title: Normalising global neo-liberalism and workplace change through career management and development discourse: a New Zealand case study

authors: Dyer, Suzette L.

abstract: Critical theorists call for the denaturalisation of complex processes within society that render individuals unconscious to particular forms of power and domination. They promote resistance and transformation based on liberatory aspirations for humanity. I have explored the extent to which contemporary career discourse facilitates and entrenches the dominant and powerful interests of multinational corporations and some nations. The contemporary construction of career can be seen as historically embedded in the concomitant discourses of flexibility and global neo-liberalism.

My literature review indicated that much of the contemporary economic, organisational, and career literatures promote global neo-liberalism and organisational and labour flexibility as contributing to greater prosperity for all. Early critics and subsequent commentators have pointed to the associated outcomes of over-, under-, and unemployment and downward pressure on wages and conditions of employment. Such outcomes have exacerbated the disparities for women and indigenous peoples. These disparate outcomes are deemed contradictory to the liberation and inclusiveness principles aspired to by democratic societies. There is growing interest in the possibility of harnessing career concepts and processes to facilitate desired changes in the processes and accountabilities of employment. Governments in diverse nations have created complex institutional links between employment and welfare institutions and hired career experts to intervene in the career planning of citizens. This intervention draws upon contemporary career constructs where it is assumed that individuals can and ought to take responsibility for managing their careers, themselves, and their family. This allocation of responsibility is typically bereft of political analysis and becomes problematic for vulnerable groups and for the principle of inclusiveness in a context that celebrates efficiency gains through downward pressure on income and employment conditions and creates employment insecurity for many people.

The empirical work for this thesis was designed to investigate my analysis of the co-emergence of the discourses of global neo-liberalism and organisational and labour flexibility and the contemporary discourses of career. Career Services rapuara was chosen as an instrumental case study (Stake, 1998). This organisation is a government sponsored career agency in New Zealand charged with providing career services to facilitate increased personal responsibility for career planning in an increasingly insecure employment market. Partial ethnographic method (Alvesson and Deetz, 2000) was used to frame material collection. Records and documents were reviewed, and interviews with staff were conducted to gain an understanding of the organisation. Two career guidance sessions with unemployed adults were observed to understand career intervention techniques. These participants were then interviewed to gain understanding of their perceptions of the career session.

Both neo-liberals and critical theorists promote a commitment to human liberation. Neo-liberals suggest this liberation occurs through the unconstrained activities of the markets. My study supports the view of critical theorists that the seemingly natural processes of markets are complex nexus of power and control. The uncritical use of contemporary career theories, concepts, and practices naturalises and upholds these powerful and dominant relationships. A critical transformation of the discourses of globalisation, flexibility, and career based on genuine human liberation, empowerment and participation is called for to resist the dominant and powerful interests of society.

text: Normalising global neo-liberalism and workplace change through career management and development discourse: a New Zealand case study Critical theorists call for the denaturalisation of complex processes within society that render individuals unconscious to particular forms of power and domination. They promote resistance and transformation based on liberatory aspirations for humanity. I have explored the extent to which contemporary career discourse facilitates and entrenches the dominant and powerful interests of multinational corporations and some nations. The contemporary construction of career can be seen as historically embedded in the concomitant discourses of flexibility and global neo-liberalism.

My literature review indicated that much of the contemporary economic, organisational, and career literatures promote global neo-liberalism and organisational and labour flexibility as contributing to greater prosperity for all. Early critics and subsequent commentators have pointed to the associated outcomes of over-, under-, and unemployment and downward pressure on wages and conditions of employment. Such outcomes have exacerbated the disparities for women and indigenous peoples. These disparate outcomes are deemed contradictory to the liberation and inclusiveness principles aspired to by democratic societies. There is growing interest in the possibility of harnessing career concepts and processes to facilitate desired changes in the processes and accountabilities of employment. Governments in diverse nations have created complex institutional links between employment and welfare institutions and hired career experts to intervene in the career planning of citizens. This intervention draws upon contemporary career constructs where it is assumed that individuals can and ought to take responsibility for managing their careers, themselves, and their family. This allocation of responsibility is typically bereft of political analysis and becomes problematic for vulnerable groups and for the principle of inclusiveness in a context that celebrates efficiency gains through downward pressure on income and employment conditions and creates employment insecurity for many people.

The empirical work for this thesis was designed to investigate my analysis of the co-emergence of the discourses of global neo-liberalism and organisational and labour flexibility and the contemporary discourses of career. Career Services rapuara was chosen as an instrumental case study (Stake, 1998). This organisation is a government sponsored career agency in New Zealand charged with providing career services to facilitate increased personal responsibility for career planning in an increasingly insecure employment market. Partial ethnographic method (Alvesson and Deetz, 2000) was used to frame material collection. Records and documents were reviewed, and interviews with staff were conducted to gain an understanding of the organisation. Two career guidance sessions with unemployed adults were observed to understand career intervention techniques. These participants were then interviewed to gain understanding of their perceptions of the career session.

Both neo-liberals and critical theorists promote a commitment to human liberation. Neo-liberals suggest this liberation occurs through the unconstrained activities of the markets. My study supports the view of critical theorists that the seemingly natural processes of markets are complex nexus of power and control. The uncritical use of contemporary career theories, concepts, and practices naturalises and upholds these powerful and dominant relationships. A critical transformation of the discourses of globalisation, flexibility, and career based on genuine human liberation, empowerment and participation is called for to resist the dominant and powerful interests of society.

year: 2003

title: Innovating through tradition: kava-talanoa as a culturally aligned medico-behavioral therapeutic approach to amelioration of PTSD symptoms

authors: Aporosa, S. 'Apo'

subjects: PTSD

abstract: Levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma-related distress, and subsyndromal PTSD, (here “PTS”) among combat soldiers and first responders are of international concern. In the broader population, a PTS global epidemic is attending trauma associated with the threatscape of the Anthropocene (increased extreme weather events, natural disasters, conflict, rising poverty, emerging infectious disease) as well as the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic. PTS is also a health economic burden, with costs associated with treatment, long-term morbidity, and increased risk of mortality. In the Pacific region, rising PTS is associated with the existential threat of climate change and the economic and social legacy of colonization. There is an unmet therapeutic need for improved and culturally aligned PTS therapies in the Pacific and beyond. Medical standards of care for anxiety/PTS typically involve psychotropic interventions such as benzodiazepines (BDZ), tricyclic anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medications which have addictive potential, are only effective in the short term, are contraindicated for key populations such as the elderly and have significantly problematic track records in indigenous populations. Moreover, systemic racism both drives PTS in indigenous and other marginalized populations and limits the efficacy in such populations of conventional PTS therapies which are not culturally relevant or informed. Here, we describe the development of a novel, but traditionally grounded, approach to PTSD symptomatology in the context of Pacific populations. This approach has two elements: kava is a culturally significant Pacific drink used traditionally and in cultural practice, as a relaxant, to promote dialog in group settings, to aid in sleep and to manage anxiety. Its anxiolytic and sedative properties may link to the presence of kavalactones which are putative low potency γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) ligands. Talanoa is a dialog practice common to most Pacific cultures. Our core hypothesis is that, combined, kava-talanoa will outperform current standards of care in PTSD symptom management as a culturally augmented cognitive-behavioral group therapy intervention. In this paper we review supporting literature, describe kava-talanoa pilot study findings and planned clinical trials, discuss important open questions, and present recommendations for broad-based transcultural applicability of this approach to global PTS burdens.

text: Innovating through tradition: kava-talanoa as a culturally aligned medico-behavioral therapeutic approach to amelioration of PTSD symptoms Levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma-related distress, and subsyndromal PTSD, (here “PTS”) among combat soldiers and first responders are of international concern. In the broader population, a PTS global epidemic is attending trauma associated with the threatscape of the Anthropocene (increased extreme weather events, natural disasters, conflict, rising poverty, emerging infectious disease) as well as the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic. PTS is also a health economic burden, with costs associated with treatment, long-term morbidity, and increased risk of mortality. In the Pacific region, rising PTS is associated with the existential threat of climate change and the economic and social legacy of colonization. There is an unmet therapeutic need for improved and culturally aligned PTS therapies in the Pacific and beyond. Medical standards of care for anxiety/PTS typically involve psychotropic interventions such as benzodiazepines (BDZ), tricyclic anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medications which have addictive potential, are only effective in the short term, are contraindicated for key populations such as the elderly and have significantly problematic track records in indigenous populations. Moreover, systemic racism both drives PTS in indigenous and other marginalized populations and limits the efficacy in such populations of conventional PTS therapies which are not culturally relevant or informed. Here, we describe the development of a novel, but traditionally grounded, approach to PTSD symptomatology in the context of Pacific populations. This approach has two elements: kava is a culturally significant Pacific drink used traditionally and in cultural practice, as a relaxant, to promote dialog in group settings, to aid in sleep and to manage anxiety. Its anxiolytic and sedative properties may link to the presence of kavalactones which are putative low potency γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) ligands. Talanoa is a dialog practice common to most Pacific cultures. Our core hypothesis is that, combined, kava-talanoa will outperform current standards of care in PTSD symptom management as a culturally augmented cognitive-behavioral group therapy intervention. In this paper we review supporting literature, describe kava-talanoa pilot study findings and planned clinical trials, discuss important open questions, and present recommendations for broad-based transcultural applicability of this approach to global PTS burdens.

year: 2025

title: 'The voices caused him to become porangi': Maori Patients in the Auckland Lunatic Asylum, 1860-1900

authors: Burke, Lorelle J.

abstract: Histories of the asylum have raised a number of important questions about the way 'race' intersects along colonial, medical and legal boundaries. The experience of Maori patients at the Auckland Lunatic Asylum was a site where colonial attitudes towards 'race' were played out along such lines. By employing 'race' as a category of historical analysis, one can attempt to investigate how the asylum processes in Aotearoa/New Zealand exemplified the question of 'race' in an effort to make more visible the experiences, attitudes and responses of Maori asylum patients. 
This thesis examines colonial 'madness' by investigating the experiences of Maori patients at the Auckland Lunatic Asylum from 1860-1900. Using patient case records from this period this thesis interrogates the experiences of Maori patients in a colonial asylum, away from their whanau, communities, and tribal networks; what factors contributed to this, and how colonial attitudes towards these patients were acted out. The first chapter therefore, explores the 'medico-legal' management of these Maori patients, followed in Chapter Two by a broad overview of the Maori patients themselves. Chapter Three analyses the case records in more depth illustrating the complex interplay between 'race', gender, 'whiteness' and culture. Chapter Four looks at the way Maori dealt with the insane away from European institutions such as the asylum, emphasising how colonial histories of medicine now paying attention to Indigenous peoples in their context, and to medical pluralism, which reflects European models on one hand and on the other, Maori modes. 
In considering Maori patients, this thesis reflects on the very 'human experience' that can be revealed by using asylum case files, and what such sources may suggest about 'race' as an implicit part of colonial asylum administration. More widely, the paper also reflects on colonisation, Maori and the asylum, and the ways in which Maori used the asylum.

text: 'The voices caused him to become porangi': Maori Patients in the Auckland Lunatic Asylum, 1860-1900 Histories of the asylum have raised a number of important questions about the way 'race' intersects along colonial, medical and legal boundaries. The experience of Maori patients at the Auckland Lunatic Asylum was a site where colonial attitudes towards 'race' were played out along such lines. By employing 'race' as a category of historical analysis, one can attempt to investigate how the asylum processes in Aotearoa/New Zealand exemplified the question of 'race' in an effort to make more visible the experiences, attitudes and responses of Maori asylum patients. 
This thesis examines colonial 'madness' by investigating the experiences of Maori patients at the Auckland Lunatic Asylum from 1860-1900. Using patient case records from this period this thesis interrogates the experiences of Maori patients in a colonial asylum, away from their whanau, communities, and tribal networks; what factors contributed to this, and how colonial attitudes towards these patients were acted out. The first chapter therefore, explores the 'medico-legal' management of these Maori patients, followed in Chapter Two by a broad overview of the Maori patients themselves. Chapter Three analyses the case records in more depth illustrating the complex interplay between 'race', gender, 'whiteness' and culture. Chapter Four looks at the way Maori dealt with the insane away from European institutions such as the asylum, emphasising how colonial histories of medicine now paying attention to Indigenous peoples in their context, and to medical pluralism, which reflects European models on one hand and on the other, Maori modes. 
In considering Maori patients, this thesis reflects on the very 'human experience' that can be revealed by using asylum case files, and what such sources may suggest about 'race' as an implicit part of colonial asylum administration. More widely, the paper also reflects on colonisation, Maori and the asylum, and the ways in which Maori used the asylum.

year: 2006