Equity Issues in the 'New Prosperity' of the 1990s: The case of Sydney

Equity issues associated with Sydney's engagement with prosperity, especially over the last decade, are examined. Sydney is positioned within the historic contexts of major national economic change and of globalisation, noting especially the rise in importance of the financial, property and business services sectors. These sectors are concentred in inner Sydney and have helped position Sydney as Australia's leading global city, thereby generating jobs and growth in incomes. At the same time, however, there have been major shifts in patterns of income distribution across the Sydney metropolitan area and between Sydney and other parts of Australia. In particular, we note the 'revitalisation' of Sydney's inner-urban areas and their association with new forms of Central Business District (CBD) workforce growth and a significant realignment of journey-to-work patterns. Using Australian Taxation Office income data, the dynamics and some of the equity outcomes of 1990s prosperity within the Sydney metropolitan area are examined, paying particular attention to the impact of change in and around the Sydney CBD and the City of Sydney local government area. We find that there has been a complex shift in the nature of inequality across the Sydney metropolitan area, including a widening in incomes in some instances and a major geographic shift in Sydney's income-divide axis. The paper concludes by arguing that ongoing economic prosperity in Sydney will depend on the extent to which social cleavage can be avoided by a more equitable sharing of the benefits of prosperity.     

The differential geography of housing affordability in Sydney: a disaggregated approach

ABSTRACT

Despite extensive studies being devoted to housing affordability in Australia, few have investigated housing affordability at a disaggregated level. This is in spite of the fact that there are existing socio-economic and demographic disparities across different regions of a city. This study aims to fill this gap by examining housing affordability in Sydney, a city that is characterised by diverse demographic and socio-economic mix, from a sub-city perspective. Two dimensions of affordability are assessed from 1991 to 2016: entry-level and ongoing housing affordability. The study finds that entry-level housing remains extremely unaffordable in all regions of Greater Sydney, although the level of unaffordability varies across regions. Specifically, the deterioration in housing affordability is more obvious in low-income regions such as Western Sydney. In addition, the ongoing housing affordability of those who have entered the market improves considerably within 5–10 years, although there are significant variations between different regions. Importantly, residents in low-income regions such as Western Sydney take a longer period to improve their ongoing affordability. The findings of differential geography of housing affordability have some profound policy implications. Policymakers should consider the disparities across different regions by formulating a more targeted and regionally balanced housing policy.     

Prosperity along Australia's Eastern Seaboard: Sydney and the geopolitics of urban and economic change

Throughout the last decade, the Australian economy has experienced its second longest period of uninterrupted prosperity in recorded history. The paper argues that this prosperity is sourced from an extraordinary surge in finance-based economic activity along Australia's eastern seaboard, especially in the Sydney region. Population growth in the Sydney basin has further fuelled the region's economic growth. The spatialised nature of this prosperity has produced a major shift in distributional outcomes across Australian regions and among households. Sydney-based households, especially those in inner 'global Sydney' neighbourhoods, have had access to high rates of job creation and sustained increases in income and house values. On the other hand, non-metropolitan households away from Sydney--those in regional and rural Australia--have experienced largely negative consequences as historical inter-sectoral and spatial redistribution mechanisms have been dismantled. The paper shows how divergent experiences of the new prosperity have produced an unstable political landscape in regional and rural Australia. It concludes by urging further research into the spatialised nature of economic changes in Australia, especially research that is conscious of distributional flows and outcomes.     

Generation and Place of Residence in the Symbolic and Lived Identity of Maltese in Sydney,Australia

Maltese symbolic and lived identities are examined to explore the changes that occur in cultural identity between generations and place of residence within metropolitan Sydney. The results are employed to problematise Sandberg's straight-line theory, that is, that ethnic identity will decline with each successive generation. Our results, exploring ethnic identity in both its symbolic and lived-experience forms, confirm arguments that global cities are not homogeneous territories, as implied by Sandberg, but rather sites of cultural difference. The results suggest that, regardless of place of residence or generation, the symbolic Maltese identities remain similar, combating the old, naive assimilationist assumption that all immigrants would quickly abandon their ethnic identity, and favouring arguments supporting hybrid identities. Similarly, results for Maltese identity as lived experience suggest that their Maltese identity is less important only for those second-generation Maltese living in census collection districts with less than 10 per cent of the population born in Malta.     

Islam in Sydney: Contesting the Discourse of Absence

Non‐recognition is one of the key modes of re‐inscribing the Other. In Sydney's anti‐mosque politics this form of oppression was manifest as a discourse of absence. Sydney Muslims have been portrayed as non‐existent within, or external to, localities where mosques have been proposed. In these circumstances claims to belonging and citizenship by Sydney Muslims have been fundamentally injured. Census data are used to challenge the historical and contemporary constructions of Islamic absence in Australia. Sydney Muslims are a culturally diverse and somewhat disparate faith group. They are increasingly present in areas outside of the initial zones of residential focus. This diversity and dynamism is a substantial challenge for Islamic community building (Ummah) in Sydney and presents rich foci for further research.     

Place,exile and identity: the contemporary experience of Palestinians in Sydney

Statelessness, displacement and exile, far from being particular moments in history, continue to affect the lives of Palestinians living in Sydney, in the maintenance of national identity and community formation. The impacts that displacement and subsequent ‘statelessness’ have had on the ways in which Palestinians maintain a sense of national identity have similarities with those of other ‘displaced’ peoples. Without the recognition of national boundaries to secure national sovereignty (Palestine) and accommodate the continuation of a shared and inherited history, the most significant element through which Palestinian identity is kept ‘alive’ is the one thing that all Palestinians share: a communal sense of injustice which involves being denied the right to live in, or return to, their homeland. Statelessness, nationalism and the now ‘imagined community’ of Palestine are more crucial for Palestinians living in Sydney than more primordial elements of identity, such as language or local community. Statelessness and exile in Australia have constructed a particular sense of Palestinian nationalism. The continuity of Palestinian identity as a primarily political phenomenon is a situation analogous to that of other diasporic refugee communities.     

The Particularity of Global Places: Placemaking Practices in Los Angeles and Sydney

What makes places different from one another in the context of globalization? An analysis of 17 emblematic practices in two global cities, Los Angeles and Sydney, provides the empirical basis for answering this question. Evidence from the built environment, the social geography, and the patterns of disorder in the inner cities of these two global places shows that these cities were more alike in the late 1960s than they are today. The differentiation of the two places has increased as the effects of globalization have become more pervasive. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that there is nothing inherent in contemporary globalization that requires global cities to have inner city slums, ghettoes, massive homelessness, residential disinvestment, White flight, relict or suboptimally-utilized brownfields, illegal prostitution, a war on drugs, public spaces awash with guns, and so forth. Places are viewed here as constellations of distinctive practices configured in particular geographical settings at the intersection of specific conjunctures of historical change. Places matter in the epoch of globalization as differentially embedded, bounded particularities consisting of a mixed assortment of human practices forming causally consequential fields of effects.     

On the Fringe of Neoliberalism: residential development in outer suburban Sydney

Although there is widespread consensus in human geography that neoliberalism is achieved through the intersection of multiple scales and states, there has been growing emphasis in recent years on the hybrid qualities of neoliberalist-styles of governance. Because hybrid approaches draw attention to the wide range of actors and contradictory agendas underpinning the always uneven expression of neoliberalist projects, they are particularly suited to the identification of residual state capacities in contexts where neoliberalist forms dominate economic and political life. Drawing on two cases of large-scale residential development in New South Wales, namely Warnervale Town Centre on the New South Wales Central Coast and the Australian Defence Industry site at St Marys in Sydney's west, the present paper adopts an hybrid approach in order to identify current state capacities. Through a comparison of both sites, it identifies the potential for socially and ecologically balanced development in the outer suburban context.     

Planning a Prosperous Sydney: The challenges of planning urban development in the new urban context

Since their post-war inception, Sydney's metropolitan plans have tended to be overtaken by the social, economic and environmental conditions they have had to confront. The depth and scope of Sydney's recent urban transformation threatens again to overtake metropolitan planning capacity creating, in the context of competitive globalisation, a potentially significant market disadvantage for the city, not to mention poor urban development outcomes. This paper reviews Sydney's post-war metropolitan planning strategies, examining the social and economic contexts and the policy paradigms in which they have been framed, in order to draw out the lessons to be learned from their successes and failures. We argue that future success in planning urban development will rely on richly informed and fine-grained understanding of the complex spatial outcomes of Sydney's ever-deeper global integration. Only such fine-grained understanding can empower metropolitan planning to be responsive to the evolving challenges of managing development in the contemporary urban context.     

A Comparison of Charcoal and Archaeological Information to Address the Influences on Holocene Fire Activity in the Sydney Basin

The influence of Aboriginal people on fire activity and hence the vegetation of Australia has long been debated. This study aimed to document the local fire activity of the Holocene in the catchment of a small freshwater reed swamp located in the Sydney Basin and to compare this with nearby archaeological evidence; including artefact discard rates and the number of base camps and activity locations used through time. This archaeological evidence was used as an index of human activity through time to assess anthropogenic influences on fire activity. Charcoal (>250 µm) was quantified in a radiocarbon-dated sediment core from Griffith Swamp covering ～6000 calibrated years BP. A substantial increase in fire activity was found from ～3000 years BP and a lesser increase approximately 700 years ago. The change in fire activity at ～3000 years BP was approximately coeval with changes in archaeological evidence from Upper Mangrove Creek, suggesting either greater human presence in the landscape or altered subsistence and land-use strategies. Fire frequency in the catchment of Griffith Swamp peaked at about eight episodes per century, perhaps in response to environmental change that promoted both increased human activity and a higher natural fire frequency. This study provides an extended temporal perspective on fire and humans in this landscape, demonstrating how palaeoecology can provide practical information for the contemporary management of such fire-prone ecosystems.     

Public perceptions of foreign and Chinese real estate investment: intercultural relations in Global Sydney

Moving foreign human and financial capital through landed property is not a new phenomenon in Sydney. It is a recurring geopolitical strategy that is replete with intercultural tension and deep colonial roots. In contemporary Australia, there is an assumption in public policy and media rhetoric that there is a high level of public concern about foreign investment. However, there is little empirical data that examines public perceptions. In this study, we are interested in whether the dominant voices in this debate represent broad public views about this issue. We sought to fill this gap by conducting a survey of almost 900 Sydney residents, looking at their perceptions of foreign and Chinese investment. We find high levels of public concern and discontent about foreign investment amongst Sydneysiders, with Chinese investors being a key target of this discontent. In the context of high housing prices in Sydney, there were widely held concerns about housing affordability. Survey respondents had a sophisticated understanding of what influences house prices, but with an overemphasis on the role of foreign investment. There is a general lack of support for policy that encourages foreign investment, and a lack of confidence in how the government is regulating foreign investment. Half of our participants reported that they would not welcome Chinese foreign investment in their suburb.     

The Decentred Firm and the Adoption of Sustainable Office Space in Sydney,Australia

As the social, ecological and economic benefits of green buildings become more established, firms, especially professional service firms, are responding by adopting sustainable office space (SOS). Accelerating this uptake demands a nuanced appreciation of firms’ understandings of and motivations for adopting SOS. Through a qualitative study of professional service firms in Sydney, this paper brings together a decentred understanding of the contemporary firm drawn from the ‘new economic geographies’ approach and theories of corporate social responsibility to trace and interpret the diverse and overlapping motivations shaping the uptake of SOS amongst these firms. The firm is shown to be a site of plurality and agency, governed by multiple logics. Whilst motivations informed by economic logic remain persuasive and pervasive, the adoption of SOS is simultaneously informed by a wider palette of logics, including environmental and social logics. The paper argues that a decentred conceptualisation of the firm brings the multiplicity of firms’ orientations towards SOS into view and, in so doing, has the potential to inform a politics of intervention for steering firms towards more socially and environmentally sustainable behaviours.     

Transition and Diversity in Rural Housing Provision: The case of Narrogin,Western Australia

The purpose of this paper is to examine the changing dynamics of housing markets in an Australian rural community. With reference to the case of Narrogin, Western Australia, it argues that there is an increasing disjuncture between the social and demographic characteristics of rural residents and the modal form of housing in country towns, namely the detached family house. Factors contributing to this disjuncture include the ageing of the population, the loss of traditional blue-collar employment, sub-regional restructuring of service provision, retirement migration patterns, and growing acceptance of the particular housing needs of groups such as the aged, the disabled, young and indigenous people. While it is clear that there is currently something of a mismatch between the characteristics of the population and the housing stock in Narrogin, it is also evident that a combination of political, cultural and economic factors form a significant barrier to adjustment in the local housing market.     

The Response of Aboriginal Burning Practices to Population Levels and El Niño–Southern Oscillation Events during the mid- to late-Holocene: a case study from the Sydney Basin using charcoal and pollen analysis

Pollen and macroscopic charcoal have been analysed from a sedimentary sequence representing approximately 6100 years from a site within Wollemi National Park. This is located to the north-west of Sydney and forms a part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The overall aim of the work was to examine the prehistoric interrelationships between vegetation, fire and human activity. There were relatively minor changes in the vegetation over the last ～6000 years, perhaps reflecting the climate- and fire-resilient nature of the sclerophyllous vegetation found on Hawkesbury Sandstone throughout the Sydney Basin. Casuarinaceae declined in the late Holocene, a trend that has been detected in numerous palaeoecological studies throughout south-eastern Australia. This decline was unrelated to fire, which has been a persistent feature at the site over the entire analysed sequence. The fire regime at the site changed from 5.7 ka, which is interpreted as reflecting the onset of increased climatic variability associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. Another dramatic change in the fire regime occurred at 3 ka, which was coeval with archaeological changes in the region. It is possible that the change in fire activity from 3 ka represented an alteration to Aboriginal management strategies associated with an increasing population and/or the increased risk of conflagrations in an ENSO-dominated climate.     

The Discursive Regime of the "American Dream" and the New Suburban Frontier: The Case of Kendall County,Illinois

This study examines the current role of ideology in maintaining and reproducing consumer demand for residential suburban spaces in the outer ring of American metropolitan regions. It highlights the contradiction between the promises that are made through the ideology and discourse of the American Dream and the inherent limits of those promises within the realities of a highly dynamic capitalist society. It is argued that this powerful discursive formation has evolved through recent neoliberal times, and is manifest in the suburban landscape in new ways. It must continue to produce simulated images that signify mythologized narratives of the past that cater to sentiments of hope and a better life in the future. At the same time, it works through existing fears and anxieties in order to secure the progressive accumulation of capital in the suburban built environment. Evidence will be provided from the ongoing suburbanization of Kendall County, Illinois at the southwestern edge of metropolitan Chicago.     

政策、公众参与在洪湖湿地生态恢复中的作用

通过构建最优控制模型及实证调查的方法,分析洪湖湿地恢复过程的公众参与与政府政策的可取之处及亟需进一步解决的问题。系统地探讨了洪湖湿地永续发展的管理模式并为其他地区的湿地管理提出建议。通过理论构建和实证调查提出以公众参与为主、政府政策为辅的环境管理模式,阐述了以公众参与为主、政府政策为辅的环境政策的必要性和可行性。     

西部地区生态状况变化及生态系统服务权衡与协同

西部大开发战略实施20年以来,一系列重大生态建设工程使得西部地区的生态状况和生态服务发生了重要变化,本文分析西部地区生态状况变化及其生态服务时空变化特征,并运用相关分析法研究其服务功能权衡协同关系。研究发现西部地区2000—2019年间：① 聚落和湿地生态系统面积显著增加,草地有逐年下降趋势。② 植被覆盖度呈波动上升趋势,存在年际差异且空间差异较大。③ 水源涵养服务有轻微下降趋势,下降区域主要分布在藏东南地区、三江源西部地区、喀斯特石漠化地区等;土壤保持服务波动中呈上升趋势,上升区域主要黄土高原地区、川滇西部地区、藏西北地区、藏东南地区等;防风固沙服务呈下降趋势,大幅下降区域主要位于内蒙古中西部地区、西藏和北疆部分地区。④ 生态系统供给与水源涵养、土壤保持主要为协同关系,与防风固沙主要为权衡关系且分布在农牧交错带地区。⑤ 生态工程区内生态系统服务协同程度大于非工程区。定量评估生态系统服务变化及其权衡协同关系有助于进行科学化生态管理,最大化生态效益。     

Ecological changes and the tradeoff and synergy of ecosystem services in western China

Since the implementation of the Development of Western Regions in 2000, a series of major ecological construction projects have been implemented, leading to a series of changes in the ecological conditions and ecological services of western China. This study calculated the amount of ecosystem services in total in the western region from 2000 to 2019, and analyzed ecological changes and the characteristics of spatio-temporal variations in ecological services. A relevant analysis method was applied to explore the tradeoff and synergy of service. It was found that the area of settlements and wetland ecosystems in the western region increased significantly from 2000 to 2015, whereas grassland showed a downward trend year by year. The vegetation fraction showed a decreasing belt-like distribution from south to north. It showed a fluctuating increase during 2000 to 2019, with inter-annual and large spatial differences. The water conservation service (WCS) had a slight downward trend from 2000 to 2019, and the main decreasing areas were distributed in southeastern Tibet, the western part of the Three Rivers Source region, and the karst rocky desertification area. The soil conservation service (SCS) showed an increasing but fluctuating trend, with the greatest increases observed in the Loess Plateau region, western Sichuan and Yunnan, northwest Tibet, and southeast Tibet. The windbreak and sand fixation service (SFS) showed a downward trend, and the sharp decline was mainly in the central and western parts of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and parts of northern Xinjiang. Ecosystem supply and WCS, and SCS were mainly synergistic, which were found in areas north of the Qinling Mountains-Huaihe River (QM-HR) line, especially in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. Ecosystem supply was mainly tradeoffs with SFS, and it was found in the agriculture-pastoral transition zone. The synergistic degree of ecosystem services in areas subjected to ecological engineering policy was greater than that in non-engineering areas. Quantitative assessment of ecosystem service changes and their tradeoffs is helpful for scientific ecological management and maximizing ecological benefits.     

西部特大城市低碳发展的现状问题及目标策略研究——以西安市为例

作为应对全球气候变化的关键平台,城市尺度的低碳建设研究具有重要意义。本文以西部特大城市-西安市为例,分别从碳排放量变化趋势、未来发展目标、关键部门能耗系统分析其低碳发展现状,指出存在问题及可能的节能减排潜力,认为西安市高碳发展模式明显,面临资源禀赋差异、能源消费结构的锁定效应、能源利用效率低、城市空间结构不合理、高能耗建筑多、碳汇能力弱等问题。基于此,制定工业节能技术改造、城市空间合理布局、推广绿色建筑、社会治理创新和政策保障等对策措施。     

贵阳城市土地利用变化及其环境效应

从城市土地利用的范围 (规模 )、土地利用功能和用地形态等方面阐述了贵阳城市土地利用变化过程、特征、趋势 ,探讨了城市土地利用变化的驱动力因子 ,并对近代贵阳城市土地利用变化所带来的系列环境效应进行了分析评述。