An Editor's Farewell

Editor's Farewell from Nayantara Sheoran Appleton

Editorial

When the journal launched last year, it was not a culmination, but rather a start: of generative conversations, of relationships with a readership interested in the intrinsic political potential of commoning with/in ethnographic practice. In this volume, we tune in to and amplify questions about ethnographic practice as a form of knowledge production. In particular, we engage with the question put forward in the first volume: “What does combining the idea of commoning with the practice of ethnography allow us to think about or to do that we might not otherwise?” (Elinoff and Trundle 2018: 1). Building on that, here we ask: what if ethnography is a source of commoning differently? This question of commoning differently, also taken up by the articles in this volume, encourages us to engage with emerging scholarship and a politics of uncommoning

Call for Papers

We are pleased to open submissions for Issue 2, to be published December 2019. We accept standard research articles (6,000-8,000 words), as well as a range of other collaborative, creative and exploratory works (see out website for details: https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/ce/about). Deadline for Open Submissions is April 1, 2019. We also welcome submissions for a Special Section on The Labours of Collaboration for Issue 2. The deadline for this Special Section Submissions is March 1, 2019

Living in bubbles during the coronavirus pandemic: insights from New Zealand

This report presents initial research findings on the ‘social bubbles’ policy that the New Zealand government adopted as part of its strategy for curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The concept of ‘the bubble’ proved effective at conveying the necessity of exclusive containment, while foregrounding the importance of mutual care and support that might stretch beyond a single household or home. It allowed New Zealanders who were isolated, vulnerable, or struggling to receive the care and support they needed. This success partly resulted from the strong emphasis placed on ‘being kind’ within the New Zealand government’s public narrative of the lockdown. Bubbles were expanded when it would keep people ‘safe and well’. There was high compliance with the mandate to keep bubbles exclusive, and the concept of exclusivity within an expanded bubble was generally – if not always – well understood. Adaptation to ‘the bubble’ as a new social form was not always straightforward, however, and bubble relationships could be strained by divergent risk perceptions, or differing interpretations of ambiguous guidelines. Moreover, some groups systematically found it harder to enjoy the full benefits of living in a bubble: people living in flatshare arrangements, co-parents living apart, recently arrived migrants and people who were active in the workplace. Once infection rates are sufficiently low and appropriate contact tracing infrastructures are in place, a social bubbles policy could be very effective in other countries, especially if concrete steps are taken to pre-empt some of the difficulties and inequalities that were evident in New Zealand

‘It has totally changed how I think about the police’: COVID-19 and the mis/trust of pandemic policing in Aotearoa New Zealand

In the initial phase of COVID-19, Aotearoa New Zealand was internationally praised for its pandemic response that included lockdowns to control the spread and work towards elimination. Community compliance with control measures was thus essential when pursuing elimination as a policy. Using a mixed-methods approach, we sought to explore whether New Zealand Police (NZP) were trusted to police the lockdown rules at Levels 4 and 3. We analyzed 1,020 survey responses comparing trust among respondents who had been stopped by NZP over the lockdown rules (contacts) with those who had not (non-contacts). We found that both contacts and non-contacts expressed greater trust in NZP to enforce the Level 4 than the Level 3 rules; contacts expressed less trust in NZP to enforce the lockdown rules than non-contacts; contacts perceived NZP more heavy-handed than non-contacts; contacts perceived NZP as only somewhat procedurally just and feeling somewhat encouraged to comply with the lockdown rules and; that unexpected high-profile policing-related events during the survey only affected contacts’ trust significantly. We offer two explanations: (1) NZP were perceived as procedurally unjust or inconsistent in applying the lockdown rules, (2) members of the public and NZP learned the lockdown rules simultaneously. We caution that the unfamiliar character of pandemic policing may jeopardize trust in NZP even among segments of the population that typically express high levels of trust in NZP, i.e., people of European descent. We conclude that community compliance with pandemic control measures is no matter to be dealt with by the criminal legal system

The most difficult time of my life or ‘COVID’s gift to me’? Differential experiences of COVID-19 funerary restrictions in Aotearoa New Zealand

In 2020, the government of Aotearoa New Zealand imposed some of the most stringent funerary restrictions in the world as part of its efforts to eliminate COVID-19. This article explores how people experienced this situation, asking why restrictions that some described as precipitating ‘the most difficult time of their lives’ were described by others as a ‘relief’, ‘blessing’, or ‘gift’. Much existing literature frames funerary restrictions as a distressing assault upon established ways of grieving to which mourners must try to adapt–and in Aotearoa, both the stringency of the restrictions and the means by which they had been imposed did lead to many people finding them challenging. However, for those with ambivalent pre-existing feelings regarding their funerary traditions–such as many in the Samoan diaspora–COVID-19 restrictions afforded both a reprieve from burdensome practices and a much-welcomed opportunity to reimagine their traditions. Funerary restrictions, though disruptive, are thereby shown to have generative potential

Lockdown Ibuism: experiences of Indonesian migrant mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand

Lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 have been widely shown to heighten care burdens within households and ‘bubbles.’ Responsibility for meeting such burdens often falls disproportionately upon women. It is nevertheless important for research on gendered inequalities during COVID-19 to attend to the particularities of how such care work was experienced by differently positioned women. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Indonesian migrant mothers’ experiences of lockdown were mediated by the disadvantages they faced as ‘non-native’ speakers of English, as well as by the ideology of Ibuism (‘motherism’) they were socialised into during their lives in Indonesia. This socialisation led many to find life under lockdown life both rewarding and stressful in ways distinct from other women and mothers in Aotearoa New Zealand who were confronting similar demands. We thus argue for the importance of a qualitative and intersectional approach

Feminist Commons and Techno-Scientific Futures

There have been sustained conversations within eco-feminism and feminist materialism about the way reproduction, ecologies, and everyday life for women is rendered visible and important within the commons. However, there has been a lack of engaged discussion on how techno-scientific spaces (re)imagined in feminist commons is another way to articulate futures that disassemble hierarchies and exploitative everyday existence. In this short provocation, I posit two ideas vis-à-vis science in feminist commons. First, that feminist attention to embodied medico-scientific inequalities has changed science and scientific knowledge, not just the spaces where science happens. Second, that the feminist scientific futures are spaces full of possibilities that can emerge from feminist ‘situated knowledges.’ This analysis emerges from the urgency to reclaim techno-science from partisan politics, neoliberal economics, and exploitative everyday practice. It also hopes to serve as a generative discussion about the value of a feminist commons for any commoning project

Society of Medical Anthropology in Aotearoa

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Society of Medical Anthropology in Aotearoa

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