Kirsty Lennox I don’t know you, random man: The role of safety-work during female encounters with the police.
Worldwide, governing systemic structures are being questioned, and police are being called to account for their actions both at an institutional and individual level. During a time of what some have deemed a ‘legitimacy crisis’, the well-established concept of procedural justice has been found to help increase legitimacy, a crucial underpinning of the Peelian Principle of policing by consent (Cook, 2015; Sunshine & Tyler, 2003; Tyler, 1990). However, very little research has examined female experiences of procedural justice during police contact. To ascertain whether procedural justice is occurring during police contact with women, it is critical to understand what women’s encounters with the police look like. Reflecting on 40 semi-structured interviews with women aged between 16-39 throughout Aotearoa, this study explores whether the gendered safety strategies that women are conditioned to employ, impact their encounters with the police as unknown men.
Kirsten Gibson ‘Women and their experiences after release from prison’: The State as an alibi
In this paper, I share findings from my recently published doctoral research, which explored women’s post-prison experiences in Aotearoa. The extant research on women’s experiences in prison is limited and even more so for women’s post-prison experiences. Discourses about post-prison that overly focus on desistance and pathologise women’s behaviour tend to minimise the impact that structural conditions play in women’s lives. Examining women’s experiences, while acknowledging the structural constraints on their lives, can provide a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the structural barriers they encounter and navigate.
The current context of increased punitive policies and decreased social support across Aotearoa demonstrates how the State “punishes the poor”. The State enacts punishment of the poor through a withdrawal of social support, and increased monitoring and criminalisation. This punishment impacts distinct — such as Māori, poor, and previously victimised — groups of women disproportionately. I detail women’s descriptions of their experiences of gender responsive programmes, and post-prison services. Challenging some dominant notions in post-prison literature, I share how the women described their ideas of post-prison ‘success’. I explore how the State utilises gender responsivity programmes and frameworks, and desistance discourses to distract and shift the responsibility of addressing structural harm against criminalised women.
Bryndl Hohmann-Marriott Reproductive justice and data justice: An interconnected relational approach
Reproductive justice and data justice can be interconnected and expanded to encompass a relational approach. I discuss a model of relational reproductive data justice, using the example of period-tracking apps. These types of reproductive data can be understood as relational, offering a point of connection between models of reproductive justice and data justice. The expanded model considers more-than-human assemblages, harms and benefits, and data imaginaries.
Jasper Wei Yuan Tan Progress or Panopticon? How Singapore's smart city drives state surveillance
This project examines how Singapore’s smart city framework facilitates biometric surveillance, raising concerns about privacy, autonomy, and state control. While smart cities are often seen as enhancing efficiency and security, they also enable state and corporate monitoring of citizens. Current research highlights the technological benefits of smart cities but tends to overlook how such frameworks contribute to the growth and normalisation of surveillance, particularly in highly state-managed environments like Singapore. Singapore was chosen to address this gap, particularly because it was an early pioneer in adopting digital technologies, such as the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system, and the ongoing development of its Smart Nation initiative, which contributes to expanding the country’s surveillance apparatus. This analysis involves a qualitative investigation of government policies, news media articles, and public data sources relating to Singapore’s surveillance and digitalisation efforts, aligning significantly with the smart city framework. State policies and surveillance technologies intensify state control, normalising the trade-off between security and individual privacy in pursuing technological progress and a safer society. Despite their promise of innovation and efficiency, this research provides a critical lens of how smart city frameworks function as tools for enhancing state surveillance, with profound implications for privacy and civil liberties.
Save Dunedin Live Music: Dave Bennett, Fairleigh Gilmour and Hugh Harlow Sound and the city: a discussion of class by activists who #planfornoise
In this presentation, Save Dunedin Live Music will explore why examination of class needs to be central to activism around noise and space in the city. Drawing from Shane Homan’s work on pub rock in Australia, and our own experiences as activists here in Ōtepoti Dunedin, we will outline why class is fundamental to understanding people, space and the future of our city – in terms of access, regulation and decision-making around ‘noise’.
Throughout my scholarship at the University of Auckland (UoA), I have developed a keen interest in the intersection of society and technology. I am particularly fascinated by how these systems interact and shape one another, whether through governance frameworks, digital communication... Read More →
