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.