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Matauranga Maori (knowledge and wisdom pertaining to Maori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand) has long been suppressed and invalidated in psychological paradigms, and the practice of whanaungatanga (relationships, connection, and practices among a family collective) undermined in colonising practice. Utilising a mana wahine methodology (an approach that privileges Maori women's perspectives and analyses) and semi-structured interviews with 43 participants, we explore contemporary matauranga Maori pertaining to whanau (extended family) practices. Inter-related yet conceptually distinct aspects of whanaungatanga were elucidated from participant accounts: Diverse and rich networks; children as integral to everyday lives; aroha (love), tiakitanga (guardianship), wairua (capacity for spirituality); and whanau support. Women (and men) participants not deemed 'experts' in matauranga Maori described a lived set of practices pertaining to raising children in a down to earth, pragmatic and humorous manner. Key words: Maori, Indigenous psychologies, matauranga Maori, whanaungatanga, mana wahine, Matauranga Maori (education, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, skill pertaining to Maori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand) has long been suppressed and invalidated in psychological theories and practice, at one stage, [...]

Feminist cultural studies researchers have produced a rich body of work showing how postfeminism and therapy cultures pervade a range of media. However, receiving less attention are questions of exactly how the neoliberal technologies of self implicated in these two cultural persuasions 'land', and are practised in everyday life. In this article, we forward an identity practice approach to understand the interrelated cultures of therapy and postfeminism using data from a qualitative investigation of women's friendships in Aotearoa New Zealand. We are interested in how the cultural resources concerning postfeminism and the 'psy complex' are used flexibly within friendship interactions in concert with other identities, such as national identities and caring identities. Overall, aligning with previous feminist analyses of media artefacts, we find that as postfeminist and therapeutic subjectivity-making entwine with the moral orders of women's friendships, women carry out their self-surveillance and self-transformation work collaboratively. Yet, remaining attentive to how women tailor cultural resources in their creative identity work leads us to a more hopeful reading. We suggest that the confidence gained by women through their therapised friendships should also be acknowledged for its nourishing qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00708.x Byline: Jill Reynolds (1), Margaret Wetherell (1), Stephanie Taylor (1) Abstract: Abstract This article presents a discursive analysis of interview material in which single women reflect on their relationships and reasons for being single. Despite changing meanings of singleness, it remains a 'deficit identity' (Reynolds and Taylor, 2005) and the problem for a woman alone is to account positively for her single state. Our analysis challenges theorisations which would suggest autonomy and agency in how identity and self are constructed. It employs the methodological approaches developed in critical discursive psychology (for instance Wetherell, 1998) to look at the detailed identity work of speakers as part of the identity project proposed by Giddens (1992, 2005), Bauman (1998) and other writers associated with the 'reflexive modernisation' thesis (Adkins, 2002). By approaching 'choice' as one of the cultural resources available to speakers, we present a more complex view of the dilemmas around a speaker's identity work in her accounting for her relationships and the course her life has taken Author Affiliation: (1)Open University Article History: Received 25 November 2005Finally accepted 16 June 2006