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Jack Ross and Grant Duncan (eds.) (2010) 11 Views of Auckland Albany: Massey University.
Reviewed by Steve Matthewman
This co-edited book is the tenth in Massey University's Social and CulturalStudies series. The series aims to collect high quality multidisciplinary workorganised around a particular theme or research methodology. Here we haveeleven scholars with backgrounds in anthropology, education, fine arts, literary and religious studies, social policy and sociology, offering their views of New Zealand's most multicultural city. Each chapter has its specific point of entry and object of study: a people (tangata o te moana nui a Kiwa), a suburb (Freemans Bay), an architectural style (gated communities, skyscrapers), an island (Waiheke), literature (crime fiction, commemoration), an activity (city governance, immigration, religious practice and walking).
Most of us that live here like to think of Auckland as an exceptional city. As these contributors note, it is not necessarily exceptional in a good way. Graeme MacRae writes: our city has 'never been one where old buildings, ordinary people or public facilities are much valued'. It took major earthquakes to do to Christchurch what planners, public officials and property developers did to ours. We have an executive mayor with powers and resources beyond compare. And, thinking beyond national barriers for a moment, we have a transport plan that is still mired in the...