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The UC Research Repository collects, stores and makes available original research from postgraduate students, researchers and academics based at the University of Canterbury.
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Recent Submissions
The diverse stories of Māori political agency: a Q method study
(Informa UK Limited, 2017) Sheed T; MacDonald, Lindsey Te Ata o Tū; Vowles J
While there is much research and writing on Māori self-determination, little of it focuses on how Māori individuals and organisations conceive the necessary antecedent to self-determination; Māori political agency. To remedy this research gap, we explored the political aspirations of Māori individuals with a research method built to study such subjective topics: Q method. Combining Q method with some practical innovations from Kaupapa Māori Research method, we developed a unique way of researching the stories our participants tell themselves about politics. Our results suggest some Māori individuals do think of politics as a collective endeavour as the self-determination literature suggests, but just as often Māori collective forums and other non-Māori political institutions are seen as barriers to Māori individual and collective political agency and thus to Māori self-determination. We also found that Māori view the political autonomy and participation necessary for self-determination as possible in numerous diverse spaces, suggesting the focus on low voter turnout amongst Māori in the literature is missing the point: the stories told by this research suggest Māori individuals perceive their political agency to be hindered, not by majoritarian politics of non-Māori, but by Māori and non-Māori elites.
Questioning Urban Forest Canopy Cover Goals
(2024) morgenroth, justin; Dobbs C; Doick K; Hauer R; Duinker P
Chapter 1 Introducing the Pacific Ocean Climate Change Assessment (POCCA) Project
(2024) Ratuva, Steven
The Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment project (POCCA) conducted an interdisciplinary, and evidence-based research study of the diverse range of impacts, community experiences, adaptation strategies, community innovations and Indigenous knowledge systems relating to climate change in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). The PICTs covered in the study are Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Emerging Trends in Freehand Sketch Usage within Contemporary Industrial Design Practice and Education
(2024) Mallya P; Woods T; Zhang, Wendy; Shahri, Bahareh
Traditionally, freehand sketching has proven to be an indispensable method for industrial designers to
generate, develop and communicate product concepts. However, the primacy of sketching in design
practice is now challenged by accelerated workflows, advances in visualisation technology, and the
evolution of the discipline from a product focus to a contemporary evolutionary trend towards product
systems and services. How is this evolution in practice contributing to changes in the usage of traditional
forms of industrial design sketching? If so, what are the implications for the future of sketching for
design? Through a broad survey of award-winning industrial designers in New Zealand, this visual paper
reveals a notable evolution in professional sketch usage in the following formats: (1) low-fidelity ‘rough’
sketches; (2) medium- to high-fidelity sketches; and (3) non-traditional 'non-object' sketches. These
findings are additionally compared with taught sketching content in undergraduate degrees at
universities, to reveal significant differences in how educators include each of these three formats within
sketching modules.
Voices of the Pacific Climate Crisis Adaptation and Resilience: Pacific Ocean and Climate Crisis Assessment Report Volume 1
(2024) Ratuva, Steven; Singh, Awnesh; Hayward, Bronwyn; Iese, Viliamu; Veitayaki, Joeli; La'ala'ai-Tausa, Christina; Waqa-Sakiti, Hilda; Holland, Elisabeth; Dehm, Jasha; Young, Luisa; Drugunalevu, Eliki; Ward, Alastair; Vunibola, Suli; Gharbaoui, Dalila; Gauna, Metuisela; Garcia, David; Ratuva, Steven; Singh, Awnesh; Hayward, Bronwyn; Iese, Viliamu; Veitayaki, Joeli; La'ala'ai-Tausa, Christina; Waqa-Sakiti, Hilda; Holland, Elisabeth; Dehm, Jasha; Young, Luisa; Drugunalevu, Eliki; Ward, Alastair; Vunibola, Suli; Gharbaoui, Dalila; Gauna, Metuisela; Garcia, David
This monumental undertaking is the result of the hard work of innovative minds and empathetic hearts, driven by their shared desire to help make the Pacific, their oceanic home continent, respond effectively to the devastating effects of the climate crisis. While the science of global warming is well-established, what matters most are its actual impacts on communities and the ways in which people have adapted and built resilience through local innovation and other survival mechanisms. As descendants of great
navigators, explorers and oceanic settlers who traversed the world’s largest ocean for millennia, Pacific peoples have long developed cultural ingenuity and sophisticated adaptive capacities. Despite living in some of the planet’s smallest, most environmentally challenging places, they have been responding to climate change in locally relevant innovative ways for centuries.
This raises important questions: What are the cultural, economic, behavioural, political and environmental foundations of these Indigenous innovations? How can they be connected with mainstream science and social science? This is, in essence, what the Pacific Ocean and Climate Crisis Assessment (POCCA) project seeks to explore.
In a way, this is what this project is about. The Pacific Ocean and Climate Crisis Assessment (POCCA) project provides a multidimensional, epistemic, methodological and cultural approach that weaves together diverse knowledge paradigms across the broad interdisciplinary areas of Indigenous knowledge, natural science, social science and humanities. The project brought together, in an enriching way, the largest group of Pacific scholars ever assembled, representing universities and research institutions from the Pacific, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. It provided an intellectually and culturally enriching experience that has significantly transformed the Pacific research eco-system, strengthened regional research networks and deepened inter-institutional partnerships.
The diversity of the scholars was reflected in the impressive range of disciplines represented: meteorology, oceanography, biology, physics, geography, environmental studies, sociology, political science, Indigenous studies and many more. This interdisciplinary diversity mirrors the complex nature of climate change itself, which affects virtually every aspect of our environmental, social, cultural, economic, and political life. The report engages with this multifaceted reality using empirical field data, evidence-based analysis, and critical discourse.
The project’s findings are presented in two volumes: Volume I addresses thematic issues, while Volume II presents individual country reports. Both volumes are closely interconnected and inform one another. Together, these volumes represent the most comprehensive analysis of climate change in the Pacific by Pacific Island scholars. It is hoped that this work will inform perceptions of climate change and influence future policy-making, strategies, thinking and narratives by governments, regional organisations, international agencies, civil society and the general public.
The report encapsulates scientific research, social science analysis and Indigenous knowledge in a holistic way, while amplifying the voices of grassroots communities whose wisdom and experiences are often overlooked in climate policy discourses.
Another important output of the project is the creation of a digital climate change database consisting of about 1,000 publications, an interactive climate policy map of the Pacific and community stories in the form of videos and other visual medium. The POCCA project not only seeks to answer pressing questions about the present but also raises critical questions about the future. A future that some fear may be overwhelmingly disastrous – yet one that could also offer hope if we change our thinking, behaviours and practices to save our planet and humanity.
Distinguished Professor Steven Ratuva (University of Canterbury)
Associate Professor Awnesh Singh (The University of the South Pacific)
POCCA Project Co-Leads