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End of an Era? Population Geography in New Zealand at the Turn of the Century
Author(s) -
BEDFORD RICHARD
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
new zealand geographer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1745-7939
pISSN - 0028-8144
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-7939.1999.tb00539.x
Subject(s) - restructuring , ambivalence , population , human geography , sociology , economic growth , geography , social science , economic geography , political science , demography , economics , psychology , social psychology , law
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.