Not so automatic

The contingent role of Auckland's local government in the region's information and communications technologies infrastructural development

Bibliographic Data

ID4749409
AuthorsPhillipa Mitchell (University of Auckland, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume9
Issue6
Pages693-710
Publication date2008-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649360802292504
OpenAlexW1976381533
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited15

Focusing on Auckland, New Zealand, this paper reveals how the politics of privatisation and liberalisation have created a complex and tense environment in which local government, in order to facilitate information and communications technologies' (ICTs) infrastructural development, has had to bridge the gap between inadequate legislation and the failure of market-driven competition. Despite the increasing focus of geography on ICTs' contribution to today's fragmented urban environments, the framing effects of infrastructure and how these networks are socially constructed has received little attention. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, participant observation and document analysis this paper intersects this discussion using a governmentality framework to reveal the complexities and constraints on state and non-state actors. These circumstances are creating numerous conditions of possibility from which multiple timespaces may emerge. This paper provides some empirically grounded data on the highly contingent terms under which these timespaces are shaped revealing that there is very little that is automatic in the automatic production of space occurring in Auckland

Framing (construction · Governmentality · ICTS · Information and Communications Technology · Legislation · Liberalization · Local government · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Engineering · ICT Impact and Policies · Law · Public Administration · Urban Planning and Governance

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