title: Still seeking the audience

authors: Yeatman, Bevin

subjects: audience

abstract: The changing capacities to connect generated through contemporary media have implications for an understanding of the idea of ‘audience’. This paper begins a new search for an understanding of the contemporary audience and seeks this through an engagement with a few key ideas that sign-post a reconsideration of my own understanding of what an audience might become. Massumi’s idea of intensity, Bennett’s use of assemblage and the focus on event to emphasize the dynamic nature of an audience help to guide my trajectory. Finally I attempt to apply these ideas to a personal experience of becoming an audience to see how useful they might be as I continue to question my own habituated conceptualisations.

text: Still seeking the audience The changing capacities to connect generated through contemporary media have implications for an understanding of the idea of ‘audience’. This paper begins a new search for an understanding of the contemporary audience and seeks this through an engagement with a few key ideas that sign-post a reconsideration of my own understanding of what an audience might become. Massumi’s idea of intensity, Bennett’s use of assemblage and the focus on event to emphasize the dynamic nature of an audience help to guide my trajectory. Finally I attempt to apply these ideas to a personal experience of becoming an audience to see how useful they might be as I continue to question my own habituated conceptualisations.

year: 2011

title: Distributional Impacts of Interest Free Student Loans

authors: Coker, Emma

subjects: Student loans

abstract: Prior to 2006, New Zealand charged one of the highest rates of interest on student loans in the world; however, in line with the Labour government’s agenda to increase access to tertiary education, this was the year a blanket subsidy was applied to interest on all such loans. Literature theorising on the implications of introducing an interest-free arrangement of this nature suggests the policy is likely to exacerbate income inequality. This distributional effect is attributed to the consequent non-price rationing of scarce educational resources and, in the case of income-contingent repayments, the benefit is greater the wealthier the borrower.

Changes in inequality owing to New Zealand’s education subsidy are examined from two aspects in this thesis. First, data from the New Zealand Income Survey (2002-2007), is analysed to determine the distributional effects on a subgroup of likely student loan holders relative to the total sample population. Propensity score and kernel matching techniques reveal that the subgroup of likely student loan holders have higher average incomes irrespective of the subsidy, which suggests the large subsidisation may in fact be an inefficient way to target income inequality. 

Second, public opinion regarding inequality in New Zealand is evaluated using data from the International Social Science Survey (1999 & 2009). OLS and probit regression models both suggest citizens would prefer to live in a society with less inequality; although, individuals from 2009 were less likely than those surveyed a decade earlier to believe it is the Government’s responsibility to intervene. This indicates a policy such as the blanket subsidy on student loan interest may not adhere to public opinion as a solution to mitigate inequality.

text: Distributional Impacts of Interest Free Student Loans Prior to 2006, New Zealand charged one of the highest rates of interest on student loans in the world; however, in line with the Labour government’s agenda to increase access to tertiary education, this was the year a blanket subsidy was applied to interest on all such loans. Literature theorising on the implications of introducing an interest-free arrangement of this nature suggests the policy is likely to exacerbate income inequality. This distributional effect is attributed to the consequent non-price rationing of scarce educational resources and, in the case of income-contingent repayments, the benefit is greater the wealthier the borrower.

Changes in inequality owing to New Zealand’s education subsidy are examined from two aspects in this thesis. First, data from the New Zealand Income Survey (2002-2007), is analysed to determine the distributional effects on a subgroup of likely student loan holders relative to the total sample population. Propensity score and kernel matching techniques reveal that the subgroup of likely student loan holders have higher average incomes irrespective of the subsidy, which suggests the large subsidisation may in fact be an inefficient way to target income inequality. 

Second, public opinion regarding inequality in New Zealand is evaluated using data from the International Social Science Survey (1999 & 2009). OLS and probit regression models both suggest citizens would prefer to live in a society with less inequality; although, individuals from 2009 were less likely than those surveyed a decade earlier to believe it is the Government’s responsibility to intervene. This indicates a policy such as the blanket subsidy on student loan interest may not adhere to public opinion as a solution to mitigate inequality.

year: 2014

title: Community engagement: managers’ viewpoints

authors: Hanlen, Patricia

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Managers are invaluable for their support of fieldwork placement for social work students. This chapter examines factors that influence managers’ decision-making towards student placement provision, a role which has traditionally been overlooked in the literature. Understandings were gained from fifteen non-statutory managers gathered in a qualitative study in New Zealand. Māori and non-Māori managers were interviewed twice, with a three month interval between data gathering. Four themes of organisational, cultural, student and relational factors are considered for their influence on provision. Findings suggest the importance of student quality and their ability to make connections with local indigenous communities and reciprocity in relationships between educational institutions and social service agencies.

text: Community engagement: managers’ viewpoints Managers are invaluable for their support of fieldwork placement for social work students. This chapter examines factors that influence managers’ decision-making towards student placement provision, a role which has traditionally been overlooked in the literature. Understandings were gained from fifteen non-statutory managers gathered in a qualitative study in New Zealand. Māori and non-Māori managers were interviewed twice, with a three month interval between data gathering. Four themes of organisational, cultural, student and relational factors are considered for their influence on provision. Findings suggest the importance of student quality and their ability to make connections with local indigenous communities and reciprocity in relationships between educational institutions and social service agencies.

year: 2011