bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Paradigmatic Rejuvenation
Authors:   , Conway William
Published: November 2021

In 2010 Neil Challenger, Head of the School of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University, stated that the malls surrounding Christchurch drove the life out of the inner city of Christchurch. His economic and sociological concerns were expressed even before the earthquake occurred, and this forms the current hesitation on the rebuilding of Christchurch’s inner city.  The position of this research proposal is to establish whether an urban architectural intervention can address these economic and sociological concerns and the potentially devastating effects the suburban mall has had on urban life within Christchurch.  The thesis specifically asks whether establishing a mall typology as a landmark building within the inner city can strategically engage the damaged historic buildings of post-earthquake Christchurch in ways that actively preserve these historic remnants.  The main intention of this research is to engage the damaged historic buildings of post-earthquake Christchurch in ways that actively preserve these remnants and are also economically viable. By preserving the remnants as active, working elements of the urban fabric, they act as historic reminders or memorials of the event and associated loss, while also actively participating in the regrowth of the city. The thesis argues that contemporary architecture can play a strategic role in these imperatives.  Overall this research argues that there exists a distinct requirement for large-scale retail in the inner city urban environment that recognises and responds to the damaged cultural and historic architecture of inner city Christchurch. The objective of the thesis is to propose means to rejuvenate not only the economic vitality of central Christchurch,but also its historic character.
User education, bibliographic instruction or information literacy : semantic argument or philosophical debate
Authors:   , Lester Justine MacShane
Published: November 2021

Information literacy, bibliographic instruction or user education? These terms are widely used to describe the programmes designed to assist library clients in their use of library resources. There are as many variations in these programmes as there libraries. This study is designed to satisfy a professional curiosity regarding the appropriate uses of the above terms. Whilst the terms are often used interchangeably in the literature, their definitions suggest that this should not be occurring. Models of information seeking behaviours are compared with the definitions for user education, information literacy and bibliographic instruction. The matching of programme aims and objectives with the definitions of the three terms is an important aspect in the correct usage of the terms.
Information needs and information seeking behaviour of paediatric nurses of Christchurch hospital
Authors:   , Rowe Kim Nicola
Published: November 2021

The professional information needs of nurses, and the situations which cause nurses to seek information have not been widely studied. A small scale study involving questionnaire based interviews of paediatric nurses at Christchurch Hospital showed paediatric nurses viewed access to professional information as vital to the performance of their work. Work situations which required these nurses to seek additional information included the admission of patients with unknown or rare conditions, patient education, questions from other staff, and the development of ward protocols or standards. The most frequently consulted sources were patient records, nursing colleagues, and ward texts. These provided the bulk of nursing information, but the Nursing Library and nurses' private libraries were also used. Given the dependence on other nursing staff displayed here, it is vital that nurses keep up to date with their practice. There was a strong trend to passing information on to other nurses once it had been accessed.
Valued But Broken: Reconstructing Damaged Built Heritage
Authors:   , Page Bradley
Published: November 2021

Heritage buildings are an important element of our urban environments, representing the hope and aspirations of a generation gone, reminding us of our achievements and our identity.  When heritage buildings suffer damage, or fall into disrepair they are either met by one of two extremes; a bulldozer or painstaking repair. If the decision to conserve defeats the bulldozer, current heritage practice favours restoration into a mausoleum-type monument to yesteryear. But what if, rather than becoming a museum, these heritage buildings could live on and become a palimpsest of history? What if the damage was embraced and embodied in the repair?  The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Barbadoes Street, Christchurch is the case study building for this thesis. Suffering damage in the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, the Cathedral sits in ruin waiting for decisions to be made around how it can be retained for future generations.  This thesis will propose a reconstruction for the Cathedral through the analysis of precedent examples of reconstructing damaged heritage buildings and guided by a heritage framework proposed in this thesis. The employed process will be documented as an alternative method for reconstructing other damaged heritage buildings.
Open Communitition
Authors:   , Segard Achille
Published: November 2021

The recent enthusiasm in popular culture for massively multiplayer online environments has proven that eclectic online communities have the potential to develop powerful problem solving capacities through the enactment of a collective intelligence. In collaborative design, this calls for the implementation of a shared environment leveraging the collective intelligence of online communities through open competition. The goal is to spur innovation through a public process where the emerging design ideas are available to all competitors.  Foreseeing a radical change in the identity of the architect, becoming but the designer of these emergent communal design environments, this paper aims at making the case for this alternate CAAD model through the execution of a pilot study. This study, based on the Serpentine Pavilion procedural framework, sends a sample group of designers to a shared videogame environment, where they are asked to create their own pavilion using a kit of parts drawn from the reverse engineering of Frank Gehry’s 2008 pavilion. These iterations are scored in real time against a set of quantitative programmatic requirements, but they are also assessed qualitatively through more subjective criteria by the community of competitors, enriched by the immersive virtual experience of each other’s designs. Observation and analysis of participants has been undertaken through the recording of design sessions and online survey.  This pilot study is currently being undertaken, yet the initial results hint at displaying much potential for a participative, intuitive and instantaneous form of collaborative CAAD based on communal competition.
Analysing the Governance Structure of the Yasuni ITT Initiative: What are the potential governance challenges that the Yasuni ITT initiative faces and how are they likely to influence its overall success?
Authors:   , Guerrero Ocana Lourdes
Published: November 2021

Ecuador is a country with outstanding levels of biodiversity and unique indigenous people, but it is also a country that has relied heavily on the extraction of natural resources to fuel its economy. However, the oil fields lie within fragile natural areas where indigenous groups live. The pressure put on these areas has led to substantial damage in parts of the Amazon region and the extinction of some cultural groups. In light of this, the Yasuni ITT initiative has emerged as an opportunity to make a transition to a post-oil development model where the sustainable use of resources, including the promotion of clean energy sources, sits alongside the protection of natural areas and the respect of indigenous rights. In leaving 20% of its oil reserves underground, Ecuador expects to receive a compensation equivalent to 50% of the revenues that would otherwise result from the oil’s sale. However, the Initiative faces governance challenges that are explored in this study, using an “earth system governance” theoretical framework. This framework is based on sustainable development norms. This study focuses on five main structural problems present in the governance processes: the architecture of the system; agency; adaptiveness; accountability and legitimacy; and the allocation of and access to resources. The analysis of these challenges provides a picture of the barriers and opportunities for the Initiative to succeed. It is concluded that the continuity of the Initiative depends greatly on coherent and consistent governmental actions and the extent to which non-state actors and civil society can meaningfully participate in decisions taken around the exploitation of the Yasuni National Park.
Keeping ahead of floods and droughts: a case study of Sdau Kaong Commune, Cambodia
Authors:   , Oum Sopharo
Published: November 2021

The Lower Mekong Basin covers four countries, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. These countries are often affected by floods and sometimes by droughts. These natural hazards silently and adversely affect people’s livelihoods in the region. In the face of future environmental changes, especially climate change and dam construction along the Mekong River, patterns of floods and droughts are more likely to exacerbate the situation. For this case study of a vulnerable commune in this setting, I developed a hybrid model of the development and complexity paradigms to both organise my research data and extend my analysis. This holistic hybrid paradigm enabled me to explore the interrelationships between natural hazards, disasters, and vulnerability, and adopt a multidisciplinary approach in which I attempt to integrate disaster risk management and climate change adaptation models to highlight problems and to propose interventions. The results obtained indicate that in the future floods and droughts are likely to be more frequent and severe and just what impact additional dams currently being planned or built will have over the control of water levels remains an outstanding question. Plans need to be made to enable people to cope with floods and droughts because these can have a hugely detrimental impact on their livelihoods including crops and personal property, people, community infrastructure and environment. Although current coping strategies are in place, disasters still occur. Based on the vulnerability context of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the Pressure and Release (PAR) model, I was able to show how vulnerability is exacerbated by dissonant social, economic, and political structures. This research also proposes an integrated framework, including adaptive management and participatory action research, as a way of monitoring interventions that could possibly resolve some of the challenges.
Negotiating Gender and Police Culture: Exploring the Barriers to Retention and Progression of Female Police Officers in New Zealand
Authors:   , Chan Shannon M.
Published: November 2021

Women officers represent a minority within the New Zealand Police (Police) particularly within the senior ranks. In recent years, Police have made concerted efforts to increase women’s representation as well as improve the working environment. However, recent reviews of the 2007 Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct have reported that women continue to face barriers to full integration and furthermore, that the changes to the police culture have reached a plateau. New Zealand and international research have established that police culture continues to pose a barrier to women’s full acceptance within policing. This culture is characterised by predominantly white, heterosexual males, who form what has been described as a “cult of masculinity”. Therefore, women find they must adopt the culture in order to “fit in” and be accepted as “one of the boys”.  Adopting a qualitative framework, this research involved semi-structured face-to-face interviews with sworn female police officers. Exploring female police officers’ experiences identified five pertinent barriers to women’s retention and progression. These were the emphasis on physical skills and excitement, the police camaraderie and the cult of masculinity, sexual harassment within the workplace, women’s minority status, and balancing motherhood with policing. It was found that the persistence of these barriers came back to core features of police culture. Due to the strong allegiance to the positive aspects of the police culture, such as the camaraderie, negative features such as sexual banter and harassment were subsumed within the wider culture. Negative features were tolerated and accepted as part and parcel of working in the Police. Women’s narratives demonstrated that they adhered to core police culture features and thus contributed to the sustenance of the culture. Furthermore, how women articulated their experiences and perceptions of barriers was complex and nuanced. Many held the belief that there were no longer any barriers for women in the Police, yet such positive views were in contradiction with their own experiences. The tension between “perceptions” and “reality” creates a situation where the Police currently sit at a crossroads between the “old” culture and the new rhetoric of “change”.
Ontogeny of the Hapuka (Polyprion oxygeneios) Immune System
Authors:   , Parker Simon
Published: November 2021

In this study the ontogeny of the hapuka (Polyprion oxygeneios) immune system was studied during larval development. In teleost fish, the head kidney, thymus, and spleen are generally regarded as important immune organs. The head kidney was observed at 4 days post hatch (dph), the spleen at 16 dph and lastly the thymus at 20 dph and all 3 lymphoid organs were relatively well developed by 45 dph. The immune genes CSF1R, C3, MHCIIα, TCRα, TCRβ, RAG1, IgM and IgZ were examined by RT-PCR to investigate the leucocyte development. Macrophages appear to be present from hatch with both CSF1R and MHCIIα expression from 1 dph, while IgM is expressed at 9 dph. T-cells appear later in hapuka with TCRβ expression first detected at 32 dph whereas TCRα was not expressed until after 63 dph. Immunostaining using a monoclonal antibody against fish IgM detected IgM in the head kidney at 12 dph, the spleen at 32 dph, the intestinal tract at 45 dph and lastly the thymus at 50 dph. Comparison of the leucocyte populations in juveniles and adults indicated that innate cell populations are late to develop, while the adaptive cells mature earlier in hapuka than expected. Finally, the maternal transfer of immunity was examined and while lysozyme and IgM appear to be transferred, complement does not. Overall this study provides insight into the developmental sequence of immune organs and cells and will be useful in understanding the timing of immune competence in juveniles and adult hapuka.
Lost in translation: a comparative analysis of developing regions' receptions of the responsibility to protect norm
Authors:   , Gnoth Aidan
Published: November 2021

The way in which different regions are receiving the international norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has been attracting increasing attention within academia in recent years, most notably after the NATO led intervention in Libya in 2011. Academics have attempted to analyse the extent to which R2P has been diffused in various states and have argued that states within developing regions have begun to localise R2P to make it more congruent with their pre-existing norms and practices in order to increase its acceptance. These studies have utilised traditional theories of norm diffusion which conceive of norms as static entities with fixed content and as such they have not attempted to analyse how the norm has been changing as a result of this process. Furthermore these studies have tended to analyse the diffusion of R2P in isolation from other states and other regions and as such, no comparative analysis of how regions have received R2P exists. This thesis employs a discursive approach, seeking to look at how R2P has been received within three developing regions (Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America) and in doing so aims to find how regions receptions of R2P differ and whether the content of R2P has changed between them. It finds that since the 2005 World Summit, receptions to R2P have not significantly altered and that where R2P is being gradually diffused it is increasingly becoming a norm for prevention rather than response.
The coexistence of cryptic algal species: Temporal and spatial distribution of filamentous members of the red algal order Bangiales in the Wellington region
Authors:   , Ansell Rebecca
Published: November 2021

Current research on marine cryptic species, through the use of molecular tools, is revealing unexpected diversity and relationships [...]. A number of cryptic filamentous Bangiales have been recorded from Wellington, New Zealand; all morphologically indistinguishable and all apparently occupying the same niche within the upper inter-tidal. Researchers have reported finding more than one member of the filamentous Bangiales coexisting at a single location in Wellington’s inner harbour (Farr et al. 2001, Wendy Nelson pers. comm.).  This raises the question: to what extent are these cryptic lineages coexisting? Are there differences in their temporal and spatial distribution? Does distribution at a small-scale, within sites in the Wellington region, reflect the physiological differences and ecological adaption reported from the culture studies of Bödeker et al. 2008?  This research sought to investigate the small-scale distribution of these cryptic lineages to test for temporal or spatial variation, and draw conclusions about the nature of their coexistence in the Wellington region. To achieve this, samples were taken from six sites in Wellington over a period of nine months. Molecular methods, as described in Chapter 2, were utilised to identify the various taxa. This identification data then provided the basis for the ecological analyses presented in Chapter 3.
Hybrid Control of a Segway Platform Developed in MRDS
Authors:   , Thomson Douglas James Ormiston
Published: November 2021

A Segway RMP200 has been bought by Victoria University for the purpose of making an autonomous robot. The focus of this project was to create reusable services that use existing navigation algorithms to control the Segway within an indoor environment.  A SICK LMS100 laser rangefinder was added to detect obstacles and allow localization of the Segway within a known map. A hybrid navigation algorithm consisting of an A* path planner with a dynamic window is used for motion planning and obstacle avoidance.  The control system followed a Service Oriented Architecture implemented in Microsoft Robotics Studio using the C# .NET programming language.  Four services were created during the project to interface with the SICK LMS100 scanner, control the Segway RMP200, implement the hybrid navigation algorithm and provide a graphic user interface for the system.  Tests show that the Segway is able to navigate and maintain localisation within the operating environment by identifying and associating corner and door landmarks within the environment.
Does the Marine Stewardship Council's Eco-labelling Scheme Require Sustainable Fisheries Management?: a Study of the Marine Stewardship Council's Objections Procedure
Authors:   , Edlin Joseph
Published: November 2021

The Marine Stewardship Council eco-labelling scheme was formed in order to provide a means of promoting sustainable fisheries that moved away from conventional top-down management. In order to remain robust and transparent, MSC allows stakeholders to object to a certification through an objections process outlined by MSC. Over the past 15 years, this objections process has come under increasing scrutiny. The MSC OP has been accused of Ambiguous wording, principal agent issues and an unequal judicial process by some stakeholders and outside commentators. These accusations pose a real threat to the reputation of the MSC. If left un-addressed, MSC’s credibility amongst consumers and academics has the potential to be lost. This thesis seeks to investigate the legitimacy and robustness of the MSC OP. There is a focus on the way in which the MSC OP facilitates interactions between objection actors, influences actors, and how each actor is empowered by the MSC OP methodology.
What do young people think of development?: An exploration into the meanings young people make from NGO media
Authors:   , Tallon Rachel Alexa Margaret
Published: November 2021

Young people are not passive, homogenous audiences of media that is produced by international humanitarian and development organisations (NGOs). They actively read and engage with the messages cognitively and emotionally and in the process create new meanings. This thesis is an investigation into what interpretations young people make from NGO media. The twin goals of education and fundraising present certain difficulties for NGOs who view developed world schools as a key site for awareness-raising for both their brand and global issues of injustice. Critics are concerned that when representation is aligned directly and simplistically with charity, powerful messages are signalled to the viewers. The nature and impact of these messages are yet to be fully understood as there is little empirical evidence of how young people receive and interpret NGO media.  This research directly addresses this gap. The research identifies and maps various interpretations that young people have on encountering images and messages produced by NGOs. Year 10 social studies classrooms were chosen as the context for data collection and 118 young people and seven teachers from five diverse secondary schools in New Zealand participated. They were canvassed using qualitative methods that included focus groups. The approach for this research was informed by postdevelopment critique which examines the power of the discourse of development in constructing ideas about people and development.  The findings show young people to be astute and critical interpreters of NGO media. Teachers reported that NGO media is very influential and could be problematic in forming a solely negative view of the global South. Most of the young people approved of the sector’s charitable work but many expressed doubts about NGO expenditure and the accuracy of the imagery. A key finding is that many said they knew the images were designed to make them feel guilty in order to elicit action which was usually a donation. The findings support other research among adults and show the early development of attitudes towards NGOs and ideas about the developing world. The significance of a conflicting emotional response towards NGO marketing is a central finding for this thesis. This conflict of wanting to help and yet not being able to do so created a tangible tension within the young people and affected how they viewed people in the global South. Young people in New Zealand are emerging actors in the global development industry and their ideas will shape North-South interactions in the future. This research directly contributes to understanding the power of the NGO sector to mediate global relations across difference, a process of which there are moral and political implications.
Ongoing Community Resilience from the Ground Up: A Relational Place Based Approach to Grassroots Community Resilience
Authors:   , Cretney Raven Marie
Published: November 2021

When the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, at 12.51pm on 22nd February 2011, the psychological and physical landscape was irrevocably changed. In the days and weeks following the disaster communities were isolated due to failed infrastructure, continuing aftershocks and the extensive search and rescue effort which focussed resources on the central business district. In such moments the resilience of a community is truly tested. This research discusses the role of grassroots community groups in facilitating community resilience during the Christchurch 2010/11 earthquakes and the role of place in doing so. I argue that place specific strategies for urban resilience need to be enacted from a grassroots level while being supported by broader policies and agencies.  Using a case study of Project Lyttelton – a group aspiring towards a resilient sustainable future who were caught at the epicentre of the February earthquake – I demonstrate the role of a community group in creating resilience through self-organised place specific action during a disaster. The group provided emotional care, basic facilities and rebuilding assistance to the residents of Lyttelton, proving to be an invaluable asset. These actions are closely linked to the characteristics of social support and social learning that have been identified as important to socio-ecological resilience. In addition this research will seek to understand and explore the nuances of place and identity and its role in shaping resilience to such dis-placing events. Drawing on community narratives of the displacement of place identity, the potential for a progressive sense of place as instigated by local groups will be investigated as an avenue for adaptation by communities at risk of disaster and place destabilisation.
Twenty Years of Providing Free Plants in An Urban New Zealand Setting: What Affects Community Participation and Planting Success?
Authors:   , Berentson Paul
Published: November 2021

An urban greening programme in Wellington, New Zealand providing free plants to city residents was evaluated with the following objectives:  1. To assess the levels of plant survival after five, ten, and fifteen years and determine factors contributing to observed survival; 2. To investigate factors influencing participation in the programme; 3. To quantify the some of the socioeconomic factors relating to programme participants and environmental factors relating to sites.  Data were collected from a combination of council records, site surveys and postal questionnaire surveys. The study found that plant survival was generally poor, but was mainly influenced by indigeneity of the plants. Contrary to many theories of exotic invasiveness, New Zealand native plants were 4.3 times more likely to survive than exotic plants. Site based effects were not found to influence survival significantly; nor were specific plant traits, or year of planting. A small sample of these sites was matched to questionnaire responses and it was found that length of residence by programme participants increased the performance of the best model indigeneity, indicating that increasing length of residence was a predictor of better survival of plantings. The questionnaire respondents included both those who had participated in the programme and those who had not. The sample population, however, was quite distinct from the general population of the region, being older, wealthier, having higher levels of education, and twice as likely to own their own home. As suggested by previous research looking at the effects of socioeconomic factors on urban forestry or urban greening participation was shown in this study to be mainly affected by the age of the respondent, which increased the odds of participation by 200% between the youngest and oldest age groups. This socioeconomic model was improved when two factors were included: the number of trees outside their property, and, horticultural knowledge of the participant. This indicates that participants might be more motivated by personal interest in horticulture, than in improving environmental conditions.
Development, power and culture: Volunteer tourism in the Cook Islands
Authors:   , Enoka Kylie
Published: November 2021

Volunteer tourism is a significant feature of the tourism industry. The phenomenon can be described as a practice where people (typically from ‘developed’ countries) participate in working holidays, generally to assist areas of need. Specifically focusing on Global Volunteers in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, this study examined the development implications of volunteer tourism with particular emphasis on the relationship between Global Volunteers and development outcomes, the role of culture and the nature of power within the Global Volunteer programme in Rarotonga.  The study took a qualitative approach to gain an insight into the experiences, stories and understandings of the volunteers, hosts and country managers involved in Global Volunteers in Rarotonga. Semi-structured and unstructured interviews and participant observation were carried out.  The study questioned the notion that volunteer tourism could be linked to development. Despite the positive outcomes and valuable contribution that volunteers made, there was not a strong correlation between the practice and development outcomes. The nature of power was regarded as a significant and complex aspect of volunteer tourism. Power was revealed in both strong and subtle ways and the relationship between those involved was not merely the powerful verses the powerless. Culture was expressed as an authentic and everyday process which led to instances of cultural clashes and opportunities for cultural collaboration. However, deep cultural understanding was not easily obtained through participation in the volunteer programme.  The study argued that volunteer tourism was neither good nor bad. However, the key feature of the volunteer programme involved the agency and ownership possessed by the host organisations to actively work with volunteer tourism organisations to define the type of assistance that the volunteers carried out.
The Loudspeaker: Transformative and Tactile Aspects of the Object
Authors:   , Wright Jason
Published: November 2021

Traditionally the loudspeaker has been viewed as a functional object. Whilst also serving as a design artifact and object of consumer fetishism, it is subject to the overriding purpose of the reproduction and replication of sound material. However, within sound-based arts, other understandings and uses of the loudspeaker are emerging. This object is now being recognised for its ability to transform sound, taking a proactive stance within sound-based arts. Through exploration of the psychoacoustic effects of the object, the loudspeaker’s ability to transform the musical object is being recognised. At the opposing pole, through physical interaction and exploiting physical aspects of the object, the loudspeaker becomes instrumental in creating its own musical objects.  My research delves into examples of sound and sonic art where the loudspeaker is exploited for its aural, physical and visual characteristics; where specific qualities of loudspeakers, as well as various transformations of the loudspeaker’s physical construction and function, are integral to a particular work. Whilst examining sound installation, sculpture and performance, I will also be unpacking the loudspeaker as an object that permeates everyday life, not least within a consumerist context, and how we have come to understand and listen to loudspeakers, looking at the effects this may have on our perception of sound and listening more generally.
All the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men: International anti-corruption discourse, political economy analysis and assemblage theory
Authors:   , Staveley Howard
Published: November 2021

Corruption emerged as a key issue area in international relations and development in the 1990s. However, efforts to control corruption have, to date, been relatively unsuccessful. This has prompted international organisations, like the World Bank, to acknowledge that corruption is a political issue as much as it is an economic one. This shift has led to an increasing use of political economy analysis to inform the anticorruption and governance reform operations of international organisations. This thesis examines political economy analysis as a feature of the expertise housed in the World Bank. It argues that because anti-corruption and governance expertise is essential to the legitimate authority of the organisation, there are risks to that authority if World Bank experts are unable to provide more than highly conventional recommendations for tackling corruption in developing countries. Commentators on development practice have suggested that integrating concepts from complexity science into political economy analysis and adopting an “upside-down” approach to development might be useful to help generate new ideas for controlling corruption. However, this thesis argues that in order to do so, it is necessary to address the philosophical implications of complexity science for mainstream anti-corruption discourse, which is dominated by the positivist assumptions of neo-classical economics. To this end, the thesis argues that Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory offers a social ontology in which the relevance of complexity science concepts for social analysis can be developed, and a way of thinking that emphasises how social entities emerge from “the bottom up” without reducing causal explanations to individual human beings and their interests. Social networks, institutional organisations, and cities are examples of social assemblages, real emergent entities with causal power in the world. Mapping social assemblages in political economy analysis, and understanding the relations between social entities and different spatial scales, may reveal new ways of addressing corruption and the intensification of elite domination it enables.
Trickle Down Development? The Expansion of Asparagus Exports and Water Availability for Urban Marginal Groups in Ica, Peru
Authors:   , Williams Peter Bryan Foster
Published: November 2021

This thesis explores the neoliberal approach to development and its influence on resource management in Latin America using a case study of Peru. Peru’s neoliberal reforms, beginning in 1990s, were successful in fostering macro-economic growth and helping the country reverse its dismal economic performance of the 1970s and 1980s. Promoted by neoliberal policies natural resource export booms, including in the non-traditional agricultural export (NTAX) sector, have contributed to Peru’s economic success. However, this overall economic growth has exacerbated the pre-existing inequalities of Peru. By applying an analysis inspired by structuralist and dependency theories, this thesis critically examines Peru’s NTAX expansion to understand why ‘underdevelopment’ and the country’s position as a ‘resource periphery’ has continued to take place. This study focuses on the rapid expansion of fresh asparagus exports in the Ica Valley following the 1990 reforms. Fresh asparagus production in the Ica Valley represents the flagship of Peru’s NTAX boom, with the industry generating economic growth and eradicating the area’s previously high unemployment. However, the industry has also concentrated water access and worsened water non-availability and inequalities in the valley. These problems are disproportionately affecting Ica’s marginalised population, yet limited work has documented how marginal urban groups are being impacted. This research therefore investigates how the asparagus export boom has affected Ica’s marginal urban groups and their access to water. In doing so, it critically studies the withdrawal of the state from development planning and resource management. Additionally, this research seeks to connect the rural and urban spheres, which are commonly and problematically separated in development study, through a contemporary example of the resource curse argument.
Chinese Institutions and Policy Experimentation: The case of Zhongguancun
Authors:   , Watson Clinton
Published: November 2021

The nature of institutional change lies at the heart of understanding China’s extraordinary transformation of the past 30 years. This thesis adopts an historical institutionalist approach, emphasising dynamic and path dependent processes, in examining Zhongguancun (ZGC), China’s premier science, technology and innovation zone in Beijing. The analytical framework deals with many of the critical issues of institutional analysis of large-scale economic development and social change: the Chinese experience as radical or gradual change; institutional convergence or divergence; formal and informal institutions; top-down design and bottom-up, spontaneous development. ZGC illustrates the ongoing importance of experimentation in Chinese policy as various institutional innovations have emerged from the zone, both spontaneously and through state-led trial schemes. However, increasing preponderance from the Chinese leadership and the highest state-level institutions may ultimately thwart attempts to turn ZGC into a world-class innovation hub.
Māori Vocabulary: A Study of Some High Frequency Homonyms
Authors:   , Keane-Tuala Kelly Elizabeth
Published: November 2021

The problem addressed in this thesis concerns the accuracy of Māori language vocabulary counts, e.g Boyce (2006), where Māori was found to use a very small vocabulary in comparison with e.g. English. As Boyce (2006, ii) acknowledges, this is partly explained by the degree of homonymy in Māori, which undermines the accuracy of the count. Homonymy is the phenomenon of the same string of letters (word-form) having two or more unrelated meanings (e.g. kī ‘say’, ‘be full’). Automated word-form counts of Maori language texts count the form kī as the same word, regardless of its meaning. Unless different meanings of the same word-form are counted as different words, such counts will underestimate the vocabulary of the Māori language. (Homonymy is not the only explanation for the low count; further explanations have been suggested by Bauer (2009) and Nation (2011).)  The thesis explores whether there are consistent clues in the linguistic environment that signal the correct interpretation of homonyms in texts, and if so, how such clues could be used for tagging corpora so that counting would be more accurate. The Boyce corpus of modern broadcast Māori (Boyce, 2006, ii) provided the data. Case studies were made of three high-frequency homonyms in this corpus, kī ‘say’, ‘full’, mea ‘say’, ‘thing’ and tau ‘settle’, ‘year’. Lyons' (1968) criterion of distinction was applied to establish the lexemes realised by each of these word-forms on the basis of dictionary and etymological information. The tokens of each word-form were then extracted from Boyce’s (2006) corpus using the concordance program ‘WordSmith Tools’. WordSmith Tools is a computer program that helps to look at how words behave in a text. Concord which is part of WordSmith Tools enables the user to see any word or phrase in context. Phrase peripheries (the words before and after each word-form in the same phrase) were analysed and the wider syntactic environment was also examined in order to find clues which signalled the appropriate lexeme for each token. The results showed that the lexemes from all three case studies could be identified in the corpus on the basis of consistent clues that occur in its linguistic environment. If the phrasal periphery of the word-form is examined, and the grammatical information supplied by the wider linguistic environment is taken into account, it is possible to determine the appropriate lexemic tag for a word-form in a corpus in Māori.
Samarium doped alkaline earth halides as red-emitting scintillators and phosphors
Authors:   , Dixie Laura Catherine
Published: November 2021

This thesis is concerned with the manufacture, spectroscopic characterisation, and radiation detection performance of three rare earth doped alkaline earth halides; these were designed for scintillation or phosphor detection of x-rays and γ-rays. The materials are transparent polycrystals of lanthanum or praseodymium stabilised cubic barium chloride ((La,Pr)₀.₁₂₅Ba₀.₈₇₅Cl₂.₁₂₅), BaCl₂ - SrCl₂ solid solutions, or single crystals of CaF₂. The primary dopant investigated was Sm²⁺ since this has a red emission in all the materials which is well matched to the spectral sensitivity of silicon photodiodes. The cubic structure of the polycrystalline materials is essential for optical transparency, and so the structural stability of the materials has been investigated using x ray diffraction and thermal analysis. For CaF₂ large single crystals were unintentionally produced without following the usual Bridgman-Stockbarger or Czochralski methods. All of the materials showed predominantly Sm²⁺ ions, and only in CaF₂ could evidence of Sm³⁺ ions also be seen.  The spectroscopy of the 4f⁵5d¹ → 4f⁶ red emission, including lifetimes, and absorption of Sm²⁺ ions in all these materials is reported; a strong thermal cross over to 4f⁶ → 4f⁶ emission is observed and successfully modelled. A time correlated single photon counted system has been built to measure the scintillation decay time of these materials. The system yields decay times in excellent agreement with the literature values. The performance of the materials as scintillators is limited to varying degrees by the formation of colour centres which slow the electron-hole recombination process after x-irradiation. Ba₀.₃Sr₀.₇Cl₂:Sm was found to be a bright and fast x-ray phosphor. The integrated intensity (per x-ray half thickness of material) of the radioluminescence is ~ 30 % that of the commercial material, the scintillation lifetime is ~ 30 μs (c.f. milliseconds for Gd₂O₂S:Tb³⁺) and the imaging resolution is 6 LP/mm (c.f. 4.2 LP/mm for Gd₂O₂S:Tb³⁺). CaF₂:Sm²⁺ was shown to be a red-emitting scintillator with a decay time of ≤ 1 μs and a light output of 15,000 photons/MeV when cooled by dry ice. The x-ray imaging resolution was high at 8.5 LP/mm. Several of the materials have been tested for performance as neutron detecting phosphors by adding neutron capture elements such as gadolinium or lithium, the strongest emission observed was 6 % the integrated intensity of the standard material ⁶LiI(Eu²⁺).
Temporal Sovereignty in Modern International Politics
Authors:   , Attrill Nathan
Published: November 2021

This thesis explores the relationship that the rise to hegemony of a Western standardised measurement of time has with the contemporaneous rise of the Western concept of territorial sovereignty. How does this relationship continue to shape debates over sovereignty in modern international politics both between states and within them, and is the concept of ‘temporal sovereignty’ an underappreciated topic in the field of International Relations? First, it explains how the standardised measurement of time has evolved throughout history and the factors that helped to facilitate moves towards a measurement of time based on precision and coordination of human activities. Second, it examines the link between territorial sovereignty and the standardisation of the measurement of time focussing on the imperatives of standardisation and the role states have in this process. Third, it describes the international time system as it exists today to understand what are the ‘rules’ and to what extent states conform to them. Finally, it discusses the concept of ‘temporal sovereignty’ and how states can and do use the standardisation of time to affect, influence, or control resources and people in three particular case studies: Canada, the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic of China.
Liberalisation of trade in education services : the implications of GATS for education in New Zealand, especially pertaining to primary and early childhood education
Authors:   , Jones Karen Jane
Published: November 2021

This paper situates trade in education services in the broader debates regarding the marketisation of education in New Zealand. It conducts a critical appraisal of the ideological influences on policy decisions to explore potential implications of GATS for the New Zealand education system. This discussion considers GATS in terms of the particular ideological and political project that underpins it. Market principles were introduced into New Zealand education fifteen years ago with the policies that rapidly and radically transformed the administration of the education system. These reforms, derived from neo-liberal economic discourse and New Right ideology, directly challenged the fundamental principles of equity, access and free public provision - ideals that had embedded education in its social context and relations, and structured education policy in New Zealand for the previous 50 years. Redefining education as a detached commodity traded in an education marketplace, and driven by imperatives of efficiency, profitability and "consumer choice", created the environment necessary for expanding international education markets. Trade in education services is New Zealand's fourth largest export earner. This research involves a review and analysis of literature to explore possible influences and implications of market and trade imperatives on the provision of primary and early childhood education services. In particular it discusses issues of equity, access, and the influences which shape the values and culture of education. It argues that prioritising commercial over social principles distorts the (traditional) role of education in terms of nation-building, identity formation, and the promotion of democratic values and citizenship. This is an exploratory and even speculative paper, raising issues and questions that can only be answered by full and open discussion involving all stakeholders and informed by comparative research. Acknowledging the tensions between the proponents of different perspectives and views it urges more open debate about where are we going with the ongoing and future role of education in New Zealand society.
Digesting Shakespeare - Two Centuries of Adapting A Midsummer Night's Dream for Children
Authors:   , Vermeulen Elriza Chimeni
Published: November 2021

The purpose of my thesis has been to establish the reasons for adapting Shakespeare for children in the modern age and to see if adaptations are influenced by the time they are written. From my analysis of forty- two adaptations for children of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, covering a period of almost two hundred years, three distinct trends have emerged. The first is the evolution of Shakespeare, in terms of his reputation and literary prestige. The second is the growth in the variety of adaptations of Shakespeare for children. The third is the tendency of treatments to reflect the eras in which they were produced.  This project represents an under-discussed field of Shakespeare studies. Comparing a wide variety of texts in the context of the time they were written has been neglected, as has the comparison of texts in different eras. This project covers seven time periods (with a chapter devoted to each): 1800 to 1840 (The Beginning); 1850 to 1910 (The Golden Age), 1919 to 1939 (Between the Wars); 1940 to 1959 (Post War Recovery); 1960 to 1979 (Performance Adaptations); 1980 to 1989 (Shakespeare in Schools) and 1990 to 1999 (End of a Millennium).  I argue three points: The first is that the prestige of Shakespeare has been systematically and consistently reinforced in each generation echoing his development from England’s greatest writer to an international icon. The second is that adaptations of MND have been influenced for the past 200 years by education in one way or another, either for pedagogic use or as metatheatrical device, ensuring an increasing variety of adaptations. The third is that MND has been rewritten to suit a specific era and audience.