Privatization: Infrastructure on the Urban Edge

ABSTRACT:

In 1989 two public-private coalitions were formed to help plan and develop physical and social infrastructure in Rouse Hill, a minicity of a quarter of a million people for the northwest fringe of Sydney, Australia. Brought together at the instigation of state government bureaucrats, the coalitions were lobby groups and alternative providers of services. The groups drew on unequal resources and had different impacts on the development. Although subject to an increasingly expensive set of environmental requirements, the physical infrastructure providers seized the initiative in privatizing, gaining a large amount of control over the form and timing of development. In contrast, the social service coalition was a reluctant heir of privatization.