Abstract:
This thesis is concerned with the relationship between economic restructuring, the
changing division of labour and social stratification, with particular reference to New
Zealand in the period since the 1980s. It begins with a critique of theories of capitalist
development, leading to the adoption of an approach which focuses on both the longterm
evolution of the division of labour and the ways in which production and
employment are subject to periodic upheavals from episodes of economic crisis and
restructuring. The regulation approach is used to analyse the restructuring of the New
Zealand economy following the global crisis of the 1970s, which transformed it from a
model based on mass production and interventionist regulation to one based on flexible
production and liberal regulation. This provides a context for analysing related changes
in employment, focussing particularly on the massive job losses in New Zealand’s
goods-producing industries, the subsequent period of high unemployment and the
eventual resurgence in job growth based on more flexible use of labour, expansion in
producer and consumer service industries, and growth in both skilled and routine whitecollar
occupations. The remainder of the thesis is concerned with the effects of these
changes on patterns of social stratification. A consideration of the theoretical and
conceptual issues surrounding class, stratification and the division of labour leads to the
development of a model of class structure based on relations of production and
hierarchical divisions of labour. Census data is reclassified to fit the model and analysed
to show changes in patterns of stratification since the 1980s, looking particularly at
shifts in the relative size and composition of middle-class and working-class
employment and the implications for class formation. The model is also used to analyse
changes in structural inequalities between the sexes and between ethnic groups, with a
focus on the ways in which different groups were affected by the restructuring process
and how this was influenced by historically gendered and ethnicised divisions of labour.
The thesis concludes with an assessment of the extent of change in employment and
stratification and whether this is indicative of a transition to a post-industrial economy.
