New Directions in Geography

Presenting author: Juliana Mansvelt (Massey University)

Though there is much emphasis on the celebration and consumption associated with Christmas in Aotearoa, there has been surprisingly little research on the socialities, spatialities and subjectivities associated with the event. This paper discusses the experiences of older New Zealanders with the aim of understanding the significance of Christmas in the lives and spaces of older people. 

Qualitative interviews with twenty people aged 65 and over living independently in the community revealed that though many older people don't 'celebrate' Christmas, it remains a significant event through which identity, sociality, family, material culture and mobilities are shaped.  More than simply a consumptive or religious event, Christmas plays an important role in stabilising familial and friendship networks.  The research findings demonstrate how talk about Christmas can provide valuable insights into the discourses which inform life choices, practices, embodied identities and aspirations of people as they age in place.   

Presenting author: Holly Randell-Moon (Charles Sturt University)

This paper analyses contemporary tourism in Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand, as a form of colonial tourism productive of an apparatus of forgetting. I argue that despite the material presence of settler colonisation in the tourist sites and built landscapes of Dunedin, city-branding works to discursively and institutionally forget this city's violent and racist settler colonial history.

I analyse both officially sanctioned tourist spaces identified by the Dunedin City Council, such as the Railway Station, the Botanic Garden, and Larnach Castle, as well as independently run tourist endeavours such as ghost tours as constitutive of an apparatus (in the Foucauldian sense) that reproduces an institutionally sanctioned version of Dunedin's history. City-branding anchors this apparatus through the circulation of texts and experiences that draw on gothic horror tropes and Victorian romantic discourse to heighten the affective dimensions of heritage buildings and brand Dunedin with aesthetic distinction within the experience economy.

While this aesthetic framing of Dunedin's history highlights tragic events, it is selective and does not engage with the violent racism of settlement. This selective aesthetic framing suggests only certain experiences of history and historical events can be rendered commodifiable within the dominant tourist industries in Dunedin.

Presenting author: Grant Walton (Australian National University)

While the nature of the relationship is contested, many scholars from political science and economics have argued that decentralisation reform has great potential to mitigate corruption.  However, such scholarship often fails to account for the social-spatial relations that can shape decentralisation efforts and the potential for corruption. While geographers are increasingly engaging in debates about corruption, the topic is still under-researched in the discipline. 

This presentation examines findings from fieldwork conducted with 136 public servants in four subnational administrations across Papua New Guinea.  Reflecting on the impact of decentralisation reform, respondents described how elites were able to direct subnational resources - sometimes for their own personal gain - by reaching across space to control subnational affairs.  Anti-corruption measures were largely ineffective because they were unable to reach out to resources and political power.  These findings suggest that topological approaches to understanding power relations - approaches that stress the importance of proximity and reach - could help reimagine the potential for decentralisation reform to address corruption. 

Presenting author: George Curry (Curtin University)

Other authors: George N. Curry ^a, Steven Nake ^b, Gina Koczberski ^a, Marc Oswald ^c, Sylvain Rafflegeau ^d, Joachim Lummani ^e, Esley Peter ^e, Robert Nailina ^e

The low rate of technology adoption has long been a key constraint on improving productivity, income and yields in farming, particularly in developing countries where market-based systems of production are not well developed, the subsistence economy remains strong, land is held under communal tenure and family labour is the backbone of production. A vast body of research shows that adoption levels of externally promoted technologies remain low and slow among small-scale farmers in developing countries, especially among women. Despite the extensive literature devoted to this topic, extension agencies and policy makers continue to struggle to understand what motivates and influences farmers to adopt or reject the integration of new technologies into their farming systems. 

In this paper, we present several case studies of technology adoption and rejection from different parts of the developing world.  We explore how different socio-cultural and agro‐ecological contexts shape smallholders’ decisions relating to the adoption of new technologies.  We illustrate how socio-cultural, institutional and environmental factors influence adoption and show the value of examining proposed innovations and technologies in terms of their capacity to undermine or strengthen indigenous socio-cultural values as a way of understanding potential points of resistance or pathways to adoption.

Disruptive and Incremental Innovation in Agriculture: Socio-cultural Factors in Technology Adoption in the Developing World

George N. Curry a, Steven Nake b, Gina Koczberski a, Marc Oswald c, Sylvain Rafflegeau d, Joachim Lummani e, Esley Peter e, Robert Nailina e 

a Sustainable Livelihoods Research Programme, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia

b PNG Oil Palm Research Association, Dami Research Station, West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea 

c ADI-Suds, ISTOM, F49000, Angers, France

d INNOVATION, University of Montpellier, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, Montpellier, France

e Cocoa Board of PNG, Kokopo, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea

Presenting author: Trivess Moore (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)

In Australia, the legal structure and governance of strata developments has presented challenges for impacted households and Owners Corporations (Bodies Corporate in some states), as they seek to address the flammable cladding crisis. There has been a lack of clarity around processes and what rights owners, occupiers and Owners Corporations themselves, have in dealing with this matter. In turn, this has led to an ad-hoc and scattered response to the flammable cladding issue for owners, occupiers, owners corporations, from state and local government: land use planning; building; insurance; strata law etc.

Taken from a socio-legal lens, this paper explores the cladding crisis from the perspective of 16 affected Australian Owners Corporations who had considered legal action, sought legal advice or had engaged lawyers to try and pursue those responsible. There has been little recourse to date. Knowledge from the experiences of those impacted will assist law and governance to more equitably understand the lived experiences of this crisis, and, in turn, offer lessons for comparable jurisdictions on flammable cladding and other building defect issues, which continues to plague strata/condominium developments across the globe.

Presenting author: Jesse Whitehead (University of Auckland)

Other authors: Melody Smith (University of Auckland), Yvonne Anderson (University of Auckland, Taranaki District Health Board, Tamariki Pakari Child Health and Wellbeing Trust), Yijun Zhang (University of Auckland), Stephanie Wu (University of Auckland), Shreya Maharaj (University of Auckland), Niamh Donnellan (University of Auckland)

Geographic information systems (GIS) are often used to examine the association between both physical activity and nutrition environments, and children's health. It is often assumed that geospatial datasets are accurate and complete. Furthermore, GIS datasets often lack metadata on the temporal specificity. Data is usually provided 'as is', and therefore may be unsuitable for retrospective or longitudinal studies of health outcomes. We outline a novel approach to both fill gaps in geospatial datasets, and to test their temporal validity in the Taranaki region of Aotearoa New Zealand.

We automated the downloading of historic Google Street View images taken between 2012 and 2016. Images were reviewed and relevant features were incorporated into GIS datasets. In total 5,166 GPS points with environmental features missing from council datasets were identified. The temporal validity of 49% of environmental features was able to be confirmed from a council dataset considered to be 'complete'. Six-hundred-and-sixty-four food outlets were identified and temporally validated. Our research indicates that geospatial datasets are not always complete or temporally valid. We have outlined an approach to improving the sensitivity and specificity of GIS datasets using GSV images. A substantial number of features were identified, highlighting the limitations of many GIS datasets.

Presenting author: Omar Elkharouf (University of Sydney)

Within Australian food systems scholarship, the notion of food justice is yet to be brought into dialogue relative to the productionist narratives of food security. The analysis of food inequities within the Australian context continues to be curtailed by lack of routine measurement and variability in research focus and measures. Relatedly, there remains little research and policy praxis on how to address food system inequities beyond the charity approach. And problematically, this logic leaves policy and research praxis unable to address how the intersectional diversities within vulnerable groups are embodied in their varied everyday experiences of food.

Through semi-structured interviews and supplementary participant observation with members from the Queer Middle Eastern community in Sydney, this paper examines the potential that a foodscape approach through a food justice lens can recast the discourse around context-dependent manifestations of food inequities in Australia in two ways. First, it can render visible the unjust foodscapes experienced by underrepresented marginalized communities. Second, through a spatial approach to food systems, we can better understand the geographies of survival and resilience strategies such communities enact to navigate their unjust foodscapes and maintain a sense of place in the city.

Presenting author: Bimal Sharma (University of Canberra)

Other author: Professor Michael Jasper (University of Canberra)

The agricultural sector dominates the economy of the Brahmaputra Valley, India, with more than 50 per cent of the total gross domestic product and employs about 70 per cent of the workforce in the region. Despite favourable agro-ecological conditions for agricultural development and growth, the observed trend is one of stagnation. The present paper addresses the emerging pattern of crop yield in the Brahmaputra Valley by analysing it's inter and intrazonal disparities therein. In order to describe the pattern of crop productivity the entire Brahmaputra valley is divided into three agro-ecological zones, namely, the Lower, Middle and Upper Brahmaputra valley. The administrative district is considered as an areal unit to show crop productivity patterns in general and also to visualise their changes between and within the agro-ecological zones.

The pattern of crop productivity are analysed by considering two points of time: base year (triennial average 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10) and the current year (triennial average 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18) of major crops. The cause-effect relationship is analysed to consider the variables. Increasing inter and intra zonal differences of crop productivity provide evidence of the emergence of obliterated productivity patterns. The paper argues that the regional disparities are revealed in analysis of two variable irrigation and agricultural workforce.

Keywords: 

Crop Productivity Patterns, Agro-Ecological Zones, Inter and Intra Zones, Brahmaputra Valley.

Presenting author: Garth Cant (University of Canterbury)

Other author: Te Kura Aronukurangi (University of Canterbury)

The focus is on Romani in New Zealand and links Complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Authority to the new curriculum for Aotearoa New Zealand Histories. The curriculum will cover years 1 to 10 and, importantly for Romani and for Geographers, includes a component on migration and mobilities. Romani, in New Zealand as in Australia, have been present for generations and have suffered discrimination for generations. AoteaRomani are actively networking, telling the family stories, and are positioned to assert their collective identity. The New Zealand has resolved to teach the history of New Zealand in new ways. A new syllabus for Aotearoa New Zealand histories from years 1 to 10 is in draft form. The intent is to embrace the histories of all who live in New Zealand. One strand within the proposed syllabus will be "migration and mobility". There will be opportunities for local schools to explore the migration histories of their own children and families. This portion of the curriculum has the potential to be affirming of Romani children by telling their stories. The presentation invites responses from those preparing resources which present family and ethnic stories in formats which can be used in classrooms.