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Ian Ritchie
Co-founder of the Jobs Research Trust. Researcher and activist on current social and economic issues.
ABOUT IAN RITCHIE
From a background of soil conservation and agricultural research, Ian became involved with the Smallfarmers Association and rural planning issues. He started teaching rural planning at Massey University and established the community based, Manawatu Employment Resource Centre in the early 1980’s.He developed courses for job seekers and new and established small business operators. Following a visit to Scotland in 1987 he introduced the “community owned business” concept to New Zealand. He organised the first national conference to be held for government funded local employment and enterprise development agencies.
After ten years in the Resource Centre he became free-lance and organised a series of public meetings to generate input to the Prime Ministerial Employment Task Force.
His main interest is to research what is going on, both in NZ and around the world, the effects of these changes, the reactions to these and alternative courses of action.
He plays a leading role in the Manawatu Working Party on Universal Basic Income and in UBINZ, the informal national organisation promoting the concept. He was asked to speak on this to the 3rd Australian Unemployment Conference in Brisbane in June 1996.
Ian organised the two national conferences on UBI in Wellington in July 1996 (A UBI based society - The Way Forward) and March 1998 (Beyond Despondency - the UBI alternative to the Welfare Meltdown).
He presented a paper on the changes taking place in our society at the 2nd national Foodbank Conference in August 1996 and assisted in organising the national “Act on Poverty” week and Foodbank strike. He was one of the initiators and organisers of the national conference “Beyond Poverty - Welfare, Well-being and Citizenship in the 21st Century”, held in Auckland in March 1997. He was a speaker at the 1997 May Day gathering, “Community or Chaos”, at Blackball on the West Coast.
In May 1998 attended the second Sustainable America Assembly and the regional conference to End Corporate Dominance over Ecosystems and Communities, in Portland, Oregon.
Ian lives in the small rural township of Cheltenham, near Feilding and is involved in a range of local socio-economic development projects in the Manawatu region.
Contact:Ian Ritchie, Kimbolton Rd, Cheltenham, R D 7, Feilding
phone and fax 06 328 9618
KEY PAPERS ...
The Need for a New Approach to our Society which Includes a Universal Basic Incomepublished in The Jobs Letter and in
Tomlinson, J., Patton, W., Creed, P. & Hicks, R. (eds.) Unemployment: Policy and Practice (1997); Australian Academic, Brisbane.Jobs Letter report on 1996 Wellington Conference
What's Going on in the World ? Address to the Palmerston North Community Services Council Annual General Meeting, 21 August 1998A Proposal for Inclusive Capitalism, August 1998
Report on the Sustainable America Second Assembly, Portland, Oregon,
28 - 31 May 1998, August 1998The Voluntary Welfare Sector in Palmerston North - Overviewing 25 Years, July 1998
Submission on the Manawatu District Council Draft Annual Plan (DAP) and the Draft Strategic Plan (DSP) 16 June 1998
The "Act on Poverty" Campaign Information Sheet
Cry Halt!
UBINZ -- The Universal Basic Income Campaign in New Zealand
The Changes taking Place in Our Society and the Role of Food Banks
paper presented to the Second National Food Bank Conference in Wellington,
30-31 August 1996.