Abstract

This paper explores the contribution that information and communication technologies (ICTs) make to regional development. ICTs offer the potential to improve the nature of information flows within regional settings. This research investigates the impact that ICTs have at the regional level, and the role they play in developing local, regional and global networks. The ICT networks are themselves affected by local regional culture and this research examines the recursive relationship between the soft networks created by social capital and hard ICT-based networks.

The setting for this research is regional New Zealand. One urban and one rural region have been studied over the twenty year period, from 1985 to 2005. In the regional setting tacit or soft knowledge is built up through networks such as “Women in Dairying” and “Grey Power”. Social interaction and the exchange of information are easier and cheaper in the regional context. Within the regional setting these soft social networks interact with hard ICT-based networks, and when brought together they can facilitate both national and international information flows.

A historical approach has been used to plot the development of both soft and hard networks in the two contrasting regions. In terms of soft networks New Zealand became more culturally diverse and tolerant of different lifestyles especially in the urban areas. Social capital in terms of volunteering and membership of community groups was high throughout the period though its form changed. As the country worked on developing new global trading links with new partners in Asia, there was a parallel fast take up of new ICTs such as the Internet which offered the opportunity to overcome some of the barriers created by the geographic remoteness of New Zealand.

The focus of this paper will be on the interplay between these soft social networks and the hard ICT-based networks and the role they play in establishing national and global linkages.

Keywords: Social capital, ICTs, regional development, New Zealand

Introduction

New Zealand’s geographic location as a small country at the bottom of the South Pacific poses particular problems for the national economy’s integration into the global economy. New Zealand’s relative isolation as compared to other counties means that the costs of exporting and importing are high. Primary industries dominate, and exports of meat and dairy products make a large contribution to New Zealand’s economy. Though the dairy industry has been doing well in recent years this dependence on the export of primary products is a potential liability. However industries such as forestry, horticulture, fishing, manufacturing and tourism have become increasingly significant, and over the past decades, many new industries have emerged and grown strongly, including software, biotechnology, electronics, marine, education exports, media/film and wine (Schollman, O'Neill, Doczi, & Kelly, 2002).

New Zealand is divided into a number of regions, which form the unit of analysis for this research. Regions are broadly equivalent to provinces in Canada, counties in England or states in the USA. Regions are significant as the density of communications within a defined geographic area, together with a common culture have the potential to produce regional centres of innovation (Cooke, 1996; Storper, 1995). However, regions can also be unsuccessful, rural regions in particular often suffer from out-migration as skilled people leave for broader educational and employment opportunities in the cities. Additionally enhancements and upgrades of physical infrastructure in rural areas often don’t keep pace with technological progress. This has caused problems for some of New Zealand’s rural regions, and in some cases induces a vicious cycle of decline (Schollman, et al., 2002).

The aim of this research is to examine the contribution of ICTs to regional development, looking in particular at the relationship between soft people-based networks and hard ICT-based networks. ICTs open up opportunities for greater engagement with the global economy (Amin & Thrift, 1994), but whether this potential is taken up or not is influenced by the strength of local regional networks (Lagendijk & Cornford, 2000). ICTs contribute to the development and maintenance of networks that facilitate both bonding within the region and bridging beyond the region (Malecki, 2002a). However the relationship between hard and soft networks is recursive, the strength of the regional culture also influences the success of ICT-based networks (Malecki, 2002b). This research investigates how ICTs assist with bonding and bridging at the regional, national and global levels, and assesses how regional culture impacts on the success of ICT-based networks.

This article addresses three research questions.

1) Are ICTs helping to progress the nature of information flows within regional settings?

2) Do ICTs improve levels of bonding within the region and bridging beyond the region?3) How does the local regional culture affect the use of ICTs?

3) How does the local regional culture affect the use of ICTs?

The “Learning Region”

The research investigates the contribution that ICTs can make to the development of “Learning Regions” in New Zealand. The term “Learning Region” is widely used in the field of economic geography to identify regions that have been economically successful over a period of time and that have successfully adapted to changed circumstances (Cooke, 1996; Florida, 1995; MacLeod, 2000; Storper, 1995). Such regions are characterised by the following factors: a competitive strategy based on learning; intense intra-regional linkages; capacity for innovation; creativity in both arts and sciences; efficient information flows; and regional norms and values that provide stability (Lash & Urry, 1994; Storper, 1995).

Why have regions become so significant in the 21^st century? The period since the 1970s has been one of radical restructuring, with movements from mass production to flexible specialisation Fordism to post-Fordism, organised to disorganised capitalism and industrial capitalism to the informational age (MacLeod, 2000). Storper (1995), in investigating regional economic development, identifies that the territorial ordering of product innovation, learning technologies and social interaction networks helps to define learning orientated production systems, within districts such as NE Central Italy and Ille de France.

Storper is not alone in this as many authors are identifying regions as the most important sites in which to capitalise on the flows of knowledge that abound in contemporary globalisation. Regional coalitions create economic and social relations to facilitate interactive learning, innovation networks, institutional thickness and soft social capital. Kenichi Ohmae (1995) argues that region states are developing around regional centres such as the Bay area around Silicon Valley, and Southern China around Hong Kong. Saxenian (1994) in a comparative study of Route 128 in Massachusetts and Silicon Valley in California argues that the success of the latter owes as much to its rich technical and commercial relationships as to the competitive rivalries and initiative of individual entrepreneurs. These regional innovation systems are often more successful than national innovation systems due to more effective knowledge sharing, and a common regional culture.

Morgan (1997) uses a network paradigm to show that flows of knowledge and social capital can be most appropriately nurtured at a regional level where regular interactions can be sustained over time. Storper (1995) introduces the concept of untraded dependencies. These include institutional norms and values such as trust, reciprocity and cooperation, as well as regional conventions inherent in labour markets and public institutions. These interdependencies are vital to economic and organisational learning and co-ordination. They are based on collective tacit knowledge that cannot be removed from its human, cultural and social context. In other words, it is knowledge that is territorially specific. Soft infrastructures such as conventions, trust-based interactions and civic cultures are inherently esoteric and intricate and therefore harder to identify than more visible public infrastructures such as roads, schools, training colleges, or the formulation of inward investment strategies. Florida (1995) describes the learning region as a large-scale version of a knowledge intensive firm. Regions must adopt the principles of learning in the provision of a series of inter-related infrastructures in production, human capital, physical and digital communications, alongside an effective system of industrial governance.

Knowledge flows are important to regional innovation systems. Tacit knowledge is more easily transferred within a regional context where constant interaction and exchange is easier and cheaper and tacit assumptions are more easily decoded, than in a national or international context. The innovative capacity of the regional firm is directly related to the learning ability of a region (Oughton, Landabaso, & Morgan, 2002). The learning that takes place between the businesses in a region depends on there being a pool of business intelligence that will trigger demand for new knowledge, and the access and availability of that knowledge. Usually regional government plays a key role in facilitating the development of a successful learning region, and well founded co-operation between the private and public sectors is critical in building the networking culture required for inter organisational learning (Morgan, 1997).

Figure 1 illustrates some of the possibilities for flows of information within a learning region. Both the public and private sectors and their interactions are sustained by networks, there are “soft networks” for social interaction, and also “hard networks” that plug into the Internet (Malecki, 2002a). The competitiveness of firms depends not only on the degree to which they are embedded within local networks of suppliers, but also on the presence of links to external markets. Successful regions, like successful companies, maintain connections with other places in the global economy. However, although scanning the external environment is a common activity within firms, this seems to be far less common among cities and regions (Malecki, 2002b).

Organisations’ most valuable inputs will be those that are scarce, e.g. unique resources, a unique patent, or fishing rights, or having the ability to do something better than their competitors. By being localised in a region, organisations are able to utilise factors in their surroundings that are not accessible to their competitors. One approach is to try to create a competitive advantage through learning, and this is most successful when done at a regional rather than an organisational level. The sharing of the tacit knowledge concentrated in a particular geographical area results in a cross-fertilisation of ideas that creates an innovative regional culture. There is a general agreement that in order to develop learning regions more effort needs to be put into promoting inter-organisational flows of information and knowledge (Morgan, 1997).

The Study

A framework was developed by reviewing the literature that covered the concept of the learning region and identifying common terms and themes. These terms were ranked according to how often they were mentioned, and ordered into six different categories. These categories are presented as the 6-I framework, shown in Table 1. The characteristics that a learning region should possess are: interconnecting; informing; innovating; interacting; infrastructure and income. This framework was used as a basis for data collection and analysis.

This paper focuses on the two categories most relevant to the development of hard and soft networks; interconnecting and interacting. The interconnecting category is about building networks, these could be bridging networks that create new national or global links, or bonding networks that reinforce existing regional networks. The interacting category covers social capital and the focus is on bonding. The presence of well-developed soft networks in terms of good social capital has been shown to have a strong influence on the take up of hard ICT-based networks, and as these ICT networks become established they will in turn help to build up the soft networks (Simpson, 2005).

Figure 2 provides more background to explain the interconnections between the six different factors in the “6-I” framework. Individual learning feeds into human capital, which provides the competitive individuals who, if brought into contact with each other through appropriate networks, can produce innovations. When combined with appropriate cultural capital, human capital also allows social capital to be formed. The cultural capital of a region is a result of each area’s unique history, and ethnic diversity. Regional learning takes place by utilising existing practices and procedures, and adapting them to new problems. The phrase adopted by the Otara[1] Digital Opportunity Group “walking backwards to go forwards” sums this up nicely (Symington, 2003, p. 11). Regions need to learn how best to exploit their existing cultural capital in order to be successful in the knowledge society. High levels of social capital and trust within society will cross over into individual organisations, providing good conditions for the development of organisational learning.

The processes within the regional learning system itself are characterised by the existence of networks, institutions, and by a commitment to learning. The system may contain various clusters of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that are involved in various networks. The networks are critical to a region’s success, as it is through interaction between the different actors that innovation occurs. The outputs of a successful regional learning system will be innovation, leading to economic development and social cohesion. Within the regional learning system itself strong bonds will exist between the SMEs and other actors within the region. It is also important that bridging links stretching beyond the region, both nationally and internationally are present. Bridging is essential for regions to develop and find markets for their innovations.

Regional networks take time to develop and in order to answer these questions historical methods were chosen as the most appropriate research methodology. Historical methods consist of a collection of techniques and approaches which draw on both traditional history, and social research (Mason, McKenney, & Copeland, 1997a, 1997b). Historical methods provide a powerful set of tools for addressing broad, big picture questions (Neuman, 2003). Historical methods were used to investigate how regional information networks build up over time, and the role that ICTs play in the development of these networks. Two contrasting regions of New Zealand were selected for study: Southland is located in the South Island of New Zealand and has a mostly rural economy; Wellington is in the North Island and includes a major city plus suburban areas.

In order to cover the period from 1985 to 2005 data was collected at three intervals throughout the period, the years of 1985, 1995 and 2005. For each of these years data collection was carried out by searching for relevant articles in three daily newspapers and one national weekly magazine. In New Zealand there are no national newspapers, each regional area has its own newspaper(s) and the focus is on local events. Each publication was scanned for material relevant to the factors identified in the “6-I” model. Summaries of relevant newspaper articles were entered into an Access database and grouped by topic under the relevant “6-I” code using pattern matching (Miles & Huberman, 1994). This process resulted in a database that held over 2,400 articles. As the findings were written up. the initial coding was refined and some articles were reassigned to different categories or classified as irrelevant. The data from the newspaper articles was supplemented by twelve interviews with key figures in each region, together with government reports and regional and national statistics.

Interconnecting

Analysis of the regional newspapers revealed four significant trends around the area of “Interconnections”. There was evidence of a strong push to develop global trading linkages with new partners in Asia, Russia and the Middle East. Information technology was making a major impact on organisational form. New Zealand was becoming more connected as access to both national and global information networks increased. Throughout the period both the business and community sectors provided examples of clusters, joint ventures and networks. Bridging links were being developed both through trade and the exchange of information. The following sections provide a more detailed analysis of each of these four trends.

Building up global trade links was a pressing issue for New Zealand during the period studied. The reduction in traditional export markets made it necessary to look for new markets and also to find new products to sell. The strong growth in many Asian economies during this period provided an opportunity of which New Zealand was quick to take advantage. Exports to Asian countries increased; trade links were improved through visits by trade delegations; and export links were established by Asian business people based in New Zealand. New Zealand was not alone in this, many countries were keen to develop trade links with the Asian tiger economies, but New Zealand’s relative proximity to Asia gave it (along with Australia) an added incentive. However, there was a fear of an “Asian Takeover” that still exists to the present day, and Asian investments in the New Zealand economy were seen as a mixed blessing. Though there was a general desire to grow trading networks with Asia, there was a reluctance for key New Zealand assets, such as large dairy farms to pass into foreign ownership.

Though trade with Asia grew strongly, as Table 2 shows, Australia was still New Zealand’s top export market and trade with the UK remained significant, Japan and the USA were also consistently important as trading partners. The success in reaching new export markets was not matched by an increased diversification in the range of products on offer. Primary products, particularly agricultural products, still made up the bulk of exports. The agricultural sector utilised New Zealand’s “clean, green image” to make sure its products appealed to affluent consumers in overseas markets. Dairy farming in particular became increasingly streamlined and successful. This success did not allay the on-going concerns of successive national governments and their economic advisors that an economy based heavily on primary products was too exposed to the vagaries of the global marketplace.

In 1985 the use of ICTs was beginning to have a major impact on organisational form with a wide range of business and government organisations setting up networks to link their branch offices around the country. Newspaper articles reported on ten different organisations that were either implementing or considering implementing a network.

By 1995, most large organisations already had a computer network and the emphasis was on upgrading existing systems. Many of the upgrades were necessary due to the increase in network traffic caused by Internet usage; others were due to the switch to new multimedia based systems.

In 2005 the trend for spending significant amounts on upgrading IT infrastructure continued, for example a District Health Board and a Government Department both announced $4 million upgrades. Some of the upgrades involved integrating information and making it available in electronic form, others focused on improving network capacity.

The emergence of the networked organisation was a global trend. Throughout the period studied the use of ICTs by organisations became so widespread, that by 2005, it was unusual to find a business that did not make some use of a computer. What was happening in New Zealand was similar to what was happening in many other countries around the world.

In 1985 what the press termed the “information explosion” was beginning to impact New Zealand with the increasing availability of information at the global, national and regional levels. The information flow worked both ways; as well the explosion of international information entering the country, New Zealand was also able to send its own domestic information out to the rest of the world. A significant trend in New Zealand was the widespread adoption of Videotex[3] systems across a wide range of sectors including agriculture, tourism, finance, horse racing and public libraries.

By 1995 the Internet had taken over from Videotex as the main conduit for information exchange and its use was growing rapidly. It was being used as both an information provider and a marketing tool. The availability of the Internet was increasing especially in Wellington where Victoria University offered Internet access to the local business community through its subsidiary Netlink, and the first Internet Café and the first Internet Bar were opened.

In 2005 the Government launched an innovative Digital Strategy (Ministry of Economic Development, 2005) which included the development of two major national networks. A shared voice and data network would link up all government agencies with the dual aims of cutting costs and enabling collaboration and the Advanced Network would provide gigabyte data links between universities and research institutes in order to facilitate collaboration in research and the development of e-learning. The 2006 census reported that 60.5% of people throughout the country now had home access to the Internet, in Wellington this was 65.5% and in Southland 53.1%.

The data revealed a real hunger for information and new developments in ICTs, particularly the Internet, were eagerly seized upon as a means of improving contact with the rest of the world. Time and time again New Zealand stood out as a very fast adopter of new technologies when compared to other countries. More and more information came into the country, however the flow of information out from New Zealand to the rest of the world was much smaller, and the use of ICTs tended to amplify this imbalance. For example in Wellington, one local broadband provider estimated that in 2006, seventy percent of the traffic over their network was international, 20% national and only 10% local (Naylor, 2007). In Southland, the local broadband provider also confirmed that most traffic was international.

There was evidence of a physical movement of people which complemented the links made through ICTs. New Zealand students spent time in other countries, and overseas students were hosted in New Zealand. The increased mobility of people reflected global trends as air travel became relatively more affordable and people became more affluent.

The growth in clustering and networking was a worldwide trend, and many countries were exploring the benefits of these approaches. These strategies offer the benefits of economies of scale for small businesses who want to compete in global markets. They also enable research and development costs to be shared by a group of organisations. As small businesses make up a large percentage of the New Zealand economy the potential advantages offered by clustering are of particular interest.

Both Wellington and Southland contained active networks, though there was a tendency for these to be sector-based rather than connecting up different regional players, public sector organisations linked up with other public sector organisations, schools linked with other schools. Where cross sector networks were present they had typically been initiated by the local economic development agency, for example, a partnership with tertiary education institutions in order to develop initiatives to tackle local unemployment.

Networks that encouraged research and innovation were mainly present at the national level, linking universities, crown research institutes, and large private and public sector organisations. At the regional level the focus was on building up networks to develop the local community, such as building links between schools and local employers to provide work experience and employment opportunities.

The picture that emerged in Wellington and Southland was one of opportunities that were only partially realised; though clusters and networks were in evidence at certain points during the period studied they did not remain consistently successful.

An interconnected region will have active networks operating at global, national and regional levels. The global and national networks provide evidence of bridging and the regional networks relate to bonding. Throughout the period studied New Zealand developed more international connections, and ICTs made a major contribution to the build-up of global, national and regional networks. ICTs had a major effect on organisational form as businesses and public sector organisations throughout the country became more networked. ICTs also enabled New Zealand to become more connected to the outside world, firstly through Videotex, then the Internet and most recently through advanced networks. Research-based networks linking universities, crown research institutes and large organisations were present at the national level.

In terms of building links for international trade, both rural Southland and urban Wellington followed a similar pattern, with local government, business and the education sectors all involved in developing overseas links.

Evidence of the development of the networked organisation was found only in the Wellington region and mainly in national government. Both regions helped to develop national and international networks by means of student exchanges; however from 1995 onwards the Internet was used extensively within the Wellington region to build national and international networks, whereas no similar data was found for Southland.

Active networks were found in both regions, though these tended to be based in particular sectors for example, business and education. In Southland rural networks were particularly active. Those regional networks that went across a number of sectors tended to focus on unemployment and retraining and had often been initiated by local government. Though there was evidence of clusters, no such initiatives had been consistently maintained throughout the period studied. However, by 2005 local government in both regions had conducted surveys of local organisations to identify common needs and issues (Our Way Southland Project Team, 2005; Wellington City Council, 2006).

To summarise, the results for this category were generally positive, New Zealand did become more connected at global, national and regional levels, and ICTs played an important role in facilitating these connections. However, ICTs tended to intensify existing inequalities; the urban region was more successful in using ICTs to build global connections than the rural region, this was mainly because it had better ICT infrastructure to begin with and it was able to capitalise on that. The use of ICTs also increased the imbalance between the volume of information coming into New Zealand and the amount of information being sent out.

Interacting

Three major trends were identified for this category. The most significant trend was around the area of regional community which included factors such as crime levels, the growth and/or decline of community spirit, and initiatives by local government to develop their regional communities. Regional bonds were strengthened by the activities of voluntary, professional and women’s groups which are discussed in the second section. The third section reports on the growing pressure from Mãori and Pacific Islanders to address issues relevant to their communities; from 1995 onwards the growing Asian population was also included in this category. The following sections provide a more detailed discussion of these three factors.

At the national level two major reports on the state of the nation were released in 1985. The Statistics Department released the results of a survey carried out in 1981 to assess the quality of everyday life in New Zealand. The results showed that most people were happy with their lives, and content with their jobs. Relationships with both family and neighbours were frequent, with more than 70% having at least weekly contact. Most New Zealanders trusted the police. One-third of the 7000 respondents reported belonging to a job related organisation such as a trade union or professional organisation. Only 5% belonged to an interest or a pressure group and 10% were members of a cultural organisation. The Social Monitoring Group also released their first report which took a broad look at social trends and revealed that from birth onwards, inequalities are evident among children based on family, social and economic circumstances, with Mãori and Pacific Islanders being particularly disadvantaged (New Zealand Planning Council Social Monitoring Group, 1985).

The difference in attitudes between rural and urban New Zealand is illustrated by the example of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill which was proposed by the MP for Wellington, and strongly opposed by the MP for Southland, who organised a national petition against it. A local council in Wellington was the first employer in the country outside Central Government to appoint an equal opportunities officer. In Southland the traditional rural culture was given as the reason for the region having the highest percentage of Scouts in the country.

In 1995 Wellington seemed to have become more culturally diverse with Greek, Polish and Italian festivals taking place. In Southland cultural diversity was not so evident but there were some indications of liberalisation; School Principals opposed the reintroduction of corporal punishment in their schools and the local access radio channel introduced a “Wimmin’s” programme. Wellington’s Public Libraries were the busiest in the country per head of population with 2.4 million visits to the 13 outlets in 1994, while the problems of the rural economy saw Southland take the record for the busiest Citizens Advice Bureau. Concerns about crime rates were a major issue in both regions. Following a national trend the crime rates in both Southland and Wellington had declined from the previous year, but there were increases in violent crime.

In 2005, articles again discussed crime levels and initiatives to address them, such as the education and social services centre being set up by an ex-gang member in Wellington. In Southland four local authorities collaborated to produce a community outcomes report which promoted Southland as a great place to live, with a diverse economy and a well-educated and skilled community (Our Way Southland Project Team, 2005).

In line with other countries such as Australia and the UK, New Zealand was becoming more liberal, and more ethnically diverse. Homosexual law reform happened at a similar time to that in other countries. However, New Zealand did demonstrate strong leadership in the area of social reform when it became one of the first countries to legalise prostitution, with the passing of the 2003 Prostitution Law Reform Act. In global terms New Zealand can be regarded as a liberal, progressive and tolerant country, which is open to new ideas and accepting of alternative lifestyles.

Interviewees confirmed the importance of regional culture and indicated that cultural identity was often stronger in the less populated, more remote regions. Strong bonds were found within both regions. Usually, these were sector-based with the local council often acting as the network hub. In Southland a picture emerged of a traditional rural culture with conservative values. Both regions became more liberal over the period studied; however, as would be expected the urban region was more tolerant and ethnically diverse than the rural region.

The 1985 articles mentioned a wide range of different voluntary groups from the New Zealand Computer Society to the Red Cross to the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers. Nationally, women’s issues were to the fore.,The government had appointed a Minister for Women’s Affairs, who was busy collating information from forums held countrywide to identify women’s’ priorities and concerns such as job sharing, flexible working hours and part-time work. The level of voluntary activity in Southland was particularly high, with rural women’s groups being particularly active. A 1985 survey of 230 rural women in Southland revealed that more than 60% of the sample held office in a voluntary organisation such as Cot Death Society[4], Federated Farmers, Plunket[5], or various church and sporting groups (Allan, 1985).

In 1995 voluntary groups were still very much in evidence; articles mentioned Grey Power, the Citizens Advice Bureau, Residents Associations, Homeless Shelters, Women’s Groups and Employment Trust. Women’s groups were active in both regions. In Wellington a new Women’s Centre was officially opened and 135 business women attended a seminar on entrepreneurship. In Southland the Women Interested in Self Employment (WISE) group held its first meeting.

In 2005 women’s groups, particularly rural women’s groups were again significant.

In Southland the activities of several different groups for rural women were noted including Women in Dairying, Rural Women New Zealand, Women in Farming and Rural Women in Business. Rural Women NZ celebrated its 80^th birthday and the Chairwoman reflected that although today the organisation was talking about getting broadband into rural areas many of the issues discussed by the group had remained the same over the years such as health, isolation and school closures. Many rural women now had full-time jobs off the farm and used ICTs, such as the Women in Dairying web site as a way of keeping in touch with their peers.

Research into sustainable development in New Zealand has shown that rates of volunteering in the form of unpaid work are relatively high compared to other OECD countries and have remained stable over time (Statistics New Zealand, 2008a). However, the form of volunteering has changed with people being more ready to commit to episodic volunteering for a one-off event rather than being prepared to make a long-term commitment to a particular organisation (Centre of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, 2006; Evans & Saxton, 2005; Merrill, 2006).

The data collected provides strong evidence that New Zealand has a high level of social capital, and this was consistent throughout the entire period studied. Though it is not possible to directly compare levels of social capital with other countries, evidence suggests that the level of volunteering in New Zealand is markedly above what is usual. The voluntary sector was active in both Wellington and Southland, but the close knit networks of the rural women’s groups in Southland stood out as being particularly significant.

Table 3 shows how the ethnicity of the population changed between 1985 and 2005. The country was becoming more ethnically diverse as both the Pacific Island and Asian populations grew, particularly in urban areas.

From 1985 to 2005 the newspaper articles reported on a range of initiatives which provided evidence that Mãori and Pacific Island communities were becoming more involved in civic life.

In 1985 there was increasing pressure from the Mãori and Pacific Island communities for their voices to be heard. The Waitangi Tribunal[6] was considering a claim to give equal status to the Mãori language in all spheres of public life, a claim that was eventually granted in 1987.

A Mãori women’s Secretariat was to be set up within the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. In Wellington both the Mãori and the Pacific Island communities were attempting to have a bigger say in the field of education. One very visible sign of the growing recognition of Mãori culture was the construction of Marae[7] in central government offices and some educational institutions in Wellington. In Southland the Mãori community was also very active, particularly in looking after their young people.

In 1995 Pacific Islanders were making a contribution to Wellington’s cultural life with a festival in the City Centre and an art exhibition. Pacific Islanders were also becoming involved in local politics with more Pacific Islanders standing for local elections. In Southland the focus was on improving employment prospects for Pacific Islanders by running courses aimed at encouraging Pacific Island people in business.

There was some resistance to this growing ethnic diversity, a 1995 National Business Review Poll showed that New Zealander’s were not too keen on immigrants from the Pacific Islands and Asia--57% of people thought there were too many Pacific Islanders, and 51% too many Asians. There was much less resistance to white immigrants from Australia, Britain and South Africa. A school in Southland was accused of racism and treating Mãori students differently, by a Mãori teacher who claimed there was no support from the Principal and other teachers; this was a symptom of a wider concern about Mãori language programmes being under threat in Southland.

Despite their increasing involvement in civic life, a 2005 conference for Pacific Islanders noted that the average weekly income for Pacific people was $412 as compared to $637 for New Zealanders of European descent, and unemployment was 6.5% as compared to 2.5%. Speakers urged Pacific Islanders to break the cycle of dependency on the state, develop more political clout and start up their own businesses.

ICTs were beginning to play a role in the empowerment of Mãori and Pacific Islanders, for example in 2005 an online database was launched containing the names and iwi[8] affiliation of 98,000 Mãori which made it easier to keep in touch with whanau[9].

There was growing pressure to recognise the rights of indigenous people in many countries around the world during the period studied. Moves to revive indigenous languages and preserve culture were also widespread. New Zealand is a bi-cultural country and the Treaty of Waitangi[10] signed in 1840 recognises the rights of Mãori people. Throughout the period studied the voice of Mãori and Pacific Islanders became stronger and they were increasingly involved in the political and cultural life of the country.

The growth in the Asian population also reflects an increasing mobility that was happening worldwide. Though some evidence of racism was found this seemed to be less prevalent in New Zealand than in other countries such as Australia and the UK.

In an interactive region, individuals within the region will share a common culture, social capital will be high and crime rates will be low. There will also be evidence of active social networks through work, sport, voluntary groups and similar. There is strong and consistent evidence of high social capital in New Zealand at both the national and the regional levels.

Though crime was a common concern in both regions, with other issues some clear differences emerged between urban Wellington and rural Southland. As might be expected, the urban region demonstrated more evidence of liberal values and cultural diversity, while the rural region had stronger traditional values and was less open to change. Cultural identity was stronger in Southland; in Wellington, cultural loyalties tended to be to the local authority area rather than to the region.

By the end of the period community groups had become well aware of the contribution ICTs could make to regional development. In 1985 and 1995 ICT networks were mainly used by the government and private business. By 2005, ICTs were widely used in the voluntary and community sectors. This trend was observed in both regions and was reinforced at a national level by the publication of the government’s Digital Strategy (Ministry of Economic Development, 2005). Community groups were using hard ICT networks to complement and reinforce existing soft networks. Though ICT networks were identified as playing a role in building interaction within a region they were seen as complementary to rather than as a replacement for face-to-face contact.

To summarise, the results for this category were very strongly positive. At both the national and regional levels there was plenty of evidence of good social capital, and active citizen involvement in civic life. This was observed in both the rural and the urban region, though the strongest social bonds were evident in rural Southland. By the end of the period studied community groups in both regions were making extensive use of ICTs to reinforce local bonds though there was less evidence that ICTs were being used at the global level.

Conclusions

The following three research questions were posed at the beginning of the article.

1) Are ICTs helping to progress the nature of information flow within regional settings?

2) Do they improve levels of bonding within the region and bridging beyond the region?

3) How does the local regional culture affect the use of ICTs?

There is no question that between 1985 and 2005 major advances in ICTs improved both the quality and quantity of information flows, regionally, nationally and internationally. This was a global trend, but New Zealand stood out as being a consistent fast adopter of new technologies. New Zealand is an isolated country and its citizens have always had a strong desire for contact with the rest of the world; ICTs were seized on as a tool that could facilitate this. Though these bridging links grew stronger they were imbalanced. There was much more traffic into New Zealand from the outside world, than there was leaving the country, and the use of ICTs increased this inequity. ICTs also increased the inequity between regions within New Zealand; the urban region was able to utilise the Internet to build global connections much earlier than the rural region.

ICTs were also being used to improve the quality of information flows between organisations within regions. Usually the strongest bonds were between organisations in the same sector. Schools linked up with other schools; community groups connected with other community groups. In a true learning region there is a “spill over” effect, the innovative use of ICTs by one group within a region will be picked up and imitated by other stakeholders. There was no real evidence that this was happening. There were examples of good innovative use of ICTs by schools, but this learning was not being passed on to different sectors within the region.

How did regional culture affect the use of ICTs? At various points throughout the twenty year period studied, regional initiatives were set up around establishing clusters, setting up high technology zones or developing partnerships between education and business; but there was no evidence that such initiatives built steadily over the years. Proposed changes at the regional level were often met with infighting and local resistance, which inhibited any long-term development. Building effective and long lasting soft people-based networks is a much harder task than setting up a regional ICT network. Part of the problem may be that New Zealand, with a population of around four million, is just too small. This means that individual regions don’t have the critical mass necessary to make it attractive for organisations from different sectors to form networks at the regional level. Having said that, one of the aims of the national government’s policy of providing broadband funding for rural schools was to produce a “spill over” effect in the rest of the region. Another possibility is that effective regional infrastructure takes longer than anticipated to fully develop, particularly when it involves the co-ordination of soft networks.

Social capital is strong in New Zealand, and was found to be consistently so throughout the period studied. Many examples of soft networks were found within both regions, though the views of the rural women’s networks in Southland stood out as being the most widely reported in the local press. Out of the 38 articles that were collected about voluntary groups in Southland, half concerned the activities of women’s groups and their views on matters such as rural isolation, education and the potential of ICT. Though there was evidence of a relationship between the soft networks that existed at the regional level and the utilisation of hard ICT networks within a region, this was difficult to quantify. Rural women might discuss broadband as a potential tool for overcoming rural isolation, but it is hard to directly measure the impact that it had on the rate of adoption of broadband in their region. However, there is no doubt that rural women were becoming more significant as a lobby group for high quality ICT networks in rural areas. One indication of this is the fact that at a 2011 symposium on Rural Broadband held by the Telecommunications Association of New Zealand (TUANZ)[11] over 50% of the presentations were given by females, as compared to 15% at a similar event in 2006[12].

The growing awareness by community groups of the potential contribution of ICTs to regional development was significant. In 1985 and 1995 ICT networks were mainly used by the government and private business, by 2005 ICTs were being widely used in the voluntary and community sectors. This trend was observed in both regions and was reinforced at the national level by the publication of the Governments Digital Strategy (Ministry of Economic Development, 2005). Community groups were using hard ICT networks to complement and reinforce existing soft networks.

As New Zealand developed trade links with new economic partners in Asia, the domestic population became more multicultural. These factors were not unrelated as there were many examples of Asian investment in New Zealand, and of Asian New Zealanders setting up businesses to export goods to their birth countries. Though not directly related to ICTs, increasing multicultural diversity helped to build bridging links with new trading partners in both Asia and the Pacific Islands.

ICTs are undoubtedly making a significant contribution to bonding and bridging in New Zealand, but their full potential has yet to be realised. The bridging links are not balanced and bonding links are failing to connect the different sectors within a region. Though strong soft networks exist they tend to be located within specific interest groups. The learning that is taking place within education and community sectors needs to be leveraged so that it can benefit an entire region. If these different networks can be brought together, so that soft regional networks become fully interlinked, then ICTs can be utilised to create more effective connections both locally, within New Zealand itself, and globally, between New Zealand and the rest of the world.

Both Southland and Wellington are committed to learning to use ICT to improve community and economic development in their region. Local and regional government bodies, notably Venture Southland, Wellington City Council and Wellington Regional Council are all working hard to encourage digital co-operation between the different stakeholders in their regions. In 2005 Venture Southland produced a digital strategy (Venture Southland, 2008) for the region in response to the national digital strategy (Ministry of Economic Development, 2005) produced by central government. In Wellington, the Wellington Regional Strategy (2010) has a “connected community” and an “entrepreneurial and innovative community” as two of its key performance indicators, and in 2006 Wellington City Council outlined its ICT policy (Wellington City Council, 2006). The two regions are working to improve their ICT connections at the local level, both in order to strengthen local communities and also to improve their competitiveness in the global marketplace. In the case of Southland these ambitions go beyond the global to the galactic, with the development of a number of projects around space and radio science (Head, 2007) including a bid to be one of the sites for the planned Square Kilometre Array deep space radio telescope.

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Endnotes