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DIY (do-it-yourself) home improvement in New Zealand
Abstract and Figures
Do-it-yourself home improvement (DIY) is considered a defining characteristic of ‘Kiwi’
identity and the New Zealand way-of-life, with a 2009 home improvement advertisement
boasting that DIY is “in our DNA”. Since at least the 1950s, the national enthusiasm for DIY
has spawned a major and multifarious home improvement industry which includes DIY
television shows, home improvement manuals and magazines, ‘how-to’ websites and
hardware megastores, with DIY retail sales alone estimated at NZ$1 billion per year. Yet
despite the obvious cultural and economic significance of DIY in New Zealand, the home
improvement practices of New Zealand homeowners are not well-researched or understood.
To address the research gap, this thesis presents a naturalistic and exploratory study of the
DIY practices of 27 Christchurch homeowners. To support the study, a synthesis of the
international academic DIY literature is presented along with a brief history of DIY in New
Zealand. DIY activity emerges in the study as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon
involving property owners conceptualising, planning and executing a range of practical
‘projects’ associated with the production, maintenance and consumption of ‘home’. The
deployment of a range of social science theories helps to demonstrate that the outcome of
peoples’ home improvement activities is the ‘DIYed home’ – a socially and physically
constructed place – ‘personalised’, ‘adapted’ and to be ‘enjoyed’.
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... The nominated common or typical "dose" of cycling (30 m, three times a week) was based on the same sources, and a cohort study of New Zealand cyclists (Thornley et al., 2008). Exposure to risk of injury in the home drew on a PhD study of "do it yourself" home improvements in New Zealand (Mackay, 2011). Information on the frequency and duration of horse-riding came from a national study of equestrian injuries (Northey, 2003). ...
... Based on 61% (Mackay, 2011) of 2,272,000 female population and 80% (Williams, 2004;Mackay, 2011) We report here snapshots of injury risk at particular points in time, and acknowledge that perceptions may not track changes over time in the actual frequency of injury. Despite recent growth in cycling in New Zealand cities, the annual number of fatalities declined in the last decade, reaching a 25 year low (5 deaths) in 2016 (Ministry of Transport 2017). ...
... Based on 61% (Mackay, 2011) of 2,272,000 female population and 80% (Williams, 2004;Mackay, 2011) We report here snapshots of injury risk at particular points in time, and acknowledge that perceptions may not track changes over time in the actual frequency of injury. Despite recent growth in cycling in New Zealand cities, the annual number of fatalities declined in the last decade, reaching a 25 year low (5 deaths) in 2016 (Ministry of Transport 2017). ...
We compared the injury risks of typical exposures to road cycling for transport with other common activities including do-it-yourself repairs (DIY) at home, horse riding, quad bike riding, rugby union and snow sports in New Zealand. Cycling on the road half an hour three times a week was similar to DIY twice a month and safer than horse riding 1.5 h twice a week (5-fold difference in injury claims), skiing half a day for 4–5 times per year (140-fold), and playing rugby once every 3 weeks (530-fold difference). In statistical terms, based on moderate injuries, cycling is less dangerous than many recreational and every day activities. We conclude that fear of cycling in car-dependent New Zealand arises mainly from other causes than risk of injury, associated with the marginal status of cyclists on the public road.
... After World War II large suburbs were built made up of mostly timber-framed, singlestory, detached dwellings on quarter-acre plots of land. Between 1954 and 1964 207,700 such houses were built with government support (Mackay 2011) and the three-bedroom, single-story suburban home on a large plot became the "typical" New Zealand home Thorns 1999, 2001;Morrison 2012). Later in the 1950s, as demand for new houses grew but their cost was increasing faster than male wages, the government attempted to push builders and families commissioning houses to build with materials other than wood and brick because they were cheaper (Shaw 2000); however, alternative materials were not popular with purchasers and wood remained the standard for New Zealand home building. ...
... Within the New Zealand context of a commitment to home ownership and self-provisioning and the cultural celebration of ingenuity and craft skills (Bell 2001), working on the home has particular resonances. Michael Mackay (2011) describes New Zealanders as actively producing a "DIY'ed" home as an outward expression of their identity; as a practice to adapt the home to the changing requirements of household members; and as a way of actively enjoying the home as a site of productive work (cf. Mansvelt [1997] on DIY as a form of active leisure for retirees). ...
... Mansvelt [1997] on DIY as a form of active leisure for retirees). The home and the act of working on the home become part of an iterative process whereby self and desired home are made together (Mackay 2011), albeit within the context of globalized media and industry influences (Leonard et al. 2004). ...
This article considers the meanings that are attached to, and outcomes produced by, the things that houses are built from. It reflects on the meanings attached to the “robustness” of building materials for people who carry out DIY (Do-It-Yourself) projects. DIY is important to some people as a way to build relationships and perform a culturally valued identity. For interviewees in New Zealand, working on their own homes was an important aspect of their lives, and more malleable building materials allowed such work and had positive connotations and produced feelings of homeyness in contrast to more robust “permanent” materials. The article thus raises questions about how the built material of home relates to our feelings about it as well as highlighting the diverse practices and relationships that—literally—construct homes.
... With do-it-yourself, libraries wanting to enhance the UX (User Experience) are finding new keys to unlock successful 24/7 service with the added benefit of high impact and lower continuing staff costs. (Michael, 2011). ...
This chapter explores new innovation for libraries in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic: SWOT. It highlights various areas in which the pandemic is stretching the thinking of libraries to embrace new innovations. Thereby, it creates a new environment for libraries to work. It also outlines the SWOT of COVID-19 for libraries, especially the intensive, drastic adoption and deployment of technological innovations that have been under-utilised over the years. It is no doubt that new innovation for services delivery were birthed in the lockdown globally by libraries and other organisations. Similarly, it evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) associated with the new innovation for libraries in era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Useful recommendations were made.
... In the late 1960s, a focus on environmental problems meant that local government could no longer ignore the poor construction of some second homes and the lack of effective sanitation. Planners began to enforce the Standard Model Building Bylaw (originally published in 1935) in many places, and the second homes built after this time began to more closely resemble urban homes; additional tightening of building regulations in the last twenty years has further restricted the amount and type of work a non-qualified person is able to do on their home (Collins & Kearns, 2008;Mackay, 2011;Peart, 2009). However it was the introduction of the neoliberal economic regime in the 1980s that was more influential in ushering in a new phase of second home practice in New Zealand. ...
Using New Zealand as a case study, this paper turns a historical gaze to the development of second home practices, arguing that it is not possible to fully understand changes in second home practice through a narrow focus on housing policy. Rather, as second homes reflect the social, political, economic and cultural contexts in which they are situated, wider government ideology and policy changes, along with changing trends in leisure consumption, must be taken into account. The paper finds that in the 1880s when access to leisure and land tenure was limited, second home practice in New Zealand was very basic and male-dominated. Government-mandated access to leisure and favourable social welfare policies after 1945 meant second homes became the domain of middle-class families. The rhetoric of consumption also flowed into second home practices. The 1984 neoliberal policies led to wealth accumulation for some New Zealanders and rural outmigration for others, which was reflected in the rise of both luxury and re-use second homes. This paper provides useful baseline information for future research efforts, and encourages consideration of the broader implications of policy decisions (not just related to housing) at both national and local government level.
This article draws on the application of interpretive walks in a socio-geographical study of tourism-oriented entrepreneurial activity on multi-generational family farms in New Zealand. We highlight the great potential this method holds for tourism researchers interested in the ways tourist spaces are produced in processes of place-making. Mobile methods have been a feature of qualitative field research in several disciplines for some time, particularly in cultural geography with its emphasis on human interactions in and with landscapes. The interpretive walk, known also as the walking interview, has been applied mainly in urban neighbourhood, health, transport, and housing research, where it has proven very useful for revealing human connections to place that have been difficult to elicit using stationary face-to-face interviews. This article is one of the few that reports on the use of the method in a farm tourism setting. It is also one of few applied studies seeking to understand the local geographies of farm tourism and their connections to the farm site as both family home and place of primary production. The method is characterised as an effective tool for navigating and interpreting the socio-spatial settings in which new rural tourism ventures emerge, evolve, and are embedded. The approach allows for unexpected encounters with spatial practices and strategies, projects, and objects, behind which lie stories of changing human relationships with the land, economy, and community, and of the exigencies of everyday life that are less readily unearthed using conventional interviews.
Sociology and Social Studies have played a part at Lincoln at least since 1933. Beginnings are discussed and then how that developed under the entrepreneurial Professor Morrison of Horticulture, Landscape and Parks, and the auspices of the Agricultural Economics Research Unit. Subsequent developments were associated with the development of a separate Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, later Division of Human and Leisure Sciences, and then Faculty of Environment, Society and Design. So, the conclusion is reached that while there have been few sociologists employed as such, the influence of sociology has been very strong.
This paper reports a study of DIY house improvement focusing on its globalising material and commercial elements. Using a multi-method approach and a New Zealand case study we illustrate the importance in housing studies, and research into homemaking in particular, of taking account of DIY practice. We emphasise that it is not possible for housing researchers to account fully for the role and function of DIY without interpreting it as a cultural and economic phenomenon. The ways people live in and make their houses demands a focus on DIY practices, identity, homeownership, government regulation and the globalising commercial features of DIY which include: international product manufacturing, big-box retailing, tool and materials distribution and advertising, the production of printed and digital instructional material, and new popular media forms, such as DIY reality television. DIY is thus an excellent example of culture and economy combined.
http://hdl.handle.net/10289/9973
Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption presents an innovative reinterpretation of the forces that have shaped the remarkable growth of ethical consumption. Develops a theoretically informed new approach to shape our understanding of the pragmatic nature of ethical action in consumption processes. Provides empirical research on everyday consumers, social networks, and campaigns. Fills a gap in research on the topic with its distinctive focus on fair trade consumption. Locates ethical consumption within a range of social theoretical debates –on neoliberalism, governmentality, and globalisation. Challenges the moralism of much of the analysis of ethical consumption, which sees it as a retreat from proper citizenly politics and an expression of individualised consumerism.