Constantly on the Move, but going nowhere? Work, Community and Social Mobility

Equality was greater in New Zealand than in many other societies, but it has declined overall in the past 150 years and was, in any case, always fractured by class, gender and race. Unpicking the trends underlying egalitarianism is difficult owing to the �rule of conformity� that existed in the past: social commentators have avoided researching wealth and poverty.3 Successive governments claimed to have �abolished poverty� and avoided measuring range within society.4 In examining the changing, evolving nature of work and communal arrangements in this period, this chapter discusses aspirations to egalitarianism; the attempts to realise them as well as the failures to effect change. In so doing it ties occupational experience to stratification and social mobility debates.