CARE White Papers

CARE White Paper Issue 20 (MARCH 2024)

As witnessed globally with the rise of hatei, authoritarian populismii, racism, fascist movements, and calls to the genocide of minorities, online infrastructures exist at the core of campaigns threatening democracies and are directly linked to the violence experienced by communities at the intersectional margins. In this white paper, we outline the nature of online warfare, the mechanics underlying it, and its underlying drivers. Building on our analysis of the existing infrastructure that drives online warfare and the existing frameworks for responding to online warfare, we propose a community-led culture-centered approach to responding to online warfare, arguing that the empowerment of communities at the “margins of the margins,”iii combined with the development of infrastructures for critical literacy, are critical to addressing the local-national-global threat posed by online warfare. We argue that a culture-centered framework for data justice that empowers historically marginalised communities to participate in platforms, organise to challenge hate, and drive policies for regulating hate on platforms is critical to promoting and sustaining sustainable development goal (SDG) 16: peace, justice, and strong institutions. We foreground a culture-centered framework for digital data literacy that is rooted in community voice and ownership of storytelling processes.


CARE White Paper Issue 19 IN PRESS


CARE White Paper Issue 18 (JULY2023)

Māori-Migrant solidarities in Resisting White Supremacy

White supremacy is the belief that the white race is naturally and inherently superior, and therefore should dominate other races. This belief underlies colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand. White supremacy originates from whiteness, the idea that the values of white culture are universally desirable. In this paper, we argue that the racist violence of white supremacy targeting tangata whenua in Aotearoa is a part of the violence of the colonial project and forms the basis of the hate directed toward ethnic migrant communities here. We suggest that recognising the driving force of white supremacy as colonialism forms the bedrock of connection between tangata whenua and ethnic migrant communities, offering solidarity as the basis for building resistance to white supremacy.


CARE White Paper Issue 17 (MARCH 2023)

Drivers of Online Islamophobic hate in Aotearoa New Zealand

Online platforms are at the core of manufacturing and disseminating Islamophobic hate globally, and in Aotearoa New Zealandi. The Islamophobic hate on these platforms is largely unregulated, with both platform-driven mechanisms and state/civil society led mechanisms largely absent in regulating this hate. The current digital environment in Aotearoa is largely unregulated when it comes to addressing hate targeting communities at the margins, and particularly so when it comes to regulating Islamophobic hate. The Human Rights Act does not offer protections to Muslims who are targets of religious hate.


CARE White Paper – Issue 16 (October 2022)

Replacing Colonial theft and capitalism by lunchtime

The climate and environmental crises we are in the midst of are symptoms of the failed extractive economic system based on colonial theft. The disproportionate burdens of climate change borne by Indigenous and local communities across the Global South foreground the importance of locating justice as the anchor to climate change organising. In this white paper, we argue that climate change cannot be addressed without the recognition of the racial capitalist processes that drive it. Based on the recognition that both colonialism and capitalism shape climate change, we offer the argument that addressing climate change calls for centering a justice-based framework that is both anti-colonial and anti-capitalist, and that looks to Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Global South to learn to rebuild relationships with the earth and with each other.

CARE White Paper Launch Event: Replacing Colonial Theft and Capitalism by Lunchtime with Activist-in-Residence Catherine Delahunty and Professor Mohan J Dutta

Read more here on : CARE Activist In Residence – Catherine Delahunty Programme | 10-14 October 2022 at Massey University – Manawatū campus


CARE White Paper – ISSUE 15 (MARCH 2022)

Experiences with COVID-19 Among Gig Workers

Gig work refers to forms of labour that are mediated by online platforms, which are contingent, piecemeal and individualised, offering little in the way of employment rights, protections or capacity for collective organising. It represents long-term trends towards the neoliberalisation of work, which until recently, have been disproportionately experienced by exploited, precarious workers in the global South. In the context of global North nations such as Aotearoa New Zealand, evidence has linked the growth of gig work with poor health outcomes for workers, particularly for ethnic minorities and women, outcomes which have been
exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic.


CARE White Paper Launch Event:

CARE White Paper Launch Issue #15: Experiences with COVID-19 Among Gig Workers- presented by Prof. Mohan Dutta and Dr. Leon Salter with panelists Ibrahim Omer, Anita Rosentreter and Rebecca Macfie.Thursday, 24th March 2022 @ 12 PM NZDT

Location via Facebook Live and CARE YouTube channelLivestream Link: https://www.facebook.com/CAREMassey/videos/291971153109628


CARE White Paper – ISSUE 14 (FEBRUARY 2022)

A culture-centered approach to community-led social cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand

The Christchurch terrorist attack urgently necessitates the development of strategies for addressing racism and hate[1]. The challenge of social cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand is one of addressing the networks of disinformation that propel hate[2], specifically addressing the growth in anti-Māori propaganda, anti-migrant attitudes, and Islamophobia[3]. In addition to threatening social cohesion, disinformation and hate deplete human health and wellbeing of communities at the margins, multiplying manifold their experiences of marginalisation[4]. The threats to social cohesion are funded by powerful political and economic interests, and circulated through digital media infrastructures and shadow organisations[5].


CARE White Paper Launch Event:

The launch will be presented by Professor Mohan J Dutta, Dean’s Chair of Communication & Director of CARE. The White Paper is co-authored with Pooja Jayan, Md Mahbub Rahman, Christine Elers, and Francine Whittfield, CARE: Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation.

Join us on Thursday, 17 March 2022 at 7PM (NZDT) for the release of the CARE White Paper: A Culture-Centered Approach to Community-led Social Cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand

Facebook Premiere Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/311510504299109


CARE White Paper – ISSUE 13 (JANUARY 2022)

Experiences of Muslims in India on digital platforms with anti-Muslim hate

In India, the largest global democracy, the propaganda infrastructures of Hindutva[iv], the political ideology that has shaped the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are driven by hate, seeded, circulated, and reproduced through digital platforms[v]. Since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and subsequent electoral victory in 2019, the hate on digital platforms in India and in the Indian diaspora has proliferated exponentially. Of particular significance are the extreme forms of hate that have been directed at Muslims, including calls for genocide issued by Hindutva ideologues.

A number of published studies and reports by civil society document the scope and volume of the hate content on digital platforms. However, the literature so far has not really explored the experiences of the exposure to the anti-Muslim digital hate among Muslims in India. In this white paper, drawing on a survey conducted with n = 1056 Muslims in India, I examine the exposure to digital hate among Muslims. The findings offer a descriptive framework for understanding the experiences of digital hate among Muslims in India, exploring the implications of the exposure to digital hate, and suggesting strategies for countering the hate.

CARE White Paper Launch Event:

Release of CARE white paper on anti-Muslim hate in India online event held on Wednesday, 26th January 2022 @ 8 pm NZDT

Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/CAREMassey/videos/547809686874118
and on CARE YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF760E7rBst3U5GmJ5FhDDw


CARE White Paper – ISSUE 13 (JANUARY 2022)

A culture-centered approach to hate speech regulation

We begin this response by noting that laws against incitement of hate are necessary in extreme situations. However, a culture-centered analysis suggests that laws against incitement are not effective in transforming cultures of intolerance and hate that are held up by powerful political and economic interests[1]. Those in places of power deploy hate to serve their political and economic gains. Simultaneously, we note that powerful political and economic interests use hate speech laws to silence dissent and erase articulations from the margins. As anti-racist academics and activists, collaborating with social justice activists, we have experienced and witnessed the silencing processes through manipulation of legal frameworks around hate speech. Our activist collaborators have been harassed and persecuted by authoritarian states under the guise of promoting racial and/or religious harmony[2]. It is vital to critically interrogate the individualization of hate in laws against incitement. We propose a culture-centered policy framework to addressing hate speech that tackles the political economy of hate and builds communicative infrastructures for the voices of communities at the “margins of the margins.”[4]


CARE White Paper – ISSUE 11 (MAY 2021)

Cultural Hindutva and Islamophobia

Cultural Hindutva is a key resource of the Hindutva ideology, asserting the supremacy of Hindu nationalism through cultural forms, artefacts, and performances(i). Hindu nationalism organizes around the political conceptualization of India as a Hindu nation, working simultaneously through the erasure of Christians and Muslims that are portrayed as invaders. Of particular salience to Hindutva is the portrayal of the Muslim invader(ii), re-structuring India as a nation on the principles of Islamophobia, through the disenfranchisement of the Muslim other(iii).

CARE White Paper – ISSUE 10. VOL 2 SEPTEMBER 2020

Connecting across cultures: A framework for anti-racist strategies in Aotearoa New Zealand rooted in Te Tiriti

In this white paper [1], we outline the vitality of connecting across cultures, anchored in Māori leadership in shaping and guiding anti-racist interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand, connected to anti-colonial struggles by Māori. Noting that the entrenched settler colonialism in New Zealand is based on a history of Whiteness[2], we argue that witnessing this Whiteness in the colonial configuration of New Zealand is the first step to dismantling it[3]. Māori have historically experienced, negotiated and resisted the racist structures of Whiteness that form the architectures of settler colonialism in New Zealand through their everyday organizing across whanau and hapū. We center Whiteness to the colonial structures of racism in New Zealand because of the centering of White norms as the basis for perpetuating oppression, expulsion, genocide, rape, and murder of indigenous communities (Māori in New Zealand) and the simultaneous marginalisation of communities of colour, many of whom have experienced similar histories of expulsion, genocide, and violence.


CARE White Paper – ISSUE 10. (SEPTEMBER 2020)

CARE white paper

Digital Hate and the infrastructures of communicative capital

Communicative capital, the consolidation of communicative infrastructures to drive profiteering, forms the face of twenty-first century neoliberalism. From Facebook to Amazon, digital communication is one of the most profitable sites of capitalist expansion. Communicative capital is intertwined with financial and technological capital, drawing on the global networks of finance and simultaneously creating new sites and spaces for financialization.

Communicative capital works through the commercialization of human participation on digital platforms, turning likes, shares, and comments into profitable resources. Of the wide array of human emotions on digital platforms that drive profiteering, hate is a powerful resource that draws in viewers, propels shares, and creates networks of flow. Hate has the potential of generating large profits because of its virality.

CARE White Paper – ISSUE 9. (JULY 2020)

Relocating the Health of Transgender Sex Workers in Singapore from the Margins: A Culture-Centered Approach

While there is high visibility of LGBT advocacy in Singapore, transgender[1] persons comprise a small, marginalized portion of the community, an even smaller proportion of which tend to go into sex work at a young age for various economic, social and cultural factors. Transgender sex workers (TSW) in Singapore comprise a marginalized community that has been identified by health authorities as one that is high risk of HIV/AIDS and other STIs, as with cisgender[2] female sex workers. They are further marginalized for their status as sex workers in an Asian society where sex outside of marriage is considered deviant behavior (Banerjee, 2000; Allard K Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic, 2015). Neoliberal state laws and policies in Singapore acknowledge that while sex work cannot be eradicated as this may force the activities underground and encourage organized crime, sex trafficking and public health risks (Singapore Parliament Reports), these laws do not deem sex work itself as illegal, but criminalize sex work-related activities such as soliciting, pimping, and owning brothels (Misc. Offences Act Art 19; Women’s Charter Art 146; Women’s Charter Art 148).

CARE White Paper –ISSUE 8. (APRIL 2020)

Structural constraints, voice infrastructures, and mental health among low-wage migrant workers in Singapore: Solutions for addressing COVID19

Responding to the continued rise in COVID19 clusters in migrant worker dormitories in Singapore, and building on earlier research (See CARE White paper Issue 6), this White Paper reports on the findings of a survey conducted with low-wage migrant workers in Singapore. Drawing on the key tenets of the culture-centered approach, the research highlights the powerful role of structural factors such as arrangements of dormitories, the absence of hygienic conditions because of the structures, the lack of clean toilets, pressure on limited toilets, and scarcity of water. The findings highlight the challenges to mental health and wellbeing experienced by the workers.


CARE White Paper – ISSUE 7. (April 2020)

Culture-centered community-led testing

In this white paper, the community advisory group in Highbury, working with community researcher Gayle Moana-Johnson, developed the key conceptual guidelines for culture-centered community-grounded testing. The white paper highlights the key concepts anchoring the partnership between the community advisory group and the clinical team at HHPNZ

This white paper outlines the key principles of culture-centered community-led testing that are voiced by the advisory group of community members in Highbury, anchored in the principle of representing the most “in-need” members of the community (referred in the rest of this white paper as the “margins of the margins”). The key ideas in this white paper are developed as anchoring principles for the partnership between the community advisory group and the Health Hub Project New Zealand (HHPNZ).


CARE White Paper –ISSUE 6. (APRIL 2020)

Infrastructures of housing and food for low-wage migrant workers in Singapore

The high incidence of COVID-19 cases in dormitories housing low-wage migrant workers in Singapore makes visible the structural challenges of poor housing and food. Building on CARE’s ongoing work with low-wage migrant workers in Singapore, this white paper presents imaginaries for healthy housing and food voiced by low-wage migrant workers.

CARE White Paper ISSUE 5. (APRIL 2020)

Challenges To Seeking Health Information And Healthcare Among Low Income Communities Amid COVID19

The findings reported here are drawn from our advisory group of community members that represent the community in Highbury. The advisory group has been built on the basis of purposive sampling, ensuring that the voices of the “margins of the margins” are represented. The advisory group meets face-to-face as well as on a digital platform. The group is facilitated by two community researchers, recruited from within the advisory group and trained in the fundamentals of interview-based research.

CARE White Paper ISSUE 4. (MARCH 2020)

Covid-19 wage subsidy package

We are writing about the government’s covid-19 wage subsidy package, in particular:

  • the sick leave payment due to be folded into the modified covid-19 wage subsidy package; and
  • the online publication outlining the names of all employers who have received the covid-19 wage subsidy package.

CARE White Paper ISSUE 3. (APRIL 2020)

The limits of the “Singapore Model” in Covid-19 response

A wide range of models have been proposed as frameworks for responding to Covid-19. These models highlight the significance of health communication in preventing the spread of COVID19 as well as in effectively responding to it. The positioning of specific models as solutions to COVID-19 is tied to the creation of actual strategies of response globally. One such model that has been rapidly disseminated in policy discourse and circulated in articulations of COVID response is the “Singapore Model.” Drawing on the key tenets of the CCA, this paper will examine the premise of the “Singapore Model” as a framework for global health.

CARE White Paper ISSUE 2. (MARCH 2020)

A culture-centered approach to pandemic response: Voice, Universal Infrastructure, and Equality

The global nodes of the spread of Covid-19 highlight the significance of health communication in preventing the spread as well as in effectively responding to it. Noting the aggressive movement of the virus across countries, with eight countries reporting more than 1000 cases of COVID-19, the WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. Drawing on critical analyses of the pandemic and crises response literatures as well as building on the experiences of CARE in developing culture-centered community grounded interventions, this white paper outlines the culture-centered approach to pandemic response, specifically directed at offering culture-centered guidelines for effective communication.

CARE White Paper ISSUE 1. (FEBRUARY 2020)


A culture-centred approach project in Glen Innes

This study explores the challenges experienced by residents in Glen Innes, Auckland. The findings have assisted in the identification of local problems and corresponding solutions, including the ‘Poverty is Not Our Future’ campaign, which has served as anchor for residents to challenge dominant structures and, at the same time, communicate their everyday realities of poverty. While this study is focused on Glen Innes, material hardship continues to be a significant issue in Aotearoa New Zealand, with research determining that 13 percent of children lived in households that experienced material hardship in the 2017/18 financial year (Statistics New Zealand, 2019) and that children born into disadvantage in Aotearoa New Zealand have a significant likelihood of remaining disadvantaged (New Zealand Treasury, 2016a, 2016b; Templeton, 2016).


CARE White papers ISSUE 5. (AUGUST 2019

Solidarity in anti-racist struggles: A culture-centered intervention in New Zealand

In thiswhite paper, we depict
solidarity as the organizing concept
for addressing racism in Aotearoa,
New Zealand. After defining the
concept of solidarity, we address the
questions: Why do we need solidarity
in activist and advocacy interventions
seeking to address racism? What does
solidarity look like in struggles
against racism? We wrap up the
white paper with key elements drawn
from our dialogue, foregrounding
“seeing connections” as a way for
bringing together anti-racist, anticapitalist,
and decolonial struggles.
Seeing Whiteness as the very basis for
the production of various forms of
marginalization sets up the
groundwork for anti-racist struggles.


ISSUE 4. (AUGUST 2019

Ihumātao protest, colonization, and cultural voice

The erasure of indigenous voice goes hand-in-hand with the occupation of indigenous land. What we witness over the past seven years at Ihumātao, as an extension of over a century of colonialism in Aotearoa, is the deployment of colonial tactics to erase and silence the voices of indigenous Māori peoples. Through a variety of tactics the controls over which are held by the colonizers, Māori voices resisting colonialism are silenced. The very uses of communicative strategies of indigenous participation are deployed in logics established by the colonizer to prop up and perpetuate the colonial-capitalist structure, with the state making claims to having created opportunities for participation. The capitalist interests, served through naturalized logics of the market, reflect the oppressive nature of colonialism, all the while working to erase through the very performance of tools of participation and engagement. In this backdrop, drawing from the ongoing protests at Ihumātao, in this white paper, we attend to the organizing role of indigenous voice as the basis for dismantling colonial capitalism. The Māori voice of resistance in Ihumātao, resounds with indigenous voices in Hawaii, who are protecting their sacred land – Mauna Kea from the construction and intrusion of a giant telescope on the summit.  Elsewhere across the globe the plurivocality of resistance offer pathways for addressing the very challenges that have been brought on by the accelerated corporate-colonialism of neoliberal governmentality.

CARE WHITE PAPER ISSUE 3. (DECEMBER 2018)

Strengthening Refugee Voices in New Zealand

The state helps the refugee speak: dialogue, ventriloquism or something else? – on the funding of refugee voice organisations was prepared between November 2018 and April 2019. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on two Mosques in Christchurch on 15 March 2019 the need to address the issue of refugee support organisations becomes acute as they a significant role in the representation of many Muslim citizens in New Zealand. Specifically, the lack of funding for organisations that are tasked with connecting with refugee communities and representing those voices to government, media and the public undermined the ability of these organisations to respond after the attacks. We particularly note the absence of “democratic communication infrastructures” owned by refugees for representing their voices in New Zealand. (Stephens and J Dutta, 2019)