In community governance contexts, civic leaders frequently call on
‘community’ to support or oppose a policy proposal. Whether it’s to lobby to be
at the decision-making table or respond to a change in geographic scope; or
react to environmental pollution or assert a sense of place and belonging,
those in civic leadership roles invoke an idea of community that is, apparently
easily recognised and well understood by others. But is it?
What academics understand by community is well documented but what civic
leaders mean by community is unknown. Understanding what civic leaders mean
when they invoke community – in terms of who they are referring to, what
interests are being represented and how they want public policy to be shaped –
is profoundly important in understanding the nature, content and effects of
community governance.
Te Aroha Hohaia, a PhD candidate in the School of Government at Victoria
University of Wellington, will present one of a number of case studies
informing her doctoral research on the conceptions of community amongst civic
leaders in Taranaki, Aotearoa-New Zealand. She will talk about the range of
understandings of community across three distinct policy worlds driven by
infrastructural pragmatism, environmental consideration and political
accountability. In doing so, Te Aroha will be looking at an emerging theme around
community as a way of governing.