title: Social knowledge of food: How and why people talk about foods

authors: Miyazaki, Yoshihiko

subjects: social contingency

abstract: Social knowledge about food was investigated from a social contingency perspective (Guerin, 1994, 1998, 2004), a functional linguistic approach that considers language use having functions both to establish 'facts' in order to control listeners, and to maintain social relationships with words.
	In Study 1, whether people shared knowledge about food or not was examined.  One hundred and fourteen New Zealand and 23 Japanese participants were asked to answer free format questionnaires asking the reasons they and others eat or do not eat particular food items.  Those answers were categorised into 8 categories and 30 sub-categories of the knowledge about foods by qualitative content analysis.  The results of a cluster analysis of those categories showed that participants used the categories homogeneously although there were some differences between New Zealand and Japanese participants, and that the participants selectively used different types of knowledge according to food items especially when explaining why people do or do not eat some foods.
	In Study 2, rhetorical features about foods were investigated: (1) numerical quantification rhetoric; (2) narrative use rhetoric; and (3) enumeration rhetoric.  Factual statements from a corpus of 118 New Zealand TV commercials and 249 Japanese TV commercials were coded by the categories generated in Study 1.  The results showed that the categories of factual statements were selectively used on TV commercials depending on the food types, and related closely to the results of Study 1.  The rhetorical strategies appeared in commercials according to the categories of factual statements.  When more than one factual statement was presented in a commercial, the relations of the factual statements were usually of a conjunctive form such as quotfact A however fact Bquot or quotfact A moreover fact Bquot, or else the factual statements were presented independently rather than the one statement logically warranting the other.  These results suggest that those rhetoric uses and the arrangements of the factual statements were selectively used according to the effectiveness against counter arguments using shared knowledge.
	Study 3 and Study 4 analysed the functions of shared knowledge about food for maintaining social relationships through investigating the cases in which knowledge about foods presented as the form of 'collaborative talk', which occurs when one speaker completes the preceding saying by another speaker.
	In Study 3, the collaborative talk as sentence completions of knowledge about food was qualitatively analysed from conversations of 30 to 45 minutes produced by four groups consisting of four or five Japanese participants who were friends.  From a social contingency view, the analysis focused on the following conversational properties: (1) who the listener was; (2) the degree of sharing of the information between the speakers; (3) the degree of sharing of the information between the 2nd speaker and the listener; and (4) the disagreement between the 2nd speaker and the listener.
The results of Study 3 suggested some possible functions of sentence completions of knowledge about food: (1) the function when the first speaker is the listener may be enhancement of the relationship between the first and the second speakers through showing the second speaker's attention and understanding to the first speaker's utterance, because those sentence completions were often followed by the affirmation or negation by the first speaker; (2) when a third person is the listener, and the first and the second speaker refuted the third person using sentence completion, the function seems to be just establishing 'facts'; and (3) in the cases of 'assisted explaining' (Lerner  Takagi, 1999) , the function may be not only establishing 'facts' but also enhancement the relationship between the listener and the speakers, because the constructed 'facts' may work as a kind of conversational 'gift'.
	In Study 4, five Japanese groups consisting of four participants who were friends were asked to talk about four topics about foods that all participants either agreed or disagreed ('All agree' condition) and four food topics for which there was disagreement about it between participants ('Some agree' condition).  When the listeners could not be identified, and the second speakers did not used the utterance-final element such as 'yo ne' that is regarded as having a function of showing agreement between the speakers, the participants used sentence completions more frequently in 'All agree' conditions.  The results suggested that the function of this type of sentence completion is not merely establishing 'facts' but also enhancing the relationship between the speakers through showing agreement about the relevant things to the topic.
	In conclusion, the results of the present studies suggest some possible social contingencies involved both when people get knowledge about food and when they use it.

text: Social knowledge of food: How and why people talk about foods Social knowledge about food was investigated from a social contingency perspective (Guerin, 1994, 1998, 2004), a functional linguistic approach that considers language use having functions both to establish 'facts' in order to control listeners, and to maintain social relationships with words.
	In Study 1, whether people shared knowledge about food or not was examined.  One hundred and fourteen New Zealand and 23 Japanese participants were asked to answer free format questionnaires asking the reasons they and others eat or do not eat particular food items.  Those answers were categorised into 8 categories and 30 sub-categories of the knowledge about foods by qualitative content analysis.  The results of a cluster analysis of those categories showed that participants used the categories homogeneously although there were some differences between New Zealand and Japanese participants, and that the participants selectively used different types of knowledge according to food items especially when explaining why people do or do not eat some foods.
	In Study 2, rhetorical features about foods were investigated: (1) numerical quantification rhetoric; (2) narrative use rhetoric; and (3) enumeration rhetoric.  Factual statements from a corpus of 118 New Zealand TV commercials and 249 Japanese TV commercials were coded by the categories generated in Study 1.  The results showed that the categories of factual statements were selectively used on TV commercials depending on the food types, and related closely to the results of Study 1.  The rhetorical strategies appeared in commercials according to the categories of factual statements.  When more than one factual statement was presented in a commercial, the relations of the factual statements were usually of a conjunctive form such as quotfact A however fact Bquot or quotfact A moreover fact Bquot, or else the factual statements were presented independently rather than the one statement logically warranting the other.  These results suggest that those rhetoric uses and the arrangements of the factual statements were selectively used according to the effectiveness against counter arguments using shared knowledge.
	Study 3 and Study 4 analysed the functions of shared knowledge about food for maintaining social relationships through investigating the cases in which knowledge about foods presented as the form of 'collaborative talk', which occurs when one speaker completes the preceding saying by another speaker.
	In Study 3, the collaborative talk as sentence completions of knowledge about food was qualitatively analysed from conversations of 30 to 45 minutes produced by four groups consisting of four or five Japanese participants who were friends.  From a social contingency view, the analysis focused on the following conversational properties: (1) who the listener was; (2) the degree of sharing of the information between the speakers; (3) the degree of sharing of the information between the 2nd speaker and the listener; and (4) the disagreement between the 2nd speaker and the listener.
The results of Study 3 suggested some possible functions of sentence completions of knowledge about food: (1) the function when the first speaker is the listener may be enhancement of the relationship between the first and the second speakers through showing the second speaker's attention and understanding to the first speaker's utterance, because those sentence completions were often followed by the affirmation or negation by the first speaker; (2) when a third person is the listener, and the first and the second speaker refuted the third person using sentence completion, the function seems to be just establishing 'facts'; and (3) in the cases of 'assisted explaining' (Lerner  Takagi, 1999) , the function may be not only establishing 'facts' but also enhancement the relationship between the listener and the speakers, because the constructed 'facts' may work as a kind of conversational 'gift'.
	In Study 4, five Japanese groups consisting of four participants who were friends were asked to talk about four topics about foods that all participants either agreed or disagreed ('All agree' condition) and four food topics for which there was disagreement about it between participants ('Some agree' condition).  When the listeners could not be identified, and the second speakers did not used the utterance-final element such as 'yo ne' that is regarded as having a function of showing agreement between the speakers, the participants used sentence completions more frequently in 'All agree' conditions.  The results suggested that the function of this type of sentence completion is not merely establishing 'facts' but also enhancing the relationship between the speakers through showing agreement about the relevant things to the topic.
	In conclusion, the results of the present studies suggest some possible social contingencies involved both when people get knowledge about food and when they use it.

year: 2008

title: Institutional contradiction and management control innovation: A field study of total quality management practices in a privatized telecommunication company

authors: Sharma, Umesh Prasad

subjects: institutional theory

abstract: The purpose of this paper is to theorise the changes surrounding the introduction of a management control innovation, total quality management (TQM) techniques, within Telecom Fiji Limited. Using institutional theory and drawing on empirical evidence from multiple sources including interviews, discussions and documents, the paper explicates the institutionalization of these TQM practices. The focus of the paper is the micro-processes and practice changes around TQM implementation, rather than the influence of the macro-level structures that are often linked with institutional theory. The change agents used Quality Action Teams and the National Quality Council to introduce new TQM routines. The present study extends the scope of institutional analysis by explaining how institutional contradictions impact to create and make space for institutional entrepreneurs, who in turn, modify existing routines or introduce new routines in fluid organizational environments which also exhibit evidence of resistance.

text: Institutional contradiction and management control innovation: A field study of total quality management practices in a privatized telecommunication company The purpose of this paper is to theorise the changes surrounding the introduction of a management control innovation, total quality management (TQM) techniques, within Telecom Fiji Limited. Using institutional theory and drawing on empirical evidence from multiple sources including interviews, discussions and documents, the paper explicates the institutionalization of these TQM practices. The focus of the paper is the micro-processes and practice changes around TQM implementation, rather than the influence of the macro-level structures that are often linked with institutional theory. The change agents used Quality Action Teams and the National Quality Council to introduce new TQM routines. The present study extends the scope of institutional analysis by explaining how institutional contradictions impact to create and make space for institutional entrepreneurs, who in turn, modify existing routines or introduce new routines in fluid organizational environments which also exhibit evidence of resistance.

year: 2010

title: Mauri oho, mauri tu, mauri ora: Enhancing Maori health and wellbeing through a critical engagement with social marketing

authors: Ellis, Riri Te Whara

abstract: This PhD research originally explored the efficacy of social marketing as potentially beneficial for Maori health providers involved with Maori health promotion activities. However, as I became conscientised to the potentially assimilist and neocolortial impacts .of functional management disciplines, such as social marketing I turned my attention as a Kaupapa Maori researcher to the task of critique and transformative social action. I also became acutely aware that the future of Maori health advancement lies in the flourishing of Te Ao Maori - a flourishing deemed necessary for the wellbeing of the people and the natural environment .in which Maori live is presented in this thesis. Te Ao Maori is therefore repositioned as a way in which to conceptualise Maori health and wellbeing, based upon holistic and cultural principles of living. 
Based on the transformative aspirations of critical theorists and emerging theories of kaupapa Maori, I incorporate the holistic constructs of Te Ao Maori while minimising the impact of the externally imposed mechanistic and functional metaphors dominating the contemporary formulation of human wellbeing. Using a localised participative methodology called Kaupapa Maori, I have worked collaboratively with four Maori groups and various kaiarahi hauora in Tauranga Moana to examine and articulate a series of collective responses to research issues. As a result of this research, my findings indicate that Maori continue to articulate a desire to live by principles and practices espoused through holistic models of Maori health and wellbeing, nestled into Te Ao Maori. That vision however is affected by continual structural change, limited resources, lack of access to skilled people, the imposition of contractual regulations within the health system, the erosion of Maori cultural systems and the ongoing commodification of Maori health and wellbeing in concert with the principles of market driven economies driving much human activity globally. The experience of Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand is the localised manifestation of the experiences of indigenous people across the globe. We share with them a position of resistance to the values of others and the affirmation of our own values. 
The potential of social marketing to contribute to enhancing Maori health and wellbeing was critiqued within these lived experiences, not those defined by social marketers themselves. In the control of uncritical social marketers, social marketing models are one of many conceptual frameworks that are being used to intensify economic rationality associated with the contemporary form of capitalism and the exacerbation of resource scarcity sanctioned by the existing health services system. Many of the co-participants in this research sought to provide health services and programmes that resembled and encouraged strong Maori cultural practices based upon tikanga Maori that emphasises a commitment to Whanau, Hapu and Iwi. However, the current health system does not help these goals to flourish. Instead, proponents of the system endorsed a regime of health services that operated within the specific constraints of contractual agreements - agreements which require responsibility for outcomes and accountability protocols that consume many resources better spent elsewhere. The opportunity then to engage in the enrichment of Maori health and wellbeing, through a holistic means was reported by participants in this research to be often undermined, minimised and sometimes made impossible. 
This research demonstrates that Maori efforts to enhance Maori health development are negatively impacted upon by an ongoing commercialisation and commodification of health services. Ongoing efforts _must be made to reinvigorate with and within Maori, an enduring commitment to a foundation of holistic health and wellbeing in the future, stemming from our own worldview - Te Ao Maori. The critical and Kaupapa Maori theories that inform this thesis have been used to bring into the open the contradictions and paradoxes Maori health providers in the Tauranga region are facing. The transformational aspirations of these theories would invite attention to be paid to values underpinning Maori communities and the ways in which they are useful to them. As reported upon in this research, those Maori health advocates adopting social marketing will find it difficult to achieve these aspirations. Instead, the assimilist modem colonising practices inherent in social marketing would tum Maori adopters into self colonisers.

text: Mauri oho, mauri tu, mauri ora: Enhancing Maori health and wellbeing through a critical engagement with social marketing This PhD research originally explored the efficacy of social marketing as potentially beneficial for Maori health providers involved with Maori health promotion activities. However, as I became conscientised to the potentially assimilist and neocolortial impacts .of functional management disciplines, such as social marketing I turned my attention as a Kaupapa Maori researcher to the task of critique and transformative social action. I also became acutely aware that the future of Maori health advancement lies in the flourishing of Te Ao Maori - a flourishing deemed necessary for the wellbeing of the people and the natural environment .in which Maori live is presented in this thesis. Te Ao Maori is therefore repositioned as a way in which to conceptualise Maori health and wellbeing, based upon holistic and cultural principles of living. 
Based on the transformative aspirations of critical theorists and emerging theories of kaupapa Maori, I incorporate the holistic constructs of Te Ao Maori while minimising the impact of the externally imposed mechanistic and functional metaphors dominating the contemporary formulation of human wellbeing. Using a localised participative methodology called Kaupapa Maori, I have worked collaboratively with four Maori groups and various kaiarahi hauora in Tauranga Moana to examine and articulate a series of collective responses to research issues. As a result of this research, my findings indicate that Maori continue to articulate a desire to live by principles and practices espoused through holistic models of Maori health and wellbeing, nestled into Te Ao Maori. That vision however is affected by continual structural change, limited resources, lack of access to skilled people, the imposition of contractual regulations within the health system, the erosion of Maori cultural systems and the ongoing commodification of Maori health and wellbeing in concert with the principles of market driven economies driving much human activity globally. The experience of Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand is the localised manifestation of the experiences of indigenous people across the globe. We share with them a position of resistance to the values of others and the affirmation of our own values. 
The potential of social marketing to contribute to enhancing Maori health and wellbeing was critiqued within these lived experiences, not those defined by social marketers themselves. In the control of uncritical social marketers, social marketing models are one of many conceptual frameworks that are being used to intensify economic rationality associated with the contemporary form of capitalism and the exacerbation of resource scarcity sanctioned by the existing health services system. Many of the co-participants in this research sought to provide health services and programmes that resembled and encouraged strong Maori cultural practices based upon tikanga Maori that emphasises a commitment to Whanau, Hapu and Iwi. However, the current health system does not help these goals to flourish. Instead, proponents of the system endorsed a regime of health services that operated within the specific constraints of contractual agreements - agreements which require responsibility for outcomes and accountability protocols that consume many resources better spent elsewhere. The opportunity then to engage in the enrichment of Maori health and wellbeing, through a holistic means was reported by participants in this research to be often undermined, minimised and sometimes made impossible. 
This research demonstrates that Maori efforts to enhance Maori health development are negatively impacted upon by an ongoing commercialisation and commodification of health services. Ongoing efforts _must be made to reinvigorate with and within Maori, an enduring commitment to a foundation of holistic health and wellbeing in the future, stemming from our own worldview - Te Ao Maori. The critical and Kaupapa Maori theories that inform this thesis have been used to bring into the open the contradictions and paradoxes Maori health providers in the Tauranga region are facing. The transformational aspirations of these theories would invite attention to be paid to values underpinning Maori communities and the ways in which they are useful to them. As reported upon in this research, those Maori health advocates adopting social marketing will find it difficult to achieve these aspirations. Instead, the assimilist modem colonising practices inherent in social marketing would tum Maori adopters into self colonisers.

year: 2006