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COPENHAGEN: Can we ever really know?

Listener 29 September 2001.

Keywords History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Miscellaneous (Literature)

The ‘Copenhagen model’, developed in the 1920s, remains the foundation of the quantum mechanics account of the atom which physicists use to this day. Two of the revolutionary developers were Dane Niels Bohr, then about forty, and German Werner Heisenberg, in his twenties. …

29th September 2001 | Comments Closed

FOUR BOOKS ON NEW ZEALAND BROADCASTING (REVIEW)

Prometheus 2001, Vo1 19, No 3, p.265-6.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

P. Day, Voice and Vision: A History of Broadcasting in New Zealand, Volume Two (Auckland University Press in association with the Broadcasting Trust, 2000). 456pp.
P. Day, The Radio Years: A History of Broadcasting in New Zealand, Volume One (Auckland University Press in association with the Broadcasting Trust, 1994). 352pp.
B. Spicer, M. Powell & D. Emanuel, The Remaking of Television New Zealand: 1984-1992 (Auckland University Press in association with the Broadcasting Trust, 1996). 207pp.
I. Carter, Gadfly: The Life of James Shelly (Auckland University Press in association with the Broadcasting Trust, 1993). 339pp.

22nd September 2001 | Comments Closed

AUCKLAND IN A GLOBALISED WORLD

Presentation to the Sustainable Auckland Congress, 18-21 September 2001, published in The Proceedings of the Sustainable Auckland Congress. (Edited by M. Daly, B. Hill, L. Lucas, J. Salinger, & P. Spoonley, and published by the Sustainable Auckland Trust.)

Keywords Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation

I want to begin with affirming one element of my basic framework. The dominant single feature of New Zealand over the last two centuries has been its ongoing interaction with the rest of the world. Unless one understands that principle, New Zealand’s history makes no sense. Unless one uses the principle one can neither understand the future, nor meet its challenge. Insulationist policies – either practically or indirectly by ignoring the principle are bound to fail.

18th September 2001 | Comments Closed

WALTZING WITH MATILDA

Listener 15 September, 2002.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money

A hundred years ago, New Zealand turned down the chance to federate with Australia – to become one of its states, rather remain than an independent nation. Ten years earlier there was a groundswell in favour, but the prosperity and the social consolidation of the 1890s gave us the confidence to go it alone. How different it is today. A survey of the New Zealand elite, by Bob Cately, professor of political studies at the University of Otago, found 88 percent believing that New Zealand would benefit from a single economic union with Australia, and 55 percent that economic amalgamation would lead to political union. (His book Waltzing with Matilda describes the elite as parliamentarians, ‘businesses, business organizations, trade unions and some media outlets.’ He does not mention senior public servants but my impression is that they would have responded similarly.)

15th September 2001 | Comments Closed

THE KNOWLEDGE RIPPLE: Where Were the Academics?

Listener 1 September, 2001

Keywords: Growth & Innovation

The 1928 National Industrial Conference was the first of a long line of national conferences to address the economic problems of the day. Initiated by Prime Minister Gordon Coates, the 64 delegates included the businessmen, representatives of commercial groups, unionists and civil servants of the day. ….

1st September 2001 | Comments Closed

NEW ZEALAND IN A GLOBALISED WORLD

Presentation to the Wellington Labour Party Conference on Globalisation 1 September, 2001.

Keywords Globalisation & Trade; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy

I begin by affirming the central tenet of any realistic and fundamental analysis of New Zealand: The dominant single feature of New Zealand over the last two centuries has been its ongoing engagement with the rest of the world. Unless one understands that principle, New Zealand’s history makes no sense. Unless one uses the principle one cannot think realistically about the future, nor meet its challenge. Isolationist strategies are bound to fail. There have been isolationists of the Left, who have tried to isolate New Zealand from the world by a self-sufficient economy. But like the rest of us, their ideas came from overseas, they used imports unobtainable in New Zealand, and they travel overseas. There have also been isolationists of the right, the most recent of whom were the Rogernomes, who thought they could ignore the external sector, and by fiddling the financial sector gain us prosperity. They failed.

| Comments Closed