In the context of a peripheral, small and largely resource-based economy, New Zealand’s economic policy makers have for long faced the key challenge of influencing global connections of local actors in value-adding activities. This dissertation seeks to interpret the nature and trajectories of governance activities relating to economic processes in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city-region, in the 1990’s and 2000’s. This period, a time of neoliberalising political-economic conditions following intensive economic restructuring in the 1980s, saw a re-entry of central government to the governing landscape of Auckland. The research focuses on how regional actors such as the Auckland Regional Growth Forum, the Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy and the business-driven initiatives of ‘Competitive Auckland’, ‘Committee for Auckland’ and the ‘Knowledge Wave’ conferences, gradually became aligned with an emerging governmental project from central government that re-defined perceptions of and expectations about Auckland’s economic role. The research approach is informed by several literatures, especially those of the regulation, actor-network and governmentality schools. The different questions that spring from these literatures enable scrutiny of Auckland’s institutional developments in terms of the identification of interdependencies amongst governing interests, the nature and degree of mediation of investment processes from institutional experimentation and the possible emergence of effects from new governance arrangements. The thesis situates and uses the policy and academic positioning of the researcher to develop methodologies to interrogate the emergence of the material and discursive dimensions of the regional economic governance framework of Auckland. This thesis argues that ongoing institutional experimentation has been both a pre-cursor to and an active ingredient in the re-appearance of the New Zealand central state in Auckland’s economic governance. Importantly, governing is increasingly complex; and about mobilising a range of actors by influencing their perceptions about governing and investment goals through discursive governance practices. In this context, current socio-economic interventions can be best understood as contingent assemblages of governing resources, producing discursive alignments of interests that lead to a re-working of processes and practices of the state-regulatory apparatus. The effects of the institutional developments on private investment decisions are largely unknown however. While the emerging institutional framework for economic governance involving Auckland is increasingly embracing Auckland’s globalising character, influencing the city-region’s economic participation in the globalising world economy may be harder to achieve as a political project than current policy rhetoric implies. Theoretically, this research challenges territorial conceptualisations of political economic management and contributes to the wider development of a relational-institutional framework for understanding sub-national economic governance. Auckland, globalising economic processes, economic governance, state, institutions, policy, knowledge, contingency, regulation, discourses

Although rates of tuberculosis (TB) in much of the western world have steadily declined since the Second World War, this infectious disease remains a leading cause of death among those living in impoverished circumstances. Social science perspectives have argued that TB is as much a reflection of socio-economic inequality and the uneven distribution of power and resources as it is about biological processes. In this thesis I explore the lived experience of TB within the Somali refugee community in Auckland, New Zealand. While migrants and refugees are frequently blamed for the resurgence in TB in Western countries, very little is known about the determinants that underlie this manifestation of the disease. The present research addresses this gap in the literature by employing a transdisciplinary social science approach that considers the determinants of health and illness that range across the social, cultural economic and political domains of human experience. The geographical underpinnings of the work are borne out in the fundamental goal: to (literally and metaphorically) place the lived experience of health, disease (and particularly TB) within the Somali refugee community in the wider context of migration and resettlement. Employing qualitative methods I draw upon participants’ narratives to highlight the different ways in which Somali health beliefs and experiences have been shaped by wider structural forces. I demonstrate that within Auckland, Somalis encounter multiple and overlapping layers of disadvantage. The combined impacts of this disadvantage have a profound influence on their health and illness experience, particularly in terms of the development and ongoing occurrence of TB. Respondents with TB recounted widespread stigma that exacerbated the harm incurred by the illness itself. Although Somalis are highly marginalised, the thesis acknowledges the agency and creativity exerted by people in fashioning the course of their life within the context of considerable structural constraints.

The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between participation in leisure activities and the self-esteem and life satisfaction of retired New Zealanders. A mail questionnaire and interviews were used to gather information from 100 retirees in Christchurch, New Zealand. The issues examined were: the individual's perceived self-esteem and life-satisfaction levels, their pre- and post-retirement leisure activities and their own personal characteristics that may be related to the types of leisure activities in which they participate. A number of hypotheses were proposed. Results from this research supported the proposed hypotheses at a 95% confidence level. There were no significant differences between catagories of retirees, classified according to such things as their leisure activities, life satisfaction and self-esteem. Results showed that although there was no relationship at such a high confidence level, there were relationships at a lower confidence level. Those retirees who participated in the questionnaire and interviews appeared to be well adjusted to retirement, and involved in a wide range of leisure activities. Overall, there was an increase in the number of activities regularly participated in after retirement. The majority rated themselves as being in very good or excellent health. Not only do those who are married and live with others participate in all types of activities, but so do those who are widowed, never married and live alone. For those who live alone, their leisure participation provides the opportunity for social interaction and skill development. "Just as the ancient Greeks believed the life of leisure required extensive preparation, so too does retirement" (Godby, 1985:179). My research suggests that those with a wide range of recreation and leisure skills adapt best to retirement. There is a need for leisure activity to be a part of pre-retirement planning. Those with limited leisure interests may need to rekindle old interests or develop new leisure pursuits so that, in retirement, they will enjoy some continuity of lifestyle.

The complex interactions between individuals, institutions and information and communications technologies (ICTs) have generated a growing body of research that seeks greater knowledge of the processes at work and their consequences. Situated firmly within this area, this thesis challenges the dominance of the generalised and largely technologically deterministic narratives within the field by seeking to constitute such knowledge in a different way. Geography provides a useful standpoint from which to challenge these narratives owing to its enduring engagement with time and space, concepts implicit in any discussion of ICTs effects. Emerging work on code space, transurbanism and timespace are specifically used to negate the persistent dualistic treatment of time and space which is argued to be hampering geographic research in this field. Methodologically drawing from a non representational style this thesis uses these emerging understandings to access the in between, a mental space of performance; which involves the process of drawing from tacit knowledge, cognitive perceptions of the spatial and temporal environment and emotions, in order to explore the conditions of possibility that individuals are becoming aware of through their interactions with ICTs. Four empirical interventions are used to ground these emerging understandings into the reality of everyday encounters with ICTs in Auckland, New Zealand. The first focuses on the role of local government in the development of Auckland’s ICT infrastructure, a complex and contingent process. The second concentrates on the provision of a Real Time Passenger Information System at Auckland bus stops, exposing individuals to new timespaces while waiting for the bus. The third considers students opinions of the e-learning mechanisms used in two first year geography courses. The final intervention examines the role ICTs play in South Africans and South Koreans imagining, negotiation and mediation of the migration process to Auckland. In conclusion, this thesis contributes to how geography constitutes knowledge about ICTs at three different levels. Empirically, the four interventions contribute grounded findings to the debates in the geographic literature over interactions with ICTs. Methodologically, the conditions of possibility institutional and individual actors are beginning to perceive through their encounters with ICTs are revealed as are the timespaces that may eventuate from these. Theoretically, to understand how the interactions between individuals and ICTs are performed this thesis demonstrates the need to interrogate the in between as a process, not just a gap or blank.

New Zealand forest has been affected by both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Protecting and restoring indigenous forest is one of the focal issues in conservation of New Zealand, and understanding vegetation dynamics is a key part of management strategies. The longevity of most of New Zealand trees impedes short-term vegetation dynamic studies. Instead fossil pollen records provide one of the most valuable sources of long term data to trace vegetation development. In this study, pollen records are used as proxies of vegetation population to test the roles of long-term climate change and transient environmental disturbances in vegetation dynamics. Two sediment cores, from Sponge Swamp, Haast, and Tiniroto Lakes, Gisborne, were collected as representatives of undisturbed and disturbed sites, the former being used as a reference site to separate out the effects of climate and evaluate the impact of disturbance on the vegetation. Pollen data were inspected using Tilia, and zones defined. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on pollen data to summarise the change in species composition over time, and the sample scores of the first PCA axis were exploited as an index of vegetation dynamics for further comparison. Redundancy analysis (RDA) is also applied to help interpretation of the vegetation change with respect to environmental factors. The result of this study indicates that the vegetation development in both sites is characterized by non-equilibrium dynamics, in which vegetation composition is changing continually through time. In Sponge Swamp, this change is steady and consistent over the whole time span, with a consistent decline of Ascarina lucida and a progressive increase of cold tolerant or moisture-stressed taxa, like Gleichenia and Lycopodium australianum. Subsequently there is a partial replacement of swamp forest taxa such as Dacrycarps dacrydioides and tree ferns by Prumnopitys taxifolia, and further expansion of Nothofagus and Phyllocladus is distinguished. A climate gradient, from mild and wet to cooler and/or drier is suggested from the pollen evidence, and appears the driving force for the vegetation dynamics at that undisturbed site. At Tiniroto, however, the vegetation development is divided into two stages. Before c. 2300 yr BP, the vegetation change is steady and consistent which is comparable to that from Sponge Swamp. A forest invasion, a process of gradually replacing open land and light-adapted taxa, such as Dodonaea viscosa, Coprosma, Pseudopanax, Schefflera digitata, Pteridium, Hebe and members of the family Fabaceae and Asteraceae, by increasing proportions of forest taxa, characterise this change. Climate amelioration with increased rainfall is responsible. After c. 2300 yr BP, this trend was frequently punctuated by disturbances, in which sudden changes of vegetation occur, generating substantial fluctuations about the trend. From RDA, sample age explains more than 20% of the variance of species data at both sites. The long-term directional climate change derived from pollen evidence of Sponge Swamp and at least partly at the Tiniroto site, may be represented by the explanatory variable age. At Tiniroto, additional variance is also explained by the explanatory variables charcoal and pollen taxonomic richness, suggesting the impact of disturbance on vegetation dynamics. The impact of disturbance on vegetation dynamics becomes clearer after the climate gradient is removed. Autocorrelation analysis on detrended sample scores of the first PCA axis suggests further differences between the two sites, in response to local disturbances. There is little dependence of the present state of vegetation composition on its past state in the Sponge Swamp site; instead, the vegetation composition is affected by various "random" events, implying small disturbances such as floods, or landslides caused by earthquakes etc. At Tiniroto, the change of vegetation composition is more "successional", and the present state of vegetation depends only on the immediate past state, due to the impact of catastrophic disturbance. Despite the Tiniroto site having been subjected to a long history of disturbance, the climate gradient, which is distinct at the earlier stage, becomes less identifiable and partially masked by outbreaks of disturbances only since c. 2300 yr BP. This implies that the relative role of disturbance on vegetation dynamics with respect to climate is depended on different types or different levels of disturbances and different responses by the vegetation. Short-term vegetation responses to different types of disturbance were examined by fine resolution pollen analyses around five disturbance episodes, including the Taupo (1850±10 yr BP), Waimihia (3280±20 yr BP), Whakatane (4830±20 yr BP) eruptions, and two charcoal peaks (c. 1100 yr BP and c. 2300 yr BP). Almost no vegetation change occurred relative to the eruption within the Whakatane and Waimihia episodes, except that a temporary rise of shrubs and ferns corresponded with intermittent occurrence of charcoal particles. Substantial vegetation change relative to disturbance was found within both the Taupo episode and the fire episode around c. 2300 yr BP, in which establishment of ensuing semi-open vegetation was encouraged for decades. The fire c. 2300 yr BP transformed part of the forest into fernland, while the Taupo eruption turned part of the shrubs and tree ferns into bracken field. Although it is difficult to judge the effect of the fire around 1100 yr BP as the result was unreliable due to contamination, the vegetation at Tiniroto is suggested to be more vulnerable to fire than tephra. Non-equilibrium dynamics are common in New Zealand forests, even at stable sites such as Sponge Swamp, due to climate change. Locally these non-equilibrium dynamics appear highly responsive to disturbances, esp. at Tiniroto. Even disturbances at Tiniroto are dynamic and a change of disturbance regime is suggested around the later disturbance episodes. This change is possibly due to climate increasing the fire frequency, but an alternative explanation is the presence of humans earlier than currently accepted. Forests and forest ecological studies in New Zealand are very dynamic, and forest management needs to improve to incorporate these dynamics.

Although land is abundant, biophysical constraints on Gunung Sewu Karst in Java, Indonesia, limit soil fertility and water availability. Gunung Sewu farmers depend heavily on the land for their survival yet they have a scarcity of the resources needed for productivity. Faced with the need to survive, they have developed cultural, physical and social self-insurance strategies to increase the return from those resources available to minimise the risks to their food security and income. Strategies for land use choices are driven by socio-economic circumstances (social, economical and cultural needs), while strategies for income are driven more by the physical environment. The study confirms that human adaptation strategies are as important as environmental circumstances in determining the consequences of people’s interaction with the land. The rocky desertification that occurs in the area reflects the unsustainability of current rural practices, although this cannot be blamed entirely on current practices. Historical analysis of Gunung Sewu land use shows that environmental degradation is often triggered by external social factors such as population growth, politics and economic problems as much as, or more than, by the limitations imposed by biophysical factors. Therefore, the sustainability of current resource management in the area cannot be measured by the current extent of land degradation. Instead, there is a need to focus on the causes that underpin the dynamics of a system, not the effects (impacts), i.e. the underlying causes of people’s motivation and behaviour with respect to resource management must be considered. In effect, sustainability indicators for resource management in Gunung Sewu should be addressed through causal indicators portraying the interactions between people and environment. A system dynamics approach coupled with steps from PICABUE methodology are used to develop sustainability indicators. From a system dynamics perspective, five interacting sub-systems make up the resource management system of Gunung Sewu, i.e. water, demography, food production, economy and culture (where water is treated as exogenous factor). Out of these subsystems, culture is the most influential but the least influenced. The sustainability indicators for the system are soil conservation effort, interest in traditional farming, education level, births, onfarm income, outmigration, rice consumption and crops consumption, each crammed with sensitive parameters, most of which belong to the culture sub-system. This suggests the important of cultural indicators in an evaluation of the resource management sustainability of a resource-poor area.

The complex interactions between individuals, institutions and information and communications technologies (ICTs) have generated a growing body of research that seeks greater knowledge of the processes at work and their consequences. Situated firmly within this area, this thesis challenges the dominance of the generalised and largely technologically deterministic narratives within the field by seeking to constitute such knowledge in a different way. Geography provides a useful standpoint from which to challenge these narratives owing to its enduring engagement with time and space, concepts implicit in any discussion of ICTs effects. Emerging work on code space, transurbanism and timespace are specifically used to negate the persistent dualistic treatment of time and space which is argued to be hampering geographic research in this field. Methodologically drawing from a non representational style this thesis uses these emerging understandings to access the in between, a mental space of performance; which involves the process of drawing from tacit knowledge, cognitive perceptions of the spatial and temporal environment and emotions, in order to explore the conditions of possibility that individuals are becoming aware of through their interactions with ICTs. Four empirical interventions are used to ground these emerging understandings into the reality of everyday encounters with ICTs in Auckland, New Zealand. The first focuses on the role of local government in the development of Auckland’s ICT infrastructure, a complex and contingent process. The second concentrates on the provision of a Real Time Passenger Information System at Auckland bus stops, exposing individuals to new timespaces while waiting for the bus. The third considers students opinions of the e-learning mechanisms used in two first year geography courses. The final intervention examines the role ICTs play in South Africans and South Koreans imagining, negotiation and mediation of the migration process to Auckland. In conclusion, this thesis contributes to how geography constitutes knowledge about ICTs at three different levels. Empirically, the four interventions contribute grounded findings to the debates in the geographic literature over interactions with ICTs. Methodologically, the conditions of possibility institutional and individual actors are beginning to perceive through their encounters with ICTs are revealed as are the timespaces that may eventuate from these. Theoretically, to understand how the interactions between individuals and ICTs are performed this thesis demonstrates the need to interrogate the in between as a process, not just a gap or blank.

Although land is abundant, biophysical constraints on Gunung Sewu Karst in Java, Indonesia, limit soil fertility and water availability. Gunung Sewu farmers depend heavily on the land for their survival yet they have a scarcity of the resources needed for productivity. Faced with the need to survive, they have developed cultural, physical and social self-insurance strategies to increase the return from those resources available to minimise the risks to their food security and income. Strategies for land use choices are driven by socio-economic circumstances (social, economical and cultural needs), while strategies for income are driven more by the physical environment. The study confirms that human adaptation strategies are as important as environmental circumstances in determining the consequences of people’s interaction with the land. The rocky desertification that occurs in the area reflects the unsustainability of current rural practices, although this cannot be blamed entirely on current practices. Historical analysis of Gunung Sewu land use shows that environmental degradation is often triggered by external social factors such as population growth, politics and economic problems as much as, or more than, by the limitations imposed by biophysical factors. Therefore, the sustainability of current resource management in the area cannot be measured by the current extent of land degradation. Instead, there is a need to focus on the causes that underpin the dynamics of a system, not the effects (impacts), i.e. the underlying causes of people’s motivation and behaviour with respect to resource management must be considered. In effect, sustainability indicators for resource management in Gunung Sewu should be addressed through causal indicators portraying the interactions between people and environment. A system dynamics approach coupled with steps from PICABUE methodology are used to develop sustainability indicators. From a system dynamics perspective, five interacting sub-systems make up the resource management system of Gunung Sewu, i.e. water, demography, food production, economy and culture (where water is treated as exogenous factor). Out of these subsystems, culture is the most influential but the least influenced. The sustainability indicators for the system are soil conservation effort, interest in traditional farming, education level, births, onfarm income, outmigration, rice consumption and crops consumption, each crammed with sensitive parameters, most of which belong to the culture sub-system. This suggests the important of cultural indicators in an evaluation of the resource management sustainability of a resource-poor area.

The complex interactions between individuals, institutions and information and communications technologies (ICTs) have generated a growing body of research that seeks greater knowledge of the processes at work and their consequences. Situated firmly within this area, this thesis challenges the dominance of the generalised and largely technologically deterministic narratives within the field by seeking to constitute such knowledge in a different way. Geography provides a useful standpoint from which to challenge these narratives owing to its enduring engagement with time and space, concepts implicit in any discussion of ICTs effects. Emerging work on code space, transurbanism and timespace are specifically used to negate the persistent dualistic treatment of time and space which is argued to be hampering geographic research in this field. Methodologically drawing from a non representational style this thesis uses these emerging understandings to access the in between, a mental space of performance; which involves the process of drawing from tacit knowledge, cognitive perceptions of the spatial and temporal environment and emotions, in order to explore the conditions of possibility that individuals are becoming aware of through their interactions with ICTs. Four empirical interventions are used to ground these emerging understandings into the reality of everyday encounters with ICTs in Auckland, New Zealand. The first focuses on the role of local government in the development of Auckland’s ICT infrastructure, a complex and contingent process. The second concentrates on the provision of a Real Time Passenger Information System at Auckland bus stops, exposing individuals to new timespaces while waiting for the bus. The third considers students opinions of the e-learning mechanisms used in two first year geography courses. The final intervention examines the role ICTs play in South Africans and South Koreans imagining, negotiation and mediation of the migration process to Auckland. In conclusion, this thesis contributes to how geography constitutes knowledge about ICTs at three different levels. Empirically, the four interventions contribute grounded findings to the debates in the geographic literature over interactions with ICTs. Methodologically, the conditions of possibility institutional and individual actors are beginning to perceive through their encounters with ICTs are revealed as are the timespaces that may eventuate from these. Theoretically, to understand how the interactions between individuals and ICTs are performed this thesis demonstrates the need to interrogate the in between as a process, not just a gap or blank.

Although land is abundant, biophysical constraints on Gunung Sewu Karst in Java, Indonesia, limit soil fertility and water availability. Gunung Sewu farmers depend heavily on the land for their survival yet they have a scarcity of the resources needed for productivity. Faced with the need to survive, they have developed cultural, physical and social self-insurance strategies to increase the return from those resources available to minimise the risks to their food security and income. Strategies for land use choices are driven by socio-economic circumstances (social, economical and cultural needs), while strategies for income are driven more by the physical environment. The study confirms that human adaptation strategies are as important as environmental circumstances in determining the consequences of people’s interaction with the land. The rocky desertification that occurs in the area reflects the unsustainability of current rural practices, although this cannot be blamed entirely on current practices. Historical analysis of Gunung Sewu land use shows that environmental degradation is often triggered by external social factors such as population growth, politics and economic problems as much as, or more than, by the limitations imposed by biophysical factors. Therefore, the sustainability of current resource management in the area cannot be measured by the current extent of land degradation. Instead, there is a need to focus on the causes that underpin the dynamics of a system, not the effects (impacts), i.e. the underlying causes of people’s motivation and behaviour with respect to resource management must be considered. In effect, sustainability indicators for resource management in Gunung Sewu should be addressed through causal indicators portraying the interactions between people and environment. A system dynamics approach coupled with steps from PICABUE methodology are used to develop sustainability indicators. From a system dynamics perspective, five interacting sub-systems make up the resource management system of Gunung Sewu, i.e. water, demography, food production, economy and culture (where water is treated as exogenous factor). Out of these subsystems, culture is the most influential but the least influenced. The sustainability indicators for the system are soil conservation effort, interest in traditional farming, education level, births, onfarm income, outmigration, rice consumption and crops consumption, each crammed with sensitive parameters, most of which belong to the culture sub-system. This suggests the important of cultural indicators in an evaluation of the resource management sustainability of a resource-poor area.