New Zealand’s Social Investment Approach: Promise, Pitfalls and Prospects - Professor Jonathan Boston

I would like to invite you to hear Professor Jonathan Boston discuss this subject at 5:30pm on Thursday 22nd June at Connolly Hall, Guildford Terrace, Wellington.

Over the past year the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington and the New Zealand Institute for Economic Research have been conducting a joint research project on the New Zealand government’s ‘Social Investment Approach’. This has included a series of roundtable discussions with various participants in the policy process. An edited book and other publications are planned. In this talk, Professor Boston will outline the nature of this research project and discuss some of the main perspectives and findings that have emerged. In particular, he will explore: a) the evolving nature of the government’s social investment approach; b) the major philosophical and ethical issues raised by the current approach; c) some of the fundamental conceptual, methodological and analytical issues to which the approach has given rise; and d) possible future policy directions.

Jonathan Boston is Professor of Public Policy in the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington, and Acting Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies. He has published widely on a range of matters including public management, social policy, climate change policy, tertiary education policy, and comparative government. He was a member of the New Zealand Political Change Project (1995-2002), which explored the behavioural, institutional, and policy implications of proportional representation. During 2000-01, he served as a member of the New Zealand Tertiary Education Advisory Commission, and later helped to design, implement, and evaluate the Performance-Based Research Fund. More recently he served as Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (2008-11), Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies (2012-14), and Co-Chair of the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in early 2014 to undertake research on ‘Governing for the Future: Bringing Long-Term Policy Issues into Short-Term Political Focus’. A book based on this research was published recently by Emerald – Governing for the Future – and another by Bridget Williams Books – Safeguarding the Future.

Bill Rosenberg, CTU Economist, who presented his critique of the government’s Social Investment approach in April will join Jonathan Boston for the question and answer session.

All welcome. If you would like to attend, please register here. If you know of anyone else who may be interested, please pass this invitation on to them.

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