title: Radical research as research at the roots: Practitioner self-image, public relations and ethics

authors: Toledano, Margalit

subjects: practitioner self-image

abstract: Semantically, radical derives from ‘radix’, the Latin for root. This paper argues that little public relations research goes back to the roots of actual practice and addresses this neglect through a project focusing on practitioner accounts of their work. When considering public relations ethics, practitioner self-images and cultural values become an essential research component. In addressing this neglected area of research, this paper examines the subjective perceptions of public relations practitioners regarding their role, commitments, and responsibilities within the framework of their specific culture and national history. In considering practitioner testimonials about professional integrity, briefs, and goals, especially as members of the society and nation to which they belong, the paper engages with ethical aspects of the practice from a cultural perspective that assumes different cultures can have different ethical expectations. In revealing the impact of features that are often ‘taken for granted’ in one country, the paper uses the example of four generations of practitioners who served one major institution in Israel to suggest how similar research at the professional roots in other nations might enable knowledge of international similarities and difference in relation to ethics in action.

text: Radical research as research at the roots: Practitioner self-image, public relations and ethics Semantically, radical derives from ‘radix’, the Latin for root. This paper argues that little public relations research goes back to the roots of actual practice and addresses this neglect through a project focusing on practitioner accounts of their work. When considering public relations ethics, practitioner self-images and cultural values become an essential research component. In addressing this neglected area of research, this paper examines the subjective perceptions of public relations practitioners regarding their role, commitments, and responsibilities within the framework of their specific culture and national history. In considering practitioner testimonials about professional integrity, briefs, and goals, especially as members of the society and nation to which they belong, the paper engages with ethical aspects of the practice from a cultural perspective that assumes different cultures can have different ethical expectations. In revealing the impact of features that are often ‘taken for granted’ in one country, the paper uses the example of four generations of practitioners who served one major institution in Israel to suggest how similar research at the professional roots in other nations might enable knowledge of international similarities and difference in relation to ethics in action.

year: 2008

title: Invisible Rehabilitation: An Exploration of Rehabilitative Practices within a Community Work Agency.

authors: Namwinga, Nasalifya

subjects: Rehabilitation

abstract: Community Work is one of the most utilised community based sentences in New Zealand. It is a low cost and low intensity sentence that is extensively used to punish low level offences. Although Community Work is not an explicitly rehabilitative sentence, it does possess some implicitly rehabilitative traits. In her Ireland based study, McGagh (2007) argued that rehabilitative practices enhance Community Work and lead to better outcomes for offenders. The most recent New Zealand based study on the sentence was conducted over 2 decades ago by Asher and O'Neill (1990). This is the research gap this study sought to fill by exploring rehabilitative practices within a faith-based Community Work agency.

The study was an ethnographic case study of a faith-based agency within which offenders on Community Work sentences completed sentenced hours. A number of qualitative data collection methods including observations, interviews, a focus group and analysis of testimonial data were used to triangulate findings. The researcher gathered data from three participant groups at the agency. These groups were; individuals currently or previously on community work sentences at the agency, agency staff and agency volunteers.

When offenders on community work sentences arrive at this agency their status as offenders is kept private. They are consequently introduced as volunteers and have access to all the same benefits of volunteers. The ability to keep their offender status private and be regarded as any other volunteer was a central theme present in the data. This helped those sentenced to community work to develop a non-offender identity. The invisibility of offender status helped offenders distance themselves from the offender identity, while being offered the visible prosocial ‘volunteer’ identity helped them shift their self-narrative from that of an offender to a nonoffender.

Desistance research suggests that subjective changes in an offender’s self-narrative can be indicative of the offender engaging in the desistance process (Farrall & Maruna, 2004; Healy, 2010; Serin & Lloyd, 2009). This study found that anonymising the offender status of individuals in community work sentences at this agency may have initiated a shift in self-narratives as individuals shifted their identity from offenders to volunteers. This narrative shift potentially helped trigger and maintain offender desistance. The principle of treating offenders as desisters rather than persisters displays a confidence in the offenders’ ability to change. This faith in an individual’s ability to change has been found to be desistance supportive (Raynor & Robinson, 2005).

Anonymising offender status as a rehabilitative practice can lead to the onset or maintenance of desistance. It is a potentially effective intervention that could be broadly integrated into the community work sentence.

text: Invisible Rehabilitation: An Exploration of Rehabilitative Practices within a Community Work Agency. Community Work is one of the most utilised community based sentences in New Zealand. It is a low cost and low intensity sentence that is extensively used to punish low level offences. Although Community Work is not an explicitly rehabilitative sentence, it does possess some implicitly rehabilitative traits. In her Ireland based study, McGagh (2007) argued that rehabilitative practices enhance Community Work and lead to better outcomes for offenders. The most recent New Zealand based study on the sentence was conducted over 2 decades ago by Asher and O'Neill (1990). This is the research gap this study sought to fill by exploring rehabilitative practices within a faith-based Community Work agency.

The study was an ethnographic case study of a faith-based agency within which offenders on Community Work sentences completed sentenced hours. A number of qualitative data collection methods including observations, interviews, a focus group and analysis of testimonial data were used to triangulate findings. The researcher gathered data from three participant groups at the agency. These groups were; individuals currently or previously on community work sentences at the agency, agency staff and agency volunteers.

When offenders on community work sentences arrive at this agency their status as offenders is kept private. They are consequently introduced as volunteers and have access to all the same benefits of volunteers. The ability to keep their offender status private and be regarded as any other volunteer was a central theme present in the data. This helped those sentenced to community work to develop a non-offender identity. The invisibility of offender status helped offenders distance themselves from the offender identity, while being offered the visible prosocial ‘volunteer’ identity helped them shift their self-narrative from that of an offender to a nonoffender.

Desistance research suggests that subjective changes in an offender’s self-narrative can be indicative of the offender engaging in the desistance process (Farrall & Maruna, 2004; Healy, 2010; Serin & Lloyd, 2009). This study found that anonymising the offender status of individuals in community work sentences at this agency may have initiated a shift in self-narratives as individuals shifted their identity from offenders to volunteers. This narrative shift potentially helped trigger and maintain offender desistance. The principle of treating offenders as desisters rather than persisters displays a confidence in the offenders’ ability to change. This faith in an individual’s ability to change has been found to be desistance supportive (Raynor & Robinson, 2005).

Anonymising offender status as a rehabilitative practice can lead to the onset or maintenance of desistance. It is a potentially effective intervention that could be broadly integrated into the community work sentence.

year: 2016

title: Fragmentation and Restoration: Generational Legacies of 21st Century Māori

authors: Malcolm-Buchanan, Vincent Alan

subjects: Maori

abstract: The content of this thesis is premised on a reflexive examination of some historical juxtapositions culminating in critical aspects of being Māori in the twenty first century and how such aspects have informed contemporary indigenous identity. That is, the continuing acknowledgement and exponential public recognition of critical concepts which inextricably link indigenous and civic identity. 

The theoretical sources for this research are, in the main, derived from anthropological and religious studies, particularly on the significance of mythologies and oral histories, as well as from the oral theorising of elders in Aotearoa New Zealand. A very significant contribution from one such elder, a senior Māori woman academic, has been included in the form of the transcript of an interview. She herself had collected the views of a number of elders on myth, creating a rare and valuable resource.  In the interview she married her reflections on these with her own experiences and her cogent analyses. 

From the outset, it was necessary to be discerning so as to ensure the thesis workload was manageable and realistic.  For this reason the selected critical aspects that have been used to frame this research are (1) a developing Western validation (that is, acknowledgement and respect) of Māori, Māori culture and their mythology; (2) oral history (genealogy) and traditions that have remained constant despite the influences of modernity; and (3) notions of fluidity, negotiation and pragmatism regarding kinship legacies and cultural heritage. The thesis is comprised of six chapters starting from a subjective narrative leading through increasingly objective discourses that culminate in a conclusion which supports a belief that modern Māori require a balancing of critical aspects of cultural heritage, with a broad understanding of the world of the 'other', in order to realise and develop their contemporary indigenous identity.

Ultimately, indigenous ideologies, practices and knowledge recorded and examined in the world of academia today, become potential resources for tomorrow. The intention of this research is to aggregate and discuss intrinsic aspects of the Māori past as well as developing aspects of the present, in order to better understand the significance of the future, and to add to the growing corpus of indigenous worldviews.

text: Fragmentation and Restoration: Generational Legacies of 21st Century Māori The content of this thesis is premised on a reflexive examination of some historical juxtapositions culminating in critical aspects of being Māori in the twenty first century and how such aspects have informed contemporary indigenous identity. That is, the continuing acknowledgement and exponential public recognition of critical concepts which inextricably link indigenous and civic identity. 

The theoretical sources for this research are, in the main, derived from anthropological and religious studies, particularly on the significance of mythologies and oral histories, as well as from the oral theorising of elders in Aotearoa New Zealand. A very significant contribution from one such elder, a senior Māori woman academic, has been included in the form of the transcript of an interview. She herself had collected the views of a number of elders on myth, creating a rare and valuable resource.  In the interview she married her reflections on these with her own experiences and her cogent analyses. 

From the outset, it was necessary to be discerning so as to ensure the thesis workload was manageable and realistic.  For this reason the selected critical aspects that have been used to frame this research are (1) a developing Western validation (that is, acknowledgement and respect) of Māori, Māori culture and their mythology; (2) oral history (genealogy) and traditions that have remained constant despite the influences of modernity; and (3) notions of fluidity, negotiation and pragmatism regarding kinship legacies and cultural heritage. The thesis is comprised of six chapters starting from a subjective narrative leading through increasingly objective discourses that culminate in a conclusion which supports a belief that modern Māori require a balancing of critical aspects of cultural heritage, with a broad understanding of the world of the 'other', in order to realise and develop their contemporary indigenous identity.

Ultimately, indigenous ideologies, practices and knowledge recorded and examined in the world of academia today, become potential resources for tomorrow. The intention of this research is to aggregate and discuss intrinsic aspects of the Māori past as well as developing aspects of the present, in order to better understand the significance of the future, and to add to the growing corpus of indigenous worldviews.

year: 2009