title: The social work professionalisation project before the 1990s in Aotearoa New Zealand: The dream

authors: Hunt, Sonya

subjects: social work professionalisation

abstract: INTRODUCTION: The meaning and purpose of social work has always been debated within the social work profession. The profession dreams of contributing towards a better, fairer, civil society locally and internationally. This article explores the professionalisation of social work in Aotearoa New Zealand. This exploration has been undertaken as background for an ongoing research project.

METHOD: A critical consideration of the different theoretical and historical dimensions and interests at work that impacted on the journey of professionalisation of social work in this country has been undertaken based on a review of literature. Part one of the article outlines a definition of social work, and different concepts and approaches to professionalisation. Part two of the article contextualises the different approaches to professionalisation within Aotearoa New Zealand, from early forms of welfare pre-colonisation up until the early 1990s.

CONCLUSION: The literature and trends discussed serve to both document the history of professionalisation of social work in Aotearoa New Zealand and as background to an ongoing critical research project which aims to uncover interests at work and interrogate the legitimacy of those interests, while enabling the voices of key actors from the time to surface, be explored, and be recorded.

text: The social work professionalisation project before the 1990s in Aotearoa New Zealand: The dream INTRODUCTION: The meaning and purpose of social work has always been debated within the social work profession. The profession dreams of contributing towards a better, fairer, civil society locally and internationally. This article explores the professionalisation of social work in Aotearoa New Zealand. This exploration has been undertaken as background for an ongoing research project.

METHOD: A critical consideration of the different theoretical and historical dimensions and interests at work that impacted on the journey of professionalisation of social work in this country has been undertaken based on a review of literature. Part one of the article outlines a definition of social work, and different concepts and approaches to professionalisation. Part two of the article contextualises the different approaches to professionalisation within Aotearoa New Zealand, from early forms of welfare pre-colonisation up until the early 1990s.

CONCLUSION: The literature and trends discussed serve to both document the history of professionalisation of social work in Aotearoa New Zealand and as background to an ongoing critical research project which aims to uncover interests at work and interrogate the legitimacy of those interests, while enabling the voices of key actors from the time to surface, be explored, and be recorded.

year: 2016

title: Māori Migration: The Social Consequences

authors: Nikora, Linda Waimarie

subjects: Maori

abstract: A team led by Bernard Guerin is looking at the family and community impacts from contemporary forms of migration in a 6-year project Strangers in Town: Enhancing Family and Community in a More Diverse New Zealand Society, funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. One large part of this research looks at Māori migration, headed by Linda Waimarie Nikora.
Since the research on the 'urban drift' of the 1950s and 1960s, little has been done to research the effects of Māori migration. Our aim is to draw together the researchers and research results and to conduct our own research to fill in the gaps. We also work with others on the 6-year project who are looking at the population statistics of Māori migration, especially Trans-Tasman migrations.

text: Māori Migration: The Social Consequences A team led by Bernard Guerin is looking at the family and community impacts from contemporary forms of migration in a 6-year project Strangers in Town: Enhancing Family and Community in a More Diverse New Zealand Society, funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. One large part of this research looks at Māori migration, headed by Linda Waimarie Nikora.
Since the research on the 'urban drift' of the 1950s and 1960s, little has been done to research the effects of Māori migration. Our aim is to draw together the researchers and research results and to conduct our own research to fill in the gaps. We also work with others on the 6-year project who are looking at the population statistics of Māori migration, especially Trans-Tasman migrations.

year: 2004-11-01

title: Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia

authors: Pagel, Mark

subjects: cultural evolution

abstract: The search for ever deeper relationships among the World’s languages is bedeviled by the fact that most words evolve too rapidly to preserve evidence of their ancestry beyond 5,000 to 9,000 y. On the other hand, quantitative modeling indicates that some “ultraconserved” words exist that might be used to find evidence for deep linguistic relationships beyond that time barrier. Here we use a statistical model, which takes into account the frequency with which words are used in common everyday speech, to predict the existence of a set of such highly conserved words among seven language families of Eurasia postulated to form a linguistic superfamily that evolved from a common ancestor around 15,000 y ago. We derive a dated phylogenetic tree of this proposed superfamily with a time-depth of ∼14,450 y, implying that some frequently used words have been retained in related forms since the end of the last ice age. Words used more than once per 1,000 in everyday speech were 7- to 10-times more likely to show deep ancestry on this tree. Our results suggest a remarkable fidelity in the transmission of some words and give theoretical justification to the search for features of language that might be preserved across wide spans of time and geography.

text: Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia The search for ever deeper relationships among the World’s languages is bedeviled by the fact that most words evolve too rapidly to preserve evidence of their ancestry beyond 5,000 to 9,000 y. On the other hand, quantitative modeling indicates that some “ultraconserved” words exist that might be used to find evidence for deep linguistic relationships beyond that time barrier. Here we use a statistical model, which takes into account the frequency with which words are used in common everyday speech, to predict the existence of a set of such highly conserved words among seven language families of Eurasia postulated to form a linguistic superfamily that evolved from a common ancestor around 15,000 y ago. We derive a dated phylogenetic tree of this proposed superfamily with a time-depth of ∼14,450 y, implying that some frequently used words have been retained in related forms since the end of the last ice age. Words used more than once per 1,000 in everyday speech were 7- to 10-times more likely to show deep ancestry on this tree. Our results suggest a remarkable fidelity in the transmission of some words and give theoretical justification to the search for features of language that might be preserved across wide spans of time and geography.

year: 2013