Phone: +6463569099 Extn 83664 Address: Social Anthropology Programme School of People Environment and Planning Private Bag 11222 Palmerston North 4442 New Zealand
The management of plastic waste is a global problem which currently lacks a global solution. As o... more The management of plastic waste is a global problem which currently lacks a global solution. As one of the highest per capita producers of household waste in the developed world, New Zealand has a key role to play in addressing the plastics crisis at multiple levels of governance. This article analyses the various policy options available to the New Zealand government and offers a series of recommendations, including prioritising policy and investment at the top of the waste hierarchy (refuse, rethink, redesign, reduce and reuse); linking plastic waste to toxicological risk and commitments to carbon reduction targets; implementing global commitments domestically; and supporting a proposed international legally binding agreement that captures the full lifecycle of plastics and regulates the transboundary flows of plastic pollution.
Sites: a journal of social anthropology and cultural studies, 2020
This study of a remote Aboriginal community in Australia’s Northern Territory in 2014 sought to u... more This study of a remote Aboriginal community in Australia’s Northern Territory in 2014 sought to understand diabetes from a local Aboriginal perspective. Participants drew on a variety of holistic healing methods in the absence of an individual or individuals identified as holding a healing role in the community. The study offers an alternative to the common assumption that all communities can identify specific individuals as Aboriginal healers who are central to maintaining Aboriginal beliefs and wellbeing who contribute to holistic health (Clarke 2008; Maher 1999; McDonald 2006; Seathre 2013; Williams 2011). This research found the seven adult Aboriginal diabetes patients participating in the longitudinal ethnographic study actively engaged in self-healing strategies. Moreover, diabetes clinicians could combine local remedies and biomedical treatment to heal diabetes within the clinic, as well as actively engaging the patient in their own treatment, effective to reduce the symptoms...
... Massey University's Institutional Repository Massey Authors: Farrelly, Trisia Farrel... more ... Massey University's Institutional Repository Massey Authors: Farrelly, Trisia Farrelly, T. (2010). Reimagining 'environment' in sustainable development. ... Working Paper Series 2010/1 TrisiaFarrelly Institute of Development Studies Massey University, New Zealand Page 3. ...
The paper presents an argument for a broader and more complex definition of environment than that... more The paper presents an argument for a broader and more complex definition of environment than that currently offered in sustainable development discourse and practice. Sustainable development is rooted in dominant western rational and instrumental scientific representations of human-environment relationships. As such, it has been criticised as misrepresentative and meaningless for many of those for whom it is intended. Recent contributions by social scientists have emphasized the need to move beyond the narrow construction of the human-environment dichotomy found in western scientific rhetoric. These emerging ‘new ecologies’ advocate a reimagining of human-environment relationships as holistic, connective, and relational, and as a product of direct perception and active engagement in the world. The Boumā National Heritage Park, Fiji, a community-based ecotourism initiative is presented as a case study to identify discrepancies between indigenous perceptions of the environment and tho...
Many Pacific writers argue that the values inherent in the Fijian vanua are incompatible with tho... more Many Pacific writers argue that the values inherent in the Fijian vanua are incompatible with those of entrepreneurship. However, Fiji’s Boumā National Heritage Park is one example of a tribe’s endeavours to integrate the vanua with business to create a locally meaningful form of Indigenous entrepreneurship. The Boumā people call this amalgamation ‘business va’avanua’. Business va’avanua is largely understood as decision-making conducted the vanua way. That is, decision-making involving the whole community, along traditional lines of communication, and sealed by the chief’s final word. This paper provides some local perceptions of European democratic and Indigenous decision-making in community-based ecotourism management from the perspective of the members of one village in the Boumā National Heritage Park from 2004-2006.
Talanoa has recently been taken up by development practitioners and others as an appropriate rese... more Talanoa has recently been taken up by development practitioners and others as an appropriate research method in Pacific contexts. However, there is a danger that talanoa is simply replacing „informal open-ended interviews‟ whilst glossing over its emotional and cultural complexity. Empathy is an intersubjective and embodied experience which is vital to ethnographic research in development contexts. In this presentation, I will explore talanoa as a culturally appropriate ethnographic Indigenous method in the Pacific. Talanoa has been defined as talking about nothing in particular, chat, or gossip and it is within the cultural milieu of talanoa that knowledge and emotions are shared. Those who write about talanoa as a Pacific research methodology describe talanoa as a holistic and embodied amalgamation of the emotions, knowledge, interests, and experiences between researcher and participant/s. For indigenous Fijians, values such as empathy, respect, love and humility are essential to ...
The rate of plastic pollution entering the environment is accelerating with plastic production pr... more The rate of plastic pollution entering the environment is accelerating with plastic production predicted to increase by 40% over the next decade. Plastic pollution transcends territorial boundaries on ocean and air currents. Large Ocean Small Island Developing States (LOSIDS) are on the frontline of the plastics crisis and associated climate change impacts. This desktop gap analysis identified potential strengths and weaknesses in national policy frameworks in 52 key documents relevant to plastic pollution in ten Pacific LOSIDS. The study found considerable gaps in the vertical and horizontal integration of plastic pollution-related policy, and a lack of access to current science-based evidence on plastic pollution including evidence related to human health impacts and microplastics. The study concludes that, even if Pacific LOSIDS were to include best practice management of plastic pollution across all policy frameworks, they could not prevent plastic pollution, and that a plastic ...
Augmenting low income or subsistence lifestyles in developing countries with knowledge, skills an... more Augmenting low income or subsistence lifestyles in developing countries with knowledge, skills and values to enable communities to live in a more sustainable manner is becoming increasingly important as the demands to simply survive increase. Consequently, education for sustainable development (ESD) has emerged strongly in recent years to become a key mechanism for a more sustainable future. Using a case study approach to determine a non-formal ESD programme’s response to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) (2005) ESD ‘characteristics’, this study aims to gauge the success and value of non-formal ESD. A qualitative research was undertaken in 2017 employing various data collection methods, including interviews, focus group discussions, observations and the examination of national policy documents and the non-formal ESD curriculum. The study found that the non-formal education sector provided significant support to the formal education sys...
New Zealand currently manages its annually-generated 99,000 tonnes of e-waste via voluntary produ... more New Zealand currently manages its annually-generated 99,000 tonnes of e-waste via voluntary product stewardship schemes. Limited data is available to determine the success of this approach. This lack of data is cited as the logic preventing the declaration of e-waste as a priority product by the Minister for the Environment which would trigger the enforcement of mandatory product stewardship. This case study involved an online survey of 264 Whangarei District householders asking questions about e-waste creation and management, as well as analyses of local services, and local and national policy. It found that only 1.8% of the estimated e-waste created in the district is recycled by municipal services, with the ‘cost to recycle’ and ‘a lack of knowledge’ presenting barriers to engagement in these services. The ‘lack of ability to repair/the cost to repair’ was found to be the most significant driver for e-waste creation. The adoption of mandatory product stewardship for e-waste was r...
Our next generations will need to work with the potential of the 4IR to first slow, and then elim... more Our next generations will need to work with the potential of the 4IR to first slow, and then eliminate, the environmental (and thus social and economic) harms of previous industrial revolutions if they are to realise any potential benefits. Educational managers have a responsibility to ensure our students have the skills and knowledge to do this. The next generations will need to be pioneers of climate change solutions based on 4IR technologies. PWC’s new report demonstrates how the top ten 4IR innovations are already driving emerging solutions to climate change through the development of clean power, smart transport systems, sustainable production and consumption, sustainable land use, and smart cities and homes. These innovations have the potential to disrupt traditional industries, sectors, and infrastructure, to optimize existing products and services, particularly around energy efficiency and waste. Students will have to critically evaluate such proposed solutions to clime chan...
The management of plastic waste is a global problem which currently lacks a global solution. As o... more The management of plastic waste is a global problem which currently lacks a global solution. As one of the highest per capita producers of household waste in the developed world, New Zealand has a key role to play in addressing the plastics crisis at multiple levels of governance. This article analyses the various policy options available to the New Zealand government and offers a series of recommendations, including prioritising policy and investment at the top of the waste hierarchy (refuse, rethink, redesign, reduce and reuse); linking plastic waste to toxicological risk and commitments to carbon reduction targets; implementing global commitments domestically; and supporting a proposed international legally binding agreement that captures the full lifecycle of plastics and regulates the transboundary flows of plastic pollution.
Sites: a journal of social anthropology and cultural studies, 2020
This study of a remote Aboriginal community in Australia’s Northern Territory in 2014 sought to u... more This study of a remote Aboriginal community in Australia’s Northern Territory in 2014 sought to understand diabetes from a local Aboriginal perspective. Participants drew on a variety of holistic healing methods in the absence of an individual or individuals identified as holding a healing role in the community. The study offers an alternative to the common assumption that all communities can identify specific individuals as Aboriginal healers who are central to maintaining Aboriginal beliefs and wellbeing who contribute to holistic health (Clarke 2008; Maher 1999; McDonald 2006; Seathre 2013; Williams 2011). This research found the seven adult Aboriginal diabetes patients participating in the longitudinal ethnographic study actively engaged in self-healing strategies. Moreover, diabetes clinicians could combine local remedies and biomedical treatment to heal diabetes within the clinic, as well as actively engaging the patient in their own treatment, effective to reduce the symptoms...
... Massey University's Institutional Repository Massey Authors: Farrelly, Trisia Farrel... more ... Massey University's Institutional Repository Massey Authors: Farrelly, Trisia Farrelly, T. (2010). Reimagining 'environment' in sustainable development. ... Working Paper Series 2010/1 TrisiaFarrelly Institute of Development Studies Massey University, New Zealand Page 3. ...
The paper presents an argument for a broader and more complex definition of environment than that... more The paper presents an argument for a broader and more complex definition of environment than that currently offered in sustainable development discourse and practice. Sustainable development is rooted in dominant western rational and instrumental scientific representations of human-environment relationships. As such, it has been criticised as misrepresentative and meaningless for many of those for whom it is intended. Recent contributions by social scientists have emphasized the need to move beyond the narrow construction of the human-environment dichotomy found in western scientific rhetoric. These emerging ‘new ecologies’ advocate a reimagining of human-environment relationships as holistic, connective, and relational, and as a product of direct perception and active engagement in the world. The Boumā National Heritage Park, Fiji, a community-based ecotourism initiative is presented as a case study to identify discrepancies between indigenous perceptions of the environment and tho...
Many Pacific writers argue that the values inherent in the Fijian vanua are incompatible with tho... more Many Pacific writers argue that the values inherent in the Fijian vanua are incompatible with those of entrepreneurship. However, Fiji’s Boumā National Heritage Park is one example of a tribe’s endeavours to integrate the vanua with business to create a locally meaningful form of Indigenous entrepreneurship. The Boumā people call this amalgamation ‘business va’avanua’. Business va’avanua is largely understood as decision-making conducted the vanua way. That is, decision-making involving the whole community, along traditional lines of communication, and sealed by the chief’s final word. This paper provides some local perceptions of European democratic and Indigenous decision-making in community-based ecotourism management from the perspective of the members of one village in the Boumā National Heritage Park from 2004-2006.
Talanoa has recently been taken up by development practitioners and others as an appropriate rese... more Talanoa has recently been taken up by development practitioners and others as an appropriate research method in Pacific contexts. However, there is a danger that talanoa is simply replacing „informal open-ended interviews‟ whilst glossing over its emotional and cultural complexity. Empathy is an intersubjective and embodied experience which is vital to ethnographic research in development contexts. In this presentation, I will explore talanoa as a culturally appropriate ethnographic Indigenous method in the Pacific. Talanoa has been defined as talking about nothing in particular, chat, or gossip and it is within the cultural milieu of talanoa that knowledge and emotions are shared. Those who write about talanoa as a Pacific research methodology describe talanoa as a holistic and embodied amalgamation of the emotions, knowledge, interests, and experiences between researcher and participant/s. For indigenous Fijians, values such as empathy, respect, love and humility are essential to ...
The rate of plastic pollution entering the environment is accelerating with plastic production pr... more The rate of plastic pollution entering the environment is accelerating with plastic production predicted to increase by 40% over the next decade. Plastic pollution transcends territorial boundaries on ocean and air currents. Large Ocean Small Island Developing States (LOSIDS) are on the frontline of the plastics crisis and associated climate change impacts. This desktop gap analysis identified potential strengths and weaknesses in national policy frameworks in 52 key documents relevant to plastic pollution in ten Pacific LOSIDS. The study found considerable gaps in the vertical and horizontal integration of plastic pollution-related policy, and a lack of access to current science-based evidence on plastic pollution including evidence related to human health impacts and microplastics. The study concludes that, even if Pacific LOSIDS were to include best practice management of plastic pollution across all policy frameworks, they could not prevent plastic pollution, and that a plastic ...
Augmenting low income or subsistence lifestyles in developing countries with knowledge, skills an... more Augmenting low income or subsistence lifestyles in developing countries with knowledge, skills and values to enable communities to live in a more sustainable manner is becoming increasingly important as the demands to simply survive increase. Consequently, education for sustainable development (ESD) has emerged strongly in recent years to become a key mechanism for a more sustainable future. Using a case study approach to determine a non-formal ESD programme’s response to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) (2005) ESD ‘characteristics’, this study aims to gauge the success and value of non-formal ESD. A qualitative research was undertaken in 2017 employing various data collection methods, including interviews, focus group discussions, observations and the examination of national policy documents and the non-formal ESD curriculum. The study found that the non-formal education sector provided significant support to the formal education sys...
New Zealand currently manages its annually-generated 99,000 tonnes of e-waste via voluntary produ... more New Zealand currently manages its annually-generated 99,000 tonnes of e-waste via voluntary product stewardship schemes. Limited data is available to determine the success of this approach. This lack of data is cited as the logic preventing the declaration of e-waste as a priority product by the Minister for the Environment which would trigger the enforcement of mandatory product stewardship. This case study involved an online survey of 264 Whangarei District householders asking questions about e-waste creation and management, as well as analyses of local services, and local and national policy. It found that only 1.8% of the estimated e-waste created in the district is recycled by municipal services, with the ‘cost to recycle’ and ‘a lack of knowledge’ presenting barriers to engagement in these services. The ‘lack of ability to repair/the cost to repair’ was found to be the most significant driver for e-waste creation. The adoption of mandatory product stewardship for e-waste was r...
Our next generations will need to work with the potential of the 4IR to first slow, and then elim... more Our next generations will need to work with the potential of the 4IR to first slow, and then eliminate, the environmental (and thus social and economic) harms of previous industrial revolutions if they are to realise any potential benefits. Educational managers have a responsibility to ensure our students have the skills and knowledge to do this. The next generations will need to be pioneers of climate change solutions based on 4IR technologies. PWC’s new report demonstrates how the top ten 4IR innovations are already driving emerging solutions to climate change through the development of clean power, smart transport systems, sustainable production and consumption, sustainable land use, and smart cities and homes. These innovations have the potential to disrupt traditional industries, sectors, and infrastructure, to optimize existing products and services, particularly around energy efficiency and waste. Students will have to critically evaluate such proposed solutions to clime chan...
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