title: A capabilities approach to freedom of employment: Hierarchical capabilities

authors: Blight, Damian

subjects: Capabilities approach

abstract: When people in New Zealand are unhappy with their current employment, they are often advised to find a new job. Implicit here is the assumption that a new job will be better, but it is not entirely clear that this is always the case. In this thesis I aim to navigate the complexities of this suggestion in order to ascertain whether or not the task of finding new employment, that is more meaningful to the individual, is as simple as it sounds. To do this I have developed a hierarchical chart, in combination with the capabilities approach from Amartya Sen. The capabilities approach allows us to focus on the options that are available to the individual, rather than ensuring that everyone is given access to everything, including things that they do not need. By looking at freedom of employment as a capability, we may identify meaningful options for individuals even if some options are closed off to them. However, if there are not enough available options then individuals may lack access to meaningful freedom of employment.
By ordering the capabilities that are required for individuals to enjoy meaningful freedom of employment into a hierarchy, I am able to structure them such that any necessary capabilities can be investigated based on how many available options individuals have to achieve them. I will investigate three main groups of capabilities that are required by individuals in their pursuit of meaningful freedom of employment; find meaningful employment, achieve education and training, and receive adequate government intervention, to see if there are adequate options available for individuals to have access to meaningful freedom of employment. Employment plays a large role in the ability of individuals to live a life that is meaningful to themselves. For this reason, it is important that individuals have access to freedom of employment in a meaningful way.
The capabilities of individuals may be obstructed through power discrepancies between the government, employers and employees, which the capabilities approach is able to highlight. In later chapters I will discuss who ought to keep their finger on the scale and offer some suggestions in the conclusion as to how this may be achieved. Using this approach, I hope to provide some additional insight into the complexities of meaningful employment, which may be used to develop new policies to ensure access to the capabilities that are required for meaningful freedom of employment for everyone who resides in New Zealand.

text: A capabilities approach to freedom of employment: Hierarchical capabilities When people in New Zealand are unhappy with their current employment, they are often advised to find a new job. Implicit here is the assumption that a new job will be better, but it is not entirely clear that this is always the case. In this thesis I aim to navigate the complexities of this suggestion in order to ascertain whether or not the task of finding new employment, that is more meaningful to the individual, is as simple as it sounds. To do this I have developed a hierarchical chart, in combination with the capabilities approach from Amartya Sen. The capabilities approach allows us to focus on the options that are available to the individual, rather than ensuring that everyone is given access to everything, including things that they do not need. By looking at freedom of employment as a capability, we may identify meaningful options for individuals even if some options are closed off to them. However, if there are not enough available options then individuals may lack access to meaningful freedom of employment.
By ordering the capabilities that are required for individuals to enjoy meaningful freedom of employment into a hierarchy, I am able to structure them such that any necessary capabilities can be investigated based on how many available options individuals have to achieve them. I will investigate three main groups of capabilities that are required by individuals in their pursuit of meaningful freedom of employment; find meaningful employment, achieve education and training, and receive adequate government intervention, to see if there are adequate options available for individuals to have access to meaningful freedom of employment. Employment plays a large role in the ability of individuals to live a life that is meaningful to themselves. For this reason, it is important that individuals have access to freedom of employment in a meaningful way.
The capabilities of individuals may be obstructed through power discrepancies between the government, employers and employees, which the capabilities approach is able to highlight. In later chapters I will discuss who ought to keep their finger on the scale and offer some suggestions in the conclusion as to how this may be achieved. Using this approach, I hope to provide some additional insight into the complexities of meaningful employment, which may be used to develop new policies to ensure access to the capabilities that are required for meaningful freedom of employment for everyone who resides in New Zealand.

year: 2021

title: Experiments in cross-domain few-shot learning for image classification: extended abstract

authors: Wang, Hongyu

subjects: computer science

abstract: We summarise experiments (Wang et al., 2022) evaluating cross-domain few-shot learning (CDFSL) with feature extractors trained on ImageNet. The work explores the transfer performance of extracted features on five target domains with different degrees of similarity to ImageNet. These experiments compare robust classifiers and normalisation methods, consider multi-instance learning algorithms, and evaluate the effect of using features extracted by different ResNet backbones at various levels of their convolutional hierarchies. The cosine similarity classifier and 1-vs-rest logistic regression with ℓ2 regularisation are the top-performing robust classifiers in the evaluation, and ℓ2 normalisation improves performance on all five target domains when using LDA as the robust classifier. The results also show that feature extractors with the highest capacity do not always achieve the best CDFSL performance. Lastly, simple multi-instance learning methods are shown to improve classifier accuracy.

text: Experiments in cross-domain few-shot learning for image classification: extended abstract We summarise experiments (Wang et al., 2022) evaluating cross-domain few-shot learning (CDFSL) with feature extractors trained on ImageNet. The work explores the transfer performance of extracted features on five target domains with different degrees of similarity to ImageNet. These experiments compare robust classifiers and normalisation methods, consider multi-instance learning algorithms, and evaluate the effect of using features extracted by different ResNet backbones at various levels of their convolutional hierarchies. The cosine similarity classifier and 1-vs-rest logistic regression with ℓ2 regularisation are the top-performing robust classifiers in the evaluation, and ℓ2 normalisation improves performance on all five target domains when using LDA as the robust classifier. The results also show that feature extractors with the highest capacity do not always achieve the best CDFSL performance. Lastly, simple multi-instance learning methods are shown to improve classifier accuracy.

year: 2022

title: Treaty People Recognising and Marking Pākehā Culture in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Black, Rosanne Marjory

subjects: Pakeha culture

abstract: The suggestion that all people are cultural and live in cultural worlds acts to challenge members of culturally dominant groups as they tend to see their way of life as normal rather than cultural. Dominant group members usually talk about themselves in relation to their national identity (New Zealander, Australian, or American) rather than name being part of a cultural group within their nation state. This study, located in Aotearoa New Zealand, explores with a particular group of New Zealanders, how Pākehā who are members of the dominant group, may come to recognise themselves as being cultural, to name themselves culturally, and to mark aspects of their culture. The contribution that recognising culture makes to a decolonisation agenda is also explored. This study of Pākehā culture is approached from both a realist and a social constructionist perspective. Culture, an abstract concept, is largely theorised as a constructed notion in a historically structured location. How culture is recognised, and the ways it is produced and enacted, through relationships and interactions in the broader structures of New Zealand society were explored using realist thematic methods of analysis. Treaty people are a network of mostly Pākehā activist educators who have engaged in promoting knowledge of and support for Māori claims for justice under Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi was the document signed by Settlers and Māori leaders in 1840 to establish settlement arrangements). Treaty people are practised in talking about cultural issues largely through their engagement with Māori - Pākehā relationships. The research focused on the situations and processes that stimulated a group of thirty four ‘Treaty people’ to start thinking about themselves as cultural; about what it meant to have a cultural identity; and what they recognised as markers of their culture. I have been a member of this Treaty People network for many years and carry the dual positioning of being the researcher, and a participant, both as a member of the group and as a Pākehā. Data was collected over an eighteen month period from two focus groups in 2003 and 2005. These sessions were video and audio-recorded and later transcribed. I meet with available participants in their own locations early in 2005 and audio-recorded the conversations. The transcriptions and notes form the data for this study. My findings from this study include: • Culture was often first recognised through encounters with different cultural groups and usually when a person is in a situation where they are in a minority. Although, dominant group members do not always see their own daily practices and values as cultural they often name as cultural the practices and values of people different from them. • Recognising and naming ourselves as cultural and marking our culture were difficult tasks that go against the grain of dominance. • Pākehā culture was recognised in a number of ways. Treaty people recognised that there were other forms of knowing about the world and that dominant group members valued being ‘right’ and in control of knowledge. Coming to recognise themselves as cultural unsettled a sense of certainty about their position in the world, and opened up possibilities for new ways to engage in intercultural relationships where participation rather than being in control was valued. • Accepting the name Pākehā implied having a position of responsibility to tangata whenua and to the land. In turn those who have accepted being Pākehā receive a sense of belonging to Aotearoa and a place to stand in justice alongside Māori and other people who are culturally different from them. • While this thesis does not make explicit links between ‘being cultural’ and a decolonisation agenda the Treaty People participants named strategies to support decolonisation and challenge Pākehā dominance which include: recognising practices and values that are perpetuated through colonisation, in particular egalitarianism, assimilation and superiority; recognising Māori as tangata whenua (first people of the land) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi relationships; taking up the challenge to seek justice through striving to deal with past wrongs and to engage in equitable relationships with Māori. This thesis contributes to the psychology and social science literature as it serves to address the question “We don’t have a culture … do we?” I posit that all psychologists do have a culture and provide some rich descriptions, for those who are Pākehā, of how their culture may be recognised, how it might be described and talked about. This is a core cultural competency requirement for psychologists. My thesis also contribute to a growing body of literature from members of dominant groups, who are developing a discourse to explore and make visible their cultural or raced (whiteness) positions of power and privilege.

text: Treaty People Recognising and Marking Pākehā Culture in Aotearoa New Zealand The suggestion that all people are cultural and live in cultural worlds acts to challenge members of culturally dominant groups as they tend to see their way of life as normal rather than cultural. Dominant group members usually talk about themselves in relation to their national identity (New Zealander, Australian, or American) rather than name being part of a cultural group within their nation state. This study, located in Aotearoa New Zealand, explores with a particular group of New Zealanders, how Pākehā who are members of the dominant group, may come to recognise themselves as being cultural, to name themselves culturally, and to mark aspects of their culture. The contribution that recognising culture makes to a decolonisation agenda is also explored. This study of Pākehā culture is approached from both a realist and a social constructionist perspective. Culture, an abstract concept, is largely theorised as a constructed notion in a historically structured location. How culture is recognised, and the ways it is produced and enacted, through relationships and interactions in the broader structures of New Zealand society were explored using realist thematic methods of analysis. Treaty people are a network of mostly Pākehā activist educators who have engaged in promoting knowledge of and support for Māori claims for justice under Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi was the document signed by Settlers and Māori leaders in 1840 to establish settlement arrangements). Treaty people are practised in talking about cultural issues largely through their engagement with Māori - Pākehā relationships. The research focused on the situations and processes that stimulated a group of thirty four ‘Treaty people’ to start thinking about themselves as cultural; about what it meant to have a cultural identity; and what they recognised as markers of their culture. I have been a member of this Treaty People network for many years and carry the dual positioning of being the researcher, and a participant, both as a member of the group and as a Pākehā. Data was collected over an eighteen month period from two focus groups in 2003 and 2005. These sessions were video and audio-recorded and later transcribed. I meet with available participants in their own locations early in 2005 and audio-recorded the conversations. The transcriptions and notes form the data for this study. My findings from this study include: • Culture was often first recognised through encounters with different cultural groups and usually when a person is in a situation where they are in a minority. Although, dominant group members do not always see their own daily practices and values as cultural they often name as cultural the practices and values of people different from them. • Recognising and naming ourselves as cultural and marking our culture were difficult tasks that go against the grain of dominance. • Pākehā culture was recognised in a number of ways. Treaty people recognised that there were other forms of knowing about the world and that dominant group members valued being ‘right’ and in control of knowledge. Coming to recognise themselves as cultural unsettled a sense of certainty about their position in the world, and opened up possibilities for new ways to engage in intercultural relationships where participation rather than being in control was valued. • Accepting the name Pākehā implied having a position of responsibility to tangata whenua and to the land. In turn those who have accepted being Pākehā receive a sense of belonging to Aotearoa and a place to stand in justice alongside Māori and other people who are culturally different from them. • While this thesis does not make explicit links between ‘being cultural’ and a decolonisation agenda the Treaty People participants named strategies to support decolonisation and challenge Pākehā dominance which include: recognising practices and values that are perpetuated through colonisation, in particular egalitarianism, assimilation and superiority; recognising Māori as tangata whenua (first people of the land) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi relationships; taking up the challenge to seek justice through striving to deal with past wrongs and to engage in equitable relationships with Māori. This thesis contributes to the psychology and social science literature as it serves to address the question “We don’t have a culture … do we?” I posit that all psychologists do have a culture and provide some rich descriptions, for those who are Pākehā, of how their culture may be recognised, how it might be described and talked about. This is a core cultural competency requirement for psychologists. My thesis also contribute to a growing body of literature from members of dominant groups, who are developing a discourse to explore and make visible their cultural or raced (whiteness) positions of power and privilege.

year: 2010