Corruption in the Australian Land Development Process: Identifying a research agenda

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the role of corruption in the land development process, and to comprehend the current extent of corrupt practices in urban development in order to evaluate the impact of corruption on urban environmental outcomes. To date however there has been little scholarly research on corruption in the land development process, from a planning perspective. The paper addresses the issue of corruption by first reviewing how planning theorists have understood corruption in the land development process, next the paper attempts a typology of potential corrupt activity in land development and finally undertakes a preliminary broad survey of reported incidences of land development corruption and makes some observations about the potential for further investigation into this issue. The paper finds that corruption is common but not prevalent in land development but that methodological issues prevent detailed elaboration of the incidence or character of corrupt behaviour.