title: Crossing borders and borderlands: Childhood's secret undergrounds

authors: Arndt, Sonja Kathrina

subjects: Family & Relationships

abstract: This chapter examines childhood undergrounds as subversive spaces that respond to children’s borderlands and border crossings. Centred on a tale of two childhoods, it analyses children's secret coping practices within very different socio-political contexts and realities. One story is of a boy growing up in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s, and his relationship to the borderlands between his country and Austria. The other is about a girl born into a German community in Australia, and her linguistic and cultural border crossings. The impact of their borders and border crossing strategies are theorised in relation to children’s ideological settings and forming subjectivities, to offer fresh understandings of childhood border experiences.

text: Crossing borders and borderlands: Childhood's secret undergrounds This chapter examines childhood undergrounds as subversive spaces that respond to children’s borderlands and border crossings. Centred on a tale of two childhoods, it analyses children's secret coping practices within very different socio-political contexts and realities. One story is of a boy growing up in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s, and his relationship to the borderlands between his country and Austria. The other is about a girl born into a German community in Australia, and her linguistic and cultural border crossings. The impact of their borders and border crossing strategies are theorised in relation to children’s ideological settings and forming subjectivities, to offer fresh understandings of childhood border experiences.

year: 2014

title: Crossing thresholds: An exploration of the transitional processes of new entrant management consultants

authors: Tunnicliffe, Garth

subjects: threshold theory

abstract: Despite the prominence of the management consulting industry and the appeal of roles within it, the recruitment and onboarding experiences of New Zealand management consultants are largely undocumented in existing academic literature. Research has shown new consultants face multiple challenges when becoming a competent consultant, including transitioning to the role; gathering required knowledge; constructing and aligning identity; and, coming to terms with both the ambiguous nature of consulting and the pressures generated by different tasks, firms and clients. This thesis explores how firms and individuals navigate this process by addressing the question: How might individuals and organisations improve the recruitment and onboarding of new entrant management consultants? In this context, the individuals are aspiring, incoming and relatively recent consultants, and the organisations are consultancy firms. This research gathers the stories of new management consultants via semi-structured interviews and utilises appreciative inquiry, analytical autoethnography and action research frameworks. In searching for ways to improve new management consultants’ experiences during recruitment and onboarding, the researcher analysed their responses. In addition, this study identifies how Covid-19 impacted some acculturation process associated with entering those roles. The results suggest that new management consultant experiences can be improved by attending to three key themes. As well as improving experiences, the findings indicate that actions taken in line with addressing the themes can also increase new consultants’ efficacy and develop their potential for success in the role.

text: Crossing thresholds: An exploration of the transitional processes of new entrant management consultants Despite the prominence of the management consulting industry and the appeal of roles within it, the recruitment and onboarding experiences of New Zealand management consultants are largely undocumented in existing academic literature. Research has shown new consultants face multiple challenges when becoming a competent consultant, including transitioning to the role; gathering required knowledge; constructing and aligning identity; and, coming to terms with both the ambiguous nature of consulting and the pressures generated by different tasks, firms and clients. This thesis explores how firms and individuals navigate this process by addressing the question: How might individuals and organisations improve the recruitment and onboarding of new entrant management consultants? In this context, the individuals are aspiring, incoming and relatively recent consultants, and the organisations are consultancy firms. This research gathers the stories of new management consultants via semi-structured interviews and utilises appreciative inquiry, analytical autoethnography and action research frameworks. In searching for ways to improve new management consultants’ experiences during recruitment and onboarding, the researcher analysed their responses. In addition, this study identifies how Covid-19 impacted some acculturation process associated with entering those roles. The results suggest that new management consultant experiences can be improved by attending to three key themes. As well as improving experiences, the findings indicate that actions taken in line with addressing the themes can also increase new consultants’ efficacy and develop their potential for success in the role.

year: 2021

title: Culture and collaborative conservation? Inter-cultural difference and the Maungatautari Project

authors: Harms, Matthew

subjects: Inter-cultural navigation

abstract: This thesis situates and examines the role of sociocultural difference and biculturalism in the Maungatautari Sanctuary Mountain project, a multi-stakeholder community-based biodiversity conservation project in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island. In the project, Mana Whenua (local indigenous Māori groups) and Pākehā (New Zealanders of British and European descent) from the area endeavour to interact and partner in the non-profit Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT) as its primary stakeholder groups. Utilizing sociocultural anthropology, three years of participant observation, participant interviews, fieldwork data and contextualizing history, the role of culture and issues of biculturalism and partnership are examined in relation to the respective sociocultural backgrounds and identity of project participants. Findings indicate that sociocultural difference in the form of varying beliefs, values, attitudes, practices and protocol, and identity/cultural politics have led to dissonance and strained stakeholder interrelations that negatively affected the project. In some instances, a post-colonial ‘neo-paternalism’ marginalised local Māori cultural input and needs in the project. At other times project participants successfully bridged inter-cultural differences. In these occurrences they created a collaborative, complementary, bicultural partnership which valued, sought to understand, and incorporated differing sociocultural aspects, advancing project goals. Further analysis identified an ongoing risk of future multi-stakeholder dissonance relative to culturally-derived disparate views on such issues as cultural harvesting, species reintroductions and care, ecotourism, development on the mountain, and biodiversity research. Normative solutions are identified which can aid Maungatautari stakeholders and other culturally-heterogeneous multi-stakeholder conservation groups work toward and produce inclusive, inter-cultural partnership.

text: Culture and collaborative conservation? Inter-cultural difference and the Maungatautari Project This thesis situates and examines the role of sociocultural difference and biculturalism in the Maungatautari Sanctuary Mountain project, a multi-stakeholder community-based biodiversity conservation project in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island. In the project, Mana Whenua (local indigenous Māori groups) and Pākehā (New Zealanders of British and European descent) from the area endeavour to interact and partner in the non-profit Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT) as its primary stakeholder groups. Utilizing sociocultural anthropology, three years of participant observation, participant interviews, fieldwork data and contextualizing history, the role of culture and issues of biculturalism and partnership are examined in relation to the respective sociocultural backgrounds and identity of project participants. Findings indicate that sociocultural difference in the form of varying beliefs, values, attitudes, practices and protocol, and identity/cultural politics have led to dissonance and strained stakeholder interrelations that negatively affected the project. In some instances, a post-colonial ‘neo-paternalism’ marginalised local Māori cultural input and needs in the project. At other times project participants successfully bridged inter-cultural differences. In these occurrences they created a collaborative, complementary, bicultural partnership which valued, sought to understand, and incorporated differing sociocultural aspects, advancing project goals. Further analysis identified an ongoing risk of future multi-stakeholder dissonance relative to culturally-derived disparate views on such issues as cultural harvesting, species reintroductions and care, ecotourism, development on the mountain, and biodiversity research. Normative solutions are identified which can aid Maungatautari stakeholders and other culturally-heterogeneous multi-stakeholder conservation groups work toward and produce inclusive, inter-cultural partnership.

year: 2018