Contracting out local government services: A comparative study of two New Zealand regional councils

Studies of New Zealand public sector reforms since the mid-1980s have tended to focus on the application of New Public Management principles to the central government. Yet local government in New Zealand too has experienced drastic restructuring with a view to ensuring greater rationalisation, efficiency and effectiveness. This article examines contracting out in New Zealand local government, focusing on the delivery of plant pest management by Environment Waikato(the Waikato Regional Council) and the Wellington Regional Council. The study reveals distinct differences in approach by the two councils, determined in each case by pragmatic responses to situational context rather than mere adherence to NPM principles

The Mid-Eighteenth Century Navy from the Perspective of Captain Thomas Burnett and his Peers

This thesis explores the concerns of mid-eighteenth century naval captains through the careers of Captain Thomas Burnett and the cohort of thirty five officers who were posted captain in 1757 soon after the start of the Seven Years' War. A subsidiary cohort, that of the 129 lieutenants who were, like Burnett, first commissioned in 1744 is used as a control against which to measure the statistical worth of the smaller cohort. Examination of the day to day concerns of the captains has been made possible through the rich and varied resource of their letters to the Admiralty, which have hitherto been little used as a source by historians. Despite the formality of these letters not merely the concerns but also the personalities and characters of the writers are vividly conveyed. After tracing the career of Thomas Burnett this thesis examines the 1757 cohort and its progression to the rank of master and commander. At this point the correspondence with the Admiralty begins. The influences, 'interest' and formative experiences behind their appointments are considered. The duties of the mid-eighteenth century captain are outlined, as their relationship with the Admiralty is analysed and the extent to which they were kept under strict Admiralty control by precedent and financial scrutiny is demonstrated. All aspects of manning are shown to dominate the daily concerns of captains. The extent to which 'interest' or chance gave them the opportunity to display their professional expertise and increase their standing within the active naval corps is weighed. Tracking this cohort beyond the war into the years of peace and subsequent wars has revealed the extent to which the timing of being made post captain was crucial and that 'interest' was more significant than merit in accelerating and promoting active careers

Global Innovations in Measurement and Evaluation

We researched the latest developments in theory and practice in measurement and evaluation. And we found that new thinking, techniques, and technology are influencing and improving practice. This report highlights 8 developments that we think have the greatest potential to improve evaluation and programme design, and the careful collection and use of data. In it, we seek to inform and inspire—to celebrate what is possible, and encourage wider application of these ideas

Politics and religion in Edinburgh, 1617-53

The Covenanting experiment ended for Edinburgh's inhabitants when their burgh was occupied by the English, but the 1640s cast a long shadow over the burgh's development. Lives were undoubtedly destroyed by disease and war. The prosperity of the burgh must have been seriously affected by the contraction of trade and the depletion of reserves of liquid capital which had sustained moneylending and property speculation. On the other hand, Edinburgh as a political entity endured, stoically as it seems, the pressures of war and the ignominy of English occupation. Remarkably, its constitutional structure and social make-up remained almost entirely unaffected, in marked contrast to London.108 Although the Covenants were consigned to the dustbin of history by nervous political leaders, its impact on the shaping of a Protestant national identity amongst the burgeoning professional classes of the capital was arguably a deep and lasting one. More tenuously, the 1640s may also have entrenched Edinburgh's sense of itself as a capital of a sovereign nation. The Covenanting regime had owed its existence to the country's leading urban centre, which gave it a home with access to the finest lawyers and the richest merchants. Edinburgh was confirmed in its status as the watchtower of the church and as the home of a legal establishment now increasingly being seen as distinctively Scottish.109 Edinburgh's sense of its own uniqueness must have been intensified by a realisation that, regardless of who wielded power in England, they were fundamentally uninterested in closer cooperation with Scotland.For historians, the Covenanting era is a vital moment in the transition between medieval kingdom and early modern state. It proved that the apparatus of government could function without the presence of the monarch, paving the way for the development of a constitutional monarchy which worked with, rather than dominated, bureaucratic institutions. The connection between locality and centre was intensified through the modernisation of Scotland's antiquated tax regime. Constitutionally, the Covenanting committee structure was, in anybody's terms, a revolution. It brought to a natural conclusion the idea posited by Knox, that it was the responsibility of the lesser magistrates to assume power if the Prince had become incapable. It was no social revolution, however, and David Stevenson's work has been confirmed in this respect.111 The complete absence of violence or disorder in the localities before 1644, with the notable exception of the north-east, suggests that the maintenance of the accepted social hierarchy was crucial both to the legitimation of the movement's aims -this was not government by the 'promiscuous and vulgar multitude'112 -and to the speed with which the movement was able to exercise authority.In Lowland Scotland, a regime which could have become intrusive and domineering, while it was also taxing the kingdom in a distastefully efficient way,"4 was still able to engender loyalty - the same regime was far less successful at establishing itself in the north and west.115 The contrast between the regime's agenda and the prevailing cultural and religious influences in these areas made it difficult for the Covenanters to do as they had done in Lowland areas, and co-opt the traditional local elite into the regime. Edinburgh provides an excellent example of how this was achieved, so that instead of being threatened by the creation of novel bureaucratic and military structures, local communities actually supported and participated in them. In Edinburgh, the merchant oligarchy retained control of the town council throughout the 1640s, and even the purge of 1648 did not fundamentally alter its composition. The type of man who had been the burgh's representative at parliaments and conventions also attended the committees. There were attempts to influence who would be provost of Edinburgh but crucially, Argyll never tried to circumvent the town's established customs, as Charles I had done, by imposing his own candidate. This was in marked contrast to the situation in England, where the imposition of competing bureaucracies after 1642 generated a 'march towards chaos' in local administration.The local dimension remains essential. Edinburgh's inhabitants were engaged in debates about the nature of the religious settlement in Scotland and their relationship with the English church. They were aware of the campaigns of 1630 and 1633, which sought to find some means of bringing the king's attention to a growing sense amongst the political nation that they were alienated from the executive. Nonetheless, local politics was primarily driven by local concerns and Edinburgh was a particularly self-aware community; provosts who forgot that their most basic function was the protection of Edinburgh's interests rapidly became very unpopular. As a consequence, issues were given different emphases depending on who was talking about them. Historians can construct theoretical models, identify over-arching themes and discuss ideological frameworks, but people do not usually see their lives in those terms. For most, the reality in Edinburgh was that the differences between royal and Covenanting regimes had little direct bearing on their everyday activities; to a certain extent, this even remained the case after 1651. It was the town council which gave order to their existence, because it permeated every corner of burgh life, to an extent that even the church was unable to match. If this thesis has one unifying thread of continuity, therefore, it is the remarkable stability of Edinburgh government. In 1660, Edinburgh town council disavowed the Covenant; there would be no elect nation, and the capital abandoned the idea of being the new Jerusalem. Never again would a religious ideology threaten to disrupt the burgh's ability to protect its own 'particular',118 which was, after all, what Edinburgh was best at

Leaving so soon? Skilled Migrants in New Zealand: Who says and who goes?

New Zealand’s ability to attract the migrants it needs is crucial to maximising the contribution migration makes to the economy. However, an area of equal importance is how well New Zealand retains the migrants it attracts. This paper presents findings from an analysis of data from administrative sources and the Longitudinal Immigration Survey: New Zealand (LisNZ). We explore which factors are associated with the retention of skilled migrants in their first years after taking up residence in New Zealand – that is, ‘who stays and who goes?’.Among other results, we find that more educated migrants are generally less likely to stay in New Zealand. However, this effect is stronger for Asians and South Africans than for other migrants

Environmental and ecological drivers of food web structure and dynamics

Natural communities are undergoing accelerated changes due to human pressures such as habitat fragmentation, over-harvesting, and species invasions. Here, I use bioinformatics and mathematical models to examine the environmental and ecological drivers of food-web structure and dynamics. First, I use a spatially expansive food web to examine drivers of spatial turnover in food web interactions across an environmental gradient. I observe that there is a large amount of spatial turnover in food web interactions, however, the fundamental structure of these food webs stays constant. Further, I demonstrate that predicting local realizations of community structure is very difficult, but critical since environmental perturbations occur at the local scale. Then, I integrate empirical data and mathematical models to explore the consequences of omnivory on food-web stability and persistence. I demonstrate that the importance of omnivory depends on both the type of omnivory and the food web within which it appears. Moreover, scale matters - conclusions about the stabilizing effect of omnivory depend on the scale of the mathematical model (i.e. module vs whole food web model). Omnivory is just one repeated structure within food webs. Using a dynamic food web model, I examine the relationship between different network metrics and community, species, and interaction persistence in food webs. I demonstrate that network metrics are successful at predicting community and interaction persistence. They are not, however, the same metrics, and the relationship is dependent on the scale of persistence being examined (i.e community vs species vs interaction). Finally, I derive a novel multi-trophic metacommunity model which demonstrates how movement is a product of both a species’ ability to move and the landscape across which it moves. Treating patch connectivity as a species’ specific property can change our conclusions about multi-patch stability. Overall, my thesis integrates data and theory to test the impacts of environmental gradients and change on food webs and provide testable predictions to guide future research in spatial food web ecology

Factors influencing individual variability of PCB body burdens in fish populations

I investigated the contributions of hydrophobicity, species differences, and spatial and temporal variation to individual variability in PCB concentrations using three species of cyprinids, bluntnose minnows ( Pimephales notatus ), emerald shiners ( Notropis atherinoides ), and spottail shiners ( Notropis hudsonius ). I then investigated the influence of variation in chemical, physiological, and ecological characteristics on trophic magnification factors (TMFs), a food-web bioaccumulation metric commonly used by regulators. PCB concentrations are influenced most notably by hydrophobicity which explains 14% of the variability. When drivers are examined on a K OW -specific basis physiological and ecological factors have differing importance, for instance species differences account for twice as much variation for PCBs with log K OW \u3e 6.0. Finally, I used a food-web biomagnification model to investigate the sensitivity of TMFs to chemical and ecological perturbations demonstrating the importance of spatial and temporal variation in contaminant concentrations and the need to incorporate top predator foraging ranges into sampling strategies

Finding value in an alternative caring food network : a study of how localised regenerative small-scale growers can build social value in our food system : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts - Human Geography, Massey University, New Zealand

Through its significant dairy farming sector, Taranaki epitomises modernised food production and distribution within a global food system. Alongside this, a burgeoning community of small-scale growers exist who do not aspire to large scales or optimised profitability. These growers support localised food production, diversity in distribution, regenerative practices, and caring social values. I argue they are fundamentally 'resocialising' food in a way that enhances social, cultural and economic values, and are creating wellbeing for local communities through an ethic of care. There is little literature regarding the social attributes of food grown by small-scale growers for local consumption. This thesis aims to contribute to that body of work by offering an ethnographic account of small-scale growers. I argue that these growers build and strengthen a sense of community thereby creating an interconnected web of organised care relationships that form a 'meshwork', connecting people to place within Taranaki. I will show that understanding the relationship between people and food procurement goes beyond a financial exchange, disentangling food from a global food system where it may be 'food from nowhere' to situating it in a localised setting where through processes of resocialisation, it becomes 'food from somewhere' (McMichael, 2016). However, despite creating positive social values, small-scale growers struggle to hold their space within the global food system because they are frequently deprioritised, undervalued, or unrecognised. This thesis concludes by showing Taranaki’s regenerative small-scale growers are able to create a meshwork of food production and distribution that resocialises food through values of care

The role of privacy management in brand protection and brand value

xxii, 357 leaves : colored illustrations ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 293-317).There are more privacy issues and concerns with the use of a growing number of invasive technologies. This research determines if there is a role that privacy management plays on brand protection and brand value. An extensive literature review was conducted and a proposal for a new privacy-brand model, with hypotheses connecting 4 constructs: privacy practices (PP), brand protection (BP), experienced harms (EH), and brand value (BV) was proposed and then enhanced with the privacy concerns (PC) construct. A preliminary survey was conducted to capture up-to-date privacy concerns from experts in security and privacy. The findings informed a formal survey instrument, Privacy Management Survey, which included both new and existing scales for the constructs that were subsequently validated. Study 1 contributes major themes for privacy concerns related to private information, using NVivo to analyze the qualitative data: (1) unauthorized access (2) misuse, particularly financial information, which is the area that is most harmed in identity theft (3) unauthorized disclosure (4) huge scope of privacy loss, and (5) need for better privacy protections. Two versions of the privacy-brand models were studied: one without privacy concerns (study 2) and one with privacy concerns (study 3). The constructs for all models were extracted using principal components analysis in SPSS, and their relationships confirmed using structural equation modeling in AMOS. The Privacy Management Survey was widely deployed to collect empirical data (N = 315) and (N = 205 holdout sample) to test the hypotheses of the privacy-brand model related to an organization. This work contributes a new model connecting privacy practices, experienced harms, privacy concerns, brand protection, and brand value to the management, management information systems, marketing and risk literatures. Empirical testing of the hypotheses has confirmed that privacy management plays a significant role in brand protection and brand value