ENTREPRENEURIAL APPROACHES TO URBAN DECLINE - THE HONEYSUCKLE REDEVELOPMENT IN INNER NEWCASTLE, NEW-SOUTH-WALES

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.