liberation

[NZ intellectuals] Sandra Coney

What role do New Zealand intellectuals have in social change? What should be the role of NZ academics in public debate? These are some of the issues discussed by Sandra Coney in her interview chapter in the new publication Speaking Truth to Power: Public Intellectuals Rethink New Zealand, edited by Laurence Simmons (2007, Auckland: AUP). In particular, Coney is rather intelligently pessimistic about the anti-intellectualism in NZ society, the role of academics in public debate, the current state of gender relations, and the ability of the current Labour Government to roll back neoliberalism. [Read more below]

[NZ intellectuals] Michael King

New Zealand society is considered to be a very anti-intellectual. Certainly nowadays there is little public discussion of ideology, ideas, and political theory. Such things tend to be ghettoised in the universities where academics are often – for various reasons – disconnected from public life. Such issues relating to the state of NZ intellectualism are discussed in a new book edited by Laurence Simmons, entitled Speaking Truth to Power: Public Intellectuals Rethink New Zealand (2007, Auckland: AUP). This blog post is the first of a number that will highlight and reflect on the ideas raised by the contributors to this book, starting with the late Michael King, who in this book offers some controversial opinions about NZ universities, ethnicity, and the idea of pakeha culture being an indigenous one. [Read more below]

[political finance] State intervention in the democratic process: the case for less, not more

With the introduction of the Electoral Finance Act (EFA) it’s timely to examine the implications of the shift toward greater state regulation of politics. In this draft article I put forward the case against a highly regulated political process in New Zealand, that the EFA should be repealed, and why the state’s intervention in the democratic process should be reduced. I welcome any constructive feedback on this draft.