Pm. Mcguirk et al., ENTREPRENEURIAL APPROACHES TO URBAN DECLINE - THE HONEYSUCKLE REDEVELOPMENT IN INNER NEWCASTLE, NEW-SOUTH-WALES, Environment & planning A, 28(10), 1996, pp. 1815-1841
Global changes in production and consumption, and the resulting compet
ition between places for investment flows, have encouraged the emergen
ce of the 'entrepreneurial state'. This paper focuses on the Honeysuck
le redevelopment in Newcastle, New South Wales. This case study of act
ive entrepreneurialism, aimed at promoting Newcastle's interurban comp
etitiveness through material and symbolic reconstructions, reveals the
changes wrought by an entrepreneurial approach to the style and conte
nt of city government and politics. The Honeysuckle Development Corpor
ation operates at the juncture between federal, state, and local gover
nment engagement with capital in the attempt to address the local impa
cts of economic restructuring. It provides an important case study of
the shifting parameters of the relationship between various tiers of t
he state, and between these tiers and the interests of capital in cont
emporary urban redevelopment. It also addresses the problematic questi
ons of sustainability, accountability, and equity in urban entrepreneu
rialism, while providing a long-overdue empirical study of Newcastle.