AUT - Peter Skilling

Dr Peter Skilling

Senior Lecturer, Centre for Business Interdisciplinary Studies

Phone: + 64 9 921 9999 ext 5018

Email: peter.skilling@aut.ac.nz

Qualifications:

• PhD in Political Studies, University of Auckland
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Auckland

Memberships and Affiliations:

I am currently the AUT Representative to the New Zealand Political Studies Association (NZPSA).
I am also a member of the AUT Sustainability Research Cluster and the New Zealand Work and Labour Market Institute (WALMI)

Teaching Areas:

•     Contemporary social issues and social theory
•     Public policy
•     Ethics
•     Discourse analysis

Research areas:

•     Discourses of inequality and justice
•     Interpretive policy analysis
•     Theories of policy argumentation 

Research Summary:

My research is based on the assumption that there is always more than one way of understanding important social issues. In policy areas as diverse as immigration, genetic engineering and national branding, it explores the ways in which social actors attempt to naturalise their own preferred understandings. I am particularly interested in the link between economic power and the capacity to influence the terms of public debate.
I am interested in the question of what causes public opinion to change or to remain stable. Methodologically, I am interested in the question of how we think we know what the public thinks about political and social issues.

Current Research Projects:

I am currently leading the New Zealand Justice and Equality Study (NZJES), a project that explores how New Zealanders construct and justify their opinions about inequality and redistribution. By comparing results from an online questionnaire and a deliberative conference, this project assesses the influence that informed, reflective citizen deliberation has on people’s political opinions.

Publications:

2011: ‘“We must agree on our vision”: New Zealand Labour’s Discourse of Globalisation and the Nation from 1999-2008’, Journal of Language and Politics, 10(1)
2010: ‘The Construction and Use of National Identity in Contemporary New Zealand Political Discourse’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 45(2): 175-189
2010: ‘New Zealand’s fifth Labour Government (1999-2008): A New Partnership with Business and Society?’, Labour History, 98: 39-53
2009: ‘National Identity in a Diverse Society’, in New Zealand Government and Politics, 5th edition (Raymond Miller, ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press: 54-65
2007: ‘New Scots: ‘The Fresh Talent Initiative and Post-Devolution Immigration Policy’, Scottish Affairs 61: 69-88
2005a: ‘Trajectories of Arts and Culture Policy in New Zealand’, Australian Journal of Public Administration 64(4): 20-31
2005b: ‘National Identity and Immigration: Contemporary Discourses’, New Zealand Sociology 20(2): 98-120

Awards:

In 2008 my PhD thesis was awarded the Robert Chapman Postgraduate Prize, and placed on the Dean of Graduate Studies “Dean’s List”.