title: Contested environments: A critical discourse analysis of applications for resource consents in Northland

authors: Nelson, Frances Margaret

abstract: This thesis reports on a study of disputed applications for environmental resource consent conducted in Northland. The study was placed against the backdrop of the Resource Management Act (1991) as a major social artefact that has the capacity to change the social fabric of Northland through its influence on environmental policy in the region. The purpose of the study was to analyse the discourses that are produced in cases of disputed application in order to show the ways that the environment is constituted in language and to contend that the material reality of the Northland environment increasingly results from the communication that occurs within the legislative framework of the Resource Management Act (1991). 
Data for the study were collected through archival research augmented by semi-structured interviews and observations. The collected texts were assembled in case studies which told the stories of the cases for disputed applications for resource consent and analysed using the systems of critical discourse analysis developed by Fairclough (1992; 2003) and Chouliaraki and Fairclough (2000). The empirical work collects, considers and analyses three district plans, elements of a regional plan and two case studies. The first case study examines the multiple discourses in a case about noise in a quiet suburb, and the second deals with an application to abstract water for irrigation from a Northland river. 
The heart of this study was the stories citizens tell as they deal with the impact of proposed environmental change on their lives. The study shows the discursive interaction between citizens and administrative organisations, and the way that citizens constructed themselves and others in language in bids to influence policy and environmental decisions. In doing so, it examines the effect of the dialectic relationships between the moment of discourse and other moments in the social process (Harvey, 1996). Finally, the research shows the effect in the material world of discursive shifts from "nature" to "the environment". 
The research has contributed to knowledge by telling the stories of disputed applications for resource consent from the points of view of the citizens who were involved and showing the discourse resources available to them to position themselves against the discourse of the official position. It has also contributed to knowledge by showing that, despite the definitions of the environment contained in the discourse of the official position, each case is the site of citizens' struggles for their concept of the environment and their experience of it. In this regard, the research has examined the impact of the specific discursive constructions used by citizens on the environment. Finally, the research has placed the citizens' stories against the conjuncture of social practices (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999) connected with applications for resource consent, and revealed instances of the working of the Resource Management Act (1991) in the lives of citizens.

text: Contested environments: A critical discourse analysis of applications for resource consents in Northland This thesis reports on a study of disputed applications for environmental resource consent conducted in Northland. The study was placed against the backdrop of the Resource Management Act (1991) as a major social artefact that has the capacity to change the social fabric of Northland through its influence on environmental policy in the region. The purpose of the study was to analyse the discourses that are produced in cases of disputed application in order to show the ways that the environment is constituted in language and to contend that the material reality of the Northland environment increasingly results from the communication that occurs within the legislative framework of the Resource Management Act (1991). 
Data for the study were collected through archival research augmented by semi-structured interviews and observations. The collected texts were assembled in case studies which told the stories of the cases for disputed applications for resource consent and analysed using the systems of critical discourse analysis developed by Fairclough (1992; 2003) and Chouliaraki and Fairclough (2000). The empirical work collects, considers and analyses three district plans, elements of a regional plan and two case studies. The first case study examines the multiple discourses in a case about noise in a quiet suburb, and the second deals with an application to abstract water for irrigation from a Northland river. 
The heart of this study was the stories citizens tell as they deal with the impact of proposed environmental change on their lives. The study shows the discursive interaction between citizens and administrative organisations, and the way that citizens constructed themselves and others in language in bids to influence policy and environmental decisions. In doing so, it examines the effect of the dialectic relationships between the moment of discourse and other moments in the social process (Harvey, 1996). Finally, the research shows the effect in the material world of discursive shifts from "nature" to "the environment". 
The research has contributed to knowledge by telling the stories of disputed applications for resource consent from the points of view of the citizens who were involved and showing the discourse resources available to them to position themselves against the discourse of the official position. It has also contributed to knowledge by showing that, despite the definitions of the environment contained in the discourse of the official position, each case is the site of citizens' struggles for their concept of the environment and their experience of it. In this regard, the research has examined the impact of the specific discursive constructions used by citizens on the environment. Finally, the research has placed the citizens' stories against the conjuncture of social practices (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999) connected with applications for resource consent, and revealed instances of the working of the Resource Management Act (1991) in the lives of citizens.

year: 2004

title: MHD‐driven kinetic dissipation in the solar wind and corona

authors: Leamon, R. J.

subjects: MHD

abstract: Mechanisms for the deposition of heat in the lower coronal plasma are discussed, emphasizing recent attempts to reconcile the fluid and kinetic perspectives. Structures at magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) scales may drive a nonlinear cascade, preferentially exciting high perpendicular wavenumber fluctuations. Relevant dissipative kinetic processes must be identified that can absorb the associated energy flux. The relationship between the MHD cascade and direct cyclotron absorption, including cyclotron sweep, is discussed. We conclude that for coronal and solar wind parameters the perpendicular cascade cannot be neglected and may be more rapid than cyclotron sweep. Solar wind observational evidence suggests the relevance of the ion inertial scale, which is associated with current sheet thickness during reconnection. We conclude that a significant fraction of dissipation in the corona and solar wind likely proceeds through a perpendicular cascade and small-scale reconnection, coupled to kinetic processes that act at oblique wavevectors.

text: MHD‐driven kinetic dissipation in the solar wind and corona Mechanisms for the deposition of heat in the lower coronal plasma are discussed, emphasizing recent attempts to reconcile the fluid and kinetic perspectives. Structures at magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) scales may drive a nonlinear cascade, preferentially exciting high perpendicular wavenumber fluctuations. Relevant dissipative kinetic processes must be identified that can absorb the associated energy flux. The relationship between the MHD cascade and direct cyclotron absorption, including cyclotron sweep, is discussed. We conclude that for coronal and solar wind parameters the perpendicular cascade cannot be neglected and may be more rapid than cyclotron sweep. Solar wind observational evidence suggests the relevance of the ion inertial scale, which is associated with current sheet thickness during reconnection. We conclude that a significant fraction of dissipation in the corona and solar wind likely proceeds through a perpendicular cascade and small-scale reconnection, coupled to kinetic processes that act at oblique wavevectors.

year: 2000

title: The teaching and learning of te reo Māori in a higher education context: Intensive fast track immersion versus gradual progressive language exposure

authors: Nock, Sophie

subjects: grading of students

abstract: I report here on a comparison of the course grades of Bachelors degree students who are following two different pathways towards a major in te reo Māori - a traditional pathway in which language courses at different levels are spread over three or four years, and an intensive, fast-track, language immersion pathway in which courses in te reo Māori are concentrated into the first year of the degree programme. My findings are that, overall, in terms of course grades at level three, students following the intensive, fast-track, language-immersion pathway out-perform other students in te reo Māori course assessments. Thus, so far as course grades are concerned, many students appear to benefit from the fast track pathway. Whether course grades can be related to proficiency achievements and whether immediate gains are reflected in long-term gains is something that remains to be investigated.

text: The teaching and learning of te reo Māori in a higher education context: Intensive fast track immersion versus gradual progressive language exposure I report here on a comparison of the course grades of Bachelors degree students who are following two different pathways towards a major in te reo Māori - a traditional pathway in which language courses at different levels are spread over three or four years, and an intensive, fast-track, language immersion pathway in which courses in te reo Māori are concentrated into the first year of the degree programme. My findings are that, overall, in terms of course grades at level three, students following the intensive, fast-track, language-immersion pathway out-perform other students in te reo Māori course assessments. Thus, so far as course grades are concerned, many students appear to benefit from the fast track pathway. Whether course grades can be related to proficiency achievements and whether immediate gains are reflected in long-term gains is something that remains to be investigated.

year: 2006