Understanding the relationship between neoliberalism and the negotiation of urban development imperatives within public private partnerships in Durban.
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Date
2010
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Abstract
As neoliberalism has risen into ascendancy, cities have shifted their development approach,
often in ways that produce problematic and heavily critiqued outcomes (Bond, 2005a; Leitner
et al, 2007). In many instances, cities have taken on a development agenda characterised by
the prioritisation of economic growth and improving the quality of life in cities (Pieterse,
2008). Thus, cities, often with limited resources and skills, face the challenge of negotiating
between these imperatives. In this context, public private partnerships (PPPs) have emerged
as a development mechanism through which local, redistributive, and global, economic, urban
imperatives can be negotiated. Building on the theorisation of neoliberalism and urban
development in the contemporary city, this thesis draws on the concepts of the ‘ordinary city’
(Amin and Graham, 1996; Robinson, 2002; 2006) and ‘entanglement’ (Sharp et al, 2000;
Nuttall, 2009). The adoption of this theoretical approach facilitates an understanding of the
relationship between neoliberalism and the negotiation of competing urban development
imperatives in public private partnerships. This understanding is relational and freed from the
constraints of developmentalist or global cities approaches, which have come to dominate
theorisations of urban development.
The empirical research concentrates on two public private partnerships in Durban, South
Africa, namely; the Durban Growth Coalition and the eThekwini Municipality-Moreland
Developments Joint Venture. These partnerships have produced significant interventions in
the urban landscape since their inception in 1999 and 2002, respectively. In addition, the
empirical investigation includes the Riverhorse Valley Business Estate and the Bridge City mixed use development. These projects have been implemented through the eThekwini
Municipality-Moreland Developments Joint Venture. The empirical study predominantly
relies on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in
these partnerships, their projects, and within the broader urban development arena of Durban.
Documentary evidence and observation has further contributed to the empirical material
examined in the research.
The research findings reveal how actors in Durban enmesh and co-constitute the competing
priorities of economic growth and post apartheid redress through a range of discourses. This
discursive inter-relating of the imperatives produces their entanglement. In turn, this
entanglement produces an ‘actually existing neoliberalism’ (Brenner and Theodore, 2002a).
The form of this local version of neoliberalism is shown to be strongly shaped by the
contingent conditions in Durban and the broader context of transition in South Africa.
Furthermore, the examination of the two PPP projects brings to light the nuanced character of
the ‘actually existing neoliberalism’ and how variably it is materialised within urban
development. Through these findings, the thesis gives evidence of the active agency of places
in the production of neoliberalism, and thereby challenges the assumption that cities,
especially in the developing world, are simply passively responding to the global impulse of
neoliberalism (Hart, 2002). As such, it responds to the need for new insight into how
neoliberalism is produced at the local level, and addresses concerns for the lack of agency
ascribed to cities in theorisations of neoliberalism (Larner, 2000, 2003; Brenner and
Theodore, 2002a; Castree, 2005; 2006; Hart, 2002; 2006). Finally, conceptualisations of the
binary relationship between the global and the local, and between competing urban development imperatives, are challenged (Hart, 2002).
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.
Keywords
Theses--Environmental management., Neoliberalism., City planning--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban., Public-private sector cooperation--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban.