Rediscovering regional development in New Zealand: Reflections on local and regional development challenges and opportunities.

Compared with other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) New Zealand's engagement with regional and local development has been a rather modest undertaking reflected more in political pronouncement than in significant intervention and policy support on the scale which characterised post-war Britain and the European Union over recent decades (see Barca, McCann, & Rodgriguez-Pose, [1]; Pike, Rodriguez-Pose, & Tomaney, [10]; McNeill, [5]). The papers which follow in this special issue provide insight into the post-1980s experience of local and regional development in New Zealand (NZ), paying particular attention to the regions that is, the smaller towns, rural areas and administrative regions which make up non-metropolitan NZ. [Extracted from the article]