Beyond the 'Outer Crescent': the Mackinder century in New Zealand geopolitics

This paper proposes that, although Mackinder never mentions New Zealand in his influential 1904 paper and despite the absence of a formal Kiwi geopolitical tradition, 'The geographical pivot of history' provides a useful framework with which to approach New Zealand geopolitics. The argument uses two Mackinderian ideas to suggest three phases in New Zealand's security relationships during the Mackinder century. First, New Zealand's commitment to Mackinder's 'pivot area' notion of 'imperial defence' and 'collective security' characterized its dependent security phase. Between 1973 and 1990/91 there was a transitional security phase towards Mackinder's second 'global interconnectedness' idea. Third, this shift led to a current interdependent security phase which is characterized by the recognition that New Zealand's security relationships, despite its geographic isolation, are mutually dependent on political, economic, and military events around the world. The impact of 11 September 2001 and the consequent 'war on terror' are also considered. The paper concludes by suggesting that New Zealand's post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq point to the continuing relevance of Mackinder's 'The geographical pivot of history' to New Zealand geopolitics.     

Trading Strategies for New Zealand: The GATT, CER and Trade Liberalisation

Abstract. Despite the dramatic post-1984 changes in the management of the New Zealand economy, including the establishment of a more diverse pattern of trading partners and products, there remain significant external constraints. New Zealand's position outside major trading blocs is problematic at a time of declining terms of trade for agro-commodities. In this essay, the strategies pursued to improve New Zealand's trading position are considered with special reference to the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Closer Economic Relations (CER) with Australia, and the promotion of trade liberalisation.     

New Zealand in the Post Cold-War World

Abstract. The paper examines political and economic aspects of New Zealand's position in the world in the aftermath of the Cold War. It stresses the need for a balanced approach to the country's connections with the major power centres of the capitalist West, in an emerging multipolar geopolitical environment. It warns against disproportionate enthusiasms for particular places or concepts. New Zealand's national identity and interests have a distinctive South Pacific bicultural context, and this has a strong relevance for New Zealand's international profile, especially in relation to Australia.     

Pass the passport! Geographies of the Rugby World Cup 2011

The Rugby World Cup, held in New Zealand in 2011, was a showcase for a rapidly globalising sport involving competition between twenty national teams, comprising over 600 players. This paper analyses the geography of the players’ team affiliations and reveals patterns of labour mobility that disrupt and render complex concepts and definitions of ‘national’ identity. We see that the dominance of professional rugby, particularly by European clubs, is concentrating player resources and revenue generation in ways that suggest an evolving core–periphery relationship. We suggest that the players themselves exercise agency by finding, manipulating and exploiting cracks and opportunities in the complex regulatory framework of the sport. We build a case for a research agenda that maps out these geographies of rugby and traces their implications for understandings of identity and the political economy of globalising sport.     

The loss of New Zealand's active dunes and the spread of marram grass (Ammophila arenaria)

Abstract:  This article examines the decline of New Zealand's active dunes in relation to the introduction of marram grass ( Ammophila arenaria ). The area of active dunes in New Zealand declined from 129 000 ha in the early 1900s to about 39 000 ha in 2000; a reduction of 70%. The extent of active dunes has declined since the 1950s in all regions, particularly in Northland, Auckland and the Manawatu. The loss of active dunes on the west coast of the North Island resulted primarily from the introduction of marram grass, followed by the establishment of Pinus radiata plantations and extensive pastoral farming. Between 1985 and 2005 marram grass extended its range to the detriment of the indigenous foredune flora. Conservation and resource management agencies should urgently identify dune systems for conservation management and marram grass eradication.     

Placing Geographical Imagination in Film: New Zealand Filmmakers' Use of Landscape

The paper explores the role of landscape in New Zealand films. How is the New Zealand landscape imagined and revealed? What kind of landscape do filmmakers present? I argue that New Zealand filmmakers tap into specific geographical imaginations when they make films, and that this results in certain kinds of landscapes being produced. I sketch the methodology used in a survey of New Zealand films and ‘read’ a selection of opening and closing sequences and ‘generic places’ found in a selection of contemporary New Zealand films. 1 then offer some conclusions about New Zealand films, and their production, portrayal and imagining of New Zealand.     

On Geographic and geography

New Zealand Geographic is one of a number of geographical magazines published in the English‐speaking world that make little or no reference to work by academic geographers. It recently launched a New Zealand Geographic Trust to promote research into ‘New Zealand's life, culture and sciences’ and collaborated with four other publishers of geographical magazines to raise awareness of climate change: the work of academic geographers is again ignored. This exclusion of academic and school geography from such enterprises raises important issues regarding the discipline's public profile in New Zealand and suggests the need for greater public engagement activity by the country's geographers.     

Embracing postcolonial geographies: Contributions by Dame Evelyn Stokes to the development of postcolonial geography in New Zealand

Abstract: This paper acknowledges Dame Evelyn Stokes’ introduction of postcolonial critical analysis of Māori/Pākehā relationships before postcolonialism was established as a field of theoretical enquiry. The paper reviews research I have done on some of the issues faced by the Mashantucket Pequots in the wider context of the contribution Dame Evelyn Stokes was making to similar debates in New Zealand. She emphasized that Māori research and knowledge provide a different world view and that this world view needs to be taken into account in any geographical study of New Zealand. Only in this way will it be possible to avoid the continued marginalization of Māoris from nation building in their own country.     

Revitalising Local Economic Development-New Zealand Policy and Practice

In common with many other advanced capitalist nations, the rolling back of the state in New Zealand has seen a decline in direct state intervention in heal and regional economies. Yet since 2000 the current Labour Coalition Government has sought to promote a renaissance in economic development at local and regional scales. A survey of New Zealand territorial local authorities indicates involvement in heal economic development (LED) is a recent phenomenon involving facilitation of outside agencies which is orientated toward tourist, advisory and promotional activities. The implications of these findings for future research in an environment of ‘revitalised’ policy and practice in the New Zealand context is explored.     

Return migration of New Zealanders: a profile of 1990 returnees

"In the 1990s the population [of New Zealand] is experiencing higher levels of mobility than at any time in its history. However, with regards to European migration to New Zealand, the settler flows of the past have been overtaken in importance by reverse flows of temporary migrants. Now flows of new settlers come predominantly from Asia and the Pacific....This paper is about return migration--a process that has been largely ignored in the literature on international migration to New Zealand."     

Sustainable livelihoods approaches to inform government‐local partnerships and decision‐making in vulnerable environments

Sustainable livelihoods approaches used in international development are applied to a vulnerable New Zealand catchment. The Waiapu Catchment has a high proportion of indigenous residents, and is one of the most remote and deprived areas in the country. Linear and centralised approaches to indigenous development have failed to bring about desired changes. We identify “capitals” (social, human/political, physical, natural, financial and cultural) present in the catchment. From this assessment, we propose capital‐based holistic approaches to bring about community‐led change. The assessment and resulting approaches can be used in other vulnerable environments around the world.     

Pluriactivity in (and beyond?) a Regulationist Crisis

The study of rural pluriactivity in New Zealand has been based on the assumption that it is a temporary phenomenon: a survival strategy in times of crisis. This paper seeks to position both pluriactivity and ‘rural crisis’ in a more sound theoretical framework by referring to recent work in regulation theory. Case studies from the Mid-Canterbury and Catlins areas are used to suggest the role that pluriactivity may fulfil in any future mode of growth in rural New Zealand. In doing so, questions are raised regarding rural ideology and agency in the process of economic change.     

Global divides: Deconstructing the way we see the world should not be left to senior geography

Terms such as ‘Third World/First World’, ‘Developing/Developed’ are still in common usage despite many commentators and educators signalling that they are inadequate. Using empirical evidence from research in New Zealand, this paper discusses how these dividing terms may be under stress among young people who seek new ways of learning about places and people. In conceptualising the South Pacific, terms like ‘developing world’ may be challenged by young people. Debating these terms at all levels of education is important and should not merely be left to tertiary levels.     

John Turnbull Thomson,Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society: An early New Zealand geographer

John Turnbull Thomson is more known in New Zealand for his work as Chief Surveyor of Otago Province (1856–1876) and first Surveyor General of New Zealand (1877–1879). He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London from 1848 until his death in 1884. Thomson was an important and early self‐declared ‘does’ of geographer in New Zealand, prior to the establishment of university geography in 1937. Thomson's contribution included survey and mapping but he also gave public lectures on geography and contributed to debates about glaciation.     

Implications of a Century of Anthropogenic Erosion for Future Land Use in the Gisborne-East Coast Region of New Zealand

The East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand is world renowned for its severe erosion, flooding, and sedimentation. Extensive deforestation between 1880–1920 initiated this period of dramatic landscape transformation, and today reforestation is seen as the panacea. However, a century of pastoral farming has left a legacy of a highly degraded landscape, which is currently redistributing the products of this erosion. The rate and level of landscape recovery will influence the ability of communities to carry out future land use. This paper uses the results of a decade of geomorphic research into the controls and processes of landscape change to illustrate some of the likely future impacts on the landscape and its land use, and to identify some still unanswered questions. This increasing understanding, together with changing community attitudes, provides the opportunity to maximise the benefits of reforestation and other management interventions.     

Place ‘From One Glance’: the use of place in the marketing of New Zealand and Australian wines

Associations between place and wine are historically deep. Past and current narratives of wine production are wedded to environment attributes of particular places, and in both the European and Australasian settings this has been codified by way of formal labelling requirements for the place of origin for wines. In this paper we explore the role of place references on the front labels of Australian and New Zealand wines through a small initial survey. The results reveal that the importance of place references is stronger for New Zealand wines. We argue that this reflects strongly the very different structures of the industries in the two countries, with the emphasis for New Zealand producers on high-quality wines for which origin statements are expected as opposed to the Australian focus on the production of bulk, value-driven wines dependent on the blending of wines across regions and places. This in turn has implications for the future development and marketing trajectories of the two industries.     

Sustainability,corporate growers,regionalisation and Pacific‐Asia links in the Tasmanian and Hawkes Bay apple industries

This paper examines the differing modes of insertion of the Australian and New Zealand apple industries into world apple markets, part of the evolving global fresh fruit complex. It is argued that the mix and behaviours of key actors in the global apple industry are realigning market links and production systems. Industry actors in Australia and New Zealand are confronting issues of quality and sustainability as a result of pressures from consumers, regulatory measures in traditional and emerging markets, and new technologies of production and distribution. Governments are laying the foundations of national, regional and industry sustainability policies. An examination of the detailed structure and adjustments of the apple industry in Hawkes Bay and Tasmania reveals considerable differences in local responses, institutions and degree of restructuring of markets. The preferences and quality control requirements of export markets are increasingly important, to the extent that cultural dimensions appear to be altering the commodification process.     

The measurement of modern sedimentation in estuarine environments in New Zealand

Concern about coastal sedimentation in New Zealand is widespread. As a result, many regional councils now undertake monitoring programmes to understand the rate of change that is occurring within estuarine environments. A variety of techniques are used to understand estuarine infill from short‐term (fixed rods, marker layers, laser surveying) to long‐term studies (coring). Short‐term studies provide detailed but temporally restricted data sets, while coring studies provide long‐term generalised data. This paper reviews the common methods used within New Zealand and suggests that a combination of both methods is the ideal for understanding sediment infill.     

Freshwater geographies: Experimenting with knowing and doing geography differently

The fair and effective governance of freshwater is an increasingly prominent issue in New Zealand. Emerging from a complex of cultural, economic and biophysical narratives, freshwater geographies are multiple, varied and increasingly acknowledged as worthy of interdisciplinary scrutiny. In this commentary, we reflect on a series of generative spaces that we – as group of postgraduate geographers (plus supporting staff) – created to engage with the multiplicity of freshwater meanings both within and beyond the academy. Through this evolving epistemic‐political project, we significantly reframed our own understandings about what freshwater ‘is’ and how it ought to be governed. By pursuing a deeper understanding of how the world gets made, we expand our ability to know and make it differently.