The Metropolitan Auckland Project: A Step-Change in Governance and Regional Economic Development in a City-Region
type: CreativeWork
description: Internationally there has been considerable interest in how the governance structures of large cities can be designed to support economic development. The concurrent forces of globalisation and urbanisation have forced governments to consider the management, efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability of their large cities. Business leadership groups, concerned with attracting talent and investment to remain competitive, add pressure to include wider knowledge and experience in the governance of cities. Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, but it was considered to be under-performing economically in 2000. In 1999, a new Labour-led government initiated a series of regional development policies that were a marked departure from the previous neo-liberal period of 1984-1999. Between 2000 and 2010 a series of initiatives were undertaken to improve Auckland’s economic performance. One of these initiatives was the Metropolitan Auckland Project. This thesis had two main aims: (1) to explore the process and outcomes of the Metropolitan Auckland Project, and (2) to gain a greater understanding of metropolitan governance and economic development in city-regions. Two philosophical approaches, systems thinking and pragmatism, were used in the construction of the research. Systems thinking provided an approach to linking phenomena and identifying layers of analysis to track long-run effects. A pragmatist approach meant that methodology and methods were constructed to answer three research questions: (1) is it possible to design an intervention to act as a catalyst for a step-change in the economic development of a city-region? (2) What roles do governance, institutions, partnerships and leaders play in achieving a step-change in the economic development of a city-region? (3) What factors influence a step-change and create long-run impacts in the economic development of a city-region? Two methodologies and four methods were employed. A single-case embedded case study an…
abstract: Internationally there has been considerable interest in how the governance structures of large cities can be designed to support economic development. The concurrent forces of globalisation and urbanisation have forced governments to consider the management, efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability of their large cities. Business leadership groups, concerned with attracting talent and investment to remain competitive, add pressure to include wider knowledge and experience in the governance of cities. Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, but it was considered to be under-performing economically in 2000. In 1999, a new Labour-led government initiated a series of regional development policies that were a marked departure from the previous neo-liberal period of 1984-1999. Between 2000 and 2010 a series of initiatives were undertaken to improve Auckland’s economic performance. One of these initiatives was the Metropolitan Auckland Project. This thesis had two main aims: (1) to explore the process and outcomes of the Metropolitan Auckland Project, and (2) to gain a greater understanding of metropolitan governance and economic development in city-regions. Two philosophical approaches, systems thinking and pragmatism, were used in the construction of the research. Systems thinking provided an approach to linking phenomena and identifying layers of analysis to track long-run effects. A pragmatist approach meant that methodology and methods were constructed to answer three research questions: (1) is it possible to design an intervention to act as a catalyst for a step-change in the economic development of a city-region? (2) What roles do governance, institutions, partnerships and leaders play in achieving a step-change in the economic development of a city-region? (3) What factors influence a step-change and create long-run impacts in the economic development of a city-region? Two methodologies and four methods were employed. A single-case embedded case study an…
author: Wilson, David Ashley
keywords: Auckland, Realistic impact evaluation, City-region, Regional economic development, Metropolitan governance
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-27T18:46:09Z
provider: AUT University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: AUT University