ABSTRACT
If there is a starting point on my academic journey, it was probably that first taste of real research during my Masters thesis. It was especially meaningful for the naivete that surrounded it. I was working in a new area and my understanding could make a difference. The sustainability of tourism growth was where I first encountered the politics of tourism and later the politics of academia. The end of my masters was quickly followed by a scholarship to do a PhD (from big business — see I was a funding slut even then) and the birth of my first child (more on this later). These were heady days exploring the inversions of Foucault, Baudrillard, Le Fevre and the rabid cynicism of David Harvey. I was studying the politics of tourism development and the landscapes of power, and what was then the vogue of political resistance, place. I was working as a cable car driver in downtown Wellington. At the top of my run I remember seeing the city below as a political landscape with no singular truth, only argument and perspective. This landscape became my research, a billion dollar redevelopment scheme with all the ingredients of public/private/community/place and culture.
