Bringing in the public: community facilities and social value

This thesis examines the social value of local government community facilities, and its optimisation in policy and strategic management. The thesis focuses on the local government sector in Victoria, Australia, with the City of Moonee Valley, an inner-Melbourne municipality serving as a case study. The central argument of the thesis is that, despite statutory requirements for Victorian local authorities to balance financial, environmental and social goals in decision-making, a policy emphasis on economic efficiency and local authority discipline dominates recent planning and management frameworks of community facilities. The policy shows limited understanding of the concept of social value, understood as non-economic value, worth or significance, or ways that it can be evaluated and operationalised. The policy provides limited defence of the longterm social outcomes of facilities, such as well-being, social cohesion and civic engagement, in the face of aggressive local government asset and financial management. The thesis uses historical and sociological methods to gather evidence and frame arguments for a re-balancing of the policy setting in which community facilities are funded and managed. The thesis locates current local infrastructure policy within the reforming project of new public management to contextualise its reliance on the concept of service. Three community facilities – a municipal swimming pool, a community arts complex, and public open space – are examined to identify the rationales for their provision, and the complex policy interventions that shape their history. Interview data from a sample of Moonee Valley residents on facility use and value indicate broadly consistent views on the social value of community facilities and their contribution to the public realm. The data show broad opposition to the disposal of public assets, especially public open space. This presents a significant challenge to local authorities faced with declining physical infrastructure, changing service needs and fiscal pressures. In this light, the thesis argues that Mark H Moore’s (1995) concept of a public value strategic triangle has particular application to the local government environment, in identifying the strategic and operational requirements for optimising the social outcomes of community facilities. The thesis concludes by arguing for three key policy actions that link physical asset management with new interests in community building, local governance and sustainability: - recognising and understanding earlier forms of community contribution to facilities and the local public realm; - re-positioning community facilities to emphasise their range of public good outcomes, especially their contribution to minimising expenditure on more expensive policy interventions in areas such as health and justice; and - re-conceptualising the concept of an ‘asset’ to encompass both physical objects and social networks, thus emphasising the physical and social components of a civic ecology.