The Geographically Uneven Development of Privatisation: Towards a Theoretical Approach

Abstract

Over the least decade a plethora of privatisation policies have been initiated in many countries of the world both at national level and at local level. Few attempts, however, have been made to analyse, within a theoretical framework, the geographically uneven development of privatisation policies both within, and between, regions and nation-states. This paper is an examination of the uneven growth between regional hospital authorities in the private contracting of public hospital ancillary services in New Zealand. A significant, if somewhat surprising, finding is that, after a surge in privatisation in the early 1980s, the process has virtually stagnated in the last few years. Possible reasons for this, and the more general spatial uneven development of this form of privatisation, are advanced and, on the basis of this study, some avenues for further research are indicated.