Office location in Australian metropolitan areas: centralisation or dispersal?

As office activities have become even more centralised in A ustralia's largest cities they have also become more suburbanised. Taking account of the recent expansion of intermediate (mostly office-based) services and their locational requirements, this article examines the existing and potential strategic planning policies for achieving a better organised, more equitable, and efficient distribution of office activities in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. Preference for policies based on suburban office centres represents a convergence of ideas. Some of the factors which make it difficult to implement these policies are examined. The role of the CBD and adjacent office areas, however, should not be underrated given the established patterns of office location behaviour and the changing structure and origin of demand for non-local market metropolitan offices.     

Metropolitan Governance in Sydney: A Case of ‘Joint Decision-Making’

This article analyses metropolitan governance arrangements in contemporary Sydney. Debate about the efficacy of these arrangements typically degenerates into an argument about the pros and cons of institutional consolidation. The article moves beyond this dispute, drawing on the concept of ‘actor-centred institutionalism’ to argue that Sydney's urban sprawl, combined with its rigid institutional setting, has produced what can be described as a ‘joint decision system’ of governance. Effective metropolitan governance in Sydney mainly depends on the ability to reach negotiated agreements within this system. However, a rising level of conflict between the New South Wales State government and local councils located within metropolitan Sydney increases the likeliness of undesirable blockades within the joint decision system. The article concludes that a cautious exercise of new overriding powers by the State government is crucial to promoting more effective metropolitan governance in Sydney.     

Geographies of adult multigenerational family households in metropolitan Sydney

This paper investigates spatial trends of multigenerational adult families in metropolitan Sydney. Australia's immigrant gateway city, Sydney has high housing costs and infrastructure pressures, and planning policies support higher residential densities. In this context, the accommodation of persons living in multigenerational families is examined, by major region of origin, their geographies in Sydney, and by housing costs and constraints. Results highlight that cultural origins were influential in multigenerational household formations, and such formation is higher in areas of first and second ethnic community formation areas. Multigenerational living is also more common in middle ring and outer areas of cheaper housing. Implications are drawn for more nuanced housing policies in Sydney and comparable cities, given that detached and semi‐detached houses were favoured by these households, whereas two‐fifths of new housing constructed in Sydney in 2011 consists of two or less bedroom apartments.     

‘Shades of grey’: spaces in and beyond trafficking for Thai Women involved in commercial sexual labour in Sydney and Singapore

In this article I explore the migration trajectories of some Thai women trafficked internationally for commercial sexual exploitation, suggesting that many figuratively ‘cross the border’ between coerced and consensual existence in volatile migrant sex industries during the course of their migration experiences, thus complicating debates around the notion of choice in ‘sex’ trafficking. In exploring these women's transitions I seek to understand why women who had either never previously been sex workers or who were sex workers operating without duress, but who were then trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation remain in, or re-enter volatile forms of migrant sex work at a later point under voluntary arrangements. In answering this question I focus on the temporal and spatial aspects of individual women's experiences in migrant sex industries drawing in detail on the narratives of two Thai women trafficked to Sydney, Australia and Singapore. I make some suggestions about methodologies used in trafficking research that can assist in bringing to light some of these complex time–space dimensions of women's experiences through their shifting positions in commercial sexual labour. The article also reflects on the implications of these women's trajectories for the ‘prostitution debate’ as it relates to trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation by suggesting that many trafficked women occupy ambiguous or in-between positions in migrant sex industries, neither easily distinguishable by the label of victim of trafficking or migrant sex worker.     

Locational disadvantage and the spatial distribution of government expenditure on urban infrastructure and services in metropolitan Sydney (1988–2015)

Provision of public services by state governments rather than municipalities is considered an important urban governance factor preventing deeper levels of socio‐spatial inequality in Australian cities. The paper examines the spatial patterns of investment by the New South Wales state government in a wide range of services and infrastructure in metropolitan Sydney over 28 budget years from 1988/89 to 2015/16. We examined the relationship between volume and type of investment in infrastructure and services, and considered a local area's socioeconomic characteristics, distance from the central business district, and designation as a strategic site in metropolitan plans. Despite an overall redistributive approach favouring relatively disadvantaged areas, the most disadvantaged suburbs in metropolitan Sydney had significantly lower levels of investment. When funding was directed to the most disadvantaged suburbs, it was often in the form of new social housing development, reinforcing both the concentration of poverty and disadvantage in resource access. The findings suggest that this is a case of under‐investment by the state government in areas already populated by disadvantaged communities rather than a market‐driven process whereby disadvantaged households move into poorly resourced neighbourhoods.     

‘I'd do it for love or for money’: Vietnamese women in Taiwan and the social construction of female migrant sexuality

Drawing on an ethnographic research in Vietnam and Taiwan, this article seeks to contribute to the global scholarship on migration and sexuality. It reveals interesting contradictions between the seemingly homogeneous stereotypes of Vietnamese women's sexuality, on the one hand, and the multiplicity and fluidity of actual sexual practices in real-life contexts, on the other hand. First, the presence of a number of chaste migrant women in our study challenges the common stereotype of female migrants as hypersexual and promiscuous menaces on the loose. Second, we question the emphasis on women's material greed and instrumentalism in normative discourses about Vietnamese women's engagement in extramarital relationship. While for some women in our research, sexual liaisons outside marriage are indeed orchestrated for financial gains, for others, extramarital sex is principally sought as a form of self-actualisation or an exploration of sexual pleasure and freedom that is absent from their marriage. The article emphasises the highly contextual nature of sexual norms and practices as well as the intersectionality of race, class and gender in the social construction of female sexuality in the context of transnational labour migration.     

Sustainable new economic centres in European metropolitan regions: A stakeholders' perspective

In many European metropolitan regions, new economic centres have emerged at the edge of large cities or in their (post-)suburban areas. This paper explores the possible contribution of these new centres to a more sustainable regional development of European metropolitan regions. The realization of sustainable business parks is even more complicated at 'greenfield' sites than at 'brownfield' sites. With the absence of space scarcity or congestion problems, the temptation to choose easier, less sustainable solutions is hard to resist. Nevertheless, in the Dutch Randstad region, some edge-city and suburban business locations try to meet high sustainability standards. Two case studies in Hoofddorp and Almere illustrate the tough road towards truly sustainable business parks, focusing on the role of the various stakeholders that either encourage or discourage the realization of sustainability potentials.     

Imported Pottery in Dark-Age Western Britain

Abstract

The Employment of an integrated survey methodology consisting of overlaid plotting of metal-detected finds, geophysics, fieldwalking and limited trial excavation to a number of sites across a single region, in this case W Norfolk, England, can provide important further insights into the nature of rural centres labelled as 'productive sites'. The detailed results are first set within a wider research framework by introducing some key points concerning developments in the investigation and interpretation of metal-detected sites in the UK and the early medieval settlement archaeology of Norfolk. In particular, this research can contribute, albeit speculatively, to the wider debates about the diversity, complexity and changing lifestyles of early medieval elite groups involved in trade and exchange in rural areas.     

The Changing Health Care Behaviour of the Hmong Refugee Population in Sydney

Health care behaviour of Hmong refugees in Sydney was investigated after research in the United States had shown that, within the Southeast Asian refugee community in that country, Hmong refugees not only had the lowest rates of use of Western medicine but also were the most likely to assess their quality of health as only fair ( Brainard and Zaharlick, 1989 , 849). In contrast, this study found that the Sydney Hmong generally used Western medicine as a system of first choice. At the same time, most continued to use traditional medicines, albeit in a modified form. Minimal costs, freedom to choose their own doctor and appropriate, long term health education were the most important factors in Hmong using Western medicine in Sydney. Other contributing factors included the structure and size of the community, the presence of a long‐term Hmong resident in Sydney upon arrival and familiarity with Western medicine. Thus, the Sydney Hmong community was able to maintain a reasonable quality of health at an affordable price. An unexpected finding was the improved social, economic and health status of Hmong women. Such differentiated results are a powerful argument for not looking at refugees as a homogenous group, even when investigating a single, national, ethnic or cultural group. This study highlighted both the multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary nature of health care behaviour and the contribution that a small in‐depth case study can make to health and migrant policy.     

Are new patterns of low‐income distribution emerging in Canadian metropolitan areas?

Recent studies on urban poverty in Canadian cities suggest a growing spatial concentration of poor populations within metropolitan regions. This article assesses trends in the intra‐urban distribution of the poor population from 1986 to 2006 in eight of Canada's largest cities. We consider five well‐known dimensions of segregation, as identified by Massey and Denton (1988) , in order to examine changes in the spatial distribution of poor populations within metropolitan areas: evenness, exposure, concentration, clustering, and centralization. These indices were calculated for low‐income populations at the census tract level using data from five Canadian censuses. Although each metropolitan area has distinctive characteristics, we were able to identify some general trends. The results suggest that, in 2006 compared to 1986, low‐income populations lived in more spatially concentrated areas, which were, at the same time, socioeconomically more homogeneous and more dispersed throughout the metropolitan area. In addition, we observed that over the last twenty years areas of poverty have been located, for the most part, in neighbourhoods adjacent to downtown cores. Nevertheless, we found that poverty has mostly increased in suburban areas located outside inner‐city neighbourhoods. Growing socioeconomic homogeneity and dispersion of low income areas in metropolitan areas reveal new spatial patterns of urban poverty distribution. These findings should be cause for concern as social isolation in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods could affect the life chances and opportunities for the residents of those areas.     

Journeys to Italian East Africa 1936–1941: narratives of settlement

During the 1930s a huge amount of writing was produced on Italy's imperial activities and colonial possessions. The article centres on the written accounts of journeys to the empire which were made in the wake of its conquest.These texts were written by influential correspondents of the time; by writers of colonial literature; by Fascist ideologues and by occasional, though highly curious, visitors to the empire. All these official and semi-official commentators participated in the rapid settlement of East Africa specifically as observers. The article isolates the different narratives which run through each of the many travel texts: the transition from military to civilian rule,the population of a supposedly empty land surface; the implementation of an empire of work; the translation of Italian culture from the mainland to the colony. It explores the relationship between these paradigmatic narratives of settlement and shows how the vision offered by the travel accounts converged with the institutions and practices of the new empire. The article concludes by analysing the subject positions adopted by Italian men and women within the system of Fascist imperial discourses and some of the ways in which the indigenous population was represented within different narratives of settlement.     

Problems in the Evolution of Urban Agglomerations

Large urban agglomerations, which have been viewed as undesirable by some authors, are described as legitimate and efficient forms of economic organization and settlement in a modern industrial society. A number of processes in the Soviet economy tend to foster the development of agglomerations; however, the trend toward agglomerations in the USSR is still at a very early stage compared, say, with the United States. If agglomerations are defined on the basis of a central city of 250,000 or more, the USSR had 75 agglomerations in 1970 compared with 240 standard metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. In contrast to the United States, where suburban development has outstripped central-city growth, three-fourths of the population of Soviet agglomerations is concentrated in central cities. In the author's view, control of the evolution of agglomerations should not be designed merely to curb big-city growth, but to foster the development of these urban clusters within the limitations of environmental constraints.     

Indochine chic: Why is Vietnamese food so classy in Singapore? (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

To someone from Sydney, Los Angeles, Paris or Vancouver there is something quite peculiar about the experience of eating Indochinese food in Singapore. In these former locations, it is largely present as an inexpensive ethnic cuisine whose high perceived authenticity and low cost are underwritten by communities of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Lao refugees and migrants. In Singapore, by contrast, Indochinese food is a chic, expensive, romantic, Frenchy, artsy, edgy haute‐cuisine. Given that the nation is Vietnam's second largest foreign investor, and that Ho Chi Minh City is a mere eighty minute budget flight away, why should it be that Vietnamese food is so rare and exotic a commodity in Singapore's multicultural culinary market? On the basis of participant observation, interviews conducted with restaurateurs and patrons, and electronic materials such as restaurant reviews and blogs, this paper will attempt to answer the question of just why Indochinese food signifies the way it does in Singapore.     

The identification of employment centres in Canadian metropolitan areas: the example of Montreal, 1996

The intrametropolitan distribution of economic activities and, specifically, the formation of suburban employment centres has become a major research and policy issue. In spite of an increasing number of detailed analyses of the geography of employment in individual metropolitan areas, no generally accepted and systematic methodology for identifying employment centres exists. Comparisons between metropolitan areas have been highly limited due to both a lack of consistent and comparable data and a plethora of methods. We first present an overview of various methods that have been used to identify employment centres. Using Montreal as a case study, we then evaluate the suitability of various methods in the light of available data on job location in Canadian metropolitan areas. The method that yields the best results is one based upon dual criteria applied at the census tract level: a total employment threshold and the ratio of employment to the resident workers. We use this method to identify the form of the Montreal space-economy in 1996. The identification of a suitable, although imperfect, method represents a first step towards being able to more objectively and systematically examine a wide range of issues concerning metropolitan economic structure.     

Restructuring of Sydney's Central Industrial Area: Process and Local Impacts

Since World War II Sydneys central industrial area has lost more than 80 per cent of its manufacturing workforce and no longer the dominant centre of manufacturing in Sydney, is now just one of a number of important centres. Unlike inner cities of the United Kingdom and United States, de-industrialisation in Sydney's central city has not caused a trapped population of displaced workers The first aim of this paper is to outline the restructuring of the central industrial area Two major periods of restructuring can be distinguished Up to the early I9 70s change in the industrial area was driven by intra- metropolitan forces. Since then international forces, and related major infrastructure developments, have substantially accelerated job bss. The second aim is to document the impacts which restructuring has had on the inner city workforce Jobs lost up to the early 1970s did not disadvantage inner city workers because employers as well as workers were moving to the suburbs Since then inner city workers in traditional blue collar occupations have been more strongly affected by de-industrialisation than the city as whole but the numbers involved have been too small to have been of much political interest Social problems in the inner city resulting from restructuring in the industrial area have been masked by strong gentrification.     

Citizenship and Belonging in the Rural Fringe: A Case Study of a Hindu Temple in Sydney,Australia

Despite Australian multicultural policy that asserts the right of all citizens to maintain and practice their religion, formal citizenship has not guaranteed the welcome or belonging of migrant religious groups at the neighbourhood scale. This is most starkly reflected in contests over the inclusion of minority religious spaces in the Australian landscape, which increasingly take place in the rural–urban fringe of metropolitan areas. This work examines the controversy over a proposed Hindu temple in metropolitan Sydney and reveals insights into the way that rural–urban fringe space is imagined, understood and experienced by land use planners, residents and temple members. Critical discourse analysis of policy documentation along with interviews reveals that land use planners circumscribe belonging in the landscape through the use of zoning ordinances and design controls, local residents mark the boundaries of white privilege through narratives of heritage and cultural difference and temple members claim rights to citizenship based on assertions of sameness.     

Unwrapping the Parcel: an Examination of Culture Through Italian Australian Home Ownership

Critics of multiculturalism have revealed the limiting notion of culture within Australia's multicultural policy. Culture is not transported, but is constantly in process. Culture is (re)developed in the process of migration and settlement, and it is structured by broader economic and political forces. An examination of Italian Australian migrant experiences of family homes in Italy, and accommodation on arrival, shows what such a culture looks like and adds to explanations for Italian Australian rates of ownership.     

Home and beyond in Aotearoa: the affective dimensions of migration for South African migrants

The integration of immigrants into local labour markets is a key focus of contemporary migration scholarship in Aotearoa New Zealand. While acknowledging the importance of these economic aspects of migrant settlement, in this article we examine instead how new arrivals from South Africa actively reconstitute a feeling of home and belonging post-migration. Drawing on the concept of affect, we illustrate the ways in which the experience of migration and settlement is embodied, situated and relational. We do this by examining the affective dimensions of home-making, both within and beyond the physical boundaries of a chosen dwelling and its location. Memory bridges all these experiences of transition, suffusing migrants' lives as they understand, frame and negotiate their affective present within the context of their affective past. Our focus renders visible important aspects of the migrant experience, and contributes to a more holistic understanding of why migrants come, how they settle and what encourages them to remain.