title: The housing crisis as an ideological artefact: Analysing how political discourse defines, diagnoses, and responds

authors: White, Iain

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: It is a truism that politicians from countries around the world claim to be in the midst of a ‘housing crisis’. But how do they define it, who is affected, and what is the cause? This paper provides a critical evaluation of the emergence and scope of political discourse connected to the housing crisis in New Zealand under three National Party led governments (2008-2017), with a view to better understanding the ways in which the issue has been problematized in politics and operationalized in policy. It finds that although researchers draw upon multiple strands of evidence and recognize housing as a complex problem, the political framing of a housing crisis is simpler and shows a closer relationship to long standing ideological perspectives, notably an inefficient planning system and low supply of development land. This raises critical questions for how housing researchers can better influence politics and challenge both the lived experience of crisis and existing claims of normalcy.

text: The housing crisis as an ideological artefact: Analysing how political discourse defines, diagnoses, and responds It is a truism that politicians from countries around the world claim to be in the midst of a ‘housing crisis’. But how do they define it, who is affected, and what is the cause? This paper provides a critical evaluation of the emergence and scope of political discourse connected to the housing crisis in New Zealand under three National Party led governments (2008-2017), with a view to better understanding the ways in which the issue has been problematized in politics and operationalized in policy. It finds that although researchers draw upon multiple strands of evidence and recognize housing as a complex problem, the political framing of a housing crisis is simpler and shows a closer relationship to long standing ideological perspectives, notably an inefficient planning system and low supply of development land. This raises critical questions for how housing researchers can better influence politics and challenge both the lived experience of crisis and existing claims of normalcy.

year: 2019

title: In a World of its Own:  How Operative Closure Limits the Law's Ability to Protect Children from Maltreatment.

authors: Peploe, Matthew

subjects: Law

abstract: New Zealand's figures for child maltreatment are consistently amongst the highest in the OECD. The purpose of this thesis is to understand what the legal system can do to protect children in New Zealand from maltreatment and why legal responses to child maltreatment often appear to be ineffectual or of limited effect.  

This thesis uses the theories of Luhman and Teubner to argue that the law's ability to protect children from maltreatment is limited because the legal system creates and responds to its own abstract world.  This process arises from the functional requirements of the law and its operation as an autopoietic system of power that produces its own abstract knowledge about the world.  The legal system's function within New Zealand society is to stabilise behavioural expectations and maintain society's coherence and it does so by reducing the complexity of subjective human existence into binary alternatives.  However, this process of reducing complexity limits the way in which the law produces its knowledge about the world and controls how power is distributed within the law's abstract world to such an extent that the legal system is closed from the world of subjective experience.  This closure from the world outside the legal system limits the law's ability to regulate and reform that outside world and protect the children who live within it.  By identifying these limits, this thesis will contribute to an understanding of the limits of the law's ability to protect children from maltreatment and thereby improve the effectiveness of New Zealand society's attempts to protect its children.

text: In a World of its Own:  How Operative Closure Limits the Law's Ability to Protect Children from Maltreatment. New Zealand's figures for child maltreatment are consistently amongst the highest in the OECD. The purpose of this thesis is to understand what the legal system can do to protect children in New Zealand from maltreatment and why legal responses to child maltreatment often appear to be ineffectual or of limited effect.  

This thesis uses the theories of Luhman and Teubner to argue that the law's ability to protect children from maltreatment is limited because the legal system creates and responds to its own abstract world.  This process arises from the functional requirements of the law and its operation as an autopoietic system of power that produces its own abstract knowledge about the world.  The legal system's function within New Zealand society is to stabilise behavioural expectations and maintain society's coherence and it does so by reducing the complexity of subjective human existence into binary alternatives.  However, this process of reducing complexity limits the way in which the law produces its knowledge about the world and controls how power is distributed within the law's abstract world to such an extent that the legal system is closed from the world of subjective experience.  This closure from the world outside the legal system limits the law's ability to regulate and reform that outside world and protect the children who live within it.  By identifying these limits, this thesis will contribute to an understanding of the limits of the law's ability to protect children from maltreatment and thereby improve the effectiveness of New Zealand society's attempts to protect its children.

year: 2008

title: huka can haka: Taonga performing tino rangatiratanga

authors: Nopera, Tāwhanga Mary-Legs

subjects: Raranga

abstract: huka can haka is an ongoing body of creative works used to frame the ideas expressed in this thesis. Spoken, ‘huka’ sounds like ‘hooker’, he is a performance persona developed to help heal from the bitter-sweet reality of being Māori, genderfluid, same-sex attracted and HIV positive in Aotearoa New Zealand. huka can haka refers to an inbetween gendered space of performance where ‘huka’ translates from Māori to English as the sea-foam that gathers between land and sea, white rain such as snow or hail, the dancing tags that are woven into cloaks, or as the transliteration of sugar. ‘Haka’ is predominantly perceived as a masculine form of traditional Māori dance and is akin to weaving with the entire body. Haka is highly sexualised and invigorates a sense of connection to Māori genealogies, family, community, language, land and cultural practices. huka can haka infers the agency enacted through the intentional performance of an identity between cultures and gender in Aotearoa New Zealand. ‘Taonga’ translates from Māori to English to represent things people value and treasure – they can be tangible or ephemeral and include shared and individual memories, people, words, actions, the things we make and beautify, as well as the natural environment that sustains us. ‘Tino rangatiratanga’ is a Māori assertion of the right to determine our lives without the disruptive controls enacted through the New Zealand government by the British Crown. Taonga performing tino rangatiratanga, infers the agency present in valuable things – because taonga exist we become aware of reasons to protect them, we create protective processes and we appreciate the value of ourselves as protectors. huka can haka: Taonga performing tino rangatiratanga explores how making art heals – it describes the transformations that manifest when creating through Māori knowledge.


Raranga is the framework used to organise and explain my research. Raranga is a traditional process of Māori weaving and through its use as a methodology, I am able to connect my explorations to the relational values that are part of Māori culture. I use raranga as a framework to interpret my own practice which is unique to me – there is no separation between my practice and the ways I live my life which differs from the approaches of other weavers. Within this project I utilise a range of research approaches that are qualitative, autobiographical, subjective, creative and practice-based.  Traditional Māori methods of story-telling, pūrākau, are used to communicate this research in digital image, digital video, writing and performance art. Through doing this I describe how contemporary media explorations can be interpreted as forms of raranga and haka, which can help mediate the sometimes oppressive use of text, image, moving image and performance in advancing colonial intents. The primary findings in this research are:
1.	that creative practice research can help people to connect sexuality with creativity, to, re-story and re-generate narratives of empowerment; 
2.	that multimedia approaches to identity knowledge gathering, assists in embodying empowerment;
3.	that Kaupapa Māori Theory can challenge dominant perceptions of gendered Māori bodies, and is inclusive of the ‘do it yourself’ strategies described through Transgender theory;
4.	that a raranga methodology can be embodied through performance and performance artefacts, connecting research to the lived experiences of research subjects;
5.	that raranga is a powerful tool to interpret sexual trauma, offering connective strategies to release damaging internalised behaviours;
6.	that raranga can centre marginal identities as bodies full of hope; 
7.	that performance of historical trauma as ceremony can offer collective forms of healing, and;
8.	that raranga heals, giving direction to multiple and conflicting strands of lived experience.


The thesis makes prominent the generative and progressive nature of raranga and is chronological in design. Theoretical explorations inspire creative works, which then in turn inform avenues for deeper theorisation, leading to new creative works and so on until the thesis conclusion. Through this creative practice research project I assert raranga as a powerful process to interpret the agency that grows between makers, the materials we use and the objects we create. Ultimately, this thesis outlines a way to weave experiences of sexualised and gendered trauma, and affirm the healing present at the intersection between oppositional relationships.

text: huka can haka: Taonga performing tino rangatiratanga huka can haka is an ongoing body of creative works used to frame the ideas expressed in this thesis. Spoken, ‘huka’ sounds like ‘hooker’, he is a performance persona developed to help heal from the bitter-sweet reality of being Māori, genderfluid, same-sex attracted and HIV positive in Aotearoa New Zealand. huka can haka refers to an inbetween gendered space of performance where ‘huka’ translates from Māori to English as the sea-foam that gathers between land and sea, white rain such as snow or hail, the dancing tags that are woven into cloaks, or as the transliteration of sugar. ‘Haka’ is predominantly perceived as a masculine form of traditional Māori dance and is akin to weaving with the entire body. Haka is highly sexualised and invigorates a sense of connection to Māori genealogies, family, community, language, land and cultural practices. huka can haka infers the agency enacted through the intentional performance of an identity between cultures and gender in Aotearoa New Zealand. ‘Taonga’ translates from Māori to English to represent things people value and treasure – they can be tangible or ephemeral and include shared and individual memories, people, words, actions, the things we make and beautify, as well as the natural environment that sustains us. ‘Tino rangatiratanga’ is a Māori assertion of the right to determine our lives without the disruptive controls enacted through the New Zealand government by the British Crown. Taonga performing tino rangatiratanga, infers the agency present in valuable things – because taonga exist we become aware of reasons to protect them, we create protective processes and we appreciate the value of ourselves as protectors. huka can haka: Taonga performing tino rangatiratanga explores how making art heals – it describes the transformations that manifest when creating through Māori knowledge.


Raranga is the framework used to organise and explain my research. Raranga is a traditional process of Māori weaving and through its use as a methodology, I am able to connect my explorations to the relational values that are part of Māori culture. I use raranga as a framework to interpret my own practice which is unique to me – there is no separation between my practice and the ways I live my life which differs from the approaches of other weavers. Within this project I utilise a range of research approaches that are qualitative, autobiographical, subjective, creative and practice-based.  Traditional Māori methods of story-telling, pūrākau, are used to communicate this research in digital image, digital video, writing and performance art. Through doing this I describe how contemporary media explorations can be interpreted as forms of raranga and haka, which can help mediate the sometimes oppressive use of text, image, moving image and performance in advancing colonial intents. The primary findings in this research are:
1.	that creative practice research can help people to connect sexuality with creativity, to, re-story and re-generate narratives of empowerment; 
2.	that multimedia approaches to identity knowledge gathering, assists in embodying empowerment;
3.	that Kaupapa Māori Theory can challenge dominant perceptions of gendered Māori bodies, and is inclusive of the ‘do it yourself’ strategies described through Transgender theory;
4.	that a raranga methodology can be embodied through performance and performance artefacts, connecting research to the lived experiences of research subjects;
5.	that raranga is a powerful tool to interpret sexual trauma, offering connective strategies to release damaging internalised behaviours;
6.	that raranga can centre marginal identities as bodies full of hope; 
7.	that performance of historical trauma as ceremony can offer collective forms of healing, and;
8.	that raranga heals, giving direction to multiple and conflicting strands of lived experience.


The thesis makes prominent the generative and progressive nature of raranga and is chronological in design. Theoretical explorations inspire creative works, which then in turn inform avenues for deeper theorisation, leading to new creative works and so on until the thesis conclusion. Through this creative practice research project I assert raranga as a powerful process to interpret the agency that grows between makers, the materials we use and the objects we create. Ultimately, this thesis outlines a way to weave experiences of sexualised and gendered trauma, and affirm the healing present at the intersection between oppositional relationships.

year: 2017