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‘What Goes Around Comes Around’: Informal Activities and Reciprocity Networks in Westport, New Zealand
Author(s) -
SCOTT GARY
Publication year - 2000
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.1745-7939.2000.tb00558.x
Subject(s) - reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , restructuring , unemployment , economic restructuring , local economic development , informal sector , sociology , demographic economics , economic growth , labour economics , economics , social science , finance
The article reports the results of a survey into the informal activities of 47 households in the unemployment‐affected small town of Westport, New Zealand. Overall levels of household informal participation are found to be fairly high across all income groups. There is an abundance of informal resources in the surrounding area and a longstanding local culture encouraging participation. However, differentiated ‘established local’ and ‘new local’ reciprocity networks, reflecting broader scale processes of social and economic fragmentation, have emerged since a major round of state and private sector restructuring occurred in 1987.