Securitised citizenship: How investors bought a stake in the welfare state
- Date: Tuesday 22 October 2019
- Time: 1:10pm - 2pm
- Location: I.1.09
Abstract
By turning social services into products for private investment, Social Impact Bonds are the latest tantalising solution for the financial, electoral and performance problems thought to ail the welfare state. From Denver to Dublin, the global expansion of Social Impact Bonds has seen investors and financial logics inserted into decisions about the provision of publicly-funded social services in ways that are historically unprecedented, raising questions about how Social Impact Bonds became a preferred policy solution, how they are operationalised and for whose benefit. In this presentation, I discuss the ascendance of Social Impact Bonds. Through in-depth research involving politicians, investment bankers, philanthropists, social service managers, consultants, and lawyers across six countries, I show how Social Impact Bonds are premised on the securitisation of citizen–state relations: refashioning vulnerable citizens from rights-bearing subjects to sub-prime subjects that are managed by pooling and de-risking their claims to future public assistance. The process of securitising citizenship involves significant difficulties and unlikely alliances of actors with differing agendas and abilities, raising questions about how the contemporary welfare state is shaped and whose interests it serves.
Presenter's Bio:
Tom Baker is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Auckland. His research examines practices and politics of policy innovation. He is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Housing Policy and recently co-edited Public policy circulation: Arenas, agents and actions (2019, Edward Elgar).
Migratory emotions: Men and women of Yucatan and Chiapas, México, facing male migration to Quebec, Canada
- Date: Tuesday 17 September 2019
- Time: 1:10pm - 2pm
- Location: I.1.01
Abstract
Since its inception, the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (CSAWP) attracted the attention of scholars and trade union leaders. On the one hand, social research was triggered by the governmental decision to give preference to temporary migration, while these researchers exposed the unfair terms of the working conditions faced by the workers who were hired. On the other hand, some organizations such as the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) were concerned about working conditions, and at the same time questioned the impact and pressure these kinds of jobs bring to Canadian workers. There are several studies on that subject, but scarce attention has been given to the social-emotional problem which men in the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (CSAWP) undergo during the migratory process. Even less attention has been placed on their romantic partners. In this presentation, we inquire into the emotions felt among men and women from Yucatan and Chiapas, Mexico. Our analysis is based on a postcolonial and intersectional perspective and a socio-anthropological and geographical approach to emotions. The strategy of inquiry is based on the qualitative approach called evocation of emotion through images (photo-evoking).
Presenter's Bio:
Dr. Adriana Leona Rosales-Mendoza completed her tertiary studies in Sociology, Masters in Women Studies (El Colegio de México), Masters in Anthropology (with Honors) and has a Doctorate in Anthropology (with Honors) at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México (Metropolitan Autonomous University of México). She has twenty years of experience teaching and tutoring indigenous and non-indigenous students at Pre-grade and Post-grade levels at Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, México (National Pedagogical University, Mexico). Dr. Rosales-Mendoza is the author of different books, chapters, and articles drawing on postcolonial and feminist approaches, gender perspective, human rights, and indigenous research methodologies.
The history of Aotearoa New Zealand after Cook: The turbulent 120 years, 1769-1890s
- Date: Tuesday 20 August 2019
- Time: 1:10pm - 2pm
- Location: K.G.06
Ian Pool, CNZM, PhD, FRSNZ, Emeritus Professor, National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis University of Waikato
Abstract:
For one-third of our history since 1769, New Zealand was Maori. We thus have to draw back the Euro-centric cloak imposed on this period by the written accounts (all European but see Anne Salmond), and typically missionary. They portrayed a savage, unproductive Maori population engaged in the ‘Musket Wars’ that produced high fatalityrates. I will show that mission records were at best distortions of reality. 1. Until the 1850s Maori contributed the major part of GDP, and of both overseas trading and domestic business. 2. After colonisation, they contributed the major part of the colony’s budget – exceeding the large disbursements received from Whitehall through the ‘Commissariat Military Chest’. 3. Maori had complex technologies, and social and economic organisation., including trading perishables from the far south to the far north, and vice versa. 4. The fatality rates of the inter-tribal wars (and of muskets and cannibalism ) have been grossly exaggerated - - the wars were not continuous and were geographically dispersed. Incidentally Taua ate potatoes !!! Easy to find, carry, cook and chew. New Zealand’s history since Cook has lasted a quarter of a millennium. But, as seen through the lens of an historical demographer, for almost HALF of that entire period New Zealand went through an era of extreme turbulence. It started before Waitangi, when Maori were building their ‘golden era of business’ and participating in extractive industry joint ventures. But, Maori numbers also declined as they were struck down by introduced pathogens: the lethality of the ‘Musket wars’ has been exaggerated, as I will show.
In 1840 Maori, who were 98% of NZers, brought a rich dowry to Waitangi – all NZ’s resources and a thriving business sector. But over 1840-58, disease caused the most rapid Maori population declines ever. From 1860-1900, Pakeha displaced Maori, by warring with them, dispossessing them from their North Island lands, and ‘swamping’ them through huge, but brief, migratory inflows and, above all, by the hyper-reproductive capacities of colonists. Turbulence took other forms before and after Waitangi, such as racing down economic paths that seemed rewarding but were un-sustained as lead factors: eg gold, wool, grain. Pakeha production involved largely pre-industrial technologically, extractive industries, (including ranching) that ‘quarried’ New Zealand (economic historian Phil Briggs).
But, by the 1890s, Aotearoa was establishing stability in its peopling, in sustainable economic structures, in forming a settler-society that was social-democratic, and in its population geography, features that then lasted 80-90 years – through our early lives.
Presenter's Bio:
Ian Pool has been studying New Zealand population since 1958. He has published numerous books, monographs and articles, many specifically on the demography of Aotearoa, as in the case of four of his major books, The Maori population, 1977, Auckland University Press (AUP); Te Iwi Maori, 1991, AUP; and Colonization and Development, New Zealand 1769-1900: The Seeds of Rangiatea, 2015, Springer; and (with A Dharmalingam and J Sceats) The New Zealand Family, 2007, AUP, which covers Maori and Pakeha. Recent co-authored monographs cover contraception, family formation (two monographs) and hospitalisation trends in New Zealand. He has also worked in and published books, monographs and papers on Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Recent international books include: (Eds. S Tuljapurkar, I Pool and V Prachuabmoh) Riding the Age Waves, 2005, Springer; (Eds I Pool, L. Rodriguez Wong and E Vilquin) Age Structural Transitions: challenges for Development, 2006, CICRED, Paris. He has worked in Australia, England, Canada, United States, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger, and carried out numerous missions for United Nations’ and other agencies across francophone and anglophone Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Within New Zealand his applied research has been with numerous government and other agencies. He has been an expert witness for Waitangi Tribunal Hearings, alone or with a team, especially as a generic witness for the Central North Island Claim (Ohinemutu, 2005; with T Kukutai and J Sceats). Most recently he was an adviser to the Moriori Claim.
It’s a very confusing space: Disabilities, dating, and (not) belonging
- Date: Tuesday 16 July 2019
- Time: 1:10pm - 2pm
- Location: K.G.06
Abstract
This presentation brings together two key areas of research, ‘geographies of disabilities’ and ‘geographies of sexualities’. The broad aim is to enrich both disciplinary fields. The more specific aim is to understand the ‘confusing’ dating spaces and places for a group of disabled women. We draw on empirical material from a research project called ‘Spaces of Belonging: Geographies of Disabilities’, based in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. This project is a collaboration between the University of Waikato, the Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) Aotearoa New Zealand and ImagineBetter (the later two organisations advocate, and provide resources for, disabled people). The first stage of this project has 14 participants, and here we offer insights from six young women because they are rich in content about sex, dating, gender and sexualities. Disabled people are often positioned as not belonging or as being ‘out of place’. Further, disabled women are commonly constructed as disinterested in sex, unable to have sex, asexual, or as bodies to be exploited for sex. Our participants trouble this construction by discussing their sexual as well as their gender identities. Participants share their experiences and offer hopeful ways of ‘living with difference’ by critically analysing their sexual encounters. Finally, we argue that geographers, by considering the gendered, sexualised and spatialised politics of disabled people, also deepen understandings of power, difference, inequalities, and social inclusion.
Presenter's Bio:
Lynda Johnston is a Professor of Geography at the University of Waikato, Tauranga, with research interests in feminist, embodied, and queer geographies. For almost two decades Lynda has pursued research and conducted activism on the challenges and spatial complexities of inequalities, such as sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and racism. Lynda is the Chair of the Gender and Geography Commission for the International Geographical Union (2016 - 2020) and the President of the New Zealand Geographical Society (2017 – 2019).
Exploring formal demographic methods
- Date: Tuesday 25 - Friday 28 June 2019
- Time: 10am (Tuesday 25 June) - 12pm (Friday 28 June)
- Location: I.1.01
Join Emeritus Professor Ian Pool for a Masterclass series exploring formal demographic methods
Abstract
Class participants will engage with demographic principles and methods, including sources of demographic data and measurement. Participants will apply the general demographic principles taught in session one to the construction of life-tables in session two. Life-tables are the most important demographic tool that distinguishes demography from adjunct social sciences.
Spatially modelling net migration within NZ’s cities and towns
- Date: Tuesday 18 June 2019
- Time: 1:10pm - 2:10pm
- Location: I.1.01
Abstract
This presentation argues that net migration is a significant component of this change and compared to natural change is difficult to model and predict. Using data from every population census between 1976 and 2013, the net migration by age groups for 275 cities and towns was calculated by subtracting the natural change from the total population change. These age-specific records of net migration were combined with GIS data that describes the employment opportunities, lifestyle (landscape and climate), and access to essential services (hospitals, education, airports) for each of these urban places. This net migration and GIS data was then used to develop and test a model that predicts net migration for each urban place. A mix of machine learning (random forest decision tree modelling) and Pearson’s r were used to identify the most important determinants of net migration. Age is an important factor in determining which variables have the most influence. Younger people (15-24) are moving to more populated places and close to tertiary education facilities. People approaching retirement have a preference for lifestyle drivers, such as warm temperatures and coastal towns, as well as access to international airports and tertiary hospitals.
Rural health research - An opportunity for interdisciplinary research
- Date: Tuesday 16 April, 2019
- Time: 1pm
- Location: K.G.06
Abstract
There has been very little research into the health of rural populations in New Zealand. Part of this has been due to a lack of an agreed definition as to what constitutes “rural”. Another aspect has been political – both within academia and with regard regional and national politics. Within the two New Zealand medical schools, despite targeted government funding the focus is on biomedical rather than health services research. Thus neither school has a dedicated chair in rural health studies, while most academics publishing in the field are rural clinicians with a part-time interest and little training in research. With regards the regional and national scenes, for decades we have seen a centralisation of services and resources on the main centres, shortages in the rural workforce and a political focus on new hospitals and specialist services. The talk will examine the definition of rurality, will talk about rural populations and health services and discuss ways of assessing health needs.
Presenter's Bio:
Ross Lawrenson has a Diploma in Community Health (Otago) and a Doctorate of Medicine form University of London. He has published more than 30 peer reviewed publications on rural health. He is a board member of the rural New Zealand GP Network.
‘‘Who partners up? Educational Assortative Matching and the Distribution of Income in New Zealand’’
- Date: Tuesday 19 February 2019
- Time: 1:10pm - 2pm
- Location: K.G.06
Omoniyi Alimi, NIDEA and Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Abstract:
Educational assortative matching among couples, i.e. the phenomenon whereby the high-educated have partners who are also high-educated, can be a driver of the distribution of income in New Zealand - which has experienced rising inequality, increased educational attainment and a relatively low, and falling, wage premium for higher levels of education. Using data from the Censuses of Population and Dwellings and a counterfactual randomisation methodology, we find that educational assortative matching has increased and driven by increased matching in the middle of the educational distribution. Spatially, higher and increasing levels of educational assortative matching is seen in metropolitan areas and has had an inequality-increasing impact on the distribution of income, especially for the full-time employed. Additionally, sorting on observable characteristics such as age and location are also inequality-increasing and sorting on unobservable characteristics that impact on income can play an important role as well.
Presenter's Bio:
Omoniyi Alimi recently submitted his PhD, jointly supervised at the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis and the Department of Economics at the University of Waikato. He is currently a Teaching Fellow in the Waikato Management School. His research focuses on the impact of ageing, migration and assortative matching on income inequality within and between New Zealand urban areas.