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Management of biosecurity threats to forests and indigenous trees needs to address the legacy of colonising practices that have prohibited diverse knowledges from being included. This work is urgent and challenging in the context of mobile tree pathogens, investment in climate mitigation through tree planting and greater legal recognition of Indigenous rights and those of trees. While a transition towards shared, collective responsibility for trees and treescapes is compelling, its conceptualisation in practice remains underdeveloped. This is particularly the case when considering tree-biosecurity relations. This paper shows the positioning work a team of social scientists undertook to enable polyvocal imagining of biosecurity possibilities, which trees so urgently need. Situated in Aotearoa|New Zealand and Cymru|Wales, this team of social scientists engaged with colonising forces (of which social science is also a part) to position research for biosecurity and with trees. Presented here are their reflections informed by literature and document reviews as well as research team discussions. Released somewhat from the constraints of displaced ways of knowing human dimensions of trees by means of connecting with Indigenous (especially Māori) scholarship, the research project became more capable of connecting other relations too, between people and nature, knowledge and action, science and society, research and management. The relational approach developed widens the potential for tree-human relations and supports the creation of biosecurity knowledge, systems and practices, not through one but multiple worldviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific biosecurity has become an important approach for managing the threats to Kauri trees and plant management in Aotearoa|New Zealand and Cymru|Wales, more generally. However, the conceptual apparatus of biosecurity does not make the relations and overlaps between people, knowledges or values visible in practice. This is particularly so for Indigenous Māori knowledge and ontologies, which are not yet fully integrated into this field. This paper has two aims. The first is to understand how the fragmentation of the biosecurity system concerning plant pathogens is reproducing colonial relations, while shaping biosecurity practices in new ways. The second is to use postcoloniality theory as an analytic tool to understand the role that local and Indigenous knowledge and ontologies play in the biosecurity system more globally. This lens is specifically turned on the social scientific understandings of biosecurity and used to analyse the relationships of others involved in the generation and use of biosecurity science for the protection of trees in Aotearoa|New Zealand and Cymru|Wales, analysing through the lens of social science, our interviews, and focus groups with them. Two places and ways of understanding postcoloniality are deliberately evoked so that postcolonial relations become the dominant lens for understanding how society and the environment have become dis/entangled in the biosecurity system in various ways. Some consistent clusters of biosecurity fragmentation can be identified along with the emergence of specific social and environmental relations that underpin shared aspects of care with/for trees and ecosystem conservation. This result demonstrates the impact that fragmentation could have on building a relational structure and ethics of biosecurity, linking communities, geographies, policies and values. Our conclusions echo the range of questions and relations at stake resulting from this fragmentation of biosecurity and show the role(s) that social scientists and Pākehā scientists can have in opening spaces for new postcolonial biosecurity practices to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public use and anthropogenic activity are recognised sources of damage and threat to vulnerable forest areas in New Zealand, but also globally, through the spread of pathogens on shoes, tyres and on the paws of their companion adventurers. User experiences of sensitive and spiritual forest areas, however, have not been fully examined, particularly for those who might be considered 'high-risk' users of these areas. Using in-place methods and in-depth interviews with these high-risk users of all types - from pig hunters to mountain bikers, dog walkers to runners, this study focuses on their use of Kauri forests for recreation, sport and other aspects of daily life and invites their reflections on how they might develop biosecurity and stewardship for their 'community.' As such, the study opens biosecurity management to the messiness and value-laden relationships and affects between users and Kauri forests. The themes of deep connection and loss emerged, challenging the stereotype of public users as facilitators of forest disturbance and wilful inattention. The forest users were not a homogeneous group, but they shared many commonalities. We argue that it is not necessary to overemphasise the impact of user differences from those of scientists and managers and that sometimes affective relationships to the forest are more significant than cultural factors in shaping recreational experiences and biosecurity responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research aimed to compare women's descriptions of chronic pelvic pain, when talking about their pain in narrative mode, with the descriptors used in a common pain assessment tool, the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ). Our intention was to see what we could learn about the relationship between words used in these kinds of assessment tools and meanings of pain experience evident in narratives. This New Zealand-based qualitative study used open-ended interviewing to generate women's experiential narratives of pelvic pain. Forty women of European descent were recruited via a randomly selected national prevalence survey on chronic pelvic pain: 33 had chronic pelvic pain that was not associated with dysmenorrhoea or dyspareunia (CPP); 38 had dysmenorrhoea; 29 had dyspareunia; 24 had all three. The study group was aged between 22 and 51 years. The differences that emerged between the words used by women and those used in the MPQ vocabulary are described. Two main findings emerged: a difference in the relative emphasis placed on sensory descriptors and the absence in women's narratives of affective words used in the MPQ. However, a predominance of an affective dimension of pain was evident in women's narratives, which is described. Given the narrative specificity of the experience of pelvic pain, we conclude that assessment tools using the words and phrases evident in narratives of pain would potentially be more useful, and that such a pain assessment tool would ideally be used in association with narrative techniques incorporated into the clinician's interview with women who present with chronic pelvic pain. doi:10.1300/J013v46n04_05 KEYWORDS. Chronic pelvic pain, narrative, descriptors, McGill Pain Questionnaire

Le Vay's claim in his book 'Queer Science' is examined in determining a biological case of homosexuality wherein biotechnologies considerably benefit the strengthening of gay and lesbian identity and minimizing negative social attitudes about homosexuals. Le Vay proposes that in the future, injecting cells into the brain to change the nature of sexual orientation be effected to enable change from homosexuality to heterosexuality but this seems to be unrealistic.

Research effort into what a ‘good death’ entails has generally concentrated on six themes: pain and symptom management; clear decision-making; preparation for death; completion; contributing to others; and affirmation of the whole person. This review explores these themes, specifically examining their applicability to those who lack mental capacity to make their own decisions. Some appear more relevant than others, with clear decision-making and affirmation of personhood predicating issues related to reduced capacity. Largely, however, the literature on a ‘good death’ builds on an underlying assumption that the dying patient is cognisant and capable of rationalising their death. Those instances where mental capacity is acknowledged within the model have been met by criticism from numerous authors. Factors such as the subjectivity of substitute decision-makers and the complexity associated with medico-legal interpretations of current legislation help to highlight deficiencies in the application of principles of a ‘good death’ in practice. Further specific consideration is required on how to achieve a ‘good death’ for those with reduced capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes that doctors continue to care well in the context of modernisation. Modernisation reflects the strengthening of regulated and authoritative forms of care (care-as-discipline). There remains, however, a need to focus on an understanding of care as love and generosity (care-as-gift), and to examine the importance of this element for care. I draw on interviews with 32 primary care doctors in Wales about their everyday work, focusing on accounts of care-as-gift. The reciprocity of patients to the provision of care at a personal level, and new institutional arrangements related to work-life balance, are both constituted by the doctors as care-as-gift. The doctors' accounts of the institutional and patient participation in care-as-gift were used to claim that what doctors do for patients is worthwhile and meaningful. At a time of modernisation and challenge in medical work, care-as-gift is a means by which doctors can continue to regard themselves as 'good, caring professionals'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

de Ras, Marion and Grace, Victoria (Eds.) (1997) Palmerston North, Dunmore Press. 192pp. ISBN 0 86469 282 X ($39.95 paperback) This collection of writing on the body, medical discourses, and [...]

In this paper I identify the key differences and similarities between New Zealand and Australian Lesbian Studies. Until recently, Australian and New Zealand perspectives have been viewed separately. The possible reasons for these differences are discussed and local understandings about diversity that have played a role in the destabilization of Lesbian Studies are considered. I proceed to consider the influence of Queer Theory on teaching and research in Lesbian Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]