Special Topic: Britain and New Zealand - The Great Unravelling

Description

In this special summer seminar series, with visiting Canterbury Fellow Austin Mitchell, will explore a discussion of the evolution of recent British politics, but drawing analogies in each section with parallel developments and implications for New Zealand .The aim is to examine how and why the post war settlement of full employment, welfare state Keynesian demand management and comparative equality was dismantled piece by piece to be replaced by a colder, harder more pressured economy, harsher social attitudes run on free market neo-liberal lines.

The course is structured as a series of seminars looking at the British experience and the impact of monetarism, Thatcherism, New Labour and finally austerity and Osborne's efforts to roll back
the state comparing in each case what was being done in New Zealand and bringing out the extent to which each country learned from the other as old ties frayed and their paths diverged by new trading arrangements.

Learning Outcomes

The pedagogy that drives this work in this course is reflexive education, students are encouraged to see themselves as citizens who can effect change, to think about their situation and that of others, and to read a few key texts in depth, and to engage in active debate – to spark deeper thinking and critical reflection.

Students are also given the opportunity to apply their reading and reflection to real world debate and, to think about the potential and possibilities for a different political future.

Prerequisites

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .