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    The Creative Class paradox : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Design at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2007) Parkin, Tim
    In an effort to encourage Wellington's economic growth the Wellington City Council (WCC) integrated the principles of Richard Florida's (2002) Creative Class theory into their strategic vision - Creative Wellington - Innovation Capital. This initiative influenced the WCC's resource policies with the aim of attracting and retaining creative people and innovative businesses. Within the Creative Class paradigm the value system used is predominantly economic, with creative assets and success being defined in terms of commercial gains. Consequently, the types of creative individuals, innovate businesses and physical environments that the WCC's policies prioritised were ones with high revenue earning potential. Such a restricted definition of creativity raises the question of how do Wellington's alternative forms of creativity and innovation fit into the WCC's Creative Wellington - Innovation Capital strategy? Are their contributions to be ignored and their futures compromised in the WCC's drive to attract members of the Creative Class or do they have a role to play within the Creative Class paradigm? My thesis investigates these questions by critiquing the WCC's implementation of the Creative Class theory. I also investigate the impact that the WCC's actions have had on Te Aro, a suburb on the outer edge of Wellington's central business district that is home to a diverse array of creative practices and small innovative businesses. Through this investigation I discover parallels between Te Aro's unique characteristics and the criteria Florida argued as being necessary to attract the Creative Class. I argue that for this reason Te Aro, and the forms of creativity and innovation that it supports, meets the value and lifestyle needs of the Creative Class and are therefore assets in the WCC's Creative Wellington - Innovation Capital strategy. My thesis concludes by using these findings in a graphic design led strategy that seeks to enhance Wellington's unique creative dynamic by broadening both the community and Council's concept of capital, assets and success.
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    An anthropological investigation of urban land development : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M.A. in Social Anthropology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1999) Coles, Michael Manoa
    The impetus for this project came from examples of neighbours' disempowerment in the land and property development process. There is a growing academic consensus that dominant approaches to land development fail to adequately address this issue. NeoMarxist approaches focus on conflict, power, and exploitation, but effectively eliminate the role of the actual developer in exercising power. Case study approaches, on the other hand, have been concerned with conflict and disempowerment, but have focused on specific instances of neighbourhood opposition and resistance. Explanation is often confined to local and national features of the social and geographical environment. These inadequacies pointed to the need to investigate the increasingly significant role that professional, entrepreneurial developers play at the nexus of the contemporary development process. An ethnographic methodology was used to provide a richer understanding of the land and property development process. The principal participants in the study are a set of 'entrepreneurial developers' operating in and around Palmerston North. Interviews, participant observation, and the examination of case studies are employed. This is complemented by an investigation of the Regulatory Procedure, including interviews with Council Officers, and examination of Council case studies. The research also uses interviews with neighbours, and a wide body of material published within the development industry. Planning for the study drew on Giddens' 'Theory of Structuration' (1979,1984) which stresses the interrelationship between the social structures of the development process, and the agency of developers. The research sought to elucidate the dominant forms of action and ideology which development agents acknowledge, and which therefore constitute the action and ideology of the development industry. The interpretation of the empirical data uses three interrelated perspectives: The first, provides a broad, industry-level, perspective on the local development industry. It asks, 'What are the major influences which shape and structure the contemporary development industry?'; The second, examines the level of action. It asks 'What are the actions of most significance to developers?', and 'What forms of conduct constitute the Institutional structures of the Regulatory Procedure?'; The third focuses on ideology. It asks, 'What are the dominant motivations which direct and influence developers' conduct?', and 'How do developers legitimate and rationalise conduct?'. An interesting aspect to the thesis is the extent to which developers share patterns of ideology, not only with each other, but also with a wider business community. Much of this characteristic ideology parallels findings in other ethnographic studies of capitalistic systems. The research highlights the fact that ethnography, and the notion of 'culture', provide an insightful and useful perspective of both the business world, and the study of development.