Dialogue: A chance to get to core of urban competitiveness

By PAUL SPOONLEY*

A lot of airtime has been devoted to making Auckland more competitive. The question is how to lift the city's economic performance to join the urban archipelago, those cities that are super-connected and are the high-energy nodes of the global economy.

That is great and a laudable aim. Auckland is an important powerhouse of the economy and if it is underperforming, New Zealand suffers. It is our most important gateway to global developments. But let's not forget people and the nature of their communities in the debate.

Economic performance is underpinned by social capital - the way in which people are hooked into the institutions that make up the city and enhance their well-being.

While New Zealand has been taking a little nap, there has been a tremendous amount of activity internationally on what future cities ought to look like.

The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (www.unchs.org) has been working on an urban indicators programme that provides a testbed for the adequacy of political institutions. It wants to promote best practice.

The European Commission established an urban environment expert group at the beginning of the 1990s, then the European Sustainable Cities Project, with its aims contained in the Aalborg Charter (www.sustainable-cities.org).

There are certain themes in common. If any city is to be competitive and sustainable, issues such as social cohesion, equity, well-being and inclusiveness need to be considered, not as an afterthought but at the core of urban competitiveness.

To achieve this, both the United Nations and the European Commission have worked hard at overcoming an information crisis. They admitted that they knew little about what was happening socially in cities.

They have developed extensive databases (Auckland does not feature in the global cities project) and shared best practice.

And they have begun to work hard at encouraging cities to ensure they are healthy and enjoyable for their residents.

Auckland is not totally disengaged from such considerations. The Quality of Life in New Zealand's Six Largest Cities report was published this year. It is a start but one of the things it did reinforce was how poor local data is. It did little to help us to understand some of the major changes that are happening, such as:

* The new world of work, as non-standard work patterns (teleworking, contract employment, part-time/temporary work) gain in importance, changing our travel, leisure and consumption patterns.

* The role of immigration in overcoming the ageing of the population and skill shortages and altering the cultural mix of Auckland.

* The fact that Pacific peoples will be the fastest-growing community, making the city an even more obviously Pacific one. Samoan is the most commonly spoken language behind English.

* The role of new technologies in producing virtual neighbourhoods, transnational communities and on-line services, including how we are governed.

* Moving from a sprawled city to a more compact one and the implications for the development of communities.

We desperately need to understand and capitalise on these developments to give Auckland its own unique place in global city development.

These concern social and community development with economic consequences, rather than the other way around.

There is one other issue that adds to the call from commentators for a unitary authority for Auckland.

A UN report, Cities in a Globalising World, issued this year argues that urban governance is at the core of improving a city.

There are four key elements: decentralisation (from central to local government); civil society consultation in policy-making; partnerships (between public, private and civil institutions); and process-driven and territorially based decision-making. Without local involvement and accountability, social and economic development is impeded.

To deliver on Auckland's potential, the question of governance is critical.

But following that, and alongside the undoubtedly important issues of economic competitiveness, attention must be paid to the inclusiveness of the city's systems and the well-being of its communities.

* Professor Paul Spoonley, a speaker at the congress, lectures in sociology at Massey University, Albany.