This book examines suburban development in New Zealand and its conflict with and impact on local horticulture and food security.
Drawing on an ethnographic study of Auckland’s rapidly expanding urban periphery, combined with comparative case studies from California in the USA and Victoria in Australia, the book examines how the profit-making strategies of property developers and landowners drastically reshapes work and life at the edge of cities. With a significant portion of the world's croplands lying adjacent to cities, the accelerating pace of urban sprawl across the planet places unprecedented pressure on the productivity and even existence of these vital food bowl regions. The book examines how the demand for more land for development at the urban periphery collides with concerns over local food security and the protection of ecosystem services. It analyses land use policy, historical records, and physical patterns of development, alongside participant observation of local events. It combines this with interviews with government officials, property developers, landowners, local residents and horticulturists. By combining these narratives of the hectic and lucrative business of suburban property development with the collapse of local horticulture, this book shows how the realignment of the New Zealand's interests of financial profitability over other concerns led to the transformation of urban peripheries from a productive food bowl to an investment vehicle.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of urban food and agriculture, urban planning and development and rural-urban studies.
By:
Benjamin Felix Richardson
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032509334
ISBN 10: 1032509333
Series: Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 18 December 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Introduction: the suburban frontier Part One Financializing the Kumeu River Valley 1. The rise of property development, the collapse of horticulture, and the restoration of financial power in Kumeu-Huapai 2. The historical process of the capitalization of the Kumeu River Valley 3. The axiologies of Kumeu-Huapai’s land 4. The political economy of peri-urban sprawl in Auckland Part Two Life at the edge of the city 5. National and international comparative case studies on financially driven peri-urban development 6. Class, social allegiance, and race at the colonial urban periphery 7. Food sovereignty and peri-urban horticulture 8. Climate change and the future of peri-urban development 9. Conclusion: cities on the edge
Benjamin Felix Richardson is a Doctoral Candidate and a Professional Teaching Fellow in the department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
