CONTENTS
ARTICLES
Doug
Ashwell abstract
Horses and Hydro Lakes: the Reporting of Environmental Issues
Robert
E. Bartholonew, Bryan Dickeson abstract
Expanding the Boundary of Moral Panics: the Great New Zealand Zeppelin
Scare of 1909
Augie
Fleras abstract
Working Through Differences: the Politics of 'Isms' in Aotearoa
Roy Nash
abstract
Radical Structuralism in the Sociology of Education: A Realist Critique
Andrew
P. Lynch abstract
Youth Control: Young People and the Politics of Hip Hop Graffiti in Aotearoa/New
Zealand
REVIEWS
Ellen
J. Dannin
Working Free: the origins and impact of New Zealand's Employment Contracts
Act
Reviewed by Janet Bedggood
S. Middleton
and H. May
Teachers Talk Teaching 1915-1995: Early Childhood, Schools and
Teachers' College
Reviewed by Kerry Bethell
P. O'Brien
and R. Murray (eds)
Human Services: towards Partnership and Support
Reviewed by Gretchen A. Good
Andrew
D. Trlin and Paul Spoonley (eds)
New Zealand and International Migration: a Digest and Bibliography
Number 3
Reviewed by Cluny Macpherson
C.M.
Brennan
Max Weber on Power and Social Stratification - An Interpretation
and Critique
Reviewed by John Rex
ABSTRACTS
Horses
and Hydro Lakes:
The Reporting of Environmental Issues
Doug Ashwell
Massey University
Since the early 1970s public awareness and concern for environmental issues has increased. Many believe the media has been instrumental in raising the public's awareness. However, recent overseas research indicates that the media continue to use traditional methods of reporting, including the use of established 'primary definers'. Primary definers include groups such as government departments, recognised scientific bodies and large corporations which are favoured media courses for information on various issues. This has led the media to consider issues of the 'environment' only in terms of nuclear concerns, pollution and the conservation/ protection of endangered species. These issues are often framed in ways that are favourable to the 'primary definers' while limiting the reporting of alternative viewpoints. Using content analysis of two case studies, the following research shows that The Dominion, a leading New Zealand metropolitan daily newspaper, also privileges traditional 'primary definers' as their major sources of information on environmental issues with similar outcomes. The findings also show that for the issues examined in the media were guilty of 'shallow environmentalism'. The environmental content of the issues was only briefly reported and declined in importance to be replaced with issues that more easily met the criteria of more traditional news values. This approach, while increasing public awareness, does little to inform the public about the complexity of these issues nor does it help the public to make informed decisions about how problems may be resolved.
Expanding
the Boundary of Moral Panics:
The Great New Zealand Zeppelin Scare of 1909
Robert
E. Bartholomew
Department of Psychology and Sociology Studies, James Cook University
Bryan Dickeson
Sydney
This article examines an episode of collective delusion involving mass sightings of phantom German Zeppelins that transpired in New Zealand during 1909. The major indicators and theoretical perspective of moral panics will be outlined, followed by a description of the Zeppelin scare. While the incident does not meet the contemporary sociological consensus as to what criteria constitute a moral panic, the authors contend that the present definition of a moral panic should be expanded to include the Zeppelin scare and similar episodes.
There floated on high
In the month of July
An airship of wondrous construction.
The folks got a fright
When they saw its bright light,
For they thought it was bent on destruction.
L.J. Allan, Southland Daily News (2 August 1909:5)
This paper examines waves of claims and public discourse surrounding mass sightings of imaginary German Zeppelin-type dirigibles over New Zealand between July and September 1909, fostering widespread concern and fear among sections of the community. While the societal reaction to the sightings does not conform to the standard definition of a moral panic as defined by Cohen (1972), we argue that the present conceptualisation of what constitutes such panics is overly narrow and should be expanded to encompass such episodes. We begin by providing a brief overview of the major indicators and theoretical orientations of moral panics, followed by the narrative describing the 1909 Zeppelin sightings and conclude with an analysis of this chain of events from the moral panic perspective.
Working
Through Differences:
The Politics of 'Isms' in Aotearoa
Augie
Fleras
Department of Sociology, University of Canterbury
Pressure
is mounting in Aotearoa New Zealand to formalise multiculturalism as a
counterweight to 'biculturalism' for working through differences in a
changing and increasingly diverse society. This paper proposes to problematise
the debate over diversity by refracting the politics of 'isms' through
the prism of multiculturalism as discourse and practice. The paper argues
that official multiculturalism is not intended to celebrate differences
or promote diversity. Envisaged instead is a reconstituted society in
which diversity is incorporated through institutional accommodation as
legitimate and integral, without undermining either the interconnectedness
of the parts that secured the whole or the distinctiveness of the constituent
diversities. The paper also argues that the subsequent de-politicization
of diversity under official multiculturalism has had the effect of isolating
Canada's 'consensus' multiculturalism from the 'insurgent' discourses
that animate 'critical' multiculturalisms in the United States. Insofar
as critical multiculturalisms invoke challenges whereas consensus multiculturalism
invites accommodation, it would appear New Zealanders may confront an
array of models for engaging with diversity, but not without carefully
weighing its 'post-bicultural' options. In that New Zealand's biculturalism
is tantamount to a 'multiculturalism for Maori', a bi-nationalist alternative
is proposed that simultaneously transcends yet enhances the salience of
multiculturalism either as 'consensus' or 'resistance'. The paper concludes
by exploring the implications of 'ism' politics against the backdrop of
Aotearoa's post-colonising efforts at promoting a dual arrangement that
constructively engages an official multiculturalism within a bi-national
framework.
A much revised version of this paper was presented to a 1997 National
Conference on 'Setting the Course'. Cultural Diversity into the 21st Century.
New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils (Inc). Massey University: Palmerston
North, 15-16 November 1997. I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers
of this journal for their generous and constructive comments. Thanks also
to Rosemary Du Plessis for her assistance in re-crafting the paper. My
gratitude to Roger Maaka, as well, for his insights into sifting through
Maori-Pakeha differences.
Radical
Structuralismin the Sociology of Education:
A Realist Critique
Roy
Nash
Massey University
This is one of a series of publications in which 'qualitative' data is interrogated in the context of a theoretical conversation. The aim of the project is to further the development of realist approaches in the sociology of education by means of such empirically grounded critique. In this paper radical structuralism, exemplified by the work of Corrigan (1990), is examined with particular concern for its commitment to epistemological relativism and its ambivalent moral politics of choice.
Youth Control: Young People and the Politics of Hip Hop Graffiti in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Andrew P.
Lynch
Sociology, The University of Auckland
A number
of youth cultures struggle to negotiate the…of contemporary capitalist
societies, struggles which highlight the vulnerable positions which various
youth identities hold in societies such as Aotearoa. This paper examines
the case of youth who are members of Aotearoa's hip hop graffiti subculture
and explores the various techniques which the state uses both to eradicate
hip hop graffiti texts and to punish and reform the producers of these
texts. The involvement of moral entrepreneurs, the media and city councils,
is discussed to reveal how hip hop graffiti writers are being subjected
to forms of governmentality which are being employed in other social settings.
