title: “Who wants to do something about rising prices?”: Consumer protest and the campaign against rising prices in Aotearoa New  Zealand, 1966-1981

authors: Wilkinson, Cameron J.

abstract: This thesis is a historical analysis of the Campaign Against Rising Prices (CARP), an organisation of women that fought against rising prices in Aotearoa New Zealand between 1966 and 1981. They were particularly distinguished by their use of targeted economic boycotts in the late 1960s and 1970s, and they were also prolific in their correspondence with governments of the day. Using archival records left by the two main branches in Auckland and Wellington, this thesis pieces together the story of CARP and its branches, and asks: Why did CARP emerge when it did, and why did it choose to take the actions it took? What was CARP able to achieve between 1966 and 1981, and to what extent was CARP successful in achieving its goals? Why did CARP dissolve in 1981? Where does CARP fit within the bigger picture of Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s?
In answering these questions, this thesis will show that, during its time, CARP was a complex and flourishing site of protest, engaged in multiple different forms of protest and able to command attention, from the Government, the media, and the public. They cultivated strong ties with the trade union movement of the 1960s and 1970s, enabled by personal links between many of the women who led CARP and union leaders in Auckland and Wellington. They consistently maintained a rigid focus on ‘rising prices’, and attempted to position themselves as ‘non-political’ in the face of an antagonistic relationship with multiple governments, and accusations of being a front for Communist agitation. CARP were always an organisation led and supported by women, and initially collectively identified itself as a ‘housewives organisation’, but over time CARP de-emphasised gendered identity, and as such remained outside the larger ‘women’s movement’ of the 1970s. This thesis argues that we can understand the reasoning behind CARP’s formation, and decision-making, by understanding the background context of New Zealand’s socioeconomic conditions in the 1960s and 1970s, and the connections CARP had to growing domestic protest, the trade unions, and second-wave feminism. Understanding how CARP operated, and the context of the late 1970s, also allows us to understand why CARP dissolved in 1981, after several years of winding down. In the process, this thesis seeks to position CARP within the wider historiography on protest, labour, and gender in Aotearoa New Zealand, and bring it out of the obscurity it has had within New Zealand history since its dissolution in 1981.

text: “Who wants to do something about rising prices?”: Consumer protest and the campaign against rising prices in Aotearoa New  Zealand, 1966-1981 This thesis is a historical analysis of the Campaign Against Rising Prices (CARP), an organisation of women that fought against rising prices in Aotearoa New Zealand between 1966 and 1981. They were particularly distinguished by their use of targeted economic boycotts in the late 1960s and 1970s, and they were also prolific in their correspondence with governments of the day. Using archival records left by the two main branches in Auckland and Wellington, this thesis pieces together the story of CARP and its branches, and asks: Why did CARP emerge when it did, and why did it choose to take the actions it took? What was CARP able to achieve between 1966 and 1981, and to what extent was CARP successful in achieving its goals? Why did CARP dissolve in 1981? Where does CARP fit within the bigger picture of Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s?
In answering these questions, this thesis will show that, during its time, CARP was a complex and flourishing site of protest, engaged in multiple different forms of protest and able to command attention, from the Government, the media, and the public. They cultivated strong ties with the trade union movement of the 1960s and 1970s, enabled by personal links between many of the women who led CARP and union leaders in Auckland and Wellington. They consistently maintained a rigid focus on ‘rising prices’, and attempted to position themselves as ‘non-political’ in the face of an antagonistic relationship with multiple governments, and accusations of being a front for Communist agitation. CARP were always an organisation led and supported by women, and initially collectively identified itself as a ‘housewives organisation’, but over time CARP de-emphasised gendered identity, and as such remained outside the larger ‘women’s movement’ of the 1970s. This thesis argues that we can understand the reasoning behind CARP’s formation, and decision-making, by understanding the background context of New Zealand’s socioeconomic conditions in the 1960s and 1970s, and the connections CARP had to growing domestic protest, the trade unions, and second-wave feminism. Understanding how CARP operated, and the context of the late 1970s, also allows us to understand why CARP dissolved in 1981, after several years of winding down. In the process, this thesis seeks to position CARP within the wider historiography on protest, labour, and gender in Aotearoa New Zealand, and bring it out of the obscurity it has had within New Zealand history since its dissolution in 1981.

year: 2024

title: A data mining approach to evaluate suitability of dissolved oxygen sensor observations for lake metabolism analysis

authors: Muraoka, Kohji

subjects: computer science

abstract: Despite rapid growth in continuous monitoring of dissolved oxygen for lake metabolism studies, the current best practice still relies on visual assessment and manual data filtering of sensor observations by experienced scientists in order to achieve meaningful results. This time consuming approach is fraught with potential for inconsistency and individual subjectivity. An automated method to assure the quality of data for the purpose of metabolism modeling is clearly needed to obtain consistent results representative of collective expertise. We used a hybrid approach of expert panel and data mining for data filtration. Symbolic Aggregate approXimation (SAX) treats discretized numerical timeseries segments as symbolic indications, creating a series of strings which are literally comparable to human words and sentences. This conversion allows established text mining techniques, such as classification methods to be applied to timeseries data. Half‐hourly frequency surface dissolved oxygen data from 18 global lakes were used to create day‐long segments of the original time series data. Three hundred sets of 1‐d measurements were provided to a group of seven anonymous experts, experienced in manual filtering of oxygen data for metabolism modeling studies. The collective results were treated as expert panel decisions, and were used to rank the data by confidence level for use in metabolism calculations. While considerable variation occurred in the way the experts perceived the quality of the data, the model provides an objective and quantitative assessment method. The program output will assist the decision making process in determining whether data should be used for metabolism calculations. An R version of the program is available for download.

text: A data mining approach to evaluate suitability of dissolved oxygen sensor observations for lake metabolism analysis Despite rapid growth in continuous monitoring of dissolved oxygen for lake metabolism studies, the current best practice still relies on visual assessment and manual data filtering of sensor observations by experienced scientists in order to achieve meaningful results. This time consuming approach is fraught with potential for inconsistency and individual subjectivity. An automated method to assure the quality of data for the purpose of metabolism modeling is clearly needed to obtain consistent results representative of collective expertise. We used a hybrid approach of expert panel and data mining for data filtration. Symbolic Aggregate approXimation (SAX) treats discretized numerical timeseries segments as symbolic indications, creating a series of strings which are literally comparable to human words and sentences. This conversion allows established text mining techniques, such as classification methods to be applied to timeseries data. Half‐hourly frequency surface dissolved oxygen data from 18 global lakes were used to create day‐long segments of the original time series data. Three hundred sets of 1‐d measurements were provided to a group of seven anonymous experts, experienced in manual filtering of oxygen data for metabolism modeling studies. The collective results were treated as expert panel decisions, and were used to rank the data by confidence level for use in metabolism calculations. While considerable variation occurred in the way the experts perceived the quality of the data, the model provides an objective and quantitative assessment method. The program output will assist the decision making process in determining whether data should be used for metabolism calculations. An R version of the program is available for download.

year: 2018

title: Memento Mori : Memento Maori – moko and memory

authors: Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia

subjects: tangi

abstract: Moko patterns, mau moko, “wearing ink” is often explained as an act of remembrance, a symbol of honour or success, of grieving or loss. Memento mori, remembering the dead and remembrance of death, pervades the Maori world, and is profoundly expressed in customary practice – haehae, upoko tuhi, and ta moko. These embodied and visceral experiences are described in waiata tangi, in whai korero, in moteatea, in the traditional context, and graphically recorded on the living flesh in our contemporary world. Mau moko celebrates identity, so modern memorial ornamentation mourns and reflects on this in ‘memento mori’; and also reinforces and engages reality in the correspondent notion of ‘memento Maori’; an assertion that claims dominion and understanding across generations, across time, across space.

text: Memento Mori : Memento Maori – moko and memory Moko patterns, mau moko, “wearing ink” is often explained as an act of remembrance, a symbol of honour or success, of grieving or loss. Memento mori, remembering the dead and remembrance of death, pervades the Maori world, and is profoundly expressed in customary practice – haehae, upoko tuhi, and ta moko. These embodied and visceral experiences are described in waiata tangi, in whai korero, in moteatea, in the traditional context, and graphically recorded on the living flesh in our contemporary world. Mau moko celebrates identity, so modern memorial ornamentation mourns and reflects on this in ‘memento mori’; and also reinforces and engages reality in the correspondent notion of ‘memento Maori’; an assertion that claims dominion and understanding across generations, across time, across space.

year: 2009-11