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Special issue: decolonising the discipline: rethinking political science in Aotearoa New Zealand

When mayor of New Plymouth Andrew Judd announced in May 2016 that he would not be standing for re-election, he drew national attention to the racist attacks that he had been enduring since he began supporting proposals for guaranteed Māori representation. His comments sparked debate about Māori representation as well as conversations about how non-Māori in politics could appropriately support Māori political aspirations. The related question of how non-Māori within the discipline of political science in New Zealand might support Māori aspirations in universities had emerged as part of the 2015 New Zealand Political Science Association conference. The theme for the conference was ‘Disrupting the Discipline’ and the organisers highlighted the challenges to Political Studies including from non-Western and indigenous perspectives. Many of the papers presented at the conference emphasised that these ‘disruptions’ were productive and expanded ‘what counts as politics and Political Studies’. The articles in this Special Issue also implicitly disrupt and expand definitions of what counts as Political Studies. Phillip Borell’s article, linking of sport and processes of colonisation illuminates questions of political identities in new ways. Lindsey MacDonald picks up on the question of identity and challenges political science scholars to be more attentive to the subjects of their research and avoid the tendency to generalise. Te Hau White examines the maiden speeches of a number of Māori MPs to explore articulations of a Māori world view in parliament. Ann Sullivan and Morgan Godfery raise questions about howMāori tino rangatiratanga and the Crown’s kawanatanga are structured and might be restructured in New Zealand’s political and constitutional arrangements. In my article on Māori representation, I delve into the specific detail of an Iwi pursuing new mechanisms for involvement in local government decision-making. Taken together, these articles seek to challenge and expand what counts as politics in New Zealand but also to encourage reflection on new ways of thinking about political science that might inform those in the discipline and jurisdictions internationally.