Understanding Intergovernmental Tensions around Urban Containment: A Case Study of Auckland through a State Rescaling Lens

Abstract

The research contained herein aims to explore the relationship between contemporary patterns of state scalar restructuring and current intergovernmental discursive tensions surrounding the shaping and containment of Auckland’s urban form. By exploring this relationship, the research also aims to contribute empirical insights to the nature of central-local government dynamics around urban policy in New Zealand. Informed by Brenner’s (2009a) proposed state rescaling methodology, two objects of analysis were selected for study across a 50 year temporal period: the scalar referent of spatial planning in Auckland; and the evolving scale articulation of Auckland as an institutional-territorial space. Discourse and thematic analysis were used to select and analyse primary and secondary data sources; comprised of regional planning documents, government position papers, transcripts from semi-structured interviews, and newspaper media commentary. Analysis revealed that differences in central and local government perspective on urban containment are reflective of wider intergovernmental discursive tensions around the appropriate role of local government with regards to urban planning decision-making. Additionally, the rationale for contemporary state scalar transformations appear to resonate deeply with themes in broader current central government objectives for Auckland and New Zealand; namely, global competitiveness, economic performance, and affordability. Finally, patterns in transformations to the state scalar architecture of Auckland’s spatial planning, against a backdrop of market-led discourse, indicate a creeping centralisation of Auckland’s urban governance. Based on the findings generated, state rescaling conceptual frameworks and methodology provide useful techniques for organising data, as well as insightful approaches to understanding the significance of spatial planning trajectories and state scalar transformations to a specific policy element, such as urban containment mechanisms. At the same time, it is recognised that nuances of the Auckland experience are more closely engaged with through other conceptual frameworks that focus on the internal dynamics of institutional and policy change.