Urban studies in Australia: A road map and ways ahead

Davison, Graeme; Fincher, Ruth

doi:10.1080/08111149808727765

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Thus far, the contemporary dimensions and implications for the planning profession of this evolving hybrid urban planning role, has received little attention within the Australasian planning literature. Urban research, as Davidson and Fincher (1998) observe, might suggest useful ways of understanding these emerging roles, relationships and practices, and the governance spaces they inhabit. In the wake of a global recession it seems timely to re-ignite debate and interest in the professional direction and vision of the emerging role(s) of the Australian urban planner within a pervasive reform agenda that is (once again) under question.…”

Section: Conclusion -Whoever Pays the Piper Plays The Tune?mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…There are rather complex new partnerships being formed between private and public sectors in Australian cities that blur the distinctions …urban research might suggest useful ways of understanding the impacts of new relationships… (Davidson and Fincher 1998, p.193) Since the late 1990s there have been calls for the role of the Australian urban planner to be re-assessed in response to the impact of micro-economic reform and as a means of enabling more sustainable outcomes (Davidson and Fincher, 1998;Gleeson and Low, 2000;Sandercock, 1998). The shift from urban government to governance has seen the public sector extended (some argue contracted) to incorporate private and community sectors in policy formulation and implementation (Minnery, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Australian Urban Planners: Hybrid Roles and Professional Dilemmas?

Steele

2009

Urban Policy and Research

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This paper argues that a hybrid role for urban planners has emerged within the largely neoliberalised spaces of contemporary Australian governance. This new role is one that transcends previously rigid or clearly defined sectoral positions to blend public, private and community responsibilities in novel and complex ways. The first section of the paper briefly sketches the historical shifts that have led to this hitherto unseen hybrid role. The second section explores the notion of hybridity as a paradoxical professional 'third space' where dominant ideological discourses shaping planning practices such as neoliberalism can be both resisted (McGuirk, 2005) and/or reinforced (Roy, 2001). Whilst the third section of the paper shifts to ground the hybridity metaphor in real people and places through selected narratives from case-study research into the shift to performance-based planning in Queensland under the Integrated Planning Act 1997. Finally, the future of this hybrid professional role is considered within the context of an uncertain global financial climate.

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Section: Conclusion -Whoever Pays the Piper Plays The Tune?mentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Australian Urban Planners: Hybrid Roles and Professional Dilemmas?

Steele

2009

Urban Policy and Research

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“…Likewise the Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne and City Futures Research Centre at the University of New South Wales are not included despite operating in very similar terrain. Each can trace an intellectual and collegial lineage within the Australian tradition of urban studies, as described by Davison and Fincher (1998). Such knowledge is typically not apparent in contemporary website presentation but rather held in wider academic 'field memory'.…”

Section: Identifying Collating and Analysing Urban Studies Centres In...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Centring urban studies among institutional regimes

Dodson

2023

Dialogues in Urban Research

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This commentary responds to Bas Van Heur's paper 'What, where and who is urban studies?' which assesses the structuring of global urban research by investigating the work of named university centres for urban research. The commentary offers observations and reflections on the historical development of urban studies beyond Van Heur's account and considers this through a discussion of Australian urban research groupings. In doing so the commentary notes the definitional challenges that apply to urban research formations in the context of wider institutional imperatives and dynamics that complicate their intellectual programs. The commentary notes the value of further narrative historical reflection on the discipline and particular historical experiences.

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“…In this sense, however, the 'postmodern turn' impelled an aestheticization of urban thought and debate that was not to the advantage of social scientific urbanism. Davison and Fincher (1998) explained postmodernism as a 'destabilizing' force in urban studies that unsettled notions of public good and progress that had guided urban commentary, especially in the applied field of planning. This historiographical sketch arrives at the early years of the present millennium.…”

Section: The Dimming Of Urban Social Science?mentioning

confidence: 99%

What Role for Social Science in the ‘Urban Age'?

Gleeson

2013

Int J Urban Regional Res

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There is growing recognition of a new human ascendancy: ‘the urban age’. Rising interest in urbanism is evident in popular literature, the media and major global institutions. And yet, as with another great issue of the age, global warming, there is evidence that social science is being sidelined from a rapidly enlarging field of human concern. New urban knowledges are forwarded from the physical sciences and from popular commentary that are characterized by naturalism and its kindred tendencies, especially determinism. In this essay I consider why social scientific urbanism seems increasingly marginal to an ever broadening urban discussion. The regressive consequences for human knowledge and prospect are essayed. The essay's final part is prospectus: for a revivified social scientific urbanism that draws from Sayer's recent argument for renewal of critical human knowledge.

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Urban studies in Australia: A road map and ways ahead

Cited by 15 publications

References 25 publications

Australian Urban Planners: Hybrid Roles and Professional Dilemmas?

Australian Urban Planners: Hybrid Roles and Professional Dilemmas?

Centring urban studies among institutional regimes

What Role for Social Science in the ‘Urban Age'?

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