SAANZ Conference 2024

Chair: Sonja Bohn

Barney Connolly
Generative AI at Otago University - A Critical Appraisal

This research is conscious of the increasing capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) globally, and seeks to ascertain what constitutes the ethical usage of generative AI, in the higher education sphere. Firstly, an anonymous survey of students enrolled at the University of Otago was undertaken. Secondly, formal interviews with academic staff. Thirdly, informal, ‘participant observation’ type discussions with fellow postgraduates. Finally, an evaluation of the embodied use of generative AI in social science research by the author. The collection of these opinions allows for a broad consideration of perspectives, which are then synthesized with relevant social theorists in order to provide as holistic and comprehensive analysis as possible. The issue of academic integrity is an especially salient one, given that we may soon be experiencing a future in which the value of the organizational and critical thinking skills taught at the university is threatened by students who outsource their thought to a biased machine intelligence that can convincingly create a simulacrum of academic scholarship. This field of study is crucial in ensuring the systems of higher education evolve accordingly in order to provide a service that prepares students effectively for life after graduation. This is a fiduciary responsibility of educators worldwide.


Rike Stotten
What are the ‘Values‘ in Alternative Food Systems? A Systematic Review

A growing body of agri-food literature explores the underlying values that shape various forms of alternative food systems. Yet, the understandings of what constitutes ‘values’ and processes of valuation generally, both in general and specifically in alternative food systems, vary widely or remain ambiguous across studies. This contribution, drawing from a systematic literature review and a ‘snowball’ literature search, seeks to clarify and categorize the multiple interpretations of ‘values’ within agri-food literature, aiming to enhance the understanding of their role in alternative food systems.

Through an in-depth analysis, the contribution organizes these diverse findings by mapping them onto four key dimensions: of social, spatial, natural, and economic embeddedness. As a result, the review provides a comprehensive and theoretically sound perspective on values in agri-food studies.


Peter J. Howland
Russian Jack – from vagabond to wine brand

In wine advertising and promotion, winegrowers frequently seek to claim the uniqueness of their wines via a number of intersecting and collusive registers. These include the literally grounded, demarcated, and thus wholly irreplicable, appellation and terroir claims (Jacquet, 2022) and the personality and lifestyle biographization of winemakers (Howland, 2019). A third prominent trope, are claims of historical depth or longevity of production – together with distinct temporal ‘journeys’ – that speak to the authenticity, durability and quality of one’s wines.

In the Old Word historical links and associations are not only often centuries old, but are widely regarded as ‘objective’ and authoritative. However, in New World winegrowing – in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United Kingdom for example – ‘objective’ genealogical winegrowing links are conspicuously missing and in their stead, tenuous, ‘stretched’, or even fabricated historical semblances are frequently advanced. This form of fetishised promotion seeks to exploit the desire of consumers for good wines and a ‘better world’. Consumers are not necessarily dupes in this, though neither are they stand up critics. Rather ensnared and jaded by living in a world of lies, wine consumers – like winegrowers and promoters – often seek to ‘accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative’.