Enacting planning borders: Consolidation and resistance in Ku-ring-gai, Sydney

Focusing on the Ku-ring-gai Local Government Area in Sydney, we explore the tensions that play out across borders, which are enacted between state planning strategies, local governments and communities, and the claims that each make in relation to the right to define the city. We use the term 'bordering' to describe contested politics that are characterised by the struggle to define and inscribe authority, democracy, legitimacy and local specificity. In particular, we trace bordering processes between: (1) enacting planning authority through Local Environmental Plans; and (2) legal and expert engagements with planning processes and instruments. The performance of planning borders at Ku-ring-gai enacted different imaginations of place, struggles over authority between citizens and experts and highlighted the messy context of imposing blunt planning instruments on particular localities.