New Zealand Sociology Journal Vol.19 (2)

Michael Peters
Disciplinary Knowledges of Knowledge Societies and Knowledge Economies

Susan Wurtzburg
Creating a New Zealand-styled Fa'a-Samoa: Samoan Identity in Christchurch

Rhonda Shaw
Insufficient Attention: Making Sense of the Sociology and Ethics Debates

Richard Pringle
A Social History of the Articulations Between Rugby Union and Masculinities in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Mike Lloyd
Documenting the New Zealand Body: Problems and Pleasures of the Historical Record

Sharrock, W. & Read
R. Kuhn: Philosopher of scientific revolution
R eviewed by Ruth McManus

Seidman, S.
Contested knowledge: Social theory today
R eviewed by Chamsy el-Ojeili

Ip, M. (Ed.)
Unfolding history, evolving identity: The Chinese in New Zealand
R eviewed by Andrew Butcher

Portal Empire: Plastic Power and the Thalassic Imagination

Peter Murphy

This paper looks at American democracy from its relatively small scale origins with strong localised and hierarchical social foundations through its development to a medium, continental scale structure based on planar and procedural notions of power through to its global stage. The paper points to the crucial role that navalism, sea regions and portal cities played in the emergence of American globalism. The paper discusses the conjunction of a collective American sense of destiny with the architectonic, rhythmic and plastic power of portals, and how the exceptional capacity of nodal thalassic regions to produce intellectual capital shaped the peculiar and distinctive nature of American empire.

Results of social research with members of the Christchurch Samoan community are presented here. The people interviewed discussed conceptualisations of ethnic identity in which personal needs were sublimated to family concerns, although many of the younger New Zealand-born study participants emphasised their opposition to these “traditional” mores. The influence of New Zealand-born Polynesians has dramatically increased the diversity of cultures derived from the Pacific Islands; resulting in a wider range of social customs, languages and linguistic prowess present in New Zealand. Despite this state of affairs, Samoans living in Christchurch still experience social pressure stemming from the expectations that group concerns should prevail over those of the individual. Many of these “traditional” expectations have been transplanted to New Zealand creating increased stress for contemporary young members of the Samoan community. This paper demonstrates the range of Samoan identities present in Christchurch and suggests that public policy emphasising rigid protocols and static community norms may not provide adequate representation for the variation present in the New Zealand Samoan community.

Over the course of the last ten years there has been a resurgence of interest in the question and place of morality and ethics in sociological analysis and social theory. This paper addresses one influential trajectory that has developed as part of this renascence. In particular, it discusses the contribution of Zygmunt Bauman’s writing on postmodern ethics to the sociology and ethics debates. The concluding section of the paper responds to some criticisms of Bauman’s conception of ethics in order to demonstrate the importance of the ethical relation, as Bauman conceives it, in the context of broader sociological concerns.

A Social History of the Articulations Between Rugby Union and Masculinities in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Sport is recognised by many critical commentators, particularly those within the sub-discipline of sport sociology, to be one of the prime social institutions for defining and legitimating discourses of masculinities that contribute broadly to male privilege but also gender troubles. In this paper I help illustrate how fruitful sport can be as a subject for sociological research through providing a discursive history of rugby’s articulations with masculinities. I trace the socio-historical links between rugby and masculinities from nineteenth century England to contemporary times in Aotearoa/New Zealand to help understand how a male dominated sport associated with violence, injury and sexism came to be known as “our national sport”. I conclude by making pleas for further empirical research concerning rugby’s contemporary impact on masculine subjectivities and gender relations to be undertaken.

The time allocated for consumption in industrialised societies was, for many years, based on the assumption that the family unit comprised a husband who had a paid job, and a wife who stayed at home doing unpaid labour including the work of consumption. The “housewife” was “free” to organise the work of consumption throughout the week, and legislation restricting shop opening hours reflected that. The material basis of the family unit was the “family wage” earned by the man and which became law in 1936 in New Zealand. In the post World War Two world, however, married women increasingly took up paid employment and eventually gained the legal right to equal pay. That meant the demise of the family wage, but married women continued to be responsible for the majority of the work of consumption within the family. The resulting “time squeeze” on married women contributed to the deregulation of shop opening hours, whilst the advent of internet shopping seemed to offer a means by which married women could save time in shopping. Neither development resolves the continuing problem facing married women trying to combine paid and upaid labour, which is that of a continuing inequality in the amount of time that women and men spend on the work of consumption.

		2004 volume 19 number 2 CONTENTS GENERAL ARTICLES Peter Murphy Portal empire: plastic power and the thalassic imagination Michael Peters Disciplinary Knowledges of Knowledge Societies and Knowledge Economies Susan Wurtzburg Creating a New Zealand-styled Fa'a-Samoa: Samoan Identity in Christchurch Rhonda Shaw Insufficient Attention: Making Sense of the Sociology and Ethics Debates Richard Pringle A Social History of the Articulations Between Rugby Union and Masculinities in Aotearoa/New Zealand Paul Harris Buying Time: Constructing the Time of Consumption [return to top] REVIEW ARTICLE Mike Lloyd Documenting the New Zealand Body: Problems and Pleasures of the Historical Record [return to top] REVIEWS Worth, H. Gay men, sex and HIV in New Zealand Reviewed by Chris Brickell Sharrock, W. & Read R. Kuhn: Philosopher of scientific revolution R eviewed by Ruth McManus Seidman, S. Contested knowledge: Social theory today R eviewed by Chamsy el-Ojeili Ip, M. (Ed.) Unfolding history, evolving identity: The Chinese in New Zealand R eviewed by Andrew Butcher Bauman, Z. Society under seige R eviewed by Lincoln Dahlberg [return to top] *Portal Empire: Plastic Power and the Thalassic Imagination* Peter Murphy This paper looks at American democracy from its relatively small scale origins with strong localised and hierarchical social foundations through its development to a medium, continental scale structure based on planar and procedural notions of power through to its global stage. The paper points to the crucial role that navalism, sea regions and portal cities played in the emergence of American globalism. The paper discusses the conjunction of a collective American sense of destiny with the architectonic, rhythmic and plastic power of portals, and how the exceptional capacity of nodal thalassic regions to produce intellectual capital shaped the peculiar and distinctive nature of American empire. [return to top] *Creating a New Zealand-styled Fa'a-Samoa: Samoan Identity in Christchurch* Susan Wurtzburg Results of social research with members of the Christchurch Samoan community are presented here. The people interviewed discussed conceptualisations of ethnic identity in which personal needs were sublimated to family concerns, although many of the younger New Zealand-born study participants emphasised their opposition to these “traditional” mores. The influence of New Zealand-born Polynesians has dramatically increased the diversity of cultures derived from the Pacific Islands; resulting in a wider range of social customs, languages and linguistic prowess present in New Zealand. Despite this state of affairs, Samoans living in Christchurch still experience social pressure stemming from the expectations that group concerns should prevail over those of the individual. Many of these “traditional” expectations have been transplanted to New Zealand creating increased stress for contemporary young members of the Samoan community. This paper demonstrates the range of Samoan identities present in Christchurch and suggests that public policy emphasising rigid protocols and static community norms may not provide adequate representation for the variation present in the New Zealand Samoan community. [return to top] *Insufficient Attention: Making Sense of the Sociology and Ethics Debates* Rhonda Shaw Over the course of the last ten years there has been a resurgence of interest in the question and place of morality and ethics in sociological analysis and social theory. This paper addresses one influential trajectory that has developed as part of this renascence. In particular, it discusses the contribution of Zygmunt Bauman’s writing on postmodern ethics to the sociology and ethics debates. The concluding section of the paper responds to some criticisms of Bauman’s conception of ethics in order to demonstrate the importance of the ethical relation, as Bauman conceives it, in the context of broader sociological concerns. [return to top] *A Social History of the Articulations Between Rugby Union and Masculinities in Aotearoa/New Zealand* Richard Pringle Sport is recognised by many critical commentators, particularly those within the sub-discipline of sport sociology, to be one of the prime social institutions for defining and legitimating discourses of masculinities that contribute broadly to male privilege but also gender troubles. In this paper I help illustrate how fruitful sport can be as a subject for sociological research through providing a discursive history of rugby’s articulations with masculinities. I trace the socio-historical links between rugby and masculinities from nineteenth century England to contemporary times in Aotearoa/New Zealand to help understand how a male dominated sport associated with violence, injury and sexism came to be known as “our national sport”. I conclude by making pleas for further empirical research concerning rugby’s contemporary impact on masculine subjectivities and gender relations to be undertaken. [return to top] Buying Time: Constructing the Time of Consumption Paul Harris The time allocated for consumption in industrialised societies was, for many years, based on the assumption that the family unit comprised a husband who had a paid job, and a wife who stayed at home doing unpaid labour including the work of consumption. The “housewife” was “free” to organise the work of consumption throughout the week, and legislation restricting shop opening hours reflected that. The material basis of the family unit was the “family wage” earned by the man and which became law in 1936 in New Zealand. In the post World War Two world, however, married women increasingly took up paid employment and eventually gained the legal right to equal pay. That meant the demise of the family wage, but married women continued to be responsible for the majority of the work of consumption within the family. The resulting “time squeeze” on married women contributed to the deregulation of shop opening hours, whilst the advent of internet shopping seemed to offer a means by which married women could save time in shopping. Neither development resolves the continuing problem facing married women trying to combine paid and upaid labour, which is that of a continuing inequality in the amount of time that women and men spend on the work of consumption. [return to top]