scholarly journals Timebanking in New Zealand as a prefigurative strategy within a wider degrowth movement

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma McGuirk
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Community Currency ◽  
Career Advice ◽  
Networks Of Support

Abstract A movement is gaining traction in New Zealand around timebanks, networks of support in which members exchange favors such as gardening, lifts to the supermarket, pet care, language lessons, career advice, or smartphone tutorials. An online currency is used to track these exchanges, with one hour of work earning one time credit. While each transaction may seem commonplace, when timebanks flourish they work to reshape motivations and opportunities for engaging in labor, and relocalize networks of solidarity, friendship, and resources. Participants reported examples of developing unexpected friendships and renewed enthusiasm for a larger collective project of building alternatives to the currently dominant growth-addicted economic model. These processes contribute to the establishment of foundational, mostly small-scale networks that are enjoyable to use in the here and now, while also creating the potential for these systems to be scaled up or linked together in response to greater economic, ecological, and social changes. Timebank developers in New Zealand are negotiating several structural challenges in their attempts to bring these networks to fruition. This article shares results of ethnographic research amongst seven North Island timebanks, and offers suggestions for future research in this area. Keywords: timebank, community currency, activism, degrowth, New Zealand

scholarly journals Liminality as a lens on social meaning: A cross-variable analysis of gender in New Zealand English

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Evan Hazenberg
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Category Boundary ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Linguistic Distance ◽  
Gendered Identity ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
Multiple Variables

<p>The variationist sociolinguistic enterprise has been successful in developing models of structural (i.e., language-internal) drivers of variation and change, but one of the barriers preventing the development of a parallel model accounting for social drivers is the difficulty in operationalising salience. Using a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews collected in Auckland, New Zealand between 2013 and 2015, this project examines the relationship between language variation and gendered identity, and proposes an analytical approach of liminality – of examining the linguistic practices of people who have crossed a culturally-reified category boundary – as a possible solution to the problem of identifying socially salient variables.  The participants in this study are straight, queer, and transsexual native speakers of New Zealand English (NZE), representing two age groups that straddle the period of social change in the 1980s that saw a destabilisation of traditional gender roles in New Zealand. Variation in three linguistic systems is examined: adjectival modifiers (intensifiers and moderators), sibilants (/s/, /z/ and /ʃ/), and the vowels of NZE. The project uses established variationist and sociophonetic methodologies, as well as introducing a new metric for making comparisons across the vowel space as a whole. The findings show that speakers are able to encode their gendered identity across multiple variables, and that subtle linguistic signals can be used to affiliate with (or distance from) particular groups. The two most ‘distant’ groups are older straight men and younger [straight, queer, and transsexual] women, which this thesis argues is a reflection of the general societal criticism directed at young women by hegemonic masculinities. There is also evidence that the mainstreaming of queer identities in the wake of the 1986 decriminalisation of homosexuality has decreased the linguistic distance between straight and queer urban New Zealanders, demonstrating the relative rapidity with which social changes can be incorporated into the linguistic system.  This study highlights the utility of studying variation across linguistic systems rather than in variables in isolation, and proposes a typology of variation based on the boundedness and dimensionality of the linguistic systems under investigation. The framework of liminality is found to be productive with respect to the role of gender in language variation, although future research will have to test whether this framework can be generalised to other dimensions of social identity that are perceived as categorical (e.g., ethnicity and heritage culture in immigrant communities).</p>

scholarly journals Liminality as a lens on social meaning: A cross-variable analysis of gender in New Zealand English

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Evan Hazenberg
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Category Boundary ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Linguistic Distance ◽  
Gendered Identity ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
Multiple Variables

<p>The variationist sociolinguistic enterprise has been successful in developing models of structural (i.e., language-internal) drivers of variation and change, but one of the barriers preventing the development of a parallel model accounting for social drivers is the difficulty in operationalising salience. Using a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews collected in Auckland, New Zealand between 2013 and 2015, this project examines the relationship between language variation and gendered identity, and proposes an analytical approach of liminality – of examining the linguistic practices of people who have crossed a culturally-reified category boundary – as a possible solution to the problem of identifying socially salient variables.  The participants in this study are straight, queer, and transsexual native speakers of New Zealand English (NZE), representing two age groups that straddle the period of social change in the 1980s that saw a destabilisation of traditional gender roles in New Zealand. Variation in three linguistic systems is examined: adjectival modifiers (intensifiers and moderators), sibilants (/s/, /z/ and /ʃ/), and the vowels of NZE. The project uses established variationist and sociophonetic methodologies, as well as introducing a new metric for making comparisons across the vowel space as a whole. The findings show that speakers are able to encode their gendered identity across multiple variables, and that subtle linguistic signals can be used to affiliate with (or distance from) particular groups. The two most ‘distant’ groups are older straight men and younger [straight, queer, and transsexual] women, which this thesis argues is a reflection of the general societal criticism directed at young women by hegemonic masculinities. There is also evidence that the mainstreaming of queer identities in the wake of the 1986 decriminalisation of homosexuality has decreased the linguistic distance between straight and queer urban New Zealanders, demonstrating the relative rapidity with which social changes can be incorporated into the linguistic system.  This study highlights the utility of studying variation across linguistic systems rather than in variables in isolation, and proposes a typology of variation based on the boundedness and dimensionality of the linguistic systems under investigation. The framework of liminality is found to be productive with respect to the role of gender in language variation, although future research will have to test whether this framework can be generalised to other dimensions of social identity that are perceived as categorical (e.g., ethnicity and heritage culture in immigrant communities).</p>

Automatic Milking Systems: an option to address the labour shortage on New Zealand dairy farms?

2002 ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
J.G. Jago ◽  
M.W. Woolford
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Dairy Industry ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Labour Shortage ◽  
Commercial Farms ◽  
Grazing Systems ◽  
Automatic Milking Systems

There is a growing shortage of labour within the dairy industry. To address this the industry needs to attract more people and/or reduce the labour requirements on dairy farms. Current milk harvesting techniques contribute to both the labour requirements and the current labour shortage within the industry as the process is labour-intensive and necessitates long and unsociable working hours. Automated milking systems (AMS) have been in operation, albeit on a small scale, on commercial farms in Europe for a decade and may have the potential to address labour issues within the New Zealand dairy industry. A research programme has been established (The Greenfield Project) which aims to determine the feasibility of automated milking under New Zealand dairying conditions. A Fullwoods MERLIN AMS has been installed on a protoype farmlet and is successfully milking a small herd of 41 cows. Progress from the prototype Greenfields system offers considerable potential for implementing AMS in extensive grazing systems. Keywords: automated milking systems, dairy cattle, grazing, labour

Powerful Inscriptions: On the Semiotic Phenomenology of BDSM

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Joseph Martin
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Sociology Of Deviance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Semiotic Phenomenology ◽  
Sex Wars

BDSM encompasses a range of practices—bondage and discipline (BD), dominance and submission (DS), sadism and masochism (SM)—involving the consensual exchange of power in erotic contexts. This chapter provides an overview of scholarship on BDSM, drawing on the history of academic studies of the phenomenon, ranging from the psychology of perversion, the sociology of deviance, and the feminist “sex wars” to more recent ethnographic and phenomenological turns. The chapter focuses on the importance of discourse and affect for making sense of BDSM, both for those who seek to analyze the phenomenon and for practitioners themselves. Drawing on ethnographic research and other data, the chapter shows how language and discourse are key to answering interconnected questions about the semiotics and phenomenology of BDSM (what these practices mean and how practitioners experience these practices affectively). Thus, a potential “linguistic turn” in BDSM studies is essential for future research on this erotic minority.

scholarly journals “Just Be Strong, You Will Get through It” a Qualitative Study of Young Migrants’ Experiences of Settling in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1292
Author(s):  
Enoka De Jacolyn ◽  
Karolina Stasiak ◽  
Judith McCool
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Inductive Method ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Acculturation Process ◽  
Migrant Youth ◽  
Support Seeking ◽  
New Beginnings ◽  
Group Interviews

Migration, when it occurs during adolescence, is particularly challenging as it coincides with a myriad of other developmental and social changes. The present study set out to explore recent young migrants’ experiences of settling in New Zealand. The qualitative study aimed to identify areas of particular challenge, examples of resilience and new insights into the acculturation process. Focus group interviews were conducted with migrant youth aged 16–19 from three urban secondary schools in Auckland The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using a general inductive method. Key themes centered on new beginnings, confronting new realities, acceptance, support seeking and overcoming challenges. Young migrants in this study shared similar challenges during the early post-migration period. They were often faced with additional responsibility, being caught between two cultures while struggling with communication and language. However, they were able to draw on their own self-growth, gratitude, and social connections. This study provides an insight into experiences of young migrants in New Zealand, and offers suggestions for developing culturally relevant support to foster migrant youth wellbeing.

scholarly journals Whole-genome sequencing from the New Zealand Saccharomyces cerevisiae population reveals the genomic impacts of novel microbial range expansion

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Higgins ◽  
Cooper A Grace ◽  
Soon A Lee ◽  
Matthew R Goddard
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Range Expansion ◽  
Copy Number ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Copy Number Changes ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Saccharomyces cerevisiae is extensively utilized for commercial fermentation, and is also an important biological model; however, its ecology has only recently begun to be understood. Through the use of whole-genome sequencing, the species has been characterized into a number of distinct subpopulations, defined by geographical ranges and industrial uses. Here, the whole-genome sequences of 104 New Zealand (NZ) S. cerevisiae strains, including 52 novel genomes, are analyzed alongside 450 published sequences derived from various global locations. The impact of S. cerevisiae novel range expansion into NZ was investigated and these analyses reveal the positioning of NZ strains as a subgroup to the predominantly European/wine clade. A number of genomic differences with the European group correlate with range expansion into NZ, including 18 highly enriched single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) and novel Ty1/2 insertions. While it is not possible to categorically determine if any genetic differences are due to stochastic process or the operations of natural selection, we suggest that the observation of NZ-specific copy number increases of four sugar transporter genes in the HXT family may reasonably represent an adaptation in the NZ S. cerevisiae subpopulation, and this correlates with the observations of copy number changes during adaptation in small-scale experimental evolution studies.

Small-Scale Deliberation and Mass Democracy: A Systematic Review of the Spillover Effects of Deliberative Minipublics

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110072
Author(s):  
Ramon van der Does ◽  
Vincent Jacquet
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Mass Democracy

Deliberative minipublics are popular tools to address the current crisis in democracy. However, it remains ambiguous to what degree these small-scale forums matter for mass democracy. In this study, we ask the question to what extent minipublics have “spillover effects” on lay citizens—that is, long-term effects on participating citizens and effects on non-participating citizens. We answer this question by means of a systematic review of the empirical research on minipublics’ spillover effects published before 2019. We identify 60 eligible studies published between 1999 and 2018 and provide a synthesis of the empirical results. We show that the evidence for most spillover effects remains tentative because the relevant body of empirical evidence is still small. Based on the review, we discuss the implications for democratic theory and outline several trajectories for future research.

scholarly journals “What Would You Do?”: How Cat Owners Make End-of-Life Decisions and Implications for Veterinary-Client Interactions

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1114
Author(s):  
Katherine Littlewood ◽  
Ngaio Beausoleil ◽  
Kevin Stafford ◽  
Christine Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Companion Animals ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Future Research ◽  
End Of Life Decisions ◽  
Life Decisions ◽  
End Of Life Decision ◽  
Life Decision

Cats are the most common companion animals in New Zealand. Advances in veterinary care means that cats are living longer and there are many older cats. End-of-life decisions about cats are complicated by owner–cat relationships and other psychosocial factors. Our study explored the ways in which end-of-life decisions were being made by owners of older and chronically ill cats in New Zealand and the role of their veterinarian in the process. Qualitative data were gathered via retrospective semi-structured interviews with 14 cat owners using open-ended questions. Transcripts of these interviews were explored for themes using template analysis and nine themes were identified. Four were animal-centered themes: cat behavior change, pain was a bad sign, signs of ageing are not good, and the benefits of having other people see what owners often could not. Five were human-centered themes: veterinarians understanding owners’ relationships with their cat, normalizing death, the need for a good veterinarian to manage end of life, veterinary validation that owners were doing the right thing, and a strong desire to predict the time course and outcome for their cat. End-of-life decision making is complex, and the veterinarian’s role is often poorly defined. Our owners appreciated the expertise and validation that their veterinarian provided but continuity of care was important. Future research aimed at exploring the veterinarian’s perspective during end-of-life decision making for cats would be a valuable addition to the topic.

A Critical Review of the Biological Processes in the Chemical Absorption-biological Reduction Integrated System for NO Removal

2021 ◽  
Vol 07 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Li
Keyword(s):  
Catalytic Reduction ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Reduction Process ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Chemical Absorption ◽  
Biological Reduction ◽  
Biological Reaction

: Exploring low-cost, green and safe technologies to provide an alternative to the conventional selective catalytic reduction process is key to the control of NOx emitted from small-scale boilers and other industrial processes. To meet the demand, the chemical absorption-biological reduction integrated system has been developing recently. chemical absorption-biological reduction integrated system applies Fe(II)EDTA for NO absorption and iron-reducing and denitrifying bacteria for absorbent regeneration. Many studies have focused on the enhancements of mass transfer and biological reaction, among which the biological processes were the rate-limiting steps. This review summarizes the current researches on the biological processes in the CABR system, which focuses on the mechanism and enhancement of biochemical reactions, and provides the possible directions of future research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document