Premium
The Dunedin Mayoral Election
Author(s) -
HORTON STEPHEN
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
new zealand geographer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1745-7939
pISSN - 0028-8144
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-7939.1997.tb00474.x
Subject(s) - victory , contradiction , alliance , politics , equity (law) , political economy , political science , order (exchange) , reproduction , sociology , law , economics , philosophy , epistemology , finance , ecology , biology
In an electoral upset in 1995 Dunedin elected its first woman and first Sikh mayor. This paper argues that the symbolic discourse of the mayoral election confronted the Dunedin electorate with the question of ‘fairness’ or equity in the city. Turner's victory signalled the symbolic rejection by a plurality of voters of the ruling neo‐liberal political economy of Dunedin. In the same election the incumbent council, in a political reproduction of the ruling order, was returned. The paper explores this contradiction. It concludes that Dunedin's struggle for a new ruling political alliance necessary to combat a stagnant city economy has just begun.