title: Women's leadership as a symbolic act of reproduction: A case  study in the Solomon Islands

authors: Maezama, Susanne Gasepelo

subjects: Women, leadership, matrilineal leadership, indigenous leadership, social reproduction, Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands, Bourdieu's habitus

abstract: Literature on women’s leadership over the last three decades suggests that women’s leadership perspectives have been predominantly influenced by either Euro-centric patriarchal views or those of women in economically developed countries. These are significantly different from an economically developing Pacific Island like the Solomon Islands, in particular, its Santa Isabel Island. 
The literature, therefore, overlooks the impacts women’s indigenous culture may have in order to understand their leadership beliefs and practices. Bourdieu 
(1977b) argues that people’s practices are embodied within their cultures, forming habitus through their past and present experiences, both consciously and unconsciously. I argue that women leaders’ leadership beliefs and practices cannot be fully understood without considering these social and cultural norms operating in their specific cultures. My thesis explores the impact of the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture on women’s formed leadership beliefs and practices. The main research question therefore is:  
How do women leaders’ leadership beliefs and practices form in the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture? Sub questions arising from this are: 
1.	In what ways does the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture influence women leaders’ beliefs and practices? 
2.	To what extent does the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture contribute to the formation of women leaders’ cultural leadership beliefs and practices? 
3.	How do women leaders practice leadership in the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture? 
My research was undertaken using a case study methodology, linked with Bourdieu’s (1977b) habitus as a lens for exploring women leaders’ leadership practices in Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands context through using interviews, informal observations and focus groups. The findings were generated through Bourdieu’s (1977b) habitus theory for capturing an in-depth understanding of how women leaders’ leadership beliefs and practices were formed. Key findings demonstrated that women leaders’ leadership beliefs and practices were influenced by their matrilineal culture and early learning experiences in Santa Isabel. The study also revealed that these women leaders used leadership practices appropriate for their context. As a result, they formed leadership beliefs and practices that demonstrated a symbolic act of reproduction of their cultural habitus that reflected their existing leadership thinking. 
The study has contributed to the research field by recognising the impact of cultural embodiment, the habitus and social reproduction of the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture on women’s leadership beliefs and practices. It fills a critical gap in understanding women’s leadership as a symbolic act of reproduction of their cultural beliefs and practices which has been overlooked in women’s leadership literature.

text: Women's leadership as a symbolic act of reproduction: A case  study in the Solomon Islands Literature on women’s leadership over the last three decades suggests that women’s leadership perspectives have been predominantly influenced by either Euro-centric patriarchal views or those of women in economically developed countries. These are significantly different from an economically developing Pacific Island like the Solomon Islands, in particular, its Santa Isabel Island. 
The literature, therefore, overlooks the impacts women’s indigenous culture may have in order to understand their leadership beliefs and practices. Bourdieu 
(1977b) argues that people’s practices are embodied within their cultures, forming habitus through their past and present experiences, both consciously and unconsciously. I argue that women leaders’ leadership beliefs and practices cannot be fully understood without considering these social and cultural norms operating in their specific cultures. My thesis explores the impact of the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture on women’s formed leadership beliefs and practices. The main research question therefore is:  
How do women leaders’ leadership beliefs and practices form in the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture? Sub questions arising from this are: 
1.	In what ways does the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture influence women leaders’ beliefs and practices? 
2.	To what extent does the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture contribute to the formation of women leaders’ cultural leadership beliefs and practices? 
3.	How do women leaders practice leadership in the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture? 
My research was undertaken using a case study methodology, linked with Bourdieu’s (1977b) habitus as a lens for exploring women leaders’ leadership practices in Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands context through using interviews, informal observations and focus groups. The findings were generated through Bourdieu’s (1977b) habitus theory for capturing an in-depth understanding of how women leaders’ leadership beliefs and practices were formed. Key findings demonstrated that women leaders’ leadership beliefs and practices were influenced by their matrilineal culture and early learning experiences in Santa Isabel. The study also revealed that these women leaders used leadership practices appropriate for their context. As a result, they formed leadership beliefs and practices that demonstrated a symbolic act of reproduction of their cultural habitus that reflected their existing leadership thinking. 
The study has contributed to the research field by recognising the impact of cultural embodiment, the habitus and social reproduction of the Santa Isabel matrilineal culture on women’s leadership beliefs and practices. It fills a critical gap in understanding women’s leadership as a symbolic act of reproduction of their cultural beliefs and practices which has been overlooked in women’s leadership literature.

year: 2016

title: "It was like being torn apart". The experiences of young men who become fathers while at school. A critical interpretive analysis of discourses of Young Fatherhood.

authors: Cooper, Kerry Kia maia

subjects: Teenage Fathers

abstract: This is an exploratory study that reports the experiences of a sample of five participants, young men who became fathers while still at school. I talked to these young men about their personal stories which relate their personal introspection on interactions with institutions and relationships with people in their lives, set within a socially constructed reality that positions young men who become fathers in a certain way. Discourse and hegemony are collaborative constructive processes that shape and sculpt the conditions of the lives of everyone and it is the intention of this study to illuminate the workings of particular discourses in the context of these young men’s lives. 

This research is interested in how or whether the assumptions underpinning the socially dominating discourses of youth, gender, marriage and family were reflected in the participants’ experiences. The study aims to critique this social situation, which assumes immaturity when it comes to the experiences of young men who father children while still at school. The invisibility of these young men’s experiences in the current research literature as well as in society generally, except in pejorative ways, brings focus upon both the research landscape and the lens that is being looked through. 

It is not the intention of this research to make sweeping statements or to pretend that the findings of the study represent the findings of all who have an experience similar to the participants’. What this enquiry does intend to achieve is to bring alive the humanity of five personal stories of real people and shed light on the processes that played a part in their construction. 

The importance of the research is to gain a greater understanding of and insight into the experiences of these young men and what the reality is for them as they see it.

text: "It was like being torn apart". The experiences of young men who become fathers while at school. A critical interpretive analysis of discourses of Young Fatherhood. This is an exploratory study that reports the experiences of a sample of five participants, young men who became fathers while still at school. I talked to these young men about their personal stories which relate their personal introspection on interactions with institutions and relationships with people in their lives, set within a socially constructed reality that positions young men who become fathers in a certain way. Discourse and hegemony are collaborative constructive processes that shape and sculpt the conditions of the lives of everyone and it is the intention of this study to illuminate the workings of particular discourses in the context of these young men’s lives. 

This research is interested in how or whether the assumptions underpinning the socially dominating discourses of youth, gender, marriage and family were reflected in the participants’ experiences. The study aims to critique this social situation, which assumes immaturity when it comes to the experiences of young men who father children while still at school. The invisibility of these young men’s experiences in the current research literature as well as in society generally, except in pejorative ways, brings focus upon both the research landscape and the lens that is being looked through. 

It is not the intention of this research to make sweeping statements or to pretend that the findings of the study represent the findings of all who have an experience similar to the participants’. What this enquiry does intend to achieve is to bring alive the humanity of five personal stories of real people and shed light on the processes that played a part in their construction. 

The importance of the research is to gain a greater understanding of and insight into the experiences of these young men and what the reality is for them as they see it.

year: 2012

title: A discontinuous ca. 80 ka record of Late Quaternary environmental change from Lake Omapere, Northland, New Zealand

authors: Newnham, Rewi M.

subjects: Last Glacial

abstract: We present an integrated record of environmental change from Lake Omapere, Northland, New Zealand, based on palaeolimnological analysis of a 7-m-long core and eight adjunct cores spanning part of the last 80 calendar (cal.) ka. The chronology was developed using tephrochronology, palaeomagnetism and radiocarbon dating together with climato- and palyno-stratigraphy. Two of 14 tephra layers in the cores provide markers for correlating the record with other New Zealand climato-stratigraphic sequences, deep-sea cores and the global marine isotope record. Pollen, diatom, palaeomagnetic, sedimentologic and pigment analyses show that Lake Omapere, currently 2 m deep, has had a discontinuous history. Occupying a shallow basin perched partly within old basalt lavas, the initial (alkaline) lake formed towards the end of MIS 5a at ca. 80 cal. ka, presumably because of blockage of local drainage of a swampy alluvial floodplain, inundating peat deposits and forest trees, including kauri (Agathis australis). The lake filled rapidly to a level 1–2 m above that at present. Such filling was probably unrelated to climate but a subsequent phase of variable but generally falling lake levels and increasing dystrophy may have been climatically controlled, commencing during MIS 4 and culminating in periods early in MIS 3 when the lake became swampy or dry. Conditions of non-deposition (or non-preservation) obtained for most of the period after ca. 55 cal. ka (Rotoehu Ash) until formation of the modern lake approximately 600–700 cal. years ago or soon after, as indicated by the presence of Tephra-1, identified in part as Kaharoa Tephra (AD 1314), near the top of the core. The modern lake originated possibly through damming of the western outlet as a consequence of accelerated erosion accompanying earliest Polynesian deforestation, an interpretation supported by Maori oral tradition.
The pollen record indicates that beech Nothofagus (presumably N. truncata) was much more common in Northland during the Last Glacial, and that for this region the relative abundance of Nothofagus vs. Agathis pollen serves as a better indicator of cooler versus warmer intervals during the Quaternary than the ratio of tree to non-tree pollen. However, it seems likely that moisture balance was a more critical factor than temperature in vegetation composition and distribution, particularly during the LGM, and the long periods of hiatus may also be linked to a drier climate than present. Correlation coefficients between the pollen curves confirm that several tree species (Halocarpus bidwillii, H. biformis and Phyllocladus alpinus), previously palynologically concealed within generic taxonomic groups, occurred about two degrees latitude further north and at a much lower altitude than their current limits during cooler or drier phases of the Last Glacial. A temperature depression in Northland of 4 °C at various times during the Last Glacial is inferred from these range expansions. Nevertheless, the persistence of widespread forest cover suggests that the late Pleistocene climate of Northland was less severe than for most of the rest of New Zealand and strengthens the argument for a heightened temperature gradient across northern New Zealand during the Last Glacial.

text: A discontinuous ca. 80 ka record of Late Quaternary environmental change from Lake Omapere, Northland, New Zealand We present an integrated record of environmental change from Lake Omapere, Northland, New Zealand, based on palaeolimnological analysis of a 7-m-long core and eight adjunct cores spanning part of the last 80 calendar (cal.) ka. The chronology was developed using tephrochronology, palaeomagnetism and radiocarbon dating together with climato- and palyno-stratigraphy. Two of 14 tephra layers in the cores provide markers for correlating the record with other New Zealand climato-stratigraphic sequences, deep-sea cores and the global marine isotope record. Pollen, diatom, palaeomagnetic, sedimentologic and pigment analyses show that Lake Omapere, currently 2 m deep, has had a discontinuous history. Occupying a shallow basin perched partly within old basalt lavas, the initial (alkaline) lake formed towards the end of MIS 5a at ca. 80 cal. ka, presumably because of blockage of local drainage of a swampy alluvial floodplain, inundating peat deposits and forest trees, including kauri (Agathis australis). The lake filled rapidly to a level 1–2 m above that at present. Such filling was probably unrelated to climate but a subsequent phase of variable but generally falling lake levels and increasing dystrophy may have been climatically controlled, commencing during MIS 4 and culminating in periods early in MIS 3 when the lake became swampy or dry. Conditions of non-deposition (or non-preservation) obtained for most of the period after ca. 55 cal. ka (Rotoehu Ash) until formation of the modern lake approximately 600–700 cal. years ago or soon after, as indicated by the presence of Tephra-1, identified in part as Kaharoa Tephra (AD 1314), near the top of the core. The modern lake originated possibly through damming of the western outlet as a consequence of accelerated erosion accompanying earliest Polynesian deforestation, an interpretation supported by Maori oral tradition.
The pollen record indicates that beech Nothofagus (presumably N. truncata) was much more common in Northland during the Last Glacial, and that for this region the relative abundance of Nothofagus vs. Agathis pollen serves as a better indicator of cooler versus warmer intervals during the Quaternary than the ratio of tree to non-tree pollen. However, it seems likely that moisture balance was a more critical factor than temperature in vegetation composition and distribution, particularly during the LGM, and the long periods of hiatus may also be linked to a drier climate than present. Correlation coefficients between the pollen curves confirm that several tree species (Halocarpus bidwillii, H. biformis and Phyllocladus alpinus), previously palynologically concealed within generic taxonomic groups, occurred about two degrees latitude further north and at a much lower altitude than their current limits during cooler or drier phases of the Last Glacial. A temperature depression in Northland of 4 °C at various times during the Last Glacial is inferred from these range expansions. Nevertheless, the persistence of widespread forest cover suggests that the late Pleistocene climate of Northland was less severe than for most of the rest of New Zealand and strengthens the argument for a heightened temperature gradient across northern New Zealand during the Last Glacial.

year: 2004