Rachel Simon-Kumar
Biographic Data
| ID | 1258576 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel Simon-Kumar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel |
| FAMILY NAME | Simon-Kumar |
| SIGNATURE | SIMON-KUMAR R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Auckland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4866-5226 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 28 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Confronting stereotypes
Ethnic Minority Youth (EMY, i.e. Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African ethnic origins) constitute 20% of the youth population in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) and yet their experiences remain invisible in the mainstream discourses. Interviews with 17 EMY with additional marginalized identities (EMYi) indicated significant diversity and fluidity in their lived experience. Participants felt ‘othered’ by the wider NZ society for their ethni…
Women of many “firsts”
There is a significant scholarship on media framing of women politicians in the context of western liberal democracies. However, much less academic attention has been directed at an intersectional analysis of the interface of race/ethnicity and gender media framing of ethnic minority women politicians (EWPs). This article undertakes a comparative analysis of mainstream and ethnic news media’s framing of EWPs in Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ) in term…
Rethinking place in ethnic and migrant health outcomes
The healthy migrant effect scholarship makes limited, if any, connections between the impacts of the physical environments of the host country on the health outcomes of migrants. The aim of this paper is to understand environmental racism/racialisation in the context of migrant‐concentrated neighbourhoods in urban settings. Focusing on interactions between built structural spaces and meaning‐embodied places , this paper adapts international liter…
Beyond the healthy migrant effect
Feminising the Healthy Migrant Effect
Despite the perceptible feminisation of migration globally and in New Zealand, there remains a noticeable absence of a gendered perspective of the Healthy Migrant Effect (HME). In this paper, we seek to articulate a critical perspective on ethnic and migrant women’s reproductive health deploying two established bodies of scholarship, the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and Social Practices theory. While the former highlights gender‐specific …
Women, consumption and the environment
‘Ecological determinants’ of health in the global south
Health promotion has long recognized the ecological determinants of health, underscoring the interconnections between planetary health, economic systems and human health. Despite calls for synergy across them, these domains are governed by fundamentally divergent paradigms leading to unaddressed conceptual and institutional gaps. Sustainability, meanwhile, is reduced to personal responsibility and behaviour change. This qualitative research explo…
Between reproductive rights and sex selection in New Zealand’s abortion reforms
In 2020, the New Zealand (NZ) Parliament voted to decriminalise abortion. Although NZ's abortion law formally opposes sex selective abortions, there is considerable complexity in the gender politics of 'choice' and 'agency' in multi-ethnic societies, and interpretations of reproductive rights for ethnic minority women and for the girl child, respectively. This paper explores these complexities through the perspectives of reproductive and maternit…
An intersectional approach to exploring lived realities and harnessing the creativity of ethnic minority youth for health gains
This study will explore the implications of public discourse, racism and multiple forms of marginalisation on the wellbeing of EMYi. It is expected to provide evidence on the impacts of marginalisation on their mental and emotional wellbeing and inform responsive health practice and policy. Using established research tools and innovative creative means, it will enable EMYi to propose their own strength-based solutions. Further, population-based e…
Affirming Fissures
Intersectionality, as scholarship and praxis, has traversed boundaries far beyond its roots in Black American feminism into population groups whose histories of marginalization are vastly different to those envisioned by Kimberlé Crenshaw. In translation, intersectionality can articulate with new clarity the voices of the invisibilized but also reveal fundamental fissures. This article discusses these contradictions in the context of “ethnic” pop…
Blurred in translation
Healthy Diversity? The Politics of Managing Emotions in an Ethnically Diverse Hospital Workforce
Emotions are increasingly incorporated into organisational diversity management initiatives to address some of the challenges said to arise from workforce diversity. Yet few studies have looked at the impact that this emphasis on managing emotions has on minority group struggles for equality, inclusion and justice. We examine this issue in a hospital workplace within a District Health Board located in the bicultural, multi-ethnic and settler colo…
Underreporting sexual violence among ‘ethnic’ 1 migrant women
In Aotearoa/New Zealand, sexual violence within minority ethnic communities is endemic, but grossly underreported. This paper presents the results of two small-scale qualitative studies that explored key issues in the underreporting of sexual violence. In-depth interviews were undertaken with key informants including academics, specialist sexual violence practitioners and community/social workers. The study identified two main factors that led to…
Inclusionary policy and marginalised groups in Aoteaora/New Zealand process, impacts and politics
This paper presents the consolidated findings of a four‐year research project that evaluated policy inclusion between the New Zealand government and communities of difference – specifically, ethnic/migrant/refugee groups, women/gender and Māori. Policy inclusion builds on foundational principles of deliberative democracy that dialogue and relationship not only improve policy but also foster democratic transitions towards pluralism and diversity. …
Translating Inclusion into Influence in New Zealand
Women's and gender organizations in New Zealand, like the rest of the community sector, capitalized on opportunities to engage with government as part of an inclusive turn in policymaking in the last decade. For the local women's movement, inclusion offered the promise of strategic policy involvement at a time when the women's movement was in "abeyance." While governmental rhetoric emphasizes trusting and open relationships, the reality of engage…
Towards North‐South Interconnectedness
Well‐established bodies of scholarship that inform contemporary global debates on gender, environment and health are fundamentally based on dualistic representations of women, such as First/Third World, rich/poor and victim/polluter. In this paper, we argue that recent socioeconomic transitions — affluence in the global South and rising inequality in the global North — demand the development of gender analytical frameworks that better recognize t…
Mobilising culture against domestic violence in migrant and ethnic communities
Studies on domestic violence in ethnic minority communities highlight that social norms, family structures and cultural practices are among the key triggers of violence against women. Not surprisingly, most anti-violence interventions in these communities aim to redeem women from the oppressive features of these cultures. More recently, however, emergent scholarship advocates mobilising, rather than erasing, culture within existing anti-violence …
The paradoxes of Māori-state inclusion
This article analyses the politics of policy engagement in a postcolonial society. In 2002, the local government in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand entered into an engagement process with local Māori tribes (iwi) and subtribes (hapū) to develop a conservation plan for their local water resources. The 4 years of highly successful engagement with three iwi and one hapū culminated in a long-term plan, the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy (2008…
The paradoxes of deliberation
As part of recent efforts to advance participatory policymaking, there is increased collaboration between government and women’s groups creating, in principle, ‘deliberative mini-publics’. While there is substantial literature debating the merits of mini-publics, their longer-term influence on ‘macro-political’ environments is still unfolding. This article examines the particular case of a successful collaboration between the New Zealand governme…
Situated meaning frameworks in ethnic policy communities
Recent government-initiated efforts to foster an inclusive New Zealand society have focused on engaging minority ethnic groups in policymaking processes. Research suggests that the outcomes of participation are paradoxical; while they can be empowering, they can simultaneously regulate marginal groups. This paper examines the contradictions of participation through an analysis of the meaning-frameworks that policy actors bring to the process of e…
Neoliberalism and the New Race Politics of Migration Policy
On the face of it, neoliberalism and race are distinct paradigms. Yet, evidence shows that, neoliberal policy profoundly influences, and is influenced by, racial politics. The present paper examines the articulation of these two ‘frames’ in the specific case of migration policies in New Zealand. Since the mid-1980s, immigration policy in New Zealand has clearly worked towards neoliberal goals of attracting skilled labour and boosting economic pro…
Sexual Violence in India
In the wake of the 2012 Delhi rape incident, there has been intense public introspection into the nature of Indian society and the current structures of governance that have failed to keep women safe. Politicians, academics, social commentators, rape survivors, activists, bloggers, and television talk show hosts have all contributed views—right across the conservative-liberal spectrum—on the causes of rape and sexual violence in the country and m…
Difference and Diversity in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In the last decade, the political rhetoric around citizenship for ethnic minority groups, particularly recent migrants, in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been influenced by two dominant paradigms. In the wake of the post-neoliberalism advanced by the Fifth Labour Government (1999–2008) and the efforts to build an inclusive state, the idea of the ‘active citizen’ has evolved, encouraging ethnic migrants to contribute to their own communities and to a wi…
Beyond Transformation and Regulation
The inclusion of marginal groups is increasingly becoming part of contemporary governance. Critical appraisals categorize inclusionary mechanisms either as politically transformative or as regulative and part of the state's broader agenda of social control. In this article, we argue against both these positions and propose instead that inclusion is simultaneously regulative and transformative, that is, it is practiced in a state of—what Chantal M…
The Analytics of "Gendering" the Post-Neoliberal State
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society - Volume 18, Number 3, Fall 2011
Neoliberalism and the New Race Politics of Migration Policy
On the face of it, neoliberalism and race are distinct paradigms. Yet, evidence shows that, neoliberal policy profoundly influences, and is influenced by, racial politics. The present paper examines the articulation of these two ‘frames’ in the specific case of migration policies in New Zealand. Since the mid-1980s, immigration policy in New Zealand has clearly worked towards neoliberal goals of attracting skilled labour and boosting economic pro…
The Analytics of "Gendering" the Post-Neoliberal State
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society - Volume 18, Number 3, Fall 2011
Sexual Violence in India
In the wake of the 2012 Delhi rape incident, there has been intense public introspection into the nature of Indian society and the current structures of governance that have failed to keep women safe. Politicians, academics, social commentators, rape survivors, activists, bloggers, and television talk show hosts have all contributed views—right across the conservative-liberal spectrum—on the causes of rape and sexual violence in the country and m…
Difference and Diversity in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In the last decade, the political rhetoric around citizenship for ethnic minority groups, particularly recent migrants, in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been influenced by two dominant paradigms. In the wake of the post-neoliberalism advanced by the Fifth Labour Government (1999–2008) and the efforts to build an inclusive state, the idea of the ‘active citizen’ has evolved, encouraging ethnic migrants to contribute to their own communities and to a wi…
Mobilising culture against domestic violence in migrant and ethnic communities
Studies on domestic violence in ethnic minority communities highlight that social norms, family structures and cultural practices are among the key triggers of violence against women. Not surprisingly, most anti-violence interventions in these communities aim to redeem women from the oppressive features of these cultures. More recently, however, emergent scholarship advocates mobilising, rather than erasing, culture within existing anti-violence …
Blurred in translation
Towards North‐South Interconnectedness
Well‐established bodies of scholarship that inform contemporary global debates on gender, environment and health are fundamentally based on dualistic representations of women, such as First/Third World, rich/poor and victim/polluter. In this paper, we argue that recent socioeconomic transitions — affluence in the global South and rising inequality in the global North — demand the development of gender analytical frameworks that better recognize t…
Negotiating Emancipation
The idea of the public sphere is integral to the scholarship and practice of Women in Development. Unlike the private sphere, it is constructed as that space in society that provides enabling conditions for women’s emancipation. With the advent of neoliberal development and the consequent re-organization of relationships between individuals, states and markets, traditional views on the public sphere are beginning to falter. There is a growing nee…
The paradoxes of Māori-state inclusion
This article analyses the politics of policy engagement in a postcolonial society. In 2002, the local government in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand entered into an engagement process with local Māori tribes (iwi) and subtribes (hapū) to develop a conservation plan for their local water resources. The 4 years of highly successful engagement with three iwi and one hapū culminated in a long-term plan, the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy (2008…
The paradoxes of deliberation
As part of recent efforts to advance participatory policymaking, there is increased collaboration between government and women’s groups creating, in principle, ‘deliberative mini-publics’. While there is substantial literature debating the merits of mini-publics, their longer-term influence on ‘macro-political’ environments is still unfolding. This article examines the particular case of a successful collaboration between the New Zealand governme…
Situated meaning frameworks in ethnic policy communities
Recent government-initiated efforts to foster an inclusive New Zealand society have focused on engaging minority ethnic groups in policymaking processes. Research suggests that the outcomes of participation are paradoxical; while they can be empowering, they can simultaneously regulate marginal groups. This paper examines the contradictions of participation through an analysis of the meaning-frameworks that policy actors bring to the process of e…
Beyond Transformation and Regulation
The inclusion of marginal groups is increasingly becoming part of contemporary governance. Critical appraisals categorize inclusionary mechanisms either as politically transformative or as regulative and part of the state's broader agenda of social control. In this article, we argue against both these positions and propose instead that inclusion is simultaneously regulative and transformative, that is, it is practiced in a state of—what Chantal M…
Neo-liberal Development and Reproductive Health in India
This article seeks to explore the implications of neo-liberalism on women-centred reproductive health programmes, particularly in advancing their goals of political empowerment. The article develops a critique of reproduction and women as citizens of the public space in neo-liberal economies. It argues that the rhetoric of consumer freedom and high-quality services belie women's position as subjects of an economic growth-led society where reprodu…
Affirming Fissures
Intersectionality, as scholarship and praxis, has traversed boundaries far beyond its roots in Black American feminism into population groups whose histories of marginalization are vastly different to those envisioned by Kimberlé Crenshaw. In translation, intersectionality can articulate with new clarity the voices of the invisibilized but also reveal fundamental fissures. This article discusses these contradictions in the context of “ethnic” pop…
Healthy Diversity? The Politics of Managing Emotions in an Ethnically Diverse Hospital Workforce
Emotions are increasingly incorporated into organisational diversity management initiatives to address some of the challenges said to arise from workforce diversity. Yet few studies have looked at the impact that this emphasis on managing emotions has on minority group struggles for equality, inclusion and justice. We examine this issue in a hospital workplace within a District Health Board located in the bicultural, multi-ethnic and settler colo…
Translating Inclusion into Influence in New Zealand
Women's and gender organizations in New Zealand, like the rest of the community sector, capitalized on opportunities to engage with government as part of an inclusive turn in policymaking in the last decade. For the local women's movement, inclusion offered the promise of strategic policy involvement at a time when the women's movement was in "abeyance." While governmental rhetoric emphasizes trusting and open relationships, the reality of engage…
Negotiating Emancipation
The idea of the public sphere is integral to the scholarship and practice of Women in Development. Unlike the private sphere, it is constructed as that space in society that provides enabling conditions for women’s emancipation. With the advent of neoliberal development and the consequent re-organization of relationships between individuals, states and markets, traditional views on the public sphere are beginning to falter. There is a growing nee…
Neo-liberal Development and Reproductive Health in India
This article seeks to explore the implications of neo-liberalism on women-centred reproductive health programmes, particularly in advancing their goals of political empowerment. The article develops a critique of reproduction and women as citizens of the public space in neo-liberal economies. It argues that the rhetoric of consumer freedom and high-quality services belie women's position as subjects of an economic growth-led society where reprodu…
The ‘problem’ of Asian women's sexuality
Public health research in New Zealand views Asian health - particularly, Asian women's sexual health issues - as a priority problem. In recent years, high rates of abortion and the growing incidence of unsafe sex among younger age Asian migrants have been publicized as a health concern. Public health research implicates migrant experiences and cultural factors as responsible for these trends. Loneliness and isolation among international students,…
Beyond Transformation and Regulation
The inclusion of marginal groups is increasingly becoming part of contemporary governance. Critical appraisals categorize inclusionary mechanisms either as politically transformative or as regulative and part of the state's broader agenda of social control. In this article, we argue against both these positions and propose instead that inclusion is simultaneously regulative and transformative, that is, it is practiced in a state of—what Chantal M…
The Analytics of "Gendering" the Post-Neoliberal State
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society - Volume 18, Number 3, Fall 2011
Sexual Violence in India
In the wake of the 2012 Delhi rape incident, there has been intense public introspection into the nature of Indian society and the current structures of governance that have failed to keep women safe. Politicians, academics, social commentators, rape survivors, activists, bloggers, and television talk show hosts have all contributed views—right across the conservative-liberal spectrum—on the causes of rape and sexual violence in the country and m…
Difference and Diversity in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In the last decade, the political rhetoric around citizenship for ethnic minority groups, particularly recent migrants, in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been influenced by two dominant paradigms. In the wake of the post-neoliberalism advanced by the Fifth Labour Government (1999–2008) and the efforts to build an inclusive state, the idea of the ‘active citizen’ has evolved, encouraging ethnic migrants to contribute to their own communities and to a wi…
Situated meaning frameworks in ethnic policy communities
Recent government-initiated efforts to foster an inclusive New Zealand society have focused on engaging minority ethnic groups in policymaking processes. Research suggests that the outcomes of participation are paradoxical; while they can be empowering, they can simultaneously regulate marginal groups. This paper examines the contradictions of participation through an analysis of the meaning-frameworks that policy actors bring to the process of e…
Neoliberalism and the New Race Politics of Migration Policy
On the face of it, neoliberalism and race are distinct paradigms. Yet, evidence shows that, neoliberal policy profoundly influences, and is influenced by, racial politics. The present paper examines the articulation of these two ‘frames’ in the specific case of migration policies in New Zealand. Since the mid-1980s, immigration policy in New Zealand has clearly worked towards neoliberal goals of attracting skilled labour and boosting economic pro…
The paradoxes of deliberation
As part of recent efforts to advance participatory policymaking, there is increased collaboration between government and women’s groups creating, in principle, ‘deliberative mini-publics’. While there is substantial literature debating the merits of mini-publics, their longer-term influence on ‘macro-political’ environments is still unfolding. This article examines the particular case of a successful collaboration between the New Zealand governme…
Towards North‐South Interconnectedness
Well‐established bodies of scholarship that inform contemporary global debates on gender, environment and health are fundamentally based on dualistic representations of women, such as First/Third World, rich/poor and victim/polluter. In this paper, we argue that recent socioeconomic transitions — affluence in the global South and rising inequality in the global North — demand the development of gender analytical frameworks that better recognize t…
Mobilising culture against domestic violence in migrant and ethnic communities
Studies on domestic violence in ethnic minority communities highlight that social norms, family structures and cultural practices are among the key triggers of violence against women. Not surprisingly, most anti-violence interventions in these communities aim to redeem women from the oppressive features of these cultures. More recently, however, emergent scholarship advocates mobilising, rather than erasing, culture within existing anti-violence …
The paradoxes of Māori-state inclusion
This article analyses the politics of policy engagement in a postcolonial society. In 2002, the local government in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand entered into an engagement process with local Māori tribes (iwi) and subtribes (hapū) to develop a conservation plan for their local water resources. The 4 years of highly successful engagement with three iwi and one hapū culminated in a long-term plan, the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy (2008…
Inclusionary policy and marginalised groups in Aoteaora/New Zealand process, impacts and politics
This paper presents the consolidated findings of a four‐year research project that evaluated policy inclusion between the New Zealand government and communities of difference – specifically, ethnic/migrant/refugee groups, women/gender and Māori. Policy inclusion builds on foundational principles of deliberative democracy that dialogue and relationship not only improve policy but also foster democratic transitions towards pluralism and diversity. …
Translating Inclusion into Influence in New Zealand
Women's and gender organizations in New Zealand, like the rest of the community sector, capitalized on opportunities to engage with government as part of an inclusive turn in policymaking in the last decade. For the local women's movement, inclusion offered the promise of strategic policy involvement at a time when the women's movement was in "abeyance." While governmental rhetoric emphasizes trusting and open relationships, the reality of engage…
Underreporting sexual violence among ‘ethnic’ 1 migrant women
In Aotearoa/New Zealand, sexual violence within minority ethnic communities is endemic, but grossly underreported. This paper presents the results of two small-scale qualitative studies that explored key issues in the underreporting of sexual violence. In-depth interviews were undertaken with key informants including academics, specialist sexual violence practitioners and community/social workers. The study identified two main factors that led to…
Healthy Diversity? The Politics of Managing Emotions in an Ethnically Diverse Hospital Workforce
Emotions are increasingly incorporated into organisational diversity management initiatives to address some of the challenges said to arise from workforce diversity. Yet few studies have looked at the impact that this emphasis on managing emotions has on minority group struggles for equality, inclusion and justice. We examine this issue in a hospital workplace within a District Health Board located in the bicultural, multi-ethnic and settler colo…
Blurred in translation
‘Ecological determinants’ of health in the global south
Health promotion has long recognized the ecological determinants of health, underscoring the interconnections between planetary health, economic systems and human health. Despite calls for synergy across them, these domains are governed by fundamentally divergent paradigms leading to unaddressed conceptual and institutional gaps. Sustainability, meanwhile, is reduced to personal responsibility and behaviour change. This qualitative research explo…
Between reproductive rights and sex selection in New Zealand’s abortion reforms
In 2020, the New Zealand (NZ) Parliament voted to decriminalise abortion. Although NZ's abortion law formally opposes sex selective abortions, there is considerable complexity in the gender politics of 'choice' and 'agency' in multi-ethnic societies, and interpretations of reproductive rights for ethnic minority women and for the girl child, respectively. This paper explores these complexities through the perspectives of reproductive and maternit…
An intersectional approach to exploring lived realities and harnessing the creativity of ethnic minority youth for health gains
This study will explore the implications of public discourse, racism and multiple forms of marginalisation on the wellbeing of EMYi. It is expected to provide evidence on the impacts of marginalisation on their mental and emotional wellbeing and inform responsive health practice and policy. Using established research tools and innovative creative means, it will enable EMYi to propose their own strength-based solutions. Further, population-based e…
Affirming Fissures
Intersectionality, as scholarship and praxis, has traversed boundaries far beyond its roots in Black American feminism into population groups whose histories of marginalization are vastly different to those envisioned by Kimberlé Crenshaw. In translation, intersectionality can articulate with new clarity the voices of the invisibilized but also reveal fundamental fissures. This article discusses these contradictions in the context of “ethnic” pop…
Confronting stereotypes
Ethnic Minority Youth (EMY, i.e. Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African ethnic origins) constitute 20% of the youth population in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) and yet their experiences remain invisible in the mainstream discourses. Interviews with 17 EMY with additional marginalized identities (EMYi) indicated significant diversity and fluidity in their lived experience. Participants felt ‘othered’ by the wider NZ society for their ethni…
Women of many “firsts”
There is a significant scholarship on media framing of women politicians in the context of western liberal democracies. However, much less academic attention has been directed at an intersectional analysis of the interface of race/ethnicity and gender media framing of ethnic minority women politicians (EWPs). This article undertakes a comparative analysis of mainstream and ethnic news media’s framing of EWPs in Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ) in term…
Rethinking place in ethnic and migrant health outcomes
The healthy migrant effect scholarship makes limited, if any, connections between the impacts of the physical environments of the host country on the health outcomes of migrants. The aim of this paper is to understand environmental racism/racialisation in the context of migrant‐concentrated neighbourhoods in urban settings. Focusing on interactions between built structural spaces and meaning‐embodied places , this paper adapts international liter…
Sociology (28 works) · Gender Studies (25 works) · Political science (24 works) · Gender Studies (22 works) · Law (16 works) · Aotearoa (15 works) · Law (15 works) · Ethnic group (14 works) · Politics (13 works) · Anthropology (8 works)