R. Le Heron

Expanding exotic forestry and the expansion of a competing use for rural land in New Zealand

Abstract Significant areas of rural land in New Zealand have been turned over to non-agricultural use in the last 25 years. This study examines an historically specific development, the expansion of exotic plantation forestry (primarily Pinus radiata ), through an interpretive framework which uses categories specific to world capitalist production and to the New Zealand experience. The approach followed considers organisations and their potentially contradictory relations in various spheres of society as the means by which the social uses of land, consistent with capitalist relations of production, may be reached. The paper examines ‘organisations’ in theoretical terms as diverse and constrained social agencies and uses this interpretation when analysing the historical development of rural land use goals in New Zealand. The focus then shifts to contemporary structural relationships, especially in agriculture and forestry.

An exploratory analysis of linkage change within two regional industries

Le Heron R. B. and Schmidt C. G. (1976). An explanatory analysis of linkage change within two regional industries. Reg. Studies 10, 465–478. This paper discusses a number of issues related to the economic and geographic components of input-output linkage changes at the plant level. Emphasis is placed on defining the economic and geographic dimensions of linkage change, and outlining the conceptual and empirical issue associated with such analyses. Selected aspects of linkage adjustment are investigated through an analysis of 32 plywood-veneer and 20 iron-steel mills in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The productive status and growth characteristics of the mills is employed as a framework for investigating volume and non-volume linkage changes. Various relationships between productivity, growth, and linkage adjustments are identified and discussed. The implications of the research findings for regional growth theory and planning policies are also considered.

New Zealand Agriculture and Changes in the Agriculture—Finance Relation during the 1980s

In the 1980s New Zealand agriculture was reinserted into the global economy by state policy which favoured global capital at the expense of other capital fractions. An important aspect to the latest internationalisation of agriculture are changes in the agriculture—finance relation, specifically the institutional arrangements through which capital is allocated to and appropriated from agriculture and agricultural processing. The developments in the agriculture—finance relation in the 1980s is outlined with a look especially at the states retreat from lending to agriculture and new possibilities for corporate investment in land-based production. It is argued that the sale of the government agency, the Rural Banking and Finance Corporation (known as the Rural Bank) to New Zealands largest listed corporation, Fletcher Challenge Ltd (a global corporation with extensive forestry and fishery interests in the Americas) is a development of major historical significance in the New Zealand context. The sale introduces the possibility of unified control over production, realisation, and reproduction spheres in New Zealands agrocommodity chains. The paper ends with suggestions on the wider significance of the New Zealand development in the current international farm crisis.

Networking, technology, and governance: lessons from New Zealand horticulture

Cooperative business networking and technological learning have been treated as discrete features of successful regional economies. It is argued that both may be understood as governance solutions within the respective global commodity chains. Empirical evidence is examined of five export-oriented horticultural industries in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Within these industries a number of instances of networking and technological learning are identified and are found to be operating in a variety of regulatory contexts. Evidence from field interviews and three case studies, in particular, reveals the governance relations in effect in these commodity chains and how these lead to solutions such as networking and technological learning. These examples are also employed to support a more refined understanding both of governance and of regulation.

The Internationalisation of New Zealand Forestry Companies and the Social Reappraisal of New Zealand's Exotic Forest Resource

Industrial geographers are beginning to address country-specific changes in the wider setting of restructuring in the world economy. Developments in the New Zealand forestry sector are conceptualised as historically specific responses to structural processes, operating at global, national, and local scales. In this paper the changing state—economy relations associated with afforestation of exotic softwoods in New Zealand are examined, and forest utilisation issues are outlined. The emerging possibilities for the coordination of forestry production in New Zealand are also identified. Evidence is presented on the nature and degree of integration of ‘New Zealand’ private and state capital into the wood-fibre markets of the Pacific Rim. It is concluded that unprecedented restructuring in the 1980s by organisations, both private and public, engaged in New Zealands forestry production has made the realisation of forest assets in New Zealand difficult, with significant implications for owners of forests and for labour dependent on various facets of exotic forestry.

The diversified corporation and development policy: New Zealand's Experience

Le Heron R. B. (1980) The diversified corporation and development policy: New Zealands Experience, Reg. Studies 14, 201–217. The 1960s saw the large diversified multidivisional firm gain prominence throughout the world. This paper examines this type of enterprise, discusses its identifying characteristics and technological foundation, and explores some of the industrial and regional development implications of their emergence. The findings from a New Zealand case study of diversified firms provide evidence on how diversified firms behave and perform when the pace and level of industrialization is accelerated. An attempt is made to bridge some of the connections between the aggregate notions of organization theorists and plant/environment relations commonly addressed by geographers. Despite the partial nature of information utilized in the study, the results give further knowledge about the contribution of corporate enterprise to, particularly, long-run industrial and regional development.

Best-practice firms and productivity changes in the Pacific Northwest plywood and veneer industry, 1960 - 1972: some regional growth implications

The documentary evidence of aggregate studies suggests that high rates of productivity growth in many firms and industries are accompanied by high rates of output growth and, to a lesser extent, employment growth. The productive efficiency of firms within regional components of industries, however, has not been studied empirically. This paper summarises the results of an empirical investigation of the regional-development role of best-practice firms in the Pacific Northwest plywood and veneer industry. The study examined the interrelations between growth impacts of productivity performance and output and employment change, and the relative growth impacts of high productivity, best-practice firms vis-à-vis less productive, non-best-practice firms. The findings are discussed in relation to the process of regional-growth and regional-development planning.

Sustainability, corporate growers, regionalisation and Pacific‐Asia links in the Tasmanian and Hawkes Bay apple industries

SUMMARY This paper examines the differing modes of insertion of the Australian and New Zealand apple industries into world apple markets, part of the evolving global fresh fruit complex. It is argued that the mix and behaviours of key actors in the global apple industry are realigning market links and production systems. Industry actors in Australia and New Zealand are confronting issues of quality and sustainability as a result of pressures from consumers, regulatory measures in traditional and emerging markets, and new technologies of production and distribution. Governments are laying the foundations of national, regional and industry sustainability policies. An examination of the detailed structure and adjustments of the apple industry in Hawkes Bay and Tasmania reveals considerable differences in local responses, institutions and degree of restructuring of markets. The preferences and quality control requirements of export markets are increasingly important, to the extent that cultural dimensions app...

Globalisation, Food Regimes and ‘Rural’ Networks

At a time when references to ‘food regimes’, ‘food complexes’ and ‘food chains’ are signalling deepening understanding of the contemporary influences of globalisation on the economic relations of food, the associated dilemmas posed for rural areas and rural systems are also being reassessed. The conventional wisdom is that in respect of rural systems, the globalisation of agri-food systems has been characterised by changes in the organisation and methods of production, the nature of commodities and their supply patterns, and the nature of governance and regulation of production and consumption. In the paradigm of food regimes research, globalisation has been associated with a ‘third regime’ cohering around fruit and vegetables (Le Heron and Roche 1995). Some authors have argued that globalisation and sustainability are convergent themes in this food regime.

Towards Reconceptualising Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Processes for Sustainable Futures: Contributions from Economic Geography

This chapter considers what insights might begin to emerge were ideas and frameworks from economic geography about enterprise and entrepreneurship used by economic geographers to examine sustainability questions. The chapter suggests that at least three distinctive lines of economic geography inquiry, those informed by agent-centred neoclassical economics, political economy and poststructural political economy, offer a basis for embarking on the identification of issues and strategies for undertaking fresh conceptual work. The chapter begins with a discussion of why an engagement if this sort should be given priority. The discussion centres the importance of economic and ecological processes in their institutional settings as a point of entry to consider the differing aspirations and values associated with growth and innovation or sustainability oriented pathways. The chapter then explores how recent strands of research by economic geographers signal directions that could assist understanding of the difficulties likely to be met from a re-conceptualisation that emphasises sustainable futures.