title: Postal Reform in Japan: A Comparative New Zealand–Japan Study of Economic Issues in Privatising a Postal System

authors: Duggan, Anthony John

subjects: Institutional change

abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the economic issues in the postal reform experiences of New Zealand and Japan. New Zealand’s reforms were conducted in the 1980s. Its experience raises questions about what factors were important for overcoming resistance to reform. Japan’s case is a current issue, raising questions of how likely privatisation may be, what dilutions may occur, and what might the post-reform organisation look like. 
	This study charts New Zealand’s reform evolution by supplementing the literature with interviews conducted with experts closely tied to the events. Japan’s reform is similarly traced to the present day where a simulation model I have developed proposes final negotiation outcomes. I argue that New Zealand Post’s pre-reform institutional environment was incongruent with efficiency and productivity. Reforms created an entirely new institutional environment based on neoliberal ideologies, separating governance from ownership and disentangling commercial and social objectives. This study shows that resistance was overcome by a culmination of implementation speed, scale of reform, carefully drafted legislation, and managerial acuity. 
	Japan’s pre-reform environment displays a number of parallels to New Zealand’s. However in this case, I argue that prolonged implementation and a greater presence of interest groups hamper reform progress and simulation suggests only a partial reform where legislation maintains entry barriers, favouring Japan Post over private competition. Key reasons in explaining the differences in outcomes between the two countries are argued to be differences in political ideologies and the strength of reform opposition. The separation of governance and ownership for instance, appears to be more distinct in New Zealand than Japan, and whilst the New Zealand model focuses upon shareholder wealth maximisation, the Japanese case appears to place greater emphasis upon stakeholder interests.

text: Postal Reform in Japan: A Comparative New Zealand–Japan Study of Economic Issues in Privatising a Postal System The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the economic issues in the postal reform experiences of New Zealand and Japan. New Zealand’s reforms were conducted in the 1980s. Its experience raises questions about what factors were important for overcoming resistance to reform. Japan’s case is a current issue, raising questions of how likely privatisation may be, what dilutions may occur, and what might the post-reform organisation look like. 
	This study charts New Zealand’s reform evolution by supplementing the literature with interviews conducted with experts closely tied to the events. Japan’s reform is similarly traced to the present day where a simulation model I have developed proposes final negotiation outcomes. I argue that New Zealand Post’s pre-reform institutional environment was incongruent with efficiency and productivity. Reforms created an entirely new institutional environment based on neoliberal ideologies, separating governance from ownership and disentangling commercial and social objectives. This study shows that resistance was overcome by a culmination of implementation speed, scale of reform, carefully drafted legislation, and managerial acuity. 
	Japan’s pre-reform environment displays a number of parallels to New Zealand’s. However in this case, I argue that prolonged implementation and a greater presence of interest groups hamper reform progress and simulation suggests only a partial reform where legislation maintains entry barriers, favouring Japan Post over private competition. Key reasons in explaining the differences in outcomes between the two countries are argued to be differences in political ideologies and the strength of reform opposition. The separation of governance and ownership for instance, appears to be more distinct in New Zealand than Japan, and whilst the New Zealand model focuses upon shareholder wealth maximisation, the Japanese case appears to place greater emphasis upon stakeholder interests.

year: 2017

title: Homeless people's leisure practices within and beyond urban socio-scapes

authors: Hodgetts, Darrin

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: With increased inequity and polarisation in society, access to leisure has become even more crucial for ensuring the humanity and health of people living in urban poverty. Homeless people constitute the hard edge of urban poverty, and literally embody broader inequities in society given that they face increased risk of illness and an early death. Scholars have explored the material and psychosocial hardships experienced by homeless people, but focus less on leisure. This article explores the role of leisure in the everyday lives of 99 homeless people in New Zealand and England. We document various leisure activities across different urban spaces and consider the complexities of leisure in how homeless people make meaning of, cope with and survive street life in the city.

text: Homeless people's leisure practices within and beyond urban socio-scapes With increased inequity and polarisation in society, access to leisure has become even more crucial for ensuring the humanity and health of people living in urban poverty. Homeless people constitute the hard edge of urban poverty, and literally embody broader inequities in society given that they face increased risk of illness and an early death. Scholars have explored the material and psychosocial hardships experienced by homeless people, but focus less on leisure. This article explores the role of leisure in the everyday lives of 99 homeless people in New Zealand and England. We document various leisure activities across different urban spaces and consider the complexities of leisure in how homeless people make meaning of, cope with and survive street life in the city.

year: 2016

title: Radiocarbon dates on desiccated moa (Dinornithiformes) flesh from Inland Otago, New Zealand

authors: Anderson, Atholl

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Remains of soft tissues from extinct moa (Dinornithiformes), mainly desiccated sinew, muscle, skin, and feathers have been recovered rather seldom but their distribution is distinctive. Of 22 records of such finds accumulated between 1864 and 1987, 15 came from inland Otago (Anderson 1989: 67–68, Table 5.2), west of Dunedin in the southern South Island. Most were found in the late nineteenth century (13 records) in rockshelters, clefts or alluvial sediments and were regarded at the time as evidence of the survival of moa up to about AD 1800 (Hutton and Coughtrey 1874a). Improbable as this latter point is, it has not been tested by radiocarbon dating until now. Our particular impetus to do so, however, arises in another way. It is from research, again largely within inland Otago, on Maori artefacts which have also been made from various other kinds of soft tissues (flax, grasses, dog skin, bird skin, feathers etc.). A series of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates on these (Anderson et al., n.d.) shows that they are exclusively late, post-AD 1650, which begs the question of why the age range does not extend across the full prehistoric period, beginning about AD 1300.

text: Radiocarbon dates on desiccated moa (Dinornithiformes) flesh from Inland Otago, New Zealand Remains of soft tissues from extinct moa (Dinornithiformes), mainly desiccated sinew, muscle, skin, and feathers have been recovered rather seldom but their distribution is distinctive. Of 22 records of such finds accumulated between 1864 and 1987, 15 came from inland Otago (Anderson 1989: 67–68, Table 5.2), west of Dunedin in the southern South Island. Most were found in the late nineteenth century (13 records) in rockshelters, clefts or alluvial sediments and were regarded at the time as evidence of the survival of moa up to about AD 1800 (Hutton and Coughtrey 1874a). Improbable as this latter point is, it has not been tested by radiocarbon dating until now. Our particular impetus to do so, however, arises in another way. It is from research, again largely within inland Otago, on Maori artefacts which have also been made from various other kinds of soft tissues (flax, grasses, dog skin, bird skin, feathers etc.). A series of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates on these (Anderson et al., n.d.) shows that they are exclusively late, post-AD 1650, which begs the question of why the age range does not extend across the full prehistoric period, beginning about AD 1300.

year: 2010