Using a voluntaristic theory of action and Buckley’s (1967) paradigm of complex adaptive systems, explanation of the process of change in organisations is attempted. The specific question addressed is why some changes, rather than others, are incorporated into organisational arrangements. This thesis has three parts. The first is a theoretical statement of Buckley’s model and an argument for the extension of this scheme in two important respects. The second is an extended case study of a psychiatric ward of a general hospital to which the model is applied. The third is a theoretical re-statement of the original paradigm in the light of this application. Buckley’s model was used to identify: 1. The external and internal variety which may affect an organisation 2. The tension-producing factors within the organisational arrangement which constrain actor’s choice of response to variety 3. The processes whereby actors selectively map responses to variety 4. The processes for the transmission and perpetuation of stable accommodations to variety. Two adaptations were made initially to Buckley’s scheme. To explain more fully the process of ‘mapping’ ((3) above), two constructs are proposed, derived from the concept of the phenomenal ‘self’. These are ‘meaning system’ and ‘dramatic repertoire of self-presentation’. Inclusion of Koestlers’ (1967) concept of the open-ended hierarchy of awareness is suggested as a theoretical solution to the problem of homeostasis ((4) above) in systems of action. Argument for the use of an open systems approach in general, and Buckley’s paradigm in particular, together with the proposed amendments of Buckley’s scheme is presented in Chapters I and II. The case study is presented in Chapters III-VIII. Chapter III is a review of the historical factors which provide the context for the study, while changes occurring in the nursing, medical and non-medical sub-systems are discussed in turn, in Chapters, IV, V and VI respectively. Chapter VII identifies four scenes of social encounter in the ward and discusses the process of interaction occurring in each. Chapter VIII is an epilogue which examines briefly the outcome of events mentioned in the earlier chapters. Chapter IX is a statement of the conclusions drawn from the case study. The value of Buckley’s paradigm in the construction of an extended case study is demonstrated and the importance of the concepts of ‘mapping’ and ‘perpetuation’ is highlighted because they permit explanation of macrosocial processes which remain fully within the social context and point to the importance of identifying the dramatisation of power in social encounters. The initial harnessing of action theory and systems theory concepts was found to be too limited. A theoretical solution is, therefore, proposed in Chapter X which is capable of explaining system elaboration in the two dimensions of ‘organisation’ and ‘self’. The model takes into account the dialectic tensions existing between ‘self/organisation’ and ‘stability/change’, and differentiates between evolutionary and revolutionary change, making explicit both the constitutive processes of interaction and the interplay of forces affecting the individual and social order.

This thesis is an ethnographic account of the kleva of central Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu - a handful of healers credited with powers beyond those of their neighbours. Their concerns include matters like illness, sorcery, witchcraft, spirits and dreaming. The account is based on seventeen months field research among the Kiai-speaking population on the south-east side of the upper Ari valley in south central Santo. My method is primarily descriptive. In the main body of the thesis I give accounts of face-to-face encounters and conversations with the kleva and their neighbours, attempting to build up a picture of the kleva that takes into consideration not only what they do, but also the meaning of their activities for themselves and for their neighbours. In the conclusion I discuss the relevance of my material to some problems in the ethnography of Melanesian religions. I also raise issues of interpretation, seen to lie at the core of both topic and method in ethnographic pursuits. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

There have been no studies in New Zealand designed to investigate the effectiveness of the major "systems-based" intervention programme available for intellectually handicapped children; the service offered by the New Zealand Society for the Intellectually Handicapped. The Society does not have a standardised programme running in all its Preschool/Special Care Centres throughout the country. However, the Auckland branch developed a formalised approach to programming and teaching in 1979. This study attempted to determine the effectiveness of this new approach in terms of the children it was designed to benefit. It was found that children attending Auckland Preschool/Special Care Centres did show greater rates of progress than children attending Preschool/Special Care Centres outside Auckland for a variety of different skills. For Downs Syndrome children these were self-help, cognitive and language skills. For motor-delayed multihandicapped children the skills were selp-help and language. These differences persisted when differences between the social and environmental backgrounds of the children from Auckland and outside Auckland were controlled for. It was also found that Downs Syndrome, motor-delayed multihandicapped and normal children showed different rates of progress for motor, socialisation, cognitive/academic and language skills. Rates of progress were not different for self-help skills although the absolute level of achievement was significantly different for the three populations. The three groups of children showed different rates of growth in a variety of physical measurements, and different absolute sizes in several others. Downs Syndrome children have shorter limbs than either of the other two groups of children. They also have the narrowest jaws and a small thorax. Motor-delayed multihandicapped children have the smallest limb diameters but have the longest faces. Downs Syndrome, motor-delayed multihandicapped and normal children differ in several ways in their social and environmental backgrounds. Parents of Downs Syndrome children are older than parents of the other two groups. Mothers of intellectually handicapped children are less likely to have a job than mothers of normal children. Different health records are evident between the three populations. Normal children tend to be seen as more healthy by their parents. Intellectually handicapped children tend to have less ascorbic acid in their diet than normal children. Downs Syndrome children are more susceptible to minor environmental fluctuations than motor-delayed multihandicapped or normal children. The cumulative effect of this hostile environment can be seen in their short stature and smaller overall body dimensions compared to normal children. Motor-delayed multihandicapped children do not show the same reaction to the environment as Downs Syndrome children. In this more severely handicapped group, the effect of the motor and intellectual handicap over-rides any effect the environment might have. However, nutritional intake is closely related to physical growth in these children. This is because in most cases exercise does not mediate between nutritional intake and physical growth.

This thesis considers the 'spirits of governing' that currently frame youth justice approaches to Samoan youth offending in New Zealand, today. It claims that, in the current management of Samoan youth offending cases, three main spirits of governing are in play. These are the spirits of neo-liberal risk management cultural appropriateness, and faaSamoa. All three spirits operate simultaneously, in multilayered and intersecting ways. Gaining insight into this complexity is critical to building an understanding of the points of tension that may arise in the operationalisation of 'culturally appropriate' youth justice policies in the case of Samoan youth offenders. To highlight the complex character of these spirits of governing and their relationships, the thesis first describes each spirit of governing and then considers how they compete, intersect and/or diverge through a close analysis of seven youth justice cases. Analysis of each of the seven cases is based on interviews with a Samoan youth offender, a family representative, their CYFS social worker, police youth aid officer, Youth Court youth advocate and a community intervention programme worker. The key sites of government examined in this work are those of the family, the Youth Court, the youth justice family group conference and a community intervention programme service. The thesis reveals that to gain nuanced understanding of the complexities of managing a Samoan youth offender case, it is not simply a question of knowing what 'spirits of governing' are at play, one also needs to examine how they play. I contend that these three 'spirits' have specific relationships with each other. In youth justice, neo-liberalism opened up space for cultural appropriateness which, in turn allowed for the circulation of the faaSamoa. These three 'spirits', however, can not be reduced to each other because of their differing understanding of governmental strategies, techniques and subjects. In particular, they differ on their understanding of the role of families, of collaboration and of cultural expertise. Consequently, for example, while these three 'spirits of governing' 'agree' on the value of cultural appropriateness, they do not 'agree' on how it should be defined and measured. Too often when politically sensitive programmes or policies, such as those involving ethnic-specific cases, do not work, the response from politicians and programme personnel alike is to couch their failures in overly simplistic terms. This work seeks to indicate the importance of developing culturally nuanced models of analysis that can engage in the complexities of governing across cultural divides, in the improvement of practice in the field and in the development of a sociology capable of enhancing cross-cultural understanding.

For a century the development of power resources has contributed much to the geography of New Zealand. Today, more than ever before, the direct significance of energy production is seen, at the mine or dam site, on the road or railway, and indirectly in the home, the farm, and the factory. Nor is the situation static. Large dams and associated villages stand in areas which only a decade ago were remote and uninhabited, lakes are being drained and swamps reclaimed in the search for coal, and a man-made thermal area has been created, as spectacular as any natural one. Plans are made and changed, and before one large power development is completed another has been commenced. Energy is outstandingly important in the daily lives of New Zealanders yet only meagre information is available on New Zealand power resources and still less on the geography of those areas characterised by power resources and their exploitation.

Throughout the history of mankind there have been migrations of groups of people for economic, political, social, cultural and various other reasons. Geographically speaking, migration results in the transplantation of a group of people to a new physical, social, cultural and economic environment. The migrants affect, and are effected by, the milieu of the new country. Considered from this point of view, the Asian immigrants in New Zealand are to be seen as an element in the total geographical context of the country. A study of Asian immigrants in New Zealand not only reveals their contributions to, and their distinctiveness in, the new environment, but also brings to light factors that influence both the environment and the immigrants.

Whole document restricted, see Access Instructions file below for details of how to access the print copy. / This work examines aspects of contemporary Rarotongan society selected to illustrate how Rarotongans structure their reality. This is not a study of social change, but it does show how the vestiges of ideologies from the past have been reinterpreted and incorporated into the contemporary society. To demonstrate how the “traditional” ideologies have survived and co-exist with “modern” ideas, institutions of a pre-European origin, such as adoption practices, Māori medicine and the transmission of chiefly titles, are discussed. Rarotongans may view these and other customary practices according to several criteria from which they choose the one which is most appropriate to their purposes on any particular occasion. It is shown that Rarotongans are in the process of creating a cultural tradition which incorporates elements from their traditional past and European influences which are being transformed into something that is perceived as essentially Rarotongan.

This study is an interpretation of history related by Tūhoe historians of the Tauranga valley, a valley situated on the northern side of the Urewera ranges, North Island, New Zealand. It is also an interpretation of historical records relating to the Tauranga valley Tūhoe community. Fieldwork for the study was carried out between November 1977 and July 1978, and between November 1978 and May 1979. It is argued that Tūhoe history of the Tauranga valley comprises four separate, but connected, domains of discourse. The first domain considered includes narratives which link tribes and sub-tribes, and relate them to their land. The second concerns relationships between local whānau, extended families descended from grand-parents of elders now living. Accounts which comprise the third domain focus upon the identity of Rua Kenana, a Tūhoe leader who, with his people the Iharaira (or Israelites), established a ‘city of God’ at Maungapōhatu (at the source of the Tauranga river). The fourth domain is that of reminiscence. Three Tauranga valley settlements are described by four Iharaira elders; Tataiahape between 1909 and 1915, Matahī between 1915 and 1927, and Tāwhana in the late 1920s and 1930s. In order to highlight and explore distinctions between Tūhoe history and Western history, Tūhoe accounts are not integrated with documentary sources into a single narrative. The focus is upon Tūhoe history and documents are drawn upon where relevant to an understanding of this history as a distinctive mode of discourse.

When people, ideas or things migrate across cultural milieux, many opportunities for cultural transformation arise. The focal point of this thesis is a large stupa/temple (Great Stupa) being built at Atisha Centre, a Buddhist retreat near Bendigo in Australia, by members of an international organisation called the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). I approach the planning, promotion and construction of the stupa as an instance of the transplantation of religious material culture, arguing that Atisha Centre and particularly the stupa play a constitutive role by acting as a contact zone (Pratt 1992). Since the Centre is a site of alternate social ordering in which the Buddhists attempt to actualise their universalist ideals in a specific place, I also conceptualise it as a heterotopia (Foucault 1986, Hetherington 1997). The contact zone entails engagement between different socio-cultural domains. One of the key domains is the globalisation of contemporary Buddhism and its permutations in new locales. Stemming from this is the question of how the Buddhists and their imported material culture engage with wider concerns such as various non-FPMT Buddhist, Anglo- Australian and Aboriginal locals’ responses towards the transplantation of a Tibetan temple into a rural Australian locale. The complex and shifting relationships between different kinds of Buddhism feature in relation to different ideas about the value of holy objects. The FPMT conforms to the enlightenment-oriented ideals of “Buddhist modernism” (McMahan 2008) but appears to depart from it in its pronounced emphasis on merit-making and holy objects. However, the project’s proponents consider the stupa a method for enacting their enlightenment aspirations. I attribute the stupa project’s relatively smooth passage through local planning application procedures to proponents’ prior social and cultural capital, which I link to positive public perceptions of Buddhism, aspirations for Bendigo to become more culturally diverse and the economic development the stupa is expected to bring. The literally concrete structure of the stupa not only provides Buddhists with a tangible focal point for their ideals, but also serves as a vehicle for the establishment of Tibetan Buddhism in a new land.

This thesis considers the 'spirits of governing' that currently frame youth justice approaches to Samoan youth offending in New Zealand, today. It claims that, in the current management of Samoan youth offending cases, three main spirits of governing are in play. These are the spirits of neo-liberal risk management cultural appropriateness, and faaSamoa. All three spirits operate simultaneously, in multilayered and intersecting ways. Gaining insight into this complexity is critical to building an understanding of the points of tension that may arise in the operationalisation of 'culturally appropriate' youth justice policies in the case of Samoan youth offenders. To highlight the complex character of these spirits of governing and their relationships, the thesis first describes each spirit of governing and then considers how they compete, intersect and/or diverge through a close analysis of seven youth justice cases. Analysis of each of the seven cases is based on interviews with a Samoan youth offender, a family representative, their CYFS social worker, police youth aid officer, Youth Court youth advocate and a community intervention programme worker. The key sites of government examined in this work are those of the family, the Youth Court, the youth justice family group conference and a community intervention programme service. The thesis reveals that to gain nuanced understanding of the complexities of managing a Samoan youth offender case, it is not simply a question of knowing what 'spirits of governing' are at play, one also needs to examine how they play. I contend that these three 'spirits' have specific relationships with each other. In youth justice, neo-liberalism opened up space for cultural appropriateness which, in turn allowed for the circulation of the faaSamoa. These three 'spirits', however, can not be reduced to each other because of their differing understanding of governmental strategies, techniques and subjects. In particular, they differ on their understanding of the role of families, of collaboration and of cultural expertise. Consequently, for example, while these three 'spirits of governing' 'agree' on the value of cultural appropriateness, they do not 'agree' on how it should be defined and measured. Too often when politically sensitive programmes or policies, such as those involving ethnic-specific cases, do not work, the response from politicians and programme personnel alike is to couch their failures in overly simplistic terms. This work seeks to indicate the importance of developing culturally nuanced models of analysis that can engage in the complexities of governing across cultural divides, in the improvement of practice in the field and in the development of a sociology capable of enhancing cross-cultural understanding.