Charles Crothers

personal information

Biography

Professor Institute for Public Policy Faculty of Arts Auckland University of Technology Auckland New Zealand	Phone: 649 921 9999 Email: charles.crothers@aut.ac.nz
Charles Crothers is a sociologist with a broad range of interests including social theory, social research methods and societal structures and processes generally. He has often concentrated on using quantitative methods to elicit understandings of complex social structures. Geographically he has concentrated on NZ and South African societies with a further interest in the Pacific region.He is Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Education & Social Sciences after previously serving as a Professor of Sociology at the University of University Natal, Durbin, South Africa. Prior to this position Charles was president of the New Zealand Sociological Association and has published internationally many books and articles on sociology and the social sciences. Charles' research interests include social theory and research methodology as well as sociological studies of/within settler societies.       "I completed my undergraduate degree at Waikato in the first wave of their new interdiscplinary social science course. My PhD degree at VUW examined the social influences shaping choices of research topics amongst geographers and educationists. My research interests include social science research methodology,social theory, policy and research and applied social science, the sociology of (social) knowledge and (social) science, studies in settler societies (especially New Zealand and South Africa), comparative sociology.   I am married to Raewyn Peart (and have three older children and one young child). My research since returning from South Africa has included work on Maori Urban Disparities (with the James Henare Center at AU), the Wellington Policy Establishment and its social research capabilities and performances, and the urban mosaic of Auckland."