title: Ecosystem services modelling to analyse the isolation of protected areas from a social-ecological perspective

authors: Ghasemi, Mitra

subjects: Biodiversity

abstract: Biodiversity loss continues to increase globally despite conservation strategies such as the designation of protected areas and the implementation of environmental management practices. Land use changes often exacerbate the spatial isolation of protected areas, undermining their biodiversity conservation goals and the provision of ecosystem services. To address this issue, the present study investigates how a social-ecological approach, incorporating ecosystem services modelling, can address protected areas isolation and enhance habitat connectivity, using Egmont National Park in Aotearoa New Zealand as a case study. The analysis focuses on five ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, habitat quality, timber production, pasture production, and outdoor recreation. Findings highlight significant synergies and trade-offs, particularly between regulating services within the park and provisioning services in the surrounding grasslands, revealing critical social-ecological conflicts. In particular, the contrast between the indigenous forest within the park, which supports high habitat quality and carbon storage, and the surrounding grasslands, which are highly productive for pasture, underscores the challenges of balancing conservation goals with agricultural activities. This study develops social-ecological units to inform integrated environmental management strategies, aiming to reduce isolation, improve connectivity, and align biodiversity conservation with human well-being. These findings provide actionable insights for shifting trade-offs to synergies and supporting sustainable management practices.

text: Ecosystem services modelling to analyse the isolation of protected areas from a social-ecological perspective Biodiversity loss continues to increase globally despite conservation strategies such as the designation of protected areas and the implementation of environmental management practices. Land use changes often exacerbate the spatial isolation of protected areas, undermining their biodiversity conservation goals and the provision of ecosystem services. To address this issue, the present study investigates how a social-ecological approach, incorporating ecosystem services modelling, can address protected areas isolation and enhance habitat connectivity, using Egmont National Park in Aotearoa New Zealand as a case study. The analysis focuses on five ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, habitat quality, timber production, pasture production, and outdoor recreation. Findings highlight significant synergies and trade-offs, particularly between regulating services within the park and provisioning services in the surrounding grasslands, revealing critical social-ecological conflicts. In particular, the contrast between the indigenous forest within the park, which supports high habitat quality and carbon storage, and the surrounding grasslands, which are highly productive for pasture, underscores the challenges of balancing conservation goals with agricultural activities. This study develops social-ecological units to inform integrated environmental management strategies, aiming to reduce isolation, improve connectivity, and align biodiversity conservation with human well-being. These findings provide actionable insights for shifting trade-offs to synergies and supporting sustainable management practices.

year: 2025

title: Labour unions, wellbeing, and individual differences: How are unions related to global and domain-specific wellbeing, and who tends to join them?

authors: Sutherland, Cian

subjects: Psychology

abstract: Labour unions have been instrumental in the institution and maintenance of what many in the Western world would now consider basic business practices, from the forty-hour working week to stringent health and safety regulations. Despite their historical influence and contemporary resurgence in popularity evincing their importance to many members of the past, present, and future working class, unions are a disproportionately large blind spot in the industrial-organisational psychology literature. While several studies have found correlations between union membership or level of participation in one’s union and positive and negative economic, health, and psychological outcomes, we do not know how unions affect their members’ subjective sense of wellbeing. We also do not know who those members tend to be in terms of personality or sociopolitical characteristics—a significant oversight given the relationships between these individual differences, workplace outcomes, and wellbeing. This thesis sought to connect and address both gaps. 

Unionised (n = 307) and non-unionised (n = 162) academic staff from public secondary and tertiary schools in New Zealand (n = 287) and Australia (n = 182) were recruited via email to participate in an online survey from June 25th to September 14th, 2023. Unionised staff were further classified as casual (n = 152) or dedicated (n = 155) members, depending on their willingness to participate in union activities. The survey assessed union attitudes and beliefs (study-specific questions, Kelly and Kelly (1994) questionnaire, New Zealand Worker Representation & Participation Survey), personality characteristics (HEXACO-60, HEXACO Interstitial Altruism Scale, Goldberg’s (1999) 10-item International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO-PI-R Neuroticism Domain, Authenticity Scale), sociopolitical characteristics (Auckland Individualism-Collectivism Scale, study-specific questions), and global and domain-specific wellbeing (I COPPE). 

Two-way ANOVAs comparing total I COPPE scores between members and non-members, and casual and dedicated members, in Australia and New Zealand, found no statistically significant differences in wellbeing; notably, mean wellbeing scores were relatively high in all groups. Logistic regression models using demographics and personality and sociopolitical characteristics significantly predicted variance in union membership (member/non-member) and participation level (casual/dedicated) in New Zealand (22.50%, 25.00%) and Australia (28.20%, 48.70%); the individual differences that served as significant predictors were different in each of the four models. Finally, a linear regression model (collapsed between countries) using demographics, individual differences, and union membership significantly predicted variance in total global wellbeing (15.60%); union membership was not a significant predictor. 

Although union membership was not a significant correlate of wellbeing, most members and many non-members attributed improvements in working conditions and wellbeing to the influence of unions. We believe that, rather than having no significant beneficial or detrimental effect on wellbeing, unions positively affect the standards of the education industry holistically. Additionally, education unions seem to attract different people in different countries. It seems unlikely, then, that differences in the wellbeing of members can be attributed to correlations between individual differences and wellbeing. We conclude that future research should investigate wellbeing and individual differences in unions in different countries, industries, states of industrial relation, and time periods.

text: Labour unions, wellbeing, and individual differences: How are unions related to global and domain-specific wellbeing, and who tends to join them? Labour unions have been instrumental in the institution and maintenance of what many in the Western world would now consider basic business practices, from the forty-hour working week to stringent health and safety regulations. Despite their historical influence and contemporary resurgence in popularity evincing their importance to many members of the past, present, and future working class, unions are a disproportionately large blind spot in the industrial-organisational psychology literature. While several studies have found correlations between union membership or level of participation in one’s union and positive and negative economic, health, and psychological outcomes, we do not know how unions affect their members’ subjective sense of wellbeing. We also do not know who those members tend to be in terms of personality or sociopolitical characteristics—a significant oversight given the relationships between these individual differences, workplace outcomes, and wellbeing. This thesis sought to connect and address both gaps. 

Unionised (n = 307) and non-unionised (n = 162) academic staff from public secondary and tertiary schools in New Zealand (n = 287) and Australia (n = 182) were recruited via email to participate in an online survey from June 25th to September 14th, 2023. Unionised staff were further classified as casual (n = 152) or dedicated (n = 155) members, depending on their willingness to participate in union activities. The survey assessed union attitudes and beliefs (study-specific questions, Kelly and Kelly (1994) questionnaire, New Zealand Worker Representation & Participation Survey), personality characteristics (HEXACO-60, HEXACO Interstitial Altruism Scale, Goldberg’s (1999) 10-item International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO-PI-R Neuroticism Domain, Authenticity Scale), sociopolitical characteristics (Auckland Individualism-Collectivism Scale, study-specific questions), and global and domain-specific wellbeing (I COPPE). 

Two-way ANOVAs comparing total I COPPE scores between members and non-members, and casual and dedicated members, in Australia and New Zealand, found no statistically significant differences in wellbeing; notably, mean wellbeing scores were relatively high in all groups. Logistic regression models using demographics and personality and sociopolitical characteristics significantly predicted variance in union membership (member/non-member) and participation level (casual/dedicated) in New Zealand (22.50%, 25.00%) and Australia (28.20%, 48.70%); the individual differences that served as significant predictors were different in each of the four models. Finally, a linear regression model (collapsed between countries) using demographics, individual differences, and union membership significantly predicted variance in total global wellbeing (15.60%); union membership was not a significant predictor. 

Although union membership was not a significant correlate of wellbeing, most members and many non-members attributed improvements in working conditions and wellbeing to the influence of unions. We believe that, rather than having no significant beneficial or detrimental effect on wellbeing, unions positively affect the standards of the education industry holistically. Additionally, education unions seem to attract different people in different countries. It seems unlikely, then, that differences in the wellbeing of members can be attributed to correlations between individual differences and wellbeing. We conclude that future research should investigate wellbeing and individual differences in unions in different countries, industries, states of industrial relation, and time periods.

year: 2024-01-25

title: Supervision of Maori doctoral students: A descriptive report

authors: McKinley, Elizabeth

subjects: Maori education

abstract: This report follows up a previous paper that outlined the goals and plans of a research project that focused on both theoretical and cultural questions regarding the supervisory process for Māori doctoral students (McKinley, Grant, Middleton, Irwin, & Williams, 2007). The major goal of the project is to enhance understanding of the teaching and learning process of supervision for students and supervisors, particularly around issues of culture that arise in research methodologies and practices. This paper reports on the completed project by providing further operational background, design features, the nature of the student and supervisor samples and a summary of interview findings. The results show that there are indeed distinctive issues arising within the supervision of Māori doctoral students. Some of these are to do with both pleasures and challenges found in the supervision relationship, while others relate to the kinds of projects the students undertake. Many projects for example, push at the disciplinary boundaries of Western knowledge and are often rooted in a political desire to enhance the everyday lives of Māori. Yet others are connected to identity formation processes that concern many Māori during their years as doctoral students. A central message for supervisors from this work is that the supervision of Māori doctoral students may require unfamiliar forms of engagement but that these are likely to be deeply rewarding in many different ways.

text: Supervision of Maori doctoral students: A descriptive report This report follows up a previous paper that outlined the goals and plans of a research project that focused on both theoretical and cultural questions regarding the supervisory process for Māori doctoral students (McKinley, Grant, Middleton, Irwin, & Williams, 2007). The major goal of the project is to enhance understanding of the teaching and learning process of supervision for students and supervisors, particularly around issues of culture that arise in research methodologies and practices. This paper reports on the completed project by providing further operational background, design features, the nature of the student and supervisor samples and a summary of interview findings. The results show that there are indeed distinctive issues arising within the supervision of Māori doctoral students. Some of these are to do with both pleasures and challenges found in the supervision relationship, while others relate to the kinds of projects the students undertake. Many projects for example, push at the disciplinary boundaries of Western knowledge and are often rooted in a political desire to enhance the everyday lives of Māori. Yet others are connected to identity formation processes that concern many Māori during their years as doctoral students. A central message for supervisors from this work is that the supervision of Māori doctoral students may require unfamiliar forms of engagement but that these are likely to be deeply rewarding in many different ways.

year: 2009