Regional development and global capitalism: the

Society and Business Review Regional development and global capitalism: the case of the Pilbara, Western Australia David Pick Kandy Dayaram Bella Butler

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Regional development and global capitalism: the case of the Pilbara, Western Australia David Pick, Kandy Dayaram and Bella Butler

Regional development and global capitalism 99

School of Management, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia


Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the Pilbara as an illustrative case study of some of the tension that arises out of a largely unmediated engagement of regional communities with neo-liberal globalisation and to demonstrate the usefulness of Harvey’s general matrix of spatialities as an analytical framework for examining such phenomena. Design/methodology/approach – In deploying Harvey’s matrix, attention is focused on one key intersection where tensions between differing perspectives and representations of regional development in the Pilbara are best conceptualised. These tensions are examined using qualitative data collected from 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews and policy documents from state and federal governments. Findings – The analysis indicates that there are various and sometimes conflicting values and perceptions about the effects of occupying one of the “spaces of global capitalism”. This is most evident in that while the extensive natural resources located in the region generate considerable wealth, the Pilbara communities are not necessarily reaping the full benefits of this wealth. Research limitations/implications – This research is limited in that it is a single case study. However, it does illustrate the limiting effects on regional development of narrowly focussed economic approaches fostered by neo-liberal policy perspectives that has applicability in other contexts. Originality/value – In applying Harvey’s matrix, the “space” occupied by the Pilbara is analysed in way that opens the various influences, contradictions and pressures to critical examination, providing opportunities for the development of alternative futures. Keywords Globalization, Regional development, Australia Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction Over the past decade, Australia has ridden a wave of increasing prosperity due to a rapid rise in the global demand for natural resources, particularly from China. As the Chinese economy boomed so did the Australian economy, but booms turn to bust and since late 2008, demand for natural resources significantly declined leading to mine closures, retrenchment of workers and the emptying of government coffers. This has led to serious doubts being expressed about the assumptions made by policy makers that by focussing on stimulating and facilitating engagement with global markets, growth and innovation will occur leading to regional development and the delivery of higher living standards. To illustrate this issue, the Pilbara Region of Western Australia is presented as an example of the consequences of unmediated exposure of communities to the ebbs and flows of global market forces. This paper is based on an original idea for a paper presented at the 11th Society for Global Business and Economic Development Conference, 27-30 May 2009, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.

Society and Business Review Vol. 5 No. 1, 2010 pp. 99-110 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1746-5680 DOI 10.1108/17465681011017282

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The Pilbara case is located in the national context of direct global economic engagement and in turn to the wider neo-liberal policy reform agenda that has been employed by successive Australian governments over the past two decades. During the mid-1990s, the USA and the UK models of neo-liberalism focussing on introducing the principles of free-market ideologies, competition, deregulation and privatisation were defined by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations and major global financial institutions as providing the answer to global economic, social and political problems (Held and McGrew, 2007). The effect of this has been to embed neo-liberalism within the policy settings of national governments around the world (Harvey, 2005). According to Beck (2000) this means the pursuance of a political project involving the elevation of global capitalism to pre-eminent status. In this paper, it is argued that the unleashing of global market forces as a key element of regional development policy can be understood as part of a neo-liberal rationality of government termed “new regionalism”. In this paper, this is connected to the Pilbara as it is a key natural resource region in Australia from which a significant proportion of the nation’s minerals, oil, and gas exports originate. As such, the region is conceptualised as occupying one of the “spaces of global capitalism” that may be understood through employing a general matrix of spatialities (Harvey, 2006). This approach is especially relevant to the Pilbara as it is located at an epicentre of global natural resource extraction where there is significant and on-going agglomeration of international capital in the form of resource extraction, processing and transport infrastructure (Table I). From Table I, it is clear that the region is continuously under production and modification in response to shifts in global commodity prices and demand. Harvey’s general matrix of spatialities is composed of nine different conceptualisations of space contained within a 3 £ 3 matrix. Along one axis are absolute space, relative space, and relational space. Along the other axis are material space, representations of space, and spaces of representation. Absolute space applies to all discrete and bounded phenomena. It is the space of private property and other bounded territorial designations such as states, regions, local governments, etc. Relative space is multiple in that it depends on the object being relativised and the observer themselves. In the former sense, there are various ways of observing locations (cost, time, energy expended, etc.) and the latter depends on the standpoint of the observer – their perceptions of particular spaces. In relational space, processes do not occur at a particular location but define their own spatial frame. Therefore, regions are conceptualised as being embedded in or internal to process. This means that understanding a region means examining everything that is going on around it. Regions do not though simply exist as the above three types of locations. The post-modern turn exposes the possibility that understandings are a product of discursive strategies Project status

Table I. Project investment in the Pilbara over four quarters 2006-2007 compared with September quarter 2008 in A$ millions

Committed Under consideration Under construction Total

December 2006 March 2007 June 2007 September 2007 September 2008 1,230 21,945 27,559 50,734

1,143 35,752 13,579 50,474

1,143 35,773 13,755 50,671

5,756 34,054 13,485 53,295

107 8,000 3,634 11,738

Sources: Department of Local Government and Regional Development (2007); Access Economics (2008)


that create locations. This calls attention to the notion that regions are social, cultural and political creations as much as they are physical locations. This gives rise to considering material space (regions as they are experienced), representations of space (regions as they are conceived and represented) and spaces of representation (regions as lived places of imagination and emotions). In the matrix, these different conceptualisations are placed up against each other and points of intersection suggest different modalities of understanding the meanings of locations (Harvey, 2006). 2. Methodology The analysis draws on two main sources of data. The major source is semi-structured, tape-recorded interviews with 21 members of the Pilbara community with direct interests in regional development. They were small business owners, officers from local and state government agencies, members of regional development agencies, representatives of non-governmental organisations working in the region, local educators, representatives of multi-national corporations operating in the Pilbara, and representatives of private business organisations. The interviews focussed on the issues and problems of regional development, and regional development policy as it is being played out in the Pilbara. The second source is published policy documents relating to regional development published by the Western Australian State Government and the Australian Federal Government. These documents provided valuable contextual details for the analysis. The interview data were analysed first by reading the transcripts to achieve an overall sense of the data. Then the responses of participants were compared and contrasted and initial codes were developed that referred to the similarities and differences between the interviews. This initial code list was categorised to reflect the experiences and perceptions of participants. The coding and categorisation were also cross-checked by the researchers to ensure consistency. These categories were used to examine Harvey’s matrix to determine which (if any) intersections corresponded with the emergent themes. On examination, it was clear that various intersections in the matrix connect to the data. For example, dimensions of the intersections between material space/absolute space and material space/relative space were evident in documentary descriptions of the Pilbara. Detailed descriptions of location, population, and natural resources refer to the former, and statistics about investment flows into the region allude to the latter. However, the themes that emerged from the data are most strongly associated with “lived spaces” (spaces of representation) and relative space (e.g. insecurity about government funding, anxiety regarding real and potential social and economic disintegration, and tensions over conflicting values). Thus, while Harvey advocates paying attention to all intersections of the matrix and investigating the tensions that exist between them; in this paper, we focus on a single intersection where relative space meets representations of space. This intersection is important, because it is here that significant issues and tensions are apparent that have a role in defining the future of the region particularly with regard to different spatio-temporal issues that cascade through other intersections of the matrix. The identified issues and tensions are illuminated and interpreted by deploying the theoretical perspectives of globalisation (Beck, 2000; Held and McGrew, 2007), disembedding/re-embedding (Beck, 1994; Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002), and regional sustainability (Auty, 1993; Rainnie and Grobbelaar, 2005). These perspectives


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are useful, because they relate closely to relative space and representations of space. Relative space draws attention to flows (e.g. global flows of commodities, capital, money, wealth, people, etc.) and space of representation is about the way people live in the world (e.g. the disembedding effects of globalisation). Putting the two together focuses attention on motions (e.g. shifts in the global economy) and responses (e.g. government policy).


102 3. The Pilbara 3.1 Location Located in the remote north west of Western Australia, 1,500 kilometres north of the state capital city of Perth, the Pilbara region covers an area of over 500,000 square kilometres and has a population of around 40,000 (Department of Local Government and Regional Development, 2006b). Large-scale mining activity has taken place in the Pilbara for nearly 50 years, but it is the past two decades that has seen accelerating expansion in iron ore extraction and the development of natural gas, oil, salt, and copper production mainly by large multi-national corporations. Since beginning of the 1990s, there has been a steady increase in the value of production of iron ore (approx. 60 per cent), oil (400 per cent), liquid natural gas (270 per cent), and natural gas (70 per cent) (Department of Local Government and Regional Development, 2006a). The region is also the production centre for 97 per cent of national iron ore output (Department of Local Government and Regional Development, 2006a). Clearly, the Pilbara is an important wealth-producing region. 3.2 The global versus the local According to Beck (2000), globalisation and localisation are two sides of the same coin in that globalisation not only leads to de-location, but also to relocation in what he describes as a “global-local nexus”. For example, firms cannot immediately produce and sell their goods and services globally. They must first develop local connections so that their product has a viable local market geared to particular local characteristics and tastes. In this sense, global means in many places at the same time. In this way, the global-local nexus refers to processes in which local traditions, companies, lifestyles, and so on become relocated within a global context where they must be justified, shaped, and renewed. Held and McGrew (2007) note that globalisation has neither rendered the nation state insignificant nor completely undermined the local (regional). Thus, for Beck (2000) globalisation is a multi-directional and multi-dimensional phenomenon. For example, communications technology, ecology, work organisation, culture, and civil society are all implicated in processes of globalising transformation; a criss-crossing of nation states by global actors with varying levels of power, orientations, identities and networks. In the case of the Pilbara, the major global actors are the multi-national mining companies and allied businesses. The needs of the mining industry are essentially to have access to the natural resources they wish to exploit, the physical infrastructure to support this exploitation (e.g. transport and port facilities), a policy/regulatory environment to facilitate this exploitation, and a readily available workforce. According to Humphreys et al. (2007), the actions of governments in providing this environment are critical to the “rent-seeking” behaviour of resource companies. In this regard, there is a tension between resource companies that aim to capture and maximise “rent” (i.e. the gap

between the value of the resource and the costs of extracting it) and governments who control the natural resources in question. In the context of the Pilbara, aspects of rent-seeking behaviour are described by one participant as follows: In that state agreement act, remembering too, that back then there weren’t any local government authorities because no towns existed, there was nothing here, so there were no local government, and in the state agreement act, the state government put the clause in which made the money come into them from paying rates for the use of their land. And not just for a certain period of time, but perpetually. That meant that, basically, they [mining companies] would never have to pay rates (D).


This is reflected in regional development policy more generally in that: What is going on economically in terms of regional development in the Pilbara [. . .] has been largely sustained by the natural resource sector that is fundamentally tied-in exclusively to the global economy ( J ).

Such policy settings are common at the state and federal levels across Australia with regard to regional development in which the tendency is to favour the role of market forces as opposed to direct intervention in regional development. This gives rise to policy strategies based on deregulation of the economy, privatisation, a reduced commitment to social welfare, and a focus on international competitiveness (O’Connor et al., 2001; Beer et al., 2007; Cocklin and Dibden, 2004). For regional development, this resulted in ignoring issues of socio-spatial equity, decentralised industrial development, and investment in non-metropolitan infrastructure and services (Tonts, 1999). Instead, emphasis was placed on local and regional competitiveness, economic efficiency, business, and self-help development strategies (Herbert-Cheshire, 2000) leading to a situation where limited government guidance is embedded into the prevailing policy framework (Tonts and Haslam-McKenzie, 2005). For Western Australia, regional development policy over the past decade has emphasised the role of government as a facilitator of economic development whose role is to ensure access to resources for exploitation, improve business support, and to plan and coordinate the development of economic activity in the regions. This is echoed in a current policy rhetoric of “partnership” (between governments and business), “diversification” (economic), “community” (education, health and safety) and “environmental management”. Government thus sees itself as a facilitator for business, fast-tracking mine developments, and eliminating regulatory encumbrances (for example, the Western Australian government has recently removed a longstanding ban on uranium mining). For a natural resource region such as the Pilbara, this means it may be seen as being little more than a large quarry. The effects of such a policy position have been that people who live and/or work in the Pilbara are exposed, in a largely unmediated way, to the ebbs and flows global markets creating tensions between large multi-national corporations operating there and regional communities. Although the Pilbara communities are reliant on mining activities, such activities are often seen as playing a part in creating problems in those communities such as housing shortages and the squeezing of local businesses. With regard to housing shortages, high rents are common in the Pilbara. Pownall (2009) reports that renting a family house in the region can cost around A$2,000 per week (compared to an average of A$350 in Perth). Such high housing costs are met by mining companies for their employees, leaving people who do not work in the mining



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industry priced out of the market. The situation is unlikely to get any better in the near future. Pownall (2009) cites the example of the coastal town of South Hedland where only about one-sixth of the demand for housing is being met. This results in many people living in their cars, in tents, and in caravans. This topic was commonly commented on by participants as a major problem, as one pointed out:

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It depends whether they are working for one of the big [mining] companies. If they are working for one, there is housing assistance. But if they working at one of the stores in town, then they would have to provide their own accommodation and it just is not there [. . .] Private renting is so expensive. People can’t afford to live. We have families living in the caravan park because that is the cheapest accommodation, but even that is beyond the means of a lot of people, especially when you have only one income earner (M).

Related to housing are the difficulties regional businesses have in recruiting and retaining staff. The cost and availability of housing makes recruitment difficult, but for regional businesses the situation is compounded by the ability of resource companies to pay much higher wages. As a result, many regional businesses are in a constant struggle for survival. Participants involved in the small business sector point out that: It’s difficult getting skilled people and keeping them here. You can’t get staff. They’re either all working out there [on mine sites] or they can’t afford to work and stay here. Small business can’t afford to pay the wages that they’re paying out there [on miner sites]. It’s a big problem (D). Lose out on all the trades people, painters, electricians, mechanics, all these people that would normally be work in small business in the town move into construction where they get paid twice or three times as much as they would in small business. They get housing allowance and all these extra benefits. Small business really suffers because they cannot provide that kind of money to people and they struggle to maintain staff (H). It is more expensive to live up in the Pilbara with fuel and general things to run a business, they are starting to fail because they can’t cover their costs, let alone employ staff to run a business. They can’t get staff and they can’t survive (B).

Standing in contrast are those workers and businesses that operate on a fly-in/fly-out basis where people live in more desirable locations (mainly in and around the state capital city of Perth) and “commute” to the Pilbara, working a “two-weeks on, one week off” pattern. Such an arrangement is desirable for the mining companies and allied businesses because it removes the need to provide expensive social infrastructure in the mining areas. This is also preferred by many employees who can earn the high salaries and wages associated with working in the resources sector whilst maintaining family and friendship networks, and remaining close to the superior amenities and services available in the city. Whilst this suits these groups, the effects on regional businesses and communities can be negative: People who come up here are up here for the big money, short-term. They are not here for long-term. You will find that people are in [. . .] fly-in/fly-out situations in which they make the money here but they fly out and spend it. The money is not used within the town (C). I think that there is a lot of ill-feeling in the community about that, particularly from business people. They see people coming into the area, but not supporting their business, but taking from the area (H).


In effect, there are two groups of people and businesses that have emerged from this engagement with global markets. The first group is those who have re-worked the way they operate and live in order to adapt to the shifting relationships brought about by globalisation. The second group is composed of those who remain attached to more traditional arrangements but risk being marginalised in the face of globalising trends. It is evident that the tensions between globalisation and localisation are complex (Beck, 2000). In the Pilbara context, the presence of large mining companies is re-positioning the region within global commodities markets but at the same time the mining companies rely on the national and state governments for access to natural resources who are accountable to their electorate. However, these same governments depend on the royalty and tax revenues from resource exploitation activities of mining companies to help pay for the services and infrastructure demanded by their populations. It is also clear that many Pilbara communities and businesses would not exist without the activities of mining companies but these activities bring with them negative effects. These complex relationships include a number of undesirable side effects that are perhaps compromising the long-term regional development potential of the region. The Pilbara region generates significant revenues for the large private corporations operating there, for the Western Australian state government, and the Australian federal government. However, it seems that these major players are unlikely to fulfil the promise of regional development to match the region’s wealth producing capacity and the expectations of those who live and work there. 3.3 Regional sustainability and exploitation The regional problems and issues associated with natural resource exploitation are well documented by Auty (1993), Davies and Tilton (2005), Humphreys et al. (2007) and Mehlum et al. (2006) in their examinations of the “resource curse”. In essence, the resource curse refers to a phenomenon where resource-rich regions tend to be outperformed economically by those regions with fewer resources. However, it can also be seen as a curse in that while wide-scale exploitation of natural resources such as that which is occurring in the Pilbara generates great economic wealth, it is at the cost of threatening irreparable damage to the natural environment, local economy and cultural heritage values of the region. As detailed earlier, government policies that prioritises the economic are common. In terms of regional development, these can be characterised as conforming to a neo-liberal inspired “new regionalism”. This perspective emphasises the integration of the regional economy into global production chains through the creation of linkages between local businesses and large multi-national corporations (Kearins, 2005). However, it is argued that such action privileges the economic (e.g. global competitiveness) at the expense of sustainability, bio-diversity and the local social economy (Chatterton, 2002; Webb and Collis, 2000). For the Pilbara, this has meant the retreat of government from regulation and allowing market forces to provide solutions to development issues. Before the discovery of the large mineral deposits of iron ore in the 1960s, the Pilbara contained some small-scale mining of gold and other minerals and extensive cattle stations (ranches). It has also been home to indigenous people for over 40,000 years and there is a rich and significant indigenous cultural history, particularly on the Burrup Peninsular that contains one of the world’s largest concentrations of


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rock etchings. Pressure has been mounting over the last five years to have the whole area placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. However, just off the Pilbara coast are large deposits of oil and natural gas meaning that the Burrup is also the location of significant industrial development. The total value of petroleum/gas production for the Pilbara in 2004/2005 was A$12 billion. Such large deposits has given rise to the development of a fertiliser plant and liquefied natural gas processing and export facilities on the peninsular. When combined with extensive iron ore mining activities of A$8 billion in 2004/2005 (Department of Local Government and Regional Development, 2006a), it is clear that the Pilbara is of major economic significance to Western Australia, the businesses that operate in the region, and the nations that buy those exports. The region also has high ecological value, being home to seven national parks including the iconic Karijini gorges and the Dampier Archipelago that are home to rare species of land and aquatic animals and plants, some of which are found nowhere else. These varying representations and values seem to be contradictory: For the tourism side of things, people want to come see spectacular scenery. They do not necessarily want to see spectacular scenery with an Iron Ore mine in the middle of it. There needs to be some vision that includes the environmental aspect (G).

One of the main justifications for the current approaches to regional development is simply that there is no alternative because (the argument goes) achieving social and environmental security depends on a healthy and growing economy. For the Pilbara as with many other parts of regional Australia, this is the dominant perspective in that regions can only develop and prosper through being globally competitive and being able to generate wealth through engagement with global markets. However, the Pilbara (if not Australia as a nation) is dependent on resource extraction and there are limits to development based on mining because as participants point out: There will certainly be development here for a period of time [. . .] eventually you will get to a point where those resources run out or they are no longer economically viable [. . .] there does not appear to be any future here beyond that (L). I see constellations of auxiliary subsidiary economic activities in the Pilbara that fundamentally only exist to support that foreign direct investment operation and activity. What I do not see and I don’t think exists much at all is a self sustaining, semi-independent economic sector that could stand up on its own feet if that large natural resource based economy left ( J ).

Indeed, the immediate future is also now beginning to look uncertain. As the global downturn turns to global recession and demands from around the world for action on climate change grow louder, serious questions can be posed as to whether the existing model of regional development is generating sustainable outcomes. 3.4 Disembedding and re-embedding The related processes of disembedding (Beck and Beck Gernsheim, 2002) and re-embedding (Beck, 1994) are useful for conceptualising the social and community tensions in the Pilbara. The process of disembedding and re-embedding involves first, the disembedding of ways of life and second, the re-embedding into a globally defined way of life that serves the global economy. For Baumann (2002) though, such ways of life are characterised as being chronically disembedded because the remaining taken-for-granted structures (such as family, community, trades unions, etc.) have


disintegrated in the face of individualisation. “Instead there are musical chairs of various sizes and styles [. . .] forcing men and women to be constantly on the move and promising no rest” (Baumann, 2002, p. XVI). Of those interviewed in the Pilbara, this disembedding phenomenon is apparent in the perception that government at all levels are largely ineffective, that decision making has been relocated outside the region, and that social solidarity and social economy are crumbling. With regard to government, while it is not uncommon to find a lack of confidence and trust in governments generally and their ability to influence events, this has a particular focus in the Pilbara. There is little confidence in the ability of local government. As one participant stated: There is a lot of talk on these situations, but there has been no action. If the communities see things are happening, it will give the community a different impression about local government (C).

This is also reflected in perceptions of the state government in that there was a feeling that the policy focus was not on developing regional communities: There’s a lot of disillusionment with the state government [. . .] on what they were delivering [. . .] it was their agenda, not our agenda (D).

Indeed, the disillusionment is carried up to the highest levels of the Australian federal government who again are seen as not providing adequate resources to the region: It is extraordinary that they [the Australian federal government] cannot be more generous and put more money back in the region. It could solve some of the basics that do not really require a lot of money ( J ).

It seems that in this case the lack of confidence and trust arises to some degree from the perception that most of the private and public ownership and decision-making rests outside the Pilbara. This has led to feelings of frustration and powerlessness amongst people in the region with an interest in development. This is illustrated by the comment of a participant involved in regional development policy: Probably 60 per cent of my life is spent dealing with people in resource companies and state government agencies that are outside the region. At the end of the day, a lot of government agency and decision makers are not based in the region (A). While we have representatives from all the major banks in town, only one of the banks has what is called a business unit in it that does business banking. Whilst other banks will actually take businesses details, what happens is [. . .] the decision making occurs anonymously in Melbourne or Sydney which becomes difficult for some small businesses [. . .] If you are sitting in Sydney or Melbourne, you just do not understand how the economy of the Pilbara works (A).

In terms of the disintegration of social solidarity and the social economy, it is clear that there is a perception that the prevalence of fly-in/fly-out employment has negatively impacted on the region: The bigger recourse to fly-in fly-out workforce I think is a disastrous setting in terms of developing that permanent population that starts to generate generations of local people and all the [other things] that makes the fabric of society ( J ).


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Indeed, even those who choose to live and work in the region tend not to remain for the longer term: It is such a different community because it is transient community. I am amazed at how many people come and go from the area (L).

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People still think the region is a place to come and make money and move on. The interesting thing is that late eighty’s, early nineties, they would probably make their money in two years and move on. I guess what we are seeing now is that it takes people five years to make their money and move on (A).


We would like to be here for at least five years. Again we have a block in Perth that we are building, but we are just going to what and see. Five years we might want to build [. . .] we have a five year plan (B). One of the problems with Karratha is that it is a transient population they tend to come and go quite a lot. It is therefore difficult to maintain a core group of people (H).

Strengthening local government and re-locating decision making to the region may help to strengthen the community and enable regional actors to make the Pilbara a more attractive place to live. Creating a regional government with strong links into communities may be an effective replacement for the currently underfunded and fragmented shire (local) councils. This may provide opportunities for regional communities to re-invent themselves from within rather than having change forced on them from the outside. In the Pilbara, there is a real hunger among local people to be more involved in the development process. As one participant points out: I really think in terms of sustainable development, the way it needs to go is putting the power and the money back into the hands of the people who are patching the battered region, people who want to do things, want to see the change (D).

4. Conclusion In this paper, Harvey’s (2006) general matrix of spatialities in combination with the concepts of globalisation, regional sustainability, and disembedding were employed to examine the causes, characteristics and consequences of current regional development trajectories on the Pilbara. In examining the region, a deeper understanding of the challenges of such broad scale global practices, economic trends (such as booms and busts), and market-oriented policies was possible. While it is recognised that a single case study may be limited in its generalisability, this analysis resonates more broadly with the debates about how neo-liberal globalisation is reconfiguring the economic, social and political relationships of individuals and communities in ways that serve interests that coalesce around the promotion of an unfettered form of global capitalism. In calling for a broader policy intervention that goes beyond a narrow economic focus, using Harvey’s matrix illuminates some of the tensions produced when market forces are allowed to take centre-stage in regional development (e.g. conflicting values over land use, the disintegration of governance, and the privileging of the economic in policy making). To create a fuller understanding, Harvey suggests that analysis should range freely across all position in the matrix. Perhaps, a way forward would be to blend detailed analysis on each intersection in the matrix with broader matrix thinking. This may serve to pull together critique and analysis in a way that provides a coherent account of regional development and allows polices and practices of


governments and businesses to be seen as contested terrain. Three examples can be drawn from this research. First, by analysing the case of land use, attention is called to the connection between global demand for commodities, the exclusion of indigenous people from their ancestral lands and their subsequent alienation from mainstream society (i.e. where absolute space intersects separately with material space, representations of space, and spaces of representation). Second, examining the disintegration of regional governance highlights the nexus of global, national and local interests, for example, the activities and impact of pressure groups, policy strategies of governments and corporations in the imagining of alternatives versus hegemony (i.e. where relational space intersects separately with material space, representations of space, and spaces of representation). Third, shedding light on the privileging of the economic in policy-making focuses analysis on the ways in which the market mechanism is seen as providing the solution to social and economic problems, thus favouring exchange value over all others, resulting in the commodification of the social and cultural spheres (i.e. where relative space intersects separately with material space, representations of space, and spaces of representation). Such comprehensive analysis would then leave open possibilities for developing alternative visions of regional development. This is especially relevant given the unfolding global recession that threatens national economies in ways not seen since the 1930s and seems likely to overturn the neo-liberal economic orthodoxy that has been accepted around the world for the past three decades. References Access Economics (2008), Investment Monitor – September 2008, Access Economics, Sydney. Auty, R.M. (1993), Sustainable Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis, Routledge, London. Baumann, Z. (2002), “Individually, together”, in Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (Eds), Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences, Sage, London, pp. xiv-xix. Beck, U. (1994), “The reinvention of politics: towards a theory of reflexive modernization”, in Beck, U., Giddens, A. and Lash, S. (Eds), Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order, Polity Press, Cambridge, pp. 1-55. Beck, U. (2000), What is Globalization?, Polity Press, Cambridge. Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002), Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences, Sage, London. Beer, A., Kearins, B. and Pieters, H. (2007), “Housing affordability and planning in Australia: the challenge of policy under neo-liberalism”, Housing Studies, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 11-24. Chatterton, P. (2002), “Be realistic: demand the impossible: moving towards ‘strong’ sustainable development in Australia”, Sustainable Development, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 79-89. Cocklin, C. and Dibden, J. (Eds) (2004), Sustainability and Change in Rural Australia, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. Davis, G.A. and Tilton, J.E. (2005), “The resource curse”, Natural Resources Forum, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 233-42. Department of Local Government and Regional Development (2006a), Pilbara: Economic Perspective: An update of the Economy of Western Australia’s Pilbara Region, Government of Western Australia, Perth.


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