Hayward Book review

New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online abstracts

Book review

Living Together: Towards Inclusive Communities by Michelle Thompson-Fawcett and Claire Freeman ed. Otago University Press, Dunedin. 2007. 240 p. NZ$39.95 (paperback). ISBN 1877372293.

To describe this as an urban planning text is to misrepresent its wider significance for social science researchers in New Zealand. This deceptively modest book offers an array of rich insights, connections and practical suggestions for those readers concerned with how communities experience, adjust, adapt or cope with rapid social change.

An immediate driver for the book appears to have been the introduction of New Zealand’s Local Government Act 2002, which empowered local authorities to take a sustainable development approach and to play a broad role in promoting the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of their communities. But an evaluation of the new local government legislation is not the focus of this book.

Living Together is better described as an understated, but valuable reflection on the state of New Zealand’s planning (or lack of) for diversity. The book anticipates Robert Putnam’s (2007) recently published, controversial thesis on the effects of rapid immigration. Putnam considers ways we might encourage dialogue across difference to overcome the “hunkering effect” he argues occurs when communities experience rapid population change and identity groups withdraw from interaction with different “others”. Putnam cites New Zealand as one of a number of developed democracies experiencing the challenge of rapid demographic change. Certainly the Immigration Act 1987 and the subsequent 1991 amendments have transformed our nation. In the last twenty years New Zealand has experienced a profound demographic revolution, driven by immigration of new peoples who have brought with them new visions, values and dreams.

Living Together addresses some of the consequences of this rapid demographic change, entwined as it is with other social processes such as the aging of the European-New Zealand populations and the growth of youthful communities of New Zealanders who identify as Pacific, Asian and Maori. These changes are underscored by growing structural inequalities, and a growing gap between rich and poor which has significant ethnic and spatial dimensions.

This little gem of a book examines how we might plan for more inclusive, engaged and robust communities in the face of such change. Written by academics, planners and community volunteers, it is presented in two parts. Part one identifies new communities who have struggled to express their voice in local government planning for cities. Part two is a practical evaluation of methods which have been used, with various degrees of success around the country, to talk across our differences and plan for our shared, uncertain future.

There are some criticisms which can be made of the text. The most glaring omission, given the focus of the book, is the lack of Asian New Zealand voices as community leaders, planners or academics. And I am not convinced that we needed a visiting geographer from Wales to write the foreword, as it was difficult for this writer to offer contextual comment. I would have preferred an opportunity to read Michael Wood’s reflections as an extended insight in a full chapter rather than as an introduction. Some chapters could have been edited more tightly. But these comments should not deter the reader. This text contains valuable research links, ideas and conversations gathered into one book, much like a vibrant if slightly chaotic city neighbourhood.

Chapter one, by Claire Freeman, sets the vision for inclusive cities, and usefully highlights the “darker side” of community: the exclusivity of gated communities and green field developments. Freeman’s comment that New Zealand has not yet seen a manufactured community which actively excludes children (as has recently been mooted in Australia) prompted me to reflect on the reality of retirement “villages”. Chapter two by Christine Cheyne provides a helpful historical overview of the development of planning in New Zealand in the last century. Chapter three by Merata Kawharu reflects on Treaty values in the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). Like Cheyne, Kawharu provides a valuable historical context to contemporary planning. In gentle support of Kawharu’s comment about the increasingly polarised nature of ethnic planning debates in our “stirred up times”, I recall my own Pakeha father’s passionate support for embedding the spiritual values of Maori in RMA legislation. Chapter four, by Wardlow Friesen, provides an insightful discussion of the consequences of recent migration with case studies from Manakau and Auckland City.

Non-spatial communities feature in chapters five, six, seven and eight. Rebecca Stringer reflects on the communities of young women graduates in the workplace and speculates on the impact of vertical and horizontal segregation on their life choices. Claire Freeman discusses how our communities plan (or fail to plan) for the needs of children, providing a useful literature review in the process. The growth and diversity of our elderly population are discussed by Patricia Austin, who notes that by 2051 one in five New Zealanders will be over the age of 85. Mark McQuire evaluates the evolution of online communities, and provides a case study of Xtra in New Zealand to illustrate his argument that the ownership and control of Internet Service Providers is more significant than technology in structuring virtual communities.

The second half of this book evaluates techniques used in planning to help communities bridge increasing differences and to talk across divergent world views. Each chapter provides a useful literature review. Elizabeth Aiken Rose examines the evolution of cultural planning and the case of Auckland’s Arts Agenda. Gail Tipa reviews the co-management approach to planning and its strengths and weaknesses for Maori. Sophie Bond and Michelle Thompson-Fawcett provide a valuable discussion of social learning in urban planning, and an evaluation of participatory planning in Wanaka. Diane Buchan draws on her planning facilitation experience to identify essential features for effective social impact assessment. Anaru Eketone and Pat Shannon discuss community development, drawing lessons from Kohanga Reo and the role of planners as “smugglers”, or agents acting against the state to address resource inequity.

The reality of living together in close proximity is examined in micro scale in Ann Dupius and Jennifer Dixon’s analysis of “body corporates” and better ways to plan for high density apartment living. Healthy communities are the subject of the chapter by Robin Kearns, Tim McCrenor and Karen Witten. Their argument that community health is more than biophysical is underscored by an analysis of the devastating loss of social infrastructure which accompanies school closures. The book concludes with a discussion from Thompson-Fawcett of a new agenda for urban planning.

In analysis and structure, Living Together highlights the strengths and the limitations of our emergent, bicultural approach to planning. In the wake of the demographic revolution New Zealand has undergone the book contains valuable lessons for those who wish to encourage listening across difference, and more effective planning for multicultural communities.

Reference

Putnam RD 2007. E Pluribus Unum: diversity and community in the twenty-first century. The 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture. Scandinavian Political Studies 30(2): 137–174.

Bronwyn Hayward

University of Canterbury

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