On the future of sociology in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

The impetus for this introduction came from the postgraduate students' panel at the 2016 SAANZ conference in Napier, where we were asked to consider the future of sociology. As PhD candidates, it has been a privilege to spend time considering what it is that draws us to the discipline and to engage with possibilities for future knowledge projects that can shed light on social issues. While our projects encompass areas as diverse as platform capitalism, critical housing policy studies and violence, we all see sociology as a vehicle for achieving transformative social justice. We each understand our Aotearoa/New Zealand experience to be different in flavour and texture, and that to do the greatest justice to the discipline we need to value what is unique and compelling about Aotearoa/New Zealand knowledges. For this editorial article, we jointly and separately considered knowledge projects that offer transformative potential. The future of sociology is not singular, it is multiplicitous and offered by diverse voices. It is engaged with critiquing social power, intersectionality and challenging the neoliberal knowledge economy. On this theme, we have structured our editorial to each offer a brief commentary on key issues facing New Zealand sociology.