title: Diasporic films and the migrant experience in New Zealand: A case study in social imagination

authors: Zalipour, Arezou

subjects: Asian diaspora

abstract: Drawing upon interviews and focus groups with Asian migrants, this article interrogates responses to ‘diasporic’ films that seek to represent multicultural experiences in contemporary New Zealand. We argue that these responses provide an effective demonstration of the operation of the ‘social imagination’, a discursive process that articulates the fundamental linkage between symbolic representation, community formation and social action. As our respondents narrated the personal meanings that they construct around ethnically specific media, they were compelled to describe known and hypothetical others, to elucidate symbolic and moral codes, and to reveal social empathies and anxieties. In this study, we found that discussions around migrant stories revealed a series of deeply personalised notions of self and place that were always situated in juxtaposition with externalised projections of community formation and the ‘mainstream’ culture. This dynamic reflects what can be conceptualised as the central preoccupations of a ‘diasporic social imagination’. These responses, therefore, constitute a case study of social imagination at work in a multicultural context, underlining the utility of narrative media in providing a public forum for discussing cultural diversity.

text: Diasporic films and the migrant experience in New Zealand: A case study in social imagination Drawing upon interviews and focus groups with Asian migrants, this article interrogates responses to ‘diasporic’ films that seek to represent multicultural experiences in contemporary New Zealand. We argue that these responses provide an effective demonstration of the operation of the ‘social imagination’, a discursive process that articulates the fundamental linkage between symbolic representation, community formation and social action. As our respondents narrated the personal meanings that they construct around ethnically specific media, they were compelled to describe known and hypothetical others, to elucidate symbolic and moral codes, and to reveal social empathies and anxieties. In this study, we found that discussions around migrant stories revealed a series of deeply personalised notions of self and place that were always situated in juxtaposition with externalised projections of community formation and the ‘mainstream’ culture. This dynamic reflects what can be conceptualised as the central preoccupations of a ‘diasporic social imagination’. These responses, therefore, constitute a case study of social imagination at work in a multicultural context, underlining the utility of narrative media in providing a public forum for discussing cultural diversity.

year: 2014

title: Relationships between land use and nitrogen and phosphorus in New Zealand lakes

authors: Abell, Jonathan Michael

subjects: agriculture

abstract: Developing policies to address lake eutrophication requires an understanding of the relative contribution of different nutrient sources and of how lake and catchment characteristics interact to mediate the source–receptor pathway. We analysed total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) data for 101 New Zealand lakes and related these to land use and edaphic sources of phosphorus (P). We then analysed a sub-sample of lakes in agricultural catchments to investigate how lake and catchment variables influence the relationship between land use and in-lake nutrients. Following correction for the effect of co-variation amongst predictor variables, high producing grassland (intensive pasture) was the best predictor of TN and TP, accounting for 38.6% and 41.0% of variation, respectively. Exotic forestry and urban area accounted for a further 18.8% and 3.6% of variation in TP and TN, respectively. Soil P (representing naturally-occurring edaphic P) was negatively correlated with TP, owing to the confounding effect of pastoral land use. Lake and catchment morphology (zmax and lake : catchment area) and catchment connectivity (lake order) mediated the relationship between intensive pasture and in-lake nutrients. Mitigating eutrophication in New Zealand lakes requires action to reduce nutrient export from intensive pasture and quantifying P export from plantation forestry requires further consideration.

text: Relationships between land use and nitrogen and phosphorus in New Zealand lakes Developing policies to address lake eutrophication requires an understanding of the relative contribution of different nutrient sources and of how lake and catchment characteristics interact to mediate the source–receptor pathway. We analysed total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) data for 101 New Zealand lakes and related these to land use and edaphic sources of phosphorus (P). We then analysed a sub-sample of lakes in agricultural catchments to investigate how lake and catchment variables influence the relationship between land use and in-lake nutrients. Following correction for the effect of co-variation amongst predictor variables, high producing grassland (intensive pasture) was the best predictor of TN and TP, accounting for 38.6% and 41.0% of variation, respectively. Exotic forestry and urban area accounted for a further 18.8% and 3.6% of variation in TP and TN, respectively. Soil P (representing naturally-occurring edaphic P) was negatively correlated with TP, owing to the confounding effect of pastoral land use. Lake and catchment morphology (zmax and lake : catchment area) and catchment connectivity (lake order) mediated the relationship between intensive pasture and in-lake nutrients. Mitigating eutrophication in New Zealand lakes requires action to reduce nutrient export from intensive pasture and quantifying P export from plantation forestry requires further consideration.

year: 2011

title: Blue-lip'd cannibal ladies: The allure of the exotic in the illicit Resolution Journal of Gunner John Marra

authors: Ryan, Tom

subjects: John Marra

abstract: Discusses the history and content of the “Journal of the Resolution’s Voyage”, an unauthorized and illicitly published account of Cook’s second voyage of exploration in the Antipodes, by Gunner John Marra of the Resolution’s crew.

text: Blue-lip'd cannibal ladies: The allure of the exotic in the illicit Resolution Journal of Gunner John Marra Discusses the history and content of the “Journal of the Resolution’s Voyage”, an unauthorized and illicitly published account of Cook’s second voyage of exploration in the Antipodes, by Gunner John Marra of the Resolution’s crew.

year: 2001