David George Bettison 1925-2014

Bill MacArthur:David Bettison gained his first degree a BA (Hons.) in social anthropology and economics at Rhodes University. In 1956 he won the Vice Chancellor prize for his paper Cosmology of the South Bantu. In the early sixties he was a senior researcher for two years at ANU and worked in New Guinea. In 1965-69 he was professor of Anthropology at Simon Fraser in Canada. In 1969-1972 he was the professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Lethbridge. From 1972 till 1991 he was professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Waikato. During this period he was also Dean of Social Sciences on two separate occasions. In 1991 he was appointed Emeritus Professor.A number of key images emerge in my mind when I think of Professor David Bettison. Addressing large numbers of first year students, he was a towering figure at the lectern, lecturing with passion, style and authority. Despite his powerful presence he was also an open door professor and very approachable. He loved to engage and talk with people - a process which he regarded as intrinsic to the phenomenal world. But his easy going manner was deceptive. He could cut across a discussion with sharp questions leaving the speaker with no illusions that they were engaged in a Socratic style debate.During the mid to late 1970s his three favourite words in discussion would emerge: obfuscation, reification and fictive entity which still have strong relevance today. He was never cynical about human behaviour despite his opposition to abstractions, especially the 'economy.' His challenges were underpinned by his background in economics and his strong interest in the complexities of social organisation.Key thinkers taught in the 1970s to second year students were Marx, Durkheim and Weber, with Weber being regarded by David as the best. He was strongly influenced by Alfred Schutz, Berger and Luckmann and was very aware that the nature of sociology was changing due to positive philosophies being challenged by reflexive sociology and ethnomethodology. He did not publish much in his later years telling me once that his last book was awful.In the zeitgeist of that time David met challenges to the discipline of social science through his supervision of an eclectic range of masters and doctoral theses. His passion for the subject was frequently expressed by his often extensive comments scribbled in the margins of the paper. Significantly, he supervised more than twenty doctoral and an unknown number of master's theses with a significant number of these students becoming university lecturers and professors.Unfortunately, in his later years David was unwell and I could not have the intellectual conversations I had so enjoyed with him over many years. The last time I spoke with him I asked him about Gabriel Tarde. It was refreshing to hear him speak with such knowledge and authority on a writer who had been obscured for such a long time by the towering rise of Emile Durkheim. Now that Tarde is being recognised for his contribution in the 21st century, it makes me wonder what David would have thought of the current social world, a complex global and technical environment where it is difficult to visualise what a collective looks like.Over many years I was very familiar with David's library, ending up with some of his books. His collection reflected what he called cognography or cognitive psychology. Modern writers such as Bruno Latour, Michel Serres, Giles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri who recognised the significance of Gabriel Tarde's thinking would have impressed David. This illustrates his profound knowledge of the social sciences and its thinkers over many years which provided a strong intellectual platform for his students and others.PublicationsBooks/MonographsJohnston, Judith; Bettison, David George & Cameron, J. (1979) Housing needs assessment: a regional emphasis. Wellington the Commission. …

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