Abstract: Rising interest and concern about issues of inequality throughout the world has been accompanied by a recent resurgence of both class politics and identity politics. In New Zealand there have been signs of the political left and wider society being influenced by these movements – both of which are centrally concerned with combating different types of inequality. This paper seeks to explain the relationship between both movements and their philosophies. It argues that materialist and post-materialist trends – influenced by economic crisis and other societal developments – have led to a rivalry between class and identity politics. The two approaches to economic and social inequality are in conflict and competition, with mixed successes in their respective achievements. The paper uses a variety of data – public opinion surveys, elite surveys, as well as media content analysis – to illustrate its arguments.
The above paragraph is the abstract for a paper that I recently presented at an academic conference. Although the actual paper is not ready for further distribution, I've published the charts that I use in the paper below. These show the number of articles published in the New Zealand print media each year that have used certain "radical" terms - some relating to class politics and others to identity politics. The information is derived from the online database, Knowledgebasket.
