Public Consultation and Place-Marketing in the Revitalisation of the Port Adelaide Waterfront

Abstract

The Port Adelaide waterfront redevelopment is a property-led urban venture that is being driven by a logic and ideology of new forms of urban politics that are oriented towards post-industrial capital accumulation. While local residents are in favour of the waterfront being revitalised there is concern about the nature and scale of the redevelopment being proposed. Through a carefully managed ‘place-marketing’ process, the Port's industrial landscape is to be re-conceptualised as a future-oriented landscape of cosmopolitan residential–work–leisure lifestyle as an expression of desire for professional occupancy. The study reveals that local participation and influence in planning decisions of this public–private venture is somewhat marginal to economic considerations.