"It's Hard at the Top but It's a Whole Lot Easier than Being at the Bottom:" The Role of Privilege in Understanding Disparities in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Borell, Belinda A. E.; Gregory, Amanda S.; McCreanor, Tim N.; Jensen, Victoria G. L.; Moewaka Barnes, Helen E.

"It's Hard at the Top but It's a Whole Lot Easier than Being at the Bottom:" The Role of Privilege in Understanding Disparities in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Resource type

Authors/contributors

Title

"It's Hard at the Top but It's a Whole Lot Easier than Being at the Bottom:" The Role of Privilege in Understanding Disparities in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

Objective: An initial exploration of the available conceptualizations of privilege in Aotearoa/New Zealand with the goal of developing a more in-depth qualitative study, incorporating kaupapa Maori and public health framings. Design: Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of key informants that span the academic, community development, health service provision, and activist sectors. Participants were selected from multiple networks for their expressed interest and insight into the concept of privilege and its importance to analyses of social justice. Results: Six key themes emerged that include the invisibility of privilege; the weighting of different variables; individual vs group privilege; class; the active aspects of privilege; and links between privilege and Pakeha culture. Conclusion: Participants' constructions of privilege emphasize the multifaceted complexity and discursive ambiguities of the ways in which the concept is utilized within our political economy to account for disparity and covertly reproduce the status quo of Pakeha advantage.

Publication

Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts

Date

2009

Volume

3

Issue

1

Pages

29-50

URL

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25595023

Accessed

12/15/22, 10:11 AM

ISSN

1935-8644

Short Title

"It's Hard at the Top but It's a Whole Lot Easier than Being at the Bottom

Library Catalog

JSTOR

Notes

This paper draws on a qualitative scoping study, which saw the research team undertake an initial exploration of the avail able conceptualizations of privilege in Aotearoa with the goal of developing a more in-depth qualitative study, incorporating kaupapa Maori and public health framings of the issue. Here we present formative discussions between the authors.

The framing of a problem is inherently political, as solutions that arise from how problems are seen to preclude certain solutions and subsequent resource allocation while privileging other solutions and allocatations.

An initial exploration of the available conceptualizations of privilege in Aotearoa/New Zealand with the goal of developing a more in-depth qualitative study, incorporating kaupapa Maori and public health framings

Participants' constructions of privilege emphasize the multifaceted complexity and discursive ambiguities of the ways in which the concept is utilized within our political economy to account for disparity in public health and social status and covertly reproduce the status quo of Pakeha advantage.

Citation

Borell, B. A. E., Gregory, A. S., McCreanor, T. N., Jensen, V. G. L., & Moewaka Barnes, H. E. (2009). “It’s Hard at the Top but It’s a Whole Lot Easier than Being at the Bottom:” The Role of Privilege in Understanding Disparities in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 3(1), 29–50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25595023

Topic

Link to this record

https://tmrbib.inzight.co.nz/bibliography/3HJG32Z8