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Biocultural strength: Understanding sex, gender, and performance in Olympic weightlifting
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Nelson, Monica; Thorpe, Holly Aysha; Wheaton, Belinda; Sims, Stacy; Clarke, Gloria Hinemoa
This thesis examines how women Olympic Weightlifters’ performances are impacted by multiple, contradictory, and evolving sex- and gender-related knowledges. Adopting Frost’s theory of “biocultural creatures,” this study contributes to the sociocultural study of sport, gender, sex, and bodily difference by exploring the intertwining of biological, environmental, and sociocultural influences in women’s strength. Positioned within the field of feminist Science Technology Studies (STS), this research operationalizes feminist Actor-Network Theory to guide examination of the contents and effects of local and international Olympic Weightlifting knowledge networks. Ethnographic methods are used to trace knowledges at two gyms in Aotearoa New Zealand, including participant ethnography, longitudinal strength tracking with seven women weightlifters, focus groups with 15 women athletes, and interviews with three coaches. To map internationally circulating knowledges, this research draws from interviews with eight elite coaches and five sport administrators, reviews of academic literature, and digital ethnography of Instagram. This is a PhD with publications. Following literature review and methodology chapters, empirical chapters engage different theoretical frameworks that are derived from feminist STS. The first empirical chapter utilizes Haraway’s concept of situated knowledge to examine how coaches’ understandings of sex and gender are constructed. Applying Persdotter’s concept of menstrunormativity, the next chapter traces the construction and bodily effects of sport-specific menstrual norms. The final empirical chapter uses Mol’s sociology of contrasts to illustrate how women Olympic Weightlifters’ bodies are multiply enacted through divergent knowledges of sex, gender, and strength. This thesis expands current research on women in sport by demonstrating the contemporary understandings of sex and gender that shape athletes’ performances. It further highlights the necessity of continued inquiry that explores women’s biocultural athletic capacities.
Some applications of multinuclear NMR
(The University of Waikato, 1990) Thomson, Ralph Alexander; Mackay, Kenneth M.; Wilkins, Alistair L.
This work makes use of the rapidly expanding technique of Fourier Transform Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (FT-NMR) Spectroscopy to study a number of different areas of chemistry. Work was carried out into the study of new pulse sequences, and composite pulses, to improve the observing conditions for low frequency nuclei. These techniques were applied to the study of ⁷³Ge NMR, a spin ⁹/₂ nucleus of low resonance frequency. The polarisation transfer pulse sequence INEPT has found considerable use in ¹³C NMR but is less widely used for other nuclei, despite its inherent advantages. This sequence was used in a ²⁹Si NMR study to determine the ²J coupling constants of compounds in the series Mec₍₄₋ₓ₎Si(GeH₃)ₓ (x = 1,2,3). Inversion of peaks as a result of the INEPT sequence help clarify the couplings in this twelve spin system. ¹¹B NMR was used to study the adducts formed by the reaction of the boron trihalides BCl₃, BBr₃, and BI₃ with the donors PPh₃, NPh₃, and AsPh₃. Other techniques have not been able to provide a clear picture of what is happening in these reactions, but NMR has provided a much clearer picture. Unfortunately it has not provided a definite answer on the pathway of halogen exchange within the adducts formed. Another system undergoing halogen exchange was also studied, this time using ¹¹⁰Sn NMR. In the reactions of Et₄NSnX₃ with Y₃SnCo(CO)₄ (X,Y = Cl, Br) a crystal structure of the products could not be refined because of disorder in the halogen atoms. While other techniques were able to show that a number of different species existed in solution ¹¹⁹Sn NMR was able to show what these species were and was able to indicate the amount of each existing in solution.
Planning for a power station: intentions, interactions, and outcomes
(The University of Waikato, 1990) Dixon, Jennifer; Stokes, Evelyn; Bettison, David
Planning practice involves a complex set of social activities, engaged in by individuals acting in various local and national institutional contexts. These actions are constrained by legislation and policies of central and local government, institutional arrangements, the positions held by officials and the sets of social and spatial constructs held by the participants, both lay and professional. This thesis elucidates the phenomenon of planning in respect of the search for a site for a coal-fired power station. The search for a site focussed on the Waikato, a region in the North Island, New Zealand. It was conducted by central government officials from the New Zealand Electricity Division of the Ministry of Energy over a six year period from 1979 to 1985. The proposed Waikato Thermal Power Station was part of a national development strategy formulated by the National Party Government to exploit indigenous energy resources as a means of restructuring New Zealand’s economic base. The Waikato coal fields became a major focus for the Government’s ‘Think-Big’ programme. Proposals to expand and develop several underground and opencast coal fields and construct another coal-fired power station were imposed on the social organisation of the region without prior consultation. Local and regional authorities with their various planning instruments were expected to co-operate in the implementation of this national plan. In order to facilitate planning for the projects, special ad hoc committee arrangements were put in place by central government officials to liaise with local authority politicians and staff. The thesis is developed through a reflexive enquiry whereby the phenomenon of planning is shown to be constituted and reconstituted by the participants in the planning process. Thus the enquiry reveals the intentions, interactions and outcomes which comprise the realities of planning in this case study. This enquiry is presented in three Parts. Following the introduction, Part One sets the methodogical, legal and organisational context. Part Two presents the fieldwork investigations. Part Three elucidates the phenomenon of planning and reflects on the research experiences of the writer. The phenomena revealed elucidate the nature of planning practice. Methods of investigation comprised the conduct of in-depth, unstructured interviews with lay and professional participants; the analysis of interview transcripts; searching of central and local government files; and examining minutes of committee meetings as well as government reports and legislation. A hermeneutic analysis of these texts was used to elucidate the meanings and contexts of participants acting as individuals, acting collectively in informal and formal situations, and in various institutional contexts. Analysis revealed that meanings and contexts of planning constructs were constantly reformulated by participants as investigations proceeded over the six year period. Reformulation of these constructs occurred in three on-going, interdependent processes; those of people involved practically in selection of a site, people engaged in planning as a phenomenon, and public involvement in site selection and its anticipated consequences. Individual actions were influenced by past experiences, planning constructs and institutional contexts. These understandings explained the ineffectiveness of the construct of regional planning as an instrument in facilitating the implementation of the project. The thesis concludes with a statement of theoretical understanding that has evolved from the research experience.
Retelling the old, old story: a study of six mass evangelistic missions in twentieth-century New Zealand
(The University of Waikato, 1990) Gilling, Bryan Dudley; Barber, Laurie; Pratt, Douglas
Modern revivalistic evangelism developed from the British Evangelical Revivals and the American Great Awakening of the eighteenth century. The theological and practical foundations were laid for the development of new approaches and techniques to persuade hearers of their sinfulness and need to become converted to the Christian faith. Although they have been employed to some extent in Britain, the refinement and full exploitation of these techniques has been a particularly American phenomenon, exercising substantial theological, social and political influence beyond conservative Christian society. There have been six major revivalistic missions to New Zealand with American style and leadership, those of R.A. Torrey (1902), J.W. Chapman (1912-1913), Billy Graham (1959 and 1969), and Leighton Ford and Luis Palau (1987). Each of these has sought to exert over New Zealand society the same spiritual and moral influence enjoyed in America, and to be a means of raising the membership and public profile of the Protestant churches. This thesis surveys these six missions to determine common themes which run through them, and differences and changes between them. Firstly, the backgrounds of the evangelists reveal the influences these have on the styles and messages of the missions. Then the mechanics of conducting the missions are considered, the different methodologies adopted by the evangelists and how they altered over time. A summary of the theological and social messages promulgated in New Zealand then gives insight into the kind of Christianity the evangelists have presented to their audiences. Fourthly, the variations in the reception given the missions by New Zealanders are noted and conclusions drawn from the thesis illustrating the changing nature of New Zealand Protestant Christianity during the twentieth century. Finally, an assessment is made of the overall impact such missions have had on individuals, churches and the wider society in New Zealand. The case is argued and the conclusion reached that none of these missions seems to have made much long-term impression upon either their supporters, the Protestant churchgoers, or upon the wider society. Such impact as they had tended to be greater in the anticipation than the event and seldom received more than passing attention from those outside existing Christian church life. Even the proportion of Protestants supporting evangelistic missions’ very utilisation fell and the revivalists themselves came to be viewed by many as divisive and morally regressive, rather than as agents of a unifying and morally authoritative Christian faith. Their theology, too, was often critiqued as simplistic, as was the use of psychological pressure inherent in their methods. The major resulting benefits for the churches concerned have not been in large increases in membership, but in the opportunities to unite churches internally and with each other over some common ground, in the provision of a group of laypeople within the churches who have their interest and experience in evangelism heightened, and in the recommitment and dedication of many existing members’ lives to their faith and its practical expression. New Zealand society has been less susceptible to offers of spiritual ‘peace with God’ than that of the United States. There has remained, though, a substantial and strongly committed element of fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals prepared still to promote the use of revivalistic methods of mass evangelism to seek the conversion of non-Christians, to unify existing churches around a great, transdenominational opportunity to do God’s work, and to provide a vast public relations exercise to prove to the public and to themselves that Christianity is still a living and active spiritual and social force.
A conflict between culture and technology a case study of a major industrial company and a Māori subtribe
(The University of Waikato, 1990) Hanley, Garry; Ritchie, James; Gilling, Don
This thesis is about the conflicts of interest that arise when particular attitudes, beliefs and cultures of indigenous people concerning their heritage, their land, and their perceived inalienable obligations, confront those of resource developers with a different perspective. It is about the resultant tensions and about the different forms that their resolution took with regard to one specific project - the Government authorised utilisation of the ironsand in the Waikato region by New Zealand Steel Company Limited. It describes both the Māori tribal systems and the evolution of the company and its management philosophy. It details the major conflict that emerged, backgrounds the rise of the Māori protest movement and focuses upon the strategies employed by the Tainui Māori Trust Board in response to the New Zealand Steel Company’s expansion plans. In any industrial development the relations between developers and various stakeholders is a matter of crucial concern. In the presented case one of the protagonists was a newly formed organisation that was sponsored by the Government and initially partly owned by the Government. At first the Company proceeded cautiously to mine the ironsand on the Crown land at Maioro on the north side of the Waikato River, having secured the appropriate permits to do so which included drawing water from the Waikato River and discharging processed water and stormwater into the Manukau Harbour. Initially the local Māori subtribe was silent about its feelings but that silence did not betoken full acquiescence. Its people were employed and housed if necessary by the Company as were other local people, and enjoyed the benefits of an improved local economy. The Company’s venture to mine and export ironsand from Taharoa, located on the coast some one hundred and ninety kilometres south of the Waikato River mouth, was successful and in the absence of indications to the contrary it assumed that it was not acting in any offensive manner with regard to cultural values. However, the Company was surprised when at the 1978 Water Rights hearing relationships between the parties became acrimonious, and again when Māori protests emerged following the issue of the Environmental Impact Report in 1980. But even then the Management did not foresee the trouble that was brewing. This thesis explores the issues from both sides as it developed from a single concern to one that became highly complex. The thesis shows that inspite of the Company’s willingness to find solutions to the problems, it did not at any stage publicise its concerns for the people it dealt with. The Company hoped that by its actions it would be fairly judged. At the present time the issues of land ownership and mining rights have still to be satisfactorily resolved. But from reference to similar conflicts between developers and indigenous peoples in other parts of the world the hope is that a satisfactory settlement is not far off. Although having said this, it should be noted that the latest development in the continuing saga was a ‘sit-in’ by members of the Ngati Te Ata sub-tribe at the Maioro mine site. (Manukau Courier 30.1.90) There has also been a conciliatory meeting between the parties at the Tahuna Marae. The claim here is that all parties in future technological and anthropological disputes were better to try to learn lessons from the past if they are to reach any satisfactory settlement.