title: Commentary on “An alternative to working on machine consciousness”, by Aaron Sloman

authors: Legg, Catherine

subjects: consciousness

abstract: A commentary on a current paper by Aaron Sloman where he argues that in order to make progress in AI, consciousness (and other such unclear concepts of common-sense regarding the mind), "should be replaced by more precise and varied architecture-based concepts better suited to specify what needs to be explained by scientific theories". This original vision of philosophical inquiry as the mapping out of 'design-spaces' for a contested concept seeks to achieve a holistic, synthetic understanding of what possibilities such spaces embody and how different parameters might structure them in nomic and highly inter-connected ways. It therefore does not reduce to either "relations of ideas" or "matters of fact" in Hume's famous dichotomy. It is also shown to be in interesting ways the exact opposite of the current vogue for 'experimental philosophy'.

text: Commentary on “An alternative to working on machine consciousness”, by Aaron Sloman A commentary on a current paper by Aaron Sloman where he argues that in order to make progress in AI, consciousness (and other such unclear concepts of common-sense regarding the mind), "should be replaced by more precise and varied architecture-based concepts better suited to specify what needs to be explained by scientific theories". This original vision of philosophical inquiry as the mapping out of 'design-spaces' for a contested concept seeks to achieve a holistic, synthetic understanding of what possibilities such spaces embody and how different parameters might structure them in nomic and highly inter-connected ways. It therefore does not reduce to either "relations of ideas" or "matters of fact" in Hume's famous dichotomy. It is also shown to be in interesting ways the exact opposite of the current vogue for 'experimental philosophy'.

year: 2009

title: South African boys in New Zealand: Immigrants' retrospective accounts of adapting to life in a new country during adolescence

authors: White, Teswell Terrence

subjects: immigration

abstract: It is now estimated that around 50 million displaced persons (highest number since the end of World War 2), and as many as 10 million are ‘on the move’ between countries at the present time. Mass migration is now undoubtedly be one of the biggest issues demanding global attention. A major concern for the United Nations over the next few years will certainly be how to deal with mass migration. The dominant messages from the mass media and politicians are dominated by ‘political correctness’, but fail to focus on the main issue of how newcomers and their children will function in their new location after arrival. Whilst the discourses of assimilation are becoming more pronounced, the question might then justifiably be asked, ‘What happens to the children of newcomers after arrival?’ This is a critical question in every sense and raises the issue of immigrant youth adaptation and experiences of identity and place in this age of shifting demographics, large-scale migration, and multicultural communities.

Not long ago most of the people who came to New Zealand were coming from parts of the United Kingdom with relatively few coming from anywhere else. Relatively little is known about the psychosocial adaptations and self-identities of young immigrants coming of age in the compound multiethnicity of contemporary New Zealand. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to better understand the complexities of contemporary youth adaptation, at a time when immigrants into New Zealand are coming from an increasingly diverse range of nations. Specifically, the aim was to offer insights into how personal, social and cultural factors might combine to shape male adolescent experiences, and how these insights may be of use to teachers who work with this age group in culturally and ethnically diverse contexts. 

I used detailed one-to-one interviews and drew on a social constructionist theoretical framework, to map the complex ways in which the boys said they negotiated, navigated, contested and resisted their engagements with the different discourses and stories about them that operate in their high school environment. Much of the analysis included an examination of how they reconstructed adolescence from a position of young adulthood. The sort of data that I collected is not designed to offer a logical set of generalized statements about the immigration. Rather, the individualised comments offer a glimpse into the complexity of the individual experience of adapting to life in a new country for South African boys. 

The findings of this study tend to suggest that there is a lot more going on in the lives of immigrant boys than what essentialist categories assume. Identity uncertainty and confusion and surveillance and policing of school masculinities were key themes raised during the analysis of the interviews. A main argument in the study is that cultural and ethnic identities for South African boys were defined through the possibilities offered to them in their social contexts. The themes draw attention to a distinctive contradiction between cultural messages from home to ‘remain rooted’ in their heritage culture versus messages from the host to either ‘fit in’ or to be socially excluded. This home/host contradiction had different meanings for individual boys, and this varied across the different ethnic groups. 

The findings also tend to suggest that the masculine identities that South African boys constructed and lived out were not fixed and unproblematic but rather fluid and in constant flux. They show the role of schooling in the shaping of a range of different male heterosexual subjectivities, and how the subject positions that the boys inhabited held different configurations of threat and promise of social inclusion based on their particular South Africanness. Although these findings are not representative of all South African boys in New Zealand, they do suggest some of the ways that immigration and masculinity might intersect during adolescence and the ways aspects of masculine identity expressions come to reflect the social relations at school.

text: South African boys in New Zealand: Immigrants' retrospective accounts of adapting to life in a new country during adolescence It is now estimated that around 50 million displaced persons (highest number since the end of World War 2), and as many as 10 million are ‘on the move’ between countries at the present time. Mass migration is now undoubtedly be one of the biggest issues demanding global attention. A major concern for the United Nations over the next few years will certainly be how to deal with mass migration. The dominant messages from the mass media and politicians are dominated by ‘political correctness’, but fail to focus on the main issue of how newcomers and their children will function in their new location after arrival. Whilst the discourses of assimilation are becoming more pronounced, the question might then justifiably be asked, ‘What happens to the children of newcomers after arrival?’ This is a critical question in every sense and raises the issue of immigrant youth adaptation and experiences of identity and place in this age of shifting demographics, large-scale migration, and multicultural communities.

Not long ago most of the people who came to New Zealand were coming from parts of the United Kingdom with relatively few coming from anywhere else. Relatively little is known about the psychosocial adaptations and self-identities of young immigrants coming of age in the compound multiethnicity of contemporary New Zealand. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to better understand the complexities of contemporary youth adaptation, at a time when immigrants into New Zealand are coming from an increasingly diverse range of nations. Specifically, the aim was to offer insights into how personal, social and cultural factors might combine to shape male adolescent experiences, and how these insights may be of use to teachers who work with this age group in culturally and ethnically diverse contexts. 

I used detailed one-to-one interviews and drew on a social constructionist theoretical framework, to map the complex ways in which the boys said they negotiated, navigated, contested and resisted their engagements with the different discourses and stories about them that operate in their high school environment. Much of the analysis included an examination of how they reconstructed adolescence from a position of young adulthood. The sort of data that I collected is not designed to offer a logical set of generalized statements about the immigration. Rather, the individualised comments offer a glimpse into the complexity of the individual experience of adapting to life in a new country for South African boys. 

The findings of this study tend to suggest that there is a lot more going on in the lives of immigrant boys than what essentialist categories assume. Identity uncertainty and confusion and surveillance and policing of school masculinities were key themes raised during the analysis of the interviews. A main argument in the study is that cultural and ethnic identities for South African boys were defined through the possibilities offered to them in their social contexts. The themes draw attention to a distinctive contradiction between cultural messages from home to ‘remain rooted’ in their heritage culture versus messages from the host to either ‘fit in’ or to be socially excluded. This home/host contradiction had different meanings for individual boys, and this varied across the different ethnic groups. 

The findings also tend to suggest that the masculine identities that South African boys constructed and lived out were not fixed and unproblematic but rather fluid and in constant flux. They show the role of schooling in the shaping of a range of different male heterosexual subjectivities, and how the subject positions that the boys inhabited held different configurations of threat and promise of social inclusion based on their particular South Africanness. Although these findings are not representative of all South African boys in New Zealand, they do suggest some of the ways that immigration and masculinity might intersect during adolescence and the ways aspects of masculine identity expressions come to reflect the social relations at school.

year: 2016

title: Ungentlemanly warfare: The impact of irregular warfare on military strategy in the New Zealand Wars

authors: Foy, Rhys

subjects: New Zealand Wars

abstract: ‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ examines the impact of irregular warfare on strategic thinking in the New Zealand Wars (1845–1872). Britain entered the period as an eighteenth-century force reliant on European methods of war. In contrast, Māori were an experienced bushfighting force depleted on manpower but experiencing a period of military innovation. This interaction led to an important exchange of strategic ideology and methods.  
This thesis tracks how Māori, British, and colonial forces developed and exchanged irregular warfare practices across three regions and time periods. The Northern War exposed the shortcomings of conventional military conduct. Māori leadership altered their strategic approach and pursued a strategy of elastic offence. In contrast, British leadership persisted with their ineffective conventional means of warfare. In the Waikato War, British strategy was influenced by the success of colonial irregulars. British strategic and operational methods changed with the inclusion of multi-echelon warfare and the indirect approach. Kīngitanga leadership improved their combat capacity through guerrilla warfare, decentralised command, and a grand strategy of elastic offence. The Taranaki and West Coast campaigns highlighted the relationship between the use of irregular warfare and military success in New Zealand. Both sides experienced success and failure across numerous conflicts, the defining factor being the active use of irregular warfare. These case studies reveal the significance of irregular warfare strategies and tactics to military success in colonial New Zealand. They also reveal opportunities and challenges to military adaptation in Māori, British, and colonial martial cultures of the nineteenth century. 
 ‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ provides a unique approach to the examination of the New Zealand Wars conflict. It is an operational history that draws upon methods and aspects of the ‘war and society’ approach to military history, especially the use of Māori scholarship, evidence, and theory. The thesis’ chapters consider strategic and tactical decision-making across the numerous conflicts within the period. To do so, I provide close readings of primary evidence, including military communication and reports, early histories, and first-person accounts, to identify the roles of irregular warfare and strategic adaptions in the New Zealand Wars. 
	‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ analyses the impact of irregular warfare on the strategic thinking of military leaders within the New Zealand Wars. I argue that irregular warfare strategies and tactics played a significantly larger role in the outcome of events than previously acknowledged. This study illustrates the importance of guerrilla warfare and the strategy of elastic offence to Māori strategy. In contrast, it highlights the evolution of British military thinking from conventional conservatism to a multi-echelon force led by irregular warfare units and tactics. ‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ argues that irregular warfare was central to military conflicts in nineteenth-century New Zealand.

text: Ungentlemanly warfare: The impact of irregular warfare on military strategy in the New Zealand Wars ‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ examines the impact of irregular warfare on strategic thinking in the New Zealand Wars (1845–1872). Britain entered the period as an eighteenth-century force reliant on European methods of war. In contrast, Māori were an experienced bushfighting force depleted on manpower but experiencing a period of military innovation. This interaction led to an important exchange of strategic ideology and methods.  
This thesis tracks how Māori, British, and colonial forces developed and exchanged irregular warfare practices across three regions and time periods. The Northern War exposed the shortcomings of conventional military conduct. Māori leadership altered their strategic approach and pursued a strategy of elastic offence. In contrast, British leadership persisted with their ineffective conventional means of warfare. In the Waikato War, British strategy was influenced by the success of colonial irregulars. British strategic and operational methods changed with the inclusion of multi-echelon warfare and the indirect approach. Kīngitanga leadership improved their combat capacity through guerrilla warfare, decentralised command, and a grand strategy of elastic offence. The Taranaki and West Coast campaigns highlighted the relationship between the use of irregular warfare and military success in New Zealand. Both sides experienced success and failure across numerous conflicts, the defining factor being the active use of irregular warfare. These case studies reveal the significance of irregular warfare strategies and tactics to military success in colonial New Zealand. They also reveal opportunities and challenges to military adaptation in Māori, British, and colonial martial cultures of the nineteenth century. 
 ‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ provides a unique approach to the examination of the New Zealand Wars conflict. It is an operational history that draws upon methods and aspects of the ‘war and society’ approach to military history, especially the use of Māori scholarship, evidence, and theory. The thesis’ chapters consider strategic and tactical decision-making across the numerous conflicts within the period. To do so, I provide close readings of primary evidence, including military communication and reports, early histories, and first-person accounts, to identify the roles of irregular warfare and strategic adaptions in the New Zealand Wars. 
	‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ analyses the impact of irregular warfare on the strategic thinking of military leaders within the New Zealand Wars. I argue that irregular warfare strategies and tactics played a significantly larger role in the outcome of events than previously acknowledged. This study illustrates the importance of guerrilla warfare and the strategy of elastic offence to Māori strategy. In contrast, it highlights the evolution of British military thinking from conventional conservatism to a multi-echelon force led by irregular warfare units and tactics. ‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ argues that irregular warfare was central to military conflicts in nineteenth-century New Zealand.

year: 2023