Johnsonville

de David G. Pearson

In recent years New Zealanders have become more conscious of the need to understand their own country and its history. The growth of social sciences is beginning to meet this challenge but as yet comparatively little is known about social conditions in past and present times. This book uses the tradition of community studies to investigate social change in Johnsonville, a suburb of the capital Wellington, from the earliest days of mass European settlement to the present. The central themes of 'community' and social stratification are familiar ones to sociologists but the historical comparative framework used crosses many interdisciplinary boundaries. The portrayal of the growth of Johnsonville, from nineteenth century bush clearing to contemporary suburbia, presents a unique history, but the steady incursion of urbanisation, bureaucracy and state centralisation pose problems which can be readily perceived in communities elsewhere.