A 'culturally unsafe' space? The Somali experience of Christchurch secondary schools

Abstract:  School should be a 'culturally safe' place, particularly for those students in Christchurch who challenge the city's reputation as a culturally homogeneous space and are thus frequently open to discrimination. A case study focusing on Somali refugee adolescents highlights that Christchurch's secondary schools – like those elsewhere in New Zealand – are not a culturally safe, certain space for all students but rather spatially reconstruct inequalities of gender, class and ethnicity. Yet, Somali students are not passive victims, for they have actively renegotiated these spaces within their schools with varying degrees of success.     

'Driving people crazy': A geography of boy racers in Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract:   So-called 'boy racers' form a subculture, which is subject to ongoing public scrutiny and media attention, usually negative. This study aimed to deconstruct the term 'boy racer' and to explore the subculture in detail, within the context of Christchurch, New Zealand, using a phenomenological ethnographic approach. This included conducting semistructured interviews and observing the activities of participants. Results show the subculture has a relatively diverse membership and a range of associated behaviours, activities and attitudes. Moreover, performances within the subculture are linked to place, and are seen by other members of the community as threats to normative boundaries.     

Remaking the Anglophilic city: Visual spectacles in suburbia

Abstract:   In the late 1990s, the residents of the Christchurch suburb of Halswell began to extensively engage in the practice of adorning their homes with Christmas lights. While the lights attract many visitors from other parts of the city, many Christchurch people are highly critical of them on grounds of taste. An exploration of the diverse attitudes toward this cultural practice demonstrates the complex ways in which local urban identities are articulated. While the Christmas lights reproduce processes of suburban social conformity and normativity, they also constitute a more postmodern site in which the established heritage meanings of Christchurch based on notions of Englishness are disrupted.     

Examining the neighbourhood‐level predictors of fear of crime in Christchurch,New Zealand

The fear of crime can significantly reduce the quality of life of individuals, yet little is known about what neighbourhood‐level factors drive feelings of vulnerability in New Zealand. Even less is known about the impact that recorded crime has on individuals' fear in the country. In this study, we examined the neighbourhood‐level factors related to fear of crime in Christchurch, focusing specifically on whether recorded crime in neighbourhoods influences fear. The fear of crime in Christchurch was found to be the greatest in more affluent, ethnically homogenous and residentially stable neighbourhoods, while recorded crime levels were found to be relatively lower in these neighbourhoods.     

Grassland utopia and Silent Spring: Rereading the agrichemical revolution in New Zealand

Abstract:  This paper explores the post-World War II 'green revolution' in agricultural chemicals and its representation in Service , a New Zealand chemical industry journal. In particular, I describe how various 'texts' within the journal constructed the revolution largely in utopian terms. Critically rereading these texts reveals the extent to which chemical use in agriculture was tied to post-war discourses of unwavering optimism about science, technology and progress.     

Colonial transformations: Nature, progress and science in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens

Abstract:   The Christchurch Botanic Gardens are popularly portrayed, both positively and negatively, as an icon of colonial heritage. This paper explores the cultural, social and scientific functions of the Gardens in the 19th century, and argues that they did not simply support colonization. Rather, the Gardens were a site of negotiation, conflict and contradictory meaning. The aim is to show the colonial project, embodied in the space of the Botanic Gardens, as fraught and vulnerable, rather than as the extension of panoptic European power.     

Climate change policy and practice in regional New Zealand: How are actors negotiating science and policy?

Regional governance to address climate change is being constituted in New Zealand through domestic policy measures and international discourses. We examine climate change responses in two regions: Marlborough and Waikato. Informants expressed a desire for more transparent government policy; that planning for climate change makes good business sense for farmers and other businesses; that technology is sought to increase productivity and decrease environmental impact; and research networks build capacity for local action, linking sectors and organisations. Often conflicting, these responses to climate change were informed by a mix of discourses shaping New Zealand, including participatory democracy, the knowledge economy and sustainable development.     

Re-inscribing the urban abject: Ngai Tahu and the Gothic Revival

Abstract:   The 1960s, in Fredric Jameson's analysis, saw a radical re-formulation of global imperialism, with pockets of the 'third world' being incorporated into the first (Jameson 1991, p. 128). On a local level, this implied for colonized peoples a re-negotiation of social space in the face of urbanization. One culture's civilizing mission becomes another's grid of control, resulting in ghettoization, the marginalization of 'abject zones' where the visibility of the clean and proper city is suspended. This paper examines the case of Christchurch, where the garden as an index to civility becomes a paradoxical veneer in the face of biculturalism and decolonization.     

Placing geography in the New Zealand Curriculum

The design of a school‐based geography curriculum presents opportunities and challenges for teachers in New Zealand secondary schools. This article discussed the considerations that teachers need to make when developing a school‐based curriculum that is suited to the needs and interests of the students in their school and community. An example of a programme that has been developed to meet the needs and interests of students in a particular secondary school in Christchurch, New Zealand, was outlined.     

Modeling Nonprofit Resilience in Long-Term Recovery in Christchurch,New Zealand

Following the 2010–2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, many nonprofit organizations changed or expanded services to address emergent or compounded risks. This research is based on interviews with thirty local community nonprofit managers and discussions with five staff focus groups conducted in 2014. Preexisting nonprofits with flexible organizational structures and emergent nonprofits succeeded in providing services during the emergency response and early recovery phases; nonprofits contracted with the government were better suited for long-term recovery. Shared resources among nonprofit agency connections contributed to successful transitions from response to recovery. Similar organizational resilience factors might occur in other major cities following disasters.     

Emerging transitions in organic waste infrastructure in Aotearoa New Zealand

Aotearoa New Zealand is at a critical juncture in reducing and managing organic waste. Research has highlighted the significant proportion of organic waste sent to landfills and associated adverse effects such as greenhouse gas emissions and loss of valuable organic matter. There is current debate about what practices and infrastructure to invest in to better manage and use organic waste. We highlight the diversity of existing organic waste practices and infrastructures, focusing on Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. We show how debates about organic waste practices and infrastructure connect across three themes: waste subjectivities, collective action in place and language.     

Multi-decadal coastal change in New Zealand: Evidence, mechanisms and implications

Abstract:   Coastal research and monitoring on New Zealand beaches have typically examined seasonal and event-driven (storms) changes in the coast. However, historical records are now of sufficient length to indicate that change occurs at longer timescales. This paper presents examples of multi-decadal change at three case-study locations around New Zealand. Results show that morphological adjustment of the coast occurs at multi-decadal scales and is much larger than short-term dynamics. Physical mechanisms driving changes are ill defined but may be associated with El Niños and La Niña episodes which modulate waves and sea level, as well as changes in sediment supply.     

Rights of Public Access for Outdoor Recreation: What Does the Public Know?

This study addresses the public's perceptions of their access rights to the New Zealand countryside for outdoor recreation. An interviewer‐administered questionnaire survey of 300 Christchurch residents investigated people's knowledge of their access rights, perceptions of access mechanisms, the availability of access information and their experiences of gaining access to land. Whilst individuals are aware of their rights in a general sense, and feel confident they know where they can go, their level of knowledge was found to be low. Findings indicate that knowledge of access rights exerts a strong influence over where people recreate.     

Anthropocene dwelling: Lessons from post-disaster Christchurch

This article takes circumstances of post-quake Christchurch as an analogue for Anthropocene emergency. I argue that Christchurch events are more than a reminder of the Earth's geologic volatility; for the Anthropocene-as-disaster, it is a prompt to contemplate what it is to dwell on unstable ground. Urban locations—towns, cities, mega-cities—are all rendered vulnerable on the surface of an unruly planet, offering no absolute refuge from planetary fluctuations. Such unsettling is deeply felt, physically and psychologically, resulting in homelessness both literal and figurative. Ensuing analysis offers insight into potential strategies for unsettled planetary dwelling to come.     

Recent and future higher sea levels in New Zealand: A review

Abstract:    Understanding past sea levels is essential to respond to the challenges of climate change. In the Pacific and Tasman, sea level has been up to 1.5 m higher during the mid-Holocene, similar to the predictions of some global warming models. Within New Zealand the knowledge of sea-level movements, especially during the recent past is poor, with the last major investigation being conducted 20 years ago. This paper reviews the state of local understanding of higher sea levels and suggests regions for further study and new methods of analysis to understand the nature of sea-level change in New Zealand.     

'There is a tide': An examination of the evolution of New Zealand Coastal Policy Statements

Abstract:   In this paper the proposed New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement is set within the context of its Resource Management Act legislative framework and in terms of the evolution of the fundamental influence of policy statements on coastal management in New Zealand. This discussion is coupled with an examination of the development of strong policy directions in the proposed statement and the potential impact of giving effect to these policies on the regional and unitary authorities tasked with this responsibility.     

RICHARD V. BIRNIE. Estimates of Slope Retreat around the Ivory Glacier Catchment, South Island, New Zealand.

CHRISTOPHER J. SMITH, ROBIN A. KEARNS, and MAX W. ABBOTT. A Tale of Two Cities: The Experience of Housing Problems in Auckland and Christchurch.
IAN, E. WHITEHOUSE and M. J. McSAVENEY. Assessment of Geomorphic Hazards along an Alpine Highway.
S. E. JOHNSON and A. G. D. WHYTE. Strategic planning for the Forest Industry in North Canterbury, New Zanland.
JEFF WARBURTON. Redefinition of the Term "Periglacial".     

Competing Perceptions of the Rural Idyll: responses to threats from coal seam gas development in Gloucester,NSW, Australia

Threats to rural livelihoods and rural landscapes have increased over time as developed nations in particular look for cheaper and more locally based alternatives to traditional energy sources to drive national economies. In New South Wales, through the expansion of coal mines and coal seam gas (CSG), small towns such as Gloucester on the edge of the Upper Hunter are faced with competing visions which seek to redefine their future. Powerful and competing discourses over land use threaten not only the sustainability of the region but the integrity of its sense of place, centred on community, rurality, agricultural production and confrontation of risk from mining. The different discourses of local groups such as ‘tree-changers’, established residents and farmers conflict with those of external organisations such as the State government and mining/CSG companies which envisage Gloucester as a ‘balanced’ space of co-existence and position it as a new node in the carbon supply chain.