title: Colonial geographies of settlement: Vegetation, towns, disease and well-being in Aotearoa/New Zealand, 1830s-1930s

authors: Beattie, James John

subjects: environment

abstract: A Fruitful new area of environmental history research can be undertaken on the relationship between plants and health in colonial societies. By using New Zealand as a case study, I demonstrate the strength of settler beliefs in the connections between existing environments, environmental transformation, and their own health. I attempt to reconnect the historiographies of medical and environmental history by arguing that urban settlements- as much as rural areas – were important sites for debates about environmental change and human health. I adopt a broad perspective in order to sketch out the contours of a new field, demonstrating the complicated connections between health, aesthetic appreciation, medicine and garden history. Furthermore, I argue that many environmental-health ideas associated with miasmic theories became incorporated into the microbial ‘revolution’ taking place from the late nineteenth century. Finally, I note that a close study of settler environmental-health ideas reveals a far more ambiguous- a far more anxious – history of European engagement with temperate colonies than the existing historiography on the topic posits. Rather than wholly confident and arrogant agent of environmental exploitation, it reveals that great anxieties about health existed side-by-side with confidence in the environmentally transformative potential of colonisation.

text: Colonial geographies of settlement: Vegetation, towns, disease and well-being in Aotearoa/New Zealand, 1830s-1930s A Fruitful new area of environmental history research can be undertaken on the relationship between plants and health in colonial societies. By using New Zealand as a case study, I demonstrate the strength of settler beliefs in the connections between existing environments, environmental transformation, and their own health. I attempt to reconnect the historiographies of medical and environmental history by arguing that urban settlements- as much as rural areas – were important sites for debates about environmental change and human health. I adopt a broad perspective in order to sketch out the contours of a new field, demonstrating the complicated connections between health, aesthetic appreciation, medicine and garden history. Furthermore, I argue that many environmental-health ideas associated with miasmic theories became incorporated into the microbial ‘revolution’ taking place from the late nineteenth century. Finally, I note that a close study of settler environmental-health ideas reveals a far more ambiguous- a far more anxious – history of European engagement with temperate colonies than the existing historiography on the topic posits. Rather than wholly confident and arrogant agent of environmental exploitation, it reveals that great anxieties about health existed side-by-side with confidence in the environmentally transformative potential of colonisation.

year: 2008

title: Quality, quantity, and nutritional impacts of rice price changes in Vietnam

authors: Gibson, John

subjects: Asia

abstract: Asian governments intervene in the world rice market to protect domestic consumers. Whether consumers are nutritionally vulnerable depends on the elasticity of calories with respect to rice prices. Common demand models applied to household survey and market price data ignore quality substitution and force all adjustment onto the quantity (calorie) margin. This paper uses data from Vietnam on market prices, food quantity and quality. A 10% increase in the relative price of rice reduces household calorie consumption by less than 2% but this elasticity would be wrongly estimated to be more than twice as large if quality substitution is ignored.

text: Quality, quantity, and nutritional impacts of rice price changes in Vietnam Asian governments intervene in the world rice market to protect domestic consumers. Whether consumers are nutritionally vulnerable depends on the elasticity of calories with respect to rice prices. Common demand models applied to household survey and market price data ignore quality substitution and force all adjustment onto the quantity (calorie) margin. This paper uses data from Vietnam on market prices, food quantity and quality. A 10% increase in the relative price of rice reduces household calorie consumption by less than 2% but this elasticity would be wrongly estimated to be more than twice as large if quality substitution is ignored.

year: 2013

title: Cultural vehicles and the Māori print media: What cultural concepts are used to communicate health messages to Māori?

authors: Groot, Shiloh Ann Maree

subjects: health

abstract: Existing research indicates that vaccination programmes to prevent Meningococcal disease have low response rates from Māori which contributes to a belief that Māori are apathetic and irresponsible. Our research question was: How do the Māori and community print media facilitate the promotion of Māori cultural concepts as generators of new meaning, particularly with regard to positive Māori health? This study focuses on the recent health
concern of Meningococcal disease. Twenty-four months of Māori and community print media was scanned to identify how Māori cultural concepts are being applied, modified, and operationalised in order to convey and promote positive health in Māori communities. Contrary to what was expected, the Western medical model with integrated Māori concepts was the main cultural frame employed.

text: Cultural vehicles and the Māori print media: What cultural concepts are used to communicate health messages to Māori? Existing research indicates that vaccination programmes to prevent Meningococcal disease have low response rates from Māori which contributes to a belief that Māori are apathetic and irresponsible. Our research question was: How do the Māori and community print media facilitate the promotion of Māori cultural concepts as generators of new meaning, particularly with regard to positive Māori health? This study focuses on the recent health
concern of Meningococcal disease. Twenty-four months of Māori and community print media was scanned to identify how Māori cultural concepts are being applied, modified, and operationalised in order to convey and promote positive health in Māori communities. Contrary to what was expected, the Western medical model with integrated Māori concepts was the main cultural frame employed.

year: 2006