The Challenge of Social Change: The Work of Ray Watters

Since the late 1940s, the Pacific islands have had a special place in teaching and research in New Zealand's university geography departments. This paper recalls some dimensions of a ‘golden age’ in the study of Pacific peoples by New Zealand geographers between 1945 and 1970. Attention is focused on the ‘Cumberland’ school of regional geography and some of the debates this generated in the 1960s. The paper concludes with a plea for the revitalisation of Pacific regional geography, especially in the light of the very different challenges that are confronting the islands in the 21st century.

Section: The Essence Of a Pacific Geography 1950–1970mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Essence Of a Pacific Geography 1950–1970mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflections on a region: New Zealand geographers and the study of Pacific peoples with special reference to the period 1945–1970

Bedford

2011

End of an Era? Population Geography in New Zealand at the Turn of the Century

Bedford

1999

Research into and teaching on population issues in New Zealand's university geography departments is at a crossroads. A significant cohort of New Zealand population geographers who gained their graduate and post‐graduate training during the 1950s and 1960s is rapidly diminishing as a result of retirements and late career shifts. In the much more competitive university environment of the 1990s staff are either not being replaced, or their positions and programmes are being reshaped as part of radical restructuring of the social sciences and humanities. This paper reflects on recent developments in population geography in New Zealand, highlighting the contributions made by three of the country's most prominent researchers and teachers in what is fast becoming a dying field of discourse in university geography departments. The paper concludes on an ambivalent note about prospects for geographers in the era of sub‐replacement fertility and the heightened attention that will be accorded to migration processes.

In Pursuit of Moving Targets: New Zealand Population Geography in the South Pacific

Connell

1999

New Zealand population geographers in the South Pacific islands early focused on resource issues, especially in Fiji and the smaller island states politically linked to New Zealand. This later extended into analysis of the structure of village level economic and social development, notably in Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Fiji. These analyses contributed to a clearer understanding of the substance of development at a key turning point in the region's history ‐ the transition to independence. Migration, or mobility, and urbanisation attracted enormous interest throughout the region, with lengthy debates ranging over migration models, urban permanence, the ideology of return and metaphors of mobility, establishing the most distinctive thrust of New Zealand research in the region. Practical research, involving censuses and consultancies, has directly contributed to development. Despite the valuable historical legacy the extent and significance of New Zealand work on the population geography of the Island Pacific has now dwindled.