title: Considering photographs never taken during photo-production projects

authors: Hodgetts, Darrin

subjects: homelessness

abstract: The visual medium is central to how most of us navigate daily life and come to know and interact with our social worlds. Recently, the role of visual dimensions of everyday life has surfaced in qualitative research in psychology. This paper explores some of the underlying processes foundational to participants' efforts to picture their worlds during photo-production projects. We draw on excerpts from a study of images of homelessness in London to exemplify various methodological issues surrounding the interpretation of photo-production materials. Emphasis is placed on the need to focus on photo-production because photographs taken never fully contain what is important to participants. Issues and events are often talked into the frame of photographs by participants. This process of presenting aspects of one's life extends to discussions of photographs not taken and reflections on processes of picturing everyday life. We argue that a consideration of photographs not taken is important if we are to maximise the utility of photo-production as a method and fully understand what it provides.

text: Considering photographs never taken during photo-production projects The visual medium is central to how most of us navigate daily life and come to know and interact with our social worlds. Recently, the role of visual dimensions of everyday life has surfaced in qualitative research in psychology. This paper explores some of the underlying processes foundational to participants' efforts to picture their worlds during photo-production projects. We draw on excerpts from a study of images of homelessness in London to exemplify various methodological issues surrounding the interpretation of photo-production materials. Emphasis is placed on the need to focus on photo-production because photographs taken never fully contain what is important to participants. Issues and events are often talked into the frame of photographs by participants. This process of presenting aspects of one's life extends to discussions of photographs not taken and reflections on processes of picturing everyday life. We argue that a consideration of photographs not taken is important if we are to maximise the utility of photo-production as a method and fully understand what it provides.

year: 2007

title: Student Culture and Binge Drinking

authors: McEwan, Brett James

subjects: alcohol

abstract: New Zealand student culture has had a strong tradition of alcohol use.  Research, both in New Zealand and internationally, has identified halls of residence student drinkers as at more risk of alcohol-related harm than their same age non-resident and non-student peers.  This research project investigates the relationship between student culture and binge drinking behaviour within the University of Waikato's halls of residence student population.  It combines qualitative and quantitative methods encompassing focus groups, individual face-to-face interviews, and a survey questionnaire completed by sixty percent of the resident student population.  The resulting data are set within the context of existing literature on student drinking behaviour and student culture, and the analysis is undertaken using a combination of grounded theory and statistical analysis. 

The study reveals that binge drinking behaviour was viewed by the majority of residents as a normal component of student culture, with one-half of male residents who drink and one-third of female drinking residents becoming intoxicated on a weekly basis.  Contrary to the popular perception that student drinking behaviour is an uncontrolled activity however, the majority of residents' practised 'controlled intoxication' while drinking.  Overall, most residents enjoyed their drinking experiences and showed a high level of tolerance towards many alcohol-related harms.  There is clear evidence that resident drinking behaviour impacts adversely upon residents, with one-half of residents having experienced academic and/or physical harms, and twenty percent reporting sexual encounters they later regretted.  One-third of residents had also felt unsafe due to the drinking behaviour of others.  

Adopting the precepts of a social-ecological approach, this thesis argues that a range of multi-level harm-minimisation strategies targeting resident drinking behaviour are required, in conjunction with renewed efforts to effect change in the New Zealand drinking culture.  Fifteen alcohol-intervention initiatives are recommended which variously target the individual drinker, the halls of residence environment, the institutional environment, and the local community drinking environment.  The national drinking environment is also pursued through recommendations advocating legislative change to make it an offence to be intoxicated in a public place, and through social marketing strategies which encourage peer feedback, the shaming of intoxicated behaviour, and the continued emphasis on the association between drinking and its adverse effects.

text: Student Culture and Binge Drinking New Zealand student culture has had a strong tradition of alcohol use.  Research, both in New Zealand and internationally, has identified halls of residence student drinkers as at more risk of alcohol-related harm than their same age non-resident and non-student peers.  This research project investigates the relationship between student culture and binge drinking behaviour within the University of Waikato's halls of residence student population.  It combines qualitative and quantitative methods encompassing focus groups, individual face-to-face interviews, and a survey questionnaire completed by sixty percent of the resident student population.  The resulting data are set within the context of existing literature on student drinking behaviour and student culture, and the analysis is undertaken using a combination of grounded theory and statistical analysis. 

The study reveals that binge drinking behaviour was viewed by the majority of residents as a normal component of student culture, with one-half of male residents who drink and one-third of female drinking residents becoming intoxicated on a weekly basis.  Contrary to the popular perception that student drinking behaviour is an uncontrolled activity however, the majority of residents' practised 'controlled intoxication' while drinking.  Overall, most residents enjoyed their drinking experiences and showed a high level of tolerance towards many alcohol-related harms.  There is clear evidence that resident drinking behaviour impacts adversely upon residents, with one-half of residents having experienced academic and/or physical harms, and twenty percent reporting sexual encounters they later regretted.  One-third of residents had also felt unsafe due to the drinking behaviour of others.  

Adopting the precepts of a social-ecological approach, this thesis argues that a range of multi-level harm-minimisation strategies targeting resident drinking behaviour are required, in conjunction with renewed efforts to effect change in the New Zealand drinking culture.  Fifteen alcohol-intervention initiatives are recommended which variously target the individual drinker, the halls of residence environment, the institutional environment, and the local community drinking environment.  The national drinking environment is also pursued through recommendations advocating legislative change to make it an offence to be intoxicated in a public place, and through social marketing strategies which encourage peer feedback, the shaming of intoxicated behaviour, and the continued emphasis on the association between drinking and its adverse effects.

year: 2009

title: Photography within te ao Māori: Decolonising the photographic lens

authors: Hill, Rodrigo

abstract: Ūkaipō: Wānanga, places of origin and photographic representation. 
Ūkaipō recognises the cultural, emotional, and spiritual along with the physical ties a Māori has with their place of origin, even if it is not their place of birth, emphasising grounded forms of connection between people and place and subsequent understandings of places and spaces.  Hence the importance today of people asserting their pēpeha, tohu whenua landmarks with which they most strongly identify, consolidating their ‘birth of place’ or ‘place of birth’.

text: Photography within te ao Māori: Decolonising the photographic lens Ūkaipō: Wānanga, places of origin and photographic representation. 
Ūkaipō recognises the cultural, emotional, and spiritual along with the physical ties a Māori has with their place of origin, even if it is not their place of birth, emphasising grounded forms of connection between people and place and subsequent understandings of places and spaces.  Hence the importance today of people asserting their pēpeha, tohu whenua landmarks with which they most strongly identify, consolidating their ‘birth of place’ or ‘place of birth’.

year: 2024