There is very little theoretical literature about theatrical improvisation as it connects to ideas and practices of relating and specifically to ideas and practices of social work relating. This thesis involves efforts to theorize moments of relating – of being with others – in improvisation. A group of hospital social workers and a group of PhD social work research students participated in the study. The participants took part in improvisational workshops designed specifically for the study, as well as one-on-one and group interviews. This thesis explores what was created between research participants in improvisational workshops: the response-ability to and for others; an experience of grappling with the desire for control; and an embodied apprehension of interdependence. The study demonstrates an embodied and uncomfortable experience of the dominance of individualism in our relating. The study also demonstrates ways in which the art of theatrical improvisation can allow us to take up the transformative promises of social constructionism in social work relating. The thesis aims to make living space for central social constructionist concepts such as mutual constitution and interdependence – to explore and consider what happens when we fully recognize and carry these out in our practices of relating. Providing a different way into these central social constructionist concepts, this study contributes to arts-informed research, teaching and practice. More specifically, the research shows how the art of improvisation can provide transformative possibilities for social work pedagogy and the social work classroom. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis involves efforts to theorize moments of relating – of being with others – in improvisation. A group of hospital social workers and a group of PhD social work research students participated in the study. The participants took part in improvisational workshops designed specifically for the study, as well as one-on-one and group interviews. This thesis explores what was created between research participants in improvisational workshops: the response-ability to and for others; an experience of grappling with the desire for control; and an embodied apprehension of interdependence. The study demonstrates an embodied and uncomfortable experience of the dominance of individualism in our relating and provides an analysis of engagement in improvisation as an alternative to a framework of independence in social work. The study contributes potential for arts-informed research, teaching, and practice, as well as social work pedagogy as it demonstrates ways in which the art of improvisation can allow us to take up the transformative promises of social constructionism in social work relating.

‘Rural restructuring’ has frequently been used to indicate the magnitude, and conceptualise the nature, of contemporary change in the countryside. Most notably, concern has focused upon the fundamental changes in economic and social organisation brought about by the increasing leverage of consumption-based activity as a path to rural development. By drawing on the relevant literature, however, I suggest in this thesis that the use of ‘rural restructuring’ as a conceptual framework has been inconsistent. The issue of scale is a case in point with scholars positioning their studies of rural change at varying levels of analysis. In response, I adopt Massey’s (2004) arguments about space and place to present an alternative model which considers ‘rural restructuring’ as a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process. To explore the feasibility of approaching ‘rural restructuring’ in this way, the thesis focuses, in particular, upon the development of rural tourism at five different scales. These comprise the national scale (New Zealand), the regional scale (Central Otago), the sub-regional scale (the Otago Central Rail Trail), the business scale (five business case studies) and the individual scale (five entrepreneurial case studies). Reflecting the exploratory nature of the study and its multi-scalar approach, I use a number of qualitative research methods. These include interrogating the promotion of New Zealand and Central Otago as tourist destinations, cycling along the Otago Central Rail Trail, staying at accommodation businesses along the Rail Trail, and interviewing individual entrepreneurs about their experiences of business development. The analytical chapters of the thesis comprise an in-depth look at the promotion or experience of rural tourism development at each scale of analysis. Through identifying inter-scale consistencies and emphasising the reciprocal basis of such consistency, I present ‘rural restructuring’ as a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process. Thus, I connect the national-scale targeting of the ‘interactive traveller’ to the promotion of Central Otago as a ‘World of Discovery’, before linking the development of the Otago Central Rail Trail to its regional context. I then investigate the nature of business development as intimately bound to the evolution of the Rail Trail, before finally tying these entrepreneurial creations to individual accounts of exhaustion and enjoyment that emerge from the operation of tourism businesses. The thesis ends by concluding that ‘rural restructuring’ can indeed be considered a multi-scalar and mutually constitutive process, worked out simultaneously at wide-ranging but interconnected levels of change.