Erik Newland Olssen ONZM FRSNZ (born 14 December 1941) is a New Zealand historian whose research focuses on the linkages between social structures, politics, and the world of ideas at four spatial domains – the local, provincial, national and global.
[13] According to Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney from the University of Otago, Olssen's work significantly shaped understandings of "New Zealand's political traditions, intellectual culture and social formations".
[16]: 2 In acknowledging that comment, Olssen explained that the article had resulted from him coming into contact with feminism because research by his co-author Andrée Lévesque into women's history had uncovered much that was unrecognised.
[18] In 2008 the New Zealand media published a claim by John Stenhouse, an associate professor at the University of Otago that the country's history was being distorted by "secular and left-liberal" historians, such as Olssen and Keith Sinclair to push their own agendas.
[20]: 62 In his study of Otago, Olssen explored the history of the province from the relationships between Māori and colonists from Britain that, in the early nineteenth century, resulted in a culturally-respectful regional settlement with a provincial identity,[2]: viii through its development as a centre in which skilled and unskilled workers became active in advocating for improved working conditions and consolidated the unionised working class as a potential political influence.
[22] The history also explored the influence of the rise of Darwinian biology that challenged the biblical view of creation and developed intellectual credibility at the University of Otago where agnosticism and scientific methodology were valued resulting in the work of Dr Fredrick Truby King and the establishment of the Plunket Society.
[2]: 159–160 From 1975 until 1901, Olssen was Principal Investigator of this project, with the Caversham Borough chosen as the study area because of the availability of electoral rolls and population data from the Census.
[9]: 181–184 Jock Phillips noted in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand that Olssen's work in Caversham was significant during a time when historians were studying social history in the country.
This article informed the investigation of the role played by skilled workers in the process of class formation and how this shaped later political developments in New Zealand.
[28] Written by Olssen and Jeremy Brecher, this article reflected their research into the building and engineering trades and challenged the idea that large-scale industry inevitably reduced skilled workers' agency, showing that those employed at Hillside Engineering enjoyed and maintained almost complete control over the labour process, [and] "their skill...gave them a sense of identity and pride".
Questions did remain for the writer about whether some of the strong statements made by Olssen about perceptions of women at the time added value to the study, with the suggestion that at the very least the evidence needed to be reconsidered to ascertain if exclusions could "point to inclusions and alternative meanings".
[31]: 83–84 Len Richardson, a labour and sports historian at the University of Canterbury, suggested that Olssen's study was significant because it traced the process by which the women of the Caversham community were enabled to gain skilled training and more independence in their lives.
[33] Olssen assembling a larger multidisciplinary team in the late 1990s to analyse women's experience and the role of gender in structuring society, resulting in the publication of this book.
Writing in the Otago Daily Times Geoffrey Vine, a journalist and Presbyterian minister, noted Olssen's radicalism and "socialist aspirations" and suggested it remained open to debate whether or not the book answered the question in its title.
[49]: 4 Following the release of the paper, Olssen said in the Otago Daily Times that the data from the 2013 Census showed an imbalance in the country with Auckland growing at a much faster rate than some other regions, particularly those in rural areas.
He concluded that not only was this contributing toward feelings of resentment, but also meant that ratepayers in areas with less growth could struggle to financially maintain infrastructure, including that required to ensure satisfactory levels of service "for an ageing and possibly dwindling population".