Poverty is not the result of individual failure or misfortune. It is a product of the design of our economic and institutional systems. Pakukore brings together leading thinkers and practitioners to expose the systemic nature of poverty in Aotearoa and explore pathways for change.
From education, health and housing to government finance, welfare and justice, this book shows how inequality is embedded in the structures of our society. It offers analysis from economists, public health experts, legal scholars, community leaders and those working at the front lines of social need.
Originating from the 2024 conference Pakukore: Poverty, by Design, hosted by the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, this collection is a compelling call to rethink how we understand and address poverty in this country.
Rebecca Macfie is an experienced journalist who joined the New Zealand Listener in 2007 as the magazine’s South Island writer. Since starting out in journalism in 1988 she has written for the Christchurch Star, The Press, National Business Review, Independent Business Weekly, North & South, Unlimited magazine and the New Zealand Herald. She is a recent winner of the Bruce Jesson Journalism Prize in support of a book she is writing on the Pike River mining disaster. She lives in Christchurch, where she says the strange and broken has become normal. She and her husband have a 21-year-old son and a 19-year-old daughter.
Graeme Whimp is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stout Research Centre and Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Social and Cultural Studies, both at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich is the is the Director of the Stout Research Centre and Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington.