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ABSTRACT. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand there is a ‘call’ for kindness often associated with Jacinda Ardern and the Covid-19 response. But how do ‘ordinary’ people experience and understand kindness? What do their understandings and the tensions within these reveal about the call to kindness? In 2019, we ran a Rōpū Whai Whakaaro/Values-Based Practice course in Auckland with 21 community participants. As part of the five-week course, six women aged from 31 to 65 years did a group project on the value of kindness. Analysis of their discussions, presentation and individual interviews suggested a kindness ‘trajectory’ that was simultaneously held in community and undercut by social forces. Kindness was described as something people ‘do’ beginning with children who are ‘innately’ kind, and if practised regularly could flow in all directions. It was portrayed as having radical potential to include and transform, but participants spoke of themselves as imperfect practitioners. We conclude by returning to the call for kindness and, inspired by our participants, suggest that kindness, while in some sense risky and extraordinary, is a practice worth cultivating.

Keywords: kindness; Ardern; Christchurch mosque attack; prosociality; mātauranga Māori; neoliberalism

How to cite: Nutbrown, S., Murphy, B., Demirbas, Y., Muñoz Duran, F., Hikuroa, D., and Harré, N. (2021). “Investigating the Call to Kindness: A Study with Community Participants in Aotearoa New Zealand,” Knowledge Cultures 9(3): 20–38. doi: 10.22381/kc9320212.

Received 23 July 2021 • Received in revised form 21 October 2021
Accepted 23 October 2021 • Available online 1 December 2021

Sarah Nutbrown
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The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
Brooke Murphy
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The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
Yasir Demirbas
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The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
Fernanda Muñoz Duran
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The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
Daniel Hikuroa
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The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
Niki Harré
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The University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

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