Negotiating development: the interaction of formal and informal institutions in development approval in Wyong, New South Wales

This paper explores how formal and informal institutional arrangements are mobilised in unique ways to secure development approval at a greenfield release site on Sydney’s fringe: Wyong Shire. The paper argues that the institutional configuration mobilised to secure development approval rest on the identity and history of the developer and their project managers and their relations with state and private development actors. This paper explores the differential enrolment of formal and informal institutions for development purposes within Wyong by those who principally operate within the area (local) and by those who have moved into the area from other regions (foreign). It becomes clear that local development actors are much more likely to mobilse informal institutional arrangements for the purposes of securing development approval, while foreign actors are more likely to use formal arrangements. However, this picture is complicated by the fact that some foreign actors actively pursue local consultants in an effort to utilise their existing development relations for their own purpose, while some local consultants actively avoid certain foreign developers for fear that their existing relations will be damaged.