title: Insurance as maladaptation: Resilience and the "business as usual' paradox

authors: O'Hare, Paul

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Insurance and compensation are cited as critical elements of resilience to natural and non-natural hazards alike. As a strategy of risk management, it emphasises peace of mind, financial recompense and the swift restoration of a ‘business as usual’ status for civil, social and commercial life. Yet despite the contribution of insurance to risk management, the synergies with progressive or adaptive articulations of resilience are not sufficiently explicated. This paper explores the fundamental contradictions of insurance as a form of resilience through a study of flood risk management. It demonstrates how insurance regimes serve to structurally embed risky behaviour and inhibit change after detrimental events. As such, transformative interpretations of resilience conflict with the long-standing principles and operational norms of insurance that privilege normality. The paper concludes that, despite its currency within resilience discourses, insurance is maladaptive and that insurance regimes reinforce exposure and vulnerability through underwriting a return to the ‘status-quo’ rather than enabling adaptive behaviour.

text: Insurance as maladaptation: Resilience and the "business as usual' paradox Insurance and compensation are cited as critical elements of resilience to natural and non-natural hazards alike. As a strategy of risk management, it emphasises peace of mind, financial recompense and the swift restoration of a ‘business as usual’ status for civil, social and commercial life. Yet despite the contribution of insurance to risk management, the synergies with progressive or adaptive articulations of resilience are not sufficiently explicated. This paper explores the fundamental contradictions of insurance as a form of resilience through a study of flood risk management. It demonstrates how insurance regimes serve to structurally embed risky behaviour and inhibit change after detrimental events. As such, transformative interpretations of resilience conflict with the long-standing principles and operational norms of insurance that privilege normality. The paper concludes that, despite its currency within resilience discourses, insurance is maladaptive and that insurance regimes reinforce exposure and vulnerability through underwriting a return to the ‘status-quo’ rather than enabling adaptive behaviour.

year: 2016

title: A grammar of the Neverver language of Malakula (Vanuatu)

authors: Barbour, Julie Renee

subjects: endangered languages

abstract: A grammar of the Neverver language of Malakula (Vanuatu) is a synchronic account of the endangered Neverver language spoken by the Mindu and Sakhan peoples.  The description is one outcome of a larger project to document the Neverver language, and it is based on a large and varied corpus of communicative events collected from Neverver speakers residing in the villages of Limap and Lingarakh.  The description includes an account of the phonological system of the language, where complex segments with prenasalisation, including bilabial and alveolar trills, contrast with plain segments.  Heterogeneous and geminate sequences of consonants are permitted in the language, provided syllable onsets and codes are simple.  Epenthesis can be employed to ensure that the maximal CVC syllable template is adhered to.  The nominal system displays classes of common, personal, and local nouns, along with independent pronouns, and a set of pronominal-nouns.  Possessive constructions suggest an earlier system based on the semantic notion of alienability; today constructions are formed by a combination of semantic and phonological properties.  The nominal modifying particle is employed in one type of possessive construction, as well as in relative clauses with definite heads.  Verbs are either inherently transitive or intransitive; valency increase is achieved with suffixation, while valency decrease can be achieved with reduplication.  Reduplication is common in the corpus and typically serves as a marker of low transitivity.  In keeping with the basic constraint on syllable structure, the reduplicative prefix has a CV(C) template.  In terms of verbal morphology, Neverver is a mood-prominent language, with all verbal predicates being marked for either realis or irrealis mood.  Further tense/aspect distinctions can be indicated with optional verbal morphology.   The basic word order of verbal predicates is SVO, and the language is both head-initial and head-marking.  A number of complex constructions have been identified in the language.  Complex nuclei, including incorporated objects and nuclear serial verb constructions, contrast structurally with core serial verb constructions.  Concordant mood marking characterises core serial constructions, while sentential complements display varying patterns of mood dependency.  Adverbial subordination and subordinating tail-head linkage contrast with coordinate structures, including syndetic coordination and juxtaposition.  A variety of inter-propositional semantic relations are expressed through these complex structures.

text: A grammar of the Neverver language of Malakula (Vanuatu) A grammar of the Neverver language of Malakula (Vanuatu) is a synchronic account of the endangered Neverver language spoken by the Mindu and Sakhan peoples.  The description is one outcome of a larger project to document the Neverver language, and it is based on a large and varied corpus of communicative events collected from Neverver speakers residing in the villages of Limap and Lingarakh.  The description includes an account of the phonological system of the language, where complex segments with prenasalisation, including bilabial and alveolar trills, contrast with plain segments.  Heterogeneous and geminate sequences of consonants are permitted in the language, provided syllable onsets and codes are simple.  Epenthesis can be employed to ensure that the maximal CVC syllable template is adhered to.  The nominal system displays classes of common, personal, and local nouns, along with independent pronouns, and a set of pronominal-nouns.  Possessive constructions suggest an earlier system based on the semantic notion of alienability; today constructions are formed by a combination of semantic and phonological properties.  The nominal modifying particle is employed in one type of possessive construction, as well as in relative clauses with definite heads.  Verbs are either inherently transitive or intransitive; valency increase is achieved with suffixation, while valency decrease can be achieved with reduplication.  Reduplication is common in the corpus and typically serves as a marker of low transitivity.  In keeping with the basic constraint on syllable structure, the reduplicative prefix has a CV(C) template.  In terms of verbal morphology, Neverver is a mood-prominent language, with all verbal predicates being marked for either realis or irrealis mood.  Further tense/aspect distinctions can be indicated with optional verbal morphology.   The basic word order of verbal predicates is SVO, and the language is both head-initial and head-marking.  A number of complex constructions have been identified in the language.  Complex nuclei, including incorporated objects and nuclear serial verb constructions, contrast structurally with core serial verb constructions.  Concordant mood marking characterises core serial constructions, while sentential complements display varying patterns of mood dependency.  Adverbial subordination and subordinating tail-head linkage contrast with coordinate structures, including syndetic coordination and juxtaposition.  A variety of inter-propositional semantic relations are expressed through these complex structures.

year: 2009

title: Portfolio of Compositions: Systematic composition of cross-genre hybrid music

authors: Mayall, Jeremy Mark

subjects: cross-genre hybrid music

abstract: The research focus of this PhD thesis is the development of a new technique for composing original musical compositions in which elements from different musical genres are hybridised. The innovative aspect of achieving balanced hybridity is the development of a systematic approach to selecting and synthesising or hybridising key musical elements across a range of different genres. The major component of this submission is a portfolio of nine original works with attached CD/DVD recordings. 

1. Tracking Forward for viola, backing track and video 
2. The Long White Cloud for chamber band and electronics 
3. ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously’ for orchestra 
4. Push for Miles for electric bass and backing track 
5. Norse Suite for viola and cello 
6. The Foggy Field a studio construction 
7. Into the Nocturnal Sunshine for flute, viola, cello, drums and electronics 
8. One Night, New Breath for taonga puoro, viola, drums and electronics 
9. Sketches of an Intergalactic Earworm for piano trio and boombox

The accompanying documentation clarifies, and contextualises the creation and presentation of these works; and illuminates the aesthetic underpinnings and compositional techniques developed and utilised as a part of this hybrid-genre compositional approach. The structure of the supporting exegesis is in two parts: the methodology of practice-based research, and reflective investigation. Part One (Chapters 1 and 2) is an introductory overview; an observation of the existing literature and related work, relevant creative practice in the composer’s previous work; and the compositional methodology – including an explanation of the genre matrix. Part Two (Chapters 3 to 12) analyses the use of genre, the balance of hybridity, and relevant compositional techniques utilised in the development of each individual piece.

text: Portfolio of Compositions: Systematic composition of cross-genre hybrid music The research focus of this PhD thesis is the development of a new technique for composing original musical compositions in which elements from different musical genres are hybridised. The innovative aspect of achieving balanced hybridity is the development of a systematic approach to selecting and synthesising or hybridising key musical elements across a range of different genres. The major component of this submission is a portfolio of nine original works with attached CD/DVD recordings. 

1. Tracking Forward for viola, backing track and video 
2. The Long White Cloud for chamber band and electronics 
3. ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously’ for orchestra 
4. Push for Miles for electric bass and backing track 
5. Norse Suite for viola and cello 
6. The Foggy Field a studio construction 
7. Into the Nocturnal Sunshine for flute, viola, cello, drums and electronics 
8. One Night, New Breath for taonga puoro, viola, drums and electronics 
9. Sketches of an Intergalactic Earworm for piano trio and boombox

The accompanying documentation clarifies, and contextualises the creation and presentation of these works; and illuminates the aesthetic underpinnings and compositional techniques developed and utilised as a part of this hybrid-genre compositional approach. The structure of the supporting exegesis is in two parts: the methodology of practice-based research, and reflective investigation. Part One (Chapters 1 and 2) is an introductory overview; an observation of the existing literature and related work, relevant creative practice in the composer’s previous work; and the compositional methodology – including an explanation of the genre matrix. Part Two (Chapters 3 to 12) analyses the use of genre, the balance of hybridity, and relevant compositional techniques utilised in the development of each individual piece.

year: 2015