This research draws upon the writings of Michel Foucault and a range of governmentality texts to problematise those planning techniques and practices promulgated in an attempt to produce particular ideals of community. To accomplish this I have focused predominantly on the discourses pertaining to the Golden Grove Development. The histories I re-construct from these discourses demonstrate how ideals of community have been constituted and how they act as technologies of government. The goals of these governmental technologies, I argue, were the normalisation of particular suburban subjectivities, with the intent to maximise economic gains and minimise financial, temporal, spatial and social risks. In the discourses of the Golden Grove Development subjects are positioned as docile and self-disciplined individuals who are active in the government of their own conduct. This governmental practice was in accordance with the goals of the planners and developers of the suburban site. The pre-occupation with the production of ideals of community was one that was legislated by indenture. It was also a theme that the developers harnessed and developed to market and sell the development. / The resultant suburban landscapes reflect specific lifestyles which consequently alienate, limit or deny others. Ideals of community thus act as technologies of polarisation rather than as mechanisms to create a "e;cohesive community"e; which was a paramount objective in the planning discourses of the development. The Golden Grove Development emerged at a time when neo-liberal rationalities began to proliferate. Proponents of the project considered ideals of community to be fundamental to the financial and social success of the new suburban development. This is evident in key Golden Grove planning, marketing, development, legislative and business texts, which point to the actual production of particular ideals of community. The planning techniques and practices that underpinned these ideals were significant in the Golden Grove Development being ranked as a 'benchmark community' for the planning of other new residential developments across Australia. The histories of the new suburban development that I re-construct focus on how ideals of the 'good community' have been and continue to be produced, circulated and put into effect in some of the most significant Golden Grove 'community' sites. / I argue that the planners of the Golden Grove Development conceived 'community' as a phenomenon that was deterministically achievable, 'normal', 'good' and 'truthful'. My research disrupts these notions by analysing ideals of community as technologies of government. The aim of these studies is to acknowledge and contest suburban government and thereby open up other possibilities to think about techniques and practices of suburban planning. / Thesis (PhDPlanning)--University of South Australia, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267434 |
| Creators | Bosman, Caryl Jane. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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