title: Intimate Geographies: Bodies, Underwear and Space in Hamilton, New Zealand

authors: Morrison, Carey-Ann

subjects: Female bodies

abstract: This thesis examines the ways in which a small group of young Pākehā women use underwear to construct a range of complex gendered subjectivities. I explore how these subjectivities are influenced by both material and discursive spaces. Three underwear shops in Hamilton, New Zealand - Bendon Lingerie Outlet, Bras N Things and Farmers, and various visual representations depicting contemporary notions of normative femininity, are under investigation
Feminist poststructuralist theories and methodologies provide the framework for this research. One focus group and three semi-structured interviews were conducted with young women who purchase and wear underwear. Participant observations of shoppers in Bendon Lingerie Outlet, Hamilton and autobiographical journal entries of my experiences as a retailer and consumer of underwear continued throughout the research. Advertising and promotional material in underwear shops and a DVD of a Victoria's Secret lingerie show are also examined.
Three points frame the analysis. First, I argue that underwear consumption spaces are discursively constructed as feminine. The socio-political structures governing these spaces construct particular types of bodies. These bodies are positioned as either 'in' place or 'out' of place. Second, underwear shops can be understood as feminised, young and thin embodied spaces. Bodies that fit this description are hence positioned as 'in' place. However, female bodies that are 'fat' and/or old and male bodies are marginalised within the space and thus positioned as 'out' of place. Third, I consider particular forms of normative femininity by examining the ways in which underwear disciplines and contains the body. Women's underwear moulds and shapes flesh to fit contemporary feminine norms.
Examining the specific relationship between the body, underwear and space provides a means to re-theorise geography and makes new ground for understanding how clothed bodies are constituted in and through space.

text: Intimate Geographies: Bodies, Underwear and Space in Hamilton, New Zealand This thesis examines the ways in which a small group of young Pākehā women use underwear to construct a range of complex gendered subjectivities. I explore how these subjectivities are influenced by both material and discursive spaces. Three underwear shops in Hamilton, New Zealand - Bendon Lingerie Outlet, Bras N Things and Farmers, and various visual representations depicting contemporary notions of normative femininity, are under investigation
Feminist poststructuralist theories and methodologies provide the framework for this research. One focus group and three semi-structured interviews were conducted with young women who purchase and wear underwear. Participant observations of shoppers in Bendon Lingerie Outlet, Hamilton and autobiographical journal entries of my experiences as a retailer and consumer of underwear continued throughout the research. Advertising and promotional material in underwear shops and a DVD of a Victoria's Secret lingerie show are also examined.
Three points frame the analysis. First, I argue that underwear consumption spaces are discursively constructed as feminine. The socio-political structures governing these spaces construct particular types of bodies. These bodies are positioned as either 'in' place or 'out' of place. Second, underwear shops can be understood as feminised, young and thin embodied spaces. Bodies that fit this description are hence positioned as 'in' place. However, female bodies that are 'fat' and/or old and male bodies are marginalised within the space and thus positioned as 'out' of place. Third, I consider particular forms of normative femininity by examining the ways in which underwear disciplines and contains the body. Women's underwear moulds and shapes flesh to fit contemporary feminine norms.
Examining the specific relationship between the body, underwear and space provides a means to re-theorise geography and makes new ground for understanding how clothed bodies are constituted in and through space.

year: 2007

title: Context and change in management accounting and control systems: A case study of Telecom Fiji Limited

authors: Sharma, Umesh Prasad

subjects: management accounting

abstract: This thesis aims to contribute to research in management accounting and control systems (MACS) in a developing country context: that of Fiji.  It seeks to gain a theoretical understanding of how MACS reflect the social and political contexts in which they operate by using a case study of Telecom Fiji Limited (a major supplier of telephone communications in Fiji).  The definition of  MACS  for the purpose of the thesis is broad- a social constructivist perspective is adopted in which systems are used to align employee behaviour with organisational objectives and to assist external relationships (with the State, Commerce Commission, aid agencies and customers).  The thesis draws on institutional theory while raising questions as to how to refine and extend institutional theory.  This theory has often been associated with institutional embeddedness (stability).  The social constructivist approach helps to incorporate agency and cultural issues normally missing in conventional applications of institutional theory to accounting change.  

Telecom Fiji Limited (TFL) was restructured under the Fiji government's public sector reforms.  Such reforms were insisted upon by the international financial agencies of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.  Under the reform policy, TFL was transformed from a government department into a corporatised organisation and was subsequently privatised.  The MACS changes which eventuated helped to change TFL management and employees' interpretive schemes. However, employees resisted initial changes to commercial business routines and it took some years for TFL actors to assimilate commercial practices.  While the literature dealing with MACS changes has mostly portrayed changes as occurring with little resistance, MACS changes at TFL took several years to become institutionalised, partly because of cultural and political factors specific to Fiji.

The study has practice implications as it shows that management accountants can act as institutional entrepreneurs in organisations, shaping new accounting technologies in reformed entities, and changing actors' interpretive schemes.  The study has implications for policy makers, consultants and other stakeholders in terms of promoting a need for better understanding of the sensitivity to cultural and political circumstances in Less Developed Countries (LDC's) like Fiji in relation to the introduction of MACS changes.  The study has implications for other recently corporatized/ privatised and state-sector organisations in Fiji and elsewhere.  It also has implications for other researchers as institutional theory can be refined on the basis of new empirical evidence.

text: Context and change in management accounting and control systems: A case study of Telecom Fiji Limited This thesis aims to contribute to research in management accounting and control systems (MACS) in a developing country context: that of Fiji.  It seeks to gain a theoretical understanding of how MACS reflect the social and political contexts in which they operate by using a case study of Telecom Fiji Limited (a major supplier of telephone communications in Fiji).  The definition of  MACS  for the purpose of the thesis is broad- a social constructivist perspective is adopted in which systems are used to align employee behaviour with organisational objectives and to assist external relationships (with the State, Commerce Commission, aid agencies and customers).  The thesis draws on institutional theory while raising questions as to how to refine and extend institutional theory.  This theory has often been associated with institutional embeddedness (stability).  The social constructivist approach helps to incorporate agency and cultural issues normally missing in conventional applications of institutional theory to accounting change.  

Telecom Fiji Limited (TFL) was restructured under the Fiji government's public sector reforms.  Such reforms were insisted upon by the international financial agencies of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund.  Under the reform policy, TFL was transformed from a government department into a corporatised organisation and was subsequently privatised.  The MACS changes which eventuated helped to change TFL management and employees' interpretive schemes. However, employees resisted initial changes to commercial business routines and it took some years for TFL actors to assimilate commercial practices.  While the literature dealing with MACS changes has mostly portrayed changes as occurring with little resistance, MACS changes at TFL took several years to become institutionalised, partly because of cultural and political factors specific to Fiji.

The study has practice implications as it shows that management accountants can act as institutional entrepreneurs in organisations, shaping new accounting technologies in reformed entities, and changing actors' interpretive schemes.  The study has implications for policy makers, consultants and other stakeholders in terms of promoting a need for better understanding of the sensitivity to cultural and political circumstances in Less Developed Countries (LDC's) like Fiji in relation to the introduction of MACS changes.  The study has implications for other recently corporatized/ privatised and state-sector organisations in Fiji and elsewhere.  It also has implications for other researchers as institutional theory can be refined on the basis of new empirical evidence.

year: 2009

title: John William Richard Guilding

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Born in Auckland in 1842, by his late teenage years John William Richard Guilding was trading with Maori in the Piako district. Protected by a rangatira, he established a store at Kerepehi, but despite being known to be ‘friendly’ with Maori he was driven off after the start of the Waikato War. In 1864, again with the approval of a rangatira, he erected a store on the site of the future township of Thames. Although he claimed to have found signs of gold there, he was not the prospector who produced the samples that led to the opening of the goldfield. In 1869 he was appointed a licensed interpreter, in which role he assisted both the Crown and private individuals to acquire Maori land. Some of these transactions created controversy, and he was accused of tricking Maori. In 1875 his attempt to use his position as James Mackay’s interpreter to acquire a lease of land at Tairua for his own financial gain provoked much criticism, and his ‘irregular practices’ led to his dismissal as a licensed interpreter in 1883. He would continue to act for individuals as both an interpreter and a land agent in Ohinemuri and Te Aroha in subsequent years.
Guilding’s close links with Maori were in part explained by his private life. Having married a ‘half-caste’ who later left him for another man, he had three more ‘marriages’ and several more children, who were brought up in Pakeha ways. Financially, he always struggled, filing as bankrupt twice and dying in straightened circumstances. At Te Aroha he held several minor official positions, sometimes being criticized for his performance. Active in local politics, he was generally unpopular and was never elected to the positions he sought. Throughout his life his reputation amongst a sizeable number of his contemporaries was poor.

text: John William Richard Guilding Born in Auckland in 1842, by his late teenage years John William Richard Guilding was trading with Maori in the Piako district. Protected by a rangatira, he established a store at Kerepehi, but despite being known to be ‘friendly’ with Maori he was driven off after the start of the Waikato War. In 1864, again with the approval of a rangatira, he erected a store on the site of the future township of Thames. Although he claimed to have found signs of gold there, he was not the prospector who produced the samples that led to the opening of the goldfield. In 1869 he was appointed a licensed interpreter, in which role he assisted both the Crown and private individuals to acquire Maori land. Some of these transactions created controversy, and he was accused of tricking Maori. In 1875 his attempt to use his position as James Mackay’s interpreter to acquire a lease of land at Tairua for his own financial gain provoked much criticism, and his ‘irregular practices’ led to his dismissal as a licensed interpreter in 1883. He would continue to act for individuals as both an interpreter and a land agent in Ohinemuri and Te Aroha in subsequent years.
Guilding’s close links with Maori were in part explained by his private life. Having married a ‘half-caste’ who later left him for another man, he had three more ‘marriages’ and several more children, who were brought up in Pakeha ways. Financially, he always struggled, filing as bankrupt twice and dying in straightened circumstances. At Te Aroha he held several minor official positions, sometimes being criticized for his performance. Active in local politics, he was generally unpopular and was never elected to the positions he sought. Throughout his life his reputation amongst a sizeable number of his contemporaries was poor.

year: 2016