Open AccessIdeology and Industrial Relations in New Zealand
Author(s) -
John Deeks
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
new zealand journal of industrial relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0110-0637
DOI - 10.26686/nzjir.v1i2.2113
Subject(s) - ideology , emotive , pragmatism , appeal , preference , epistemology , sociology , positive economics , political science , law , philosophy , economics , politics , microeconomics
It is a truism that there is in New Zealand culture a widespread if inarticulate suspicion of ideas, of theory, of ideology and a general preference for the practically useful, for the matter-of-fact treatment of things, for the pragmatic. While the polarisation of theory and practice is not a logically sustainable one — pragmatism after all is based on some theory, some system or principle purporting to explain or predict relationships between events — nevertheless it has in New Zealand a strong emotive appeal that can be used to stigmatise those who profess a particular ideology or who dabble in the ‘unreal’ world of ideas.