Local Development Initiatives And Unemployment In New Zealand

Authors: Scott G.¹; Pawson E.²

Source: Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Volume 90, Number 2, May 1999 , pp. 184-195(12)

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Abstract:

In New Zealand, the national and local incidence of unemployment rose sharply with the drive to adopt neo-liberal modes of regulation from the mid 1980s. This paper focuses on the local impacts of nationally formulated measures to combat unemployment, and in particular on the West Coast of the South Island. This is a region long regarded as problematic in terms of the provision of work given its history as a resource frontier. The measures can be divided into those that fall on a ‘business development’ path and those that come under the umbrella of ‘community development’. Although there is some overlap between both paths, the schemes promoted under each are distinctive and open to assessment. Such assessment shows the very limited contribution made by measures under either path to their targeted objective of reducing unemployment.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.gary@urg.org.au 2: Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.eric@geog.canterbury.ac.nz

Publication date: 1999-05-01