SAANZ Conference 2024

Chair: Tamika Ashbrook

Ben Laksana
Weaponizing Precarity: Governmental Precarisation and the Struggles of Indonesian Tertiary Student Activists

Drawing from an ethnographic study of 11 student activists in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this research examines how the Indonesian state weaponizes precarity to control and subjugate vulnerable populations. Using Isabell Lorey’s (2015) concept of governmental precarisation, I argue that neoliberal state policies deliberately sustain precarity by intensifying financial hardships and limiting access to essential resources for university students. Despite higher education’s portrayal as a path out of poverty, many students face uncertain job prospects, low wages, and an oversaturated market. This normalization of precariousness traps students between the promise of education as a means of social mobility and the harsh realities of neoliberal governance. As a result, these precarious conditions force tertiary students engaging in activism to reassess their activists roles. I argue that this often leads to disengagement from activism as precarious living conditions erode their capacity to resist. Thus this self-perpetuating cycle of precarisation not only normalizes insecurity but further reinforces state control. This study sheds light on how neoliberal policies shape the experiences of tertiary students and their activism in Indonesia, revealing the underlying power structures that maintain these precarious conditions and limit possibilities for resistance and social change.


Joseph Elkington-Potter
Institutional Whispers: Academic Bullying in NZ

Sociology often critiques power structures and inequalities in society, but the discipline often fails to turn the lens inward, reflecting on our practices and institutions. Internationally, failures to adequately respond to and support those experiencing bullying, particularly academic bullying within universities, have raised significant concerns (Mahmoudi, 2019; Moss & Mahmoudi, 2021; Twale & DeLuca, 2008). However, in Aotearoa New Zealand, there has been limited exploration into the prevalence, lived experiences, specific conditions, and disciplinary factors that foster academic bullying within universities. This paper seeks to facilitate a discussion on what this issue might look like in the context of Aotearoa NZ, particularly for postgraduate and/or early-career Māori scholars. This research is part of a broader PhD project exploring the experiences of complaints across NZ universities, focusing on how institutional responses—or the lack thereof—perpetuate harm.


Sultan Ahmed
Towards decolonizing disaster risk communication and resilience building; Indigenous knowledge insights from High Mountain Asia

This research examines disaster risk communication (DRC) and resilience-building in HighMountain Asia (HMA) through the lens of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) of the Wakhi people, who span the borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and China. Preliminary findings reveal a nuanced dynamic: while elders emphasize the value of IK—rooted in centuries of evolution—youth increasingly favor scientific methods as more relevant to contemporary challenges. This contrast highlights a gap in DRC, as government-led initiatives prioritize scientific knowledge and operate in an autocratic, supply-driven manner, whereas NGOs employ participatory approaches, though their reach and effectiveness remain limited.
Indigenous practices such as resilient construction, communal storage, land planning, and ritual offerings reflect a profound relationship with the environment, grounded in both practical adaptations and spiritual traditions. These practices embody a spiritual bond with nature, where rituals and offerings seek harmony with natural and supernatural forces, reinforcing both community resilience and individual confidence in facing disasters. Yet, formal systems often marginalize these practices.

This study advocates for a decolonized approach that respects both scientific and Indigenous epistemologies, recognizing the unique resilience strategies of cross-border communities. By bridging these knowledge systems, this research aims to foster inclusive, context-sensitive frameworks for DRC in HMA.

Chair: Charlotte Bruce Kells

Anna Friedlander
Hormones and data in the digital menstrual tracking entanglement
An agential realist analysis of apps and menstruating bodies

Period tracking apps - digital applications that people use to track their menstrual cycles - are among the top-downloaded apps by adult and adolescent women in health categories, with hundreds of millions of downloads worldwide. There is a growing body of international sociological research into digital menstrual and fertility tracking, but with a few notable exceptions (Hohmann-Marriott; Riley), there is little sociological work into menstrual and fertility tracking in Aotearoa.
Within this context I perform an agential realist investigation of the sociotechnical entanglement of apps, app users, tracking practices, app development, gender, and bodies in Aotearoa, with a particular focus on the emergence of two phenomena – hormones and data. How are hormones and data enacted in, with and through tracking apps, and what are the implications? What role does power play, and how do the various elements of the menstrual tracking entanglement shape each other? In this presentation I present early results from my research into digital menstrual tracking entanglements in Aotearoa.


Yunyi Zhang
Shaping Mothering Ideas: How 1.5 and 2nd-Generation Chinese New Zealand Mothers Engage with Chinese and Western Discourses

Despite the significant presence of Chinese migrant families in countries like New Zealand, the experiences of 1.5 and 2nd-generation Chinese New Zealand mothers remain underexplored. Situated between their Chinese heritage and New Zealand’s sociocultural context, these mothers encounter diverse and sometimes conflicting discourses on motherhood and gender norms. This paper delves into the mothering ideas, perceptions, and expectations shaping 1.5 and 2nd-generation Chinese New Zealand mothers who navigate a complex interplay of Chinese and Western cultural norms, values, and institutional structures.

Drawing on John Gillis’s concepts of ‘the families we live by’ and ‘the families we live with,’ the paper unpacks how these mothers interpret and position themselves within diverse motherhood ideals or discourses. The analysis also considers the impact of broader cultural expectations, family dynamics, and educational values within the Chinese New Zealand community. By teasing out the layered discourses of what it means to be a Chinese New Zealand mother, this paper illuminates how these mothers traverse the nuanced cultural spectrum and engage with diverse ideas to shape their maternal beliefs in a culturally diverse society.

This research contributes to the Gender and Sexuality stream, shedding light on the cultural negotiation processes of immigrant mothers in a multicultural society.

Chair: Bruce Cohen

Ella Hurdley

Medical sociologists have found that dominant institutions (i.e.government agencies, mass media, medical professions) have a tendency to obscure how chemical pollution contributes to disease. Examples include framings of breast cancer, leukaemia, and depression. However, a similar analysis has yet to be conducted on the portrayal of infertility. Infertility is an important case because environmental scholars have found strong associations between infertility and exposure to PCBs; pesticides; heavy metals; and radiation. To address this gap, I analyse the infertility information provided by three
dominant institutions: 1) online publisher (healthline.com); 2) a government agency (healthdirect.au); and 3) a charitable trust endorsed by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (healthify.nz). The New Zealand institution is particularly important to analyse because of the country’s high infertility rates (up to 26% of the population) and decreasing birth rates (lowest in 20 years). In carrying out a content analysis, I found that all three sites framed
infertility in reductionist terms, especially the NZ website. These findings suggest dominant institutions downplay the relationship between environmental pollution and in/fertility. The NZ case is troubling when we consider the country’s high use of pesticides, herbicides, and chemicals in food and timber production. Another concern is that the social determinants of health in Aotearoa disproportionately impact Māori, and in this case, populations more heavily exposed to pollution.


Mary Silcock
‘Inside the Ministry of Health: critical opportunities to do sociology’

The Ministry of Health science advisory functions are multi-disciplinary but are heavily skewed to biomedical, health and public health approaches. While sociology overlaps and compliments these disciplines, the machinery of government and traditional hierarchies of knowledge create a condition where there is a constant power imbalance in the practices of producing evidence for decision-making. There is currently limited multi-disciplinary capacity to support science advice that includes critical and diverse knowledge. This knowledge is arguably what is most needed to address the complexity facing our health systems, healthcare practice and disparities in health outcomes in the population. As an action to address this imbalance and bolster the strength of sociology knowledge, the Office of the Chief Science Advisor hosted a sociology honours student from Victoria University of Wellington throughout 2024. The impact of having a greater physical presence, more formal linkages to academia and the increased capacity to provide subject matter expertise from the Office of the Chief Science Advisor will be presented. Practising sociology outside the academy and practical suggestions for increasing the influence of sociology in Government settings will be provided.


Chris McMillan
Flights of Fantasy: The (non) communication of air transportation emissions by international sporting organisations

Facing a potentially existential threat from the climate crisis as well as criticism of their own environmental impacts, sporting entities have increasingly sought to develop and communicate environmental sustainability strategies. In particular, major international governing bodies such as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and World Rugby have publicised significant commitments to reducing their environmental impact. While promising transformational changes, these strategies have predominantly focused on localised issues such as energy generation and use, waste management and construction materials, as well as making adaptative adjustments in response to the changing climate. Conversely, despite making up the majority of carbon emissions from commercial sporting activity, especially mega-events, air transportation has an uneasy presence in these strategies. In particular, although these organisations' own calculations of their carbon footprint highlight the significant role of flights, they receive limited attention in their environmental strategies. In this presentation, I explore this tension within the environmental communication of major international sporting organisations, highlighting the disavowal and displacement of responsibility for transportation emissions. In doing so, I ask how sociologists can most effectively represent and critique these points of tension within environmental communication.

Chair: Anna Friedlander

Talisa Pelser
Power, Representation, and Attitudes in TikTok's Online Sex Work Discourse Post-COVID-19.

This research is centred around contemporary attitudes and perceptions of online sex work on TikTok post COVID-19. The arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 propagated communications and socialisations to become primarily digital, inducing a global sense of social and physical isolation. This shift to the virtual spaces gave rise to the short-form social media app; TikTok, a platform that has revolutionised content creation, consumerist culture, digital engagement, and cultural narratives. Concurrently, COVID-19 enabled a pivotal moment in the adult entertainment industry, increasing global pornographic consumption and catalysing online sex work into mainstream markets and media. The emergence of online sex work follows a period of feminist sex work literature that houses prolific debates surrounding its presence, usage, and
consumption, often entangling dynamics of power, agency, and commodification in its discourse. Sex work remains a topic that is embedded in heavily contested ideologies surrounding its moral and ethical implications, concerns of exploitation, and its validity as job under patriarchal capitalism. The perceptions and consumptions of such work and its content is often polarised, ranging in feminist and non-feminist critiques alike. The purpose of this research is to analyse
what narratives exist surrounding online sex work on TikTok; a platform that continues to have a profound and extensive impact on global cultures and disseminations of new, recurring, distinct, and evolving ideologies. My research uses a typology and feminist critical discourse analysis to profile what narratives exist and deconstruct how present narratives are created and sustained through language and broader discourses. Utilising this digital ethnography and critical
examination, my research profiles contemporary narratives within digital spaces and through global perspectives, highlighting narratives that both parallel and diverge from key feminist sex work ideologies. Through this analysis I address key questions of (a) what dominant narratives circulate around online sex work on TikTok, (b) how prevailing narratives operate through regulations within TikTok, and (c) how narratives are sustained and reproduced through
discourse


Lorraine Smith, Sophie Lewis, Karen Willis, Marika Franklin, Maja Moensted
Title: People’s Experiences Of Chronic Illness And Loneliness: How Well Does Australian Healthcare Policy And Systems Deliver Good Care And Support?

Healthcare policy and practice positions chronic disease as requiring personal control and individual self-management. This positioning is problematic for people who are lonely and living with chronic illness. Loneliness isolates people from services, peers, and community. Active participation in social life is hampered by ill-health, problems with mobility, access to services, geographic location, and reduced emotional and psychological resources. Policy statements regarding chronic condition self-management acknowledge the influence of social determinants, but the emphasis remains on personal choice and ignores the multi-layered social problem that is loneliness. In this presentation we examine the complex and sometimes confusing Australian healthcare system, and the government policies and strategic frameworks that over the last 20 years have shaped chronic disease healthcare services offered to Australians. We explore the extent to which these services provide meaningful support to those living with chronic illness and loneliness, providing examples from our research examining the social consequences and people’s capacities for living well with chronic illness. Our learnings presents us with an opportunity to recognise and act on the critical importance of social connection and its impact on health, both short- and long-term, so that more targeted and effective interventions can be developed.

Linda Madden, Penelope Carroll, Karen Witten
States of dis/ability - looking at the past to imagine a new future of dis/ability.

Through Aotearoa’s history, the embodied ‘state of being disabled’ has hinged around the ‘State’ as the primary driver by which the concept of disability is reproduced. Narratives about what disablement means have typically been constructed through legislative ‘state-ments’ (government acts, policies etc.) that define disabled bodies and mediate how dis/ability is understood. As a result, ableist attitudes – largely unseen – permeate most spheres of everyday life in Aotearoa and often remain potent regardless of rhetoric espousing empowerment and inclusion. This paper explores the historical origins and impacts of disability legislation, and implications for community and citizenship. We also address what a new sociology of disability could look like in terms of both resistance to the past and a reclaiming of disabled identities. Finally, we propose that the sociologies of the future shift the onus for change from within the disabled community and employ methodologies designed explicitly to encourage reflection and conscientization among non-disabled individuals who might otherwise be reluctant to change their ableist attitudes.