Geography in New Zealand 2008-2012

Abstract

Every four years the International Geographical Union (IGU) requests a National Report from Member Countries. The text below is a version of the submission made on behalf of New Zealand Geography in August 2012. The issues that have faced geography in the 2008–2012 period in New Zealand have been transitional rather than transformational. The commentary later should be read against the impact of the economic events of 2008 (reduced research funding and the move to an auditing approach to research); the establishment of research themes in cultural geography that now sit alongside geography’s traditional interests and skills; an expressed interest in redeveloping links to physical geography; the implementation of the new National Curriculum (2007) in the secondary sector and the demographic transitions across staffing in the discipline.