Community Enterprises and the Uncovering of New Development Pathways: Remediating Cultural and Economic Aspirations in Te Tairawhiti

Abstract

Recent progressions in indigenous economic development scholarship (see Robson, 2014) have argued that in order for development processes to remain viable they must meet community preferences. Furthermore, indigenous scholars have called for more detailed accounts of indigenous economy and enterprise in order to encapsulate the true complexity of indigenous reality. In line with these concerns, the purpose of this thesis is to analyse how development processes can be effectively rearticulated to become compatible with indigenous preferences. To aid this analysis, this research employs an in depth case study of an indigenous-led community enterprise collective, the Hikurangi Group (HG). The case study analyses how HG have effectively rearticulated the development process to create new economic development pathways that are compatible with indigenous preferences. This research employs a diverse economies conceptual framework to understand the dynamics of this process, which reveals a wider range of drivers than conventional economic analyses are capable of. The case study constitutes of semi-structured interviews with key informants within HG and their partnering organisations, which provide the necessary information to analyse how new economic development pathways have been created. This research reveals that diverse economies tenets, particularly valuing economic diversity and the construction of community economies, can rearticulate development to meet indigenous preferences.Through building on interdependencies between subjects, the economy can be reworked as a site of ethically negotiated decision making. In the context of HG this process has contributed to new development pathways and a new form of development that supports local livelihoods. The focus on sustaining livelihoods was instrumental to meeting indigenous preferences for the development process. Overall, it is argued that at the core of these rearticulated versions of development and new development pathways, is the joint resolution of cultural and economic aspirations.