Papers by Yvonne Underhill-Sem
Feminist geographies in Aotearoa New Zealand: cultural, social and political moments, 2019
Aotearoa New Zealand is a nation of promise, potential and enigma: it was the first country in th... more Aotearoa New Zealand is a nation of promise, potential and enigma: it was the first country in the world where women gained the vote in 1893 and now boasts the youngest woman world leader in 2017. It is also a postcolonial nation where structural racism, homophobia, and sexism persist, yet it has also given legal personhood to a river. Our Country Report foregrounds Aotearoa New Zealand feminist geographic scholarship that responds to, reflects, and sometimes resists such contrasts and contradictions at the national scale. We employ the lens of the 2017 national election to critically engage with current gendered and indigenous politics in the country. Analyzing these politics through three ‘feminist moments,’ our paper highlights the breadth and scope of current Aotearoa New Zealand feminist geographic scholarship and directions.
International Journal of Population Geography, 2001
The contracting out to private providers of services previously delivered within the state has be... more The contracting out to private providers of services previously delivered within the state has been framed critically as 'hollowing out' and read for its erosion of social democracy, social justice and welfare, as well as its inefficiencies in practice. It is commonly dismissed as neoliberalism.
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 1999
Sustained challenges by third world, black and feminist scholars have unsettled the established a... more Sustained challenges by third world, black and feminist scholars have unsettled the established agenda of the social sciences in the 1990s. Unfortunately, population geographies in the Pacific have failed to engage with these debates. By avoiding the metaphysical challenges posed by contemporary theoretical debates, often by people from previously marginalised groups, population geographies have failed to provide the spark necessary for the dynamic expansion of ideas. However, an analysis of population geographies in the Pacific, almost all of which are mobility studies, reveals important contributions for advancing a more critical population geography. This paper begins with a critical review of population geography in general then looks more specifically at population geographies, mostly mobility studies, in the Pacific. It advances the argument that the humanist geographers Chapman and Bonnemaison have made critical contributions in reconceptualising population mobility. Further advances would benefit from an engagement with feminist geography and post-structural discourse analysis.
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 2009
The contracting out to private providers of services previously delivered within the state has be... more The contracting out to private providers of services previously delivered within the state has been framed critically as 'hollowing out' and read for its erosion of social democracy, social justice and welfare, as well as its inefficiencies in practice. It is commonly dismissed as neoliberalism.
Critical gender studies and international development studies are both inter-disciplinary, but in... more Critical gender studies and international development studies are both inter-disciplinary, but intellectual agility can ensure they are inclusive sites of knowledge production. To develop intellectual agility, which underpins progressive interdisciplinarity, students must paradoxically venture into more closely defined disciplinary traditions in the social sciences, the humanities and the sciences. Intellectual agility begins by being fully cognizant of epistemological and theoretical framings in substantive debates, such as, for instance, the perpetuation of violence against women or the entrenchment of poverty. I argue that by explicitly tethering ideas to disciplinary traditions, interdisciplinary research and teaching can more successfully address pressing international development concerns in an inclusive manner. International development studies can easily be seen as utilitarian and instrumental just as critical gender studies can easily be seen as impractical and vague. Here, I show how I have worked critical gender studies into international development studies so that students can develop intellectual agility. Underpinning this is the call for progressive interdisciplinary research and teaching delinked from the defensive claims of long-standing scholarly traditions or the aspirational ambitions of newly cast bodies of knowledge. This article is published as part of a thematic collection dedicated to multi-and interdisciplinary perspectives on gender studies.
Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 2014
Addressing the multiple dimensions of gender inequality requires commitments by policy-makers, pr... more Addressing the multiple dimensions of gender inequality requires commitments by policy-makers, practitioners and scholars to transformative practices. One challenge is to assemble a coherent conceptual framework from diverse knowledges and experiences. In this paper, we present
a framework that emerged from our involvement in changing market culture in the Pacific, which we
name a radical empowerment of women approach. We draw on detailed narratives from women market vendors and women-led new initiatives in marketplaces to explain this approach. We argue that the primary focus of recently developed projects for marketplaces in the Pacific is technical and infrastructural, which is insufficient for addressing gendered political and economic causes of poor market management and oppressive conditions for women vendors. By exploring the complex array of motives and effects of the desire to transform or improve marketplaces in the Pacific, we caution against simplistic technical or infrastructural solutions. This paper also introduces the practice of working as a cooperative, hybrid research collaboration. The knowledges and analyses that we bring to this issue demonstrate that substantive analysis generated from diverse and shifting ‘locations’ and roles, but underpinned by a shared vision of, and commitment to, gender justice, can provide distinctive policy and research insights.
The challenges faced by women in the urban Pacific are often overlooked in development debates fo... more The challenges faced by women in the urban Pacific are often overlooked in development debates forthreekey reasons: becausethe scale of urbanization inthe Pacific is dwarfed by the numbers in other developing regions, because women in the Pacific rarelyhaveavoiceinpublicdebatesandbecauseissuesofurbanizationareseldomdebated from a critical feminist perspective.Yet scale has no monopoly on tragedy, marginalized voices are gaining strength globallyand critical feminist perspectives are making a difference in global policy arenas. This is a conversation between myself and Elizabeth Cox, a long-standing feminist social activist. Both of us have lived for long periods of time in the largest city in the Pacific, Port Moresby, and in this conversation we talk about the challenges faced by women inurban Papua New Guinea (PNG) anda new initiative toaddress some of them
Understanding new actors in development requires a reconsideration of how subjects come to be and... more Understanding new actors in development requires a reconsideration of how subjects come to be and how collectivities are formed. This paper works with post-structuralist notions of subjectivities and collectivities as ‘series’ in three distinct cultural historical geographies to show the subtle ambiguities in contemporary practices of development. Working with Iris Marion Young’s conceptualisation of seriality, it provides an Antipodean perspective on the entanglements of contemporary critical geography with new development actors through case studies of indigenous scholars in Te Rarawa in Aotearoa/New Zealand, of contract scholars and a philanthropist in West Bengal and of feminist activist scholars in the Pacific. In doing so, it points to the need to radically rethink participation in development by closely analysing the ways in which the subjects are constituted, and the critical role of visions within development narratives, actions and practice.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of how culture in the Pacific impa... more The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of how culture in the Pacific impacts gender equality and human development. The analysis addresses two views that are widely held in the Pacific: 1) that gender is biologically determined, and 2) that culture is a sacred template should not be meddled with. Both these notions have attracted sound scholarly consideration in the Pacific, which has shown that rather than either being fixed, gender is socially constructed and culture is constituted by contemporary milieu as much as it is by its traditional and historical genealogy.
Key argument: Social inequality in SIDS is amplified by various forms of population mobility, gro... more Key argument: Social inequality in SIDS is amplified by various forms of population mobility, growing numbers of young people and the persistent disempowerment of women.
![Research paper thumbnail of ‘[PDF] beinghaRasseD?’ Accessing information about sexual harassment in New Zealand’s universities](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/36327803/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Despite strong legislative protection, sexual harassment is still prevalent in New Zealand and th... more Despite strong legislative protection, sexual harassment is still prevalent in New Zealand and thus remains an impediment to the full achievement of women’s human rights as well as undermining the mental and physical well-being of a woman. This paper focuses on sexual harassment in New Zealand universities. Universities are a critical part of modern society not just for teaching and research but also as a place where new generations of leaders will emerge. We undertook a survey of New Zealand university websites to test and compare the ease by which a student who thinks they may be experiencing sexual harassment, could find out about the policies and support services available to them. We highlight the failings found with many websites and make recommendations for improving access to this vital information. We argue that comprehensive sexual harassment information must be made more visible to prevent the acceptance and normalisation of sexually harassing behaviours.
Alma Espino and Yvonne Underhill-Sem discuss the issue of regionalism and regionalization in Lati... more Alma Espino and Yvonne Underhill-Sem discuss the issue of regionalism and regionalization in Latin America and in the Pacific. Although there are important differences between these realities, they highlight advantages, dangers and challenges of economic integration for gender and social equity focusing on the power relations operating at various levels. They emphasize the need to improve knowledge about the gender dimension of these processes. Understanding the gendered implications of the geographic expansion of global capitalism will allow feminists to build proposals of economic integration schemes that are more comprehensive, gender-aware and oriented to human development
This paper examines regionalism in the Pacific in the early 21st century and examine the its new ... more This paper examines regionalism in the Pacific in the early 21st century and examine the its new forms which are driven by neo-liberal rationalities that are deeply embedded in the promotion and planning of regional economic markets that primarily serve external interests. The reconceptualisation and recreation of regionalism in a neo-liberal frame has significant long-term implications for the livelihood options, development prospects, quality of life and general well-being of Pacific Island people, especially women.
In this article we explore the politics of community-university collaborative research and activi... more In this article we explore the politics of community-university collaborative research and activism. We are scholars based in universities as well as members of various ‘communities’—queer, Pasifika and Māori—hence we regularly venture beyond the formal research spaces of the academy and enter into critical collaborative research with others working in ‘the community’. In what follows we first outline collaborative community-based research literature that advocates hybrid research collectivities. Second, we give some context and background to our methodologies that have enabled us to re-think collaborative research. Third, examples from our research are offered to illustrate the ways in which collaborative research constructs new collective identities. Finally, we conclude by arguing that social science scholars working across university-community boundaries may expand and multiply hybrid research collectives, and thereby effect positive social change at many levels.
Te Runanga o Te Rarawa is the tribal council representing the interests of the marae (tribal comm... more Te Runanga o Te Rarawa is the tribal council representing the interests of the marae (tribal commons) and hapu (a subtribal kin group) that make up the iwi (a Maori tribe) of Te Rarawa in the far north of Aotearoa/New Zealand. In April 2005, officials approached us to help them secure a valuable funding stream tagged to marshalling resources for material development in the area. They sought curriculum vitae and assistance in reframing the funding specifications. Intrigued, armed with a conceptual toolkit drawn from Gibson-Graham’s ideas of post-development and asset-based community mapping, and confident that we could add value, we agreed to help. This paper examines the complex politics of our involvement and our changing positioning as researcher subjects. We argue that negotiating a politics of knowledge for projects of this nature requires engagement in complex representational politics of place and divisive identity politics that rage around it. There are no easy protocols for outside researchers, but with appropriate humility and sensitivity to these politics, we can rely on, and should stand up for, the value of our work, which lies in commitments to excellence in scholarship. We cannot and should not seek to control these politics, which will chew us up and spit us out – humanely and with good grace or otherwise. However, good academic work will recognise and adapt to them. In our particular case, we argue that our work had significant value; and in this paper, we trace the production of this value.
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Papers by Yvonne Underhill-Sem
a framework that emerged from our involvement in changing market culture in the Pacific, which we
name a radical empowerment of women approach. We draw on detailed narratives from women market vendors and women-led new initiatives in marketplaces to explain this approach. We argue that the primary focus of recently developed projects for marketplaces in the Pacific is technical and infrastructural, which is insufficient for addressing gendered political and economic causes of poor market management and oppressive conditions for women vendors. By exploring the complex array of motives and effects of the desire to transform or improve marketplaces in the Pacific, we caution against simplistic technical or infrastructural solutions. This paper also introduces the practice of working as a cooperative, hybrid research collaboration. The knowledges and analyses that we bring to this issue demonstrate that substantive analysis generated from diverse and shifting ‘locations’ and roles, but underpinned by a shared vision of, and commitment to, gender justice, can provide distinctive policy and research insights.
a framework that emerged from our involvement in changing market culture in the Pacific, which we
name a radical empowerment of women approach. We draw on detailed narratives from women market vendors and women-led new initiatives in marketplaces to explain this approach. We argue that the primary focus of recently developed projects for marketplaces in the Pacific is technical and infrastructural, which is insufficient for addressing gendered political and economic causes of poor market management and oppressive conditions for women vendors. By exploring the complex array of motives and effects of the desire to transform or improve marketplaces in the Pacific, we caution against simplistic technical or infrastructural solutions. This paper also introduces the practice of working as a cooperative, hybrid research collaboration. The knowledges and analyses that we bring to this issue demonstrate that substantive analysis generated from diverse and shifting ‘locations’ and roles, but underpinned by a shared vision of, and commitment to, gender justice, can provide distinctive policy and research insights.