Mobilities Symposium Booklet - · PDF fileWe argue that continuing technological developments, from film to digital distribution ... the boundaries of ethnographic and documentary

Transitions, Connections and Mobilities Collaborative Research Group https://mobilities.wiki.otago.ac.nz

Mobilities Symposium Towards a movementdriven Social Science in Aotearoa/New Zealand

15‐16 November 2010

University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand


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List of Attendees ................................................................................................. 3

Keynote Speaker ................................................................................................. 4

Programme ......................................................................................................... 5

Abstracts ............................................................................................................. 9

Vivienne Anderson ........................................................................................... 9

Terry Austrin and John Farnsworth ............................................................... 10

Martha Bell .................................................................................................... 11

Greg Burnett .................................................................................................. 12

Mary Butler and Sarah Derrett ...................................................................... 13

Gabrielle Désilets ........................................................................................... 14

Adam Doering ................................................................................................ 15

Tara Duncan ................................................................................................... 16

Mark Falcous and Josh Newman .................................................................... 17

Anne Galloway ............................................................................................... 18

Peer Researchers ........................................................................................... 19

Beatrice Hale and Linda Robertson ................................................................ 20

Ana Hoseit ...................................................................................................... 21

Allison Kirkman .............................................................................................. 22

Steve La Grow, Fiona Alpass, Chris Stephens and Andy Towers .................... 23

Fiona McLachlan ............................................................................................ 24

David Parsons................................................................................................. 25

Anita Perkins .................................................................................................. 26

Robin Quigg, Tony Reeder, Debra Waters, Andrew Gray and Alex Holt ........ 27

David Scott ..................................................................................................... 28

S. John Sullivan, A. G. Schneiders and Steve La Grow .................................... 29

Davinia Thornley ............................................................................................ 30


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LIST OF ATTENDEES

Adam Doering University of OtagoAllison Kirkman Victoria University of WellingtonAna Hoseit University of OtagoAnita Perkins University of OtagoAnne Galloway Victoria University of WellingtonApple Srotpetch University of OtagoBeatrice Hale Independent ResearcherChristine Keller Otago PolytechnicClaudia Ammann University of OtagoDavid Parsons Massey UniversityDavid Scott University of OtagoDavinia Thornley University of OtagoDebra Waters University of OtagoDiana Rothstein University of OtagoElaine Webster University of OtagoFiona McLachan University of OtagoGabrielle Desilets Australian National UniversityGloria Gomez University of OtagoGreg Burnett University of OtagoJanet McAllister University of AucklandJohn Farnsworth New Zealand Broadcasting SchoolJohn Sullivan University of OtagoLeigh Hale University of OtagoLinda Robertson Otago PolytechnicMaria Borovnik Massey UniversityMarsa Dodson University of OtagoMartha Bell University of OtagoMary Butler University of OtagoPat Shannon University of OtagoRobin Quigg University of OtagoRochelle Bailey University of OtagoSarah Lovell University of OtagoSteve LaGrow Massey UniversityTara Duncan University of OtagoTerry Austrin University of CanterburyTim Mehigan University of OtagoVivienne Anderson University of Otago


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KEYNOTE SPEAKER Monika Büscher Centre for Mobilities Research Lancaster University Monika Büscher is Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe) in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University and Director of mobilities.lab. She studies mobile embodied social practices as part of participatory innovation projects. Her ethnographic work includes studies of mobilities and work practice in art and design, healthcare, software development, event management and emergency response. Experimental realization of (partial) futures as part of design, enables 'ethnographies of change'. Her methods of mobile video ethnography and ethnographically informed innovation have contributed to several research fields, including STS and mobilities research, participatory design, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), palpable and pervasive computing. She has recently co‐edited books on 'Ethnographies of Diagnostic Work' (Palgrave 2009), 'Mobile Methods' and 'Design Research' (Routledge 2010).

Mobile Methods

In this presentation I discuss the analytical and innovative leverage of 'mobile methods'. Global flows of people, goods, food, money, information, services and media images form a pervasive, intensely mobile background to everyday life in the 21st century. They enable new forms of global relations, knowledge and emotions as well as new forms of monitoring, surveillance and 'qualculation', They are highly socially organised and sensitive to disruptions and innovations and hugely troublesome in some aspects ‐ transforming everyday life, environments, and economies. Perhaps more than ever, societies need good social science research now. And social scientists are on the move, seeking new analytical purchase on these important aspects of the social world by trying to move with, and to be moved by, the (im)mobile, fleeting, distributed, multiple, complex, non‐causal, sensory, emotional and kinaesthetic. Their mobile methods mobilise sociological analysis, bringing new insights and opening up new opportunities for engagement with contemporary challenges. This presentation reviews methodological innovations in mobile methods to examine some important implications of the mobilities turn for the processes of 'research', the realm of the empirical, and the 'politics of method'.


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PROGRAMME

Day One Monday 15th November 201012:30 – 1:00pm Registration1:00‐1:30pm Mihi Whakatau/Welcome & Introductions1:30 – 2:30pm Keynote Address : Monica Büscher (Lancaster University)

Mobile Methods 2:30 – 3:00pm Mobili/tea Break3:00 – 4:30pm Session I: Neighbourhood Mobilities (Chair: Debra Waters) Beatrice Hale (Independent Researcher, Social Gerontology, Dunedin) & Linda Robertson (Occupational

Therapy, Otago Polytechnic) Various Mobilities

Beatrice Hale (Independent Researcher, Social Gerontology, Dunedin) & Linda Robertson (Occupational Therapy, Otago Polytechnic) & Peer Researchers Collaborative Research

Steve La Grow (Health and Social Services, Massey University), Fiona Alpass, Chris Stevens & Andy Towers (Psychology, Massey University) Mobility and quality of life among those in late middle age

John Sullivan, A G Schneiders (Physiotherapy Research, University of Otago) & Steve La Grow (Heath and Social Services, Massey University) Mobility Scooters: Keeping the aging population on the move?


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4:30pm – 6:00pm Session II: Lifestyle Mobilities (Chair: Vivienne Anderson) Gabrielle Désilets (Social Anthropology, Australian National University)

'International mobility and transnational living: Exploring “Third Culture Kids' ” life trajectories' Tara Duncan (Tourism, University of Otago)

Gap Year experiences and New Zealanders: A fresh perspective? David Scott (Tourism, University of Otago)

Mobilising the banal: the everyday on tour Anne Galloway (Design, Victoria University of Wellington)

Mustering Methods and Counting Sheep 6:00 – 7:00pm Wine, Cheese and Nibbles


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Day Two Tuesday 16th November 20108:00‐8:30am Registration and Coffee8:30 – 9:30am Keynote Korero with Monica Büscher (Lancaster University)

(Please note: This is a live Skype session with Monica and her class) 9:30 – 10:00am Mobili/tea Break10:00 – 11:00 Session III: Methods (Cultural Analysis) (Chair: Tara Duncan) Terry Austrin (University of Canterbury) & John Farnsworth (New Zealand Broadcasting School)

Experiment as experience: Reconfiguring ethnographic investigation and documentary film as socio‐technical assemblage from Rouch to Rain of the Children

Anita Perkins (Languages and Cultures, University of Otago) Towards a mobile cultural analysis of travel literature and film

Davinia Thornley (Media, Film and Communication, University of Otago)“I don’t have to be a particular skin colour to feel beige”: Mobilising Māori identity by way of New Zealand film

11:00 – 12:20pm Session IV: Methods and Epistemologies (Chair: Tara Duncan) Mary Butler & Sarah Derrett (Medicine, University of Otago)

Changed rhythms and temporalities following injury Allison Kirkman (Social and Cultural Studies, Victoria University of Wellington)

Mobile memories: cemeteries and other memorial sites Fiona McLachan (Physical Education, University of Otago)

Moving towards poolspace: Un‐grounding ‘holes in the ground’ Adam Doering (Tourism, University of Otago)

The Anchor of Mobilities: Stabilising, defining & structuring our mobile world(s) 12:20 – 1:00pm Lunch


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Greg Burnett (Education, University of Otago) Educators for the return home: Research paradigm choices made by Pacific postgraduate education students while studying in New Zealand

David Parsons (Information Technology, Massey University) Understanding mobile learning as situated cognition form a mobilities perspective

Vivienne Anderson (Dentistry, University of Otago) Theorising educational mobilities through partnered dental education

2:30 – 3:30pm Session VI: Sport/Leisure Mobilities (Chair: Mary Butler) Robin Quigg & Tony Reeder (Cancer Society of New Zealand and Medicine, University of Otago),

Debra Waters & Andrew Gray (Medicine, University of Otago), Alec Holt (Information Science, University of Otago) Using GPS units to understand physical activity locations

Martha Bell (Sociology, University of Otago) Mobilising new sport forms: Adventure racing and extreme mobility

Mark Falcous & Josh Newman (Physical Education, University of Otago) (v‐log) The paradox of sporting Im/mobility

3:30 – 4:00pm Towards a Movement‐Driven Social Science in Aotearoa/New Zealand 4:00 – 4:15pm Conclusions and Piper

1:00 – 2:30pm Session V: Educational Mobilities (Chair: Linda Robertson) Ana Hoseit (Sociology, University of Otago)

Let’s get mobile: Unearthing issues of importance for adolescent mobile phone users


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ABSTRACTS

Vivienne Anderson Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago Theorising educational mobilities through partnered dental education Theorising educational mobilities through partnered dental education Cresswell (2010) calls for the development of a 'politics of mobility' through attention to movement, representation, and practice. Educational mobilities are an interesting case in point. The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the international movement of students. However, this movement is uneven. Globally, internationally mobile students are primarily from middle class families in newly industrialised (mostly Asian) countries. In New Zealand, Asian students make up over two‐thirds of the international student population, and around 90 percent are full‐fee paying. Although New Zealand has attracted internationally mobile students since the 1950s, the 1980s saw a major shift from an 'aid' to a 'trade' focus. Current education policy reveals contradictory concerns. 'Internationalised' education is conceptualised as 'export education': a means for attracting both 'human capital' and export revenue. It is also imagined as a way to foster international connections, understanding and human engagement. However, Lam (2006) notes that a 'deficit‐difference paradigm' has often shaped practice in relation to mobile (international and migrant) students. In this paper I consider educational mobilities in relation to a partnered (Malaysia‐New Zealand) health professional education agreement. I begin by discussing educational mobilities as they shape and are shaped by the New Zealand higher education policy context. I then outline Lugones' (1987) notion of 'world‐traveling' as a basis for developing educational support beyond a deficit‐difference paradigm. Finally, I apply Lugones' ideas to an ongoing action research project aimed at tracking and supporting mobile dental students' negotiation of new study and living contexts. Cresswell, T. (2010). Towards a politics of mobility . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28, 1731. Lam, W. S. E. (2006) . Culture and learning in the context of globalization: Research directions. Review of Research in Education, 30,213‐237. Lugones, M. (1987). Playfulness, "world"‐travelling, and loving perception. Hypatia, 2(2), 3‐19 Keywords: higher education, internationalisation, dental education, world‐traveling Biographical note: Vivienne Anderson completed a PhD in Education and Anthropology in 2009 and now works as a research fellow in dental education. Vivienne's research interests include students' experiences in higher education, gender and higher education, clinical education, and 'internationalisation' as it shapes teaching practice.


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Terry Austrin University of Canterbury

John Farnsworth New Zealand Broadcasting School Experiment as experience: Reconfiguring ethnographic investigation and documentary film as sociotechnical assemblage from Rouchto Rain a/the Children The portable film camera in the 1950s simultaneously reshaped two projects. One was ethnography's ongoing investigation and recording of exotic peoples. The other was the access documentary makers gained to formerly closed worlds and experiences. We argue, however, that considering the camera and edit suite as a key sociotechnical assemblage allows us to consider how the overlaps this creates between these parallel projects creates the possibility of entirely new, hybrid configurations. This is through the shifting chains of mediators that are brought into being. Central to this is the realignment of investigation as a form of experience enabled by the fluid arrangements of image, sound and dialogue in the camera / edit suite (Büscher 2005). In the process, the camera becomes a new boundary object that reassembles diverse networks by travelling, in effect, as a mobile affective laboratory. We argue that continuing technological developments, from film to digital distribution, transform the boundaries of ethnographic and documentary practice. They also align the ongoing experience of the film maker as a form of social investigation and commentary in the process. We detail this through Vincent Ward's bicultural biography, Rain of the Children, which investigates and reassembles sociocultural and biographical experience in ways that echo the earlier work of Jean Rouch. Drawing on contemporary literature in ethnography and documentary practice, we illustrate how such films act as mobile sociotechnical brokers: simultaneously reworking cultural histories, ethnographic and documentary boundaries, personal and collective narrative. Concomitantly, it problematises how we understand the categories of experiment, investigation and affective experience. Büscher, M. (2005) Social Life Under the Microscope? Sociological Research Online, Volume 10, Issue 1, URL: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/10/1/buscher.html. Keywords: Mobile; ethnography; documentary; sociotechnical assemblage; mediators Biographical notes: Terry Austrin is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Canterbury . He has published widely in the areas of new media, ethnography, gambling and the sociology of work. John Farnsworth writes extensively on media and sociology, method and actor network theory; a former broadcaster, he undertakes distance teaching with industry professionals at the New Zealand Broadcasting School.


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Martha Bell Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, University of Otago Mobilising new sport forms: Adventure racing and extreme mobility Extreme sport is popularised as ‘alternative sport’ and ‘lifestyle sport,’ but whereas the former implies as yet unimagined rebellion against traditional models of sport, the latter implies accessible and pleasurable risks not dictated by teams, rules, time and expense. Adventure racing emerged as an extreme sport globally in the 1990s, defying sociological analyses of protest sport or risk sport, in part because the adventure race has always been an imaginable and accessible sport form to wilderness travelers. It challenges competitors in teams to move fast over shifting terrain, assess risk in motion, sustain physical stamina over vast distances and journey well within strict deadlines. This new sport is constituted in time, space and speed. It requires communication ‘on the move’ for racers and event organisers. It is not coincidental that it exploded into a global race circuit with the arrival of the Internet. Geographically dispersed teams coordinate their training over the Internet, race events that are branded through a digital presence and record their progress through an increasingly digital media. How New Zealanders converted their rugged wilderness skills into fast risk‐taking, commercial values and ‘network capital’ to dominate adventure racing is a rich aspect of the sport’s social history. Keywords: Extreme sports, mobility, motility, speed, time, network capital Biographical note: Martha Bell is a research sociologist at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her expertise is in the area of sociology of the body, physicality and embodied experience. She has a particular interest in dis/abilities and choices of modes of mobility.


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Greg Burnett College of Education, University of Otago Educators for the return home: Research paradigm choices made by Pacific postgraduate education students while studying in New Zealand This paper explores the nature of education research done by teachers, educational administrators and other education workers who have temporarily relocated from the wider Pacific region to New Zealand for the purposes of postgraduate study. Based on the recently produced Pacific Theses Bibliographic Index 1900‐2008 (McFall‐McCaffery & Combs 2009) all MAs and PhDs with a regional Pacific education focus by these students are examined. Approaches to education research while in NZ, in terms of institutional affiliation, area of educational research, MA and PhD numbers, growth over time and national/ethnic focus are identified. More significantly, however, is the identification of the trends in theorising Pacific postgraduate education research using Lather’s (2006) paradigmatic typology. Of particular interest is the uptake of emancipatory and deconstructive research perspectives via their NZ study experiences and the resulting flows of such ideas back into Pacific regional communities once research has been completed and students return home. It is these two orientations to education research that, by their nature, have the most socially transformative potential to bring about change in the way schooling is done and where Pacific communities face a range of economic, social and climatic challenges. The paper asks what degree of fit there is between socially transformative education research, where it is being done on the Pacific cultural rim, and the increasing calls to decolonise and reindigenise both Pacific research processes and practices of schooling in the student’s Pacific regional countries of origin. Keywords: Pacific, research, theory, indigenous Biographical Note: Greg Burnett is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Education. His own Pacific routes are a foundation for a wide range of Pacific education research interests including langauge and literacy teaching, teacher training, education policy, values education, colonial discourse and the history of schooling.


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Mary Butler Injury Prevention Research Unit, University of Otago

Sarah Derrett Injury Prevention Research Unit, University of Otago Changed rhythms and temporalities following injury Injuries are costly to individuals and society, but we currently know little about injured people’s outcomes. The Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study (POIS) is a multi‐method study that aims to determine the injury, health and social rehabilitation, personal, social and economic factors leading to disability outcomes after injury for 2500 New Zealanders. The study has been carried out in the unique macro‐social context of New Zealand’s no‐fault system for personal injury compensation, the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). The lack of an adversarial legal environment contributes to social capital and can promote an early return to work. In this paper we use an interpretive phenomenological approach to explore with 19 study participants their lived experiences and perceptions of injury and outcomes immediately after the injury. The reduction in mobility caused by the injury was reflected in changed rhythms and temporalities that became inscribed in the memory of a moment of vulnerability. Such a moment carries different meanings, depending on the varying capacity of claimants to sustain the privileges of mobility through temporary incapacity and the changed perspective of landscapes created by this new knowledge. This paper looks towards the third and final set of interviews, when participants will be asked to reflect back on the meaning of the injury after two years. It explores the possibility of using Irving’s ‘walking fieldwork’ (2010) as a method with some of the participants. Irving, A. (2010). Dangerous substance and visible evidence: tears, blood, alcohol, pills. Visual Studies, 25(1), 24‐35. Biographical Note: Dr Mary Butler is an occupational therapist with twenty years of experience in practice and research. She is currently an ACC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in IPRU, University of Otago. Her research has focused on disability through injury and also on the development of a care ethic that can inform the work of occupational therapists and the non regulated work force. She has experience in a variety of qualitative research methodologies, including ethnography and participatory techniques and she has published in the area of occupational therapy.


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Gabrielle Désilets School of Archaeology & Anthropology, The Australian National University. International Mobility and Transnational Living: Exploring “Third Culture Kids’ ” Life Trajectories International mobility and transnational lifestyles concern increasing numbers of people, and it is a well‐known fact that advancements in technologies of transport and communication in the past decades have extensively contributed to the volume and scope of this phenomenon. The term “Third Culture Kids” (TCK) is becoming widely used to refer to a person who has been raised outside of their parents’ culture, often in more than one location, and has as a result developed a multifaceted sense of home and identity that does not echo the conventional notion of place‐based national identity. The struggle to define one’s identity is a common experience for TCKs, who must master the ability to adapt to various social and cultural groups. In turn, interlocutors affirm feeling most at ease in ‘international’ or ‘expatriate’ groups, where association and socialisation does not revolve around markers of ethnicity and nationality, but rather around lifestyle, occupation and the similarity of their trajectory. TCKs’ distinct experience of voluntary and serial migrations expresses the contemporary disjuncture existing in defining cultural identities and thus appear as an excellent case study into research on global and post national identifications. In this paper I will present some preliminary analysis of data gathered over 10 months in 2010 by means of anthropological fieldwork in a Melbourne inner‐city ‘international school’, and in virtual and actual spaces where people gather around an ‘imagined community’ of TCKs. Keywords: Anthropology of Globalisation, International Mobility, Identity, Belonging, Third‐Culture‐Kids (TCKs). Biographical Note: Gabrielle has graduated with Distinction from Concordia University in Montreal before completing a M.Sc. in Anthropology at the Université de Montréal, Canada. She is now conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Melbourne towards the completion of her PhD in Anthropology at the Australian National University. Her research interests revolve around social change, immigration and population movements, and questions of identity and belonging.


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Adam Doering Department of Tourism, University of Otago, The Anchor of Mobilities: Stabilising, defining & structuring our mobile world(s) Today’s literature abounds with metaphors of movement. Theories of flows, networks, deterritorialisation and neo‐nomads have each endeavoured to unearth a contemporary condition where people, objects, images and ideas traverse a ceaselessly moving globe. Theories such as these represent a collective plea to mobilise the social sciences. One of the more interesting developments to emerge from these broader globalisation discourses has been the new mobilities paradigm. According to Urry (2007), mobilities assumes both epistemological and ontological significance, and as a result, offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the complexities of a world on the move. Described as a paradigmatic shift, its proponents have been amongst the most vocal in suggesting that mobility is now the defining characteristic of the contemporary human experience. Critics, however, insist that framing the social world within a universalising theory privileging movement unjustly smoothes over the complexity, multiplicity and situatedness of contemporary society. Mobilities has consequently been criticised for propagating a specific hegemonic and homogenous worldview. Drawing on a review of these critiques, I will discuss the philosophical assumptions that underpin a mobilities worldview. Through a close reading of the paradigmatic claims of mobilities this paper intends to raise several critical questions: Whose world is on the move? What ideologies, histories and underlying philosophies does a theory of mobilities re‐present? How are particular worldviews fixed and inscribed through the mobilities paradigm? The concern of this paper, then, is with the movement and anchoring of specific worldviews and particular subjectivities instead of movements of the psyche, objects or bodies. Urry, J. (2007). Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity. Keywords: paradigm, subjectivity, ontology, epistemology, mobilities Biographical Note: Adam Doering is currently undertaking his PhD at the University of Otago. His research interests are concerned with movement, issues of belonging, community and home. He is currently exploring these issues in the context of rural Japan.


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Tara Duncan Department of Tourism, University of Otago Gap Year Experiences and New Zealanders: A fresh perspective? This paper will explore the multiplicity of experiences, interactions and senses of belonging of young New Zealanders who have undertaken a Gap Year before entering University. In highlighting how these young people have negotiated between ‘home’ and ‘away’, this paper will aim to illustrate the impact of their mobility on their life now as well as in their (imagined) future. The dynamic process of movement and stasis, albeit often temporary for these young people, involves a constant negotiation of their sense of self and where they belong. Their Gap Year experiences illustrate the highly mobile, yet situational nature of this type of travel. In identifying these experiences, this paper will seek to recognise the blurred nature of much of the mobilities literature whilst emphasising that, for these young people, their ways of knowing and belonging have become more complex. Through the negotiation of work, leisure, travel and self, it is anticipated that these young people will demonstrate a broader understanding of, and have developed, wider global perspectives. This paper will be based on research undertaken with first year undergraduates attending a New Zealand university. Using snowball sampling, participants are given a video camera and asked to film answers/conversations to a broad range of questions. Follow up in‐depth interviews allow for further probing of responses in order to gain a reflective overview of their experiences. The data collected, and presented in this paper, will provide nuanced and detailed accounts with which to understand these young people’s evolving understandings of themselves and wider society. It is anticipated that, to some extent, the findings will follow previous research on the Gap Year, backpacking and the OE in that the young people involved in the research will have gained ‘soft’ skills that highlight their improved communication skills, self confidence and, in this instance, motivation to pursue further study. It is also anticipated that thinking specifically about the impact of their experiences will highlight other aspects that have yet to be explored within the academic literature. This paper will conclude by highlight that the Gap Year is becoming a global phenomenon and as such, needs contextualising in terms of the mobilities literature. Keywords: Gap Year, Mobilities, New Zealand Biographical Note: Tara Duncan is a lecturer in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago. With a background in social and cultural geography, her research interests focus on young budget travellers, current debates on mobility and mobile methods, and the everyday spaces and practices of tourism, hospitality and leisure.


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Mark Falcous School of Physical Education, University of Otago

Josh Newman School of Physical Education, University of Otago The Paradox of Sporting Im/Mobility This paper advocates for the analysis of sport to be a feature of mobilities research. Although hitherto ignored by proponents of the ‘new mobilities paradigm’ (Sheller & Urry, 2006), we contend the sporting realm is a rich site of analysis into the rapidly shifting conditions of movement, communication, identification and surveillance. Following Clifford (1997), we suggest that scholars must consider how sporting movements are differentially constrained, and how those on the move can be variously positioned by political, economic and cultural relations. We call for explorations of the consequences of how new cultures of sports‐related mobility are emerging, as people enact, perform, and combine mobility and immobility; but also how new constraints characterize the contested nature of mobility. We further argue that in the context of neoliberal globalisation, the sporting body offers an important paradox of mobility: whereby freedom of movement (or the promise thereof)—through the proliferation of moving/sporting bodies across global culture‐ and capital‐scapes (as migrant athlete labourers, as tourists, as global celebrities or sporting brands)—produces immobility, as young people are increasingly subjected to, and disciplined by, the logics of the market (as hyper‐regimented athletes, as sweatshop labourers in Nike factories, etc.). To make this case, we point to various research projects on ‘sporting im/mobility’ being conducted here in the School of Physical Education. Specifically, we highlight work being done on labour migration and the gridiron cultures of American Samoa, ‘kinesthetic citizenship’ (Joseph, 2008) and football (soccer) in the favelas of Brazil, NASCAR and automobilities, and the performance of flexible citizenship and sporting cosmopolitanism within futsal leagues in New Zealand. Keywords: sport, bodies, global culture, paradox, im/mobility Biographical Notes: Mark Falcous lectures in the sociology of sport in the School of Physical Education, University of Otago. His research contributes to critical understanding of the intersections of sport, media, identity politics, globalization and nationalism. He is co‐editor of ‘Sport and Migration: Borders, Boundaries and Crossings’ (Routledge, 2010) with Joseph Maguire. Joshua I. Newman lectures in the areas of sport and physical culture, qualitative research, cultural studies, and critical pedagogy at the University of Otago’s School of Physical Education. His research, teaching, and supervision are committed to interrogating the intersections of late capitalism, identity, and cultural politics of the body. He is the author of ‘Embodying Dixie: Studies in the Body Pedagogics of Southern Whiteness’ (Common Ground, 2010).


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Anne Galloway School of Design, Victoria University of Wellington Mustering Methods and Counting Sheep Pervasive computing brings together wireless, networked and context‐aware technologies in order to embed computational capacities in the objects and environments that surround us. The “Internet of Things” is a related vision for future computing that proposes a shift from a network of inter‐connected computers to a network of inter‐connected objects. Some of these things are expected to have their own Internet Protocol addresses, which would allow us to communicate with them via the Internet. Other objects would be embedded in these networks, using sensors to collect information from their environment and/or actuators to interact with it. By virtue of their status as highly regulated and globally traded commodities, livestock animals and animal‐products have long been tracked and are primed to be amongst the first non‐humans in such a network. However, while technological development and implementation proceed apace, the potential social and cultural implications of such a network remain almost entirely unexplored. Using the production and consumption of NZ merino wool as a case study, this project seeks to develop and evaluate social science and design research methodologies for understanding the kinds of complex and mobile technosocial assemblages that might emerge with an “Internet of Things.” Specifically, by combining actor network theory and a sociology of expectation, participant observation and visual ethnography, and critical and speculative design approaches, we aim to create fictional video scenarios for future wool production and consumption that can support present‐day public involvement in the development and implementation of tomorrow’s technologies. This presentation will outline the complexity of such emergent networks of people, animals, places and technologies—and introduce the kind of mobile methodology we hope will support our efforts to critically and creatively engage them. Keywords: mobile technologies; complex networks; human/non‐human relations; ethnographic fiction; speculative design Biographical Note: Anne is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Design at Victoria University of Wellington. Drawing on a background in sociology and anthropology, Anne’s research focusses on social and cultural studies of emergent mobile technologies and context‐aware computing. She is currently principal investigator for the Marsden‐funded project, “Counting Sheep: NZ Merino Wool in an Internet of Things.” She blogs about her research at www.designculturelab.org


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Peer Researchers Jan Christie, Olga Corlett, Dorothy Dickson, Jo Dodd, Roberta Forbes, Val Mason, Kensie Sutton, Robin Smith, Margaret Stewart. With: Dr Beatrice Hale, independent researcher and author, Dunedin, and; Dr Linda Robertson, School of Occupational Therapy, Otago Polytechnic. Collaborative Research This presentation demonstrates the collaborative research into the Steady as You Go Exercise Programmes (Age Concern, Otago)* In previous research with the Age Concern (Otago) Steady As You Go exercise groups in 2009, we noted the skills of the peer leaders in maintaining the vigour of the groups and in fostering confidence in the members. To harness the trust that these leaders had built with their group members and in keeping with overseas trends including older people as researchers (Leamy & Clough 2006), we invited the peer leaders to collaborate with us in examining the social impact of these groups. We see this as a movement from the stereotyping of age and disability as 'burden', and 'costly', to a recognition and use of the skills and knowledge of these leaders. This movement acknowledges the accumulated knowledge and networks of older people (McLaughlin 2009). The first part of the presentation features the peer researchers discussing their own reflections of the research, and the salient features of the groups which they studied. For ourselves, we suggest an extension of the new mobilities paradigm (Sheller & Urry 2006) to include the concept of transition, a movement from the ageist perception of ‘retired’, 'burden' and 'on the scrapheap', to a state of active contribution. Secondly, we present the results of our reflections on the collaborative nature of the research, with peer researchers, and suggest from our combined experiences how this can be constructed into a model for further work. Leamy, M. & R. Clough (2006) How older people became research workers, Training, guidance and practice in action Joseph Rowntree Foundation, London. McLaughlin, H. (2009) Service User Research in Health and Social Care Sage, London. Sheller, M. & J. Urry (2006) The new mobilities paradigm Environment and Planning A (38) pp. 207‐226. * This research is part of the wider programme of ageing and health research carried out at the University of Otago by Dr Debra Waters, Dept of Preventive and Social Medicine and Associate Professor Leigh Hale, School of Physiotherapy.


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Beatrice Hale Independent Researcher

Linda Robertson School of Occupational Therapy, Otago Polytechnic Various Mobilities Project: Examination of the Social Connectivity of Steady As You Go Community Exercise Groups* In contrast to the 'new mobilities paradigm' of Sheller and Urry (2006), which focuses on global space and interactive technology, our project is about the mobility of older people in a local neighbourhood, based on Rowles' (1978) ‘geographical modalities.’ Loneliness and social isolation of older people has long been identified as a social issue, accompanying ageing, a 'geriatric giant' leading to impaired quality of life (Victor et al 2005). Part of this issue is decreasing mobility. One method of improving mobility is the Steady As You Go initiative of Age Concern, where approximately 35 groups host up to 14 older people each in weekly exercise groups, based on tested exercise programmes, designed to improve strength, balance and mobility. The long‐term sustainability of these groups has been investigated, and, emerging from this research, has been the question of the social impact of group membership. The relevance for this symposium is the question of whether improved mobility leads to improved social resilience and confidence. Results from the current study show that the Steady As You Go exercise groups provide a social value for older people, both within the groups, and extending beyond the groups. At the same time, results show that there is a movement towards the emergence of leaders beyond their roles as group facilitators to acting as advocates and good neighbours. By revealing the depths of apparently simple community programmes, we demonstrate the links between improved mobility and social confidence, the emergence of community leaders, and the richness of ageing. Rowles, G. (1978) Prisoners of Space, Routledge, London Sheller, M. & J. Urry (2006) The new mobilities paradigm Environment and Planning A (38) pp. 207‐226 Victor C. R. (2005) The social context of ageing, Routledge, London Keywords: neighbourhood, older people, mobilities, social value Biographical Notes: Dr Beatrice Hale, independent researcher and author, Dunedin, interested in social gerontology and community. Dr Linda Robertson, Principal Lecturer, School of Occupational Therapy, Otago Polytechnic, interested in social gerontology, care facilities and community


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Ana Hoseit Department of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, University of Otago Let’s get mobile: Unearthing issues of importance for adolescent mobile phone users The mobile phone has become an ubiquitous object and vital communication tool for most young people in New Zealand. The mobile phone offers young people an avenue through which to explore their identity and sense of self. When it comes to mobile phones, today’s adolescents are the experts. Using a qualitative research methodology, focus groups and individual interviews were employed to focus on the applications and affects of mobile phone use (and potential misuse) amongst Year 10 students from three schools in the Otago region. Prior to this research a comparative analysis of literature on both traditional bullying and cyberbullying was conducted to ascertain that cyberbullying is a form of bullying which has detrimental real‐life consequences for young people. Cyberbullying has been succinctly defined as ‘willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text’. A specific research interest was to investigate problem areas pertaining to the mobile phone and unearth if text‐bullying (a form of cyberbullying) is a cause of concern for adolescents. In the spirit of symbolic interactionism I will discuss the consequences of this new form of communication that filters out social gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice and body language. Keywords: mobile phone, youth, text‐bullying, identity, symbolic interactionism Biographical Note: Ana Hoseit completed a four year BA degree (in sociology) at the University of Otago in 2009 and is currently enrolled as a sociology Masters student at the University of Otago. Ana conducted a comparative analysis of literature on both traditional bullying and cyberbullying for her fourth year dissertation.


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Allison Kirkman School of Social and Cultural Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, Mobile memories: cemeteries and other memorial sites This paper explores the many ways in which the dead are memorialised and the influence of technology on the changing trends in this area. We now have GPS locations of burial sites within natural burial grounds, the insertion of ashes in glass paper weights and in jewellery and tribute pages on the internet. Alongside some of these more ephemeral memorial sites we have the material reality of thousands of headstones in cemeteries throughout the country and white crosses marking the roading landscape. In a course on the sociology of death and dying these sites are used as methodological resources by students and lecturer alike. Through the visiting of these sites, virtually and actually, the social context of the disposal of bodies and subsequent memorialisation is analysed. The methodological and ethical issues that arise when undertaking these site visits are also identified and discussed in this paper. Keywords: burial grounds, cremation, disposal of ashes, memorialisation, research ethics, Biographical Note: Allison Kirkman travels by train past a cemetery each weekday to the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Victoria University where she is a senior lecturer in sociology and Head of School. While on the train she checks her emails on her phone, listens to music and writes on her laptop. She even occasionally sleeps. Her most recent publication is on the social negotiation of sleep. She also observes, photographs and thinks about the significance of the white crosses on the road that parallels her train journey.


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Steve La Grow School of Health and Social Services, Massey University

Fiona Alpass School of Psychology, Massey University

Chris Stephens School of Psychology, Massey University

Andy Towers

School of Psychology, Massey University

Mobility and quality of life among those in late middle age Data gathered on 1778 New Zealanders aged 56 to 72 were analysed to determine the extent to which 17 variables thought to be related to quality of life (QOL) explained the variance observed in their response to a single‐item measure of perceived QOL (PQOL). The 17 variables were (1) mobility (i.e., ability to get around); (2) Economic status; (3) physical and (4) mental health; (5) social provisions; and satisfaction with (6) sleep, (7) ability to perform activities of daily living, (8) capacity to work;, (9) personal relationships, (10) self, (11) sex life, (12) support received from friends, (13) conditions of one’s living space, (14) access to health services and (15) transport, (16) health and (17) life at present. All were found to be at least minimally related to PQOL (i.e. r > .3) and were therefore entered as independent variables into the equation for standard multiple regression. Together, they were found to explain 53% of the variance observed in PQOL; a significant (F = 124.33, P < 0.001) amount. Nine variables were found to make a unique and significant contribution to that explanation. Four variables: mobility (β = .215, p < 0.001), satisfaction with life at present (β = .198, p < 0.001), economic status (β = .127, p < 0.001) and mental health (β = .125, p < 0.001) accounted for most of the variance observed. Mobility was found to contribute more to that explanation than any other variable assessed. Discussion will focus on the importance of this finding. Keywords: mobility, quality of life, late middle age Biographical Note: Steve La Grow is the Professor of Rehabilitation in the School of Health and Social Services at Massey University. He specializes in the mobility of those who are blind or have low vision. He is the author of two books and more than 100 articles on this and related topics.


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Fiona McLachlan School of Physical Education, University of Otago

Moving towards poolspace: Un‐grounding ‘holes in the ground’ Researchers in the social sciences commonly provide historical narratives to offer contextual knowledge for their projects. Even in projects which attempt to emphasise the messiness of our fragmented and mobile worlds, the practice of providing foundational knowledge to justify and situate research in the ‘present’ is often taken‐for‐granted. Beyond establishing a ‘platform’ for research, what foundational knowledge ‘does’ is rarely questioned. As a research practice and a descriptive product foundations shape and limit the knowable. Therefore, I identify foundational knowledge as a problematically powerful narrative device. In this presentation I draw on my doctoral work to explore and unravel the spatial and temporal fixedness of foundations in research on swimming and swimming pools. The presentation will be loosely guided by two questions. How relevant is foundational knowledge to explore ‘mobile’ and ‘fragmented’ worlds? How does foundational knowledge convince us of certainty, and thus cloud our imaginations, preventing us from knowing otherwise, or in other ways? To conclude I offer poolspace which is my reconfiguration of pool spaces that emphasises movement ‐ of spaces, origins and meanings. Poolspace is a methodology, a political statement, and a creative aesthetic arrangement. However for this presentation I will focus on the features of poolspace that illustrate an active, productive way of shifting how foundational knowledge might be known, used and presented in social and cultural research. Keywords: foundations; historical narratives; spatial representations; swimming pools Biographical Note: Fiona is a PhD student at the School of Physical Education and is supervised by Assoc. Prof Lisette Burrows and Prof. Doug Booth. Public swimming pools provide the contextual focus of Fiona’s thesis; however her broad research interests lie in exploring new strategies that harness the political potential of postmodern thought.


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David Parsons Massey University, Auckland Understanding mobile learning as situated cognition from a mobilities perspective Mobilities research in its broadest sense concerns not only physical movement but multiple aspects of how movement constrains or interacts with time and place. Despite many simplistic interpretations, mobile learning is similarly challenging for researchers and educators, reflecting concerns beyond the mantra of learning ‘anytime, anywhere’. The essence of mobile learning is situated cognition, whereby time and place, both real and imaginary, provide the context for exploration, collaboration and insight. The concept of physical mobility tends to widen social gaps. In contrast, mobile infrastructure can narrow these gaps, by bringing resources and collaborative tools to the user; in learning, providing learning materials and experiences that could not otherwise be shared. Thus mobility embraces both learner and learning; the learner may move into a context but equally the context may move to the learner. For example we may augment a local reality with one otherwise unreachable, as in the Savannah project, where school children can learn about the lives of African lions in role play without leaving the school playing field. The importance of this blurring of real and imagined situation in supporting situated cognition cannot be underestimated. In this paper we try to understand mobile learning from the perspective of situated cognition in order to find new ways forward in designing mobile learning experiences. Keywords: Mobile learning, situated cognition, augmented reality Biographical note: Dr. David Parsons is a senior lecturer in Information Technology at Massey University, Auckland. His research focus is in the use of mobile technologies for learning. He is founding editor in chief of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, and co‐editor of ‘Innovative Mobile Learning: Techniques and Technologies’.


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Anita Perkins Department of Languages and Cultures, University of Otago Towards a Mobile Cultural Analysis of Travel Literature and Film How academically justified is it to apply the new mobilities paradigm to the analysis of travel literature and film? Such an approach would appear to lie on the periphery of the common scope of mobilities research, viz. “anthropology, cultural studies, geography, migration studies, science and technology studies, tourism and transport studies, and sociology” (Sheller & Urry 2006, 207). By adducing evidence from literature and film in my PhD thesis, I take an etiological approach, setting out to locate specific turning points, or periods of transition from one set of ideas about the cultural experience of travel and movement to another. One major phase of transition was around the period of 1989/1990 when the fall of the Berlin Wall signified the end of 28 years of enforced immobility. Here, the movement from a foundational, stable kind of dwelling, to the opening up of the world to unprecedented movement and travel is explored in Gerhard Köpf’s Bluff oder das Kreuz des Südens [Bluff, or the Southern Cross] (1991) and Wolfgang Becker’s Goodbye Lenin (2003). The brief of this symposium asks the question ‘What does research on the move look like?’ By examining travel literature and film from the perspective of the new mobilities, I propose, previously theorised notions such as ‘cultural memory’ and ‘Fernweh’ (“Farsickness”) become mobilised in a global context of im/mobility. Sheller, Mimi and John Urry. “The New Mobilities Paradigm.” Environment and Planning A 38 (2006): 207‐226. Biographical Note: Anita Perkins holds an MA in German. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Otago with a focus on contemporary travel literature, film and cultural mobility. Anita works part‐time as a freelance writer and is an Asia New Zealand Foundation Young Leader.


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Robin Quigg Cancer Society of NZ Social and Behavioural Research Unit and Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago

Tony Reeder, Cancer Society of NZ Social and Behavioural Research Unit and Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago

Debra Waters Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago

Andrew Gray Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago

Alec Holt

Department of Information Science, University of Otago Using GPS units to understand physical activity locations Planned playground upgrades in Dunedin provided an opportunity to conduct a natural experiment evaluating the effect on children’s physical activity as a PhD project. The up‐graded playgrounds were the intervention and the scheduled process by the Dunedin City Council enabled before and after physical activity levels to be measured. Total physical activity was measured using accelerometers and the location of activity was measured using GPS units. The features of the research associated with the GPS data will be presented. Biographical Note: Robin is affiliated with Ngāti Raukawa in the Waikato. She was raised and attended school in Taupo, but travelled and worked in a variety of jobs that usually involved horses or skiing before going to Lincoln University to study. Robin graduated from Lincoln in the early 1990s with a Bachelor of Parks and Recreation Management and a Master of Applied Science in Resource Management. Robin has lived in Ōtepoti since 1993. She has two tamariki, Dylan and Zoe, and tāne John. After working for the Dunedin City Council as a recreation planner, Robin was a self‐employed strategic planning consultant. The continual difficulties of trying to write policies without sufficient evidence helped make her decision to undertake a PhD in public health, focusing on children’s physical activity in their communities.


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David Scott Department of Tourism, University of Otago Mobilising the Banal: The Everyday on Tour To date tourism studies has presented a hegemonic discourse that has situated travel as offering the individual a way of resisting the rationalising affects inherent within the taken‐for‐grantedness of the everyday. Tourism, it is often proposed, is the antithesis to home‐life. By travelling away from home it is suggested that one can leave behind the trials and tribulations of everyday life. The disenchantment often associated with modernity, replaced with the enchanting possibilities offered by the Other. However, I wish to argue that contrary to the suggested representations of the extra‐ordinary offered by tourism; everyday banal practices act to order, stabilise and moreover rationalise touristic performance(s). Using an interactionist methodology this paper presents an analysis of the everyday practices of a group of tourists engaging in a fully inclusive 14 day tour of Turkey. Through analysis of multiple data forms, I suggest that representations of tourism performances and practices can simultaneously contain multiple meanings; of the extra‐ordinary and, more importantly the ordinary. It is therefore necessary to question who or what mediates these representations and how they might intersect with, and (re)construct meanings of the everyday. Amongst other examples, I examine the subtlety used by the tour guide in controlling the rhythms of the coach which themselves are mediated by and in turn mediate the rhythms of the body. For example how the seeming banality of a toilet stop become the controlling politics of embodied practices. By understanding the mobilities inherent within the banal, I suggest that there is the potential to (re)imagine local (cultural) spaces of the everyday thus allowing the (re)production and performance of the banalities inherent within but inaccessible in supposedly touristic spaces. Rather than the exotic ‘other’ as agent of enchantment in tourism, I use the power exerted through the overt and covert control of banal practices, mobilised in the commodification of everyday cultural practices, to foreground the quotidian aspects of tourism. Ultimately these practices of the everyday act to not only constrain and control tourist life, but also act to regulate a ‘touristic anomie’. It is through this control that tourists as social actors are offered the potential to act out the extra‐ordinary whilst simultaneously ensuring the integrity of their (individual) ontological security. Biographical Note: David lectures in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago. His current research looks at how the rhythms of the banal and quotidian act to (re)configure tourist’s everyday performances. This research takes a multi‐disciplinary approach to consider how developing an understanding of the multiple mobilities hidden by the taken‐for‐grantedness of the everyday may allow us to questions concepts such as ‘home’ and ‘away’.


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S. John Sullivan Centre for Physiotherapy Research, University of Otago

A.G Schneiders Centre for Physiotherapy Research, University of Otago

Steve La Grow

School of Health and Social Services, Massey University Mobility scooters: keeping the aging population on the move? Currently in New Zealand, those over the age of 65 account for 13% of the population and is expected to rise to 25% by 2051. The success of this group to age in place is of national importance as the corollary to that could impose an unsustainable burden on both our health and social systems. Fundamental to this groups’ successful ‘aging in place’ is their ability to maintain at least the minimal levels of independent function necessary for safe and meaningful participation in the daily routines of their home and community. Notably, this includes mobility. When a person’s mobility is limited by their physical or sensory status, alternative means of getting about are sought. The mobility scooter is fast evolving as a major alternative means for this cohort. This presentation will explore, from a multidimensional perspective, the evolving role of the mobility scooter as a contributor to independent travel and enhanced community participation for this age cohort. Despite the mobility scooter’s potential to improve independence in movement in the environment and enhance participation in the community there are several factors which may undermine its potential or challenge its success. These include the lack of regulation with respect to purchase/prescription, transport safety issues and the potential negative impact on the users’ health. With the silent emergence of this alternative means of transportation there is a need to take its use seriously and better understand how the mobility scooter is, and should be used to serve the needs of our aging population. Keywords: mobility scooters, participation, aging, mobility, transport Biographical Note: Prof Sullivan has a background in physical education and kinesiology. His research programme has focused on topics related to rehabilitation and traumatic brain injury in particular. John is developing a research program on the emerging role of mobility scooters and in particular the health consequences of their use.


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Davinia Thornley Department of Media, Film, and Communication, University of Otago I don’t have to be a particular skin colour to feel beige”: Mobilizing Māori Identity by way of New Zealand Film Elliott and Urry suggest that the paradigm of mobilities is “becoming increasingly central to contemporary identity formation and re‐formation” (Mobile Lives 7). I wish to investigate this claim by matching it against a focus group study I undertook with expatriate New Zealanders in London mid‐2006. The participants were questioned about their experiences of watching New Zealand films, now that they were living overseas, in order to understand their perspectives regarding ‘mobilized’ national identity. While my findings regarding the responses of the majority of the participants have been published (European Journal of Cultural Studies 2009), I remained convinced that additional work was needed to adequately represent the unique perspectives of the final group, four women who self‐identified as being involved with Ngāti Ranana (a London‐based Māori culture club). This presentation specifically addresses the constitution of Ngāti Ranana and the women’s connection to the club. Alluding to Elliott and Urry’s notion of “portable personhood” (3), these four women mobilized specific aspects of their Māori affiliation through Ngāti Ranana and joint film viewings. Such affiliations strengthened their connections with Aotearoa New Zealand, but also with other European‐based expatriates interested in Māoritanga [Maori culture]. Given these findings, then, the films under discussion function as simply one way to kick‐start a much larger conversation spanning issues of national and racial identity in relation to expatriate mobility. Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand; film; identity; Māori; mobilities. Biographical Note: Davinia Thornley is a Senior Lecturer in the Media, Film, and Communication department at Otago. She has published articles (The European Journal of Cultural Studies; National Identities (U.K.); Film Criticism) and book chapters (Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Context) on indigenous issues, nationality, and Aotearoa New Zealand cinema.


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Documents

Mobilities Symposium Booklet - · PDF fileWe argue that continuing technological developments, from film to digital distribution ... the boundaries of ethnographic and documentary