'Managing for a Prosperous Auckland?: Critical Reflections on Regional Interventions for Growing New Zealand's Economic Centre'

In the context of a peripheral, small and largely resource-based economy, New Zealand's policy makers face the key challenge of facilitating local-global economic connections of firms and regions. Auckland, New Zealand largest city-region, has become a key site for policy development and institutional creativity in this context recently. This paper provides critical insights from a doctoral dissertation into the changing institutions, state processes and policy practice that have characterised regional economic intervention into Auckland's economy under neoliberalising political-economic conditions over the last decade. It asks to what degree these developments may have contributed to a more effective management of the regional economy, and highlights problem areas and tensions. It is hoped that this academic analysis stimulates critical reflection amongst practitioners and theorists engaged in regional policy development, policy-relevant research and strategic economic interventions at a sub-national geographical scale.