title: Evidence of swarm intelligence in collective cultures: Identifying the use of the swarm goal directive of productivity in Pacific organisation systems as well as getween genders

authors: Arun, Natalie M.

subjects: Maori

abstract: Intrigued by the existence of societies outside that of the human population, scientists have ventured to study social aggregations within insects to seek insights on effective colonizing. The most popular of these social aggregations are colonies of ants and bees. In studying these groups of social insects researchers have developed algorithms loosely termed swarm intelligence that increase work efficiency within businesses and other social organizations (Bonabeau & Meyer, 2001). A subsequent proliferation of research in surrounding fields has allowed for investigation of key variables that improve work on a global scale (Bonabeau & Meyer, 2001). James Kennedy (1999), an initiator of swarm research, has suggested that there is a high correlation between systems that rely on each other for information and greater task accomplishment.

text: Evidence of swarm intelligence in collective cultures: Identifying the use of the swarm goal directive of productivity in Pacific organisation systems as well as getween genders Intrigued by the existence of societies outside that of the human population, scientists have ventured to study social aggregations within insects to seek insights on effective colonizing. The most popular of these social aggregations are colonies of ants and bees. In studying these groups of social insects researchers have developed algorithms loosely termed swarm intelligence that increase work efficiency within businesses and other social organizations (Bonabeau & Meyer, 2001). A subsequent proliferation of research in surrounding fields has allowed for investigation of key variables that improve work on a global scale (Bonabeau & Meyer, 2001). James Kennedy (1999), an initiator of swarm research, has suggested that there is a high correlation between systems that rely on each other for information and greater task accomplishment.

year: 2008

title: Culture and climate change: A study of future-proofing Māori tourism businesses

authors: Tawhai, Crystal Candace

subjects: culture

abstract: This thesis explores how prepared Māori tourism businesses are to adapt to climate change and how Māori values may influence the business's perception of responses to climate change. As climate impacts are growing in New Zealand, as a result of increasing extreme weather events, how can Māori tourism businesses protect their taonga (resources)? Taonga in the context of this study includes Māori values, lands, seas and their businesses. Furthermore, the literature indicates that Māori tourism significantly contributes to the economic, social and cultural wellbeing for Māori and wider New Zealand (NZ Māori Tourism, 2018). 
At a specific level, the study focuses on three Māori tourism businesses. Two of the businesses are North Island-based whānau-owned enterprises, one on Kāpiti Island and the other in Napier. The third is a hapū-owned business located in Kaikoura in the South Island. Drawing on kaupapa Māori frameworks built on Māori struggles for tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake (self-determination), the study adheres to kaupapa Māori principles of carrying out research by Māori to benefit Māori. The primary data for the study was collected through semi-structured interviews with each of the businesses, taking care to ensure the cultural safety of the participants and using appropriate tikanga (protocol) in each interview. 

The findings of the study show that Māori tourism businesses are adapting to environmental changes but are unsure about the pace of climate change. The uncertainties are due to a lack of access to information and competing priorities within their businesses. The research also shows how decisions made by local government as well as business perceptions of local and central government institutions negatively impacts on the ability of businesses to adapt to climate change. While there were differences in the businesses’ treatment of science and scientific information, all of them prioritised Māori cultural values. Significantly, these values underpin all the activities of the businesses, including, environmental enhancement and protection. An emphasis on Māori values in facilitated partnerships between tourism businesses, government bodies, and other community stakeholders on co-designing climate change adaptation strategies can help the tourism sector to prepare for a changing climate.

text: Culture and climate change: A study of future-proofing Māori tourism businesses This thesis explores how prepared Māori tourism businesses are to adapt to climate change and how Māori values may influence the business's perception of responses to climate change. As climate impacts are growing in New Zealand, as a result of increasing extreme weather events, how can Māori tourism businesses protect their taonga (resources)? Taonga in the context of this study includes Māori values, lands, seas and their businesses. Furthermore, the literature indicates that Māori tourism significantly contributes to the economic, social and cultural wellbeing for Māori and wider New Zealand (NZ Māori Tourism, 2018). 
At a specific level, the study focuses on three Māori tourism businesses. Two of the businesses are North Island-based whānau-owned enterprises, one on Kāpiti Island and the other in Napier. The third is a hapū-owned business located in Kaikoura in the South Island. Drawing on kaupapa Māori frameworks built on Māori struggles for tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake (self-determination), the study adheres to kaupapa Māori principles of carrying out research by Māori to benefit Māori. The primary data for the study was collected through semi-structured interviews with each of the businesses, taking care to ensure the cultural safety of the participants and using appropriate tikanga (protocol) in each interview. 

The findings of the study show that Māori tourism businesses are adapting to environmental changes but are unsure about the pace of climate change. The uncertainties are due to a lack of access to information and competing priorities within their businesses. The research also shows how decisions made by local government as well as business perceptions of local and central government institutions negatively impacts on the ability of businesses to adapt to climate change. While there were differences in the businesses’ treatment of science and scientific information, all of them prioritised Māori cultural values. Significantly, these values underpin all the activities of the businesses, including, environmental enhancement and protection. An emphasis on Māori values in facilitated partnerships between tourism businesses, government bodies, and other community stakeholders on co-designing climate change adaptation strategies can help the tourism sector to prepare for a changing climate.

year: 2020

title: Sojourners and social exchange: Family and friends’ interpersonal ties across China-New Zealand borders

authors: Wang, Xi

subjects: Transnational sojourner

abstract: Sojourners are peripatetic, making multiple, open-ended circular trips to other countries for a range of purposes. Nonetheless, sojourners retain interpersonal ties with their families and friends who remain in the homeland, and may return ‘home’ in times of need. The pace and direction of continual international travel appears linked to the family life cycle, yet the mutual interdependencies of interpersonal ties are not well understood.
A review of the literature suggests that this study is one of the first to explore the roles that family ties and friendships play in shaping the lives of sojourners and their ‘stay-behinds’ within the context of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) travel. A key overarching question emerges to guide the research: What is the interplay of transnational interpersonal ties, wellbeing, and VFR travel in shaping the lives of Chinese sojourners abroad and their family and friends in China? Social exchange is the key scholarly perspective used to examine the nature and meanings of transnational relationships.
The researcher’s positionality as a transnational sojourner locates him centrally within the researcher-participant continuum, so he was able to create empathy and inter-subjectivities which uncover social dynamics and cultural nuances. A hermeneutic methodology extends researcher’s positionality into the research design, enabling mutual reflection and synthesis of respective views regarding living transnational lives.
Respective spheres of transnational family and friend interactions are captured in two samples: 44 sojourners (prolonged stay, freedom of movement permits) who had lived in New Zealand for more than three years, and 36 family members and friends resident in China. Paired roles in transnational interactions and nations of residence were obtained, although the initial intention had been to create family tie- and friendship-matched samples in both countries, but proved impossible to achieve. Consistent with Chinese cultural norms of respect and privacy, most participants refused to provide their paired counterparts’ contact details. Also, it would have been too costly in terms of field work time to track paired widely-dispersed participants. Although this is a study limitation, the knowledge that paired family members or friends were not in the same study encouraged open and free disclosure.
The study used both video-recorded focus groups and audio-recorded in-depth interviews, conducted in the same timeframe to capitalise on the complementarities of each method, enlarge the depth and scope of study, and facilitate participation. Constant comparative thematic analysis was used to identify the themes, assisted by NVivo, a data management software package that helps researchers analyse emerging themes.
The findings contribute to new knowledge. Chinese sojourners abroad and families and friends in China tend to preserve the over-stretched ties that are crucial to their wellbeing. Family ties and friendships played common, but also very different roles in shaping their lives, evidenced by the nature, meanings, and dynamics of social exchanges.
This study also contributes to theory development, by indicating that social exchange theory is insufficient to explain all the dynamics behind transnational social interactions, in particular, VFR visiting and hosting. This study identified a range of emerging concepts that also influence the social interactions/exchanges between the two sides, and contribute previously unidentified dimensions that nuance social exchange theory for this context. For example, over time, a widening gap in the cultural backgrounds between the sojourners and those who remain in China develops, demonstrated by articulated conflicts and silences in their interactions, especially during actual travel periods. These potentially threaten the wellbeing of all parties. Also, the family life cycle plays a continual role in shaping family members’ needs and felt obligations, giving rise to the fluid and continual transnational support exchanges.
Further, this study has implications for practice in an era, when COVID becomes the ‘new normal’. From a micro-level, the findings may help populations of Chinese sojourners abroad and their families and friends in China understand how their respective roles and the dynamics behind the social exchanges shape the wellbeing of all participants and transnational ties. From a meso-level, this study may help the Chinese and New Zealand tourism and hospitality industries identify VFR travel motivators, understand travel patterns, support the international traveling populations, and recognise the opportunity for developing domestic travel in a post-COVID, pandemic-aware world. From a macro-level, this study provides implications for future Chinese migration/sojourning patterns, identifies key issues Chinese families face, contributes to immigration policy making in host countries, and offers advice on looking after Chinese migrant families who cannot receive sufficient support from their homeland. Finally, the research limitations are discussed and some suggestions for future research were given.

text: Sojourners and social exchange: Family and friends’ interpersonal ties across China-New Zealand borders Sojourners are peripatetic, making multiple, open-ended circular trips to other countries for a range of purposes. Nonetheless, sojourners retain interpersonal ties with their families and friends who remain in the homeland, and may return ‘home’ in times of need. The pace and direction of continual international travel appears linked to the family life cycle, yet the mutual interdependencies of interpersonal ties are not well understood.
A review of the literature suggests that this study is one of the first to explore the roles that family ties and friendships play in shaping the lives of sojourners and their ‘stay-behinds’ within the context of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) travel. A key overarching question emerges to guide the research: What is the interplay of transnational interpersonal ties, wellbeing, and VFR travel in shaping the lives of Chinese sojourners abroad and their family and friends in China? Social exchange is the key scholarly perspective used to examine the nature and meanings of transnational relationships.
The researcher’s positionality as a transnational sojourner locates him centrally within the researcher-participant continuum, so he was able to create empathy and inter-subjectivities which uncover social dynamics and cultural nuances. A hermeneutic methodology extends researcher’s positionality into the research design, enabling mutual reflection and synthesis of respective views regarding living transnational lives.
Respective spheres of transnational family and friend interactions are captured in two samples: 44 sojourners (prolonged stay, freedom of movement permits) who had lived in New Zealand for more than three years, and 36 family members and friends resident in China. Paired roles in transnational interactions and nations of residence were obtained, although the initial intention had been to create family tie- and friendship-matched samples in both countries, but proved impossible to achieve. Consistent with Chinese cultural norms of respect and privacy, most participants refused to provide their paired counterparts’ contact details. Also, it would have been too costly in terms of field work time to track paired widely-dispersed participants. Although this is a study limitation, the knowledge that paired family members or friends were not in the same study encouraged open and free disclosure.
The study used both video-recorded focus groups and audio-recorded in-depth interviews, conducted in the same timeframe to capitalise on the complementarities of each method, enlarge the depth and scope of study, and facilitate participation. Constant comparative thematic analysis was used to identify the themes, assisted by NVivo, a data management software package that helps researchers analyse emerging themes.
The findings contribute to new knowledge. Chinese sojourners abroad and families and friends in China tend to preserve the over-stretched ties that are crucial to their wellbeing. Family ties and friendships played common, but also very different roles in shaping their lives, evidenced by the nature, meanings, and dynamics of social exchanges.
This study also contributes to theory development, by indicating that social exchange theory is insufficient to explain all the dynamics behind transnational social interactions, in particular, VFR visiting and hosting. This study identified a range of emerging concepts that also influence the social interactions/exchanges between the two sides, and contribute previously unidentified dimensions that nuance social exchange theory for this context. For example, over time, a widening gap in the cultural backgrounds between the sojourners and those who remain in China develops, demonstrated by articulated conflicts and silences in their interactions, especially during actual travel periods. These potentially threaten the wellbeing of all parties. Also, the family life cycle plays a continual role in shaping family members’ needs and felt obligations, giving rise to the fluid and continual transnational support exchanges.
Further, this study has implications for practice in an era, when COVID becomes the ‘new normal’. From a micro-level, the findings may help populations of Chinese sojourners abroad and their families and friends in China understand how their respective roles and the dynamics behind the social exchanges shape the wellbeing of all participants and transnational ties. From a meso-level, this study may help the Chinese and New Zealand tourism and hospitality industries identify VFR travel motivators, understand travel patterns, support the international traveling populations, and recognise the opportunity for developing domestic travel in a post-COVID, pandemic-aware world. From a macro-level, this study provides implications for future Chinese migration/sojourning patterns, identifies key issues Chinese families face, contributes to immigration policy making in host countries, and offers advice on looking after Chinese migrant families who cannot receive sufficient support from their homeland. Finally, the research limitations are discussed and some suggestions for future research were given.

year: 2022