title: Justice through service: An action inquiry

authors: Gatenby, Beverly Ina

abstract: Through 2000 and 2001, I undertook an action research project with a group of staff in a church-affiliated social service agency in Aotearoa New Zealand. The purpose of the action inquiry was to work with the staff in the Agency during the establishment of a residential service for women and their children. In particular, the action inquiry involved working with the staff as they enacted their mission for 'justice through service' and their vision for 'empowering women'. 
As a researcher I drew on an epistemology of feminist post-structuralism, using particularly the concept of discursivity, as developed by French social theorist Michel Foucault and others. Much of the research came to be about reflecting with the Director of the Agency and other staff, on the ways a cluster of powerful discourses of Western individualism and neoliberalism, and closely associated managerialism, human rights and psychology, were threaded through their social service work in this country at that time. 
Many of the conversations, workshops and processes that emerged came to be about the ways in which managerial and psychological discourses seemed to provide dominant discourses within which social service and social justice work could be imagined and conducted. A number of us came to see an associated liberal discourse of human rights as being the site of considerable injustice for some women and children. We particularly noted the limited subject positions available to women discursively positioned as 'bad, sad or mad'. 
One of the most significant steps in the inquiry was to open up the possibility with the staff of thinking and acting differently, of challenging truth and knowledge claims. The action of the research came to be the intentional development of a local discourse of resistance, based on principles of connection, communion, conversation, bicultural development, inquiry, solidarity, participation, action and reflection, and reflexivity. These principles drew on discourses of Christianity and feminist theology, communitarianism and the discourse of action research itself. Social justice became imagined and enacted as resistance to neoliberalism, sometimes within the discourse of neoliberalism itself, sometimes through the invocation of an alternative discourse. Action research could and sometimes did provide that alternative. Provoking resistance to neoliberalism included creating and maintaining alternative subject positions for both staff members and the women they worked with. 
A number of theoretical questions emerged particularly around the intersections and tensions between feminist theory, post-structural theory, and action research. These questions led me to explore the potential and risks for action research to make truth-claims embedded within a neoliberal framework, particularly through invocations of first person research and reflection which instantiate a coherent and knowable self, able to be acted on through and as human development, and as transformation. Poststructural challenges to the humanist self, in contrast, enabled me to explore the subjectivities enacted in the various ways I was positioned and positioned myself in the research, and in the various positioning of others in the Agency. Exploring the interplay of power and knowledge with those subjectivities provided points at which other ways of being and acting could be imagined.

text: Justice through service: An action inquiry Through 2000 and 2001, I undertook an action research project with a group of staff in a church-affiliated social service agency in Aotearoa New Zealand. The purpose of the action inquiry was to work with the staff in the Agency during the establishment of a residential service for women and their children. In particular, the action inquiry involved working with the staff as they enacted their mission for 'justice through service' and their vision for 'empowering women'. 
As a researcher I drew on an epistemology of feminist post-structuralism, using particularly the concept of discursivity, as developed by French social theorist Michel Foucault and others. Much of the research came to be about reflecting with the Director of the Agency and other staff, on the ways a cluster of powerful discourses of Western individualism and neoliberalism, and closely associated managerialism, human rights and psychology, were threaded through their social service work in this country at that time. 
Many of the conversations, workshops and processes that emerged came to be about the ways in which managerial and psychological discourses seemed to provide dominant discourses within which social service and social justice work could be imagined and conducted. A number of us came to see an associated liberal discourse of human rights as being the site of considerable injustice for some women and children. We particularly noted the limited subject positions available to women discursively positioned as 'bad, sad or mad'. 
One of the most significant steps in the inquiry was to open up the possibility with the staff of thinking and acting differently, of challenging truth and knowledge claims. The action of the research came to be the intentional development of a local discourse of resistance, based on principles of connection, communion, conversation, bicultural development, inquiry, solidarity, participation, action and reflection, and reflexivity. These principles drew on discourses of Christianity and feminist theology, communitarianism and the discourse of action research itself. Social justice became imagined and enacted as resistance to neoliberalism, sometimes within the discourse of neoliberalism itself, sometimes through the invocation of an alternative discourse. Action research could and sometimes did provide that alternative. Provoking resistance to neoliberalism included creating and maintaining alternative subject positions for both staff members and the women they worked with. 
A number of theoretical questions emerged particularly around the intersections and tensions between feminist theory, post-structural theory, and action research. These questions led me to explore the potential and risks for action research to make truth-claims embedded within a neoliberal framework, particularly through invocations of first person research and reflection which instantiate a coherent and knowable self, able to be acted on through and as human development, and as transformation. Poststructural challenges to the humanist self, in contrast, enabled me to explore the subjectivities enacted in the various ways I was positioned and positioned myself in the research, and in the various positioning of others in the Agency. Exploring the interplay of power and knowledge with those subjectivities provided points at which other ways of being and acting could be imagined.

year: 2004

title: Examining the incorporation of small-scale recurring disasters in emergency management frameworks: Insights from Aotearoa-New Zealand

authors: Tennakoon, Kishani

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Risks pertaining to small-scale recurring disasters are generally not considered by emergency management policies. While their impacts are not immediately recognisable, their recurrent manifestation may result in cumulative as well as indirect impacts. Yet, small-scale recurring disasters both remain under-studied in disaster studies and are often not incorporated in disaster planning and policy. This paper contributes to filling this gap in knowledge by investigating the extent to which the emergency management framework of Aotearoa-New Zealand addresses small-scale recurring disasters through a targeted analysis of high-order policy documents. The findings confirm the incomplete reflection of risk identification related to small-scale recurring disasters in the documents analyzed. The paper reaffirms that small-scale recurring disasters should be more explicitly integrated in disaster management policy regimes to eliminate the differences at the lower administrative levels of risk treatment. It also argues for the re-evaluation of short-term solutions (such as insurance coverage) that only improve recovery outcomes temporarily, and the consideration of long-term risk reduction policies for achieving more sustainable recovery outcomes.

text: Examining the incorporation of small-scale recurring disasters in emergency management frameworks: Insights from Aotearoa-New Zealand Risks pertaining to small-scale recurring disasters are generally not considered by emergency management policies. While their impacts are not immediately recognisable, their recurrent manifestation may result in cumulative as well as indirect impacts. Yet, small-scale recurring disasters both remain under-studied in disaster studies and are often not incorporated in disaster planning and policy. This paper contributes to filling this gap in knowledge by investigating the extent to which the emergency management framework of Aotearoa-New Zealand addresses small-scale recurring disasters through a targeted analysis of high-order policy documents. The findings confirm the incomplete reflection of risk identification related to small-scale recurring disasters in the documents analyzed. The paper reaffirms that small-scale recurring disasters should be more explicitly integrated in disaster management policy regimes to eliminate the differences at the lower administrative levels of risk treatment. It also argues for the re-evaluation of short-term solutions (such as insurance coverage) that only improve recovery outcomes temporarily, and the consideration of long-term risk reduction policies for achieving more sustainable recovery outcomes.

year: 2021-10-07

title: 'Freedom’s Ramparts on The Sea': The postcolonial New Zealand landscape and the quest for sustainability

authors: Morad, Munir

subjects: postcolonialism

abstract: New Zealand’s colonial legacy has had a major impact on the shape of its landscape. The European settlement of New Zealand transformed both the land itself as well as the tenure arrangements that had hitherto followed traditional Maori practices. The increasing political influence of the modem conservation movement in New Zealand has been mirrored by a parallel rise in Maori engagement with environmental issues. Land tenure claims brought by the Maori under the 1970’s Treaty of Waitangi Act have enabled an alliance of Maori and environmental interests to be forged. This linkage however is very recent, and if the current unsustainable land use practices are to be mitigated in New Zealand, a synthesis of the essential elements in both cultural traditions is necessary.
Culture shapes how people identify and evaluate elements of their environment, and influences their behaviour and experiences. At a more pragmatic level, culture provides the social infrastructure and institutions that determine how renewable land resources are used and managed. The authors highlight the links between postcolonial culture and landscape management in New Zealand, contrasting Pakeha-Maori points of view and attempting to mediate between these conflicting positions. These links are examined in the context of new social, economic and ecological forces that are shaping the country’s postcolonial landscape.

text: 'Freedom’s Ramparts on The Sea': The postcolonial New Zealand landscape and the quest for sustainability New Zealand’s colonial legacy has had a major impact on the shape of its landscape. The European settlement of New Zealand transformed both the land itself as well as the tenure arrangements that had hitherto followed traditional Maori practices. The increasing political influence of the modem conservation movement in New Zealand has been mirrored by a parallel rise in Maori engagement with environmental issues. Land tenure claims brought by the Maori under the 1970’s Treaty of Waitangi Act have enabled an alliance of Maori and environmental interests to be forged. This linkage however is very recent, and if the current unsustainable land use practices are to be mitigated in New Zealand, a synthesis of the essential elements in both cultural traditions is necessary.
Culture shapes how people identify and evaluate elements of their environment, and influences their behaviour and experiences. At a more pragmatic level, culture provides the social infrastructure and institutions that determine how renewable land resources are used and managed. The authors highlight the links between postcolonial culture and landscape management in New Zealand, contrasting Pakeha-Maori points of view and attempting to mediate between these conflicting positions. These links are examined in the context of new social, economic and ecological forces that are shaping the country’s postcolonial landscape.

year: 2003