New Zealand Sociology Journal Vol.17 (2)

Peter Beilharz
The Antipodes: Another civilization, between Manhattan
and the Rhine?

Johanna Schmidt
Migrant Bodies: The embodiment of identity amongst Samoan Fa’afafine in New Zealand

Lesley Hunt
Sheep as Object: The meaning of “sheep” to different science groups

Alex Broom
Contested Territories: The construction of boundaries between alternative and conventional cancer treatments

Warwick Tie
Credentialism and the Governance of Popular (Restorative) Justice

Su Olsson and Marianne Tremaine
The “Maiden Stakes”: Ritual and rhetoric as masks of political diversity in first-time political speeches

Roy Nash
What Causes Social Difference in Educational Attainment? A critique of psychological and economic accounts of “disadvantage”

Flyvbjerg, B.
Making Social Science Matter
Robb, J.
The emergence of social theory
Reviewed by Catherine Brennan

Bessant, J. and Watts, R.
Sociology Australia
Worth, H., Paris, A. and Allen, L. (Eds.)
The life of Brian: masculinities, sexualities and health in New Zealand
Reviewed by Allanah Ryan

Jackson, S. and Scott, S.
Gender: a sociological reader
Reviewed by Chris Brickell

Migrant Bodies: The embodiment of identity amongst Samoan Fa’afafine in New Zealand

Johanna Schmidt

Fa’afafine are biological Samoan males who express feminine gender identities in a range of ways. More traditional means of enacting fa’afafine identities are now expanding and shifting in novel ways as a result of globalisation and migration. Migrant fa’afafine must inevitably negotiate between their Samoan-based identities and the imperatives of new cultural discourses. In this paper, I focus on how these negotiations take place through processes of embodiment. I discuss how individuals reconstruct their embodiments in light of the various sex/gender frameworks they encounter in New Zealand, offering an analysis of these experiences using Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field, and Judith Butler’s theorisation of performative subjectivity.

The meanings of sheep are used as a tool to examine how scientific researchers in a changing policy environment negotiate their work to maximise their chances of survival in employment, and their chances of continuing to do work they regard as important.

Contested Territories: The construction of boundaries between alternative and conventional cancer treatments

Set in the context of the recent controversy in New Zealand over the treatment of child cancer sufferer Liam Williams-Holloway, this article illustrates the role of health practitioners in the construction and reconfiguration of alternative and conventional medicine. Analysis of the discursive practices of alternative and conventional health practitioners demonstrates how they both strategically consolidate and contest so-called natural distinctions between alternative and conventional medicine to validate their professions. It is argued that science, certainty and holism are used discursively by both alternative and conventional practitioners to do boundary work. Their competing translations of what these actually constitute result in ongoing attempts to define science, certainty, and holism as practitioners attempt to protect their respective territories and contest the claims of others.

The credentialisation of New Zealand restorative justice practitioners is being mooted. Ideologically, credentialism provides a means of regulating popular justic movements that threaten the integrity of Law, by constructing them as governable spaces. Notwithstanding such effects, a range of “popular” and “fundamental” fantasies make credentialism appealing. The goal of radical social-legal intervention in such circumstances is to “traverse” those fantasies, neutralising their ideological effects so as to produce space for alternative courses of action.

The “Maiden Stakes”: Ritual and rhetoric as masks of political diversity in first-time political speeches

In the New Zealand Parliament the change from a First Past the Post electoral system to Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) constitutes an attempt to counteract the politics of exclusion. The MMP system balances the largely conservative candidate selection in the electorates with party list candidates who tend to be more diverse in background, ethnicity and gender. For all successful, first-time candidates, the official debut is their maiden speech to parliament. This paper analyses the three maiden speeches that achieved news coverage from the first sitting in 2000 of the second New Zealand MMP parliament. Drawing on dramatistic and role criticism, we examine how ritual and rhetoric function as masks, that both contain and exploit the speaker’s political diversity. Finally, we explore the paradox that the news coverage of the “maiden stakes” selects and celebrates diversity within the exclusivist rituals of political theatre.

What Causes Social Difference in Educational Attainment? A critique of psychological and economic accounts of “disadvantage”

Substantial differences in the educational attainments of social class and ethnic groups in New Zealand are among the most persistent of the “gaps” that have been placed at the centre of recent policy initiatives. Government policy makers have a legitimate concern to obtain high quality advice on the causes of social ills and the means to remedy them. There is reason to believe, however, that a preference for quantitative rigour and economic modelling may introduce certain biases to the information provided. This case is made in the context of a critique of a literature review on the effects of family and community resources on access to education. It is argued, substantively, that any discussion of IQ, particularly where hypotheses of the genetic origins of class and ethnic differences are concerned, should be treated with great circumspection. The paper concludes with some remarks on the problematic relationship between critical sociology and the liberal state.

This paper reports on findings concerning disability and gender that emerged from an International Social Survey Programme survey of attitudes towards social equity in New Zealand. In general, the data on disability confirmed the findings of other research in this field, namely that people with disabilities are disadvantaged in many respects by comparison with non-disabled New Zealanders. However, when the data were disaggregated by gender, and the situation of disabled women vis-à-vis non-disabled women was compared with that of disabled men vis-à-vis non-disabled men, an unexpected pattern emerged. Contrary to received wisdom on the subject, the survey suggests that disabled women are not as disadvantaged in terms of employment, socio-economic status and domestic circumstances as their disabled male counterparts. A particularly surprising discovery was that disabled women in some respects have better basic educational qualifications not only than disabled men but than non-disabled women as well. These findings suggest the need for more research into the “double handicap” experienced by disabled women.

		2002 volume 17 number 2 CONTENTS EDITORIAL KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO 2001 SAANZ CONFERENCE Peter Beilharz The Antipodes: Another civilization, between Manhattan and the Rhine? WINNERS OF THE 2001 POSTGRADUATE PRIZE FOR SCHOLARSHIP IN SOCIOLOGY Johanna Schmidt Migrant Bodies: The embodiment of identity amongst Samoan Fa’afafine in New Zealand Lesley Hunt Sheep as Object: The meaning of “sheep” to different science groups [return to top] GENERAL ARTICLES Alex Broom Contested Territories: The construction of boundaries between alternative and conventional cancer treatments Warwick Tie Credentialism and the Governance of Popular (Restorative) Justice Su Olsson and Marianne Tremaine The “Maiden Stakes”: Ritual and rhetoric as masks of political diversity in first-time political speeches Roy Nash What Causes Social Difference in Educational Attainment? A critique of psychological and economic accounts of “disadvantage” Peter Beatson and Paul Perry Disability and Gender: Querying the “double handicap” assumption INTERVIEW Gregor McLennan Sustaining Sociology: An interview with Gregor McLennan REVIEWS Flyvbjerg, B. Making Social Science Matter Robb, J. The emergence of social theory Reviewed by Catherine Brennan Bessant, J. and Watts, R. Sociology Australia Worth, H., Paris, A. and Allen, L. (Eds.) The life of Brian: masculinities, sexualities and health in New Zealand Reviewed by Allanah Ryan Jackson, S. and Scott, S. Gender: a sociological reader Reviewed by Chris Brickell [return to top] Migrant Bodies: The embodiment of identity amongst Samoan Fa’afafine in New Zealand Johanna Schmidt Fa’afafine are biological Samoan males who express feminine gender identities in a range of ways. More traditional means of enacting fa’afafine identities are now expanding and shifting in novel ways as a result of globalisation and migration. Migrant fa’afafine must inevitably negotiate between their Samoan-based identities and the imperatives of new cultural discourses. In this paper, I focus on how these negotiations take place through processes of embodiment. I discuss how individuals reconstruct their embodiments in light of the various sex/gender frameworks they encounter in New Zealand, offering an analysis of these experiences using Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field, and Judith Butler’s theorisation of performative subjectivity. [return to top] Sheep as Object: The meaning of “sheep” to different science groups Lesley Hunt The meanings of sheep are used as a tool to examine how scientific researchers in a changing policy environment negotiate their work to maximise their chances of survival in employment, and their chances of continuing to do work they regard as important. [return to top] *Contested Territories: The construction of boundaries between alternative and conventional cancer treatments* Alex Broom Set in the context of the recent controversy in New Zealand over the treatment of child cancer sufferer Liam Williams-Holloway, this article illustrates the role of health practitioners in the construction and reconfiguration of alternative and conventional medicine. Analysis of the discursive practices of alternative and conventional health practitioners demonstrates how they both strategically consolidate and contest so-called natural distinctions between alternative and conventional medicine to validate their professions. It is argued that science, certainty and holism are used discursively by both alternative and conventional practitioners to do boundary work. Their competing translations of what these actually constitute result in ongoing attempts to define science, certainty, and holism as practitioners attempt to protect their respective territories and contest the claims of others. [return to top] Credentialism and the Governance of Popular (Restorative) Justice Warwick Tie The credentialisation of New Zealand restorative justice practitioners is being mooted. Ideologically, credentialism provides a means of regulating popular justic movements that threaten the integrity of Law, by constructing them as governable spaces. Notwithstanding such effects, a range of “popular” and “fundamental” fantasies make credentialism appealing. The goal of radical social-legal intervention in such circumstances is to “traverse” those fantasies, neutralising their ideological effects so as to produce space for alternative courses of action. [return to top] The “Maiden Stakes”: Ritual and rhetoric as masks of political diversity in first-time political speeches Su Olsson and Marianne Tremaine In the New Zealand Parliament the change from a First Past the Post electoral system to Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) constitutes an attempt to counteract the politics of exclusion. The MMP system balances the largely conservative candidate selection in the electorates with party list candidates who tend to be more diverse in background, ethnicity and gender. For all successful, first-time candidates, the official debut is their maiden speech to parliament. This paper analyses the three maiden speeches that achieved news coverage from the first sitting in 2000 of the second New Zealand MMP parliament. Drawing on dramatistic and role criticism, we examine how ritual and rhetoric function as masks, that both contain and exploit the speaker’s political diversity. Finally, we explore the paradox that the news coverage of the “maiden stakes” selects and celebrates diversity within the exclusivist rituals of political theatre. [return to top] What Causes Social Difference in Educational Attainment? A critique of psychological and economic accounts of “disadvantage” Roy Nash Substantial differences in the educational attainments of social class and ethnic groups in New Zealand are among the most persistent of the “gaps” that have been placed at the centre of recent policy initiatives. Government policy makers have a legitimate concern to obtain high quality advice on the causes of social ills and the means to remedy them. There is reason to believe, however, that a preference for quantitative rigour and economic modelling may introduce certain biases to the information provided. This case is made in the context of a critique of a literature review on the effects of family and community resources on access to education. It is argued, substantively, that any discussion of IQ, particularly where hypotheses of the genetic origins of class and ethnic differences are concerned, should be treated with great circumspection. The paper concludes with some remarks on the problematic relationship between critical sociology and the liberal state. [return to top] Disability and Gender: Querying the “double handicap” assumption Peter Beatson and Paul Perry This paper reports on findings concerning disability and gender that emerged from an International Social Survey Programme survey of attitudes towards social equity in New Zealand. In general, the data on disability confirmed the findings of other research in this field, namely that people with disabilities are disadvantaged in many respects by comparison with non-disabled New Zealanders. However, when the data were disaggregated by gender, and the situation of disabled women vis-à-vis non-disabled women was compared with that of disabled men vis-à-vis non-disabled men, an unexpected pattern emerged. Contrary to received wisdom on the subject, the survey suggests that disabled women are not as disadvantaged in terms of employment, socio-economic status and domestic circumstances as their disabled male counterparts. A particularly surprising discovery was that disabled women in some respects have better basic educational qualifications not only than disabled men but than non-disabled women as well. These findings suggest the need for more research into the “double handicap” experienced by disabled women. [return to top]