title: Funkin' Cultural Boundaries: Popular Music and Socio-Spatial Change

authors: Timbs, Darnelle

subjects: Music

abstract: In recent decades retheorised perspectives have transformed geographical studies of music. Human geographers have examined issues of music, place and identity in a range of empirical settings, theoretical frameworks and policy contexts. As a cultural sphere in which identities are created and challenged, music is a medium through which boundaries are established and transgressed, and in which difference is marked out and challenged. For marginalised or oppressed groups music provides a medium through which to create spaces to represent themselves and their aspirations. With contemporary cultural and economic processes having eroded senses of spatial distance, spaces of identity express complex fusions between the global and the local. Music is no longer integrally tied to specific ethnic groups; music results from numerous stylistic practices and transnational human musical interactions.

The music of the hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas exemplifies the boundary-challenging aesthetic of hybrid music. Evidence collected through face-to-face interviews and participant observation highlights the ways in which the Black Eyed Peas employ their music to unsettle existing economic and social conditions. Discussion of how the Black Eyed Peas transgress economic barriers, challenge musical expectations, and expose the experiences of 'others' reveals the power relations that manifest in boundary creation and maintenance. Comments from members of the Black Eyed Peas and their associates expose the contradictions and compromises implicit in efforts to relocate social boundaries. Conflict between transgressive intentions is exhibited in the fundraising activities of the Peapod Foundation, a charitable organisation managed by the Black Eyed Peas.

text: Funkin' Cultural Boundaries: Popular Music and Socio-Spatial Change In recent decades retheorised perspectives have transformed geographical studies of music. Human geographers have examined issues of music, place and identity in a range of empirical settings, theoretical frameworks and policy contexts. As a cultural sphere in which identities are created and challenged, music is a medium through which boundaries are established and transgressed, and in which difference is marked out and challenged. For marginalised or oppressed groups music provides a medium through which to create spaces to represent themselves and their aspirations. With contemporary cultural and economic processes having eroded senses of spatial distance, spaces of identity express complex fusions between the global and the local. Music is no longer integrally tied to specific ethnic groups; music results from numerous stylistic practices and transnational human musical interactions.

The music of the hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas exemplifies the boundary-challenging aesthetic of hybrid music. Evidence collected through face-to-face interviews and participant observation highlights the ways in which the Black Eyed Peas employ their music to unsettle existing economic and social conditions. Discussion of how the Black Eyed Peas transgress economic barriers, challenge musical expectations, and expose the experiences of 'others' reveals the power relations that manifest in boundary creation and maintenance. Comments from members of the Black Eyed Peas and their associates expose the contradictions and compromises implicit in efforts to relocate social boundaries. Conflict between transgressive intentions is exhibited in the fundraising activities of the Peapod Foundation, a charitable organisation managed by the Black Eyed Peas.

year: 2007

title: Watching news : a study of television news reception

authors: Bosomworth, John Forbes

abstract: This doctoral thesis is an investigation of the relationship that exists between viewers and television news. As an inherently reflexive thesis, the research process itself is also critically examined. This duality is reflected in the basic structure of the thesis, with Part One - Praxis - focusing on various aspects of the research process itself, and Part Two - Analysis - dealing with the nature of the viewer-news relationship. Adopting a discourse-oriented approach, the analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with eleven individual viewers. Originally conceived as an exercise in elicitation, the introduction of feminist research perspective’s in conjunction with a growing sense of reflexivity led to a transformation whereby the interviews were reconfigured instead as sites of meaning construction. As discourses of reception, the interviews showed the news-viewer relationship to be characterised by a dynamic tension between being pulled into the encounter and pushed away from it. A bi-dimensional framework of analysis is employed, with one dimension focusing on the relational aspect of the viewer-news relationship and the other on the interpretive aspect. Using this framework, the discourses of reception are then contextually (i.e. as specific case studies in reception) and thematically analysed. The thesis concludes by suggesting that reception, as a specific example of cultural consumption, can be seen as a form of guerrilla warfare where the strategies of news producers are confronted by the tactics of viewers.

text: Watching news : a study of television news reception This doctoral thesis is an investigation of the relationship that exists between viewers and television news. As an inherently reflexive thesis, the research process itself is also critically examined. This duality is reflected in the basic structure of the thesis, with Part One - Praxis - focusing on various aspects of the research process itself, and Part Two - Analysis - dealing with the nature of the viewer-news relationship. Adopting a discourse-oriented approach, the analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with eleven individual viewers. Originally conceived as an exercise in elicitation, the introduction of feminist research perspective’s in conjunction with a growing sense of reflexivity led to a transformation whereby the interviews were reconfigured instead as sites of meaning construction. As discourses of reception, the interviews showed the news-viewer relationship to be characterised by a dynamic tension between being pulled into the encounter and pushed away from it. A bi-dimensional framework of analysis is employed, with one dimension focusing on the relational aspect of the viewer-news relationship and the other on the interpretive aspect. Using this framework, the discourses of reception are then contextually (i.e. as specific case studies in reception) and thematically analysed. The thesis concludes by suggesting that reception, as a specific example of cultural consumption, can be seen as a form of guerrilla warfare where the strategies of news producers are confronted by the tactics of viewers.

year: 2000

title: A case study of using the He Pikinga Waiora Implementation Framework: Challenges and successes in implementing a twelve-week lifestyle intervention to reduce weight in Māori men at risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity

authors: Oetzel, John G.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: BACKGROUND: Māori men have stark health inequities around non-communicable diseases. This study describes the case of a partnership attempting to develop and implement a culturally centred intervention through a collaborative partnership to potentially address the inequities. In particular, the partnership followed a participatory, co-design approach using the He Pikinga Waiora (HPW) Implementation Framework; the study presents lessons learnt in addressing health inequities following this framework. METHODS: The partnership involved a university research team and a Māori community health provider. They engaged with other stakeholders and several cohorts of Māori men through a co-design process to adapt a 12-week lifestyle intervention. The co-design process was documented through meeting notes and interviews with partners. Two cohorts participated in separate single group pre-intervention/post-intervention designs with multi-method data collection. Key outcome measures included weight loss, self-reported health, physical activity, and nutrition. Post-intervention data collection included qualitative data. RESULTS: The co-design process resulted in a strong and engaged partnership between the university team and the provider. There were significant challenges in implementing the intervention including having two additional partner organisations dropping out of the partnership just after the initial implementation phase. However, a flexible and adaptable partnership resulted in developing two distinct lifestyle interventions run with 32 Māori men (in two different cohorts of 8 and 24). All but one in the first cohort completed the programme. The first cohort had a modest although statistically insignificant improvement in weight loss (d = 1.04) and body mass index (BMI; d = 1.08). The second cohort had a significant reduction in weight loss (d = 1.16) and BMI (d = 1.15). They also had a significant increase in health-related quality of life (d = 1.7) and self-rated health (d = 2.0). CONCLUSION: The HPW Framework appears to be well suited to advance implementation science for Indigenous communities in general and Māori in particular. The framework has promise as a policy and planning tool to evaluate and design interventions for chronic disease prevention in Indigenous communities. Despite this promise, there are structural challenges in developing and implementing interventions to address health inequities. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Retrospectively registered, Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12619001783112.

text: A case study of using the He Pikinga Waiora Implementation Framework: Challenges and successes in implementing a twelve-week lifestyle intervention to reduce weight in Māori men at risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity BACKGROUND: Māori men have stark health inequities around non-communicable diseases. This study describes the case of a partnership attempting to develop and implement a culturally centred intervention through a collaborative partnership to potentially address the inequities. In particular, the partnership followed a participatory, co-design approach using the He Pikinga Waiora (HPW) Implementation Framework; the study presents lessons learnt in addressing health inequities following this framework. METHODS: The partnership involved a university research team and a Māori community health provider. They engaged with other stakeholders and several cohorts of Māori men through a co-design process to adapt a 12-week lifestyle intervention. The co-design process was documented through meeting notes and interviews with partners. Two cohorts participated in separate single group pre-intervention/post-intervention designs with multi-method data collection. Key outcome measures included weight loss, self-reported health, physical activity, and nutrition. Post-intervention data collection included qualitative data. RESULTS: The co-design process resulted in a strong and engaged partnership between the university team and the provider. There were significant challenges in implementing the intervention including having two additional partner organisations dropping out of the partnership just after the initial implementation phase. However, a flexible and adaptable partnership resulted in developing two distinct lifestyle interventions run with 32 Māori men (in two different cohorts of 8 and 24). All but one in the first cohort completed the programme. The first cohort had a modest although statistically insignificant improvement in weight loss (d = 1.04) and body mass index (BMI; d = 1.08). The second cohort had a significant reduction in weight loss (d = 1.16) and BMI (d = 1.15). They also had a significant increase in health-related quality of life (d = 1.7) and self-rated health (d = 2.0). CONCLUSION: The HPW Framework appears to be well suited to advance implementation science for Indigenous communities in general and Māori in particular. The framework has promise as a policy and planning tool to evaluate and design interventions for chronic disease prevention in Indigenous communities. Despite this promise, there are structural challenges in developing and implementing interventions to address health inequities. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Retrospectively registered, Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12619001783112.

year: 2020