Governing urban waterfront renewal: the politics, opportunities and challenges for the inner harbour of Port Adelaide, Australia

Abstract

The redevelopment of the Port Adelaide waterfront is symbolic of a new era in institutional urban planning, one that is being driven by an entrepreneurial logic more commonly associated with a market rationality. Urban entrepreneurialism describes a complex set of discursive orientations, which are evident in the planning, delivery and financing of this waterfront revitalisation. This new urban politic is considered to offer a pragmatic solution to what has been considered a landscape in social and material decline. More often waterfront regeneration is high density and property led, which is geared towards a select housing consumer and investor. Housing is therefore being consumed as an expression of an image of desire and status and as a commodity form that is distinctive. Developments of this nature therefore raise questions regarding the extent to which wealth creation through speculative real estate is favoured over redistribution and equity, especially at a time of global uncertainty in the financial market system