Ethics in Maori research: Working paper

When we think about what we are doing as researchers, one of our main tasks is to acquire knowledge. For some researchers their task begins and ends there. Knowledge is viewed as cumulative, that by adding to some knowledge pool we will one day be able to put the component parts together and discover universal laws. Many researchers also assume that the knowledge they have collected is objective, value-free and apolitical. This is part of psychologists’ ‘physics envy’. A Maori view of knowledge is very different from this. For Maori the purpose of knowledge is to uphold the interests and the mana of the group; it serves the community. Researchers are not building up their own status; they are fighting for the betterment of their iwi and for Maori people in general

Too late to dissolve the people and elect another? Cognition, Contingent Consent and Turbulence in the Integration Process?

Consent to the process of European integration is contingent and the reproduction of consent is, in Renan’s (1882) terms, a ‘daily plebiscite’. Each new Treaty conveys a new understanding of what the EU is and ought to be. Analysis of the latest Treaty provisions, intended to bring Europe closer to the people and to address the democratic deficit, demonstrates the extent and implications of competition over competence between the various actors involved. The resulting compromises are manifestations of Haas’s (1976) ‘turbulence’ in practice and also contribute to further ‘turbulence’ by shaping understandings of what the role of the public and other actors within the EU system is and ought to be. Recognising the importance of cognition and contingent consent for the integration process, and the role of EU institutions in reproducing these, requires a rethink of existing approaches to European integration theory and a nuanced socialpsychology of the European Union

The Phoenix survey: the pairing fraction of faint radio sources

The significance of tidal interactions in the evolution of the faint radio population (sub-mJy) is studied using a deep and homogeneous radio survey (1.4 GHz), covering an area of 3.14 deg$^2$ and complete to a flux density of 0.4 mJy. Optical photometric and spectroscopic data are also available for this sample. A statistical approach is employed to identify candidate physical associations between radio sources and optically selected `field' galaxies. We find an excess of close pairs around optically identified faint radio sources, albeit at a low significance level, implying that the pairing fraction of the sub-mJy radio sources is similar to that of `field' galaxies (at the same magnitude limit) but higher than that of local galaxies.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

Oceanographic features in the lee of the windward and leeward islands: ERTS and ship data

Analysis of the ERTS data in portions of the eastern Caribbean are presented for October 1972 showing features which are, as yet, not explained. Ground truth data obtained in that area during November 1972 are presented. These include vertical temperature structure in the mixed layer and thermocline, and surface measurements of salinity, temperature, and chlorophyll

How Australian universities fund the student experience

An investigation of the relationship between total expenditure, research outputs and education outputs for Australian universities 2004–2007 reveals an intense correlation between expenditure and research outputs. The analysis is consistent with the expenditure of approximately $20,000 per student completion and$220,000 per Higher Education Data Collection publication point in 2007, with comparable values in three earlier years. It is suggested that public policy drives Australian universities to direct the maximum expenditure towards the generation of research outcomes, raising serious questions about the adequacy of funding for the student experience

To Ash: The Development of Converse Landscape

In response to theorists’ position that ecology is undergoing accelerating transformation due to planetary urbanism, converse landscape is positioned as a visual art and design practice. The intention is to disrupt the aesthetic and conceptual standardization of space through embodying a conceptual outside to a dominant ideology that promotes efficiency and competition as paramount. This post-disciplinary approach was developed as a result of the intersection between my graduate studies in fine art, my professional practice as a landscape architect and through the creation and implementation of three site sculptures during the same time period