Charles Crothers | Auckland University of Technology (original) (raw)

Papers by Charles Crothers

T Th he e M Mu ul lt ti ip pl le e C Cr ri is se es s o of f t th he e F Fr re en nc ch h U Un ni... more T Th he e M Mu ul lt ti ip pl le e C Cr ri is se es s o of f t th he e F Fr re en nc ch h U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ti ie es s a an nd d t th he e P Pr ro ot te es st t M Mo ov ve em me en nt t o of f S Sp pr ri in ng g 2

The paper examines social spending in New Zealand over the period 1981 - 2001 using OECD social e... more The paper examines social spending in New Zealand over the period 1981 - 2001 using OECD social expensditure data

The main accomplishments of the various specialties and overlapping areas with neighbouring disci... more The main accomplishments of the various specialties and overlapping areas with neighbouring disciplines within NZ over time are traced and their relationship within and to mainstream ‘Sociology’ sketched. Most remain rather latent subject areas where teaching is carried out at separate sites, while a few have developed active networks of scholarship and research.

New Zealand sociology, 2015

Quite a few books fall through the New Zealand Sociology reviewing net for a variety of reasons -... more Quite a few books fall through the New Zealand Sociology reviewing net for a variety of reasons - after all very few are explicitly brought to the attention of the journal (some have completely 'missed the boat'). These catch-up notes may help plug the gap, but coverage here doesn't necessarily head offa proper review in a later issue. The coverage begins with more or less sociologicallycentral studies and then expands out to popular and general cultural sociology, with comments on the work of policy agencies concluding.Katene (2015) discusses the careers and contemporary issues facing 10 Maori scholars (Ranginui Walker, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Mason Durie, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Graham Hingangaroa Smith, Taiarahia Black, Ngapare Hopa, Wally Penetito, Margie Maaka and Atholl Anderson). Given that Maori are increasingly entering tertiary education institutions, it is necessary to examine how the New Zealand academic world is responding and how Maori scholars balance their rol...

Robert K Merton (RKM henceforth) defined serendipity as the event of observing an unanticipated, ... more Robert K Merton (RKM henceforth) defined serendipity as the event of observing an unanticipated, anomalous and strategic datum which becomes the occasion for developing a new theory or extending an existing theory. As with much of his sociology of science, a slew of examples from the natural sciences are outlined. However, there is a paucity of social science examples. It might well be expected that the social sciences (and even more the humanities) are infrequent amongst such examples since it is the disciplined reaction of the discoverer which is crucial in their creation and it is quite possible that the social sciences lack sufficiently precise frameworks for interesting recognition to occur. Merton points this out in his ‘Note on Serendipity in the Humanities’ (Merton, 2004: 223-229). My short contribution to Serendipities provides a case study of a serendipitous occasion, in a social science context, to complement RKM’s concentration on natural sciences. It also discusses tech...

and tracking their changing characteristics. Sociology is one of several social science disciplin... more and tracking their changing characteristics. Sociology is one of several social science disciplines and smaller bodies of knowledge which seeks to understand the patterns in social life. There is a broad congruence between the objective configurations of social life and the components of the disciplines studying them, the body of sociological knowledge is socially constructed and the pathways to its gaining of knowledge influenced by a variety of factors. Moreover, since social life is ever-changing, sociology often has to scramble to catch-up with the changing social world. The chapter introduces the theme and shows how social reality and its study interact.

John Holmwood and John Scott (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain Basingstoke: Pa... more John Holmwood and John Scott (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2014 Hardcover, 631 pp. ISBN 978-0-230-29981-8 Price: € 234,33 Kirsten Harley and Gary Wickham, Australian Sociology: Fragility, Survival, Rivalry Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2014 (Sociology Transformed) Hardcover, 123 pp. ISBN 978-1-137-37974-0 Price: € 69,54 Bryan Fanning and Andreas Hess, Sociology in Ireland: A Short History Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2015 (Sociology Transformed) Hardcover, 89 pp. ISBN 978-1-137-45035-7 Price: € 69,54

New Zealand sociology, 2016

Sociologists do not just need access to 'scholarly equipment' (including libraries), but ... more Sociologists do not just need access to 'scholarly equipment' (including libraries), but may wish to draw on a wide range of archives and collections, both for teaching and research, and so must be active in ensuring the 'health' of these collections. Indeed, the relationship of sociology to documentary archives is not unlike that - often problematic - relationship between anthropology and museums for which indigenous material culture was collected (see e.g. McCarthy, 2011) and in which it was stored and displayed, which in turn was much like the relationship between naturalists and collections of biotica.Beyond academic and popular social science texts a wider variety of literary genres relate to sociology: social commentary and criticism, 'sociologically-relevant' novels or films (such as - classically- Balzac, Dickens, Zola, Hugo, Tolstoy, Trollope) and other 'Social Realism' novels, not to mention 'Novels of manners' and detective fiction....

Quantitative Science Studies, 2020

Citations can be used in evaluative bibliometrics to measure the impact of papers. However, citat... more Citations can be used in evaluative bibliometrics to measure the impact of papers. However, citation analysis can be extended by considering a multidimensional perspective on citation impact which is intended to receive more specific information about the kind of received impact. Bornmann, Wray, and Haunschild (2020) introduced the citation concept analysis (CCA) for capturing the importance and usefulness certain concepts (explained in publications) have in subsequent research. In this paper, we apply the method by investigating the impact various concepts introduced in Robert K. Merton’s book Social Theory and Social Structure has had. This book was to lay down a manifesto for sociological analysis in the immediate postwar period, and retains a major impact 70 years later. We found that the most cited concepts are “self-fulfilling” and “role” (about 20% of the citation contexts are related to one of these concepts). The concept “self-fulfilling” seems to be important especially in...

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2020

Journal of Sociology, 2019

Macrosociology has long, indeed from the days of the founding fathers, held out many of the key f... more Macrosociology has long, indeed from the days of the founding fathers, held out many of the key fascinations of sociology, asking questions such as what is the effect of inequality? How divided are countries, and along what lines? How has technology been affecting us? Although there is still a healthy pursuit of comparative macrosociology, it often shrinks to dichotomous characterisations by social theorists. Davis and Lay-Yee's Simulating Societal Change is more complex and empirically grounded. Harnessing the vivid complexities of modelling promises to take this study even further, given the great impact of such modelling since the Club of Rome projections in the early 1970s and similar efforts since. How to proceed with modelling social subject matter, though, will be more difficult. Thus, this effort is much appreciated, and surely is provocative. In particular, it promises some hope of prediction (although this ambition is muted) but also of providing a methodology to assess the likely effect of social and policy changes. The book focuses on New Zealand over the 1981 to 2006 period and is strictly based on the linked longitudinal national census dataset for this period, which is relatively unique. Clearly such an analysis is innovative as there is no equivalent and, although various overseas modelling exercises are noted at various points, none is comparable. The analytical work builds on a considerable run of prior projects, although how it builds on them could be further explained by the authors. The book is presented in chapters which scope the field of study, review the data and how it can be prepared for analytical work and then provide the crucial chapters which include a useful trend analysis (extended to include 2013 census data), a comparison of several counterfactual scenarios and a future projection. The counterfactual analyses explore important issues-Rogernomics, migration, working for families, baby boomer generation, and life course capital. The Davis team has previously used cohort ageing analyses to somewhat related effect-albeit without being able to pin down individual variation (e.g. see Davis et al., 2012). This study instead uses microdata to develop tables which form the analysis. Running regression effects of several predictors provides a synthetic cumulation of such effects and their interactions. This alternative gives 'weights' (regression coefficients) for differences among specified subgroups as they move from one census period to the 862683J OS0010.1177/1440783319862683Journal of SociologyBook Review book-review2019

The American Sociologist, 2018

Death and the advent of a variety of anniversaries are occasions when a discipline reflects on th... more Death and the advent of a variety of anniversaries are occasions when a discipline reflects on the accomplishments of its members, propounded by host universities, scholarly associations, focused conferences, journals, as well as the more normal course of the unfolding of a scholar's influence. The paper attempts to assemble Robert K Merton's posthumous publications together with the array of works directly relating to his body of sociological work. While it might be expected that particular themes would continue and this indeed occurs, there is also a wide range of attention to a large variety of Merton's work, including the launching of his emergent inte4rest in sociological semantics. The assemblage of material suggests that Merton's work will continue to play an important role in inspiring sociological research.

Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2017

The Critical Realist meta-theoretical position in sociology and other social sciences has tended ... more The Critical Realist meta-theoretical position in sociology and other social sciences has tended to remain on the margins of the mainstream. Porpora develops the case for reconstructing sociology through the more active deployment of Critical Realist tenets. In developing his reform agenda, Porpora reviews the contribution Critical Realist views could have on several key recalcitrant issues in sociological theory and assesses the comparative performances of an array of contemporary sociology approaches in contributing to each of these issues. This essay summarizes his argument and suggests extensions.

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2017

Many social commentators have considered that alongside the fiscal transparency enjoined by conte... more Many social commentators have considered that alongside the fiscal transparency enjoined by contemporary New Zealand governments, there should be a complementary social responsibility reporting. This task is usually assigned to social indicator frameworks. However, at present (as the 2017 election looms) there is a faltering in the provision of social indicators which have been in place in New Zealand for almost two decades, with the exception of the recent 2016 survey data from Statistics New Zealand and Ministry of Social Development that were made available within a month of writing this article. Having commented on the current status of the New Zealand social indicator system, we present data from the General Social Survey and the Quality of Life survey to at least convey recent trends in subjective social well-being and reported behaviours and experiences. References are also made to the accumulating literature on social well-being in New Zealand, followed by suggestions for more systematic indicator development and underpinning research.

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2017

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 2016

Over the last two decades sociology's theoretical agenda has been highly impacted by a range of i... more Over the last two decades sociology's theoretical agenda has been highly impacted by a range of influences including the work or a range of recent French theorists. Some of the key sociologically relevant points of Derrida's writings are described and their relative impact on sociology and intellectual life more generally are examined in relation to the broader array of French theorists. The exegetical literature is referenced to identify some of the mechanisms by which some theorists have a more widespread impact, and how different intellectual communities interrelate with each other.

New Zealand Sociology, 2013

An ongoing debate in this journal (Roper 2011 and subsequent comments) has attempted to examine t... more An ongoing debate in this journal (Roper 2011 and subsequent comments) has attempted to examine the ideological nature of the Key government, in particular in relation to its espousal and implementation of a neo-liberal ideological agenda. It seems increasingly clear that in their second term, freed from some of the malign effects of the Global Finance Crisis (GFC), a range of government initiatives are contemporaneously being put in place to implement such an agenda, although this is being carried out quietly and pragmatically without the ideological cover of an explicitly articulated neo-liberal ideology. However, the way in which some of these moves are undertaken is far-reaching, with some breaching of more traditional 'constitutional' rules concerning proper ways of proceeding and undermining of constitutional safeguards. These moves are made in relation to employment relations, the Resource Management Act, welfare system etc. as various critics have pointed out (e.g. Clifton, 2013; Taylor, 2013).Within this framework, although not entirely driven by it, there is considerable infrastructural change underway in various sectors of social science. This editorial will look at - in turn - the broader social science sector (including think-tanks), University social research, within-Government social research changes, and finally current Government science agenda-setting and funding arrangements.Social Science Sector as a wholeThe sector guidance provided by the social science adviser in the former Ministry of Science and Technology (backed up by occasional reviews) has lapsed with the swallowing up of that Ministry into MOBIE. However, the recent advent of the e-Social Science hub (www.eSocSci.org.nz) - funded by MOBIE provides a useful forum for collective resources and linkages (made more effective by Louise Munro - former social science adviser in MORST - being recently appointed as a co-director).NGOs and Think-TanksThe New Zealand Initiative (http://nzinitiative.org.nz/) was formed in late 2012 through an amalgamation of the Auckland based New Zealand Institute and the Business Roundtable to form a further membership organisation which sees itself as a think-tank. Their values are to be:... committed to developing policies that work for all New Zealanders... But we are certainly an Initiative that usually prefers Adam Smith's invisible hand to government's visible fist....we believe that our goals and values are similar - if not identical - to what most New Zealanders want to see achieved: a good education system; affordable housing; an open economy; a free and democratic society; the protection of our natural resources and heritage; sound public finances; and a stable currency". The challenge in public policy is often not to define what you want to achieve. The real challenge is finding ways of achieving widely shared goals.Their current work-streams are on:- Foreign Direct Investment- Better Education &- Housing Affordability.The Sustainable Business Council (http://www.sbc.orR.nz/) is a CEO-led group of companies that catalyses the New Zealand business community towards creating a sustainable future for business, society and the environment. It brought together the memberships of the BusinessNZ Sustainable Business Forum (SBF) and the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development (NZBCSD).There is also considerable social research activity from the Child Poverty Action Group, Salvation Army's Parliamentary Policy Group, the Council of Christian Social Services and others. Other think-tanks, such as Maxim and the MacGuiness Institute1 continue their activities but without much fanfare.UniversitiesIt would be difficult to track University-based social research activities even in terms of social science research units. There seems to have been considerable turnover with several units (especially several at VUW such as the former criminology research unit) ceasing, although the highly prominent IPS has been Λ rejuvenated as the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies (IGPS) . …

New Zealand Sociology, Jul 1, 2013

A broad account of the New Zealand class system can be readily assembled from popularly-available... more A broad account of the New Zealand class system can be readily assembled from popularly-available sources such as the item in the official New Zealand online Encyclopaedia Te Ara or the Wikipedia entry, together with common knowledge. Having provided a sketch, this appendix then goes on to provide a brief overview and then listing of a bibliography on Social Class/Inequality in New Zealand.

T Th he e M Mu ul lt ti ip pl le e C Cr ri is se es s o of f t th he e F Fr re en nc ch h U Un ni... more T Th he e M Mu ul lt ti ip pl le e C Cr ri is se es s o of f t th he e F Fr re en nc ch h U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ti ie es s a an nd d t th he e P Pr ro ot te es st t M Mo ov ve em me en nt t o of f S Sp pr ri in ng g 2

The paper examines social spending in New Zealand over the period 1981 - 2001 using OECD social e... more The paper examines social spending in New Zealand over the period 1981 - 2001 using OECD social expensditure data

The main accomplishments of the various specialties and overlapping areas with neighbouring disci... more The main accomplishments of the various specialties and overlapping areas with neighbouring disciplines within NZ over time are traced and their relationship within and to mainstream ‘Sociology’ sketched. Most remain rather latent subject areas where teaching is carried out at separate sites, while a few have developed active networks of scholarship and research.

New Zealand sociology, 2015

Quite a few books fall through the New Zealand Sociology reviewing net for a variety of reasons -... more Quite a few books fall through the New Zealand Sociology reviewing net for a variety of reasons - after all very few are explicitly brought to the attention of the journal (some have completely 'missed the boat'). These catch-up notes may help plug the gap, but coverage here doesn't necessarily head offa proper review in a later issue. The coverage begins with more or less sociologicallycentral studies and then expands out to popular and general cultural sociology, with comments on the work of policy agencies concluding.Katene (2015) discusses the careers and contemporary issues facing 10 Maori scholars (Ranginui Walker, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Mason Durie, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Graham Hingangaroa Smith, Taiarahia Black, Ngapare Hopa, Wally Penetito, Margie Maaka and Atholl Anderson). Given that Maori are increasingly entering tertiary education institutions, it is necessary to examine how the New Zealand academic world is responding and how Maori scholars balance their rol...

Robert K Merton (RKM henceforth) defined serendipity as the event of observing an unanticipated, ... more Robert K Merton (RKM henceforth) defined serendipity as the event of observing an unanticipated, anomalous and strategic datum which becomes the occasion for developing a new theory or extending an existing theory. As with much of his sociology of science, a slew of examples from the natural sciences are outlined. However, there is a paucity of social science examples. It might well be expected that the social sciences (and even more the humanities) are infrequent amongst such examples since it is the disciplined reaction of the discoverer which is crucial in their creation and it is quite possible that the social sciences lack sufficiently precise frameworks for interesting recognition to occur. Merton points this out in his ‘Note on Serendipity in the Humanities’ (Merton, 2004: 223-229). My short contribution to Serendipities provides a case study of a serendipitous occasion, in a social science context, to complement RKM’s concentration on natural sciences. It also discusses tech...

and tracking their changing characteristics. Sociology is one of several social science disciplin... more and tracking their changing characteristics. Sociology is one of several social science disciplines and smaller bodies of knowledge which seeks to understand the patterns in social life. There is a broad congruence between the objective configurations of social life and the components of the disciplines studying them, the body of sociological knowledge is socially constructed and the pathways to its gaining of knowledge influenced by a variety of factors. Moreover, since social life is ever-changing, sociology often has to scramble to catch-up with the changing social world. The chapter introduces the theme and shows how social reality and its study interact.

John Holmwood and John Scott (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain Basingstoke: Pa... more John Holmwood and John Scott (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2014 Hardcover, 631 pp. ISBN 978-0-230-29981-8 Price: € 234,33 Kirsten Harley and Gary Wickham, Australian Sociology: Fragility, Survival, Rivalry Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2014 (Sociology Transformed) Hardcover, 123 pp. ISBN 978-1-137-37974-0 Price: € 69,54 Bryan Fanning and Andreas Hess, Sociology in Ireland: A Short History Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2015 (Sociology Transformed) Hardcover, 89 pp. ISBN 978-1-137-45035-7 Price: € 69,54

New Zealand sociology, 2016

Sociologists do not just need access to 'scholarly equipment' (including libraries), but ... more Sociologists do not just need access to 'scholarly equipment' (including libraries), but may wish to draw on a wide range of archives and collections, both for teaching and research, and so must be active in ensuring the 'health' of these collections. Indeed, the relationship of sociology to documentary archives is not unlike that - often problematic - relationship between anthropology and museums for which indigenous material culture was collected (see e.g. McCarthy, 2011) and in which it was stored and displayed, which in turn was much like the relationship between naturalists and collections of biotica.Beyond academic and popular social science texts a wider variety of literary genres relate to sociology: social commentary and criticism, 'sociologically-relevant' novels or films (such as - classically- Balzac, Dickens, Zola, Hugo, Tolstoy, Trollope) and other 'Social Realism' novels, not to mention 'Novels of manners' and detective fiction....

Quantitative Science Studies, 2020

Citations can be used in evaluative bibliometrics to measure the impact of papers. However, citat... more Citations can be used in evaluative bibliometrics to measure the impact of papers. However, citation analysis can be extended by considering a multidimensional perspective on citation impact which is intended to receive more specific information about the kind of received impact. Bornmann, Wray, and Haunschild (2020) introduced the citation concept analysis (CCA) for capturing the importance and usefulness certain concepts (explained in publications) have in subsequent research. In this paper, we apply the method by investigating the impact various concepts introduced in Robert K. Merton’s book Social Theory and Social Structure has had. This book was to lay down a manifesto for sociological analysis in the immediate postwar period, and retains a major impact 70 years later. We found that the most cited concepts are “self-fulfilling” and “role” (about 20% of the citation contexts are related to one of these concepts). The concept “self-fulfilling” seems to be important especially in...

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2020

Journal of Sociology, 2019

Macrosociology has long, indeed from the days of the founding fathers, held out many of the key f... more Macrosociology has long, indeed from the days of the founding fathers, held out many of the key fascinations of sociology, asking questions such as what is the effect of inequality? How divided are countries, and along what lines? How has technology been affecting us? Although there is still a healthy pursuit of comparative macrosociology, it often shrinks to dichotomous characterisations by social theorists. Davis and Lay-Yee's Simulating Societal Change is more complex and empirically grounded. Harnessing the vivid complexities of modelling promises to take this study even further, given the great impact of such modelling since the Club of Rome projections in the early 1970s and similar efforts since. How to proceed with modelling social subject matter, though, will be more difficult. Thus, this effort is much appreciated, and surely is provocative. In particular, it promises some hope of prediction (although this ambition is muted) but also of providing a methodology to assess the likely effect of social and policy changes. The book focuses on New Zealand over the 1981 to 2006 period and is strictly based on the linked longitudinal national census dataset for this period, which is relatively unique. Clearly such an analysis is innovative as there is no equivalent and, although various overseas modelling exercises are noted at various points, none is comparable. The analytical work builds on a considerable run of prior projects, although how it builds on them could be further explained by the authors. The book is presented in chapters which scope the field of study, review the data and how it can be prepared for analytical work and then provide the crucial chapters which include a useful trend analysis (extended to include 2013 census data), a comparison of several counterfactual scenarios and a future projection. The counterfactual analyses explore important issues-Rogernomics, migration, working for families, baby boomer generation, and life course capital. The Davis team has previously used cohort ageing analyses to somewhat related effect-albeit without being able to pin down individual variation (e.g. see Davis et al., 2012). This study instead uses microdata to develop tables which form the analysis. Running regression effects of several predictors provides a synthetic cumulation of such effects and their interactions. This alternative gives 'weights' (regression coefficients) for differences among specified subgroups as they move from one census period to the 862683J OS0010.1177/1440783319862683Journal of SociologyBook Review book-review2019

The American Sociologist, 2018

Death and the advent of a variety of anniversaries are occasions when a discipline reflects on th... more Death and the advent of a variety of anniversaries are occasions when a discipline reflects on the accomplishments of its members, propounded by host universities, scholarly associations, focused conferences, journals, as well as the more normal course of the unfolding of a scholar's influence. The paper attempts to assemble Robert K Merton's posthumous publications together with the array of works directly relating to his body of sociological work. While it might be expected that particular themes would continue and this indeed occurs, there is also a wide range of attention to a large variety of Merton's work, including the launching of his emergent inte4rest in sociological semantics. The assemblage of material suggests that Merton's work will continue to play an important role in inspiring sociological research.

Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2017

The Critical Realist meta-theoretical position in sociology and other social sciences has tended ... more The Critical Realist meta-theoretical position in sociology and other social sciences has tended to remain on the margins of the mainstream. Porpora develops the case for reconstructing sociology through the more active deployment of Critical Realist tenets. In developing his reform agenda, Porpora reviews the contribution Critical Realist views could have on several key recalcitrant issues in sociological theory and assesses the comparative performances of an array of contemporary sociology approaches in contributing to each of these issues. This essay summarizes his argument and suggests extensions.

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2017

Many social commentators have considered that alongside the fiscal transparency enjoined by conte... more Many social commentators have considered that alongside the fiscal transparency enjoined by contemporary New Zealand governments, there should be a complementary social responsibility reporting. This task is usually assigned to social indicator frameworks. However, at present (as the 2017 election looms) there is a faltering in the provision of social indicators which have been in place in New Zealand for almost two decades, with the exception of the recent 2016 survey data from Statistics New Zealand and Ministry of Social Development that were made available within a month of writing this article. Having commented on the current status of the New Zealand social indicator system, we present data from the General Social Survey and the Quality of Life survey to at least convey recent trends in subjective social well-being and reported behaviours and experiences. References are also made to the accumulating literature on social well-being in New Zealand, followed by suggestions for more systematic indicator development and underpinning research.

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2017

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 2016

Over the last two decades sociology's theoretical agenda has been highly impacted by a range of i... more Over the last two decades sociology's theoretical agenda has been highly impacted by a range of influences including the work or a range of recent French theorists. Some of the key sociologically relevant points of Derrida's writings are described and their relative impact on sociology and intellectual life more generally are examined in relation to the broader array of French theorists. The exegetical literature is referenced to identify some of the mechanisms by which some theorists have a more widespread impact, and how different intellectual communities interrelate with each other.

New Zealand Sociology, 2013

An ongoing debate in this journal (Roper 2011 and subsequent comments) has attempted to examine t... more An ongoing debate in this journal (Roper 2011 and subsequent comments) has attempted to examine the ideological nature of the Key government, in particular in relation to its espousal and implementation of a neo-liberal ideological agenda. It seems increasingly clear that in their second term, freed from some of the malign effects of the Global Finance Crisis (GFC), a range of government initiatives are contemporaneously being put in place to implement such an agenda, although this is being carried out quietly and pragmatically without the ideological cover of an explicitly articulated neo-liberal ideology. However, the way in which some of these moves are undertaken is far-reaching, with some breaching of more traditional 'constitutional' rules concerning proper ways of proceeding and undermining of constitutional safeguards. These moves are made in relation to employment relations, the Resource Management Act, welfare system etc. as various critics have pointed out (e.g. Clifton, 2013; Taylor, 2013).Within this framework, although not entirely driven by it, there is considerable infrastructural change underway in various sectors of social science. This editorial will look at - in turn - the broader social science sector (including think-tanks), University social research, within-Government social research changes, and finally current Government science agenda-setting and funding arrangements.Social Science Sector as a wholeThe sector guidance provided by the social science adviser in the former Ministry of Science and Technology (backed up by occasional reviews) has lapsed with the swallowing up of that Ministry into MOBIE. However, the recent advent of the e-Social Science hub (www.eSocSci.org.nz) - funded by MOBIE provides a useful forum for collective resources and linkages (made more effective by Louise Munro - former social science adviser in MORST - being recently appointed as a co-director).NGOs and Think-TanksThe New Zealand Initiative (http://nzinitiative.org.nz/) was formed in late 2012 through an amalgamation of the Auckland based New Zealand Institute and the Business Roundtable to form a further membership organisation which sees itself as a think-tank. Their values are to be:... committed to developing policies that work for all New Zealanders... But we are certainly an Initiative that usually prefers Adam Smith's invisible hand to government's visible fist....we believe that our goals and values are similar - if not identical - to what most New Zealanders want to see achieved: a good education system; affordable housing; an open economy; a free and democratic society; the protection of our natural resources and heritage; sound public finances; and a stable currency". The challenge in public policy is often not to define what you want to achieve. The real challenge is finding ways of achieving widely shared goals.Their current work-streams are on:- Foreign Direct Investment- Better Education &- Housing Affordability.The Sustainable Business Council (http://www.sbc.orR.nz/) is a CEO-led group of companies that catalyses the New Zealand business community towards creating a sustainable future for business, society and the environment. It brought together the memberships of the BusinessNZ Sustainable Business Forum (SBF) and the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development (NZBCSD).There is also considerable social research activity from the Child Poverty Action Group, Salvation Army's Parliamentary Policy Group, the Council of Christian Social Services and others. Other think-tanks, such as Maxim and the MacGuiness Institute1 continue their activities but without much fanfare.UniversitiesIt would be difficult to track University-based social research activities even in terms of social science research units. There seems to have been considerable turnover with several units (especially several at VUW such as the former criminology research unit) ceasing, although the highly prominent IPS has been Λ rejuvenated as the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies (IGPS) . …

New Zealand Sociology, Jul 1, 2013

A broad account of the New Zealand class system can be readily assembled from popularly-available... more A broad account of the New Zealand class system can be readily assembled from popularly-available sources such as the item in the official New Zealand online Encyclopaedia Te Ara or the Wikipedia entry, together with common knowledge. Having provided a sketch, this appendix then goes on to provide a brief overview and then listing of a bibliography on Social Class/Inequality in New Zealand.