Pātaka Rangahau

Massey Research Online

Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to the research repository at Massey University – Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa.

Find and share full text theses, dissertations, exegeses, and original open access scholarly works by our researchers and postgraduate students.

Deposit your Doctoral thesis

Communities in MRO

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Recent Submissions

Infants, young children, pregnant women, & the role of midwives in emergencies in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Emergency Management at Massey University Wellington, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2025) Wells, Deanna
In 2023, New Zealand (NZ) experienced the North Island Severe Weather Events (NISWE) which began with the Auckland Anniversary flooding and culminated in Cyclone Gabrielle, the latter of which caused significant flooding in the Hawke’s Bay. While the NZ government commissioned several reports assessing the response to the NISWE, none of these reports assessed the emergency management response for infants, young children, and pregnant women (IYCP). IYCP have unique vulnerabilities during an event which need to be accounted for in emergency management planning and procedures. The aim of this research is to improve outcomes for IYCP in future events by learning from NZ's IYCP response to recent disasters. Semi-structured interviews were held with emergency management professionals, midwives, and other responding organisations to determine: 1. How well did the emergency management response meet the needs of IYCP after NISWE? 2. Based on interviews with midwives, what were the experiences of their patients in recent events in NZ, including NISWE? 3. How might the needs of IYCP be better met during and after an event? With the data gathered from the interviews, a focus group was held to discuss the research findings and discuss potential solutions in a collaborative environment. The interview and focus group questions were developed in response to the literature review findings and case studies. The key findings from this research include the following: ● Lead maternity carer (LMC) midwives are not routinely included in emergency management planning and preparedness in NZ, and the needs of IYCP may not be met before, during, and after an event. It would be beneficial to include an LMC midwife in welfare group meetings. ● Emergency management would benefit from IYCP training to ensure international legislation and best practices are being followed. Midwives would benefit from training and tailored planning to ensure they can continue to provide care during and after an event. ● Existing emergency preparedness resources for IYCP in NZ do not align with international legislation and best practices and are often difficult to use. ● Evacuation centres are often unsafe for infants and very young children, and breastfeeding mothers may find it difficult to continue feeding. Emergency management should plan for evacuation centres to have a baby friendly space which includes a safe place for young children to play, supports safe infant sleep, private space for mothers to breastfeed, and allows for the distribution of infant formula and necessary supplies to those who need it. The findings of this study are consistent with other research suggesting that NZ emergency management does not have appropriate planning to meet the needs of vulnerable populations in emergencies. If emergency management and LMC midwives can develop a collaborative relationship, IYCP vulnerability in future events could be significantly decreased.
From spending to capability : can New Zealand's defence industry strategy capture economic value while building sovereign capability? : 294.820 Applied Security research report, Massey University
(Massey University, July 2026) Heeley, Tim
This report examines how New Zealand can convert rising defence expenditure into sovereign industrial capability and measurable economic value. It is prompted by the Defence Capability Plan's commitment to lift spending towards 2% of GDP at a time when almost all major procurement flows offshore, returning no direct GDP benefit. When this study was conceived, the funding of defence start-ups and small and medium enterprises was largely absent from New Zealand's policy conversation. Its original intent was therefore to establish the economic case for such funding and to propose mechanisms for getting it started. During the writing of this report, however, that position shifted. The Government released its Defence Industry Strategy and has begun trialling several of the early-stage funding mechanisms examined here. This movement is welcome and marks genuine progress against a long-standing deficit. It does not, however, complete the task. The analysis that follows identifies structural gaps, particularly in follow-on capital, procurement, and durable institutional design, that remain unaddressed and must be resolved if a nascent domestic defence industry is to be crystallised rather than merely seeded. Drawing on the defence economics literature, comparative analysis of international funding models, case studies and interviews with industry, investment and policy participants, the report diagnoses why the current approach fails to capture full economic value and recommends a three-stage response: an accelerator for early-stage innovation, a follow-on capital fund to close the Series A–C gap, and structural reforms to procurement and long-term planning. Section 1 sets out the strategic context and the core problem; Section 2 the methodology; Sections 3–5 the economic framework, New Zealand's current state, and the capital and structural gaps; Section 6 the international funding models; and Section 7 the recommendations.--From Introduction
Sex work and COVID-19 in the New Zealand media : avoid the moist breath zone
(Massey University, 2026) Easterbrook-Smith, Gwyn
News media coverage of sex work in New Zealand post-decriminalisation has shown some movements towards a destigmatisation of the work. There is a conditional willingness to treat the people who do it as workers, who in a few cases may approach social inclusion and acceptance. The ability to access this acceptability depends on how a sex worker works, and which other social groups and identities they belong to. Sex workers who work indoors, charge higher rates, see fewer clients, are tertiary educated, middle or upper class, and are pākehā or white are more likely to be deemed acceptable. This contingent destigmatisation is often carried out through a process of comparison. One worker is positioned as relatively more or less normative than another, and subsequently closer or further from the rhetorical and stigmatised ‘prostitute imaginary’ who exists in the background of many media texts. Migrant sex workers and street-based sex workers have often been subject to more stigmatising media representations than domestic and indoor sex workers, too. In writing this book I was interested in finding out if these divisions continued, and if their expression changed in any notable way during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. I was also curious if the tendency to understand sex work as work would continue to progress, or might instead regress, conscious of both the susceptibility of sex work as a scapegoat for moral panics and of the way that during periods of cultural change prostitution law has sometimes become a focus, with sex work seen as a threat to the hegemonic order. New Zealand is a unique case study for these questions, given our unusual sex work law and our unusual success in controlling the pandemic in its initial stages. Our mediascape is also comparatively small, making the collection and analysis of a representative data set more manageable. In the remainder of this chapter, I outline the New Zealand model in more detail, then turn to the relationships between sex work and public health, Covid-19, the media, and stigma, as well as giving an overview of the methodology which I employ in this book.--From Introduction
Mutual othering : perceptions of Jews, Muslims and Christians c.1100-1250 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2026) Evans, Rachelle
Scholarship on Jews, Muslims and Christians in the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries is extensive. So too is the application of theories regarding the Other to explain relations between them. Yet the othering of different groups that occurred is mostly discussed as though it were a one-way process. Relations between the peoples of monotheistic faiths are often presented in terms of dichotomies. Edward Said’s Orientalism has been especially influential in creating these viewpoints. Yet critics argue that Said’s work neglected the complex reality of alterity, a neglect which can even lead to the very faults of essentialism and generalizing tendencies that it denounces. This thesis builds on arguments, such as those of Homi Bhabha, that othering was not a practice limited to one group and did not flow only from ‘West’ to ‘East. It explores the many stereotypes that were generated by three groups about the Other in order to establish a sense of difference and Self. It also examines the similarities in othering strategies employed by Jewish, Muslim and Christian writers, which exemplify a two-way flow in the process of othering. This approach is taken to offer a broader and more holistic and nuanced understanding of the mutual nature of othering in the medieval period.
“They don’t see how tired I am” : an exploration of the lived experiences of long COVID in motherhood : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Health Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2026) Barea, Ashley
Long COVID is a newly emergent chronic illness characterised by complex heterogenous symptoms with varying degrees of impact. Long COVID research is evolving, but there is little research that has focused on exploring how long COVID is experienced in specific life stages, including motherhood, particularly from Aotearoa, New Zealand. Motherhood responsibilities do not disappear despite chronic illness and pose challenges to self and the practicalities of parenting as evidenced in research on other illnesses, like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. This thesis explored the lived experiences of a small group of New Zealand mothers living with a medical diagnosis of long COVID. Utilising the methodological approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis, this thesis aimed to detail the complex, shared and idiosyncratic ways mothers experience disruptions to their lifestyles and identities while living with this emergent chronic illness. Five themes were identified: An Uncertain Illness with “Invisible” Symptoms; Symptoms Impose Lifestyle Restrictions; Mothering Requires an Adapted Approach; Mothers Experience Pressure to “Push Through” Symptoms; and Changing Identity and Self-Reflection. The debilitating nature of long COVID symptoms imposed functional limitations on the participant’s physical, psychological and social lives. In particular, invisible symptoms and the often-contested nature of long COVID became barriers for social participation and mental wellbeing. The participants often internalised good mothering ideologies which contributed to pressures to push through symptoms instead of attending to self-care. In this way, the dynamic interactions of living with long COVID in motherhood posed additional disruptions to maternal wellbeing. By adding to the limited literature on long COVID, this thesis highlights the physical, emotional and social complexities that mothers face living with this newfound chronic illness.