking adoptees' stories of reunion(Massey University, 2011) Blake, Denise; Coombes, Leigh; Morgan, MandyIn 1955, the Aotearoa/New Zealand government legislated the closed stranger adoption period. Approximately 80,000 children were constructed as a legal fiction when deemed as if born to a legally married couple. Birth family information was permanently sealed. Yet being raised in a fictional subject position and being denied access to any family of origin has consequences for all involved. After ten years of lobbying, the Adult Adoption Information Act (1985) came into effect. The power of that legislation was to overturn the strategies that suppressed adoptees’ rights to know details of their birth. Adult adoptees over the age of 20 years could access their original birth certificates, which provided a birth mother’s name. With this identifying information, reunions became possible. Birth family reunions involve a diverse range of experiences, reflecting the ways in which adoptees are contextually and historically produced. This paper reconsiders the identity implications of reunion stories using the theoretical concept of hybrid identity. The complexities of reunions are multiple, and adoptees negotiate their identities through being both born to and born as if and yet neither identity is safe. In the production of this hybrid story, it was possible to see the political and moral trajectories that enable and constrain a sense of self through the complexities of a legal context that produces binary subject positions.Item Youth identity formation and contemporary alcohol marketing(Taylor & Francis, 2005) McCreanor TN; Greenaway A; Moewaka Barnes HE; Borell SS; Gregory MJThis paper considers linkages between contemporary marketing theory and practice, and emerging conceptualizations of identity, to discuss implications for public health concerns over alcohol use among young people. Particular attention is paid to the theorizing of consumption as a component of youth identities and the ways in which developments of marketing praxis orients to such schemata. The authors' analyses of exemplars of marketing materials in use in Aotearoa New Zealand, drawn from their research archive, emphasize the sophistication and power of such forms of marketing. They argue that public health policy and practice must respond to the interweaving of marketing and the self-making practices of young people to counter this complex threat to the health and well-being of young people. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.
