Discourses of Place and Profession: A Thematic Analysis of Support for Architecture NZ Magazine in a Crisis

Abstract

[Introduction] Industry-specific magazines are a genre imbued with identity-forming symbolism and rhetoric. Magazines belonging to professions serve a purpose different from popular publications, which is to reflect the profession back at itself. The organizing principle of Architecture NZ magazine’s content is that it is of Aotearoa New Zealand, whether that be discussion of design for this landscape or acknowledgement of a professional heralding from this country.1 To that end, Architecture NZ represents issues of place-based concern to readers in Aotearoa New Zealand, and elsewhere. It is a lens through which to understand and to critique and shape the profession’s impact, and it serves as one of the few central points around which the architecture profession in Aotearoa New Zealand, is oriented, and therefore expresses much about the identity of the profession. This study is an examination of the role of a print publication in a community of place and a community of practice at once. The study thematically analyzes the written statements of support by architects from around Aotearoa New Zealand, about why it is crucial, in their view, that Architecture NZ magazine should continue to be published given the crisis presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. These statements of support were sought by the publisher and editors of Architecture NZ in what they term a “reader rally,”2 along with the request for individual subscriptions to the magazine. The written support from a cohort of passionate architects served to further encourage subscription, which provided the necessary financial resource to get through the period of uncertainty in magazine publishing that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article begins with an overview of relevant literature that puts the magazine and the moment of crisis into context. The changing media landscape [End Page 53] and the advent of digital-media publishing have put pressure on print to no small extent, and this is discussed in the context of architecture publishing in particular. The literature also examines the long tradition of architectural magazine publishing as a place of discourse and critique, and this provides context for the findings later in the article, where it is shown that discourse—discussion, debate, and critical opinion—on the architectural profession is one of the most valued aspects of Architecture NZ. This is interpretive research, which focuses on understanding the subjective meanings and experiences of individuals within their social and cultural contexts. Methodologically, a discourse-analysis approach in tandem with thematic analysis provides the framework for examining how these meanings and values are constructed and negotiated by the respondents to the publisher’s call for support.