Book reviews

Disputed Histories: Imagining New Zealand's Pasts edited by Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney. University of Otago Press, Dunedin. 2006. 283 p. NZ$49.95 (paperback). ISBN 1877276161.

Historical Frictions: Maori Claims and Reinvented Histories by Michael Belgrave. Auckland University Press, Auckland. 2005. 388 p. NZ$49.95 (paperback). ISBN 1869403207.

New Zealand Identities: Departures and Destinations edited by James H Liu, Tim McCreanor, Tracey McIntosh, and Teresia Teaiwa. Victoria University Press, Wellington. 2005. 304 p. NZ$39.95 (paperback). ISBN 0864735170.

Revolution: The 1913 Great Strike in New Zealand, edited by Melanie Nolan. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch. 2006. 320 p. NZ$34.95 (paperback). ISBN 1877257400.

Sexuality Down Under: Social And Historical Perspectives edited by Allison Kirk‐man and Pat Moloney. University of Otago Press, Dunedin. 2006. 301 p. NZ$39.95 (paperback). ISBN 1877372102.

Geographies of Globalization by Warwick E. Murray. Routledge, London and New York. 2006. 392 p. NZ$69.95 (paperback). ISBN 0415317991.     

Trust,distrust, and the end of politics-as-we-knew-it: the mood of the nation prior to election 2017

ABSTRACT

New Zealand’s party-political system has, in the past, undergone significant transformations. And recent political events around the world have been marked by anti-establishment distrust, electoral disruption and the rise of populist parties. So the present article asks if this country could be on the verge of similar disruption, and whether there is a mood among the public that could precipitate a phase of populism. An online survey run in May 2017 by Stuff.co.nz and Massey University (supported by comparable opinion polls) is used to investigate this. In spite of significant levels of dissatisfaction and desire for changes, the survey did not reveal a mood for disruptive or systemic political change in the short term. Nonetheless, political fragmentation of the kind seen in proportional systems in Europe could occur in New Zealand in the long term.     

Critical Literacy as a Lens for Students’ Evaluation of Sources in an AP World History Class

Abstract

Critical literacy is an appropriate learning outcome for social studies courses because it has the potential to teach students how to critically evaluate sources of information relevant to historical texts and current news media. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine the process through which students learned to apply critical literacy strategies while completing an end-of-unit research project in tenth grade AP world history. This study looks as student and teacher interviews to examine how students use critical literacy approaches and perspectives to analyze texts. As a result of this study it was determined that: (1) students at the elite private school had limited experience with source evaluation and critical literacy prior to this research project, (2) critical literacy served as an effective evaluation tool for reliability and bias for some students, (3) certain students experienced challenges in using critical literacy as an evaluation tool, and (4) students believed that critical literacy would benefit them personally and academically. Results include implications for instructors who wish to teach critical literacy and source evaluation in this information age.     

The pre-coronation passage of Elizabeth I: political theatre or the rehearsal of politics?

Cet article, une analyse du passage d'Elizabeth I avant son couronnement, cherche à adopter et à critiquer la métaphore comparant la politique au théâtre, telle que récemment utilisée par Geertz et autres spécialistes du symbolisme politique. Je veux montrer ici où et comment le passage pré-couronnement devient plus compréhensible, grâce à cette métaphore, mais aussi où celle-ci obscurcit sa signification. Je suggère, sur cette base, que la valeur analytique de la métaphore est améliorée quand la notion de 'répétition' prend le pas sur celle de 'représentation' (anthropologie symbolique, symbolisme politique, réciprocité, anthropologie historique).
This paper, a treatment of the pre-coronation passage of Elizabeth i, seeks to adopt and to criticize the 'politics as theatre' metaphor recently used by Geertz and other students of the symbolism of political affairs. I seek to show where and how the pre-coronation passage is illuminated by this metaphor, and where its significance is made obscure. It is suggested, on this basis, that the metaphor is improved as an analytic device when the notion of 'rehearsal' is emphasized over that of 'performance.'     

A Conversation on the Future of the Academy with James Turk, PhD, Executive Director, Canadian Association of University Teachers

Le thème de ce numéro spécial nous a fourni l'occasion d'engager une conversation avec James Turk, sociologue et directeur général de l'Association canadienne des professeures et professeurs d'université (ACPPU). L'entretien eut lieu a Ottawa en décembre 2001 et quelques precisions ont été apportées en avril 2002.
The special theme of this issue afforded us an opportunity to engage with Dr. James Turk, a sociologist who is currently the executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). This conversation was held in Ottawa in December 2001, with additional follow-up in April 2002.     

Variation in height acceleration in the Fels growth data

The Fels growth data record at half-yearly intervals the heights of children from birth to adulthood, and are the basis for pediatricians' growth charts used throughout North America. Aspects of human growth are the subject of a large medical and statistical literature. This paper uses smoothing splines to study the variation in height acceleration. By use of a functional version of principal-components analysis, we find that variation in the acceleration curve is essentially three-dimensional in nature. Evidence for a small growth spurt between the ages of six and eight, reported for data collected in Switzerland, is examined, and little support is found for the existence of this phenomenon in the Fels data.     

Sport in changing times and places

Bale, J. 2003 Sports Geography London : Routledge 196 pp. £ 21.99
Eitzen, S. 2003 Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport Oxford : Rowan & Littlefield Publishers 187 pp. £ 17.95
Hill, J. 2002 Sport, Leisure & Culture in Twentieth Century Britain Basingstoke , Palgrave 232 pp. £ 15.99
Houlihan, B. 2003 Sport & Society, A Student Introduction London : Sage Publications 379 pp. £ 19.99
Sugden, J. and Tomlinson, A. 2002 Power Games: A Critical Sociology of Sport London : Routledge 304 pp. £ 21.99     

A Dynamic Analysis of Prices in the U.S. Rice Marketing Channel

Granger causality tests and dynamic multipliers are used to explore the dynamic relationship among prices in the U.S. rice marketing channel. The dynamic multipliers provide information about the speed and magnitude of dynamic price adjustments that is not provided by the Granger causality tests. This information is shown to be useful in explaining the underlying economic relationship among the time series of prices.     

Public space as 'context' in assistive information and communication technologies for people with cognitive impairment

This paper examines emergent issues of 'context' raised by the application of information and communication technologies for people with cognitive impairment. The issue of the development and application of cognitive prostheses for this group provides an opportunity to examine assumptions and issues emerging from this area pertaining to understandings of the term 'context' in these applications. In this sense the paper takes these assumptions and issues as a point of departure for the development of a 'problematic' that can contribute to the study of the experience of cognitive impairment. The paper specifically addresses recent concerns about the lack of knowledge of these experiences in public spaces such as shopping centres, given that this is a critical site for the civic participation of this group. We argue that this participation should be understood in terms of the 'meeting of two histories': the history of contemporary requirements governing participation in public space and the habitus of people with cognitive impairment with regard to this participation. The paper proposes that the salience of cognitive impairment in these spaces turns on what it means for individuals to inhabit them as complex 'Container Technologies' (Sofia) and underlines the importance of understanding their efforts to attain a sense of normality (Goffman) in these contexts. We propose that this approach can inform research contributing to the development of a 'pattern language', informing applications that make cognition a system property in networks that operate between humans, machines and their contexts.